They were supposed to welcome the returning warriors with delicious food and heartfelt blessings, symbolizing the arrival of true happiness.
But now, the girl's voice only made Gravik feel even more ashamed of his arrogance and recklessness.
If only he hadn't acted so willfully. If only he hadn't gotten cocky after gaining a bit of power, thinking he could achieve victory through inferior strength.
How could the Skrulls have ended up in such a dire situation?
Suddenly, Gravik understood Talos's worries.
And just as suddenly, he understood what he needed to do now.
"R.. u ..n!" he screamed, forcing the word from his throat with every ounce of strength he had.
Then, all the surging photon energy around his body suddenly drew back into him.
"Hm?"
Lyon raised an eyebrow, watching as Gravik's body began to swell, his skin bulging with uneven, jagged protrusions.
"Self-detonation?" Lyon silently increased the pressure of his telekinesis.
The next moment, all the energy Gravik had compressed within his body erupted at once!
Gravik's body ballooned like an overfilled sack—only to be instantly crushed by Lyon's telekinetic barrier.
BOOM!
Fire burst forth, black clouds surged and rolled!
It was as if the self-detonation of a miniature star had occurred in the confined space right in front of Lyon.
In the final moment of the explosion—Gravik, using the massive force of the blast, temporarily regained the ability to speak.
He screamed with all his might into the communicator to the other Skrulls—
"Run! We were foolish! You guys, run!!"
Gravik's voice was filled with despair, tumbling amidst the roar of the explosion before finally fading into the swirling dust.
Lyon quickly smoothed everything over with his telekinesis, then stood still and shook his head.
"Run? What's the point of running now?"
"But I'll admit—your self-destruction had some decent force. It's reminded me… aside from dying, you Skrulls might still be of other use."
With a single thought, Lyon directed his vast telekinetic power—spread across the globe—into the minds of 629 Super Skrulls.
He began casting a soul-enslaving secret technique.
His spiritual power transformed into an invisible net, enveloping the souls within each Super Skrull and beginning to "corrupt" them—leaving behind his imprint.
A few seconds later—
The souls of all 629 Super Skrulls had turned into Lyon's color!
The struggling looks in their eyes suddenly became calm.
Whether it was Tari, Vara, and the others who had wanted to conquer Earth—
Or G'iah, Somalia, and those who had hoped to survive on another planet after the war—
Once Lyon released his telekinetic restraint, they all dropped to their knees one by one, prostrated themselves, and shouted in unison toward Lyon: "Master!"
This was the soul enslavement technique from the Swallowed Star universe.
It could enslave others without altering their original logic or thinking patterns, yet still make them center their entire being around Lyon.
No matter what they did, their subconscious would always prioritize Lyon's interests first.
Any thought that might harm Lyon would, from that moment on, never arise within their hearts again.
From this moment on, Lyon became everything to them.
As for the downside—
The greatest drawback of the enslavement technique for the user was that it severely damaged the natural potential of the enslaved.
Their original growth ceiling would drop significantly, and in some cases, they might never progress again.
But talent—such a thing held little meaning for the Skrulls.
They only needed to continuously steal the genes of other races—that alone was enough.
Lyon nodded in satisfaction. This was the first time he had ever used the soul enslavement technique.
And with this group of Skrulls—who wanted to terrorise humanity—as the target, he felt absolutely no psychological burden.
He issued a command through his spiritual power: "Leave Earth with me."
After a chorus of responses, over six hundred Super Skrulls all burst into golden light and soared into the sky.
At the same time, Lyon arrived at the front of the Skrull fleet, which was in the process of fleeing the solar system.
His spiritual power swept through every ship, and just as before, he quickly enslaved all the Super Skrulls onboard and ordered them to leave their vessels.
Once the remaining Super Skrulls left the ships—Carol, who had been tied to the bow of the flagship, finally got a moment to breathe.
The photon energy within her was no longer being siphoned, and at last it began to fill her body again, rapidly producing blood for her completely drained frame.
Outside the ship—
Nearly a thousand Super Skrulls stood in formation behind Lyon.
Each of them radiated vast amounts of photon energy—every one of them a walking nuclear warhead, each with power capable of wiping out the surface of the Earth.
Lyon looked at them.
And suddenly—he couldn't quite make sense of something.
Gravik had Captain Marvel in his hands.
He could've easily continued producing more Super Skrulls and set out to conquer the universe.
In fact, just the Super Skrulls standing here now were already enough to launch an attack on Thanos—so why stay obsessed with Earth?
It could only be said that Gravik had been blinded by his rapidly expanding power.
His desire had shifted from finding a new home to taking it even further—he wanted to ascend to greatness in one leap.
So, after capturing Captain Marvel, he had rushed to Earth without rest, aiming to seize Lyon's blood.
"What a twisted race," Lyon sighed.
"All of you—stay here."
He issued the command through his spiritual power, then flew toward the Skrull fleet.
He floated ahead of the formation, his cloak billowing despite no wind.
In the next instant, twin beams of heat vision shot from his eyes, sweeping from left to right, stretching across hundreds of kilometers.
It looked like a massive sword of light cutting through the cosmos, slicing every Skrull ship it touched clean in two.
A chain of explosions bloomed among the Skrull fleet like fireworks...
Dense, brilliant, and continuous.
The Super Skrulls standing behind Lyon stared at the scene in stunned silence.
They felt immense grief over the loss of their kin, a sorrow so deep it nearly choked the breath from their lungs. And yet—not a single trace of hatred toward Lyon existed in their hearts.
On the contrary, they felt that what he did was entirely justified.
Because all of this was the Skrulls' own fault.
Those Skrulls aboard the ships may have been their kin—But they were utterly foolish.
To dare lay hands on their master—they deserved to die.
If it weren't for Lyon's calm expression, they might have even stepped forward to help him finish the job.
As swaths of ships were sliced apart and exploded in rapid succession, the blazing fire from the blasts quickly filled nearly half the surrounding starfield.
Just as Lyon was about to destroy the remaining ships—
Suddenly, a figure cloaked in platinum energy burst through the sea of fire, charging straight toward him.
It was Carol!
With her photon energy restored, her blood rapidly replenished—she once again had the strength to fight!
She accelerated rapidly in space, and by the time she neared Lyon, her speed was approaching the speed of light.
BOOM!
A punch thrown at the speed of light slammed heavily toward Lyon.
From her moving lips, Lyon could read her intent—"Stop!"
Lyon couldn't help but laugh out loud in disbelief.
What kind of person was this?
The Skrulls had tied her to the bow of a ship and drained her blood, and she was still pleading on their behalf?
Lyon didn't hold back—he swung a punch in return.
No need to accelerate in the vacuum of space like Captain Marvel.
From the moment he raised his hand to the instant it struck out, the punch had already reached the speed of light, smashing directly into Carol's fist.
There was no crisp sound, but Carol's arm bent briefly, then her entire body was sent flying backward like a meteor.
Yet just a few seconds later, she came charging back again.
This time from even farther away, accelerating past light speed as she barreled toward Lyon.
Her mouth was again moving intensely—"The Skrulls are innocent!"
Lyon pressed his lips together and launched another punch—
Just like a golf club striking a rubber ball, he sent Carol hurtling far into the distance.
With her photon energy pushed to the limit, Carol's defense was indeed astonishing.
Even after being hit with near star-busting force, she could rest for a bit and come right back for another round.
After exchanging a few blows with her, Lyon found it dull and tiresome.
He caught her light-speed punch with his left hand and, with his right, precisely seized her by the throat.
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Read ahead of WN at Patreon.com/LiveLifeLove