Power Stone

Dru Zod finally remembered the main matter, his face darkening as he said, "You're right, now is not the time for this."

He pulled Zhou Xiao into the room, his expression more serious than ever before: "Son, there were things I planned to tell you only after you officially took over as the Fortier Empire's Military Leader, but..."

His face turned sorrowful as he glanced at the sky filled with apocalyptic layers of star battleships—Aeo noticed that, aside from the Capital Legion deployed by the Kryptonians themselves in orbit around Krypton, there were also strange, grotesque biological ships mixed in that he had never seen before.

"Father, these are..."

"Those are the Chitauri Empire's fleet, one of the Death Titan's minions!" General Zod gritted his teeth.

Aeo felt a chill. Chitauri, wasn't that...

Zod cut off his wandering thoughts, "That's not important now, son. What matters is that Krypton faces its most severe challenge yet!" Zod's expression was grim. "Why the Capital Legion collectively mutinied, your father and the Council haven't figured out yet, but one thing is certain..."

Zod's face showed murderous intent, "They've all rebelled, no doubt about it! Earlier, your father received reports that something seemed off with the Legion, but when the military investigated, they found nothing! For such a massive star fleet, that's far too unusual! Looking back now, the Death Titan's disappearance earlier must have been him seducing the empire's fleet on the Capital Star..."

Aeo blurted out, "The Mind Stone!"

Zod's eyes flashed sharply, clearly having thought of something as well, his face turning extremely ugly, "Right, aside from the Mind Stone, there's probably nothing else that could instantly tempt the entire Legion!"

"You found this in the empire's archives? The mystery of the Death Titan's power..." Even facing imminent destruction, Zod still felt genuine satisfaction and pride in his son's intelligence and maturity. "The empire always suspected that while the Death Titan's power was terrifying, he couldn't possibly have subdued so many evil minions to serve him at once. Now it seems the Mind Stone is in the Death Titan's hands. No wonder..." Zod muttered to himself.

Aeo: "..."

His shock was no less than Zod's. He knew the Mind Stone was with Thanos because in his past life watching the movies, Loki used it to control Hawkeye and Dr. Erik Selvig—the scepter came from Thanos and contained the Mind Stone, and in Avengers: Age of Ultron, it even gave birth to Vision. But he never expected even Zod to know about the Stones... Was this in the plot? Aeo was dumbfounded.

Then he thought, Thanos's disappearance from everyone's sight earlier was probably to set up this conspiracy against the Kryptonians. After all, the current Kryptonian civilization was extremely powerful, with race abilities that defied heaven. Without sufficient preparation, even Thanos couldn't just dominate the empire. (This refers to Thanos before obtaining the six Infinity Stones.)

But...

Aeo looked doubtfully at the anxious General Zod, puzzled: "Father, setting everything else aside, why does Thanos want our Codex of Life? Surely he doesn't plan to create a Fortier Civilization? He has the Mind Stone—if he wanted the empire to serve him, he wouldn't need to go through all this trouble. He could just use it a few more times, like with the Capital Legion..."

Zod shook his head: "The empire isn't so easily controlled, even with the Mind Stone..." He couldn't help but glance at a small safe he had been holding.

"The empire has its own countermeasures..."

Huh?

But Zod didn't give him a chance to ask more. He looked at the sky and finally said impatiently, "Time is short, son. We'll talk more later. Now..."

He opened the safe and pulled out something that shocked Aeo to his core.

"Is this... the Codex of Life?" Aeo said stupidly.

"Father! How do you have the Codex of Life? Isn't it kept in the empire's Genesis Vault, in the Life Slot that requires signatures from the Council, the Military, and the Science and Technology Institute to access? How is it in your hands..." Staring at the golden-glowing humanoid skull, Aeo was dumbfounded.

Zod silently crushed it with a powerful grip of his hand!

"Father!" Aeo cried out. But then a purple glow leaked from General Zod's hand, making Aeo's jaw drop. At the same time, Zod seemed to be enduring something, with faint purple light flickering from his hand.

Pushing aside the gray bone fragments, Zod, sweating on his forehead, pointed at the glowing object and said to Aeo: "The Codex of Life was just its disguise. The Power Stone is the true source of our Fortier's power."

"The reason Thanos wants the Codex of Life is that he knows it's actually the Power Stone."

"..." Aeo's mind was completely overwhelmed.

(Again, this isn't a comic or a movie—everything follows what the author writes.)

Ignoring his utterly shattered psyche, Zod continued: "You can verify the details with Eiffel later. I've already submitted a request to the Imperial Supreme Council (not the Council of Truth, but the empire's highest authority composed of all three bodies) to have you take over as Krypton's Military Leader early. The Council agreed, so you can check some records through Him later..."

Aeo glanced at the silent Eiffel, who seemed to be downloading data or something.

"..."

Taking his silence as agreement, Zod went on: "In short, son, time is short! Your father knows you have many questions, but let me finish injecting this Gene Code into you first. Then wait for the empire's counterattack to begin, and escape from Krypton..."

His face sorrowful, he wiped Aeo's still-immature cheek, his tiger eyes full of love and affection. A test tube-like syringe in his hand plunged into Aeo's carotid artery with lightning speed.

Though he knew his father wouldn't harm him, Aeo still reflexively tensed his body at the cold liquid being injected into him.

"It's okay, it's okay..." Zod said with infinite tenderness, softly speaking to his son: "My son, this is just a reagent to complete your life code. It won't harm you. With it, you have nothing to fear..." He mumbled a few vague words.

Aeo checked himself and found nothing wrong with his body, so he relaxed and asked again, "What?"

"Nothing." Zod shook his head. Clearly, even at this point, there were still secrets he didn't want Aeo to know. "Alright, son, stay here. Wait..." Zod forced a smile. "For the empire's counterattack to unfold, then take the chance to escape from here. Find a quiet, suitable place to continue our civilization..."

"And you?" Aeo asked with difficulty.

"..."