Chapter 137: Finding the Queen Parasite

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The few people surrounding Edward quieted down as they heard his words, wondering whether there would be another fight right after the other one.

The man approaching Edward looked serious as he replied, "Quite the opposite. I accepted your mission."

Edward squinted his eyes slightly while looking at the man, no, the Skrull. Before him stood an old opponent of his, whom he defeated in the past, Super Skrull. He had the powers of the Fantastic Four, and was quite the dangerous threat.

Edward crossed his arms and asked, "What are you doing here anyway?"

Super Skrull replied, "It's complicated, but basically I need to lay low for some time. I won't ask for any monetary reward if you let me take you there, I only want to stay on the planet too."

Edward frowned and asked, "Why would you want to go with me? You could go on your own, I doubt the Bloody Parasites could be a problem to you."

Super Skrull nodded, and said, "Indeed, I don't fear them. What I fear is another force. If they were to find me, then I wouldn't stand a chance. I want to come with you so that you may protect me, in case they send a spaceship after us. What do you say?"

Edward asked, "Is it the Kree Empire?" This was Edward's first guess, the Kree had long been enemies with the Skrull, the two empires had been waging war against one another for a long time, and if not for the Nova Empire playing meditator, many solar systems would have been wiped out from their war.

However, to Edward's surprise, Super Skrull shook his head and replied, "It isn't them. The identity of my pursuers doesn't matter to out deal anyway, if you have managed to deal with a Red Lantern, then dealing with them won't be a problem."

Edward frowned, and Super Skrull added, "You think the disappearance of a Red Lantern would go unnoticed? We've been watching Earth for some time, we saw that Red Lantern fight on Earth, and although it was captured by a Green Lantern, it was already defeated."

This somewhat relieved Edward, as it meant their spying of Earth wasn't as deep as he thought. He wasn't the one to defeat Graxus, he simply had been in the same area. They were probably observing Earth from an orbital view, so they only knew some surface information.

This was good, as the Skrulls had the potential to be much more deadly with their shapeshifting abilities, they could destroy someone's reputation and infiltrate the highest places of power.

Edward himself would be able to discover them, but for anyone else doing so would be a very hard thing to do.

After a few seconds, Edward asked, "How long to get to Markar?"

"2 days."

"Fine, let's go."

Super Skrull nodded, and led him to his spaceship. After paying a fine for leaving the planet's atmosphere, they began speeding up until they entered warped speed. The ship was basically doing what Edward would do, but through technology.

While in the ship, Edward and Super Skrull did not speak much to one another, Edward spent the entire time meditating while Super Skrull guided the ship, and did basic things such as eating, sleeping…

It surprised him to see Edward not move for two entire days, and be entirely fine. He knew human physiology to a certain extent, and knew it wasn't normal. However, on second thought, Edward was far from normal, so Super Skrull didn't think about it too much.

Finally, after two days of travel, they left warp speed, and Edward awoke from his meditation as they neared Markar.

Before the disaster, Markar was a rather advanced civilization, a Type 1 civilization, meaning they were able to collect and use all the energy available on their planet, a level higher than the Earth.

They were capable of short space travel, they couldn't really leave their solar system safely, but travel within their solar system wasn't much of a problem.

So upon arriving upon Markar, Super Skrull did not struggle in finding a landing platform. Most spaceships from advanced powers such as the Nova, Skrull or Kree Empire could land on basically any solid terrain, but it was always better to land on places designed to do so, to avoid any kind of damage.

Repair work on ships was expensive, so scratches were best avoided.

Once they landed, Edward did not hesitate as he walked out of the ship. He couldn't sense anything in the surroundings, so he walked fearlessly toward the city near them.

Inwardly, Edward wondered whether the Blood Parasites could have any effect on him, they probably wouldn't be able to pierce through his skin, and even then his Chi would probably destroy it as a defence mechanism.

Although curious, Edward didn't try, he may think they would be useless against him, but that didn't mean he could just put his life at risk like that.

Super Skrull quickly caught up with Edward, and was about to say something when they both saw something incoming. Super Skrull's body suddenly became stretchy as his body bended to dodge the incoming projectile, but Edward did not bother.

With his dynamic vision he could see the projectile quite clearly, and he could have deduced where it came from, but he had another idea in mind.

A barrier appeared before Edward, and as the projectile smashed into it, it didn't explode, but instead rebounded the way it came, even faster than before.

The next moment, the top of a building some distance away exploded. This did not discourage the others though as several shots were fired from the nearby buildings.

Edward opened a portal, and appeared on one of those buildings before the shells even landed on the tarmac.

