The Infinity Stones, when brought together, can cancel each other's powers.
Ronan didn't know this. His understanding of the Infinity Stones was limited to what Thanos had once told him.
So when the Power Stone's energy began to dissipate on the Dark Aster and the ship lost its dominance, Ronan immediately turned to look at Nebula beside him.
This blue-skinned woman, sent by Thanos under the pretense of helping him, clearly had her own agenda.
"What's going on? Why is the Stone's power vanishing? What did you do behind my back?"
At that moment, Ronan felt like he'd been stabbed in the back.
Thanos, and the people he sent, had never truly intended to help him. They were all just waiting to watch him fail.
Nebula felt a chill down her spine under his gaze. She raised her hand and swore to the sky.
"It wasn't me! I have no idea why this is happening!"
Of course Nebula didn't know. To this day, even Thanos had never directly held two Infinity Stones at the same time. Naturally, he didn't know about the restrictions between them.
But down below the Dark Aster, Bumblebee didn't care about any of that. His massive metal wings flashed as his entire body turned into a yellow whirlwind, charging straight toward the ship.
The purple light on the Dark Aster had completely disappeared, and the ship's shields and cannons hadn't even had time to activate.
When the Infinity Stone was active, Ronan never considered that his ship might be directly attacked, so none of these systems were turned on.
Now, it gave Bumblebee a perfect opportunity to break through.
"Rev it up!"
Su Ye dubbed a voice line for Bumblebee in his head, then watched as Bumblebee launched a punch skyward, smashing into the belly of the Dark Aster.
The punch struck true, and the entire Dark Aster shook violently. The ship itself deformed, and the belly caved in significantly.
Bumblebee's punch didn't destroy the Dark Aster outright, but it gave the people of the Nova Empire tremendous hope.
Especially the Xandarians who had participated in the prayer with Aerith—they felt proud, as if the punch had been thrown by their own hands.
"There was my strength in that punch too!"
"If not for my prayer, that godlike mechanical giant wouldn't have appeared—so this was my contribution!"
"This is Xandar's counterattack! A counterattack by all of us Xandarians together!"
"Charge, mechanical god! Kick those invaders' butts and send them back to their home in the Kree!"
Amid the crowd's cheers, Bumblebee didn't let them down. Despite his massive body, he was incredibly agile in the air.
The thousand-meter-tall robot moved like a nimble bee in flight, first delivering a rising punch that further caved in the Dark Aster's hull, then following with a rising kick that sent the ship spiraling upward.
Then, Bumblebee, like a martial artist in berserk mode, began an intense barrage of punches and kicks on the Dark Aster.
As it fought, a strange sound effect seemed to appear in the minds of the Xandarites.
"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!"
Bumblebee performed an aerial version of the Dragon-Tiger Dance, delivering hundreds of punches in no time.
By the time he finished the combo, the Dark Aster was no longer a pretty sight.
Its surface was covered in craters, some parts had their outer hull blown apart, exposing the interior and the shocked faces of a few unlucky Kree.
Those unfortunate Kree were full of confusion.
If someone had told them beforehand that a giant would punch through the Dark Aster, they never would've believed it.
But now the truth was right in front of them.
In front of Bumblebee, the Dark Aster's defense was worthless.
"You!"
In the control room, Ronan held his hammer in one hand. Before him was the ship's control system—a transparent sphere wrapped in some kind of mysterious viscous liquid.
Behind him stood Nebula, expressionless, lost in thought.
When Ronan spoke, Nebula immediately looked up.
"Didn't you say you'd help me destroy a thousand planets?"
It was something Nebula had said before: if Ronan helped her kill Thanos, she'd join him and help him destroy a thousand planets.
"Well, this is the first one. That yellow monster is yours—can you handle it?"
Hearing this, Nebula cursed in her heart.
'You want me to deal with the guy you couldn't beat yourself? What do you think I am—your mom, cleaning up all your messes?!'
But outwardly, her face remained blank.
"I said—after Thanos is dead, I'll help you. Not now."
She might be losing, but Nebula wasn't going to admit she couldn't beat Bumblebee.
'Just a clunky hunk of metal. What's the big deal?'
Inwardly, she scoffed at Bumblebee, though her face didn't show it.
With her body modified into a half-human, half-machine state, she could no longer express many emotions.
Seeing her like this, Ronan snorted.
"Useless."
Then he stood up, grabbed his hammer, and walked toward the command room exit.
Before leaving, he reached out and pulled the Power Stone off the ship's control core.
"Ah!"
In that moment, the immense energy from the Infinity Stone surged into Ronan's body, causing him to tremble.
This state didn't last long, and soon, Ronan slammed the Infinity Stone into the head of his hammer.
The hammer glowed with purple light, and Ronan's eyes glowed with the same purple hue.
"This feeling is still here. Good."
Ronan let out a breath.
When the Infinity Stone was embedded in the ship, it had been receiving attacks and releasing massive energy storms.
Now that the Infinity Stone was embedded in the hammer, the ability to release energy storms mysteriously disappeared.
However, the enhancement of power to both the weapon and his body didn't fade.
At this moment, Ronan felt an overwhelming surge of power within him, almost as if he was about to explode.
"Leave that bastard outside to me. You all stay here and control the ship, and have the repair team get to work. This war isn't over, our conquest of the Nova Empire has only just begun!"
With that, Ronan strode out. Nebula raised her hand as if to stop him, but said nothing.
