The study at Morgan Manor was dimly lit.
Loren sat in a high-backed chair, a floating holographic screen before him. Blue particles of light formed a clear image in the air.
The ruins around an abandoned textile mill in Brooklyn—collapsed walls, shattered ground, and a gold-and-red figure soaring into the sky.
The video had already finished playing.
Loren reached out and dragged the progress bar back to an image from two minutes earlier.
The Skrull's body was changing, gradually shrinking, reorganizing, and transforming from Hulk's massive green form.
It finally froze on a silver, slender figure whose surface rippled with cosmic energy.
He pressed pause.
The silver figure froze on the holographic screen, with long limbs, a smooth head, and no obvious facial features.
Its entire body resembled a mirror, reflecting the firelight and moonlight from the surrounding ruins.
But that silver was not an ordinary metallic sheen. It was a living energy field, slowly flowing.
It was as if an entire galaxy had been compressed into a layer of skin covering the creature's body.
Loren stared at the image, and for the first time, a grave expression appeared in his gray eyes.
He recognized that form.
He did not recognize this Skrull. The Skrulls' shapeshifting abilities allowed them to imitate the appearance of any creature.
But he had seen this appearance itself—this silver, mirror-like form carrying cosmic energy.
Silver Surfer.
Galactus's herald.
Loren leaned back in his chair and lightly tapped the armrest twice with his fingers.
His expression did not change much, but the air in the study changed.
It became heavier, more oppressive, like the suffocating pressure before a storm.
"Tifa." He spoke softly, but his voice carried clearly beyond the door.
The door was pushed open, and the curvaceous Tifa walked in, her blue eyes calmly