Once upon the roof, Edward saw the attackers. They were humanoid, rather tall with green skin, and had four arms. Their clothes were ragged, and their flesh was rotting.

With his Chi Sense, Edward could also feel an organism had sneaked into their body, upon their brain. This was most probably the Blood Parasite.

With a wave of Edward's hand, a crushing force pressed down upon all of them, crushing 11 of them into meat paste, while the remaining one was simply forced to the ground.

Edward flashed to his side, and with a thought his Spirit completely overwhelmed the Bloody Parasite. The moment he did, Edward felt a faint connection shatter, before he could locate it.

Edward did not abandon though and tried to read the Bloody Parasite's memories, but to his dismay there wasn't anything to read. With a grunt, Edward crushed the Bloody Parasite and teleported to the other roofs.

Unfortunately, the Bloody Parasites had already all self imploded. Edward thus deduced the Parasite Queen was intelligent, intelligent enough at least to understand the power divide between them.

Super Skrull, who had just flown in using his plasma form, asked, "What is your aim for coming here?"

Edward sent a glance at Super Skrull, and wondered whether to tell him about his goal for a few seconds, before saying, "I've come here to capture the Parasite Queen. Any ideas?"

Super Skrull was an inhabitant of an intergalactic empire, so he should have access to more information than him.

And indeed, Super Skrull revealed, "Bloody Parasites are a nasty race, but once you know them, dealing with them becomes simpler. The Queen resides next to the core of the planet, so we usually simply blow up the planets."

Edward nodded slightly, and without a word stomped down. With this gesture, the huge building they were standing on crumbled down, and a giant pit gradually formed into the ground.

Super Skrull was taken by surprise, but quickly took flight to follow Edward down, deciding not to comment on his gesture. Although he was slightly angry, Edward was here to protect him, so he could take an offence or two.

The two dived into the planet as they soon reached the end of the pit, but it wasn't a problem to Edward as the earth below him gave way. Super Skrull was also providing more than enough light with his plasma form.

Quickly, the two of them got deep into the planet, and the deeper they got, the hotter the surroundings became. However, it didn't stifle either of them in the slightest.

But as they reached the mantle, Edward felt a large amount of radioactivity surrounding them, stopping the surrounding Yang Chi from moving well. This meant his Chi Regeneration was hampered down.

However, after some time they finally reached their destination, the core of the planet, and there, the radioactivity did not bother him anymore.

The core of a planet was actually split into two sections, the outer core and the inner core. The inner core was a liquid mass of metals, while the outer core was a mix between liquid and solid, a molten zone.

Some planets' cores were also completely solid or liquid, but most planets followed the Earth's example, Markar was one of them.

But as they arrived at the core, the two found a giant caven surrounding the outer core. The outer core had been largely reduced in size though, and one could see a giant organism resting into it. This was the Queen Parasite.

It's body was similar to the smaller ones, but more importantly it's giant feelers were penetrated deep into the planet's inner core.

Edward sent a look at Super Skrull, and asked, "Can a Queen Parasite take control over another organism?"

Super Skrull shrugged and replied, "Technically, it could, but look at it's size. The parasite needs to find a much larger body to successfully take control over it, and the number of organisms bigger than the Queen Parasite are rare even in the entire universe."

Edward nodded, and floated toward the core. However, as he approached, Edward felt his surroundings shake as he saw something strange.

Super Skrull followed Edward's gaze, and before their two eyes, a strange yet scary scene enfolded. The core of the planet started moving, some parts bulged out as something much bigger than anything they had ever seen started moving.

The Queen Parasite disappeared into the Inner Core along with what remained of the Outer Core, while the inner core continued taking shape.

In a matter of the seconds, the round liquid core started solidifying as a being took form. A golden eastern dragon with a body several thousand kilometers was quickly taking form before them.

This was by far the largest living being either of them had ever seen, and even by standing several kilometers from it, they could feel the terrifying might it exuded.

However, while Super Skrull was already flying away at top speed, Edward stared at it with greed in his eyes. The dragon looked scary because of it's size, and the aura it carried made it feel like an overpowered god, but Edward did not feel scared.

Instead, he felt a yearning toward the giant dragon as he felt like defeating it and absorbing it would allow him to take a big step in his powers.

He had already absorbed the Dragon Fire and the Freezing Crystal to enhance both of his Core and his Spirit, but those were not his only sources of power. At the same time, they only covered two of the four elements.

If Edward could find and absorb Earth and Wind Element Natural Treasures, then he would also be able to strengthen his Body and his Soul, as well as his Earth and Wind powers.