With the Power Stone in hand, Ronan didn't even fear Thanos anymore—let alone Bumblebee.
Outside the Dark Aster, Bumblebee's assault continued.
After a round of fierce attacks, the Dark Aster's metal skin showed signs of cracking. Bumblebee prepared to follow up with another big move to finish off the ship.
Just then, a blue figure flew out of the ship.
"I am the Conqueror—Ronan! You dare to interfere with my conquest of Xandar?! Die!"
Ronan was ruthless too; without saying much, he immediately shot towards Bumblebee.
With the Power Stone empowering his hammer, flying was effortless, and his strength had increased many times over.
The hammer in his hand now resembled a divine weapon. With a single swing, he smashed Bumblebee's thousand-meter body backward.
"Come on, bastard! I'll show you the power of Ronan the Accuser!"
In the air, Bumblebee righted himself. His blue eyes adjusted as he looked at Ronan flying toward him.
"This guy is strong. In my current form, I probably can't beat him."
As he spoke, Bumblebee's body suddenly flashed with light, then began rapidly shrinking.
In just moments, he went from a towering thousand-meter structure to a roughly three-meter-tall giant.
Shrinking his size many times increased his body's density by just as much.
Through it all, Bumblebee's weight didn't change.
What changed was his density.
Now, his body was hundreds of times denser than iron.
At this level, his body alone could be considered a divine artifact.
Metal hundreds of times denser than iron? Even Uru didn't weigh this much.
Now in his shrunken form, Bumblebee could fight Ronan more effectively.
Ronan didn't realize this. He even scoffed at Bumblebee's shrinking move. With a snort, he swung his hammer and charged again.
Boom!
With a loud crash, it was Ronan who was sent flying this time.
With his ultra-dense body, Bumblebee not only knocked Ronan flying with one punch, he nearly shattered the Power Stone-empowered hammer.
This body of Bumblebee's was definitely a treasure.
If a human had a body like this, they'd basically be a divine being.
"Fighting the Power Stone head-on with just a body? How is he so strong?"
Ronan was filled with questions.
Meanwhile, the praying Xandarians seemed to understand the truth.
"This is the power of our prayers!"
"This is the power of the planet!"
"This is the power of unity—we will win!"
"Praise be to the great planet!"
On the other side, Ronan couldn't believe it. He couldn't accept that Bumblebee was truly this powerful. He charged again.
But the outcome was already decided.
The Power Stone's energy had long been mostly nullified by the Reality Stone—only a little remained to mildly boost his strength and weapon.
Meanwhile, Bumblebee was practically a divine weapon, enhanced by Su Ye.
After a few exchanges, Ronan's hammer finally couldn't withstand Bumblebee's blows. It shattered mid-air into pieces.
The Power Stone burst free—only to be instantly swallowed by a chunk of metal that came out of nowhere and disappeared.
At that moment, Ronan was utterly defeated.
His hopes of avenging his ancestors were gone. The glory of the Kree Empire—buried by his own hands.
"I'm not willing! I won't accept this ending! Aaaah!"
With a mournful scream, Ronan was punched by Bumblebee. His body exploded mid-air into a rain of bloody flesh.
After obliterating Ronan with one punch, Bumblebee turned his gaze to the three Shinra special forces still surrounding Nova.
"Those are the ones trying to overthrow this planet and destroy our nation. O emissary of the planet, eliminate them and return peace to our world!"
The will of the Xandarians had coalesced into a torrent of consciousness, continuously flowing into Bumblebee's mind.
Bumblebee seemed to hear their prayers. After a brief pause in the air, he flew straight toward Nova's direction.
At this time, Nova was under siege by three super-powerful opponents.
Sephiroth's strikes could cleave the sky. The other two, though a bit weaker, weren't lagging behind.
Surrounded, Nova could only defend—he had no strength to fight back.
At this rate, he would soon be defeated and die like Ronan.
Just then, Bumblebee charged into the scene.
Though they had been fighting, the three had divided their attention and noticed Bumblebee's immense power.
Thus, upon seeing Bumblebee flying toward them, they immediately launched a coordinated attack.
Moments later, Bumblebee arrived, and the three had already retreated from Nova and regrouped to face him together.
"Hu…ff…"
In the sky, Nova could barely speak. His body was covered in injuries. Blood had dyed his clothes red. His right arm and left leg were missing—just empty stumps remained.
"Thank you… sir!"
Seeing Bumblebee fly over, Nova forced out a word of gratitude.
No matter what the outcome of the war, the man known as Nova was retiring from battle.
Bumblebee nodded calmly, then took a stance to face the three special forces soldiers.
"Come at me, traitors of the planet!"
"Traitors… of the planet?"
Across from him, Sephiroth was stunned. His grip on his blade even trembled slightly.
They were Shinra experiments. Their power came from the planet's life force extracted by Shinra. So when they saw Bumblebee, they felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
Now, hearing him speak as a representative of the planet…
Their fighting spirit instantly diminished by half.
Special forces soldiers without fighting spirit were like tigers without fangs—their threat level dropped significantly.
And at this point in the war, the outcome was already clear.
When the Great Wall Guardians descended from the sky and joined Bumblebee in clearing the ground forces, Shinra's downfall had arrived.
As for the Dark Aster in the sky—it had quietly slipped out of the atmosphere and disappeared into the cosmos.
"So… how am I supposed to send this thing back to Old Su?"
In the sky, seated in the Dark Aster's control room, Su Ye suddenly found himself facing a new problem.