BOOOOM!
A surge of raw, primal force erupted from the surface of Mars as two titans collided in a cataclysmic clash.
BOOOM!
With a simultaneous strike, they blasted apart, each transforming into a blazing orb of light, one radiating the fierce, untamed power of Super Saiyan 4, the other burning with the mad, unyielding rage of a mutant Eternal. They hurtled at each other again and again, each collision shaking the red planet to its core.
BOOOM!
BOOOOOM!
BOOOOOOOOM!
Three times they clashed and separated, and on the third, the Mad Titan unleashed a devastating Ki-infused backhand. Arcs of Power Stone energy exploded through William's body like raging lightning seeking to ground itself within him.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
His scream of agony thundered across the Martian landscape as he crashed at the base of a looming mountain.
BOOOOOOOM... CRACKLE!
The impact struck like a lightning bolt, sending tremors through the ground. William's black fur was scorched where the Power Stone lightning had struck, yet relief washed over him as he realized Phage had cunningly avoided direct contact with the deadly energy, sparing him the loss of a valued companion.
Before William could fully rise, a violent distortion tore through the thin Martian air.
FWOOOM...
Thanos materialized in an instant, space warping around his arrival like splintering glass.
No roar.
No taunt.
No warning.
Only impact.
THOOM!!!
The Mad Titan drove both heels into William's chest in a savage flying dropkick, every ounce of his black–gold Ki erupting outward in a shockwave that shattered the mountain behind him into trembling fragments.
William didn't fly; he disappeared into the rock.
KRA-KRA-KRA-KRA-KRASHHHH!!!
The Saiyan's body blasted through the entire mountain like a meteor hurled by a wrathful god. Layers of stone split apart around him, collapsing into molten slabs beneath the sheer kinetic heat of Thanos's momentum.
The deeper he plunged, the hotter it grew.
The pressure.
The force.
The friction.
All compounding into a blazing furnace.
When his descent finally ceased, he lay entombed in a cavern of glowing red stone, walls quivering with heat, fissures pulsing like magma veins.
The ground hissed and bubbled beneath him.
His fur steamed.
The rock had liquefied from impact alone.
Above the crater's rim, Thanos hovered, chest heaving with fury-driven breath, golden threads of Ki writhing around him like enraged serpents.
"Crawl back up from this," the Titan snarled, his voice shaking the cavern.
"IF YOU CAN."
William's fingers twitched.
His tail coiled slowly, tightening like a predator ready to strike.
And in the molten shadows, his eyes opened.
Two golden slits blazing hotter than the stone itself.
The golden light in William's eyes blazed ever brighter, swelling with unbridled intensity until, with a thunderous roar that heralded the violence yet to come, he unleashed a searing beam of gold, infused with pure Saiyan rage, unshakable pride, and raw Ki, hurtling straight toward the Mad Titan.
Thanos stood towering over the immense crater where a mountain had once loomed, gazing skyward with an air of absolute superiority, his mind consumed by visions of winning Lady Death's favor and ultimately claiming his place as her equal.
Lost in his grandiose thoughts, he failed to sense the deadly approach of the incoming beam until it was already upon him.
"WHAT?!" he bellowed in shock, his eyes catching a sudden blinding flash of light.
In the next instant, a torrent of blistering heat and overwhelmingly potent ki slammed into his barrier, shattering his composure and propelling the Mad Titan hurtling into the upper atmosphere, his defiant roar echoing through the heavens.
The world around him hissed.
Molten air rippled and danced as William emerged from the depths of the crater, every sinew tensing as the sudden bite of the Martian chill clashed brutally with the molten heat radiating from his body. His black fur stood on end, each strand like a sharpened obsidian needle, some still faintly aglow from the inferno he had just torn himself free from. Beneath his feet, cracks splintered through the cooling stone, hissing steam rising as he stepped forward, eyes narrowing into slits.
Silence.
A crushing, ominous silence.
Then...
THUMP.
His head jerked upward.
There, high above in the thin, rust-red sky, he felt it. A pressure that pressed down on the world, a quake in the flow of ki so vast it made his gut knot with instinctive dread.
The Mad Titan.
In the upper atmosphere, Thanos hung suspended, blazing like a living supernova sculpted into the form of a man, his aura a raging tempest of black-gold ki interwoven with violent violet surges from the Power Stone. Space itself warped around him, writhing in spiraling distortions, bending and shimmering like molten glass over a roaring forge.
And then William saw them.
Hands.
Two colossal constructs of raw, condensed spatial energy, each dwarfing an entire city, materialized ominously around Phobos and Deimos.
Vast pseudo-fingers clenched with cosmic force, their forms warping and trembling as if the very fabric of reality strained against their existence.
The moons shivered under the crushing, unseen grasp.
