After a series of twists and turns, the ordeal had finally passed. Everyone was now gathered in the upper deck of the spaceship.
There were still some matters on Xandar that hadn't been fully resolved, and they would need to return to handle them. After all, Nova Prime had been disturbed, and some explanation was necessary.
Meanwhile, on the upper deck of the spaceship, Arthur looked at everyone, his heart filled with mixed emotions.
"This chaos… it all started because of me."
Arthur carefully began to speak. Before he could finish the sentence, Tony interrupted teasingly: "If you say something like 'sorry' or 'I apologize,' I will laugh at you for a whole year! Yep, you heard me right, a whole year, and I guarantee the timing won't be off by even a second!"
Everyone burst into laughter.
Natasha also smiled at Arthur. That look made Arthur's heart jump, and he let out a helpless sigh: "With you all saying that, I don't even know how to continue."
"Honestly, we didn't really help you much."
Banner said, "So, you don't need to apologize to us."
As he spoke, he glanced at Natasha: "But there are some things for which we still need an explanation from you."
Natasha was momentarily stunned but quickly replied: "There's nothing much to explain, right? After all, this wasn't his intention. It was… an accident. Everything was just an accident. Ego has been completely erased, and his body is fine. This happened because I was too impulsive, and nothing irreversible came from it. So, let's just leave it at that."
Banner pursed his lips, glanced at Arthur, and said nothing. But the look in his eyes was piercing.
Arthur rubbed his face and said, "I will provide an explanation for this matter…"
Indeed, an explanation was necessary; it couldn't just be left unresolved.
They didn't know Lily, or weren't familiar with her, but they knew Natasha. Natasha had adventured with them, faced life-and-death situations alongside them. Seeing such a scene unfold, it was natural for them to feel protective, like older brothers watching a reckless young man bully their sister.
Although Natasha said no explanation was needed… in Arthur's view, for this matter, an explanation was indeed necessary.
But he still needed a little time.
For a bond that had crossed life and death, he could no longer rely on hurting the other person to make them back down.
In a relationship like this, the harm they had already endured was enough.
Yet hesitation and inaction could not prevent harm; it would only enlarge it.
So, sooner or later, or rather, it had to be done sooner, he needed to provide an explanation.
"Once we return to Earth." Arthur didn't say this aloud; he set this deadline in his own heart.
Reality was not a novel. Arthur would not chase the fantasy of having multiple lovers tending to him. So what would actually happen? No matter what decisions he made, he still had no certainty in his heart.
Whether an explanation was given or not, this matter seemed to have reached a temporary conclusion.
The subsequent conversation turned to matters concerning Arthur himself. No one pressed into the roots of the matter to ask exactly what his abilities were or why such chaos had been caused.
They cared more about whether a similar situation could occur in the future.
It wasn't until Arthur explicitly stated that such a problem would never happen again that their small gathering finally came to an end.
…
…
When there is much to say, the conversation is long; when there is nothing to say, it is short. With matters concluded, everyone set course for Xandar.
Arthur sat alone on the bed, taking stock of the gains he had obtained after disassembling Ego.
*[Intermediate Growth of All Things 99]
*[Intermediate Rational Thinking 99]
*[Intermediate Energy Absorption 99]
*[Intermediate Energy Control 99]
*[Intermediate Rotation Theory 99]
*[Intermediate Particle Reshaping 99]
*[Colorless Great Crystal 999]
*[Ancient Solitary Battle Soul Crystal 1]
*[Pure Energy Primordial Stone 1]
The remaining Battle Soul Crystal and Energy Primordial Stone had all been used during the upgrade process, so now only the various skill books remained, along with 999 colorless great crystals.
The numbers on the skill books this time were all standard, each one 99!
This was probably because the Disassembler hadn't reached the corresponding level, so the things it disassembled had a maximum of 99.
What Arthur was more curious about was the meaning of these skill books.
"…Growth of All Things, Rational Thinking, Energy Absorption, Energy Control, Rotation Theory, Particle Reshaping…"
He frowned as he looked over them, feeling as if something strange was mixed in. He casually picked up one of the Intermediate Rotation Theory books.
"What… does this mean?"
With a casual tap, the next second, Arthur's expression looked as if he were a pitiful person who had spent an entire morning struggling but gotten nowhere.
"It's… a theory simulating a planet's self-rotation. What use is this to me?"
Unlike Ego, he didn't need to rotate himself according to cosmic fluctuations like a planet.
But upon closer inspection, he realized this thing was actually a little terrifying.
Because it didn't simply simulate a planet's rotation, it could even allow Arthur to simulate planetary gravity. In other words…
"Dragon-Capturing Technique?"
He shook his head and didn't think further. He absorbed all ninety-nine Rotation Theory books, but it didn't advance him to Advanced.
"I get the feeling I can probably only disassemble something like this this one time…"
After some tinkering, he gained a deeper understanding of the skill and a more precise mastery.
Targets attracted by gravity changed from a "surface" to a "point."
But if this skill went out of control, it might produce some pretty terrifying consequences.
He then tapped Growth of All Things.
In an instant, a sense of déjà vu washed over him… after traveling millions of years through Ego's memories, he had witnessed the growth of every blade of grass and tree on the planets. Although this wasn't controlled by Ego, it was something he had seen firsthand.
At this moment, he realized he could easily control the growth of certain things!
The frightening aspect of this ability was that it didn't only affect plants, it could also affect living creatures!
What Arthur could do was accelerate their growth, allowing them to grow at the fastest possible rate… even to the point of aging!
It wasn't the kind of skill where a single plant grows straight up into the sky!
"Does this ability mean I have to cram botany?" Arthur pondered. If he had specialized knowledge about plants, the skill might be far more effective… but the problem was, he had never studied this at all!
And now, his abilities were already sufficient. Spending extra effort researching this might be a case of missing the forest for the trees.