Hela, clearly at fault, chose silence, though she couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.
She blamed Jennifer's lackluster culinary skills.
Had Jennifer managed to prepare that rib and soup into a radiant, divinely infused dish worthy of the godly bone, she might've captured the glorious sight of Lothar writhing on the ground, cheeks flushed, gasping for breath.
A pity, really.
Regret was written all over Hela's face.
The Other, standing at alert with his staff in hand, kept casting wary glances at Hela.
He strongly suspected she was scheming something ill-intentioned toward Prince Lothar, but had no evidence.
"If nothing's wrong, I suggest you crack open that bone," Hela finally said coolly. "The marrow inside is where the divine essence truly resides."
She didn't know the exact process, but she recalled a similar case from Asgardian Biology Compendium II—the royal edition.
Lothar, who hadn't been force-fed the entire compendium of galactic academia by Thanos like some others, felt her tone was... off. But he couldn't quite pinpoint why.
Ignorance, again, had cost him.
After demonstrating superior magical prowess, Hela had now found a second domain in which she could utterly eclipse Lothar—knowledge.
Her mother, Frigga, who oversaw her cultural education, often said: Knowledge is the staircase to Asgard's continued greatness.
Thanos had tried to educate Lothar in his youth, too, but the boy had shown no aptitude. If not for Thanos' patience, torn textbooks would've been a daily occurrence.
That was precisely why Thanos had granted Lothar's two primary AI aides unrestricted access to his personal data archive—an exclusive privilege not even Ebony Maw or the rest of the Black Order possessed.
The Black Order had earned their knowledge over millennia of conquest and service.
Lothar couldn't study, but Daddy Thanos had AI tutors train him instead. The results? Roughly the same. And it freed Lothar to master other pursuits.
"Woz," Lothar said, activating his AI assistant.
"Prince Lothar," the cat-like Woz replied, his tone cautious, "the energy contained in this bone is immense. Woz recommends you do not consume it all at once."
Saying that, Woz, currently shaped like a robotic feline, lowered his head, rummaged through his pouch, and pulled out a warship repair hammer... and a straw.
Huffing along on stubby legs, Woz hefted a significantly larger divine bone than the others they'd encountered.
With one swing, CRACK—bone split, divine juices flowed.
Moving quickly, Woz inserted a straw into the steaming marrow, added a few slices of tart-sweet fruit from his pouch, and mixed a refreshing palate cleanser to accompany the dish.
He plated it all neatly, turned, and presented the platter above his head.
"Your meal is served, Prince Lothar."
"You can cook too?" Lothar asked, sipping the marrow with full trust in Woz.
He didn't feel anything unusual. So he took another sip.
"Learned the basics from Gaitz at the base," Woz replied with a grin.
Within minutes, the divine bone was reduced to powder, its essence entirely consumed.
"You finished the whole thing?!"
Hela stared in shock at Lothar's astonishing gluttony.
Not a single pause between bites, and yet his body remained completely unchanged.
Jennifer was still groaning on the ground, her body struggling to assimilate the divinity laced within the soup.
"You don't feel like your body's heating up?"
"No strange surge of unfamiliar power surging inside you, making you want to release it?"
Hela furrowed her brow, certain she hadn't misremembered the textbook.
"What exactly are you expecting?" Lothar asked, frowning. But then, his voice caught. His pupils contracted sharply.
My body…?
Suddenly, Lothar felt as if a fire had ignited in his chest—scorching, primal. Steam began to rise from every inch of his skin.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Lothar's heartbeat thundered like war drums, echoing in every ear nearby.
Invisible pressure descended on the area as blood began seeping from his pores, coating him in crimson. He looked terrifying, like a god of battle born from blood.
"Prince Lothar!"
"Don't approach him!" Hela barked, flicking her hand.
A golden longsword shot from her palm and impaled the ground at The Other's feet, halting his advance.
"This is divine rejection," she said grimly.
The foreign divinity was trying to seize control of Lothar's cells, and his own divine essence was rejecting it.
A natural conflict.
Whether Lothar would dominate the invading force, imprisoning it within as fuel, or be overtaken and transformed into a mindless puppet of divine wrath, depended entirely on him.
As she spoke, a radiant golden bow appeared in Hela's hands.
She nocked an arrow and aimed it straight at Lothar, whose eyes were now turning white.
"What are you doing?!" The Other shouted.
"Lady Hela, cease this reckless action!" Woz's usual cheerful face had turned stone-cold.
"I'm simply doing what must be done," she said, her voice like steel.
Her mother had warned her of the dangers of foreign divinity. Asgard had once seen a case like this, it took Odin himself to subdue the being that lost their mind.
"Tch…"
"Still… not enough…"
Lothar growled through gritted teeth, his body swelling with power, muscles bulging, veins surging.
"RAAAAAAHHHHH!"
A roar ripped from his throat, sending shockwaves across the surface of Sakaar.
He stomped the ground with force, golden-tipped hair sparking with electricity. Flames of energy swirled around him, but unlike a typical transformation, his power continued rising.
In his Super Saiyan form, Lothar's cells devoured the hostile divinity, converting it, endlessly, into fuel.
BOOM!!!
Thunderclouds flooded Sakaar's sky. Bolts of lightning struck down like celestial judgment.
Even Ego's whispers about cosmic malice paled in comparison; Lothar felt it.
Lightning crashed, slamming into him from all directions.
Snarling, Lothar launched himself upward, fist raised toward the skies.
"That's…!"
Under the wrath of the cosmos itself, chaos erupted across Sakaar.
Within the heart of the storm, a shirtless, golden-haired warrior bellowed defiantly and dived headfirst into the clouds.
RUMMMMMMBLE!
Thunder shattered the sky.
A golden figure split the storm apart, lightning spiraling around his powerful frame.
His energy, once flame-like, now erupted like jets from his back.
"I am the world," Lothar declared, voice cold, resolute.
"So long as I will it… the world will stand beside me."
A blinding silver-white beam of energy tore through the heavens.
The voice, commanding, absolute, echoed across every corner of Sakaar.
"That is…"
Lightning flared. Ki blazed. Golden hair whipped in the wind.
This was a new form... reforged in divine fire.
A power beyond Super Saiyan limits.
Super Saiyan 2—Lothar's own evolution!
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