From above, Thanos' voice, distant, glacial, and seething with wrath, rolled across the upper atmosphere like thunder from another dimension.
"BREAK."
Space itself roared as the titanic hands hurled the moons earthward with annihilating intent.
Phobos descended first, a blazing meteor of shattered stone, atmospheric fire, and gravitational distortion, screaming toward William like the wrathful fist of a god.
Deimos followed in a violent spin, fragments tearing free from its surface, scattering into a trail of cosmic debris that streaked the heavens like a comet's tail. William's pupils shrank to pinpoints.
"Are you serious?!" The air pressure collapsed, dust spiraling around his feet as his muscles coiled with such ferocity his bones groaned in protest.
Two moons.
This was no battle; this was erasure on a planetary scale.
The ground convulsed beneath him as Phobos' looming shadow engulfed him whole. His ki erupted in a blazing surge, stirring molten rock deep below.
With a primal, feral roar ripping from his throat, cloaked in the unrestrained fury of Super Saiyan 4, William launched himself skyward to meet the oncoming cataclysm head-on.
BOOOOOOOOOM!!!
William had no chance to react.
Phobos struck first.
The smaller moon, still vast beyond earthly mountains, collided with him in a cataclysmic surge of planetary force. In an instant, the universe dissolved into a storm of gray stone and howling gravitational distortion as he was driven deep beneath the surface, obliterating ancient regolith and frozen bedrock in one unstoppable plunge.
KRA-KRA-KRRAAAAAASSHHHH!!!
He tore through the moon's heart like a living spear of Ki and wrath.
Tunnels disintegrated in his wake.
Caverns erupted into blinding cascades of molten debris.
The sheer shock of his passage burned a searing tunnel straight to the core, until...
Silence.
Heavy, absolute silence.
Then…
A shimmer.
A throb.
Cracks, violent, jagged, alive, slivered outward from the epicenter.
From each fracture, golden radiance bled into the darkness.
Then more.
And more.
Phobos flickered like a dying star before it erupted in a cataclysmic blaze.
BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!!!
A colossal surge of pure golden Ki tore through the moon from within, shattering it into incandescent shards that spiraled into the void. The explosion bloomed like a miniature supernova, its brilliance casting a godlike flare across the dusty expanse of Mars.
But Thanos was far from finished.
Not even close.
Through the swirling haze of pulverized moonstone, Deimos streaked past the edge of William's vision like a vengeful comet, already plunging toward Mars' atmosphere. It spun with violent momentum, trailing a halo of debris, each rotation magnifying the devastation it would unleash upon impact.
If it struck Mars intact, the shockwave would tear at the planet's tectonic plates.
The atmosphere could be stripped away.
The gravitational ripple might echo across the entire solar system.
A rare, razor-edged fear gripped William's chest.
He could not allow Mars to perish.
Not here.
Not now.
His aura contracted sharply, then burst outward, shifting through a spectrum of power. Gold flared into searing orange, orange bled into a pulsing, furious red, and red condensed into a razor-edged crimson distortion that warped reality itself. He extended one clawed hand, and from his palm surged the thrum of the Reality Stone's energy, beating like a second, alien heart.
VRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMM!!!
Scarlet hexagonal distortions spiraled into existence, knitting themselves into an intricate lattice that stretched through the void toward the distant moon. His vision honed to crystal clarity, instincts resonating with a cosmic force surpassing even the might of Saiyan Ki.
His voice was a low, commanding rumble.
"Change."
Reality shuddered. Deimos, its 6.2 kilometers of rock and dust, jerked in its path. Its crust rippled as though molten, stone melting into nothingness before shifting form entirely. In an instant, the moon dissolved into a churning sphere of water and vapor, exploding outward in a colossal bloom of mist and storm.
The torrent surged into space like an ocean-born nebula, swelling with unstoppable momentum.
And then...
FOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Clouds swept majestically across the Martian expanse, releasing vapor that descended like a celestial rain.
Droplets formed, glistening as they gathered and pooled upon the crimson soil.
The planet's restless winds drank in the moisture, saturating the air and giving it weight. Once a cold, lifeless wasteland, Mars grew warmer, heavier, and richer with every breath of its new climate.
A future world.
A future rebirth.
A future Mars.
The atmosphere shimmered under its newfound density, casting a faint, ethereal glow in the sunlight as William hovered in the silent void, his chest rising and falling in deliberate rhythm. He had brought the planet back to life, at least for now.
But far above, in the emptiness where Thanos had once loomed…
"Where did he go?" William called out in bewilderment.
He unleashed his ki senses in a sudden burst, ready to detect any nearby Ki signatures.
Yet after several long seconds of emptiness, he opened his eyes again, his expression still clouded by confusion, only for that confusion to twist abruptly into an agonizing mask of pure pain and suffering.
