When Bant returned to Sakaar, the only thing waiting for him was Gladiator's lifeless corpse.
The body that had once been so powerful was now shriveled and desiccated, like a mummy that had been sitting in storage for a thousand years. Even the battle armor hung loose and ill-fitting on the frame beneath it—like an A-cup girl trying to squeeze into a D-cup gown, all empty space and awkward draping.
"Looks like he was drained dry."
Eunice had come to Sakaar with Bant. Gazing at Gladiator's wretched state, she couldn't help but reach out and place her hand on the corpse. It didn't take long for her to reach a conclusion: his life energy had been absorbed.
Being an artificial human herself, she was extraordinarily sensitive to the flow of life force.
"Absorbing someone else's powers—that does sound like something Vilgax would do." Bant nodded at Eunice's assessment.
Kayla frowned slightly, surprised. "Absorbing another person's strength... is that even possible?"
"It's nothing special for Vilgax." Bant didn't elaborate.
In the animated series, Vilgax had absorbed the powers of ten World Guardians—including the leader of the Galactic Enforcers—and turned himself into a warrior with no weaknesses, before launching yet another invasion of Earth.
But the World Guardians in the Ben 10 universe didn't have much substance to begin with. Even after absorbing all those powers, Vilgax still wasn't a match for Ben Tennyson.
Here in the Marvel universe, though, things were obviously very different.
At full strength, Gladiator could already rival Thor. Add Vilgax's own power on top of that, and given time, they'd be looking at another Thanos—possibly something even more dangerous.
"Bill, besides Gladiator's body, did you find anything else?" Bant asked. He was somewhat puzzled. "Logically speaking, Vilgax's strength shouldn't have been enough to defeat Gladiator, let alone steal his power. Don't tell me the guy found himself a new master to serve?"
Bant had personally verified Gladiator's strength. Sure, the guy had been one-shotted by the Ultimate Gravattack, but the fact that Bant had deemed him worthy of bringing out a Gravattack fused with the power of a living planet was proof enough of his capabilities.
Bant didn't yet know that Vilgax had long since absorbed Thanos's energy and surpassed him—and had now also absorbed the power of Laufey, the Frost Giant.
Reviewing Vilgax's various black marks, Bant realized this cosmic tyrant was a bit like Lu Bu, always looking for a new father to swear allegiance to. First he'd been cannon fodder for Thanos, and in the animated series, he'd also been a lapdog for Diagon.
"From the footage recovered from the ship's wreckage, the attacker appears to have been operating alone." Bill pressed the Plumbers badge, and the projected images from the ship's records appeared before them.
He continued: "After the Galactic Council meeting ended, we went our separate ways. Not long after, we received a distress signal from a Shi'ar Empire warship... By the time we arrived, the ship had already been completely shattered..."
There wasn't much footage. Vilgax had appeared far too suddenly. Gladiator, having just lost to Bant, looked dejected and defeated, his confidence shattered. Moments later, the ship came under fire.
In the next instant, Vilgax hurled his body directly into space, crashing through the hull like a meteorite.
The Shi'ar soldiers tried to stop him, but they were no match for him at all. The tide turned in the blink of an eye, and even Gladiator himself was quickly subdued—lifted high by the throat in Vilgax's massive grip, as if he weren't the mightiest warrior of the Shi'ar Empire, but a pathetic little chicken.
Bzzt—
The footage cut off there, but Bant didn't need to see the rest to know what happened next.
What surprised him was the process of the attack itself.
"He went down that easily?"
Back at the Galactic Federation, Gladiator had held out for quite a while against a black hole capable of annihilating everything. Not to mention, even if Odin himself had personally invaded the Shi'ar Empire, it shouldn't have been that quick to take down one of their top warriors.
"I've heard that Gladiator's power is heavily tied to his confidence. Perhaps his self-assurance was already completely shattered by you back at the Galactic Federation?" Kayla offered a reasonable explanation. "Being attacked by Vilgax so soon after... it's very possible his heart was already wavering."
Bill glanced at Gladiator's corpse and shook his head.
