PUNCH!
Hela's fist connected with Thanos's jaw before he could fully register the movement, the impact sending purple blood spattering through the zero-gravity environment of space.
But she wasn't done. In the same fluid motion, a death-forged sword materialized in her other hand, already swinging toward Thanos's exposed neck in a killing strike.
The blade moved with supernatural speed, aiming to decapitate the Mad Titan in a single clean cut.
It was only directly intercepted at the last possible instant when Thanos raised his right arm in desperate defense, the sword slamming into his forearm instead of his throat.
The blade didn't stop. It directly penetrated his flesh, punching through muscle and scraping against the dense bone beneath, alien blood flowing freely into the void.
And the moment the sword entered his flesh, a dark, corrupting energy directly started to spread through Thanos's right arm like poison. Black veins crawled up toward his shoulder, death-magic eating away at living tissue, trying to necrotize his entire limb.
Without thinking, operating on pure survival instinct, Thanos directly mobilized the Soul Stone's power. The orange gem flared brilliantly on his gauntlet, its energy flooding through his body and eliminating the invasive death-magic, burning it away before it could spread further.
Simultaneously, the Mind Stone provided restorative energy to his wounded body, golden light knitting torn flesh back together, stopping the bleeding, repairing damage at the cellular level.
Yes, Thanos thought with grim satisfaction even as he fought for his life. He currently held two Infinity Stones. Not one, but two.
Because as a genuinely intelligent strategist, how could he possibly just blindly follow Loki's script without adding his own contingencies?
According to all available intelligence, Asgard supposedly owned the Space Stone—the Tesseract, capable of instantaneous travel across any distance. And more importantly, there were also persistent rumors that they'd acquired the Time Stone as well, likely from Earth's Sorcerer Supreme. Two incredibly powerful artifacts, possibly the two most versatile Stones in existence.
And according to Loki's proposed plan, Thanos would simply have to defeat and kill Hela in single combat. Then Loki would conveniently appear to "save" Asgard from the invasion, becoming its rightful king through heroic intervention.
In exchange for Thanos's assistance in this theatrical coup, Loki had promised to hand over both the Space Stone and Time Stone after consolidating his rule.
Although Thanos had agreed to this arrangement on the surface, appearing to accept Loki's word, he knew his own limitations very well. He wasn't even remotely confident about beating Hela in a fair fight, not with just the Mind Stone.
With both of them holding one Infinity Stone each, the battle would be roughly even—meaning he'd probably still get beaten to death through Hela's superior combat experience and raw divine power.
And if she somehow possessed two Stones while he only had one? Then there was nothing even to discuss. He might not even be able to land on Asgard before being directly annihilated from orbit.
So Thanos had decided to acquire the Soul Stone first, before committing to the assault. A second Stone to balance the scales, to give him an actual fighting chance.
It wasn't that he couldn't have obtained the Soul Stone earlier, Thanos reflected even as he dodged another of Hela's strikes. But he'd been deliberately unwilling to do so for strategic reasons.
Mainly because he'd been afraid that openly possessing two Infinity Stones would attract the attention of the Celestials.
So before he was absolutely confident that he could gather all six Stones in a very short timeframe, he'd intentionally avoided holding more than one. Staying under the Celestials' notice threshold.
But circumstances had changed dramatically.
Odin was either dead or had abandoned Asgard—intelligence was unclear which, but the All-Father had definitely left the realm undefended. And the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, who also held the Time Stone, was also likely dead. Otherwise, how could Asgard have possibly acquired that Stone?
And even if that assessment was wrong, if the Time Stone was still somehow in the Ancient One's possession, then the situation became even easier to manage.
He would just need to defeat Asgard here to obtain the Space Stone. And the premise for that victory was possessing two Stones himself, giving him the power to match Hela.
So he'd made the pilgrimage to Vormir, paid the terrible price, and claimed the Soul Stone. And there had also been useful intelligence about the Power Stone's current location on Xandar.
If he succeeded here, if he obtained the Space Stone from Asgard's vaults, he could directly begin his true plan. With three Infinity Stones, it would be sufficient to acquire the rest—it didn't matter how strong the current holders were. Three Stones working in concert could overcome almost any opposition.
