After leveling the city, the Supreme Intelligence didn't relax for a moment. It immediately issued a Level One alert, mobilizing troops and dispatching commands across the globe.
Squadron after squadron of the Kree's most advanced fighter jets, each a symbol of their technological might, took to the skies.
Most continued converging on the intruder's last known location, while the remainder were dispatched to patrol the core cities.
That entity from earlier was too strange, too unpredictable. The Supreme Intelligence wasn't certain that one strike had been enough to kill it.
"Looking for me?" A human face formed from a billowing mass of black mist appeared before the Supreme Intelligence, grinning coldly at it.
"Destroy it!" The colossal, head-shaped construct housing the Supreme Intelligence gave the order without hesitation. It didn't understand how this monstrous being had breached its secure core, but the response was immediate.
Hundreds of cutting-edge energy weapons locked onto the shadowy visage and unleashed a torrent of firepower.
Beams of searing light and volatile energy pulses tore through the air, but none of it had the slightest effect on the face formed of smoke and void.
"Hahahaha." Lucius laughed heartily. Did they really think this level of technology could harm him? "You might as well try to shoot mathematics to death."
"If you'd managed to create a Cosmic Cube, maybe you'd stand a chance against me," he said mockingly to the Supreme Intelligence's giant cerebral avatar.
Lucius knew full well: the Kree's original reason for creating their supercomputer had been to uncover the secrets of the Cosmic Cube, and eventually replicate one for themselves.
Though the project to create their own Cube had failed, they never shut down the AI. It evolved, incrementally, into what was now the Supreme Intelligence.
But without the Cube's power, neither the Supreme Intelligence nor the Kree Empire's vast military might posed a threat to Lucius.
Even as he spoke, Lucius had already infiltrated the Supreme Intelligence's mind via metaphysical mental corruption.
Even a million-year-old hypermind like the Supreme Intelligence had never encountered something like Lucius before, there was no effective defense.
Though the wily supercomputer had made countless backups of itself, scattered across secret facilities, even those weren't safe. The corruption spread through the persistent mental link connecting them all.
As long as the link existed, the Old One Virus could trace it.
So that's how it is…
Lucius sifted quickly through the memories he had just seized.
One week ago, the Kree had captured a seven-member team. They had arrived on Hala searching for something, but during an encounter with the Accuser Corps, they slipped up and were apprehended.
Using advanced mind-scanning tech, the Supreme Intelligence had learned of their origins, outsiders from another universe. It also learned about the Marvel Universe and its history.
The hyper-rational AI didn't concern itself with existential questions about being a comic book character. Instead, it focused entirely on one thing: the Infinity Stones.
It immediately began strategizing around the "plot," determined to gather the Stones and wield that cosmos-defining power before Thanos could.
No wonder the Celestial Council described this timeline as a "reality warped beyond recognition by foreign interlopers."
If the Kree homeworld had already been so drastically altered, what chaos must be unfolding on Earth, ground zero for so many major players?
The narrative there might already be completely shattered…
At that moment, the liquid in the Supreme Intelligence's massive incubation tank began to boil. Kree scientists scrambled to inject stabilizing nutrients and coolants.
Inside, a battle of minds was raging. The original will of the Supreme Intelligence was struggling to resist Lucius' invasion. The psychic clash generated intense energy.
But even with its million-year legacy, the Supreme Intelligence was no match for Lucius, an entity that had transcended both the finite and the infinite.
One by one, every subsystem and mental node succumbed to the Old One Virus. The Supreme Intelligence was now his puppet.
So this was the Living Tribunal's reason for sending me to Hala.
Thanos was gathering the six Infinity Stones, planning to annihilate half, or even all, of life in the universe. Stopping him and his Black Order would require military strength and coordination.
Lucius sighed slightly.
If I'd arrived earlier, before Thanos acquired any Stones, I wouldn't need armies or schemes. I could've crushed that purple maniac head-on.
But it was too late. Thanos had already obtained the Space Stone and the Power Stone, giving him partial control over the universe's highest tier of power, Ruleforce. That alone gave him some resistance to the Old One Virus.
Lucius rubbed his temples. The Infinity Stones were, to put it mildly, a nightmare.
According to this universe's laws, before creation there was only the primal Source: eternal and boundless.
This Source was everything, and everything was the Source, limitless and eternal.
Eventually, it fragmented itself into six distinct energies, and from those, the cosmos was formed.
That meant everything in the universe, from the largest galaxy to the smallest atom, was made from some combination and proportion of these six energies.
After the act of creation, much of this energy was spent. What remained condensed into six unique cores, each representing a facet of the original Source:
The Tesseract, representing Space, allows instantaneous movement anywhere in the universe, governed by mere thought, though its higher uses are even more profound.
The Eye of Agamotto, representing Time, enables traversal to any point in the past or future, and can rewrite history itself, as Doctor Strange once did when bargaining with Dormammu.
The Mind Stone, once embedded in Loki's scepter and now in Vision's forehead, grants access to all thoughts and intentions of living beings. It can implant thoughts or even awaken consciousness in inanimate matter.
The Aether, or Reality Stone, disregards physical laws entirely. It transforms thought into reality, the nature of which depends solely on the user's imagination.
The Soul Stone, the most enigmatic of them all, distorts the very nature of life. It can turn a pure-hearted nun into a depraved harlot, or a peaceful race into bloodthirsty berserkers. It enslaves souls, even after death, they remain bound to its wielder.
The Orb, or Power Stone, fuels the other Stones and grants overwhelming strength, enough to shatter a planet with a single blow. Without it, the other Stones cannot reach their full potential.
Because they are condensed fragments of the primal Source, these six Stones represent the highest form of Ruleforce in this universe. Even the Old One Virus is restrained and influenced by their presence.
Having taken full control of the Supreme Intelligence, Lucius issued a new command:
"Release the ones captured a week ago."
According to the Kree mind scans, two of the seven were already dead. The remaining five had barely clung to life, but they were alive. For now.
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