He wasn't dismissing Kayla's theory—he just found it pathetic that Gladiator, the strongest blade of the Shi'ar Empire, could be so fragile on the inside.
A true warrior shouldn't fall into self-doubt no matter how powerful the enemy.
"Perhaps..." Bant's mind was already on Vilgax's whereabouts. If the guy kept developing like this, he could become a massive threat. But the universe was far too vast—tracking him down would be no easy task.
"Distribute Vilgax's image to every Plumbers branch across all governed star systems. Classify him as a highest-priority target. Every Plumber who encounters him must immediately contact headquarters."
"Every Plumbers branch needs to get their particle colliders configured as soon as possible. Otherwise, if the distance is too great, backup will be a problem." Bant thought for a moment, then added.
Particle colliders could only maintain a stable, fixed channel when two were activated simultaneously. Otherwise, the randomness was too great to accurately control the teleportation coordinates.
Kayla nodded. "Should we pass this information to the Skrull Empire and the Kree Empire?"
The three great empires controlled vast swaths of the universe. With their intelligence networks, the odds of finding Vilgax would be significantly higher.
"Hmph. If they found out about our grudge with Vilgax, it wouldn't be long before we heard that the Skrull Empire or the Kree Empire had been taken over by him."
Bant never overestimated the bottom line of the three great empires—especially the Skrulls and the Kree.
They certainly wouldn't mind getting their hands on a secret weapon capable of standing against the Plumbers.
Of course, that would be the height of foolishness—inviting a wolf into the house.
"Keep an eye on intelligence from Knowhere. When are the Shi'ar coming to retrieve their Chancellor's body?"
"The fleet still needs some time to reach Sakaar." Kayla answered truthfully.
Bant nodded.
Either way, Gladiator's body certainly wouldn't be staying on Sakaar. And what kind of situation the Shi'ar Empire would find itself in without Gladiator wasn't his concern.
If they wanted to seek the Plumbers' protection and join their ranks, Bant would naturally welcome them.
He waved a hand, and several Plumbers came over to take Gladiator's body away.
"How's Tony Stark doing?"
Bant asked.
He'd just returned from the future planet Primus, and before that he'd spent a long stretch in the laboratory. He'd made significant progress on the feature that would allow him to access alien heroes' powers without changing his human appearance.
With Eunice's help, cross-species genetics had been extended to alien genomes. And based on Dr. Connors's experimental results showing the return to human form, they'd achieved "reversibility."
The existence of regression might seem like a drawback, but it was actually a safeguard for the user. Otherwise, the constantly accumulating genes would eventually cause the user's own genetic structure to collapse, turning them into some kind of chimera.
This trip back to Plumbers headquarters was the perfect opportunity to turn the experimental data into actual results—implanting the new feature's plug-in into the Omnitrix.
But precisely because of the research, Bant genuinely hadn't checked on Tony Stark's situation for a while.
"He's still down in the mines," Kayla said. "Loki's been sincerely entertaining himself with the man. He conjured up a whole crowd of people to mess with him—shot him with a stun gun the moment they met, then hacked off one of his arms. These days he's whipping him constantly and used chains to pierce through his collarbone..."
She recounted everything Tony had been through recently.
That's brutal!
Bant had a reasonable suspicion that Loki was being so vicious to Tony because Tony Stark had, with zero respect, lumped him into the category of "just another ordinary alien."
"The broken arm is nothing—one healing potion and he's fine... But tell Loki to stop tormenting Stark here. Odin wants him to deal with his brother," Bant said.
Because the Nine Realms were about to converge, the Dark Elves would rise once more.
Odin wanted to use the Dark Elves to help his eldest son reforge his conviction and become the God of Thunder once again. To do that, he needed to prepare an appropriate stage—and an experienced actor.
Deceiving his own brother, stabbing him a few times along the way, then faking his death—this was the classic routine for those two brothers. Loki never got tired of it, because Thor fell for it every single time.
Bant intended to use Thor's awakening as an opportunity to fleece him thoroughly.
In fact, with so many Celestialsapien energy seeds scattered across the universe, they'd already formed a massive scale. The World Tree in particular had accelerated Regidomon's growth from a newborn dimension to something far more substantial—as if fast-forwarding billions of years in an instant, solidifying its foundations.
