All those present glanced at each other and then simultaneously, subtly set their gazes towards a figure beyond the crowd.
Stark walked through the crowd holding a wine glass. Upon reaching the other side of the corpse, he stood face to face with Shiller. As he looked at Shiller across the corpse of the queen, the brilliant lights in the ballroom began to dim at the moment their eyes met.
The intricate pattern of plants on the floor tiles under their feet gradually disappeared, replaced by streaks of light drawing a massive chess board on the dance floor.
As time seemed to stop, everyone's expressions froze. The vibrant colors on their clothes and faces started to fade, turning grey and as rigid as stone.
With a rhythmic "thump, thump", one chess piece after another of various shapes fell onto the chess board.
On one side of the board, figures including Doom, Thor, Loki, Star Lord, Strange, Thanos, Professor X, Sif, Odin, Frigga, Jarvis, Yondu, and Rocket Raccoon, even Prince Aran, stood proudly as chess pieces on the board. Some rode horses, others held swords, and behind these figures, standing at the place of the king, was Stark.
"I manipulated various forces, making them act one after another under my control. They achieved their own goals through the death of the queen," Stark said.
After he spoke, Stark pointed forward. With a "thump", a chess piece of Yondu, dressed in Ravager's outfit, moved forward.
A somewhat annoying vibration sounded, "Hum, hum, hum."
A rough hand seized the communicator. Yondu, looking annoyed, held the phone and yelled, "Who the hell is calling this early? Don't you have any manners?!"
"Yondu, is that you? I have a task for you. Are you interested?" A mysterious voice came from the other side of the phone.
"What task?" Yondu grumbled in response.
"I need you to track a robot raccoon in Centaurus for me. You don't need to know what a raccoon is. You only need to know there is something I need in the low-level protocol of this robot raccoon. Prepayment is 30% in energy form. The faster you are, the higher the price. How does that sound?"
Yondu's eyes lit up immediately. He repeated, "Energy payment, are you sure?"
"Of course, will you take the job?"
"I'll take it. Do you want it dead or alive?"
"Whatever you prefer, I just need the low-level protocol."
"Wait for my good news, pal!"
With a "thump", a hooded Doom's chess piece on the board moved forward.
In the lab of Stark Building, Stark hung up the phone and looked back at Doom, who was packing up the remains of a robot on the operating table. Doom looked up at Stark and said, "I'm not sure where you got these scraps, but I've extracted the info according to our agreement."
"I've already called the interstellar pirate Loki recommended to me. I think we'll hear something soon. Unfortunately, these robots, which I have no idea who destroyed, didn't have the coordinates of that madhouse. Otherwise, we'd be investigating there by now."
"Doom wants to know where you got the robot remains and why you're so interested in this 'Half-World' madhouse."
Stark stroked his chin and said, "I picked up the robot remains when Demon God was fighting a while ago. At the time, Jarvis did some autonomous analysis, but I didn't pay attention to the results."
"It wasn't until recently when I searched my database for keywords related to gods that I found the name of the Twin Gods of Xiea in the analysis results of these robots."
"Among the somewhat incomplete data of these robots, I found a madhouse called 'Half-World', a testing ground for the Shi'ar Empire, which is executing a wicked experiment called 'Universal Life Fusion Plan'. But all of that isn't important. What's important is how they're achieving this plan."
Doom lowered his head to look at the robotic remains and uttered a name, "M'Kraan Crystal?"
Stark nodded, but Doom was still looking at him and said, "Doom still doesn't understand why you're investigating this crystal."
Stark shook his head. He turned to look at the sunset outside the window of Stark Building. An uncharacteristic darkness was reflected in his eyes. He softly said, "Maybe you'll know soon."
The light dimmed more. With two "thump" sounds, the chess pieces of Thor and Loki took a step forward, causing the entire board to shake. Even as statues, the Asgardians looked incredibly handsome.
"... What do you mean by 'my wedding can achieve more'? Tony, stop beating around the bush. I don't have time to play this guessing game," Thor leaned back on the sofa, looking at Stark opposite him.
Stark turned his gaze to Loki. He smiled and said, "Since ancient times, a royal wedding has been more than just a wedding, hasn't it?"
Loki slowly narrowed his eyes. He naturally understood Stark's meaning, but he still said, "This is the Asgard royal family's business. We can handle it."
"Of course, but the matter you were complaining to me about earlier, the reconstruction of Netherworld, isn't just the private matter of the Asgard royal family, is it?"
