Chapter 231: The Orb
The doors of the great hall slowly swung shut.
Matthew walked out of the hall, a pale gold crystal held in his hand.
The crystal was shaped like a hexagonal column, a single rune carved into each of its six faces.
This was the key Odin had given him to summon the Bifröst.
As long as he held it, no matter where he was in the universe, activating the crystal would call the Bifröst to him.
Outside the hall, Thor spotted Matthew stepping out and hurried over to meet him.
"Matthew! How'd it go?"
"My father didn't give you a hard time, did he?" He looked Matthew over.
Matthew shook his head. "No trouble at all. If anything, we walked away with a deal."
"A deal?" Thor fell in step behind him, puzzled. "What kind of deal?"
Facing Thor's question, Matthew didn't hold back, laying out exactly what the two of them had agreed to.
Thor was Odin's own son, after all. Even if Matthew didn't say anything, Odin would find time to tell him eventually anyway.
So the two of them walked toward the Bifröst together, Matthew explaining the terms of the deal along the way.
When Thor heard that Matthew could actually produce a serum to extend an Asgardian's lifespan, his expression went through a genuinely remarkable series of changes.
He'd spent enough time around Matthew to know that Umbrella Corporation's genetic engineering program was real, and clearly effective. Matthew's own Astartes legion was proof enough of that.
But he'd never once imagined that Umbrella's genetic engineering had, without anyone really noticing, quietly overtaken Asgard's own.
After all, if even Asgardians themselves had never managed to produce a life-extension serum, and Matthew could just hand one over without breaking a sweat, didn't that say everything about how far ahead he'd gotten?
Thor found himself thinking back to when he was much younger, coming down to Earth with his father, and what he'd seen there back then.
Back then, all he'd done was casually summon a bit of lightning, and the humans who'd witnessed it had worshipped him as a god.
And now.
In just a thousand-odd years, Earth had risen at a breathtaking pace, and in some respects had already surpassed Asgard itself.
They'd even managed to push back the arrival of Ragnarök by a thousand years, using nothing more than a single small vial.
"Humans... truly aren't to be underestimated," Thor said, genuinely moved.
Matthew didn't respond to that. He simply walked over to stand beside Heimdall, giving the crystal in his hand a slight shake.
The instant Heimdall saw the crystal in Matthew's grip, his golden pupils contracted sharply.
Clearly, he understood exactly what that crystal represented.
"Take me to Morag," Matthew said, unhurried.
Morag: the world where the Power Stone was kept.
Having stated his destination, Matthew turned to Thor. "Thor, thank you for bringing me to Asgard."
"As for the rest of the journey, I'll manage on my own from here."
"While I'm gone, I'll need you to keep an eye on Earth for me." With that, he reached out and clapped Thor on the shoulder.
Hearing Matthew's request, Thor nodded, dead serious. "Don't worry about it! I'd have done that anyway, even if you hadn't asked. Guarding the Nine Realms is Asgard's responsibility in the first place!"
"Matthew, go on, don't worry about a thing!"
"I will absolutely take good care of Earth and Umbrella Corporation for you!"
Matthew: "..."
Before Matthew could get out a word of commentary on that particular choice of phrasing, the Bifröst behind him surged with a sudden pull, sweeping him up before he could say anything at all.
All that was left in Heimdall's field of view was a perfect snapshot of Matthew's utterly unimpressed expression.
Recalling that look on Matthew's face, Thor turned to Heimdall, who'd stayed silent this whole time. "Heimdall, did I say something wrong just now?"
"...Yes." Heimdall nodded.
Hearing that, Thor scratched his head, confused.
"Earth's manners really are strange. Everything I just said was a compliment, wasn't it?"
The Bifröst, at least in name, was a bridge that could freely cross to any of the Nine Realms.
But in practice, the Bifröst's reach went well beyond just the Nine Realms.
Anywhere in the universe, as long as it wasn't some nameless little world tucked away in some forgotten corner, the Bifröst could connect to it, transporting someone across truly vast distances in an instant.
Of course, that was assuming no significant outside force was actively interfering with it.
Whoosh—
The Bifröst's seven-colored stream of light dropped suddenly from deep space!
On Morag, the sudden column of seven-colored light drew plenty of attention.
Among those who noticed were the Kree, sent by Ronan to retrieve the Orb, and Star-Lord, who'd only just gotten his hands on the Orb himself and was now fleeing desperately by ship toward Xandar.
Aboard his ship, Star-Lord turned at the sudden column of light behind him, puzzled, and got up to look out the window.
