Among everyone present, the most shocked was Mantis.
This was the first ti she had ever seen soone capable of standing against Ego—no, not just standing against him, but utterly overwhelming him in a one-sided beating.
In her mind, Ego had always been invincible. Everywhere he went, he was the one slaughtering others. Never the other way around.
Titan continued throwing punches relentlessly.
Ego's gigantic blue body was already battered beyond recognition. Even the blue energy composing him could no longer stay contained and was leaking uncontrollably.
He had long since lost the ability to fight back. He couldn't even move.
Then—
BOOM!
Another heavy punch landed.
At last, Ego's enormous energy body shattered apart completely. Blue energy scattered in every direction as the giant form vanished.
"ROOOAAAR—!!!"
Titan rose to his feet and let out a thunderous roar toward the heavens, clearly still unsatisfied.
But the next second, the scattered blue energy rapidly gathered together once more.
The blue giant reford.
Taking advantage of Titan's roar, Ego suddenly locked him from behind.
Titan's arms were pinned backward as Ego's own arms threaded beneath them and clasped tightly around Titan's neck.
The pressure increased steadily.
Titan's arms began bending backward at impossible angles—angles no humanoid body should ever reach.
Clearly, they were about to snap.
"Earthling... here, I am the strongest."
Ego's cold, emotionless voice echoed beside Titan's ear.
He still looked down on them completely.
But suddenly—
Another pair of arms burst out from Titan's ribs.
The new arms instantly grabbed Ego's head, and imnse force began crushing his skull.
Ego never expected Titan to grow another pair of arms.
Feeling the terrifying pressure compressing his head, Ego experienced pain unlike anything before. His grip loosened for a split second.
And that single mont was exactly what Titan wanted.
With a violent surge of strength, Titan broke free from the hold.
His newly ford arms still clamped tightly around Ego's head, refusing to let go.
Then, behind Titan, earthen-yellow light erupted brilliantly.
One arm after another made entirely of energy materialized in the air.
Wrathful Heavy Punches!
With a furious roar, the countless arms descended like a storm of teors, hamring into Ego's body.
Ego was completely restrained in place.
One pair of arms held his head.
Another pair locked down his own arms.
He couldn't move at all.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
This ti, Titan's punches carried far more than brute strength.
As his rage intensified, the earthen-yellow energy beca increasingly violent.
Ego's body was as fragile as paper before the barrage.
Every punch pierced through him effortlessly.
His body exploded apart once again.
Yet monts later, Ego regenerated yet again.
As long as his core remained intact, he could recover endlessly.
Titan, however, could not.
His energy reserves were limited.
He simply couldn't afford a prolonged war of attrition.
Once Titan's energy was exhausted, he would revert back into Karl's original body—and at that point, Ego could kill him with ease.
Now everything depended on Skye.
As long as she could shatter the core in ti—even exposing just a fragnt of Ego's true brain—they could destroy him completely.
anwhile, Skye continued focusing on breaking the core apart.
Its toughness far exceeded her expectations.
Fine beads of sweat had already appeared across her forehead. Whether from exhaustion or worry for Karl, even she didn't know.
At the sa ti, Quill's ship quietly approached the core from another direction.
"Skye, we're going to attack the core from this side too. Be careful."
Tony's voice ca through the communicator.
Rocket had already maneuvered the ship around to the opposite side of the core, while Ego remained fully occupied fighting Titan.
"Got it."
Skye didn't reduce her vibration output.
Instead, she increased it even further.
The plasma beam fired once more.
Just like when they drilled through the planet's crust earlier, the beam began boring into the core.
Unfortunately, the core's hardness far surpassed ordinary rock.
Even the plasma cannon struggled to make progress.
"Increase the output! Don't worry about energy consumption!"
Rocket barked.
He had stolen several Anulax batteries from Sovereign, and after modifications, they could fully replace the ship's power cells.
Energy wasn't an issue at all.
The plasma beam intensified to maximum power and slowly drilled deeper into the core.
anwhile, Titan had already destroyed countless giant forms created by Ego.
Yet Ego still appeared completely energetic, without the slightest sign of fatigue.
In fact, he was beginning to gain the upper hand against Titan.
Titan's attacks remained ferocious, showing no outward sign of weakening—
but inside, Karl himself was already drenched in sweat.
His mana reserves were nearly depleted.
At most, he could maintain Titan for another five minutes.
Crack—!
Suddenly, a crisp sound rang out.
It wasn't loud.
But everyone heard it.
Including Ego.
Because Skye had finally shattered a small fragnt off the core.
And that tiny fragnt beca the final snowflake that triggered the avalanche.
In an instant, the entire core collapsed like shattered glass.
Countless fragnts exploded outward in every direction.
And at the center of the broken core—
a gigantic brain-like structure appeared before everyone.
"So this is Ego's core? A brain?"
Inside the ship, everyone stared in disbelief.
Tony spoke first.
Because the thing before them looked exactly like a human brain.
The shape.
The folds.
The texture.
Everything was nearly identical.
But Ego was an alien.
Well... technically, Ego himself also looked almost human.
"Open fire! Destroy it now!!"
Quill imdiately shouted excitedly.
But Gamora stopped him.
"Not yet. Karl and the others are still there."
Tony nodded in agreent.
anwhile, the instant Ego saw the core shattered and his true body exposed, he roared furiously and charged toward Skye's position.
A gigantic hand swung down, intending to crush the three won instantly.
But he overlooked Titan.
Just like Ego earlier, Titan suddenly locked onto the giant body from behind, preventing him from advancing even a single step further.
Karl knew this was their final opportunity.
His mana could no longer sustain Titan much longer.
Right now, the priority was getting Skye and the others onto the ship safely before destroying the core.
Then everyone heard Karl's voice directly in their minds.
"Gwen, take Wanda and Skye and teleport into the ship. I've already marked the location."
Everyone imdiately turned toward the enormous Titan restraining Ego.
"But... what about you?"
Gwen asked imdiately.
"Don't worry about . After destroying the core, I'll teleport onto the ship imdiately. Only after all of you leave can I safely retreat."
Karl's voice sounded again.
Then he continued:
"Rocket, full throttle. Get the ship off this planet imdiately."
Rocket never hesitated at critical monts.
The instant he heard Karl's order, he pushed every engine to maximum output.
At the sa ti, the plasma beam intensified once more, drilling through the planetary crust as the ship sped desperately toward escape.
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