Marvel : Super Soldier at the Start

"Lord Ronan, perhaps you should retreat. This man's power is terrifying; our forces can't stop him," one of Ronan's subordinates urged.

"Retreat? We have nowhere to retreat to!" Ronan's eyes revealed a glimmer of despair. The Kree Empire had already severed ties with him. After vowing to destroy Xandar, Ronan had sworn an unbreakable oath to the Mad Titan. Without the Power Stone, there was no path left for him but death.

Thanos' colossal figure loomed like a shadow over Ronan's head. Whether or not he succeeded in his mission, failure meant death all the same.

"Pass my orders," Ronan said, his voice tinged with sorrow as he gazed at the screen, where his soldiers were dying one after another. "Tell them to cease the attack. There's no point in this senseless sacrifice. Return to Kree Prime. Their hatred is directed at me, not at you. The Supreme Intelligence will take you back."

Ronan was the embodiment of the purest Kree ideology—militaristic, bent on the destruction of the galaxy's great empires. Those who followed him were similarly hardline hawks. For the glory of the Kree, they disregarded not only the lives of other races but also those of their own people.

The subordinate, who had followed Ronan for over a century, saw despair and weakness in his leader's eyes for the first time.

"Lord Ronan, we are warriors—Kree warriors," the subordinate said, attempting to reignite Ronan's resolve.

"I know you are the finest warriors of the Kree," Ronan said, his tone softening as he looked at the man with admiration. "But you must return."

Raising his voice, Ronan's demeanor turned sharp and commanding once more. "The fools now ruling the Kree Empire seek comfort and peace, forgetting the glory of the Kree. I may fall here, but you must return. You are the embers of our legacy. If you don't want to see the Kree reduced to this state forever, infiltrate their ranks, rise in power, and preserve our ideals."

"One day..." Ronan's gaze shifted toward the window, his voice softening to a near-whisper. "One day, the glory of the Kree will illuminate the universe once more."

"This is an order. Carry it out immediately!" Ronan stood tall, raising his hammer in a Kree military salute.

"Yes, Lord Ronan!" the subordinate replied solemnly.

Ronan's subordinate departed, taking with him Ronan's will, armor, and hammer. The Kree soldiers on the ship quickly boarded escape pods, leaving the mothership behind.

Whether this so-called ember could reignite Kree militarism in the future, Blake didn't know. What he did know was that Ronan's time had come to an end.

When Blake blasted open the metal door to the bridge with a fireball, he found Ronan standing bare-chested, wielding a planet-busting energy cannon dismantled from the ship. The massive barrel of the weapon pointed directly at Blake and his companions.

Of course, "planet-busting" here didn't mean it could destroy an entire planet in one shot, but it could inflict significant damage—a weapon akin to Earth's nuclear arsenal in terms of power.

"Boom!" Without a word, Ronan fired the cannon.

A brilliant, miniature sun-like energy blast illuminated the bridge, its blinding light forcing Blake, Yondu, and Star-Lord to shield their eyes instinctively.

Despite being temporarily blinded, Blake reacted swiftly. A pale blue energy shield materialized around the trio, forming a protective barrier several meters wide.

The energy blast collided with the shield. "Boom!" The violent explosion shook the ship, but the barrier, powered by the Space Stone's energy, remained unyielding. The cannon's immense force backfired, throwing Ronan into the control panel with bone-crushing force.

Ronan had fired this shot with the resolve to die. However, as the explosion unfolded, he caught a glimpse of that faint blue glow and the faint, mocking smile on the human's face behind it.

The blast tore the ship apart, scattering debris across the skies. The once-mighty vessel was reduced to a fiery wreck, leaving the heavens eerily empty.

Amid the dissipating light, a faint blue oval of energy flickered in mid-air. Blake retracted the shield, clutching Yondu and Star-Lord by their collars as they slowly descended to the ground.

"People really need to stop trying to go out with a bang. I should just keep a shield up from the start during fights," Blake muttered with a wry smile. He hadn't anticipated Ronan using such a devastating weapon onboard. Without the shield, the explosion could have left him severely injured, and Yondu and Star-Lord would have been obliterated.

Yondu, visibly shaken, took a deep breath. As a seasoned Ravager captain with a notorious reputation across the galaxy, he understood all too well the weight of Ronan's name.

A warrior who had terrorized the cosmos for years had resorted to a desperate, self-sacrificial attack, only to fail miserably, leaving not even a trace of his body behind.

"Let's give him a grave. Bury something symbolic. He was a brave warrior, and he deserves to have his name etched on a tombstone," Yondu suggested, his tone heavy with respect.

"Sure," Blake nodded, shoving aside Star-Lord, who was lamenting the destruction of the massive ship.

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