"I blossom amid slaughter..."
"Blossom amid slaughter..."
"Amid slaughter..."
"Blossom..."
Over and over, over and over, as though tens of millions were bowing their heads in devout prayer, or as though a holy priest were softly chanting beside their ears.
Though the words brimmed with killing intent, they unexpectedly had a bizarrely soothing effect.
The vigilant Astra lowered the heavy cannon from his shoulder, while confusion gradually filled The Other's guarded eyes. The two, who had never gotten along, seemed to set aside their prejudices amid the repeated "chanting," agreeing to contemplate the ideals of life together among the ruins. Even with the weapons of the guards' corpses pressed against their foreheads, they paid no heed.
They were already hopelessly immersed in the ocean of philosophy.
"Interesting."
"Still making pointless resistance, Beckett?"
Watching the expression on Beckett's face shift at such close range, Shafrin raised his right hand with interest. Energy gathered at the tip of his long index finger, and a silver beam shot straight into Beckett's mind.
"Give up. I will be the nightmare you can never escape."
"Now, kneel and swear allegiance to your master."
The special power originating from a fragment of the Mind Stone caught Beckett completely off guard. Veins bulged across his forehead as the shockwave from his bent-over roar raged around his feet, resisting Shafrin's mental control.
"The last person who said that to me—care to guess what happened to her?"
Enduring the bone-deep pain, Beckett straightened up and stared directly at Shafrin standing before him, that defiant smile still curling at his lips.
Not even his adoptive father, Thanos, had ever ordered him around like that. Who the hell did this Shafrin think he was?
"What?"
A brow lifted beneath Shafrin's black-and-white striped mask, surprise coloring his voice.
His ever-reliable mental control