Loki and Thor exchanged glances, Thor cleared his throat and looked at Stark, saying, "We do indeed intend to bring Hela back to Asgard, but we won't act rashly before we understand Odin's attitude. After all, the Father of All Gods is our father. We don't want to embarrass him too much either."
"And what does this have to do with Thor's wedding?" Loki tilted his head and looked at Stark with furrowed brows, asking.
"If you're willing to help me, I'd be happy to help you with something that has been troubling you for a long time, how about that?"
"Bang!", another bigger chess piece jumped out. Thanos advanced diagonally to Loki's side.
"Don't tell me you have no interest in the fringe star zones of the Shi'ar Empire, which are not firmly controlled, Your Majesty Thanos." Loki smiled and looked at Thanos in front of him, saying, "Now there is an opportunity to make the Shi'ar Empire fall into disarray without a fight, do you have any good ideas?"
Thanos's fingers touched the side of the wine glass, he lowered his eyes, then raised his head to look at Loki and said: "You are bolder than I expected, but you're right, who wouldn't be tempted by fat meat delivered to their mouth?"
"Bang" again, and Star Lord's piece hopped diagonally forward coming to the rear side of Thanos' piece.
"Mr. Quill, I regret that we couldn't cooperate the last time at Kaine Prison, but this time, I think we will have a pleasant cooperation." Thanos smiled at Star Lord Peter Quill.
"What do you want me to do?" Star Lord looked at Thanos impassively, he said, "I'm not an interstellar mercenary, and I won't work for anyone because of money."
"I just want to give you an opportunity to avenge." Thanos gently shook his head and said, "Haven't you always been upset about the death of your mother?"
Star Lord opened his eyes slightly, but he still spoke calmly: "I have avenged my mother. The aliens who landed on Earth to kill my mother were sent by my uncle Prince Gars of the Spartak Empire. When I returned to the Spartak Empire, I killed him."
"Do you really think that the Spartak Empire's infighting back then was just a coincidence?" Thanos asked, smiling.
Star Lord clenched his fist briefly but soon relaxed his arm and said while looking at Thanos, "So what if someone was deliberately instigating from behind? Are you going to tell me you can kill them all?"
"Of course not, but at least I could give you an opportunity to avenge the fact that your parents were separated for many years due to wars and are now worlds apart. You could give those behind the scenes a spectacular funeral."
As Thanos finished speaking, the chessboard was brightly illuminated, the bright light in the engine mouth gradually extinguished, and the Shi'ar Empire's spaceship landed at Asgard Star Port. The Queen of Xiea stepped out from the hatch.
As the queen and the Divine King Thor of Asgard greeted each other in the rituals of their countries, she didn't notice the cold light flash in the eyes of the young Peter Quill, a member of the Shi'ar Empire Guard, standing behind her.
Then, everything seemed to rewind, the laid carpet rolled back from the feet, embroidered shoes step by step retreating, the guards put their ceremonial swords back in scabbards, backing away into the ship in measured steps.
Until light and shadow overlapped in the office of the Holy Sanctuary, a pair of polished shoes crossed the threshold, Strange, seated on the sofa, looked up and smiled at Stark, saying, "Tony, long time no see, the performance of your other self is really surprising."
"Wait until I finish the important things, you'll have plenty of time to mock me." Stark tightened his suit and sat down opposite Strange.
Strange raised his eyebrows, but Stark gave a smile and pointed to his temple with a finger, saying, "Sorry, but this guy in here keeps nagging at me not to do extra things, so your upcoming ridicule might not have any effect."
"So, what do you want to talk about?" Strange narrowed his eyes.
"About the teleportation technology you've been stuck with for a long time, don't refute me, don't give me any garbage about making some progress. We both clearly understand that you need a revolutionary technological breakthrough."
Stark reached out for the wine glass on the table. As Strange reached for another, Stark tapped the table with his glass, "You should quit drinking, Steven, especially before doing important things."
"Drinking doesn't affect my ability to use magic at all." Strange lifted his glass, "Special meditation techniques allow me to block the effects of alcohol, surely you don't underestimate magicians that much?"
Stark looked up at him, "My point is, doing so would let people know that if you don't drink, it means you have serious things to handle."
"But you still haven't said what the important thing is."
"In this universe, who owns the largest teleportation portal?"
Stark and Strange's eyes met, both seeing the cold amusement in the other's eyes, just like when they planned to borrow money to make guns.
"Splash," Frigga's chess piece moved to Strange's back at some point. The queen was as gentle as always.
Slim fingers traced the tie, and then buttoned up the suit. Polished shoes stepped into the door of the bedroom. Frigga smiled and turned her head to look at the entering Strange.
"Supreme Magician, long time no see."