Marvel: What If Thanos Adopted A Saiyan?-Chapter 216 - 217: Lothar’s Beast, Forced Evolution
Hela couldn’t suppress her growing suspicion any longer.
Though the curvature was barely perceptible and the lengthening almost invisible to the naked eye, it was still a clear anomaly, something had changed with Lothar.
And that, for Hela, was impossible to ignore.
After all, from what she’d witnessed, this man’s power seemed oddly tied to his hair.
His strength in his usual black-haired form was mediocre at best. But whenever that hair turned golden, it was as if he activated some kind of cheat code, his combat power skyrocketed uncontrollably.
She had seen it time and again; on Svartalfheim, on Gafa, on Sakaar, and even on Midgard. Each time, she was there, a witness to the abrupt surge in Lothar’s power.
To her, it seemed like the race he claimed to belong to, Saiyan, measured strength by hairstyle and hair color.
So when his hair began to subtly change again, Hela’s instincts flared.
"My hair’s perfectly normal."
Lothar shot her a glance, then casually grabbed her wrist and flung her over his shoulder. The Asgardian’s powerful body crashed straight into the armament base on Hala!
"Pfft!"
"You bastard!"
Dust and flames erupted around her. Cursing, Hela emerged from the crumbling ruins, pointing up at the airborne Lothar, her voice sharp with rage.
Any satisfaction she’d been feeling vanished into smoke.
No one enjoys being used as a living weapon. The fact that she didn’t immediately leap into a fight was testament enough to her royal upbringing as a princess of Asgard.
Well, mostly. The truth was, she didn’t think she could win.
"One day I’m gonna dye that ridiculous hair of yours green!"
Her teeth clenched with a sharp crack. Hela turned her fury on the bustling capital of Hala, venting with unchecked destruction.
Under the blood-red moon, her exquisite features and Lothar’s blazing golden hair etched themselves into the memories of every Kree that laid eyes on them.
The Mind Stone, glowing between her brows, pulsed repeatedly, channeling endless energy into her veins, turning her into a self-sustaining engine of carnage.
Beneath the crimson sky, blood and ruin reigned.
Once a face that could command adoration across galaxies, now stood over nothing but a landscape of ruin.
Skyscrapers fell. Cities crumbled.
To the dying Kree, the last image they saw before death was that golden flash from the Black Quadrant, blazing like the wrath of gods.
"No!"
"Help us!"
"Please!"
"Where is our army?!"
"What about the Supreme Accuser Tribunal?!"
"Why are you just watching this happen?!"
The people of Hala screamed in terror, their final cries echoing in the ears of every Kree Supreme Accuser as lives were snuffed out en masse.
"Have we received the Supreme Intelligence’s response yet?"
"Our weapons are completely ineffective against the two of them!"
Hearing that Ronan and Gina had safely entered the shelter, Accuser Cross let out a breath of relief. But his gaze immediately shifted toward the leader of their tribunal.
"The directive has arrived."
Before the leader could even finish the sentence, every member of the Supreme Accuser Tribunal received the Supreme Intelligence’s command:
"Center an Evolution Energy Field around the damaged Thirteenth District. Extend it outward to the Sixteenth District. All forces must lure Lothar and Hela into the field, at any cost."
What?
Cross blinked in confusion.
Help them evolve?
The order didn’t make sense at first.
"The strength Lothar and Hela wield isn’t purely their own, it’s being augmented by the Infinity Stones."
"The energy flowing from the Stones is constantly reshaping their bodies and souls. In other words, evolving them."
"But every species in the cosmos has a limit. Even those two are no exception."
"If we can lure them into the Evolution Zone, their bodies will accelerate past safe thresholds. Eventually, the damage will surpass their capacity to endure."
"And when that moment comes..."
The emergency directive, drafted personally by the Supreme Intelligence, the so-called God of Artificial Intelligence, was enough to give Cross a headache.
To bring death, one must first drive madness.
That was its strategy: sacrifice a relatively small portion of Hala’s population and territory, to lead the berserking Lothar and Hela down a path of self-destruction.
Down into the abyss of over-evolution.
It would push them to the brink inside the Evolution Field, until the only outcome left was total implosion.
That, the Supreme Intelligence believed, would honor the fallen.
"Fourth Fleet, full deployment!"
Though Cross disagreed with the plan, he ultimately carried out the orders.
In the Kree Empire, no one dared disobey the Supreme Intelligence.
Even knowing it might be a one-way mission, none of them hesitated.
Zwoosh!
A relentless barrage of cannon fire harassed Lothar, each blast irritating his nerves. The Mind Stone’s energy subtly amplified the tension building inside him.
His calm frayed, replaced by bloodlust.
Once again, just like on Planet U40, the sensation returned: his power was climbing at an unnatural rate.
Die.
All of you will die!
No one, NO ONE, gets to challenge ME!
This is the price of targeting ME!
Dark, murderous intent churned within him, tightly coiling with the ever-swelling energy. Before he even noticed it, both he and Hela had been drawn into the trap laid by the Supreme Intelligence.
"Now!"
At the command of the Supreme Intelligence, the Evolution Field, engineered specifically for Lothar and Hela, burst to life!
"What?!"
Lothar felt it instantly. His power was surging wildly, too wildly.
He turned back.
Hela’s expression mirrored his, alarmed.
And then the Mind Stone embedded in her brow erupted with a glow that struck him with a jolt of recognition.
In the Black Quadrant, where the artificial intelligence Woz monitored everything, Thanos narrowed his eyes in alarm.
Someone as learned as him needed only one glance at the screen to understand what he was seeing.
"Activate backup energy reserve. Authorization: Thanos."
"Woz, extract Lothar, NOW!"
Bzzzzt!
A shrill feedback rang out. The hidden backdoor Thanos had left inside Woz failed, completely severed!
"Woz?"
The screen went black. Thanos had lost all access.
Thump!
Thump!
Inside the Evolution Field, a thunderous heartbeat echoed in Lothar’s ears, on the verge of rupture.
What is this...?
This power...
This feeling... 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞
The same overwhelming sensation he once felt on U40 came flooding back.
Light exploded from within him, forming a blazing column of crimson-gold energy that shot straight into the sky, engulfing Lothar like a cocoon.
BOOOOOM!
"Lothar!!!"
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