SHINK!
From a rift in space that tore open behind him, the Mad Titan emerged, his Gauntlet-clad hand latching onto William's skull.
The amethyst blaze of Power and the golden radiance of Soul surged through William's body like a relentless tide of devastation.
But destruction was not Thanos's aim. With the combined might of Power and Soul, he swept past every natural and unnatural defense William possessed, piercing straight into the very core of his being.
Within William's system space, a rift from the waking world tore open, rending the very fabric of his most sacred realm.
The jagged wound in reality yawned wide, a chasm of pure darkness that devoured the stars themselves.
From its depths emerged colossal, skeletal hands forged of black-gold energy, reaching not for the Martian soil but plunging deep into the sanctum within him, where Ki, soul, and consciousness fused into one.
These monstrous constructs advanced with a slow, merciless intent, their warped, pillar-like fingers weaving into the deepest chambers of his being.
They seized hold of his inner cosmos, prying, raking, and tearing through every layer of his mental fortifications.
In this boundless, private universe, the Reality Stone burned like a blood-red sun, throbbing with an alien, immutable pulse.
Close beside it floated the Mind Stone, molten gold in its brilliance, vibrating with razor-sharp intellect and boundless potential.
They were not mere artifacts, they were William's essence, the core of his will, perception, and dominion over existence itself.
The Mad Titan's constructs clamped down upon them, claws biting into their radiant hearts.
A tidal wave of agony unlike any he had known detonated within him, spreading from marrow to sinew, setting every nerve ablaze.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
His roar split the void and shook the Martian skies, a cry so raw it seemed to ripple through the planet's soul.
Arcs of Ki lightning shattered around him as his aura buckled beneath the assault.
The black fur of his Super Saiyan 4 form, once flecked with silver starlight, dulled as streaks of molten orange energy sputtered out. His tail drooped, quivering feebly, the primal force that sustained him bleeding away.
The golden fire of his eyes faded to dim embers, and the vast, feral power he commanded crumbled in cascading waves.
A scream tore itself from the depths of his being, longer, harsher, and more savage than any roar he had ever released into the world. Pain, terror, and sheer disbelief surged through every fiber of his existence as the stones were drawn inexorably toward the skeletal hands. Each pull ripped at his very essence, each tug a brutal assault upon the fragile architecture of his body and soul.
Super Saiyan 4… crumbled into Super Saiyan 3, the crimson fur dissolving into bare skin, hair stretching into elongated strands of energy that fizzled with feeble, dying sparks.
Super Saiyan 3… withered into Super Saiyan 2, his once-mighty aura sputtering weakly, eyes blazing with desperate defiance even as they dimmed under the crushing weight of unimaginable agony.
Super Saiyan 2… fell into Super Saiyan 1, a pale echo of his former cosmic wrath. The golden aura shrank further, his frame quaking uncontrollably as the Mad Titan's grip tightened like an unbreakable vice.
And then came the final collapse.
Super Saiyan… base form.
Limp. Shattered. Reduced to the hollow shell of the warrior who had once shattered moons and bent reality to his will.
Thanos held him as though bearing nothing more than a lifeless statue, his gauntleted hand still locked around William's skull. From it radiated the molten streams of the amethyst glow of Power and the golden blaze of Soul, burning with the promise of absolute dominion.
In William's mind, the world shattered into fragments. Stars wailed in anguish. Moons quaked in dread.
Yet all of it faded into insignificance compared to the searing torment of having his very essence torn asunder, piece by piece, as Thanos' monstrous constructs ripped through his reality, mind, and soul.
The cosmos beyond and the universe within crashed together in a cataclysm of sensation, blurring the boundaries of existence itself.
And still… beneath the crushing waves of pain, hidden deep in the shadows of his suffering, a fragile spark of defiance fought to remain alight.
Deep within the oppressive stillness of William's fallen form, a lone, unyielding spark flared to life.
At first it was barely there, a whisper in the darkness, but it burned with the core of all he had ever been, unyielding will, fierce pride, and the relentless, battle-hardened wrath of a Saiyan.
The spark throbbed, its rhythm echoing into the night, sending its call toward a distant relic: the temple that once floated above the bottled city of Kandor, now abandoned and hushed.
Its stones, scarred and blackened by eons of neglect and cosmic ruin, glimmered faintly under the crimson radiance spilling across the shattered skyline.
Like a defiant heartbeat against the looming shadow of Thanos' might, the glow swelled and pulsed, almost alive in its defiance.
Yet as it began to reach outward, the Mad Titan's merciless grip only tightened.
His gauntleted hand clamped around William's head surged with deadly purpose, and the black-gold skeletal constructs clawing at the edges of William's soul struck deep, ripping the Reality Stone from its burning crimson core and tearing the Mind Stone from its gilded brilliance.
