Marvel: The Sole Player

Darian raised an eyebrow and glanced at the war blade in Corvus Glaive’s hand.

[Equipment: peerless blade (Bound to Corvus Glaive)]

[Description: A war blade housing Corvus Glaive’s soul. Even if Corvus Glaive’s physical body is completely destroyed, as long as the peerless blade remains, Corvus Glaive can be resurrected through the soul residing within. Furthermore, this war blade is incredibly sharp and indestructible, capable of breaking through almost any defense.]

This was Corvus Glaive’s trump card: immortality.

As long as the peerless blade was not destroyed, he was an unkillable existence. Any damage he sustained would be instantly healed, and even negative status effects would be wiped clean.

To put it bluntly, the peerless blade was his true self; Corvus Glaive was merely a humanoid mount.

Corvus Glaive tightened his grip on the peerless blade and stared at Darian, a mocking sneer curling on his lips.

"Your attacks are useless against me. I suggest you give up your struggle; that way, it might at least be quick."

Relying on the peerless blade, he had killed countless powerful enemies throughout the Universe. Even after dying several times, he could always be resurrected by the war blade. This was one of the reasons he dared to act arrogantly under Thanos and held a steady position in The Black Order.

Darian snorted coldly. "Corvus Glaive, if you take your own life now, you can still maintain some dignity. If the news of your betrayal of My Lord Thanos comes to light, when My Lord Thanos brings down his judgment, your fate will be far worse than death."

Still acting, are we?

Corvus Glaive’s lip twitched.

Darian’s serious expression almost made him dazed for a moment, wondering if he really had become a traitor to The Black Order and betrayed Thanos’s trust.

He had to deal with this kid quickly. Otherwise, if he let him keep spouting such nonsense and even half a word reached Thanos’s ears, it would be a significant problem, even though Thanos had always trusted him.

Corvus Glaive stopped wasting words on Darian. He gripped the peerless blade, kicked off the ground, and transformed into a black shadow, rushing toward Darian again at a speed several degrees faster than before.

Darian flicked his hands repeatedly, and several afterimages flew out at extreme speed, crashing toward Corvus Glaive.

Corvus Glaive neither dodged nor evaded. He brandished the peerless blade rapidly in front of him, carving out several sharp arcs of light that sliced through everything flying toward him.

Looking closely, he realized those things were all sandbags.

Countless yellow sands gushed out from the ruptured bags, turning into a wave of sand that surged toward him, swallowing him whole in the blink of an eye.

"Trivial tricks."

Corvus Glaive snorted coldly and swung the peerless blade violently. A powerful ring of Impact exploded from the blade, scattering all the surrounding yellow sand and sending grains flying everywhere.

He burst through the gap in the sand wave without a single grain of sand touching his body.

The moment he broke through the sand curtain, he had already locked onto Darian’s position. He turned the tip of his blade and aimed straight for Darian’s throat. His speed was at its peak, even cutting a visible ripple into the air and producing a sharp whistling sound.

Darian’s pupils constricted, and he barely managed to dodge by tilting his body.

The blade grazed his neck, drawing a string of blood droplets. The energy shield from his Protection Spell didn’t even last a millisecond before a gash was sliced right through it.

"What a sharp blade."

Darian had no doubt that this peerless blade could easily pierce through his equipment; it might even be sharper than Vibranium.

In the face of this blade, almost all defenses were effectively non-existent.

Corvus Glaive pressed his advantage, giving Darian no room to breathe. His figure flickered as a sky full of blade shadows rained down. The flashes of light crisscrossed, sealing off all of Darian’s paths of retreat and forcing him to meet the attacks head-on without any room to evade.

Clang! Clang! Clang! The dense sounds of weapons clashing rang out repeatedly as sparks flew. A powerful wind pressure instantly rose around the two of them, and fine cracks were carved into the ground by the airwaves.

In terms of pure strength, Corvus Glaive was likely not Darian’s match.

But in terms of speed, Corvus Glaive held an absolute advantage, being more than a level faster than Darian.

Furthermore, Corvus Glaive was a veteran of a hundred battles who had killed countless strong foes in the Universe. His combat experience was exceptionally rich, and he had long ago developed his own unique fighting style.

Relying on his immortality, Corvus Glaive didn’t need to bother with defense at all. His fighting style was extremely aggressive; he abandoned all defensive moves throughout the process, focusing entirely on a frantic assault against Darian, with every strike being a life-risking gamble.

He wasn’t afraid of death anyway. Even if he were heavily wounded by Darian, as long as the peerless blade remained, he could be instantly resurrected.

