Above the ruins of New York, before the white spatial rift had even closed, another jagged, dark purple tear ripped open the sky.
Space seemed to sink heavily before bulging violently outward.
A towering figure stepped out from the tear.
Purple armor, a severed arm, half his face plastered in dried blood, and the metallic gauntlet on his hand reduced to a mangled frame. Yet, the sheer, suffocating aura radiating from him caused the entire battlefield to fall dead silent for a split second.
Thanos.
He lifted his head, his gaze sweeping across the ruins. He looked first at the Power Stone in Hela's palm, then at the Tesseract tightly clutched in Loki's arms, and finally rested his eyes on Imu, Whitebeard, Garp, and Akainu.
"It seems I am not too late."
The moment the words left his mouth, Hela laughed.
"It doesn't matter if you're late or not." She rolled the purple light in her hand, a smirk tugging at her lips. "If you want the stones, kneel."
Thanos didn't even look at her. His eyes were locked on the Tesseract.
"The Space Stone is in your hands. The Power Stone is in yours," he rumbled, his voice terrifyingly calm. "Good. It saves me the trouble of hunting you down."
Loki's face drained of color, his arms instinctively pulling the cube tighter to his chest.
Thor immediately stepped in front of him, Stormbreaker raised horizontally, lightning arcing wildly across the blade.
"Take one more step, and I'll chop off your other arm."
Thanos glanced at Thor, looking at him as if he were nothing more than an irrelevant object. "Prince of Asgard. Do not be so hasty. You will witness a far grander endgame today."
"F*ck your endgame!" Garp roared.
He stood right next to Whitebeard, the blood on his body not yet dry, the violent red steam of the Eight Inner Gates still burning intensely. His skin was flushed an unnatural shade of crimson, but he flashed that familiar, untamed grin.
"I was just getting to the good part, and you pop up to steal the spotlight! Your timing sucks, Grimace!"
The magma on Akainu's arm dripped down his knuckles, hitting the ground and burning a trail of black, smoking holes into the concrete.
"Pirates, gods, and an alien bandit," Akainu said coldly. "Perfect. I'll bury the lot of you today."
Whitebeard rested the supreme grade sword, Murakumogiri, against his shoulder, glancing at Thanos, then at Hela and Imu, before bursting into a boastful laugh.
"Gurararara! New York sure is lively today!"
He took a heavy step forward.
The ground beneath him instantly shattered.
"You want the stones? Fine. But you'll have to ask my naginata if it agrees first."
Thanos finally turned his head to look at Whitebeard.
He remained silent for half a second, as if gauging the combat scaling of this world. The next moment, he raised his damaged gauntlet, and the stone glowing amidst the wreckage on his palm flashed faintly.
Spatial ripples expanded.
The Power Stone in Hela's hand instantly shrieked in resonance, the purple light detonating all the way up her arm.
The Tesseract in Loki's grip began to vibrate wildly.
In that single instant, it was as if all the stones were awakened by the exact same call.
"Oh?" Imu hovered in midair, her red ki aura slowly rising, though her gaze was as cold as a blade. "So this is the confidence you 'gods' rely on."
She glanced down at Thanos and casually spat out a single word.
"Kneel."
The Five Elders stood behind her, their expressions grim.
This woman had just gone through a brutal clash with Hela, yet she could still push her aura to such an extreme level. That bone-deep, oppressive weight didn't feel like Haki, and it didn't feel like magic. It felt as if she were forcibly burning eight hundred years of her own lifespan into a singular pillar of fire.
Thanos finally shifted his gaze to Imu.
"You are not from this universe."
"I don't need to be."
Imu raised her hand, the red light compressing into a pinpoint in her palm. "Me simply standing here is enough."
Hela scoffed, the black blades fanning out from her back. "Big talk. Just try not to be the first one to shatter."
Whitebeard gripped his naginata with both hands. Garp was already cracking his knuckles. Akainu's magma had turned the ground at his feet into a boiling sea of rock.
Four distinct auras, four distinct fighting styles, four distinct brands of absolute madness. They formed four impenetrable walls that completely locked down the airspace over New York.
Captain America leaned heavily against his shield, barely able to stand, forced to retreat step by step.
Tony Stark stared at the critical warning alerts overloading his HUD, his mouth twitching.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., is it too late for me to sit this one out?"
"I am afraid so, sir."
"Then what do you suggest I do?"
"Find a nice place to lie down. You might survive."
"That is incredibly professional advice."
In the center of the battlefield, Thanos moved first.
He didn't charge Whitebeard, nor did he attack Hela. Instead, he violently clenched his gauntlet, and the fragmented space instantly collapsed. A long black tear ripped through the sky above New York, the other end pointing directly at the Tesseract in Loki's hands.
He was going straight for the Space Stone.
Loki's face went completely pale.
Thor let out a furious roar and swung his axe. "Get back!"
As the lightning crashed down, Thanos didn't even look up, simply raising his left hand to deflect. A spatial tear swirled outward, and Thor was thrown dozens of meters away, slamming hard into the ruins.
But the very next second, Whitebeard's booming laugh crashed down on him.
"You've got a lot of nerve trying to steal something right in front of me!"
Whitebeard shattered a chunk of skyscraper debris with his foot. Murakumogiri swung down from his shoulder, the air exploding into a string of white shockwaves before the blade even arrived.
Thanos raised his arm to block the strike head-on.
Boom!
Under the colossal impact, every pane of glass in the surrounding city blocks shattered simultaneously.
Hela's eyes darkened. She thrust the Power Stone forward, the purple light solidifying into a spear that aimed straight for Thanos's chest.
Imu attacked at the exact same time. A horizontal beam of red ki tore across the sky, colliding with the purple spear just before it hit its mark.
The three forces detonated at the epicenter, cleanly shearing off the entire top layer of the ruins.
Garp charged laughing into the storm, throwing a devastating punch right at Thanos's face.
"I hate you spotlight-stealing bastards the most!"
Thanos tilted his head to dodge, but the wind pressure from the punch still gouged a deep trench into his shoulder armor.
For the first time, he was forced half a step back.
Just half a step.
But it was enough for everyone to realize one thing: this Titan, even with half his body ruined, was still incredibly dangerous.
Akainu stepped forward coldly, the magma on his arm shaping into a massive fist.
"Since you all want to steal the show, I'll bury you together."
He threw the punch.
"Dark Hound."
The magma tore across the battlefield, striking dead center at the intersection between Thanos and Hela.
Whitebeard laughed loudly, sweeping his naginata horizontally, adding a massive tremor shockwave into the mix.
Under the combined, oppressive weight of Garp, Akainu, and Whitebeard, the standoff between Hela and Thanos was instantly torn apart.
Imu watched from above, the corners of her mouth slowly curling up.
"Interesting," she murmured softly. "You lot are finally starting to look the part."
Thanos looked up, his gaze sweeping past the others to land on Imu, Whitebeard, Hela, Garp, and Akainu, before finally settling back on the Tesseract in Loki's hands.
He slowly raised his mangled arm.
"Very well."
"Then let me show you what an endgame truly looks like."
As his words fell, the damaged Infinity Gauntlet suddenly erupted with a bizarre, blinding light.
High above New York, a second, vastly larger black-and-purple spatial tear began to slowly rip open right above their heads.
───
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