It should have been a perfect plan, meticulously calculated.
But what the hell was happening now?!
Thanos hastily dodged backward, but Hela's sword still tore through his cheek, opening a gash that bled profusely before the Mind Stone's energy sealed it.
What is happening? Thanos's mind raced desperately. Hela is strong—he'd known that going in, had factored it into his calculations.
According to cosmic legends, every generation of the Asgardian royal bloodline was supposed to be stronger than the previous one through accumulated divine power. A general rule of thumb.
But this was beyond outrageous.
He'd fought Odin before, millennia ago, during one of the All-Father's conquest campaigns. Odin had been strong—stronger than Thanos at that time, forcing him to retreat and consolidate power elsewhere.
But now thousands of years had passed. Thanos had gotten considerably stronger through combat experience, strategic acquisitions of power, biological enhancements, and technological upgrades.
His eyes drifted toward the gauntlet on his hand, toward the two gems now shimmering with combined power—golden yellow of the Mind Stone, deep orange of the Soul Stone.
And looking in front of him, at this woman who wasn't even wearing proper defensive armor, just decorative regalia, Thanos began to doubt everything he understood about power scaling.
How could she be matching him—no, exceeding him—when he was wielding two Infinity Stones and she apparently had none?
But whatever was happening that defied all his expectations and strategic models, Thanos was ultimately a hardened warrior. A survivor who'd conquered countless worlds through both cunning and raw determination.
So after being momentarily dumbfounded by the impossible situation, he quickly came to his senses and refocused.
Although beyond all his common sense and prior calculations, Hela was somehow as strong as him despite his possession of two Infinity Stones and her apparent lack of any cosmic artifacts, there was also good news buried in this disaster.
He could still hold on. He wasn't being completely dominated, wasn't being instantly killed. Which meant there was still a chance to turn this situation around.
The key advantage lay in a fundamental difference between mortal beings and cosmic artifacts.
Living beings had limited energy reserves, no matter how strong they were. Even Celestials, despite their vast power, had finite internal reserves that could theoretically be depleted.
But that limitation could not be said for the Infinity Stones. With their connection to fundamental aspects of reality itself, they provided essentially unlimited energy. As long as the wielder could endure the strain, the Stones would never run dry.
So if no one intervened, if this remained a pure one-on-one endurance battle, sooner or later he could simply wear her down. Outlast her. Win through attrition.
It wasn't the glorious, decisive victory he'd envisioned, but survival and eventual triumph were sufficient.
"Hela," Thanos called out, dodging another flurry of conjured blades while the Mind Stone shielded him from her death-magic. "Will you really not consider my proposal? I can directly hand over all the galaxies currently under my control—hundreds of systems, trillions of subjects."
"Just give me the Space Stone," he offered, trying to sound reasonable rather than desperate. "A simple trade. You gain territory and resources. I gain one artifact. Both of us avoid further bloodshed."
Hearing Thanos's words, Hela's movement suddenly paused mid-strike, her sword stopping inches from his throat.
For a moment, Thanos dared to hope that she was actually considering the offer, that she might see the pragmatic value in negotiation.
Then Hela smiled—that particular expression that her enemies had learned to fear across thousands of years of warfare.
"It seems you still have energy to waste on talking," she observed pleasantly. "Then let me show you something interesting. Something that will make this battle more... educational."
A shimmering sword appeared in her hand—but this one was different from the crude death-forged blades she'd been using. This weapon radiated with a quality of power that made the Soul Stone in Thanos's gauntlet pulse with warning.
This was one of Asgard's true legendary weapons, Oversword of Asgard. An artifact that had tasted the blood of gods and primordial entities across ages of war.
And as Hela raised it, as divine power flooded into the blade making it glow with otherworldly light, Thanos suddenly realized his calculation about "wearing her down" might have been catastrophically wrong.
She hadn't been fighting at full power at all.
This entire exchange had just been her warm-up.
"Now then," Hela said pleasantly, her eyes gleaming with battle-joy. "Shall we begin the actual fight?"