Conversely, if Darian were hit just once by the peerless blade—even if it were just a graze—that extreme sharpness could easily pierce through Darian’s defenses.

Corvus Glaive’s ultra-high agility combined with the peerless blade’s unstoppable attack power made him a lethal, unsolvable killing machine.

He was fast, his blade was sharp, and he couldn’t be killed. Anyone would find this a headache.

Fortunately, the material of the pharaohs scepter in Darian’s hand was special and hard enough to withstand the attacks of the peerless blade.

As for the gap in speed, Darian could barely keep up with Corvus Glaive’s rhythm by relying on the slow-motion effect of Dead Eye.

The rhythm of the battle was being pushed faster and faster by Corvus Glaive, so fast that ordinary people could only see blurred afterimages of the two combatants. They couldn’t make out the specific movements at all and could only hear the dense clashing of weapons and the sound of breaking air echoing back and forth in the cabin.

Just as the battle reached a fever pitch and Darian was fully focused on parrying Corvus Glaive’s dense blade shadows, he suddenly felt his body grow heavy, and his movements slowed by half a beat.

He glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw Ronan pointing the universal weapon at him. It was clearly the other party’s doing.

"Unnecessary."

Corvus Glaive also noticed Ronan’s little trick. His brow furrowed, and his tone carried obvious dissatisfaction.

In his view, he would have taken down Darian sooner or later and didn’t need help from anyone else.

Ronan’s behavior was not only meddling but also made this battle feel improper.

He was one of the dignified Black Order; having to rely on someone else’s sneak attack in battle would damage his image—though he didn’t have much of a good image in the galaxy anyway.

Despite his dissatisfaction, Corvus Glaive wasn’t going to waste this opportunity that had been handed to him.

His figure accelerated again, and the sky full of blade shadows almost merged into a single sheet, pouring down on Darian like a rainstorm. Each strike was faster and more ruthless than the last, giving Darian absolutely no chance to adjust.

Ronan wanted to continue his sneak attacks on Darian to retaliate for the damage Darian had caused him, but he was suddenly blown away by a shot from Rocket.

The members of the Guardians of the Galaxy had already finished off the surrounding Necro-soldiers and immediately rushed over to help Darian block Ronan. Some fired cannons, some engaged in close combat, and some even started a dance-off—anything to stall Ronan.

Surrounded by several eccentric characters, Ronan was momentarily overwhelmed and couldn’t spare a hand to interfere with Darian again.

Nonetheless, Darian was inevitably affected.

He was already at a slight disadvantage because his speed was inferior to Corvus Glaive’s. Now, with Ronan’s secret interference, his movements had slowed down, and he clearly couldn’t keep up with Corvus Glaive’s combat rhythm anymore. One slow step led to more.

Within a few short seconds, more than a dozen gashes of varying depths appeared on Darian’s body. Blood flowed out, and his health bar dropped significantly.

Seeing this, Corvus Glaive mocked, "Earthling, are you starting to fail? I thought you could hold out a bit longer. It seems I overestimated you. If you kneel and surrender now, I might still spare your life."

To his surprise, upon hearing this, Darian didn’t beg for mercy but instead laughed.

"You’re finished, Alien. You made me bleed."

Corvus Glaive frowned. "What do you mean?"

Darian’s lips curled into a strange arc. "You might not understand humans very well. We humans on Earth have a title that strikes fear into hearts: the Terrifying Upright Ape."

"Terrifying Upright Ape?"

Corvus Glaive’s frown deepened.

He recalled the intelligence he had read about Earth and didn’t seem to remember hearing this title.

"That’s right. We have a special pursuit in combat, which is a flawless victory."

Darian nodded. "Therefore, in battle, we try our best to avoid taking any damage. No matter how weak the opponent is, even if it’s just a mouse, we might fear the fight and thus seal away our true power."

As he spoke, his tone suddenly shifted. "However, once we are attacked and wounded, the result becomes entirely different."

"..."

"As soon as blood is drawn, we completely break the seal and revert to that existence that strikes fear into the entire Earth’s biosphere. We no longer pursue a flawless victory, we are no longer cautious, and all sealed power is fully released."

"Unfortunately for you, my flawless victory was ruined by you just now."

Corvus Glaive was dismissive of this, thinking Darian was just putting up a front before death.

"Is that so? I’d like to see just how powerful your so-called Terrifying Upright Ape really is."

"As you wish."

