Soren's words carried an unmistakable air of dominance. He didn't so much as flinch at the mention of the Grandmaster, nor did he soften his tone. That fearlessness weighed heavily on the Collector's heart.
He forced a smile.
"Soren, I'll do what I can to calm the Grandmaster. After all, it was the Red Devil brothers who provoked this in the first place."
"Even he can't argue with the facts… I hope."
But inside, doubt gnawed at him.
The Grandmaster was not known for patience, let alone fairness.
Once he learned that Brannox, the Flame Titan he'd personally sheltered, was dead, vengeance would likely take precedence over justice.
The Collector sighed inwardly. Trouble is coming, he thought.
And all I can do is stall.
Soren gave a faint nod, as if he'd already dismissed the matter.
"Then that's your problem to solve. If he knows what's good for him, we won't have any issue."
"If not…" He shrugged slightly. "I'll deal with him, too."
The chill in those words froze the Collector more than any void in space could.
But then, as if brushing aside a minor inconvenience, Soren smiled faintly.
"Now… I still want to see your collection."
The Collector brightened at once, clasping his hands eagerly.
"Of course! No problem at all!"
He chuckled, slipping into a more animated tone.
"And Soren… I must say, the medicine you gave me, divine!"
"In all my billions of years, nothing else has ever made existence feel so… exhilarating."
Soren smiled knowingly.
"Naturally. I don't make anything less than perfection."
Indeed, the Collector's dependence on the mysterious elixirs was growing. He knew it. He didn't care.
Anything that could give him a taste of joy again after eons of monotony was worth clinging to.
As they walked through the vast, gilded corridors of the collection hall, the Collector gestured around like a proud curator.
"Most of my treasures are housed here. If there's anything you desire that you don't see, say the word, I'll find it. Anywhere. Any time."
Soren's gaze scanned the bizarre, beautiful, and often dangerous artifacts lining the walls. Alien weapons, ancient scrolls, sentient gemstones, and dimensional fossils filled every corner.
Eventually, the Collector stopped beside an ornate pedestal, atop which sat a small crystalline box.
"This." He said with reverence, opening it carefully. "It is a spatial storage gem."
Inside lay a cobalt-blue gemstone the size of a baby's fist, glowing with a tranquil, innocent radiance.
"Don't let the size fool you."
"The inner dimension of this gem is enormous, practically a minor planet in scale. It can preserve items perfectly, untouched by time or decay."
Soren examined it silently, then reached out, holding the gem between his fingers.
His expression changed slightly.
The space inside… it's far larger than what he could access using the Tesseract alone. Even with his complex spatial arrays, Soren had never achieved a dimensional vault this stable or vast.
The Collector, it seemed, had some truly valuable pieces after all.
"Impressive," Soren murmured.
Then his brow furrowed. The storage gem was empty. Not a single artifact inside.
Just space, unused.
"You're not storing anything in it?" He asked, puzzled.
The Collector chuckled and lifted a finger as if to deliver a philosophical truth.
"Soren, my dear friend, collections are meant to be admired, not… used."
Soren stared at him for a long second. Then, without another word, he pocketed the gem.
The Collector blinked. "Oh, uh, you're taking it?"
Soren replied smoothly, without looking back.
"Better than letting it collect dust on a pedestal."
The Collector, far from looking displeased, actually seemed relieved. That was exactly what he'd hoped for.
Ever since tasting the euphoric effects of Soren's mysterious elixirs, the Collector knew his life had changed.
He'd existed for eons, watched galaxies collapse, empires rise and fall, but nothing had ever made him feel like the medicine did.
And the truth gnawed at him now, if Soren ever stopped supplying it, he wasn't sure how long he'd last before despair consumed him again.
With a glimmer in his eye, the Collector moved to another ornate pedestal and gestured with reverence.
"Now, Soren… this, this is a pseudo-infinite energy source. There are only a handful left in the entire universe."
He lifted the gem carefully. Unlike the crystalline clarity of the spatial gem before, this one pulsed with a deep jade hue, as though a living storm swirled inside.
Even Soren felt a momentary chill, an ancient, raw energy radiated from within, chaotic and undirected, yet enormous in scale.
"I've never used this one." the Collector continued proudly.
"The others like it were consumed long ago, burned away by warlords and empires trying to fuel superweapons or star systems."
"One man once offered me a galaxy for this stone. I refused."
Soren arched a brow.
"A galaxy? What kind of fool trades a galaxy for a battery?"
The Collector chuckled, not insulted in the slightest.
"A very desperate one."
"You see, this isn't just any battery. It dates back to the birth of the universe, formed in the residual chaos of the first matter storms."
"Its energy is untyped, unaligned, and nearly limitless. That's why we call it a pseudo-infinite source."
Soren narrowed his eyes as he examined the gem. "Why pseudo?"
"Could it actually run forever?"
"Close enough." The Collector leaned in. "It isn't truly infinite, of course, that title belongs only to the primal Infinity Stones."
"But this can power an entire galaxy for hundreds of millions of years, uninterrupted. It's the next best thing."
Soren was silent for a moment. Then, without hesitation, he took the jade gem and tucked it into his coat.
"It'll make a good backup. Not as refined as the dark energies of Dormammu, but still potent."
The Collector beamed. He'd just given away a universe-class relic… and felt happy about it.
"Soren, I have to ask, since you make such wondrous potions… surely, you'd be more interested in medicinal ingredients?" His voice had a hopeful lilt now.
Soren looked over with genuine interest.
"Absolutely. I'm a physician first and foremost. The right materials are more valuable than gold."
The Collector clapped his hands once, clearly delighted.
"Wonderful! Come... this way."
꧁𓊈𒆜༺⚜༻𒆜𓊉꧂
PhantomDream