Marvel: The Sole Player

After dealing with Ronan, Darian turned his gaze toward the other end of the cabin.

At this moment, Corvus Glaive was still locked in a fierce struggle with his own shadow, while a continuous stream of Shadow Soldiers rushed forward to surround him.

Under the siege of his own shadow and the Shadow Soldiers, Corvus Glaive was covered in wounds. Even though his self-healing ability was constantly repairing the damage, the persistent severe pain and physical exhaustion were making his aura increasingly erratic and his breathing heavy.

"Bastard!"

Corvus Glaive roared, sweeping his peerless blade to scatter the pouncing Shadow Soldiers, but even more Shadow Soldiers crawled out from the darkness, surrounding him so densely that not a drop of water could leak through.

Among them, many Shadow Soldiers stealthily emerged from the shadow beneath his feet, grabbing his ankles to hold him firmly in place, while others took the opportunity to raise their shadow blades and thrust upward with force.

Pfft!

Today’s weather forecast: affected by cold air, localized snow is expected in the lower regions.

"Aaargh!"

Corvus Glaive suffered a traumatic mental shock. Screaming in agony, he shattered the Shadow Soldiers at his feet and roared in fury, "Damn Earthling! Is this the only underhanded trick you know!?"

Darian had an innocent look on his face.

Those Shadow Soldiers did that on their own; what did it have to do with him?

However, he had never been good with words and didn’t deign to explain; as long as he knew the truth in his heart, it was enough.

He raised his right hand, and a pitch-black spear condensed in his palm. A faint light flickered on the shaft, growing brighter and brighter.

Charging.

This was a new skill Darian had just acquired. Any attack could have its power continuously stacked through charging; the longer it was held, the stronger the power.

The moment the charge reached its limit, the light was so piercing that one could hardly keep their eyes open.

Darian simultaneously activated his Throwing skill and violently swung his arm.

Whoosh!

The black spear tore through the air with a sharp whistle, piercing Corvus Glaive’s chest in the blink of an eye before pinning him firmly to the ground.

Before Corvus Glaive could react, the surrounding shadows suddenly surged, instantly transforming into countless pitch-black blades that stabbed toward him from all directions.

Corvus Glaive had nowhere to hide and lacked Ronan’s large-scale clearing ability. In an instant, he was stabbed into a sieve, his body covered in black blades like a hedgehog.

He gritted his teeth and used the last of his strength to throw the peerless blade away.

In the next second, his corpse turned into a cloud of ash and drifted toward where the peerless blade had flown. The ash quickly condensed in mid-air, reforming into Corvus Glaive as he grabbed the peerless blade and landed steadily on the ground.

He was completely unharmed, even his clothes were restored, as if nothing had ever happened.

"You cannot kill me."

Corvus Glaive glanced at Darian’s position, a contemptuous smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

Never mind having his body pierced by blades; even if his body were ground to dust, he could still resurrect near the peerless blade.

Darian curled his lip. "Another gimmick boss."

He had originally wanted to isolate Corvus Glaive from the peerless blade, but it seemed that method wouldn’t work.

However, gimmick bosses had their own ways of being handled.

Darian raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

The shadows beneath his feet surged instantly, and countless shadow tentacles erupted from the ground, tightly binding Corvus Glaive’s entire body. They fixed him in a spread-eagle position, suspended in mid-air and unable to move.

At that moment, Corvus Glaive’s own shadow leaped out from behind him and violently swung a shadow blade.

Crack!

The arm Corvus Glaive used to hold his weapon was severed cleanly at the shoulder.

Ignoring Corvus Glaive’s screams of agony, the shadow bent down to pick up the peerless blade from the ground. It turned, walked to Darian, knelt on one knee, and raised the peerless blade above its head with both hands.

Darian reached out and took the peerless blade.

As soon as the peerless blade entered his hand, a faint sense of rejection traveled up from his palm, as if the weapon were resisting him, unwilling to be held.

"Oh, quite the personality you have."

Darian pulled out his Adamantium Claws from his storage space and hacked forcefully at the blade of the peerless blade several times.

However, not even a white mark was left on the peerless blade; it remained perfectly intact.

Darian couldn’t help but praise, "High damage and tough enough. It really is a good weapon. A pity it’s already bound."

Seeing his precious weapon fall into Darian’s hands, Corvus Glaive was so anxious that he immediately tried to summon the peerless blade back to his hand.

