Thanos
Class: Cosmic Overlord
Intelligence 7
Strength 7+1
Speed 6
Stamina 7+1
Energy Projection 7
Fighting Skills 7
Equipped Item: Reality Stone (+1 to corresponding attribute)
A dazzling stat block—enough to make most heroes go pale. Even with only a single Infinity Stone equipped, his power had already pushed far beyond standard superhero tiers.
Rumble—
Suddenly, a thunderclap rolled across the sky. The hovering dreadnought above shifted its aim and opened fire toward the horizon.
"What's coming in?" Tony frowned up at the heavens as lance after lance of energy blasted from the battleship.
A spear of blazing light tore down from the stratosphere like a falling sun—
and punched straight through the warship.
The colossal craft cried out in metal agony, then sagged and broke apart, blooming into a chain of explosions across the sky.
A figure wreathed in flame drifted down through the smoke. Gold hair. A lithe silhouette. A suit emblazoned with the stars-and-stripes motif.
"You finally made it," said the bald, one-eyed Director, Nick Fury, with a thin smile.
Captain Marvel—the legend of American resolve, and Fury's truest trump card.
"I was off-world," she said lightly. "Heard your call and came as fast as I could." Her gaze slid toward the distant titan of purple—Thanos.
Another tricky opponent?
Thanos's head turned. Among all the heroes on this field, only two pressed on his senses—Saitama most of all, and this newcomer close behind.
"Handle the others," Fury said, calm as stone. "Leave him to Saitama."
Carol held Saitama's distant profile in her eyes for a heartbeat, then looked toward Wakanda. The plains there were a storm of bodies—bestial aliens surging against Wakandan lines. That battlefield needed her first.
"Got it. He's yours," she said, and became a streak of fire racing for the front.
"Then it's our turn," Saitama said mildly, meeting Thanos's gaze.
Thanos laughed without warmth. He clenched his fist; the Reality Stone flared, wrapping him in a dim, bloody glow.
A deep hum rippled the air.
The world's crust flushed scarlet.
"What's he doing?" Tony's face drained.
"We have to evacuate. He's going to collapse the planet," Stephen Strange snapped. Through the Time Stone he'd seen a glimpse—an entire world buckling under Thanos's hand. This fight had already left them behind.
Sparks fountained as Strange spun his hands. Portals bloomed open one after another, and he shoved Tony and the others through before they could argue.
"You're not leaving?" Thanos asked, eyes lingering on the Eye of Agamotto.
"With Saitama here, why would I?" Strange said evenly. Saitama's future was unreadable—and because of Saitama, so was Thanos's. If he stayed, the Time Stone might let him pull Saitama back at the one critical instant.
To Thanos, though, the Sorcerer Supreme was a footnote.
Boom—
Thanos tightened his grip. The planet's skin heaved like a storm-tossed sea. Strange had to lift off the ground, mantled in spellcraft.
Saitama watched it all, expression flat, as if he were a little boat sitting calmly in a raging tide.
"I do admire you, Saitama," Thanos said from on high, voice carrying the weight of a sovereign. "You're far better than my former subordinates. Why not stand with me?"
"Surrender now, and I'll spare you. The universe needs beings like us."
Saitama's dead-fish eyes didn't even ripple.
"So you've chosen death. A pity. Farewell."
Thanos squeezed. The scarlet-controlled bedrock buckled inward. The ground swallowed Saitama whole and crushed down, compacting to something harder than steel.
From a distance, Strange's face tightened.
"An attack like that… even the Ancient One might not have endured. Saitama…"
He tasted bitterness. The so-called Sorcerer Supreme meant nothing before an enemy wielding an Infinity Stone.
"Then it's your turn, guardian of the Time Stone," Thanos said, turning his gaze to Strange.
Strange slashed more circles into the air. Portals flowered—then shattered.
"Gnats," Thanos said. Scarlet veils coiled around his hands. He reached out, and the mirror-bright gateways screamed and collapsed like cracking glass.
Thanos's hand closed on Strange's throat and lifted him easily, a chick in a giant's grip. Without a glance at the man's struggles, he reached for the Eye at his chest.
Searing light snapped and bit his palm, but the defense wasn't enough. He tore the Eye free—and crushed it.
"Perfect."
He lifted the gemstone, drunk on its glow. The green crystal floated above his palm, limpid as spring water and intoxicating to behold.
He tossed Strange aside. The Sorcerer Supreme lay pale as ash, bloodless lips parted, eyes empty.
The gulf between them was too vast. Against Thanos, he'd had no path to victory.
"Now for the rest," Thanos murmured, smiling as he set the Time Stone into the Infinity Gauntlet. It seated with a soft click. Emerald waves pulsed outward from him, and his aura swelled.
"So this is the Time Stone?"
The voice came from nowhere and everywhere at once.
Thanos turned, brow rising.
Across the field, the improvised sarcophagus—a block compacted to iron hardness—splintered with a clean, bright crack.
A bald man stepped out of the rubble, dusting pebbles from his cape.
(End of Chapter)
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