The violent severing wrenched the cosmos itself, as if even the stars recoiled.
The spark wavered. William's black-and-silver fur lost all luster, his Ki snuffed out entirely.
The ember-lit fire of his eyes dimmed to nothing, his chest stilled, and no roar came, only silence.
The universe seemed to hold its breath in the shadow of that void, the beacon above Kandor now a faint, eerie pulse against the absence below.
Thanos, sensing utter defeat, held him aloft without a word, the amethyst and golden torrents of Power and Soul Gauntlet energy still feeding hungrily on the last echoes of what he once was.
Before the Energies of the Power Stone and Soul Stone could erase William completely, he dropped the Saiyan onto the surface of Mars, seemingly no longer considering William worth the effort of destroying just yet.
Thanos held the crimson Soul Stone and the radiant yellow Mind Stone delicately between his fingers, his triumphant expression brimming with the pride of an Eternal who had bested gods themselves. With deliberate precision, he set each gem into its rightful place along the knuckles of his mighty gauntlet, the Soul Stone blazing brilliantly at the center as all six Stones united in perfect harmony.
CRACKLE!
A cascade of multicolored energy surged through the Mad Titan's form, the raw forces of Space, Time, Power, Reality, Mind, and Soul igniting within his veins like celestial fire. The sheer magnitude of their combined might swelled inside him, granting dominion over the very fabric of the universe itself.
He gazed down at William, who was only just beginning to regain a fragile thread of consciousness. Thanos's lips stretched into a monstrous grin, a demonic display of unrestrained madness that carved across his massive face.
"You never stood a chance, Saiyan. I am Thanos. I am eternal. I am power incarnate, a god in the truest sense, and you have provoked this god beyond forgiveness!"
Raising his gauntleted hand, now crackling with the primal energies that shaped creation, Thanos exuded overwhelming supremacy. William longed to retaliate, to unleash every last ounce of ki in a desperate strike, but his arms hung useless at his sides, his strength sapped to the bare minimum needed to witness what would come next.
BOOM.
A ripple, faint at first, rippled through the very fabric of existence. Then, as though reality itself had been struck by a hammer forged from cosmic inevitability, the universe convulsed.
SNAP.
The sound of Thanos' fingers meeting reverberated across every star, every world, every living soul. In an instant, life across the cosmos faltered, half of all existence erased without mercy.
On Earth, screams were cut short mid-breath. Cities froze in a single heartbeat. Lights dimmed and flickered as bodies dissolved into drifting motes of dust, leaving behind only empty spaces where warmth and love had once thrived.
Kara... Gone.
Zatanna... Gone.
Anissa... Gone.
Sif... Gone.
Peter Parker, Winter Soldier, Black Panther, Doctor Strange… all reduced to ash, their remains scattered to the void. Streets became hollow corridors of silence, where the unyielding quiet devoured echoes of joy and sorrow.
Far beyond, in the cold reaches of space, Goku's hands quivered as he held Peter Quill suspended, his grip trembling with disbelief. Yondu's roar of anguish ripped through the emptiness, raw and jagged, a howl of despair that seemed to slice through the endless dark.
"PETER…!"
The cry fractured into the void, its echoes torn apart before fading into nothingness, and then he, too, disintegrated, leaving behind only a single tear suspended in the abyss, a crystalline monument to irrevocable loss.
The universe was forever altered. Worlds still turned on their axes, suns still blazed in the cold expanse, yet the grand weave of existence had been violently ripped apart. Silence reigned supreme, broken only by the ghostly winds of stardust drifting through the void, each particle heavy with absence.
Amidst this desolation, above the shattered plains of Mars and the jagged remains of moons sundered by force unimaginable, Thanos loomed, weightless yet colossal, the Infinity Gauntlet aglow. The six stones throbbed in perfect harmony, casting him in an otherworldly radiance.
He laughed.
It began as a low, primal rumble, a sound that made the fabric of reality quiver. It swelled into a thunderous resonance, rolling across the stars, reverberating through the bones of worlds, and saturating the cosmos with its mad triumph.
The Mad Titan's chest expanded with deliberate might, his gaze burning with the fire of conquest. "I… am inevitable," he declared, his grin a razor's edge of savagery and victory.
For the first time in eons, he tasted the intoxicating perfection of completion. His grand design, fulfilled. The balance he craved, the delicate scales of life and death in flawless, terrifying equilibrium, was now his to command.
His laughter spilled into the infinite dark, brushing against the edges of distant galaxies, marking them forever. And for a heartbeat, the universe itself seemed to hold still, bearing witness to the awe and dread of what had been unleashed.
Half of all creation was gone, and Thanos, unyielding, unrelenting, eternal, stood as its undisputed victor.