Skully
The ship immediately tried to turn around and flee—only a fool would want to collide with such a bizarre entity.
But as it was turning, the skull head glanced downward strangely.
Although its eyes were just two hollow skull sockets, everyone felt a cold gaze sweeping over them.
After locking onto its target, a tentacle tens of meters long suddenly extended from the skull and shot out rapidly, passing through the small ship that was trying to escape. Strangely, the ship remained completely unharmed.
Then a human-shaped phantom was pulled out by the tentacle and brought to the mouth of the skull.
Accompanied by a horrifying chewing sound, the skull showed a look of satisfaction.
Meanwhile, all the life signs of the pilot inside the ship remained perfectly normal, except for his brain waves, which had turned into a straight line.
His soul had been devoured!
This gigantic skull's ability was intrinsic to the Reaper's Scythe, and Zane speculated that it came from the Death Pearl he had acquired from Odin's private vault.
The primary function of this ability was that as it devoured more souls, the Reaper's Scythe would grow increasingly powerful.
It would also feed back to Zane with incredibly pure soul energy.
Zane had long wanted to test this, and now Ronan's crew would serve as his test subjects.
Although the souls devoured by the Reaper's Scythe would immediately be obliterated, not even entering the [Realm of Dead], the prospect of consuming the billions of souls in the Kree civilization made Zane view this current number as merely a drop in the ocean.
As the first soul was consumed, the gray glow in the skull's eyes intensified, showing a look of hunger.
Then, countless tentacles extended from its body and shot out, advancing while turning the people inside the small ships into soulless husks.
Inside the Necrocraft, Ronan broke out in a cold sweat from the skull's eerie display.
He no longer cared about Zane wanting the Power Stone—no treasure was worth more than his own life.
"Quick, turn the ship around, activate the main engine, and get us out of here," Ronan shouted frantically to the crew.
Immediately, the Necrocraft's thrusters, along with its modular components, rotated rapidly, completing a 180-degree turn.
In the next moment, the drive engine spewed out scorching flames, propelling the Necrocraft away from the skull at high speed.
Nearby, Star-Lord and Gamora, seeing Ronan's panicked state, lost any sense of schadenfreude.
That skull was heading towards the Necrocraft, and it was clear that its target was everyone alive on board, including them.
Now they were in the same boat as Ronan, not naïve enough to think that the skull would spare them.
Even if it did, they were not exactly friends with Zane—Gamora was even his enemy.
Seeing Ronan's behavior of trying to flee after showing off, Zane didn't stop him but instead smiled disdainfully.
"Trying to run now? Too late!"
With a scornful smile, as Zane watched his prey start to escape, the giant skull 'roared' silently.
In the next moment, it suddenly collapsed like a sand sculpture.
From a distance, it looked like sand blown away by the wind.
Up close, one would see that each grain was a miniature skull.
Immediately, these countless small skulls, each the size of a fist, with gray phantoms trailing behind them, sped towards the interior of the Necrocraft far faster than it could flee.
Inside the Necrocraft, gunfire erupted as countless soldiers scattered.
But against the carpet-like search of the numerous small skulls, there was nowhere to escape.
They could only watch as their souls were forcibly pulled from their bodies, then torn apart by swarms of small skulls and devoured.
Zane, confident, teleported back to the Ark and instructed Skynet:
"Chase that ship."
"Yes, boss."
The Ark's thrusters emitted blue energy streams, and in just 30 seconds, it was alongside the Necrocraft.
By this time, there were few living beings left on the Necrocraft. As the small skulls continued to feed, they began to self-replicate.
With the souls of tens of thousands of people, the countless small skulls overlapped, resembling a gray tidal wave.
Able to pass through walls freely, they easily found every living being on the Necrocraft, devouring their souls.
In Ronan's eyes filled with despair, skulls began appearing in the main control room.
Ronan tried shooting them with energy guns and striking them with his hammer, but all attacks passed through them as if hitting air.
Only soul attacks could slow them down, but even those couldn't completely destroy them.
The only way to eliminate them was to destroy the Reaper's Scythe in Zane's hand.
However, after being augmented with the branches of Yggdrasil, the Reaper's Scythe had become nearly indestructible.
It had clashed with Thor's hammer countless times, reducing it to scrap, but not leaving even a scratch on the Reaper's Scythe.
Destroying this artifact was an impossible task, especially with it in Zane's possession.
Ronan could do nothing but struggle futilely.
With dozens of small skulls biting into him, Ronan let out a horrific scream.
Ronan, being a semi-powerful being, was different from his minions. In the original story, he could hold the Power Stone without dying, showing his strength.
Thus, his soul was much tougher than the others.
The small skulls could easily pull out the souls of ordinary soldiers, but Ronan's soul was immovable.
This was proof of Ronan's strength but also his endless torment.
What to do if the small skulls couldn't pull out Ronan's soul?
Simply bite it off and eat it!
The pain of having one's soul gnawed at was unimaginable.
These small skulls, visible but untouchable, like a virtual image, caused excruciating pain that assured Ronan this was all too real.
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