Chapter 767

“We should start at Asgard! It should be easier as it is Thor’s home. No one knows it better than him and he should be willing to go back there again.” Natasha said as she said her piece of mind, surprising the crowd as they looked over to Thor who was still silent. Everyone began to frown as they didn’t think Thor could manage the mission for now. 

“I don’t mind having Thor seize this opportunity to return to Asgard, but I think we are best to go back to London to get the Reality Stone.” Dio said as he rejected Natasha’s idea.

“And why is that?” Natasha asked.

“Do you remember the woman who attacked Wakanda before Thanos showed up? That woman was just a puppet that the Reality Stones controlled! The real enemy at that time was a shadow conscience that I once tried to wipe out. It is because of my negligence that it transferred over to the Reality Stone! That is the reason we must get the Reality Stone without bringing over that Shadow Conscience with us!” Dio said solemnly.

“Well, if that is the case, then there is nothing else to say! But did you still remember the specific time for that matter?” Tony said with a shrug.

“I still remember that date, so the Time Travel Point for Reality Stone is set!” Dio said as he nodded his head acknowledgingly. “Now, we can cross the Power Stone too from the list as this stone is in my possession for a long time.” Dio said casually.

“Hold on! What did you mean by that? Isn’t Quill the one who got his hand on that stone?” Rocket asked confusedly.

“You are right, but after the incident on Xandar, the Nova Squadron gave it to me for safekeeping. Well, I sold it to the Collector later, but I took it back after he failed to protect it!” Dio said casually. Everyone was left speechless by Dio’s word as they had never heard of something like this! What made everyone even more speechless was that Dio was able to fool the Collector himself!

Rocket just shook his head as he didn’t know whether to mourn for Peter Quill’s foolishness or praise him for ever getting his hand on the Infinity Stones. But it might also be said that Peter Quill was blessed! He was blessed that he didn’t cross path with Dio before. Otherwise, Peter might die on Dio’s hand!

But this revelation might not be good news at all. If the Power Stone was in Dio’s possession for a long time, how could they retrieve it without enraging the past Dio?

“So, what is your plan?” Steve asked after a while.

“It is difficult to take it from me without me getting alarmed in the past, but I am sure I can talk my way out of it directly. But then again, we are supposed to avoid ourselves in the past to avoid any sort of accident in the present.” Dio said as he began thinking again.

“Morag! Quill once said that he got his hands on the Cosmic Orb at Morag! We can just go to Morag before Quill and take it so that we have a lower risk of encountering any unwanted attention!” Rocket said as he remembered what Peter Quill said about in the past.

“It might be the best plan we had for now. I know that after getting his hands on the Cosmic Orb, Quill headed straight to Xandar immediately too! If we somehow foil our first plan, we must ambush Peter before he got to Xandar!” Dio said solemnly.

Morag wasn’t some mysterious planet. In fact, it could be found easily on the Star Map that was already made by so many empires. This way, Power Stone’s problem has been solved.

“Now, what do we do about the Soul Stone?” Dio said as he wanted to advance the plan as quickly as possible.

“Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir, but it was my sister Gamora who found out about that Stone first!” Nebula said as she stood up. She was angered by what happened to Gamora and so was Rocket who still couldn’t believe that Thanos sacrificed Gamora for the Stone.

“So, where is this Vormir planet? Can it be found on the map?” Natasha asked curiously.

“No, it was a place that only existed in legend, it was a kingdom of death that was located in the center of the universe! But I have the spatial coordinates for that planet!” Nebula said frustratedly. She didn’t want to remember that place as it was the place where Gamora died by Thanos’ greed! 

Dio himself already know about Vormir, but he didn’t know the whereabouts of that place itself! It was fortunate that Nebula saved the coordinates before she betrayed Thanos. But there was another cruel part that might be hard to solve regarding the Soul Stone.

“Wait! I have some information about that Stone! It is especially important and if we come unprepared, it could be a disaster in Vormir later!” Dio interrupted before they moved on to the next topic.

“What do you know, Dio?” Natasha asked curiously as she saw Dio became tense as he talked about the Soul Stone. She realised that Dio’s complexion changed compared to when they discusssed about the previous two Infinity Stones. She picked up on that change and figured out that there might be some extraordinary circumstances with the Soul Stone.

“I learned from the Grandmaster that in a way to get one’s hand on the Soul Stone on Vormir, we must trade a soul for a soul! Meaning that the Soul Stone requires a sacrifice!” Dio had to use the Grandmaster’s name here as he knew that he couldn’t explain how he knew this information without mentioning the Grandmaster.

“A soul for a soul?” Steve said as he was surprised by the condition to retrieve the Soul Stone. It was an incredulous task that made anyone think again about proceeding with the plan.

“Yes! In exchange for the Soul Stone, a soul had to be sacrificed, and it’s not just any soul either! It must be a soul of a loved ones! I think this is also the reason Thanos killed Gamora in Vormir!” Dio said with a frown on his face.