"You always felt something was off, so how did you still get tricked?"
Gamora supported the weakened Quill, sounding both worried and annoyed.
"Hey… thanks for coming to save me…"
Quill didn't explain much. He just leaned his entire weight against her.
Drax and the others quickly boarded the ship to regroup with Rocket and Tony, while Gamora brought Quill in after them.
"Where's Karl? Why haven't I seen him?"
Tony looked toward Gamora. Karl and Gwen were nowhere in sight.
"They're outside somewhere. I think we should go pick them up. Besides, we already crushed Ego with the ship."
Drax answered first.
"We didn't kill him. That was only a body he created with his power. He'll be back soon. We need to leave immediately."
Mantis understood Ego better than anyone. As long as the planet existed, Ego could never truly die.
While everyone was still talking, several blue energy tendrils suddenly burst from the ground and wrapped around the ship.
"As a man from Earth, I'd just like to ask—how exactly are we supposed to kill an entire planet? With trash and carbon dioxide?"
Tony waved for Rocket to hurry and start the ship while turning toward Quill.
Boom—!
Rocket shoved the controls forward with all his strength, and Quill's ship instantly roared ahead at full power, but the energy tendrils still held it tightly.
"There's a core in the middle of the planet. It's like his brain… or maybe his soul."
Quill hurriedly checked his equipment while explaining. He had learned all of this when the energy beam pierced through him earlier.
"That cave! The cave should lead straight through the surface to the core!"
Mantis immediately spoke up. As someone who had lived here for years and helped Ego dispose of the bodies of his children, she naturally knew the secret of that cave.
Quill climbed from the lower deck to the upper level, where Yondu was already controlling the ship's weapons, preparing to blast apart the energy tendrils.
"Yondu?! What are you doing here?"
Quill had intended to man the weapons himself, but instead found Yondu sitting there. Only then did he also notice the surviving Ravagers.
"Enough talking, Peter. Get to your station."
Yondu had no interest in wasting time with conversation.
Quill took a seat at one of the gunner positions and aimed at the tendrils.
"Rocket! Wait for my signal!"
he shouted down below.
Rocket and Tony were already seated at the controls, driving the ship at maximum output.
Ratatatatat—!
An endless stream of plasma rounds rained down, and the energy tendrils were actually blown apart.
"Now! Full speed ahead!!"
Quill yelled while he, Yondu, and the Ravagers fired nonstop at the tendrils trying to reform.
Boom—!!!
Rocket practically tried to shove the control stick through the engine itself. The ship shot forward like an arrow released from a bow. The hatch hadn't even closed yet; thankfully Groot had rooted himself near the doorway, otherwise he definitely would've been flung into space.
After smashing through a massive wall ahead, the ship finally escaped the palace. Without terrain limiting them anymore, the ship could finally unleash its full potential.
But then Quill suddenly came down from the upper deck.
"We can't just leave."
As he spoke, he picked Rocket up and set him aside before taking the pilot's seat himself.
"What are you doing?"
Tony immediately had a bad feeling. Quill was clearly about to do something insane.
Sure enough, Quill sharply tilted the ship downward and dove straight toward the ground.
"Are you crazy?! If Ego gets destroyed, we'll die with him!"
Gamora rushed over and shouted directly into Quill's ear.
"She's right, Quill. The safest plan is to leave now and figure out how to destroy the planet from space later."
Tony remained far more rational. Just as Gamora said, if they went to the core and killed Ego now, none of them would escape alive.
"I know. I have a plan. Once we get there, you all head back the way we came. I can handle the rest myself."
Quill had clearly made up his mind. He was determined to destroy Ego, because he understood exactly what Ego's plan meant—the destruction of countless worlds across the universe. Quill didn't consider himself a hero, but he couldn't stand by and watch half the universe get consumed either.
Suddenly, every weapon on the ship opened fire at once, blasting relentlessly into the ground.
Yondu had done it.
He understood Quill too well and had already guessed what he intended to do. This time, instead of stopping him, Yondu chose to support him.
The plasma beams instantly tore through the earth like a massive drill, carving a path deep underground while carrying the ship downward.
At the same time, the ship's communicator suddenly crackled to life.
It was Karl.
"So this is Ego's core?"
At this moment, Karl had somehow led Gwen, Wanda, and Skye all the way into the center of the planet. They now stood directly before Ego's core.
"This guy really is just a giant brain… and it actually looks pretty human."
Gwen rested her chin on her hand while studying the core closely. Inside it was Ego's actual brain—a pale white mass with clearly visible folds, radiating blue energy from every surface.
"Karl?! Where are you right now?"
Tony immediately asked.
"We're deep underground at the planetary core. We already found it."
This time it was Skye who answered. Gwen was too busy inspecting Ego's brain, while Karl and Wanda were just as curious. After all, seeing it in a movie was one thing—seeing the real thing in person was completely different.
"We're heading toward your location right n—"
The transmission suddenly became distorted and unstable.
After blasting through the underground layers with plasma fire, the ship entered a surreal realm filled with intertwining blue and green light. Everywhere around them were tangled structures resembling neural pathways, all converging toward a single point—the planetary core itself.
From beside the core, Karl finally spotted the ship and waved toward them.
The ship landed, and Quill immediately jumped out, rushing straight toward the core.
"I checked already. We need to drill completely through the core to reach Ego's brain."
Gwen stepped back and explained.
"That's easy. We just keep drilling with the plasma cannons."
Quill waved toward Yondu aboard the ship and pointed at the core.
Without hesitation, Yondu opened fire again, turning the weapon output to maximum.
Suddenly, the entire area began violently shaking.
Then an enormous giant emerged from outside the core itself.
The giant's body was covered in blue energy, and its eyes shone like massive floodlights.
"Not good! It's Ego! He found us!!"
Quill immediately drew his guns and unleashed a barrage of shots at the giant, but his blasters were nowhere near strong enough. The giant ignored the attacks entirely and slammed a hand directly toward the ship.
"You… will all die…!!"
The giant roared as its mountain-sized palm descended from above.
At this distance, there was no time to escape. The enormous hand covered such a vast area that dodging was impossible anyway.
Hummmm—!
Just as everyone thought they were doomed, crimson energy suddenly erupted outward and forcefully stopped Ego's massive hand in midair.
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