Freyja watched the scene unfolding below… the panicked Sovereign citizens scrambled across the ruined plaza, the jagged spatial fractures still hissed through the air and felt a tug of pity.
"Soren… forget it," She said softly. "We're fine, let it go."
Soren exhaled through his nose. Still, he lifted his hand and the unstable cracks in space, held open by his power, began to recede.
Without his grip to force them wider, the universe's natural laws knitted the wounds shut until the sky was whole again.
The moment the last fracture vanished, the Sovereigns finally looked up.
A gasp… then a rolling chorus of startled cries sounded through the golden city as they spotted the pair floating effortlessly above them.
"LET THOSE WHO CAN SPEAK, COME FORWARD."
Soren's voice thundered over the palace grounds.
The command struck the Sovereigns like a mental lap. He had amplified it deliberately, the entire palace trembled with the force of it.
His mental presence surged next. Even without touching them, his aura pressed down on the golden-skinned citizens, freezing many in place.
Soon, a procession emerged from the only temple left unscathed. At its center walked a woman draped head to toe in gold, flanked by attendants unrolling a red carpet before her with hurried, trembling hands.
Ayesha. High Priestess of the Sovereign Empire.
Soren's eyes chilled. You're still putting on airs, even now?
He didn't bother hiding his contempt. "Where are the Guardians of the Galaxy?"
Ayesha faltered. For the briefest moment, she swallowed.
"M-my lord, I… I don't know what 'Guardians of the Galaxy' you speak of," Her tone wavering as her eyes darted, searching for an escape that wasn't there.
Soren's aura darkened. The pressure around her was condensing until it felt nearly tangible. To her, it must have been like being forced beneath storming seas… one breath away from being pulled under.
"Really? Then allow me to refresh your memory."
His power surged again, muscles in the crowd locking in terror.
"You hired the Guardians to destroy a creature feeding on your energy cores. They succeeded. And in return…" His gaze sharpened. "You sent a fleet to hunt them, did I miss anything?"
Ayesha stared at him, stunned at how precisely he knew the events as though he'd been standing there with the Guardians.
"It, It was the Guardians!" She burst out, fear and pride warring in her voice. "They stole our energy battery. We simply~"
"I don't care about your reasons," Soren cut her off coolly. "Only the result."
The weight of his presence descended again, this time sweeping across the entire palace complex. Dozens of Sovereigns fell to their knees, trembling. Even breathing became difficult.
Ayesha's legs shook uncontrollably.
"The fleet we sent… it was destroyed," She finally confessed, voice cracking. "Their ship vanished. I-I swear, my lord, everything I've said is true. They must still be alive somewhere!"
She bowed her head, terrified even to breathe too loudly.
The fury simmering behind Soren's eyes slowly cooled.
The entire fleet destroyed…?
That wasn't the work of Quill's little team. That was Ego's hand ancient living planet, and Peter Quill's father.
If Soren wanted to find the Guardians, he'd have to find Ego first.
The thought stirred a flicker of interest. A living planet, a self-forged deity… even among cosmic beings, Ego was an anomaly. And now he'd crossed paths with the very people Soren sought.
But locating Ego was another matter entirely.
From the scraps of information he'd gathered, there was only one man alive who knew the coordinates of Ego's world, the old Ravager captain who once made a deal with him.
Yondu Udonta.
First Thor, then the Hulk, now the Guardians vanishing into this mess… and I still have to track down a blue-skinned pirate just to start untangling it.
Beside him, Freyja remained silent through the entire exchange.
"Soren," She finally asked, "Did we run into some kind of trouble?"
He nodded, irritation creeping into his voice. "More than I expected."
"One missing god leads to another missing monster, and that leads to missing idiots in a ship. Now I need to find blue pirate before anything else."
His gaze drifted down to Ayesha,the High Priestess trembling so hard she could barely stand. The Sovereign rulers prided themselves on perfection, but right now she looked one breath away from collapsing.
Without warning, his vast mental power unfurled again, sweeping through the palace. He probed through walls, chambers, and vaults until he found it… a chamber dense with contained energy, pulsing with power.
The Sovereign's prized energy batteries.
The very things Ayesha had risked a war over.
A spark of anger flickered across Soren's face. All this destruction… all this arrogance… for toys?
Space itself began to ripple around him.
He raised his hand.
"Up."
The single word resonated like an order issued by the universe.
A rumbling shook the palace. The vault containing the batteries… an entire section of reinforced architecture wrenched free from the ground as if torn loose by the hands of a giant.
The structure rose, suspended in the shimmering distortion of Soren's space manipulation.
"Impossible!!!" Gasps and cries erupted across the courtyard.
The Sovereigns paled and even Ayesha's golden skin seemed to drain of color.
"N-no!" She choked out, reaching forward instinctively as if her arms could bring the vault back down. "Those are!"
She never finished the sentence. The floating vault blinked out of existence.
Soren had folded it directly into his spatial storage gem. He lowered his hand utterly unbothered.
"Consider it payment for the inconvenience."