On a barren stellar plain.
The Collector's pupils glowed scarlet after absorbing an Infinity Stone. Piled at his feet were mountains of bones and the hulks of many slain behemoths.
He had swept the entire star sector clean—every force smashed, every dissenter butchered.
"Master, you are now the greatest lord of this region. No one dares defy your will."
A man with scaled skin knelt before the Collector. He had once been a king. Since the Collector's arrival, his entire nation had been erased.
Fused with an Infinity Stone and swollen with power, the Collector's tastes had shifted. It was no longer enough to hoard curios; he craved conquest and slaughter.
"Not enough… It's still not enough!"
Veins jumped at his temples as he clenched a fist and grinned. He had plundered vast cosmic energies; he was stronger than before. And yet, whenever he thought of the monster who killed his younger brother, certainty still slipped through his fingers.
Just then, the void rippled. Several figures descended.
"You sensed a Stone here?"
A heavy, iron voice rolled across the plain. The leader was huge—like a compact giant—with purple, ridged skin furrowed by deep striations.
The Eternal Titan warlord—Thanos.
At his flanks stood four fearsome lieutenants: Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, Ebony Maw, and Cull Obsidian.
All eyes went to the Collector. With an Infinity Stone in his body he shone like a beacon in the dark; the Stone's aura was unmistakable from far away.
The Collector's pupils shrank. He glared at the newcomers. In a life long enough to forget lifetimes, he had of course heard of Thanos.
Before he'd absorbed the Stone, he might have run the instant he saw this tyrant. Now, he had a Stone.
"The Stone is on you. Hand it over. I'd prefer not to fight."
Thanos strode forward. His looming bulk carried a palpable oppression as the great purple titan looked down on the Collector.
"You want the Stone? Pay with your life."
The Collector bared his teeth in a cold smile. He wanted vengeance for his brother—but with a Stone in his veins, his head throbbed with a greater hunger: to conquer and to take. Ambition flooded his mind.
Thanos gave him a bland look, then turned his eyes to his four lieutenants. "Go. Find the other Stones. Asgard. Earth. Elsewhere. This one is mine."
"Yes, my lord."
Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, Ebony Maw, and Cull Obsidian answered as one. None of them questioned their master.
"So sure of yourself? You really think you can beat me?"
The Collector sneered. The Stone's power swelled through him, and with it the illusion that he had become something more.
"Only one way to know," Thanos said, a thin smile cutting his face.
At the same time—
Asgard.
In Saitama's absence, no fresh calamity had struck. Hela had been dealt with. Thor had ascended smoothly and was ruling Asgard.
Loki, meanwhile, had taken up stewardship of the World Tree's realms, managing the Ten Realms on Saitama's behalf. Perhaps some knot had finally loosened in his heart; with the throne no longer between them, the brothers' bond was mending.
"Someone's coming."
In the palace, Thor rose sharply. A vast, violent power was closing in—he felt it as clearly as thunder.
Asgardian warriors throughout the hall stood in unison, bracing for battle.
Several figures touched down at the palace gates under a hundred watching eyes.
A tattered black cloak. Ghostly witchfire crawling across a body like a walking skeleton. In those skeletal hands, a vicious, oversized war-blade.
Corvus Glaive.
A few lesser underlings trailed behind him.
"So this is Asgard? Hiss… what a delightful scent. The smell of living things."
Corvus drew in a long breath, eyes half-lidded in pleasure. He ignored the warriors bristling around him and sauntered toward Thor as if he owned the place.
"Who are you to trespass in Asgard!"
Thor's shout cracked the air. In his hand was a newly forged god-steel hammer—not the equal of the mace Hela had crushed, but a masterwork nonetheless.
"Stop! Our king is speaking!"
An Asgardian stepped forward and barked.
"Oh? A 'king'? You mean that capering clown on the dais?"
Corvus flicked a glance at Thor and grinned.
"Impudent!"
Steel sang as dozens of blades came free. The pressure of Asgard's elite rattled the pillars—but Corvus seemed unmoved. If anything, his stride became more leisurely as he walked directly toward the throne.
"From the moment I stepped through these doors, this hall belonged to me. And I—am the only king you'll ever have."
Arrogance dripped from every word. He kept coming.
The warrior from before lunged to bar his path.
Squelch.
A damp, dull sound.
The warrior froze. Blood pattered from his armor onto the floor. He stared in disbelief at the gash splitting his chest.
The jagged war-blade had punched clean through. A twist, and the brave fighter toppled, unwilling even in death.
"Die!"
Thor's fury exploded.
To kill in his throne room, before his face—Corvus had treated him like air.
Thor swung. The hammer roared down toward Corvus Glaive's skull.
Clang—
The blow landed true, but the grotesque war-blade rose and caught it.
Stone shattered under Corvus's feet. A shockwave bucked down the hall, flinging his two underlings away with strangled cries.
Thor's expression shifted. His hammer wouldn't go down any farther. It hung there, stopped cold.
Impossible. That strength—
"What's wrong? Is that all you've got? Skip breakfast? Or do you plan to crawl back into your mother and try again?"
Corvus lifted his skull-like face in a taunting grin.
His arm flexed. With a violent wrench of that wicked blade, he ripped Thor's hammer aside and sent the Thunderer skidding through the air. Thor hit the palace wall hard enough to burst stone.
"Lightning!"
Thor landed, teeth bared but spirit unbowed. He surged up from the rubble, raised his hammer, and called the storm.
Lightning flowered across the sky, converging on Asgard.
Kra-kow—
A pillar of blinding white stabbed down from the heavens.
It speared the palace and slammed into Corvus Glaive.
The smell of scorched bone filled the air. Corvus's form blackened; even the bone beneath sparked and crackled.
"Well struck, my king!"
"Slay the invader!"
"Hou! Hou! Hou!"
Asgard's warriors bellowed—but Thor only grew graver.
"Congratulations. You've succeeded in angering me, little god of Asgard."
Corvus spat a plume of black smoke and grinned like a skull come to life.
(End of Chapter)
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