Wild, violent purple energy danced frenziedly across Peter's fingertips.
The Power Stone acted like an unbroken, top-tier wild stallion, thrashing uncontrollably in his grip in a desperate attempt to slip away from his hand.
Had anyone else been forced to endure an energy surge of this magnitude, they would have been reduced to ash in a fraction of a second.
Yet the current Peter could ignore the shockwave entirely, casually tossing the Power Stone up into the air and catching it again as if he were merely playing with a glass marble.
"Give it back to me!"
Lying amidst the wreckage, Ronan stared with bloodshot, bulging eyes as he witnessed the scene.
A beastly roar tore from his throat.
Dragging his broken, heavy body, he glared fixatedly at the purple gem in Peter's hand as if possessed by a demon, screeching maniacally:
"A lowborn peasant like you has zero right to hold it!"
"That is the authority of a god!"
"Only I—only the great Ronan the Accuser—am worthy to possess it!"
Peter couldn't help but let out a cold sneer, not even bothering to look Ronan in the eye:
"I have to admit, when it comes to making me crack up, you genuinely have a natural talent."
"A useless trash heap like you who can't even hold onto a single rock dares to call himself a god in front of me?"
Thoroughly enraged by the humiliation, Ronan threw all caution to the wind and lunged greedily toward Peter's lower leg, reaching out with both hands.
Seeing his absurd, insatiable greed, Peter sighed with mock pity and casually tossed the Power Stone straight into Ronan's outstretched hands.
"NO!"
Watching this, Irani Rael nearly suffered a sudden heart attack on the spot!
She was terrified that the moment Ronan regained the Power Stone's amplification, he would fully recover and instantly turn the tide of battle!
"IT'S MINE! IT'S ALL MINE!"
Ronan lunged like a starved dog, gripping the Power Stone with a desperate, iron grip.
Yet he had completely forgotten that without the containment of his high-tech Kree warhammer, even in his prime condition, he was incapable of wielding the Stone's raw power on his own.
Now, not only was he utterly drained after inhaling the pollen from Deep Forest Emergence, but the Wood Human's previous kick had also shattered his defense systems and crushed half the bones in his body.
In such a ruined state, how could he possibly control the Power Stone?
The very instant his fingers made contact with the gem, terrifying currents of energy blasted countless cracks across his hands.
The cracks spread at a dizzying speed, transforming his entire body into what looked like a shattered piece of porcelain on the verge of falling apart within the span of a single breath.
Yet even so, Ronan refused to loosen his grip, unwilling to relinquish the raw power within his reach.
Watching him, Peter lifted his right foot with total indifference.
And brought it coming down heavily onto Ronan's head.
CRACK~!
A sickening sound of fracturing bone echoed through the dead silence of the Dark Aster.
Ronan the Accuser, supreme commander of the Kree Empire, didn't even get to utter a single final word before his entire head burst completely like a ripe watermelon.
A gust of cosmic wind blew past, scattering endless debris into the vacuum—a sight that made everyone present gasp in sheer horror.
"He... he actually stomped Ronan to death just like that?"
"That's Ronan! Even before he got his hands on the Power Stone, he wasn't someone any of us could easily handle!"
"Where on earth did that Earthling come from?!" Yondu's eyes widened to maximum size.
Are humans on Earth really this terrifying?!
"Wow~ I genuinely can't believe that big guy ended up even more shattered than I am!"
Suddenly, a voice rang out—weak and raspy, yet still utterly impossible to hide its固有 smart-aleck tone.
Hearing the voice, Gamora and the others gasped in shock before letting out high-pitched screams.
It was Star-Lord—who had been blasted into a cracked, semi-crystallized mess by the Power Stone's energy shockwave earlier—somehow pushing himself back up from the deck.
Although his body was still covered in fine, spiderweb cracks, he sounded completely fine as he spoke.
Drax the Destroyer practically thought Star-Lord had come back as a ghost. Despite his massive, muscular frame, he leaped straight into Groot's arms like a terrified child.
"I am Groot~!" Groot was equally startled, jumping up and down on the spot and nearly stepping on Rocket's tail.
Gamora's eyes welled with tears. Completely ignoring the gazes of the crowd, she threw her arms around Star-Lord, pounding his back with all her strength:
"You're not dead! Thank goodness, you're actually alive!"
"Cough, cough!" Star-Lord let out a strained wheeze: "Uh... I think I'm actually dying a little bit right now!"
While the Guardians were engaging in their usual chaotic comedy routine, Peter ignored the surrounding shock and noise.
He simply leaned down and picked the Power Stone back up from the deck.
Right at that moment, a system prompt chimed directly beside his ear:
[Detected Gold-Tier Sacrifice Item: Power Stone]
[Power Stone: One of the six Infinity Stones formed at the birth of the universe. Possesses infinite energy and immense tactical value.]
[Sacrifice Value: 300,000 Points]
Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands... THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND?!
Looking at the exaggerated string of zeros, Peter couldn't help but draw a sharp breath.
Holy crap, a massive fortune of three hundred thousand points!
Although the number was staggering, after the initial shock wore off, Peter snapped back to reality and couldn't resist calling out the system in his mind:
"Hold on a second, System. I remember when I stole Gungnir from Loki back then, that thing netted me 150,000 points.
The Power Stone is arguably the most destructive among all six Infinity Stones, and you're only offering 300,000 sacrifice points?!"
The system remained quiet for a short moment before generating a response:
[System Note: The actual inherent value of this item exceeds 300,000 points. However, due to its extreme danger level, standard entities are incapable of wielding it, resulting in a severely restricted market demand.]
"That still doesn't justify a lowball offer of 300,000! For a price like that, I might as well hoard it myself!"
After waiting a few seconds, the system predictably adjusted the valuation.
[System Glitch Detected. Patching in progress...]
[Sacrifice Value Updated: 400,000 Points]
"System, do you want to patch it one more time?"
This time, Peter waited for a while, but no further response came.
Alright then!
It seemed 400,000 was the absolute upper limit the system was willing to stretch.
Although it still felt like a slight loss, Peter ultimately chose to proceed with the sacrifice.
The main reason was that he didn't particularly need the Power Stone.
The Power Stone could only be used to amplify the output of the other Infinity Stones; it couldn't directly stack onto or magnify distinct external energy systems.
In other words, even if Peter kept the Power Stone in his own hands, all it would give him was an extra "Power Stone Mode" that couldn't be combined with his existing powers.
For someone at Peter's current power scale, that was largely redundant.
After all, whether it was Dual-God Resonance, Cosmic Energy, or the celestial genetics he was about to acquire from Ego, the actual combat potential he could unleash wouldn't lose to the raw output of the Power Stone.
Furthermore, with the Horse Talisman in his possession, he never had to worry about energy endurance or stamina depletion.
On top of that, keeping the Power Stone on himself meant inviting constant harassment from Thanos, potentially leaving an opening for the Mad Titan to pull off his infamous snap down the road.
For Peter, holding onto it yielded far more drawbacks than benefits.
So, rather than hoarding the Stone and letting Thanos scheme for it, sacrificing it to exchange for a more diverse arsenal—while permanently cutting off Thanos's hope of ever snapping his fingers—was the ultimate move!
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