"Your Highness Lothar, I still don't understand why you would entrust the scepter embedded with the Mind Stone to Loki."
After leaving the dungeon, The Other, diligently trailing behind Lothar, finally voiced the doubt in his heart. In his opinion, Loki was completely unworthy of wielding the Mind Scepter. Furthermore, what if Loki, during his journey to Midgard, discovered the true power of the Mind Stone and, with a hardened heart, seized it for himself?
The Other had felt the terrifying energy Lothar unleashed in the main hall of the base earlier, but even so, the Mind Stone's status as one of the six Infinity Stones remained supreme in his mind. In terms of power alone. While Lothar was indeed powerful, The Other couldn't fathom this act of introducing a volatile factor.
Asking questions when uncertain had always been The Other's virtue. It was just a backward Midgard, after all; he could have taken the Mind Scepter there himself.
"It's not necessary."
"Whether he has ulterior motives or not, it doesn't matter."
"His role is singular."
Loki was the tempting bait.
For him, a dignified second prince of Asgard, to arrive on Midgard with the Mind Stone was, in Lothar's view, a dimensional strike.
Lothar didn't believe that when Midgard faced such a strike, the Sorcerer Supreme's successor, as mentioned by his adoptive father Thanos, wouldn't intervene. And once they did, it would be Lothar's turn to step in like a cunning hunter.
Lothar's personal calculations were clicking perfectly. Thanos had initially mentioned The Other, but to Lothar, with the better option of Loki, there was no need to choose his somewhat naive subordinate.
"I see."
"Your Highness's plan is indeed flawless!"
The Other's eyes gleamed with excitement, compliments spilling out instinctively, his subservient nature, hidden for over a thousand years, once again overflowing.
"Plan?"
"What plan?"
Rounding the corner out of the dungeon, Lothar encountered Proxima Midnight, who was bringing her apprentice Gamora to collect someone from the dungeon. A thousand years had left no mark of time on this woman's face or physique. She was still exactly as she had been.
"None of your business." Lothar's response was just as it had been all those years ago.
"Lothar, we haven't seen each other in over a thousand years, and this is how you treat me?" Proxima Midnight wasn't annoyed, merely raising a hand with amused interest to block Lothar's path.
Among the Black Order, if one were to truly speak of feelings for Lothar, only Proxima Midnight could perhaps lay some claim.
Cull Obsidian, that simpleton, only knew how to wield an axe and follow Ebony Maw around, hacking at people.
As for Corvus Glaive, his relationship with Lothar was poor, at one point so tense they were nearly at each other's throats. The reason, naturally, was Proxima Midnight, who would frequently tease Lothar after his missions, making the young couple's occasional marital life quite disharmonious.
As for the most insidious Ebony Maw...
In the battle at the Penal Zone that day, Lothar nearly accidentally buried that old dog alive. If not for the presence of Thanos controlling the overall situation, it would be a question whether Ebony Maw would have lived this long.
"I won't say it a third time. This is my business, not yours, understood?" Lothar's sharp gaze didn't faze Proxima Midnight, but it did make Gamora, who could already be considered battle-hardened, recoil slightly. Pure instinct, the instinct of fear.
"Your sister, my trainee." Proxima Midnight, instead of shielding Gamora from the gaze, pushed her forward toward Lothar.
"...You, hello, Lothar." Gamora could, in the end, still utter the word "brother," a term with special familial significance.
"Poor psychological fortitude. Is this the trainee you've raised?" Gamora's timid performance under his death glare greatly displeased Lothar. In his eyes, it was an utter disgrace to Thanos's name.
"Do you think everyone is like you?"
Proxima Midnight felt she shouldn't have foolishly blocked Lothar.
"Oh, right, Lothar."
"We just received news that Odin has removed all our planetary observers stationed throughout the Nine Realms."
"Asgard has also entered a wartime alert state."
"This time, be careful not to fall into a trap again."
As Lothar brushed past her, Proxima Midnight finally spoke the urgent news she had just received. Lothar's figure paused briefly, then he continued on without looking back, leaving only The Other to politely bow and thank Proxima Midnight.
"This guy... he hasn't changed a bit."
After watching Lothar's figure gradually disappear from sight, Proxima Midnight finally withdrew her gaze and led Gamora into the dungeon.
"Instructor, I—Lothar... his power is truly..."
"You just need to remember one thing, Gamora. While your and Nebula's training is extremely rigorous, in terms of sheer intensity, it's less than one-thousandth of Lothar's when he was younger."
Proxima Midnight left Gamora with an incredibly shocking answer.
"How... how could that be..."
"Remember, Gamora, for him, the word 'impossible' simply doesn't exist."
Inside the main hall of the base, Thanos, seated on the throne, meticulously read the top-secret report submitted by the artificial intelligence Woz to the Black Quadrant system database.
It detailed Lothar's experiences over the past "thousand years." Mera, the woman Lothar was willing to twist the timeline to resurrect, caught Thanos's attention. Of course, besides her, there was the entity named Darkseid.
"Did he learn the coordinates of this universe from Lothar?"
"So confident that Lothar couldn't kill him, meaning the one Lothar killed was a doppelganger?"
"Or a clone?"
His mind, allegedly cursed with knowledge, churned, and Thanos gradually simulated several highly probable truths.
"Exploding three Mother Boxes can forcibly open a multi-universal portal..."
Does this Darkseid still possess Mother Boxes? Faced with this outsider who was highly likely to invade the universe by following Lothar, Thanos began to make connections. Logically, he shouldn't have any Mother Boxes; otherwise, there would be no need to steal them...
"Lord Thanos, Ronan the Accuser is quite displeased with your breach of agreement."
The base system informed Thanos that Ronan, with whom he had arranged a meeting but then stood up, was now very annoyed.
"Let Lothar handle him."
Thanos waved dismissively; his attention was already captivated by the report Woz had submitted.
"Yes, Lord Thanos."
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