Marvel: The Sole Player

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In the command hall of the dark aster.

Nebula reported the battle situation with an impassive face: "Those Dark Elves used some kind of special means to enhance their soldiers, dragging down our main force, while the remaining Dark Elves took advantage of the chaos to break through and run away."

Under the absolute numerical superiority of the Necrocorps pressing in, the Dark Elves had almost no power to resist; their race was already small in number, and now they had lost more than half, making their situation even worse.

However, the Dark Elves were not without a trump card; they used the Aether shards unique to their race to forcibly evolve an ordinary soldier into a Cursed Warrior.

That was a special method of exchanging life for terrifying combat power.

Once transformed into a Cursed Warrior, all the attributes of the Dark Elf would skyrocket, not inferior to the gods of Asgard, and by relying on its own strength, it managed to hold off the offensive of the Necrocorps.

Malekith and his party, relying on the gap created by the Cursed Warrior’s desperate cover, immediately replicated the operation from five thousand years ago—betraying teammates and running away in one go, as if they had rehearsed it.

By the time the Necrocorps wanted to chase after them, they couldn’t even see the tail lights of their ships.

"A bunch of remnants from the old era; let them go if they’ve escaped."

Ronan gripped his Kree Empire warhammer tightly, sneered coldly, and didn’t take these Dark Elves seriously at all.

If it weren’t for Malekith’s sharp tongue, he wouldn’t even bother with these old antiques playing at a renaissance.

He changed the subject, his voice becoming icy: "Is there any news about those bugs?"

Nebula shook her head: "No, their shielding technology is very advanced; none of our search methods can find their tracks."

Ronan’s hand gripping the warhammer tightened a little more: "Who are those Raiders that rescued them?"

"According to the clues we collected, the ravager ships that attacked our troops this time are all from the long-missing Raiders, and it is highly likely that they are the same batch that attacked Korath’s squad on Planet Morag; it should be that so-called Loot-Looters."

"Them again! Ruining my good deeds time and time again!"

Ronan gritted his teeth and slammed the hammer handle hard against the floor, a loud bang echoing throughout the hall.

He shouted angrily: "Pass the order down! Even if you have to turn the entire Universe upside down, you must find these guys for me! And the Cosmic Orb, you must find it for me!"

Ronan had his own plan.

He had long ago figured out the secret of the Cosmic Orb and knew how terrifying the Power Stone hidden inside was.

On the surface, he was searching for the Cosmic Orb for Thanos, but in his heart, he had long been calculating his own interests; he wanted to use the power of the Power Stone to directly destroy the Xandar Planet of the Nova Empire.

After he succeeded, the next one to be dealt with would be that purple potato who had always treated him like a pawn and looked down on him.

He hadn’t told anyone about this secret.

Even to Nebula, who was half-hearted toward Thanos and had taken the initiative to help him, he hadn’t let anything slip.

Ronan’s eyes were gloomy: "When I get the Cosmic Orb, I won’t let any of those damn guys off!"

Including the square-jawed woman who had chased him away from Earth!

Just as Ronan was fantasizing in his mind about the cool plot of him beating up the square-jawed woman, a subordinate in front of the console suddenly spoke in a panic.

"It’s bad, My Lord The Accuser! The outpost reconnaissance ship has sent back an emergency warning; we have detected that the main warship formation of the Nova Corps is approaching at high speed, and there is a very high probability that they are coming for us!"

Ronan was stunned on the spot, and then his face sank even further: "What are they here for?"

Although he had always been at odds with the Nova Empire, for so many years, as long as he didn’t take the initiative to cross the line and touch the core interests of the Nova Empire, those guys who only guarded Xandar had always turned a blind eye.

They had never been like this before, coming to his door with their main fleet with great fanfare.

The subordinate quickly said: "They sent a warning communication, saying that they already know about your plan to use the Power Stone to destroy Xandar, and that they know the Cosmic Orb containing the Power Stone is in your hands, demanding that you hand over the Cosmic Orb immediately, otherwise they will take all necessary measures to protect Xandar and the Nova Empire."

Ronan: "???"

When did the Cosmic Orb end up in my hands?

Also, he had never told anyone about his plan to destroy Xandar; how did these people from the Nova Empire know about his plan?

After listening to the subordinate’s report, Ronan was full of question marks.

Nebula looked at him strangely: "Ronan, have you already obtained the Cosmic Orb? And you want to destroy Xandar?"

Ronan immediately denied: "Nonsense! Can you not know whether I have obtained the Cosmic Orb or not?"

Nebula raised an eyebrow.

So you’re not denying that you want to destroy Xandar, right?

Ronan said coldly to his subordinate: "Tell them! I don’t have any Cosmic Orb here at all, tell them to get lost!"

