"Master?" everyone echoed in surprise.
Everyone was shocked by the existence behind the Heralds of Galactus. They could not imagine that four beings similar to Thanos in power would have a master behind them controlling their actions.
"Sebastian, who exactly is this master you are talking about?" Reed Richards asked.
Nodding to Reed, Sebastian turned and waved his hand. The images floating before them immediately changed, transforming into a somewhat blurry but gigantic being standing on a planet. The being was devouring the planet's essence. Then, another image appeared showing Galactus using a cosmic energy storm to devour an entire planet whole.
The images ended, and the conference room fell into complete silence.
All the heroes stared in disbelief at the frozen images. They could not imagine that such a vast planet was merely food for that towering figure!
After a long while, Spider-Man took a deep breath and said to Sebastian, "Mr. Sebastian, who... is he?"
"Galactus," Sebastian replied solemnly. "He is a survivor from the universe before ours was created, and one of the five primordial cosmic entities who created this universe. Fortunately, he is only the weakest of the five primordial entities, and his condition is extremely unstable due to constant hunger. Otherwise, we would have had absolutely no chance against him."
"Sebastian, do you have a plan?" Tony asked urgently.
Hearing Tony's question, Sebastian immediately replied, "Of course I have a plan. First, we need to eliminate Galactus's servants, his four Heralds, one by one.
I have already taken care of one—the Silver Surfer. We still have three to deal with.
Second, we need to figure out exactly what kind of power Galactus uses. My intelligence suggests that Galactus bestows his own power upon his Heralds. Therefore, we can start with these Heralds to study what power Galactus uses—the Power Cosmic.
Then, we can develop targeted weapons or countermeasures. I think you can all do that."
After a brief discussion, everyone agreed to Sebastian's plan. After all, their understanding of Galactus and his Heralds came entirely from Sebastian, so there was no need to oppose his plan.
Moreover, they knew Sebastian very well. He would not formulate a plan without certainty. Five years ago, the plan personally devised by Sebastian ultimately yielded unimaginable results, at least giving them a true god-level ally!
After discussing some details, everyone prepared to return to their respective organizations to relay the message and instruct their members to prepare.
But at that moment, T-Fortress suddenly sounded an alarm. A light screen appeared before them. A bright stream of fire appeared on the screen, and at the same time, the speed, direction, and energy contained within the fire stream were displayed in the corners of the screen.
Seeing these data, everyone's expressions became extremely grave.
"Gentlemen, it seems our luck is actually quite good in some ways," Sebastian said. "He should be another Herald called Firelord!"
At this moment, a series of data appeared on Tony's sunglasses. Looking at the data, Tony immediately said, "Gentlemen, although I do not want to interrupt you, Firelord will land at coordinates in Egypt in about ten minutes. Should we not prepare?"
"No one else is needed," Sebastian said. "Stephen and I can handle it."
Stephen Strange, who was singled out, looked visibly bewildered. He looked at Sebastian as if to say, "You are asking for it, why drag me into it?"
"An opponent with energy equivalent to a miniature sun," Stephen said aloud. "You expect me and you to handle him?"
As if reading Stephen's mind perfectly, Sebastian said directly, "Go back to Kamar-Taj and get the Casket of Ancient Winters, then come find me in Egypt. I will go meet that guy first."
Stephen raised an eyebrow and said to Sebastian, "You know about the Casket of Ancient Winters? That is one of Kamar-Taj's highest-level artifacts. I do not recall inviting you to see it."
Perhaps because of what happened five years ago during the Infinity War, Stephen did not harbor any ill will towards Sebastian anymore, but he was still appropriately wary.
Shaking his head and chuckling, Sebastian said to Stephen, "While I have not visited Kamar-Taj to see your collection of artifacts personally, I gave the Casket of Ancient Winters to the Ancient One years ago, so why do you think I would not know about its existence?"
Hearing this revelation, Stephen shrugged his shoulders, turned, and quickly left the meeting room. He returned to Kamar-Taj through a portal.
Sebastian greeted the others and then disappeared from their sight.
Although Sebastian and Stephen volunteered to deal with Firelord, the others did not simply leave the task entirely to them. The meeting immediately ended, and everyone returned to their respective organizations. The three organizations quickly sprang into action, preparing to handle any unforeseen circumstances.
Approaching Earth
Firelord looked at the azure Earth below, his brow furrowing slightly. He was not sure if it was just his imagination, but he sensed absolutely no trace of the Silver Surfer.
Of the four Heralds of Galactus, the Silver Surfer was the most cautious and experienced.
Logically, the Silver Surfer should already have placed a marker on Earth to guide their master Galactus. But Firelord felt no fluctuations from any marker or dimensional node.
Recalling what Galactus had said to them before arriving on Earth, Firelord guessed that someone had likely attacked and either killed or captured the Silver Surfer, leading to the current situation.
Just as Firelord had figured out about seventy or eighty percent of the truth and was about to lower his profile and proceed more cautiously, he suddenly noticed a human standing atop a mechanical satellite ahead. The human was waving slightly at him.
Seeing the human's unusual behavior, Firelord immediately became alert.
It was at this moment that the human suddenly turned into a wisp of black smoke and disappeared from Firelord's sight. Just as Firelord was about to accelerate and rush into Earth's atmosphere, a dark green bolt of lightning suddenly shot out from behind him. It struck him directly in the back. An astonishing death intent quickly invaded Firelord's body.
But at that moment, Firelord's body suddenly erupted with astonishing heat. Blinding light spread from within his form. The temperature was so high that it directly activated the defensive force field on the surface of the nearby defensive satellite Zeus. Even with the force field activated, the temperature inside Zeus continued to rise dangerously. If this continued, it would inevitably self-destruct sooner or later.
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