The scent of tea still lingered in the study at Morgan Manor.
Loren sat in a high-backed chair, his eyes fixed on the lawn illuminated by moonlight outside the window.
His body looked relaxed, but Tina knew that was only an appearance.
After devouring the energy of the Celestial Embryo, his very presence had changed.
He was like a once-calm lake. Its surface remained mirror-smooth, but its depths had become a bottomless abyss.
Tina stood across from the desk, her fingers lightly tracing the rim of her cup. The coffee had gone cold, but she had not taken a sip.
Her mind was still processing everything she had witnessed at the Earth's core.
A thirty-kilometer Celestial Embryo. Dark-red beams of energy.
Loren's hand blade splitting open the Embryo's skull, his right hand plunging into its chest, pulling out the source of its life, and devouring it.
Then he had tossed the Embryo's remains into a space he had created, as casually as throwing away trash.
"What are you thinking about?" Loren asked curiously when he noticed Tina staring at him.
Tina picked up her coffee cup and took a sip.
The coffee had gone cold, and bitterness exploded across her tongue.
She set the cup back on the tray, turned around, and looked out the window.
Moonlight fell across her face, and a golden glow flickered faintly in her amber eyes.
"I've lived on this planet for centuries. I've witnessed countless human wars, disasters, and deaths.
"I've never seen anyone who could pull a planet back from the brink of destruction the way you did.
"Not once, but many times.
"Thanos, Knull, the Celestial Embryo...
"You did what we Eternals had not dared to do for millions of years."
"You didn't dare because of your mission. You were created not