Thanos landed.
The battlefield fell silent.
Not the silence of fear—but a physical stillness. Sound, light, even the wind itself slowed in his presence. He did nothing at all; merely standing there, the fluctuations of the four Infinity Stones caused the very fabric of space to groan under the strain.
"Banner!" Steve roared.
Dr. Bruce Banner, piloting the Hulkbuster armor, moved first. With a furious bellow, he charged like a runaway locomotive straight at Thanos.
Thanos didn't even look at him.
He casually raised his left hand. The Space Stone flashed blue.
The charging Hulkbuster—and the hundred meters of ground around it—were instantly sliced, folded, and crumpled like scrap paper, then embedded into a distant mountainside, leaving behind a massive, twisted lump of metal.
"Open fire!" Tony's voice rang through the comms.
His arc reactor surged to maximum output. Repulsor blasts and shoulder-mounted micro-missiles fired simultaneously. War Machine unleashed everything he had in support.
A barrage capable of leveling a small city.
Thanos merely waved his hand.
The Reality Stone pulsed red.
Every shell, laser, and missile turned into colorful soap bubbles midair, drifting lightly upward before popping silently under the sunlight.
That was far more despair-inducing than simply blocking the attack.
Steve charged forward.
He knew he was insignificant—but he had to charge.
Thanos finally glanced at him. There was the faintest trace of approval in his eyes—but mostly indifference.
He raised his hand. The Power Stone glowed.
He didn't punch—he simply pressed downward toward the ground.
Boom!
A purple shockwave exploded outward, the earth rolling like waves. Steve, Tony, Rhodey—and every Wakandan soldier struggling to stand—were blasted away like leaves in a storm, utterly powerless.
Thanos stepped forward, heading toward Vision, who lay in Shuri's lab, his fate uncertain.
As he passed Doctor Stephen Strange, he paused briefly.
"Your resistance is meaningless," Thanos said calmly, as if stating a fact. "I am merely correcting an inevitable error—returning everything to its proper course. You, Guardian of Time, should understand this better than anyone."
Strange clutched his chest and coughed up blood, saying nothing.
Thanos moved on.
With each step he took, the Avengers' hearts sank further.
No one could stop him.
Then—
A seven-colored beam of light crashed down like a spear, slamming into the ground before Thanos.
The light faded.
Thor stood there, Stormbreaker in hand, lightning blazing in his eyes.
"Thanos!"
With a roar, Thor hurled Stormbreaker. The axe became a bolt of lightning, tearing through space with a piercing screech, aimed straight at Thanos's chest.
Thanos raised his gauntlet. The Power Stone flared, firing a pure energy beam to deflect it.
But Stormbreaker was unstoppable.
It split the beam, only slightly deviated—and buried itself deep into Thanos's left shoulder.
Purple blood erupted.
Thanos's massive body swayed. He looked down at the axe embedded in his shoulder, surprise appearing on his face for the first time.
"You… should have aimed for my head."
He grabbed the handle. The Power Stone flared again, forcing the axe deeper into his flesh while sending a devastating surge of energy back along it.
Thor screamed as he was blasted away, smashing into a distant cliff, his fate unknown.
Just as Thanos prepared to pull out the axe and continue toward Vision—
A black shadow appeared silently behind him.
Levi.
A punch—wrapped in a thin layer of black mist that seemed to devour all light—struck squarely into Thanos's back.
Thanos's massive body stiffened.
The black power wasn't absorbed by his bodily laws. Instead, it seeped in—like a vicious curse, eroding his life force. For the first time, large portions of his supposedly immortal Titan body began to rot and decay.
Pain surged through him. He let out a suppressed grunt as the force sent him flying forward hundreds of meters, crashing to the ground.
He struggled to turn back—and saw the familiar figure.
"You."
"It's me," Levi said coldly.
He didn't attack again. Instead, he spread his arms.
An invisible domain instantly enveloped the entire battlefield.
"Within my domain—pain is false."
Inside the domain, the wounds of every Avenger and Wakandan soldier began healing at visible speed. Steve rose to his feet. Tony's armor began repairing itself. Banner tore himself free from the mountainside. In the distance, Thor opened his eyes.
Thanos stood up slowly. Looking at the spreading black decay across his chest and back, his eyes filled with wariness. Without hesitation, he activated the gauntlet—the Reality Stone flared.
Red light rewrote reality.
The deadly necrosis was forcibly suppressed and erased under the combined force of his laws and the Stone.
"Within my domain—you are all dust."
Levi's voice rang out again.
Inside the domain, every Outrider except the Avengers began silently disintegrating, breaking down into fundamental particles.
Thousands of monsters were wiped out within moments.
"I told you—within my domain, I am the only truth!"
His voice was like a divine decree.
But Thanos merely sneered.
He raised the fully restored Infinity Gauntlet. The four Stones merged into a chaotic beam of light, slamming into Levi's domain.
"Your truth is worthless!"
Boom!
The domain trembled violently. Spiderweb cracks spread along its edges.
Levi's face paled.
He could suppress Thanos himself—but not the combined power of four Infinity Stones.
"This place is too small," Levi said, eyes blazing with battle intent. "Let's take this somewhere else."
With a swipe of his hand, a massive spatial rift opened between them. On the other side—silent cosmic space.
"Coming?"
Thanos glanced toward Vision—then back at Levi—and stepped in without hesitation.
The rift closed.
On the battlefield, only the stunned Avengers remained.
---
In the silent void of space, two figures faced each other from kilometers apart.
Levi's domain fully expanded, like a massive transparent sphere enclosing them. Within it, starlight froze, and drifting meteors hung motionless.
Thanos floated at the center, four Stones gleaming ominously on his gauntlet. When he looked at Levi now, there was no longer disdain—only pure killing intent.
"Your growth has exceeded my expectations," Thanos said, his voice echoing directly through the vacuum. "And theirs."
Levi's mind stirred.
He thought of Loki's extra Tesseract. Of that so-called organization that claimed to guard time—yet handed Stones to Thanos.
"Who are they?"
"A group of self-righteous fools," Thanos scoffed. "They believe they can prune the branches of time. But they fail to understand—what the universe needs is not pruning, but rebirth through fire."
Before his words even finished, Thanos moved.
This time, he didn't use the Stones—just pure physical force.
Within Levi's domain, the punch was slowed to its limit, its trajectory crystal clear. Levi sidestepped, countering with a hand blade infused with dense Law of Death, slashing toward Thanos's neck.
Ssshhh—
The black mist touched Thanos's skin, hissing like acid on steel. A bone-deep wound tore open, and the deathly power spread rapidly inward.
Thanos grunted in pain, countering with a savage elbow strike to Levi's chest.
Levi didn't dodge.
He took it head-on.
His chest caved in, the sound of shattering bones ringing clearly. But in the next instant, the Law of Time flowed—his injuries instantly restored.
Trading injury for injury.
It was the only method Levi could think of to fight this monstrous body.
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