Earth, North America, Missouri.
This had originally been an inconspicuous Midwestern state in the United States.
If not for the famous writer Mark Twain having come from here, people's impressions of it would have been almost entirely limited to farms, ranches, vast primeval forests, and beautiful natural scenery.
But now, it had become the focus of the whole world.
Whether it was the government, the military, the recently dismantled and rebuilt S.H.I.E.L.D., or the Avengers Alliance, all had gathered here to watch the mysterious dark-blue substance that had swallowed vast stretches of land, forests, buildings, and highways.
Clearly, this mysterious dark-blue substance glowing with a faint light was nothing else but the plant Ego had once sown—or rather, his own clone.
His original purpose had been very simple: to replicate his own cells in massive quantities, assimilate more planets, and even create others like himself.
Because in his eyes, most Intelligent Lifeforms in the universe were too primitive and too disappointing, unworthy of coexisting with him in the same world. So he had wanted to reshape everything according to his own will.
In that regard, he was quite similar to Thanos.
Or rather, many villains in the Marvel Universe shared similar traits.
Their actions were not driven by the pursuit of personal power, authority, or desire, but by ideals—by their belief that they were creating a better future.
Unfortunately, those seeds had only been half-activated before Ego was eaten by Vilnalasath.
The cells that had lost his control remained in this half-activated state, neither expanding nor contracting.
If attacked from the outside, they would release energy and explode in retaliation.
Such counterattacks often possessed the destructive power of tens of millions of tons of nuclear weapons, leaving even the US Government at a loss for what to do. They could