Chapter 1353: Mysteries of the Feast (Part 20)

Everyone present looked at each other, and then suddenly, they cast their eyes toward a figure outside the crowd without moving a muscle.

Stark walked through the crowd with a wine glass and came to the other side of the corpse. When he looked up at Shiler across the Queen's corpse, the moment their eyes met, the bright and brilliant light in the dance floor began to dim.

The complex plant patterns on the floor tiles under their feet constantly faded, and one after another, flowing lights crossed horizontally and vertically, outlining the wide stage into a huge chessboard.

Accompanied by the cessation of time, everyone's expressions stayed at that moment, and the gorgeous colors on their skin and clothing gradually faded, becoming as gray and hard as stone.

After a subtle, light sound like a heartbeat, "bang, bang, bang, bang", one chess piece after another with different postures fell onto the chessboard.

On one side of the chessboard, Doom, Thor, Loki, Star-Lord, Strange, Thanos, Professor X, Sif, Odin, Frigga, Jarvis, Yondu, Rocket Raccoon, and even Prince Alan, countless chess pieces stood proudly on the chessboard, some riding horses, some holding swords, and behind the heavy chess pieces, was Stark standing in the King's position.

【The novel app that has been running for many years, comparable to the old version of the book-chasing artifact, the source-changing app used by old bookworms,】

"I connect various forces, let them take action one after another under my control, and use the Queen's death as a medium to achieve their respective goals."

After speaking, Stark's arm pointed forward, and with a "bang", the chess piece of Yondu wearing the Ravager's attire jumped out one step forward.

"Buzz, buzz, buzz."

A somewhat annoying vibration sounded, a rough big hand grabbed the communicator, Yondu's face was full of irritability, he held the phone and roared at the other side: "Which grandson called so early in the morning? Don't you know the rules at all?!"

"Is this Captain Yondu? I have a list here, I don't know if you are interested?" A mysterious voice came from the phone.

"What list?" Yondu asked unpleasantly.

"I need you to go to the Centaurus constellation to help me hunt down a mechanical raccoon. You don't need to know what a raccoon is. You only need to know that there is something I want in the underlying protocol of this mechanical raccoon. The reward is settled in energy, 30% deposit paid first. The faster the speed, the higher the price. How about it?"

Yondu's eyes lit up immediately. He repeated: "Energy settlement, are you sure?"

"Of course, do you take the order?"

"Take it, dead or alive?"

"You can do whatever you want, I only want the underlying protocol."

"Wait for my good news, rich man!"

With a "bang", on the chessboard, the chess piece of Doom wearing a hood also jumped out one step forward.

In the laboratory of Stark Tower, Stark hung up the phone, turned back to look at Doom, and Doom was cleaning up the remains of a robot in front of the experimental table. He looked up at Stark and said, "Doom doesn't know where you got this pile of junk, but Doom has already extracted the information inside according to the agreement."

"I have already called the pirate leader introduced to me by Loki. I think it won't be long before there will be results. Unfortunately, there is no coordinate of that mysterious mental hospital in the bodies of these robots that don't know who destroyed them, otherwise, we would already be investigating there now."

"Doom wants to know, where did you get the robot remains, and why are you so concerned about that mental hospital called 'Half-World'."

Stark touched his chin and said: "The robot remains were picked up when the demon gods were fighting before. At that time, Jarvis conducted some autonomous analysis, but I didn't care about the results."

"Until some time ago, when I searched for the keyword of gods in my database, I found the name of the Shi'ar twin gods in the analysis results of these robots."

"In the somewhat incomplete data of these robots, I discovered a mental hospital named Half-World. That is the test field of the Shi'ar Empire. That is an evil experimental plan named 'Cosmic Life Fusion Project', but none of that is important. What is important is that it mentioned how the Shi'ar Empire realized this plan."

Doom looked down at the robot remains and spat out a name: "m'kraan crystal?"

Stark nodded, but Doom still looked at him and said: "Doom still doesn't understand, why do you want to investigate this crystal?"

Stark shook his head again. He turned to look at the sunset outside the window of Stark Tower, but there was a darkness that didn't belong to him flowing in his eyes. He said softly: "Perhaps, you will know soon."

The light was even dimmer. With two "bangs", the chess pieces of Thor and Loki, who stepped forward, shook the entire chessboard. Even as statues, the Asgardians all showed a mythical handsomeness.

"What does it mean that my wedding can do more? Tony, don't sell the pass. I don't have time to play this kind of riddle with you." Thor leaned on the sofa, looking at Stark opposite.

And Stark cast his gaze toward Loki, smiled, and said: "Since ancient times, the things that an emperor's marriage has to solve are more than just marriage, aren't they?"

Loki narrowed his eyes slowly, but he still said: "This is the private matter of the Asgardian royal family. We can solve it."

"Of course, but the matter of rebuilding the underworld that you complained to me about before, can't just be the private matter of the Asgardian royal family, right?"