Darian had anticipated this and gripped the long handle tightly. The peerless blade vibrated frantically in his hand, buzzing loudly, but it could not break free from his restraint.

"You want it?"

Darian grinned, revealing a row of white teeth. "Then go fetch it."

As soon as he finished speaking, he threw the blade directly to Corvus Glaive’s shadow.

The shadow reached out and caught it. Without a word, it sank downward with the blade, merging into the shadows on the ground like someone dropping into water, vanishing without a trace in the blink of an eye.

Ever since Darian activated the shadow card, he had sensed a special space—a World exclusive to shadows and the source of the power to control them.

The Shadow Soldiers also came from that space. Only shadows or Darian, as the controller, could enter and exit freely; no one else could access that special space.

Corvus Glaive’s expression changed drastically. "Where did you take my weapon?"

"Don’t worry, you’ll see it very soon."

Darian gave a grand wave of his hand. Those shadow tentacles wrapped around Corvus Glaive immediately tightened and began to pull forcefully in different directions.

"Aaaaargh!"

Corvus Glaive let out a heart-wrenching scream.

Accompanied by a series of bone-chilling tearing sounds, Corvus Glaive was directly turned into Corvus Glaive Fragments x N.

Before the fragments could even hit the ground, they turned into a cloud of ash and vanished.

Darian sensed carefully and indeed found that Corvus Glaive had appeared in the shadow space along with the peerless blade. He was currently looking around in panic, searching for an exit like a headless fly.

Darian gave an order to all the Shadow Soldiers to fight Corvus Glaive to the death until he issued a new command, then he stopped worrying about Corvus Glaive.

Darian checked the effect of the shadow card and found that quite a bit of time remained.

With a casual gesture from Darian, countless Shadow Soldiers rose from the shadows on the floor, packing the entire cabin. Pairs of crimson eyes flickered with a cold light in the darkness.

"Clear out all of Ronan’s subordinates in this ship. Leave none alive."

Receiving the order, the Shadow Soldiers immediately dove into the shadows beneath their feet and disappeared.

In the next instant, sounds of intense fighting and screams echoed from deep within the cabin, rising and falling one after another.

Watching the red dots on the map rapidly disappear, Darian lamented, "This ability is really useful. It’s a shame it’s not a permanent skill; it’s going to end before I’ve had my fill of fun."

Using this cheat-like ability was truly satisfying. Unfortunately, once the shadow card’s time was up, his control authority over that shadow space would vanish with it.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration hit him. "Wait, if I don’t have authority, can’t I just create a permanent one for myself?"

No sooner said than done.

Darian immediately used his authority, trying to make the shadow space hand over control to him permanently.

It didn’t work.

It was like he was renting a house; although he was the tenant and could use the house as he pleased, trying to change the deed to his own name was simply impossible.

Darian had to lower his requirements, trying to have a reduced range of authority handed to him, but it still didn’t work.

Left with no choice, he continued to shrink the scope of authority, trying again and again.

Time passed minute by minute.

Just as the shadow card’s time was about to expire, a smile finally bloomed on Darian’s face.

"Finally succeeded!"

[Skill: Shadow Sovereign (You possess the ability to manipulate the shadow of any object. It is slightly inferior to the Shadow Sovereign’s original power; the specific operational limit depends on your Spirit attribute.)]

Darian had successfully stolen a tiny bit of authority from the shadow space, thereby gaining a brand-new permanent skill.

Although this skill was nowhere near as exaggerated as the shadow card’s effect, it was something gained for free, and he wasn’t about to turn it down.

More importantly, he had quietly left a backdoor in the shadow space.

When his strength grew in the future, he might even be able to swallow that masterless shadow space whole and claim it entirely for himself.

As the shadow card’s effect vanished, the feeling of being filled with power also receded.

"Arise."

With a casual gesture from Darian, his own shadow rose from the ground. With crimson eyes, it stood calmly before him.

He felt it out for a bit. "It’s indeed not as powerful as when the shadow card was active, nor is it as intelligent."

When using the shadow card, the shadows he controlled were almost equal to the original’s strength; Corvus Glaive’s shadow could even go toe-to-toe with Corvus Glaive himself.

Now, the shadow’s strength had dropped from a Hero unit to a Super Minion, weakened by more than a grade or two.

