Marvel: Empire of Power-Chapter 116 - 115: Island of Deceit, Legion’s Fury, a Symbiote’s Beckoning

The Kree light cruiser Kree Vigilance descended through the manufactured, irradiated storm clouds swirling around "Mistfall Island," its sensors desperately trying to analyze the chaotic energy signatures. On its bridge, Commander Tar-Ronn, a veteran of numerous pacification campaigns, frowned at the anomalous readings. This "Terrigenesis event" was unlike anything in the Kree archives – too potent, too erratic, tinged with energies that felt... wrong. But orders from Admiral Varr-Gohl were clear: investigate, assess the Inhuman potential, and if viable, secure all Terrigen sources and "Alpha-Plus" Inhuman specimens for the Empire. Deploying ground teams was risky given Earth's demonstrated unorthodox defenses, but the potential prize was too great.

Below, hidden from Kree sensors by the Sea Serpent's advanced cloaking and Namor's subtle manipulation of local oceanic currents (creating a "dead zone" in Kree sonar), Thomas MacIntyre watched the Kree landing shuttles detach from the Vigilance and descend towards the island's volcanic peak. His six True Legionnaires – Marcus Primus, David Secundus, Dubois Tertius, Macgregor Quartus, Miller Argent, and Elena Scythe – stood ready on the Sea Serpent's launch deck, their golden eyes burning with focused anticipation, their Legionnaire armor gleaming faintly in the storm-dimmed light.

"They're taking the bait, lads," Thomas rumbled, his voice amplified by his tactical helmet. "Mr. Thorne wants prisoners, tech, and enough... 'essence'... to push us over the line. No survivors among their combat troops unless absolutely necessary for intel. Let's show these star-hoppers how Earth welcomes uninvited guests."

As the Kree shuttles landed amidst the steaming, Element X-laced geysers of Mistfall Island, their ramps hissing open to disgorge squads of heavily armed Kree warriors and several lumbering, heavily armored Kree Sentries (automated combat drones, precursors to the more infamous Sentry robots of Kree legend), the Adamantium Guard struck.

They didn't make a conventional amphibious assault. Instead, O'Malley, from the Sea Serpent, activated another "Blackwood Skunkworks" marvel: a series of short-range, high-intensity teleportation beacons he had pre-deployed around the island's peak using micro-drones during the manufactured storm. With a shimmering distortion of reality, the six True Legionnaires teleported directly into the heart of the Kree landing zones, appearing amidst the disembarking alien soldiers with terrifying suddenness.

[LEGIONNAIRE TACTICAL TELEPORTATION (SHORT-RANGE – O'MALLEY DEVICE): SUCCESSFUL. ELEMENT OF SURPRISE: TOTAL.]

The Kree, renowned for their rigid military discipline, were momentarily thrown into disarray. Then, their warrior training kicked in, and the battle for Mistfall Island began.

It was a slaughter, but not a one-sided one. The Kree were formidable. Their plasma rifles seared the volcanic rock, their energy shields deflected initial Legionnaire attacks, and their Sentries laid down devastating barrages of particle beam fire. But they were facing something beyond their combat doctrines.

Marcus Primus was a golden god of war, his kinetic absorption and redirection abilities turning the Kree's own energy blasts against them, his concussive palm strikes shattering Kree armor and sending aliens flying. David Secundus, the techno-adept, seemed to dance through the firefight, his mind interfacing with Kree weapon systems, causing them to overload or target their own troops, while his own energy blasts, refined and precise, disabled Sentry joints and fried Kree comms.

Dubois Tertius, his "Energy Gauntlets" now capable of projecting short, focused beams of searing heat or bone-jarring kinetic force, was a whirlwind of destruction, carving through Kree ranks. Macgregor Quartus, the "Shadow Stalker," used his sensory disruption fields and near-invisibility to become a phantom assassin, his obsidian-hard bone claws finding every chink in Kree armor, his movements too fast, too erratic for their targeting systems.

Miller Argent, the "Trauma Revenant," was an unkillable nightmare. He absorbed Kree plasma bolts that would have vaporized a tank, his Legionnaire regeneration knitting together scorched flesh and shattered bone with terrifying speed, his cryo-resonant talons freezing Kree weapon systems solid before tearing their wielders apart. Elena Scythe, "Kinetic Blade," moved with deadly grace, her projected energy scythes bisecting Kree Sentries and deflecting heavy fire, creating openings for her comrades.

They fought as a single, cohesive unit, their Praetorian loyalty and System-enhanced tactical matrix allowing for feats of coordination and mutual support that bordered on telepathic. Thomas MacIntyre, monitoring from the Sea Serpent and receiving direct sensory feeds from Marcus Primus (a new Legionnaire Prime ability), provided calm, precise tactical guidance, exploiting Kree weaknesses as they emerged.

Commander Tar-Ronn, aboard the orbiting Kree Vigilance, watched the telemetry from his doomed ground teams with growing horror and disbelief. His elite warriors, his advanced Sentries, were being systematically dismantled by a handful of... something that moved with inhuman speed, healed from catastrophic wounds, and wielded energies that defied Kree classification. This wasn't Inhuman Terrigenesis; this was something else, something terrifyingly potent and utterly unknown to the Kree Empire.

"Status report!" Tar-Ronn barked at his comms officer.