His gaze passed through the glass and landed on the slowly fading pillar of light.
When he made out a single figure standing beneath it, the corner of Star-Lord's mouth twitched. "...Is Morag always this lively?"
With that, he dropped back into the pilot's seat and hit the throttle, vanishing into deep space.
Yeah, no. An entrance like that? Whoever that was, they clearly weren't someone you wanted to mess with.
Better to bail before he ended up on the receiving end of a beatdown.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the surface.
The Kree, who'd just been made fools of by Star-Lord, spotted someone else suddenly showing up on their planet, and, already in a foul mood, immediately turned their frustration on Matthew.
"Hey, you—"
The nearest Kree soldier raised his weapon, about to say something.
But the next instant—
Matthew simply lifted a hand.
An instant later, the sound of a mountainside collapsing thundered through the air!
Right before the Kree's eyes, two hills, each more than ten meters tall, came rolling toward them like a pair of toppled building blocks!
The speed alone rivaled a speeding bullet.
The hills rolled straight over them.
Matthew's gaze stayed flat and detached as he turned to the one survivor still standing.
A wave of psychic force surged out like a tide, sweeping into the Kree soldier's memories, laying bare everything the man had ever lived through.
"Looks like I'm already a step behind."
"The Power Stone's already been taken. By Star-Lord, of all people." Matthew's eyes narrowed slightly.
His gaze swept back to the Kree soldier in front of him.
The next instant, a thin wisp of heat began rising from the top of the man's head.
By the time it faded, his brain had already been burned through by the raw force of Matthew's psychic assault.
Matthew looked up, watching the distant streak of light that was Star-Lord's ship disappearing, and stood in silence for a moment before glancing down at the crystal in his hand, the one that would summon the Bifröst.
After a long pause, he decided against calling it again.
He'd only just arrived. Summoning it again this soon would probably make Heimdall think he was being messed with for no reason.
His gaze landed on the ship the Kree had left behind.
"Not a bad ride."
"And besides that—"
Matthew walked over to one of the bodies and pulled a button-sized device off from behind its ear.
This was a universal translator, capable of instantly translating any language from any species in real time.
Though, as far as he knew, Asgard had its own version of this: a magical blessing called the Allspeak.
That particular magic let whatever a speaker said be automatically understood by listeners in their own native language, and let the speaker understand any foreign language spoken back to them in turn.
That was part of why Thor could wander freely across the universe and still understand whoever he ran into.
He pressed the universal translator behind his own ear.
An instant later, the device pierced through his skin, and the connection completed itself instantly.
Feeling the foreign object settle in behind his ear, Matthew turned the thought over in his head.
Now that Holy Terra had been established, the number of trips he'd need to make out into the universe was only going to climb exponentially from here, and dealing with other species was about to become a regular part of life.
He should probably find time to learn the Allspeak himself, sooner or later.
Once he had that down, he wouldn't need this thing behind his ear anymore.
With that thought settled, Matthew's evolutionary stance opened up, drawing in the entirety of the Kree soldier's life force and converting it into raw material for the Blacklight Virus's ongoing evolution.
Earth was Matthew's home turf, so obviously he wasn't about to go on some deranged killing spree there, treating everything and everyone around him as fuel for his own evolution.
But away from Earth...
Matthew let himself off the leash a little.
Not too much, of course.
Otherwise Holy Terra's reputation would be shot to hell before it had even left Earth's orbit.
Before long, the absorption finished.
The Kree soldier's body, slumped on the ground, crumbled into drifting dust the moment the wind picked up.
Walking up to one of the spacecraft, Matthew's features rearranged themselves, and a Kree face settled over his own.
"Facial recognition in progress... Recognition confirmed!"
"Scanning iris—"
"Confirmed! Enjoy your flight!"
The hatch opened.
Drawing on the memories he'd absorbed, Matthew began working the ship's controls.
Before long, the ship powered up smoothly, and with a burst of acceleration, shot off toward space.
With autopilot engaged, Matthew stood by the window at his leisure, taking in the view outside.
He'd always known plenty of species in the Marvel universe were capable of interstellar travel, but it wasn't until he'd absorbed the Kree soldier's memories that he realized he'd actually been underestimating just how common it was.
In the current state of the galaxy, thanks to the presence of interstellar traders, space travel had long since stopped being anything special.
The technology itself was rare enough, sure, but a ship like this one could basically be bought outright, as long as you had the money.
Unfortunately...