On top of that, with heavyweights like the Ancient One and Odin also utilizing Celestialsapien energy, he could already sense that true Celestialsapien life was about to be born within Regidomon—perhaps just one step away.
Perhaps Thor's awakening could provide the final piece of the puzzle for the birth of the Anur race.
Since Thor was so crucial, Bant planned to give him some motivational speeches later to help him awaken sooner. But before that, he had to deal with Tony Stark first.
Back then, Bant had wanted Tony to bow his head and admit he was inferior—and to record it all on video, broadcast across all of New York so everyone could see him humiliated. That still hadn't been done.
And now, conveniently, he was right here on Sakaar. This grudge had to be settled!
Not only would he make Tony submit—he'd give him a thorough thrashing too!
Perfect timing: the Omnitrix's new feature could use Tony as its test subject.
"Find a chance to throw him into the arena, and give him an opportunity to forge his own equipment. Otherwise the fight will be too restrained to be satisfying."
Bant finished speaking, then pulled Eunice into the laboratory. He tapped the surface of the watch lightly with his fingers, and suddenly, the band beneath the watch face seemed to melt away and detach. He removed the watch and placed it on a platform, where several mechanical arms gathered around it like spider legs.
Eunice tilted her head, surprised. "The watch can come off now?"
"It's been able to for a long time," Bant said.
The Omnitrix's technological sophistication was so high that even now, Bant had barely scratched the surface of its science.
But he'd thoroughly mastered its basic functions—voice control mode, instant switching, various commands, and even the self-destruct command.
"Let's begin."
He flexed his wrist. Under his and Eunice's control, the mechanical arms opened the watch's wireless receiver—its outer casing.
Next, the core was clamped by another mechanical arm and lifted out.
Eunice transferred it to the test bench. Then, all manner of cables began connecting to the core. Eunice even synchronized her own consciousness to the same frequency as the watch's intelligent program, ensuring that once the plug-in was implanted, the watch itself wouldn't experience any disruption.
...
The mines.
Loki, who'd been feeling somewhat drowsy, jumped up with excitement the moment he received Kayla's orders, knocking the fruit off the table.
"What?"
"Deal with my brother?!"
"You should've led with that—suddenly I'm wide awake!"
He rubbed his hands together, his face radiating pure bliss, almost wondering if he'd carved too many Morshin runes recently and was hallucinating.
Go mess with Thor on Father's orders?
Was there really such a wonderful thing in this world?
Ever since the coronation ceremony went spectacularly wrong, Loki hadn't returned to Asgard.
No particular reason—he was just afraid of Odin chasing him down with Gungnir to tan his hide.
"It seems I probably won't get beaten after all—and I might even find time to stab Thor a few more times."
Loki was so thrilled that the corners of his mouth were harder to suppress than an AK's recoil.
His own father really was the best, knowing how boring his work on Sakaar had been lately and finding him a bit of entertainment.
"So it's the Dark Elves..." Loki plopped back down happily, suddenly more alert than ever.
After all, ever since Thor lost his divine power and started rotting away, Loki's enthusiasm for mocking him had honestly waned.
Every time he'd wanted to show off in front of Thor, the current Thor wouldn't show even a hint of anger or jealousy. Instead, he'd put on this look that said: Thank goodness I have you. As expected of my little brother. With you in Asgard, I can rest easy... followed by a greasy Thor-style smile.
The result was that Loki, who'd set out to disgust Thor, not only failed—he ended up getting disgusted by Thor instead.
Besides, Thor was now nothing more than a mortal with slightly better physical fitness than average. He couldn't even take a stabbing.
If he couldn't stab the man, what was the point of messing with him?
That was also why Loki preferred staying on Sakaar tormenting Tony over going to Earth.
It was all so boring!
But now...
"Crisis, family bonds, betrayal, rage, death, understanding, and remorse..." Loki licked his lips excitedly.
He clapped his hands together, and a script was already forming in his mind, laying out Thor's entire journey with perfect clarity.
"I am literally the god of stories!"
/-\
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