The subordinate immediately followed orders, but after two seconds, he said with a bitter face: "My Lord, they say they already have definitive evidence."

"What evidence?"

"Multiple human witnesses, from the Guardians of the Galaxy who had the Cosmic Orb stolen by you, The Collector Tivan, and also... the Dark Elves led by Malekith."

Ronan: "???"

No, the first two are fine, but how are the Dark Elves involved in this?

Just a short while ago.

Relying on the Cursed Warrior to sacrifice his life to cover the retreat, Malekith took the remaining subordinates and fled in a panic, finally escaping from Vanaheim.

They had escaped, but the cost was huge.

They not only consumed an Aether shard but also lost nearly half of the Dark Elves.

"Damn Ronan! Damn Necrocorps!" Malekith was so angry that he almost bit his teeth to pieces.

Back then, Asgard was at least the big brother of the Nine Realms; it wasn’t shameful to lose to them.

But now, even a small, pathetic force like the Necrocorps could actually beat them into fleeing; it was simply a great humiliation, truly a tiger trapped in the plains being bullied by dogs.

"And those damn Raiders, actually leading the disaster to our heads!" Malekith got angrier the more he thought about it.

He wasn’t stupid; seeing Ronan’s attitude, how could he not understand that he had been set up by Darian.

He thought people five thousand years later were such good people, but it turned out they were more sinister than the last; compared to these people, they, the Dark Elves, were simply pure and honest people.

Fortunately, their warship technology wasn’t completely out of touch, not still stuck at the 2G network of five thousand years ago, barely reaching the 4G level, and could still connect to the current universal 5G public network.

Only after checking did he find out that those ships before weren’t any space caravan; they were clearly Raiders, notorious space pirates in the Universe.

The deputy Algorigim stepped forward and asked in a low voice: "My King, what should we do next?"

Malekith was instantly worried and distressed.

He thought this was a perfect start, with someone delivering resources to his door as soon as he woke up, but he didn’t expect that the great cause would collapse before it had even begun; his grand plan hadn’t even started, and his own combat power had already been cut in half.

With the few people they had now, they couldn’t even beat the Necrocorps, let alone Asgard.

They just checked, and Asgard was still the big brother of the Nine Realms, with the King being Odin, the son of Bor.

The other party had two sons, neither of whom were good people; the eldest son was called Thor, who played with a hammer, but he wasn’t the focus; the focus was that second son, Loki.

It is rumored that he used the Bifrost Bridge to shatter most of Jotunheim; such a ruthless person is the one the Dark Elves should be most wary of.

With these two generals guarding Asgard, their plan would be even more difficult.

Now they had no soldiers, no money, and could be described as penniless.

Malekith suddenly remembered those Raiders who had pitted him, and his eyes turned fierce: "Since there are no resources, then we will rob! The Universe is so big, there are plenty of forces, we don’t have to worry about not finding resources!"

Others hoard grain, I hoard guns; others are my granary!

With the technical foundation of their Dark Elves, as long as they didn’t run into hard targets of the level of Asgard or the Necrocorps, wouldn’t it be easy to clean up other forces?

Algorigim nodded heavily immediately: "This subordinate swears loyalty to my King!"

With a new goal, the stifled feeling in Malekith’s heart finally dissipated a lot, and he immediately ordered to send distress signals to nearby star regions, lying about ship failure to request support, coming for a wave of fishing law enforcement.

Not long after, a subordinate reported: "My King, we have contacted a signal source! The other party is willing to come and support us, and the name sounds like a big fish, called... the Nova Corps!"

Nova Corps?

It sounded much easier to bully than the Necrocorps.

Malekith’s eyes lit up, and he said excitedly: "Good! That’s great! Bring the ship over to me, prepare to start working!"

Ten minutes later.

A crowd of Dark Elves was surrounded by soldiers of the Nova Corps, one by one holding their hands on their heads and squatting on the ground.

Malekith was crying without tears.

What a huge disaster!

The first robbery in his life, and he actually robbed the head of the space Police!

Even worse, the other party happened to be out in full force to execute a mission, and the cannons of dozens of main warships were locked onto their ship at the same time.

In this situation, let alone running away, they didn’t even dare to move, and could only obediently listen to the instructions to stop the ship, turn off the engine, check ID...

Malekith scanned the remaining Dark Elves, preparing to pick someone to stuff an Aether shard into to turn into a Cursed Warrior, and then make another run for it.

Just as his gaze fell on Algorigim, a high-ranking Officer wearing the uniform of the Nova Corps walked out.

"Did you come from Vanaheim?"

"Yes."

With people under the eaves, one has to bow their head; Malekith could only answer honestly.

