Thanos, Danger!

In the Dark Nebula, on a massive planet.

A villa stood at the center of a plain lush with flowers and grass. Ego looked at the dimming screen and spoke. "Mantis..."

"I'm here."

A female alien with two antennae extending from her insect-like forehead had been walking outside. Upon hearing him, she turned back.

"I keep having an ominous feeling." Ego rubbed his forehead.

"I sensed an unusual energy from my son. Help me gather information on what he's been doing these past years."

"Understood."

The woman named Mantis possessed an innocence tinged with indifference. Whether she was inexperienced in the ways of the world or simply pure-minded, her ethereal voice carried no emotion.

Rather than a "person," she was more like a humanoid tool.

And that was indeed the case. Ego merely needed her abilities to help his human form sleep. As a Celestial, wasn't it normal to have a few unspeakable troubles?

Mantis then left.

Seated in his chair, Ego—still publicly known as a neutral interstellar explorer—felt increasingly unsettled as he rubbed his forehead. That unprecedented panic made his heart race, and even caused the entire planet to tremble faintly.

Yet he could not understand why.

As a Celestial, there were only a handful of people in the universe who could threaten him.

Those beings were all busy with their own affairs. Who had the time to come looking for trouble with him?

"Perhaps it's because I finally succeeded?"

Ego thought so.

"Out of so many seeds, only this one took root and sprouted... But he seems not to have discovered his divine power yet. He probably just thinks of himself as an ordinary Earthling. Mental shackles are limiting his development of that power."

"Before we begin our work, I need to give him a hand."

At that