Drax, in his usual self-destructive fashion, ended up flat on his back in an instant.
Star-Lord couldn't even bear to watch. He covered his eyes and groaned, "Oh god… he just has a terrible memory."
"And a really strange sense of humor…" Arthur added with a helpless shrug, looking innocent, like he wasn't the one who'd just decked someone.
T'Challa blinked in confusion. He felt like he'd walked into a bizarre new world and was witnessing a series of absurd events.
'What the hell is all this shit?' The Wakandan prince stood there dumbfounded as he watched Arthur and Star-Lord pull each other into a warm hug, patting each other on the back.
"Hey man, it's so good to see you alive and well," Star-Lord said with a sigh of relief.
Arthur rolled his eyes, clearly moved but annoyed. "Don't give me that crap. It's only been a few months."
"Okay, fine, you're right…" Star-Lord grinned and stepped back. "Come on, I can't wait to tell you everything that's happened!"
"Where's your dad?" Arthur asked.
As they chatted, the two began walking deeper into the estate. T'Challa was utterly lost. 'Why had this suddenly turned into a casual family reunion? Was there no structure to their conversations at all?!'
Meanwhile, Drax had somehow recovered both physically and mentally and suddenly shouted, "Wait for me!"
He scrambled to catch up and followed them inside.
In the blink of an eye, T'Challa was the only one left at the door. He glanced back at the spaceship, a deep part of him tempted to rush inside and fly back to Earth.
This was easily the most bizarre day of his entire life.
But now that he was here, he had no choice but to go along with it. Besides, he didn't even know how to fly Arthur's spaceship. Reading about spaceships is one thing, piloting one is a whole different game.
With no other option, he finally lifted his foot and followed them inside.
As they walked through the estate, Arthur took in the surroundings with a watchful eye.
He had to admit, Ego's home was truly magnificent. After all, when you're a sentient planet, building fancy houses is probably one of the least difficult things you can do.
And when Ego wasn't out scattering his seeds across the universe, he spent the rest of his time either destroying those seeds or just lounging around being a reclusive planet-sized hermit. With all that time, building grand palaces was nothing special.
Star-Lord was practically bouncing with excitement as he spoke to Arthur: "You won't believe it, my father is a god! Like, an actual god! I'm literally a demigod now!"
'A demigod, huh. If only your god of a father didn't have a hobby of murdering all his other demigod children, that would've been much more comforting.'
Arthur seized the moment to introduce T'Challa:
"This guy's also a native-born superhero from Earth," Arthur said with his usual flair. "And he's a prince. So… he's like, a royal-class second-generation hero?"
Star-Lord paused, then smiled warmly. "Nice to meet you! I'm Star-Lord!"
"T'Challa." The Wakandan prince introduced himself briefly… and then didn't know what else to say.
He had no idea how to communicate with this guy.
"So… is your country big?" Star-Lord tossed the question out casually, more out of politeness than curiosity, and then immediately turned back to Arthur: "I already told him about you, but today's a bit unlucky, he's not home. But once he's back, I'll make sure you guys get to meet."
Arthur nodded, but in his mind, he was already calculating what steps to take next.
Confronting Ego head-on isn't exactly the smartest choice.
Sure, the guy's a giant space orb, but he's also absolutely a god-tier being.
Born of the cosmos, without roots or origin, yet he somehow managed to forge an entire planet by himself. On this planet, he holds absolute dominance.
Realistically, the only one who could stand a chance against him would be his own son, Star-Lord, and even then, it took a cataclysmic final explosion in the original story to actually defeat Ego.
Which means… a direct confrontation would bring way too many unpredictable variables.
After all, not everything in this timeline is going to unfold exactly the same way.
And from his conversation with Star-Lord, Arthur learned that Rocket and Groot weren't around right now either. Not that it would've helped much, without baby Groot's conveniently sized body, they'd lack the one thing that could hurt Ego's true form.
So yeah, in terms of a full-frontal battle, the odds were even worse now.
But what if he attacked quietly, from the shadows?
While casually chatting with Star-Lord on the surface, Arthur split his focus and stealthily summoned a Horus Eye, sending it deep underground to investigate.
To be honest, if Ego had been home, Arthur wouldn't have dared act so boldly.
But since Star-Lord said his dad wasn't around… well, maybe he could get away with a little peek without being noticed.
The awkward part was that Arthur had no idea just how sharp Ego's perception really was. 'Could Ego sense the formless, shapeless Horus Eye?'
After all, different opponents respond to it in very different ways.
Take Thor, for example. The Horus Eye worked perfectly on him; he was careless and oblivious, practically blind to these subtle magical waves.
But with Loki, it wasn't so easy. The Horus Eye didn't have much advantage over the God of Mischief. Then again, the Eye could also suppress Loki's illusions, so it wasn't useless. They sort of canceled each other out.
However, if Arthur were up against someone like the Ancient One or Odin, the Horus Eye would be as obvious as a flea on a bald man's head, completely ineffective.
And as for Ego… where exactly did he rank on that scale?
That was the real problem, Ego didn't fit into any of those existing systems.
He was something else entirely, which made Arthur uneasy. That's why, even now, he was deploying the Eye very discreetly, not just to avoid Ego's notice, but to avoid tipping off Star-Lord too.
To distract him, Arthur casually asked, "So… where's Nebula?"
Back when they parted ways on Xandar, Arthur had returned Nebula to Star-Lord's crew. He had no idea whether their relationship had improved at all since then…
To his surprise, the moment he mentioned her, Star-Lord let out a long, weary sigh.
"Ughhh…"
Arthur glanced over, puzzled. "Don't tell me… you fell for someone else?"
"What?! Hell no!" Star-Lord flailed both arms in protest. "Don't say stuff like that, you'll get me killed! I'm just… stressed, okay?"
(End of Chapter)
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