Chapter 145
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"Frankly, Ego's background is actually quite significant," the dialog began.
"Although he's essentially just a flawed product, he is indeed a member of the Celestial race!"
"Compared to the other Celestials, he may not measure up, but for the whole universe, he's still a force to be reckoned with."
"Particularly his Expansion scheme, that could truly engulf the entire universe."
"If Star-Lord hadn't thwarted it, I imagine our whole universe would've faced eventual extinction."
"Unfortunately, the world doesn't deal in 'what-ifs.'"
"Ego's critical mistake was targeting Star-Lord, which ultimately led to his demise—blown to bits, a truly tragic end."
"A Celestial, perishing from a bomb, is indeed an embarrassment to the gods!"
"Star-Lord's father is a Celestial!"
Shock immediately painted itself across Tony Stark's face.
It was indeed beyond what Iron Man had anticipated.
Especially since the diary had just detailed how unreliable Star-Lord seemed, even dancing during the planetary invasion, causing his prestige to plummet in Iron Man's eyes.
Who could have guessed Star-Lord had such an impressive lineage?
He is the son of a Celestial!
Does that not suggest that Star-Lord himself is a member of the Celestials?
The diary hadn't detailed much about the Celestials.
It merely mentioned that Odin created the Destroyer to counter the Celestials.
Even this fact alone speaks volumes about the stature of the Celestials.
They are beings even a deity like Odin prepared for with great caution.
But there was one thing Iron Man hadn't expected—a mighty Celestial group resulting from a sphere?
So, Odin's concern was so considerable that he painstakingly created the Destroyer to deal with a sphere?
For a sphere, isn't that somewhat extreme?
Even Ego, the "defective product," was a force to be reckoned with in the cosmos.
It's hard to fathom what the true Celestials, far mightier than Ego, are like.
"The Expansion project?"
Tony Stark's attention was captured, and he couldn't help but gasp at the thought.
Could this plan truly consume the entire universe?
How astonishingly frightening!
We're talking about devouring the universe!
Iron Man had been severely agitated when the diary spoiled that Dormammu intended to consume Earth, shattering his world view.
The thought of consuming an entire planet was shocking enough!
And now, Tony Stark realized that in comparison to Ego, Dormammu was insignificant.
Ego aimed to consume not just one or a few planets, but an entire universe!
How many planets are there in the entire universe?
The Milky Way alone hosts some forty billion!
And the Milky Way is just a tiny corner of the vast cosmos.
What level of being could consume the entire universe?
Even with Tony Stark's intellect, he couldn't imagine it.
And so, he was stunned and speechless by the revelation that followed.
Such a terrifying existence, defeated by a bomb used by Star-Lord?
Had Star-Lord truly killed his own father?
A patricide, indeed!
The reasons for Star-Lord's filicide weren't disclosed by the diary, and naturally, Iron Man couldn't know.
That question wasn't significant to Tony Stark; Iron Man didn't dwell on it.
His main concern was that Ego had been annihilated by a bomb?
What a jest!
A fearsome entity capable of consuming the universe, a Celestial, felled by a mere bomb?
No matter how you looked at it, that seemed preposterous!
What level of terror did Star-Lord's bomb reach?
It seemed overly simplistic and crude to consider only the bomb's yield as the cause.
After all, a Celestial wouldn't just stand idly by waiting to be blown up.
Regardless, using a bomb to kill a Celestial seemed preposterous, but somehow more credible than the idea of a dance saving the galaxy.
That truly stretched credibility to its limits.
So, was this Star-Lord's style, or the style of the Guardians of the Galaxy?
Utilizing outlandish methods to achieve what appeared to be miraculous feats?
If so, the Guardians of the Galaxy indeed seemed like an incredibly interesting team.
Iron Man was quite keen to witness it firsthand.
Tony Stark was beginning to look forward to the collaboration mentioned in the diary between the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy.
"Celestials?"
Meanwhile, Thor was deep in thought.
For most Asgardians, the name was unheard of, but Thor was different.
As the Asgardian prince, he naturally had higher clearance.
He had glimpsed scant references to the Celestials in a very ancient text.
It was rumored that in a bygone era, his father, Odin, had a monumental conflict with the Celestials.
The specifics of the war—its course and outcome—were not recorded.
Thor had once asked Odin, but he had remained cryptic, revealing nothing.
Thor knew the matter wasn't so simple.
Now, thanks to the diary, Thor finally understood why his father had gone to such lengths to create the Destroyer—to fight the Celestials!
This was Odin, the All-Father, the Father of Gods!
Thor had never seen his father take such precautions against anyone before.
"Celestials!"
Thor repeated the name emphatically, embedding it in his memory.
If his father had made the Destroyer, that indicated that one day, the Celestials could reappear in the Nine Realms, in Asgard!
As the Asgardian prince, Thor felt compelled to take on this responsibility.
Of course, before that, the God of Thunder would first need to take up his hammer again.
Thankfully, after communication with Black Widow, Thor was gaining some insight.
Thor is confident that it won't be long before he can retrieve his hammer and transform into Thor once again!
"So the thing that Ego regrets the most in his life must be coming to Earth and meeting Star-Lord's mother, right?"