Ignoring his wounds, Darian kicked Corvus Glaive away. Simultaneously, a long, rectangular card appeared out of thin air in his hand.

The entire card was a pink color full of ’Magical Girl’ vibes, printed with a pattern of a black figure in a robe, and the Chinese character for ’Shadow’ was marked at the very top.

[Item: shadow card (One of the Clow Cards. Controls one’s own or others’ shadows. Disappears after use. Lasts for a period of time. During use, you become a Magical Girl.)]

Darian tossed the shadow card above his head. The card spun as it flew up and then slowly began to fall.

Just as it fell in front of him, he raised the pharaohs scepter and smashed it down hard against the card, the tip of the scepter accurately striking the center of the card.

In the next moment, the shadow card exploded, turning into countless black points of light that swarmed toward Darian and drilled into his body.

Darian could clearly feel a brand new, powerful force surging into his body.

At the same time, the pharaohs scepter in his hand began to change.

The silver body of the staff gradually turned pink. Originally, the top of the pharaohs scepter was an Ancient Egyptian-style hawk head—solemn, majestic, and looking very high-class.

Now, it was quite different.

The hawk’s beak became sharper and curved into an arc, looking like a bird’s beak. On the left and right sides of the bird’s beak, two red gems had appeared out of nowhere; they were round and sparkling, just like eyeballs.

And behind the bird’s head, two pure white wings actually sprouted with a flutter and flapped twice.

A perfectly good Ancient Egyptian-style pharaohs scepter had suddenly turned into a magical wand overflowing with a young girl’s heart.

But that wasn’t all.

Darian’s equipment also changed accordingly. From head to toe, his gear turned into pink styles, making him look like a little pink man.

Darian: "..."

"..."

Dammit, I gambled wrong. It really freaking turned me into a Magical Girl.

Fortunately, his long pants hadn’t turned into a pink skirt; at most, he could be considered a magical boy. Otherwise, Darian would have had no choice but to use his trump card item to silence everyone here.

But pink or not, he was truly powerful now.

At this moment, Darian could clearly feel the shadows under his feet, the shadows under others’ feet, the shadows of various objects, and even the deeper darkness.

All the shadows were calling out to him as if he were the master of all shadows.

With just a wave of Darian’s hand, the shadows of the Necro-soldiers’ corpses suddenly surged, emerging one by one from the ground.

These Shadow Soldiers were dressed just like the Necro-soldiers, with the only difference being their glowing red eyes.

In an instant, nearly a hundred Shadow Soldiers stood around, their pairs of red eyes flickering in the darkness, a sight that made one’s skin crawl.

"The ability to control shadows?"

Corvus Glaive frowned, not expecting this Earthling to have such a trick up his sleeve.

As for the changes in Darian’s appearance, he didn’t care much.

Pink didn’t have any special meaning in the Universe. Just as Easterners might dislike green hats while they are fashionable in the West, to them, it was just a color.

"Kill him."

Darian raised the magically styled... no, the pharaohs scepter in his hand and pointed it at Corvus Glaive.

Receiving the command, those Shadow Soldiers immediately rushed forward, black blades manifesting in their hands as they pounced toward Corvus Glaive.

Nearly a hundred shadows swarming at once was indeed a grand spectacle; the entire cabin was filled with the oppressive black shadows.

"You think you can stop me with these small fry?"

Corvus Glaive kicked off the ground, and the peerless blade spun in his hand. With a flash of blade light, the first few Shadow Soldiers in front were all sliced in half at the waist, collapsing into pools of shadow on the ground.

He didn’t stop. The peerless blade moved rapidly, his actions so fast that only a golden arc of light could be seen as he wove through the crowd of Shadow Soldiers. Before they could even get within three feet of him, they were sliced in two by the sharpness of the peerless blade.

In less than twenty seconds, more than half of the Shadow Army had been eliminated.

"Too weak."

Corvus Glaive’s tone was full of disdain.

He thought Darian was hiding some powerful trump card, but it turned out to be just this?

He looked at Darian contemptuously. "Is this your so-called Terrifying Upright Ape? It doesn’t seem like much..."

Halfway through his sentence, he suddenly stopped.

The Shadow Soldiers he had sliced apart crawled back up from the ground, their bodies restoring to their original forms.

In just a few seconds, those Shadow Soldiers he had just cleared out were once again standing neatly in front of him.

Puchi!

Corvus Glaive’s chest was suddenly pierced by a long black blade, lifting him directly into the air.

He turned his head with difficulty to see a shadow soldier holding a war blade, looking exactly like him.

He had been backstabbed by himself!

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