"Ground teams... critical casualties, Commander," the officer stammered, his blue skin paling. "Telemetry... failing. The hostiles... they are... unlike anything in our databanks. Their energy signatures are... layered, artificial yet biological, resonating with... with the planet itself, almost."

Tar-Ronn knew when a mission was lost. "Recall all surviving ground units! Initiate orbital bombardment protocol – targeted sterilization of the island. No Kree technology, no specimens, are to fall into primitive hands!"

But it was too late. On Mistfall Island, the last Kree Sentry exploded under a combined assault from Marcus and Dubois. The few surviving Kree warriors, their morale shattered, were either incapacitated by Elena's precise kinetic strikes or... "persuaded" into surrender by Miller's chilling presence. The Adamantium Guard had secured the island.

O'Malley's salvage drones, immune to the residual Element X radiation, swarmed the Kree shuttles and disabled Sentries, stripping them of their data cores, power cells, and advanced weaponry. The captured Kree (a dozen, including two science officers) were secured for transport back to Montreal.

[KREE GROUND FORCES (MISTFALL ISLAND) – NEUTRALIZED. ADVANCED KREE TECHNOLOGY/WEAPONRY/PERSONNEL SECURED. "OPERATION MISTFALL" OBJECTIVES ACHIEVED. Prime Essence Shards Acquired: +1.3 (from elite Kree warriors, Sentry Drones, & high-ranking science officers with minor cranial implants). Total Shards: 5.1/??? HOST HAS AGAIN REACHED THRESHOLD FOR MAJOR SYSTEM INITIATIVE.]

Five full Shards once more. Elias Thorne felt the familiar surge, the System ready for his next grand design.

Just as Thomas MacIntyre was about to give the signal for O'Malley to remotely detonate the remaining Element X charges and "cleanse" Mistfall Island to remove any lingering evidence, Elias's private comm channel to Marcus Primus crackled.

"Creator," Marcus's calm, psionic voice resonated directly in Elias's mind. "The Klyntar... it senses something. Within the volcano. Beneath the island. An immense psychic resonance. Not Kree. Not Skrull. Something... older. Something it... fears. And desires."

Elias frowned. Namor had mentioned "ancient slumbering things." Had their manufactured Terrigenesis event and the subsequent battle awakened something truly primordial?

The System confirmed, its tone almost awed: [ANCIENT BIO-SIGNATURE DETECTED (DEEP SUBTERRANEAN – MISTFALL ISLAND VOLCANIC CALDERA). CLASSIFICATION: UNKNOWN PRECURSOR ENTITY (POSSIBLY DORMANT WORLD-SHAPER OR PLANETARY DEFENSE MECHANISM). POWER LEVEL: INCALCULABLE (OMEGA-PLUS/COSMIC ABSTRACT). KLYNTAR SYMBIOTE EXHIBITING EXTREME AGITATION/INTEREST – POTENTIAL FOR UNCONTROLLED BONDING/CONSUMPTION IF EXPOSED. KREE VESSEL "VIGILANCE" INITIATING ORBITAL STERILIZATION BOMBARDMENT. IMMEDIATE EVACUATION RECOMMENDED.]

An Omega-Plus/Cosmic Abstract entity? And the Kree were about to nuke the island. This changed everything.

"Thomas! Marcus! Abort island sterilization!" Elias commanded. "O'Malley, get the Sea Serpent clear! Full power to shields! Marcus, what can the Klyntar tell you about this... entity? Can it be communicated with? Controlled? Acquired?"

"It is... rage, Creator," Nox's mental voice was strained. "Ancient rage. And hunger. The Klyntar... it wants to bond with it, to consume its power, but it fears utter annihilation. It whispers of... 'The Devourer of Worlds'... a name from its oldest racial nightmares."

The Devourer of Worlds. Galactus. The name slammed into Elias's consciousness with the force of a physical blow, a chilling echo from the System's deepest, most forbidden databanks, reserved for threats that could unmake galaxies. This wasn't just an ancient being; this was potentially a herald, or even a fragment, of something far, far worse.

Just then, the Kree Vigilance unleashed its orbital bombardment. Lances of pure, annihilating energy slammed into Mistfall Island. The volcano erupted, not with lava and ash, but with a shockwave of pure, psychic despair and an explosion of raw, chaotic cosmic power that even Elias felt across the globe, staggering him in his Montreal vault.

The Klyntar symbiote bonded to Marcus screamed, a silent, psychic shriek of terror and primal, opportunistic hunger that almost shattered Marcus's Legionnaire composure. Nox collapsed to his knees aboard the Sea Serpent, black tendrils writhing around him, his golden eyes burning with an unholy fusion of his own power and the symbiote's now fully awakened, ravenous desire. freēwēbnovel.com

The island of Mistfall was gone, vaporized in a flash of cosmic fire and psychic anguish. The Kree orbital bombardment had seemingly succeeded. But Elias knew, with a sickening certainty, that they hadn't destroyed the entity. They had awakened it. And in doing so, they might have just signed Earth's death warrant.

He had his five Shards. He had a Klyntar-bonded champion teetering on the brink of cosmic madness. And somewhere, in the void between worlds, or deep within the planet's core, something ancient, terrible, and impossibly hungry, was stirring. The Kree were no longer his primary concern. A far greater, far more existential, game had just begun.

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