The Officer asked again: "Then did you encounter Ronan’s Necrocorps?"

Malekith was stunned, then immediately nodded: "We did! Officer, they are simply not human! We were originally sleeping well at home, but they suddenly broke into our home and started a massacre; many of our clansmen died at their hands, and we only escaped by risking our lives!"

He originally just wanted to sell misery to gain sympathy and get the other party to let them go, but the more he talked, the more he felt aggrieved, and his voice even became choked up at the end.

They were just sleeping at home; who did they provoke?

How did they end up in this situation?

The Officer was expressionless and continued to ask: "Then did you see him get the Cosmic Orb from a group of people?"

As he spoke, a virtual light screen popped up in front of him, with a high-definition picture of the Cosmic Orb on it.

Malekith was sleeping soundly at that time; how would he know anything about the Cosmic Orb.

But he immediately reacted: the Nova Corps was coming for Ronan, and it was likely they were going to arrest him for his crimes.

Thinking of how Ronan had harmed him so miserably, Malekith certainly wouldn’t let go of this opportunity to beat a drowning dog.

He nodded firmly: "I saw it, there really was this matter!"

"Are you sure?"

"I am sure! I swear by the reputation of the entire Dark Elf race, there is not a single word of falsehood!"

Malekith’s tone was as firm as it could be.

As for the reputation of their Dark Elves?

It had shattered into less than cosmic dust five thousand years ago when they betrayed their teammates and ran away; who would care about this thing.

"It seems the news is indeed accurate."

Seeing Malekith’s reaction, the Officer’s expression became serious.

He turned to order the soldiers beside him: "Pass my order, the entire ship combat formation will immediately accelerate, target Ronan, advance at full speed, and implement the arrest!"

Planet Kang-Rier.

This is a lawless place in the Universe, a place with mixed fish and dragons.

Walking on the street, most of the people are big names on wanted lists, including many heavily rewarded supernovas, all famous space pirates.

Inside a bar, Quill said excitedly to Darian: "Fellow countryman, the latest news, the Nova Corps and the Necrocorps have really started fighting; the action was faster than we estimated!"

"Normal, the people of the Nova Empire know that Ronan has the Cosmic Orb in his hands; they probably can’t even sleep peacefully at night, how could they endure it."

Darian was not surprised.

Although they hadn’t given the Nova Corps any hard evidence from beginning to end, for this kind of thing concerning the life and death of the entire Planet, what kind of ironclad evidence is needed?

As long as there is a seed of doubt, it is enough.

The Nova Empire couldn’t afford to gamble; they didn’t dare to gamble on whether Ronan really had the Power Stone in his hand, and they dared not gamble on whether this madman would really dare to use the Stone to level Xandar.

As long as there was even half a possibility, they had to strike first.

Darian said happily: "However, those Dark Elves are also talented, actually robbing the Nova Empire; they just happened to do us a big favor."

Quill rubbed his hands, eager to try: "Then when shall we make a move?"

"With the Nova Empire in front helping us charge into the battle, let them grind down Ronan’s main force first."

Ronan’s Necrocorps was not just for show; Darian didn’t want to waste his own manpower and resources to hard-clash and consume the Necrocorps.

The best way now is to sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight, waiting to reap the benefits of the fisherman.

"Makes sense!"

Quill agreed very much; he considered himself to eat with his brain, liked to stay in the back, and it was better to leave things like charging into battle to others.

Afterwards, they left the bar, intending to recall the Guardians of the Galaxy members who were having fun elsewhere, as well as the Raiders led by Yondu.

Darian did not restrict the actions of those Raiders, just stuffed ten pounds of technology on them, indicating that they would turn into fireworks as soon as they ran away, and they were all honest.

But when they walked out of the bar, they saw Yondu arguing with a group of people.

The leader opposite was a tough guy, with a very resolute face.

Seeing that Yondu seemed to be very familiar with the other party, Darian couldn’t help but ask: "Who is he?"

Quill curled his lips: "Stakar Ogord, the current leader of the Raiders, Yondu’s old big brother; because Yondu trafficked children back then, he kicked Yondu out of the Raiders."

In his view, the Raiders seem to have principles, but in reality, they are all a group of thieves who commit all kinds of evil.

Saying they do everything, except trafficking children.

Actually, it’s just doing everything, except trafficking children.

"Raiders?"

Hearing this, Darian’s eyes suddenly lit up.

At this time, Stakar was arguing with Yondu about the issue of trafficking children.

He believed that Yondu had violated their Raiders’ creed, expressed disdain for Yondu, and then left with the other Raiders.

However, when they arrived at the edge, they found that the ship parked on the ground had disappeared.

Stakar: "???"

They, the dignified Raiders, were actually stolen from by someone?