While Darian was pondering his new skill, the surrounding darkness began to slowly dissipate, and the dense Shadow Soldiers merged back into the shadows one by one, vanishing without a trace.

The little pink outfit on Darian also reverted to its original appearance, and the Magical Girl Wand in his hand turned back into the pharaohs scepter.

Seeing Ronan dead, the members of the Guardians of the Galaxy finally breathed a sigh of relief. Now they wouldn’t have to be hunted by the Necrocorps all day long.

Quill approached, glanced at Ronan’s corpse, and said with a face full of shock, "Fellow Earthling, you actually took down Ronan! What about that subordinate of Thanos? Did you take him down too?"

Darian replied casually, "More or less. Anyway, you probably won’t be seeing him again."

Quill sucked in a breath of cold air.

Ronan was one thing, but Corvus Glaive was a capable general under Thanos, and he had actually been dealt with by Darian as well.

Quill asked in a low voice, "Um, fellow Earthling, can we humans really turn into Terrifying Upright Apes once we’re injured? Why have I never transformed?"

In all his years of risking his life in the Milky Way Galaxy, the number of times he had been injured was countless.

But every time, aside from howling in pain, he never felt his strength increase in the slightest.

Darian glanced at him. "That just means your human bloodline isn’t pure enough."

Quill flatly denied it. "Impossible, my mom had a pure human bloodline, a real Earthling."

"Then what about your dad?"

This question directly stunned Quill.

Ever since he was born, he had never seen his biological father. Every time he asked about it, his mother would be vague and refuse to say anything.

The expression on Quill’s face changed several times before he finally squeezed out a sentence: "Could it be that my biological father isn’t an Earthling?"

"Very likely."

Darian had seen Quill’s information, and the system evaluation mentioned that Quill’s biological father was a Planet, so he most likely wasn’t human.

In that case, Quill could be considered to have a half-human bloodline.

Weren’t half-humans usually overpowered? So why was Quill so weak?

Darian couldn’t figure it out and could only conclude that Quill’s ’silly’ factor was too strong, even overriding his other genes.

At this time, Gamora had also beaten Nebula to the ground, securing victory once again.

It proved that in front of an older sister, a younger sister will always be a younger sister.

Gamora straightened her appearance and reminded Darian, "Corvus Glaive is a capable general under Thanos. Now that you’ve dealt with him, Thanos definitely won’t let this go."

Darian said with an air of righteousness, "What’s there to fear? I’m helping Thanos clean out a traitor. Since I’ve performed such a great service, maybe he’ll even reward me. Giving me the resources of a few dozen Planets wouldn’t be too much, right?"

Gamora: "..."

She felt that Darian was purely dreaming.

Rocket also leaned over, looking amazed. "Darian, was that ability you used just now also so-called magic?"

"Correct."

Darian nodded, maintaining his mage persona to the end.

Rocket said in surprise, "Do all you mages turn pink when you transform?"

Although the light in the cabin hadn’t been great earlier, many people had still seen Darian’s Little Pink Man look.

Darian remained unfazed. "That’s right. In our Earth customs, pink is the color of the powerful. As the saying goes, the pinker you wear, the harder you hit. The more powerful the expert, the more pink they wear."

"I see," Rocket said, suddenly enlightened.

At this moment, Quill had just recovered from his self-doubt. Hearing these words, he almost burst out laughing.

"Fellow Earthling, I remember that on Earth, pink is usually for gir— right, pink on Earth represents strength. The Earth experts I saw when I was a kid all wore pink."

Halfway through his sentence, Quill saw the look Darian shot him. He immediately shuddered and quickly changed his tune.

He suddenly remembered that Darian had a magic spell that could make ’Little Quill’ go silent; offending the other party didn’t seem like a good idea.

Darian was amused and patted Quill on the shoulder.

"Yes, Quill. Although your strength is weak and you serve as a perfect anchor to lower the entire combat level of the Guardians of the Galaxy, you are still the vice-commander of our Raiders. You can’t embarrass us."

Quill’s heart skipped a beat, having an ominous premonition.

Sure enough, Darian continued, "From today on, you will wear a pink suit. Pink from head to toe. Your guns must also be dyed pink. It would be best if even the bullets were painted pink. And that ship of yours—find a paint shop later and spray the whole thing bright pink. The brighter, the better. That’s the only way to intimidate the enemy."

Quill: "...."

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