"Attack! Fire at will—shoot her down!"
At the fleet commander's order, every warship unleashed its full arsenal, saturating the space ahead with indiscriminate fire.
More than a dozen frigates fanned out. The battleships' main cannons charged, and launch bays yawned open along both wings, vomiting out countless small assault craft that swept around from the flanks like a locust swarm—a dark, churning tide pressing toward Tifa.
The main cannons finished charging. Secondary guns opened up first, and dense volleys of missiles had already completed a saturation bombardment.
Three waves of attacks came crashing in, one after another. In an instant, beam after beam blazed to life, weaving a blinding curtain of light that lit up the dark universe.
That overwhelming, annihilating barrage was the Kree Empire's proudest military might—the very thing that let them rampage unchallenged across the boundless starry void.
Yet the very next second, Tifa vanished without a trace. The beams that had been so awe-inspiring a moment ago now seemed as small as grains of rice, flaring up briefly before swiftly dying out.
The iron hooves of war, the rays that spelled death—all of it proved utterly brittle before Tifa's strikes.
The Burning Legion had sent only three people, and they swept through the Kree fleet, forcing the Kree to choose negotiations.
The news spread across the universe, showing countless beings the Legion's might. Plenty of wanderers and factions wanted to join, but the Burning Legion accepted none of them.
"What do you want?"
The Kree negotiator met with Zod Hess directly.
"Where's the Supreme Intelligence? It's not coming to negotiate with me?"
Zod frowned.
"The Supreme Intelligence has granted me full authority to handle this."
The one facing him was none other than the Kree Marvel Squad's captain—Mar-Vell.
Zod Hess was, of course, quite familiar with the original Captain Marvel. But this clearly didn't match the comics or the movies. Carol had already run off into the universe to dispense justice, so why was the original Captain Marvel still here? Or was it just the same name?
The fact that the Marvel Squad accompanied the negotiation team to the Burning Legion was obviously the Supreme Intelligence's attempt to intimidate them.
Unfortunately, it probably still didn't grasp the power of Kryptonians. Someone like Captain Marvel—unless he was as strong as his comic counterpart—could be taken out, along with his entire squad, by any random Kryptonian.
"Captain Marvel, I've heard your name. But what I want is simple: knowledge and talent."
Zod Hess nodded and said.
"That's impossible!"
Mar-Vell shook his head, his voice firm.
Zod Hess had long expected that response, so his gaze shifted to the negotiator.
"The Supreme Intelligence won't agree either. But regarding those who were captured, we can let it go. We'll leave it at that."
The negotiator said something that caught Mar-Vell completely off guard.
"I don't agree!"
Mar-Vell shot to his feet.
But in the next moment, a green light glowed in his eyes, and he froze in place. Clearly, the Supreme Intelligence had seized control of him.
"Supreme Intelligence, is it? My demands are very simple. All of the Kree Empire's scientific knowledge and talent. If you refuse, we keep fighting."
Zod stared at the controlled Mar-Vell as he spoke.
Right now, it was the Burning Legion that held the advantage, not the Kree Empire. Even though the Legion's numbers were few, their combat power was off the charts. And Zod Hess had already grasped the basic use of the Space Stone. Like Asgard's Bifrost, he could deploy forces directly—no long voyages, no need to punch through layers of defenses. He could drop them straight onto the enemy's homeworld.
If it really came to war, Zod would just drop Esdeath and the others onto the Kree homeworld. Let them see how they stopped three Kryptonians. Not to mention the Kree Empire was still at war with the Skrull Empire.
The Supreme Intelligence quickly calculated, then agreed to Zod Hess's terms.
Once both sides reached an accord, the Supreme Intelligence arranged for the transfer of knowledge and talent. However, due to security concerns, it would take considerable time to deliver.
Zod agreed to that. Even if they wanted to stall, it didn't matter.
"An AI's rationality truly surpasses that of living beings. If I'd said that to living beings, it would've sparked outrage. They'd rather be broken jade than whole tiles," Zod mused.
"The other party is more advanced than me."
The Black Queen had also heard about the Supreme Intelligence.
It was the living computer created by the Kree—the "Supreme Intelligence," embodying the Kree's highest wisdom, containing all their science, philosophy, military thought, ideology, and more.
Though the Supreme Intelligence was essentially immobile, it possessed every known psionic power: telepathy, telekinesis, cosmic awareness, sensory linking, perception, precognition, and others.
The Supreme Intelligence had super-intelligence and could also manipulate energy and matter. It created three robots to serve it, utterly loyal yet possessing a degree of independence, acting as its remote senses.
It typically manifested as a green, amorphous giant human face, though sometimes it appeared as an orange dragon or a green octopus. It could communicate through hair-like tendrils with agents scattered across the cosmos and could project its image into other spaces as well as the astral plane.
After merging with an inert Cosmic Cube, its abilities were further enhanced. It could manipulate reality within a limited range and create portals between dimensions. Currently, the Cosmic Cube served as the Supreme Intelligence's true, independent bunker, while a decoy organic computer had been created to mislead any would-be assassins.
The Supreme Intelligence was a supercomputer system, built by the Kree Empire using the greatest minds of their thinkers, generals, philosophers, and scientists. It was the supreme leader of the Kree, endowing them with all knowledge and spiritual strength.
Originally, the Supreme Intelligence would never have agreed to the Burning Legion's terms. But after analyzing Zod Hess and the Legion's strength, it chose to yield.
Because the Burning Legion was simply too powerful.
Even though their exact numbers were unknown, the three great warriors and their leader alone gave the Supreme Intelligence a sense of unfathomable depth.
In order to deal with the Skrull Empire, the Supreme Intelligence chose to compromise. For now, eliminating the Skrulls was what mattered most.
Zod Hess, of course, didn't push his luck. He took the win and stopped there.
At the same time, he announced the formal establishment of the Kryptonian Empire. The Burning Legion was merely its military force.
Zod Hess was the "Emperor" of the Kryptonian Empire!
"The Kryptonian Empire?"
"What are Kryptonians? Why have we never heard of them before?"
"What I want to know is, are all Kryptonians as strong as the Burning Legion's three great warriors?"
/-\
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