Boom! Boom! Boom!
At the main entrance of the garden palace...
Quill and Yondu, one on each side, supported the weak and heavily injured Logan, almost dragging him as they escaped from the crumbling ruins of the palace. The ongoing earthquakes made their retreat extremely difficult.
"This is a clash of gods, we need to get out of here!" Quill swallowed hard as he spoke hastily.
"Aren't you supposed to have awakened the power of the Celestial? Use it!" Yondu sneered, giving Quill a contemptuous side-eye.
Quill shook his head vigorously, smiling bitterly. "How can I compare to that planetary monster?"
"You little...," Yondu began, about to mock him, but suddenly raised his head in alarm, whistling softly. Immediately, a dark-red arrow shot from above, trailing a tail of light, speeding towards the bushes in the garden.
Though it was a regular arrow, it moved faster than a laser, disappearing into the bushes in the blink of an eye.
Whoosh...
While the red arrow was on its way, a blast of white cold air suddenly swept towards it. The technologically enhanced metal arrow, along with the bushes, was instantly frozen into solid ice.
"Enemy?" Quill halted their steps, letting Yondu take action to deal with the threat while he continued carrying Logan alone.
Yondu furrowed his brow deeply, whistling again, this time with a sharp urgency. The red arrow, still trailing its crimson arc, broke free from the ice and returned to Yondu's empty palm. "Whoever you are, come out now, or I won't be so polite!"
"What a formidable little red arrow."
With a bell-like laughter, a golden-haired girl dressed in a white gown stepped out from behind the thawed bushes, resembling a forest nymph.
"Yondu, hold on a moment!" Quill stopped Yondu, who was about to whistle again and turned his gaze to the newcomer, exclaiming in surprise, "You're... Lucy?"
"Kyle sent me to pick you up," Lucy chuckled lightly as she spoke. Quill, carrying the injured Logan on his back, trembled slightly with tears of excitement welling up in his eyes. "It's so good to see you're still alive, Logan."
"You too, Lucy," Logan raised his heavy eyelids and responded in a weak voice.
"It's all over now," Lucy repeated the words Kyle had said earlier, seeing Logan's battered condition.
Quill couldn't help but ask, "So, it's Kyle who's fighting against that Ego?"
Lucy nodded, looking at the crumbling green landscape with confidence and determination. "Let's prepare the escape spaceship first. This planet is about to face destruction..."
Meanwhile, beneath the surface of Ego's planet...
The humanoid Kyle, wrapped in dazzling energy, was engaged in a close-range but unconventional battle of main energy cannon bombardment with the conscious energy construct of Ego's head.
Kyle was like a miniature sunburst, with every punch and kick carrying not only the force of hundreds of tons but also a devastating blast of energy.
The latter was Kyle's greatest asset in combating the Celestial Ego. Ego's construct was the planet itself, and without destroying the planet, the only effective way to inflict damage was through attacks using elements and energy.
Each punch felt like a missile exploding on the surface, but it was only because the target was the Celestial Ego. Otherwise, no one could withstand such a terrifying assault.
Ego's construct was shattered time and time again by Kyle's attacks, only to quickly reform. Ego couldn't understand why, in its own home territory, in a battle of endurance at the Planetary Level, a mere lifeform like Kyle could still hold his own.
It made no sense, absolutely no sense!
Feeling enraged, Ego roared, opening its blood-red maw and spewing out energy beams into the void, directly blasting Kyle's double-star form away.
Kyle rolled backward, crashing through dozens of meters of bedrock. With his energy shield, he emerged unscathed, springing back up and bouncing towards Ego's construct like a cannonball, shattering it once again.
"What a persistent fellow," Kyle muttered as he stablized himself.
Within the hollow fault lines underground, countless swirling blue natural energies, driven by the Celestial's thoughts, reformed into a gigantic energy construct resembling Ego's face.
"You can't defeat me on my turf," The Ego construct floated in the air, looking at Kyle, who was panting and surrounded by swirling lights and spoke in a cold tone.
"I won't know that to be true until I try," Kyle retorted, without saying much. He clenched his fist and, with a swift motion, unleashed a miniaturized beam of searing energy, blasting a large hole in the center of the Ego construct's forehead.
"That tickled!" Ego sneered repeatedly, as natural forces surged from all directions underground. The wound on the energy construct's forehead healed at a visible speed.
Despite being repeatedly attacked and even shattered countless times, as long as its fundamental integrity was not compromised, the construct remained undefeated, it could draw upon the planet's core energy to repair itself infinitely.
That was the terrifying aspect of a Celestial. From the beginning, Kyle wasn't just fighting against a lifeform; he was engaging in a decisive battle against the entire natural environment of the living planet.
Ego taunted Kyle, "In my domain, I can't possibly lose! I possess the vast energy of this entire planet, while the energy within you will eventually deplete. How can you compete with me?"
"You're right, thank you for reminding me," Kyle said calmly, with a faint smile. "Indeed, no matter how many times I kill your energy incarnations, it's ineffective. Therefore, I must target your fatal weakness."
"Hmm?" Ego's expression changed slightly as he heard this and he suddenly felt a sense of foreboding.
At that moment, a dark mist swiftly emerged from underground, approaching Kyle. It transmitted a message to him telepathically, "Master, I've found the central consciousness of this living planet and a living heart, approximately 1,650 kilometers below the surface..."
"An alien consciousness?" The energy construct of Ego stared blankly as the mist-like lifeform approached Kyle. Waves of shock and disbelief surged through its mind. It had been so focused on Kyle that it hadn't noticed the presence of another weak consciousness.
Yes, weak. To Ego, Pride was nothing but weakness.
After hearing the report, Kyle nodded slightly to Pride, indicating that he was aware of the current dangerous situation and Pride immediately floated back to Kyle.
"What is that?" Ego asked in a deep voice, abandoning its previous arrogance and dominance.
Kyle's lips curled up, his gaze at the construct seemingly amused as he calmly asked, "I'm curious, do Celestials bleed? If you don't bleed, then it might be difficult, but I have a piece of Divine Weapon material that requires Celestial blood."
"What are you planning? Tell me!" The Ego construct opened its mouth wide, spraying several dazzling beams of energy in succession. But this time, Kyle didn't choose to confront them head-on.
Instead, he punched the ground, creating a dark hole and dodging the beams. He continued digging deeper into the ground, his entire body upside down as he dug deeper.
Accelerating continuously, delving deeper underground, this time he no longer dug blindly but seemed to have a specific target in mind.
This action completely exposed Kyle's intentions.
The Ego construct stood still for a moment, then shouted in panic, "Wait, wait!! Damn it!! You can't do that!!!"
(End of Chapter)
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