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*****
Mike looked at Gwen, blue eyes brimming with astonishment.
Had Gwen grown this much without him even noticing?
Thinking of the moment just now—Gwen wielding chains and the flames of vengeance to block Ego's energy tendrils, even shielding Raven with strength to spare—this old father felt genuinely gratified.
"Dad, focus. They're coming."
Gwen called out, then lunged toward Star-Lord.
Mike smiled. Seeing Ego drive a forest of energy tendrils at him, he wove through the air at speed.
Wherever he passed, the tendrils shattered one after another. When he reappeared, he was already in front of Ego.
With a chill in his eyes, Mike slammed a fist clean through Ego's head.
But Ego's body was essentially energy; such damage hardly mattered.
He glared at Mike, and as Mike's fists kept falling, tearing him apart, Ego's form dissolved into a spill of light and sank into the ground beneath Mike's feet.
Boom. Boom!
The earth under Mike seemed to come alive, rolling and twisting. A colossal hand of energy—dozens of meters across and sheathed in a thick layer of rock—surged up and slapped down at him.
Mike snorted lightly and shot forward to meet it without hesitation.
"Boom!"
He punched a gaping hole through the energy palm. When it clawed for him again, his eyes flashed—heat vision swept across.
Zzztt!
With a slicing hiss, the entire palm was sheared neatly in two.
Clatter!
All the stones clinging to the energy hand tumbled down in a pelting rain of rock.
Mike glanced at Star-Lord, who was fighting Gwen—and getting utterly suppressed.
It was obvious Star-Lord wasn't yet familiar with channeling the planet-light; he posed little real threat to Gwen.
But… why would Star-Lord choose to help Ego?
Had this kid forgotten to avenge his mother?
That, he needed to make clear.
Thinking so, Mike flew toward Star-Lord.
Just then, two enormous hands thrust up from the ground, followed by two arms and a terrifying, gigantic head.
"Roar!"
His bellow made the very air seem to boil.
The giant arms swung for Mike—but…
Too slow.
Mike's eyes flickered; he slipped past with ease.
But then, a spray of energy tendrils uncoiled from the giant palms, weaving into a cage as they whipped toward Mike, sealing off every angle of escape.
He still evaded with ease. What he didn't expect was for those tendrils to suddenly rupture, exploding into a storm of razor-bright arrows that rained toward the ground.
This attack wasn't aimed at Mike—it targeted Gwen and the Guardians.
Mike flashed, appearing in front of Gwen to shield her from the falling bolts, while Star-Lord abandoned his bout with Gwen and thrust out his hand toward his teammates, enclosing them in a spherical energy barrier.
Zzt-zzt-zzt!
The light-arrows struck Mike to no effect, but they riddled Star-Lord like a porcupine.
He cried out in pain, then drew the embedded bolts into his body and absorbed them.
Seeing this, the Guardians shouted in alarm.
"Dad, you okay?" Gwen asked under her breath, then added, "These things can't hurt me."
She did have immortality.
Mike smiled faintly. "They still sting."
He ruffled Gwen's hair, then looked up at the half-risen titan—already three hundred meters tall—clawing his way out of the earth. Mockery flickered in Mike's gaze.
Did Ego really think that being big enough meant he could beat him?
Mike chuckled, then glanced toward Star-Lord, who had recovered by now. As Star-Lord's eyes—like star-strewn skies—fixed on Mike and he readied another strike, Mike said mildly, "Have you asked him about your mother?"
Star-Lord froze. "I… haven't had the chance."
"…," Mike thought.
Then what did you two talk about for so long? Not the important stuff?
"You'd better ask."
With that, Mike scooped Gwen up and moved to the Guardians' side. He raised a hand to open a portal and ushered everyone through.
A heartbeat later, the portal vanished.
Boom!
A massive palm slammed down where Mike's group had stood, leaving a vast handprint gouged in the ground.
"Roar!"
The giant that Ego had become howled in fury, shockwaves rolling out like a hurricane.
After Mike had ground him into the dirt, just as he was about to get serious, Mike… ran?
Frustration boiled in him; the force he'd gathered for a counterattack ignited into a blaze of rage that nearly burned away his reason.
At that moment, Star-Lord's heart stirred. Planet-light, mixed with shards of stone, spiraled around his legs like rocket thrusters, lifting him into the air until he hovered before the giant's face.
"I have questions for you!"
He stared solemnly at that face of rock and planet-light.
Ego roared again, still unable to free himself from his fury.
Star-Lord frowned, but he asked anyway.
