Lucas's face darkened as he looked at Loki and grumbled, "On such a vast planet, there are countless temples. Searching them one by one, with just the two of us, how long will that take? Moreover, our target isn't the Orb, it's Ronan."
Loki seemed to realize the problem, smiled awkwardly, and suggested, "How about we find a place to wait on the planet?"
"Morag has been abandoned for many years, and hardly anyone lands here. If any other spaceship arrives, it must be Ronan's people."
Lucas nodded in agreement.
Then, he started walking towards the temple ahead.
"Let's go, Loki. Since we're already here, let's go in and search."
Loki's face showed a look of confusion, as if to say, 'Didn't you just say you didn't want to search every single place?'
Stepping through the gate, Lucas swept his mental power across the area. He immediately understood the general layout of this place and some anomalies deep within.
Following the main path, Lucas led Loki straight towards the center.
Deep within the ruins, unlike the dilapidated exterior, the interior was relatively well-preserved. Aside from a bit of dust, it seemed the long years had no effect on the architecture here. Because of this, the fresh battle traces were particularly conspicuous.
"This is… someone got here first?!"
Seeing the traces of fighting around, Loki quickly reacted.
Lucas's steps didn't stop as he continued deeper into the palace. "This is not bad news. At least we don't have to stay in this deserted place waiting anymore."
Soon, Lucas and Loki reached the end.
A huge stone door that had been opened, and a stone chamber inside the stone door.
In the center of the stone chamber was an energy shield. However, the shield was already empty.
"Loki, you're so lucky. You just randomly parked your spaceship in front of a temple, and it turns out to be the place where the Orb was stored."
"Maybe you have a strong connection with the Infinity Stones."
Seeing the scene before him, which was remarkably similar to that in the movie Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1, Lucas couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.
In the original story, Star-Lord found this place only after obtaining a map with precise coordinates. But Loki just randomly parked his spaceship and found it.
However, Loki, of course, wouldn't think he was lucky. "If I were lucky, I should have arrived at Morag before Ronan or the other faction."
Loki kicked away the body of a Kree warrior at his feet, his expression somewhat displeased.
"From the battle traces, there were two parties. One party was Kree, undoubtedly Ronan's subordinates. The other party was an unknown force."
"This unknown force didn't leave a single body behind, so it's very likely they won and took the Orb."
"What do we do next, Lucas? Should we try to track these people, or go back first and wait for Heimdall to re-gather intelligence?"
Lucas smiled and comforted Loki, "No rush, let me first use the Time Stone to see what happened here."
As he spoke, Lucas flipped his hand, about to take out the Time Stone (replica). However, his palm was empty.
Loki looked at Lucas with confusion.
Where was the Time Stone?
"Oops, I forgot. Wanda took the Time Stone to play with." Lucas explained with an awkward smile.
"The Time Stone, such an important item, given to an Apprentice Sorcerer to play with?!" Loki's tone carried a hint of shock.
During his time studying at Kamar-Taj, he had always tried to gather information. He naturally knew who Wanda was, what the Time Stone was, and who was in charge of it.
He believed that the Ancient One had entrusted the Time Stone to Lucas. But he couldn't believe that such a precious item as the Time Stone would be casually given to an Apprentice Sorcerer.
Although Kamar-Taj in his impression didn't lack magic tools, it wasn't that extravagantly inhumane.
Hearing Loki's tone, Lucas knew he had misunderstood and quickly explained, "It's just a replica. Although it basically possesses the functions of the Time Stone, it needs to be recharged to be used."
"Then what's the difference between this and the real one?" Loki retorted.
"The intensity is different." Lucas explained.
"Limited by energy issues, the intensity of some functions of the replicated Time Stone is far inferior to the original."
"It's like, can an ordinary ice maker compare to the casket of ancient winters?"
"So that's how it is."
Loki stroked his chin with one hand, nodding thoughtfully.
But very quickly, he reacted. "But the difficulty of casting Time Magic and ice magic cannot be compared either."
Lucas patted Loki's shoulder and explained, "Loki, Time Magic is not as complicated as you imagine."
Loki cast a questioning look at him. He had read many magic books, Lucas's nonsense couldn't fool him.
Time Magic, most of the time, was also called forbidden magic. How could it not be complicated?
Lucas smiled confidently. "Even without the Time Stone, I can reverse time."
Lucas spread his hands. Divine power emanated from his body, mimicking the power of the Time Stone.
The divine power, glowing with green light, quickly spread outwards. Soon, it filled the entire stone chamber and continued to expand until it filled the entire temple.
From a distance, the entire temple was now enveloped in green mysterious runes.
The next second.
"Time Reversal."
As Lucas's voice sounded, the scene inside the temple quickly changed, like a movie played backward.
Loki saw it clearly.
A phantom of him and Lucas appeared, then continuously retreated until they left the palace and the scene inside the palace was still constantly changing.
Until it froze at the moment a man with short gray-gold hair and wearing a walkman entered the palace.
After that, time stopped flowing backward. The images in the temple began to play normally.
"His name is Peter Jason Quill, also known as Star-Lord." Lucas pointed at the man on the screen, introducing him to Loki.
In the previous backward playback, it was Star-Lord who ultimately took the Orb and flew away in his spaceship.
At this moment, the screen was playing.
How Star-Lord entered the temple step by step and took the Orb.
And how he piloted his spaceship away under the pursuit of the immediately following Kree.
"It's pretty much as I guessed."
After watching the whole process, Loki asked, "Next, are we going to use the Time Magic to track his spaceship all the way?"
"No." Lucas refused.
After confirming that the plot was similar to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 and hadn't deviated, he thought of a simpler method.
"We're going to Xandar, the capital of the Nova Empire. Kree Accuser Ronan, and Star-Lord Peter Quill, will all go there."
Loki questioned, "That sounds illogical. Lucas, did you get other information from somewhere?"
Lucas nodded meaningfully, but offered no explanation.
His information came from the movie Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1, which he couldn't explain to Loki.
(End of Chapter)
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