Matthew was, at the moment, broke.
At least, broke in terms of any currency that was actually usable across the galaxy.
Just as Matthew was mulling over where he might scrounge up some funds, a voice suddenly cut through the otherwise dead silence inside the ship.
"Static... can you hear me, Korath? Did you get it?"
Through the garbled static, a low, deeply oppressive voice came through, and Matthew paused mid-step.
A few seconds later, hearing no response from the ship, the voice on the other end, Ronan, spoke up again. "Hello? Korath, where are you?"
"Hello? Hello?!"
"...Stop calling, Ronan." Matthew cut off Ronan's shouting.
"The Korath you're looking for isn't going to be answering you anymore."
Hearing Matthew's voice, Ronan fell into a long silence.
No one could say how much time passed.
Finally, Ronan spoke again, slow and low, a hint of threat in his voice. "Who are you? Where's Korath?"
Hearing Ronan's demand, Matthew settled back into his seat without a hint of alarm. "Who I am isn't something you need to know."
"What you do need to know is that I'm in a position to get my hands on the Orb."
"So, go ahead. Name a price."
"If it's reasonable, I'll hand the Orb over to you."
Well, wasn't that just his luck.
Not that long ago, Matthew had been telling everyone he was flat broke. And now, here was a source of income practically falling into his lap.
Not that anyone should get the wrong idea.
By "source of income," he meant robbing one crook to sell to another, not some straightforward cash-for-goods exchange.
Beyond that, he also remembered that in "Guardians of the Galaxy 1," the Collector, out at Knowhere, had apparently offered four billion units trying to buy the Orb himself.
If he could manage it, he might as well double-dip and sell to both of them.
On the other end, Ronan listened to this brazen stranger proposing a deal with him, and a cold, contemptuous smile crossed his face.
Still, for the sake of one more shot at getting the Orb, he agreed. "If you're really claiming you can get the Orb, then prove it."
"If you can genuinely deliver, I'll pay you two billion for it."
Two billion was already a third of Ronan's entire fortune.
He could already picture the look of shock that must be crossing Matthew's face on the other end of the line, hearing that number.
But what came next left Ronan the one falling silent instead.
"...Two billion?"
"Are you handing out spare change to beggars?"
Ronan: "..."
Buddy, do you even have a concept of money?
Two billion!
If you weren't spending it on a war, an ordinary person couldn't burn through that in a lifetime!
And you're telling me that's beggar money?
Motherfucker!
Ronan cursed silently to himself.
"Two billion is already more than generous!" Ronan said, forcing his anger back down.
Matthew didn't bother arguing the point further. He simply named a new price. "Four billion."
"If I can manage it, once I get my hands on the Orb, I'll hand it straight over to you."
"If I can't... then you'll probably never lay eyes on it again."
"I mean what I say."
Hearing that, Ronan fell silent again, his fist clenching tight enough to crack.
But for the sake of getting the Orb, he ground his teeth and agreed anyway. "Fine! Deal!"
"Tell me how to reach you."
"No need. I'll be the one reaching out to you when the time comes." Matthew crossed one leg over the other, his tone easy. "All you need to do is have the money ready."
With that, Matthew didn't wait for Ronan to say anything else, cutting the transmission immediately.
On the other end, that particular move left Ronan so furious that blood rushed straight to his head, and he slammed a fist into the wall hard enough to leave a dent in the metal.
After that brief detour.
Matthew arrived at Xandar without further trouble.
Xandar: a highly advanced world home to countless species, with its own dedicated fleet, and a well-known hub for aliens from across the galaxy.
Since the native population had no particular hostility toward other species, trade and commerce flourished there as well.
Which was exactly why Star-Lord had planned to bring the Orb to Xandar to sell it in the first place.
Unfortunately for him, the moment the locals heard the item in Star-Lord's possession was something Ronan wanted, every shop that had just been bragging about buying anything and everything suddenly kicked him straight back out the door.
That earned every one of those shopkeepers a solid round of complaints from Star-Lord, along with a raised middle finger.
Not that any of them had the slightest idea what the gesture even meant.
"Come on! Weren't you all just going on about 'trade above all'?! Why won't anyone take it from me?"
Star-Lord stood in the street, eyes scanning in every direction, trying to find some shop willing to take the goods off his hands.
So focused was he on the storefronts around him that he never noticed he'd already caught the attention of another party entirely.
If you're enjoying the story, toss a Power Stone or drop a review — it helps more than you'd think.
Advance chapters → patreon.com/Eatinpieces