They would offer delicious food and blessings to the returning warriors, symbolizing the imminent arrival of true happiness.
But now, the girl's voice only deepened Gravik's remorse for his recklessness and arrogance.
If it hadn't been so stubborn… if it hadn't gambled everything on a little stolen power…
How could the Skrulls be facing such danger now?
Gravik finally understood Talos's concern.
It also understood, far too late, what it needed to do in this moment.
"Run!" The word tore from its throat in a hoarse, desperate cry.
Then, the immense photon energy raging inside Gravik suddenly drew inward, condensing deep within its body.
"Hm?"
Malrick raised an eyebrow, watching Gravik's frame swell bit by bit, strange bulges pressing out beneath its skin.
"Self-destruct?" Malrick thought aloud, subtly tightening the grip of his telekinesis.
A heartbeat later, all the compressed energy within Gravik erupted.
Its body ballooned violently, only to be crushed inward by the telekinetic barrier Malrick had erected around it.
Rumble!
Flames burst outward as black clouds rolled. In the enclosed space, the detonation was like a small sun collapsing in on itself.
In those final seconds before the blast consumed it, Gravik used the impact's brief lull to shout one last order into its communicator.
"Run! You fools, run!!!"
Its voice was raw with despair, swallowed by the thunder of the explosion until it vanished into the swirling dust.
Malrick smoothed the chaos with a sweep of telekinesis, then stood still, shaking his head.
"Run? It's far too late for that." He glanced at the scorched air where Gravik had stood. "But… your self-destruction had some bite. And it did remind me—besides death, you can still serve other purposes."
His mind stirred. The mental power he had spread across the planet surged, flooding into the minds of the six hundred and twenty-nine Super Skrulls still alive.
He cast the Soul Enslavement Technique—an invisible mental net spread wide, wrapping around each Skrull's soul, corrupting it, marking it with his imprint.
Seconds later, every single Skrull's soul turned the same shade as Malrick's will. The defiance in their eyes melted into a tranquil, obedient calm.
It didn't matter whether it was Tali, Vara, and the others who had once planned to conquer Earth…
Or G'aya, Somali, and those who simply dreamed of surviving somewhere after the war…
When Malrick released his telekinetic restraint, they all descended to the ground, dropped to their knees, and bowed low toward him.
"Master!" they cried in unison.
The Soul Enslavement Technique didn't shatter a target's ability to think—it simply rewrote their priorities so that Malrick's interests always came first. Any thought harmful to him would never again enter their minds. From now on, he was their world.
The technique had its flaws—it crippled the enslaved's growth, sometimes permanently—but with the Skrulls, it hardly mattered. They could always steal genes from other species to gain new abilities.
Malrick nodded in satisfaction. It was his first time using the technique, and with this particular crowd, he felt no moral burden at all.
"Come with me," his voice echoed in their minds, "we're leaving Earth."
Over six hundred golden-glowing figures answered and followed him into space.
Malrick stopped before the Skrull fleet retreating from the Solar System. His mind swept across their vessels, and every Super Skrull within was swiftly enslaved as well, ordered to abandon ship.
As they did, Carol Danvers—bound to the bow of the lead ship—finally had a chance to breathe. With her photon energy no longer drained, her body rapidly regenerated blood and strength.
Outside, nearly a thousand Super Skrulls assembled behind Malrick, each radiating photon energy like a living nuclear warhead.
Malrick studied them. Gravik had possessed Captain Marvel herself—he could have created an unstoppable army, challenged Thanos even. Instead, he had fixated on Earth.
Blinded by his own rapid rise in strength, Gravik's ambition had warped from finding a home to leaping toward universal domination in one reckless move.
"What a twisted race," Malrick muttered.
"You all wait here."
His mental order left no room for disobedience.
He turned and floated toward the Skrull fleet, cape drifting in the void.
Twin beams of searing heat vision blazed from his eyes, stretching hundreds of kilometers. They cut across the starfield like a cosmic blade, slicing Skrull warships clean in half.
Explosions bloomed like deadly fireworks, scattering brilliant debris into the darkness.
The Super Skrulls watched in silence. Their hearts ached for the loss of their people, but no hatred stirred in them. Instead, they believed their Master's judgment was righteous—those ships had dared oppose him, and death was the only fitting sentence.
If Malrick hadn't seemed so disinterested, many of them would have volunteered to help him destroy the fleet themselves.
The chain of detonations lit the starry expanse in crimson and gold.
Just as Malrick was about to finish the slaughter, a figure wreathed in blazing white-gold energy burst from the inferno, rocketing toward him at impossible speed.
Carol Danvers.
Her restored energy had healed her body, and her speed in the void climbed dangerously close to light-speed.
She crashed into him with a fist like a comet, her lips forming a single word—Stop!
Malrick found her amusing. These were the same Skrulls who had chained her up and bled her dry, and she was still pleading for them.
He struck back without hesitation. Unlike Carol, who needed to accelerate in space, Malrick's punch hit light-speed the instant he moved. Their fists met in silence, but the force bent her arm before flinging her backward like a ragdoll.
Seconds later, she charged again, faster this time. Her mouth moved again—There are innocent Skrulls!
Malrick's lips pressed into a thin line. His next punch was like a golfer striking a ball, sending her tumbling into the void once more.
Her durability was staggering—he'd nearly hit with planet-busting force, yet she bounced back ready to fight.
After a few more exchanges, he caught her light-speed strike with one hand and clamped the other firmly around her throat.
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Sick... could only manage to upload a chapter each on all my fanfictions.
Can you please send Power stones.