"It has to be said that Star-Lord's mother must have been very charming to make a being like Ego fall in love."
"After all, Ego has admitted himself that he fell in love."
"Sadly, for the sake of his grand plan to sow his seeds in the universe, Ego still ended up killing Star-Lord's mother."
"In the end, dying at the hands of his son can only be regarded as poetic justice."
"However, I remember that Ego was not the first Celestial to appear on Earth."
"It seems that the Celestials had come to Earth a million years ago, and the Eternals and Deviants were created by them using primitive humans."
"It's worth mentioning that the Celestials are really fond of experimenting with higher forms of life in the universe."
"Probably nobody knows that both the Kree and the Skrulls were also created by them, right?"
"Ego actually came to Earth?"
"Star-Lord is actually a product of a Celestial and a human?"
Tony Stark couldn't help but blurt out in surprise.
He never imagined such a thing.
One is a supreme entity revered throughout the universe, and the other is just an ordinary person on Earth.
Isn't the gap between them way too huge?
To give an inappropriate analogy, it's like comparing ants to giants.
The diary is right—Ego must have been truly attracted to Star-Lord's mother, who was indeed very charismatic.
And with that realization, Tony Stark gained a deeper insight into Ego, the "flawed Celestial."
Since Ego came to Earth and fell in love with Star-Lord's mother, a natural conclusion is reached:
Ego must have come to Earth in human form!
After all, it's impossible for Star-Lord's mother to fall in love with a non-human, right?
Not everyone has a taste as exotic as the Scarlet Witch.
Case closed!
The age-old mystery of how a celestial being could procreate with a biological entity is finally revealed here.
Moreover, the "universal seeding" mentioned in the diary becomes clear to Tony Stark all at once.
What's universal seeding?
Isn't it just spreading one's offspring throughout the universe?
Undoubtedly, this is the real truth behind Ego's numerous offspring!
He must have descended onto a multitude of planets just like he did on Earth, assuming the identities of many different aliens, thereby further propagating his lineage.
Considering the whole context, the universal seeding plan must be just like this.
But how could this plan devour the entire universe?
It's just about having more children, right?
Does Ego plan to lead an army of Celestials to conquer the entire universe?
How many would he need to produce for that?
As for Ego truly falling for Star-Lord's mother and being in love, Iron Man is just cynical.
Killing a person and then claiming true love?
That's nothing short of a cosmic joke—no doubt, Ego is an archetypal scoundrel!
"The Kree and Skrulls are actually experimental products of the Celestials?"
Nick Fury is equally shocked by this revelation.
Having experienced the Kree-Skrull war firsthand, he is well aware of the power of these two interstellar races.
Without hesitation, both the Kree and the Skrulls are among the top-tier species in the galaxy.
Even the Skrulls, who were beaten down and lost their homeworld to the Kree, are still strong!
Fury never imagined that such powerful interstellar races were the result of the Celestials' experiments!
The Celestials are indeed a very powerful and frightening race!
As for the Eternals and Deviants, Nick Fury is hearing these names for the first time, obviously not knowing much about them.
But even so, from the names alone, one can infer these two races must also be significant.
The "Eternals"—if not so powerful, who would dare claim eternity?
And the "Deviants"?
Having mutated, they likely possess very strong abilities.
Fury makes such logical conjectures.
"The Eternals were created by the Celestials?"
Thor, seeing another diary, is also surprised.
Unlike Fury, Thor is familiar with the Eternals.
Not only is he familiar, but he also has a good relationship with them.
In Thor's youth, Asgard was at war with the Frost Giants, and Odin allied with several warriors of the Eternals to fight against them.
After the war, Odin shared the secret recipe for Asgardian mead with Gilgamesh, and Thor often pestered Kingo.
Although it has been over a thousand years and the contact with the Eternals has become less frequent, Thor has not forgotten those days.
However, he couldn't possibly have imagined that the Eternals, who once helped Asgard win the battle, were also the Celestials' experiments.
"I remember that because of the experiments on humans, Odin and the Celestials once had a war."
"At that time, Odin assembled some allies and engaged in a fierce battle with the Celestials."
"Unsurprisingly, they suffered a terrible defeat, leaving Odin with psychological scars."
"Later, Odin even planned to collect the Infinity Stones and went as far as creating the Infinity Gauntlet, which I suspect is because of the defeat by the Celestials."
"But for some reason, Odin later abandoned the plan to collect the stones and kept the Infinity Gauntlet as a collectible instead."
"He then created the Destroyer."
"So this is the truth?"
Thor finally understands the "story" between his father and the Celestials.
No wonder his father didn't want to discuss that battle much!
Given Odin's proud nature, the fact that he kept that battle a secret from Thor and others had already given Thor some hints.
Now, with the revelation from the diary, he is even more certain.
It seems that the Celestials are indeed tough to deal with!
That's why Thor feels an even greater sense of urgency.
He must retrieve his hammer as soon as possible and return to Asgard!
"Did father also plan to collect the Infinity Stones?"
This spoiler is also beyond Thor's expectations.
Through the diary, he already knows about Thanos, who wiped out half the life in the universe with the goal of collecting the Infinity Stones.
It's surprising that his own father had once intended to do something similar.