"You told me that to complete the Expansion and attain Eternity, you had to discard your human side—that I should abandon my friends. Then what did you abandon? How did you do it?"
"And my mother? Didn't you say you loved her? So to complete this damned plan, did you… throw her away?"
If he had truly cast aside Star-Lord's mother for the plan, then he hadn't loved her enough—what right did he have to call himself a father?
"Peter! You must understand—we are not the same kind of beings as they are."
As Ego spoke, he manifested again in human form atop the giant's head.
He was still angry, but calming quickly.
"When they become stumbling blocks to our Expansion—to our ascension to Eternity—then we must leave them… even remove them!"
"Your mother—my little Lily—of course I loved her. I loved her so much I nearly gave up the Expansion for her. I loved her so much I had to put that tumor in her head, had to watch her wither away with my own eyes."
Star-Lord's pupils constricted. The stars in his eyes faded fast; clarity surged back into him.
Ego kept talking, wrapped up in his own grand tragedy.
"Child, do you understand what it is to destroy beauty with your own hands? The pain of it? I've been so sorrowful I can't sleep—I rely on Mantis just to get any rest!"
"But you must also understand—only by passing through such trials do we become greater. Because we are gods."
Star-Lord was his child, heir to his Celestial genes, already informed of the Expansion, aware of their supposed purpose.
In Ego's eyes, they were the same—kin. Surely Star-Lord would understand.
Except—
"To hell with your 'god'!"
Star-Lord spat the words and roared forward, planet-light and flying stones blasting from behind him to drive him into Ego.
Boom!
He slammed Ego off the giant's head and into the ground, fists wreathed in radiance pounding again and again into Ego's skull, leaving Ego stunned and reeling.
Boom!
With a thunderous crack, Ego was driven into the earth.
Star-Lord hammered him, blow after furious blow, until cracks crazed Ego's head and it split apart.
"You're insane!"
Ego roared. With a flick of his hand, several energy tendrils lanced up from the ground, coiling around Star-Lord. They wrenched him free—and one tendril speared straight through his body.
Even so, Star-Lord glared at Ego with undimmed rage.
That old bastard—he'd killed his mother for a damned plan!
His mother had been the brightest thing in his life for all these years, and this old monster was telling him it had been his own hand that destroyed her?
The thought of his mother, on her deathbed, still thinking of this man—knives seemed to drive into Star-Lord's heart by the thousands.
Now he had only one thought: kill this old monster.
"Aaah!"
Star-Lord thrashed in fury.
Ego looked at him coolly, disappointment clouding his eyes.
"I thought you would understand…"
He waved his hand. "But for now, you can be a battery and cool off."
As he spoke, the tendril skewering Star-Lord flared bright. Star-Lord's body went stiff, dangling like a puppet.
Through the tendrils of planet-light, Ego linked Star-Lord directly to himself—turning him into a battery to amplify his own power.
Ego shut his eyes, a look of bliss spreading over his face.
This feeling…
"Tsk, tsk. What a disgusting creep—not even sparing your own son."
With a drawling tease, Mike shot out of another choice-cut portal.
Ego's gaze went cold. He glared at Mike while subtly dragging Star-Lord closer with the tendril.
"What do you know?"
"I don't need to know," Mike shrugged. "And I don't want to."
The words had barely fallen when Mike vanished, reappearing at blistering speed beside Star-Lord. As Ego's tendrils reacted and stabbed for him, Mike tore apart the one suspending Star-Lord and yanked him free.
"No!"
Ego's roar shook the planet. The entire world seemed to convulse as an impossible number of planet-light torrents erupted from the depths, surging like a flood toward Mike and Star-Lord.
Mike darted toward a portal, hurled Star-Lord through, and snapped it shut with a flick of his wrist.
From here on, it was his show.
He drew a slow breath, then charged straight into the deluge of shape-shifting planet-light, flying arrow-true toward Ego.
Meanwhile, aboard the Aile, Star-Lord—freshly tossed through by Mike—scrambled to his feet.
"Aaah! I'm going to kill that old bastard!"
He shouted, only to find the Guardians eyeing him warily.
Star-Lord blinked and took a step forward.
"Stop!"
They barked in unison, weapons whipped up and trained on him.
Star-Lord swallowed and forced a strained smile.
"Whose side are you on right now?" Gamora asked, her blade poised at the vital spot.
Star-Lord's voice broke with grief. "That bastard killed my mom."
The Guardians hesitated, their gazes softening.
(End of Chapter)