Loki and Thor looked at each other. Thor coughed lightly, looked at Stark, and said: "We do intend to let Hela return to Asgard, but before we figure out Odin's attitude, we will not act rashly. The All-Father is our father after all, and we don't want to make him too embarrassed."

"And, what does this have to do with Thor's wedding?" Loki tilted his head, frowned, and looked at Stark.

"If you are willing to help me, of course I am also willing to help you solve the matter that has been bothering you for a long time. How about it?"

With a "bang", another larger chess piece jumped out. Thanos jumped out one step to the diagonal front and stood on the side of Loki's chess piece.

"Don't tell me you have no interest in the marginal star sector where the Shi'ar Empire's control is not strong, Your Majesty Thanos." Loki smiled at Thanos in front of him and said: "Now there is an opportunity to make the Shi'ar Empire chaotic without fighting. Do you have any good ideas?"

Thanos's fingers touched the side of the wine glass. He lowered his eyelids, then raised his eyes to look at Loki and said: You are bolder than I thought, but you are right. Who wouldn't be moved by the fat meat delivered to the mouth?"

With another "bang", Star-Lord's chess piece jumped one step to the side front and came to the side rear of Thanos's chess piece.

"Mr. Quill, I feel very sorry that we couldn't cooperate in the Kyln prison last time. But this time, I think we will cooperate very happily." Thanos smiled at Star-Lord Peter Quill.

"What do you want me to do?" Star-Lord looked at Thanos unmoved and said: "I am not an interstellar mercenary, nor will I work for anyone because of money."

"I just want to give you a chance for revenge." Thanos shook his head gently and said: "Haven't you always been brooding over your mother's death?"

Star-Lord widened his eyes slightly, but he still said in a calm tone: "I have already avenged my mother. The group of aliens who descended on Earth to kill my mother back then were precisely sent by my own uncle—Prince Gareth of the Spartax Empire. When I returned to the Spartax Empire, I had already killed him."

"Do you really think that the civil strife in the Spartax Empire back then was just a coincidence?" Thanos continued to ask with a smile.

Star-Lord's fist clenched, but then he relaxed his arm, looked at Thanos, and said: "So what if someone deliberately provoked it behind the scenes? Do you want to tell me that you can kill them all?"

"Of course not, but at least I can give you a chance to avenge your parents who were separated for many years and died in different worlds, and give the mastermind a funeral grand enough."

Thanos's words fell, the light on the chessboard shone brightly, the bright light of the engine port gradually extinguished, the Shi'ar Empire's ship landed in the Asgard starport, and the Shi'ar Queen walked out of the cabin door.

When the Queen and the King of Asgard, Thor, greeted each other with the etiquette of their own countries, she did not see Peter Quill, a young member of the Shi'ar Empire guard standing behind her, with a cold light flashing in his eyes.

Afterward, everything was as if pressed the pause button. The laid-out carpet rolled back from in front of the feet, the shoes with complex patterns retreated step by step, the guards put the ceremonial swords back into the scabbards, and followed the ship back to the ship. 【13

Until the light and shadow shifted and overlapped, and within the Sanctum Sanctorum's office, a pair of polished leather shoes stepped through the door. Strange, sitting on the sofa, looked up and smiled at Stark, saying, "Tony, long time no see. The performance of your other self really took me by surprise."

"Once I finish talking about the important matters, you'll have plenty of time to mock me." Stark tightened his suit and walked over to sit opposite Strange.

Strange raised an eyebrow, but Stark just flashed a smile, pointed a finger at his own temple, and said, "Sorry, but a guy in here is shouting every day not to do anything unnecessary, so your upcoming sarcasm might not be effective."

"Then what exactly do you want to talk about?" Strange narrowed his eyes.

"It's about your Great Portal technology that you've been stuck on for a long time. Don't refute me, and there's no need to say any nonsense about having made progress but not much; we both know you need a revolutionary technological breakthrough."

Stark reached out and picked up the wine glass on the table. When Strange went to pick up another glass of wine, Stark tapped the table with the glass in his hand and said, "You should quit drinking, Stephen, especially before handling very important official business."

"Drinking doesn't affect my use of magic at all." Strange picked up his wine glass and said, "Special meditation techniques allow me to block the effects of alcohol. You don't think so little of sorcerers, do you?"

Stark looked up at him and said, "My point is, doing this lets others know that if you aren't drinking, it means you're about to handle official business."

"But you still haven't said what the official business is."

"In this universe, who possesses the largest portal?"

Stark and Strange's gazes met, both seeing a cold smile in the other's eyes, just like back when they intended to borrow money to build guns.

With a "clatter," Frigga's chess piece had moved behind Strange at some point, and the Queen of the Gods was as gentle as ever.

Lean, slender knuckles smoothed over his tie, then he buttoned his suit jacket downward. Polished leather shoes stepped into the gate of the bedchamber, and Frigga smiled as she turned her head to look at Strange, who had walked in.

"Your Excellency, Sorcerer Supreme, long time no see."