After resting for two days, the Avengers were ready to go, fully armed. However, when they found Ethan, the reinforcement from a parallel universe, he was comfortably sunbathing on the lawn in a lounge chair.
"We're ready."
Steve coughed loudly a few times, reminding the other party of their presence. Hearing this, Ethan sat up directly, stretched, and twisted his body left and right, seemingly warming up.
"Isn't he a god?"
Rhodey whispered to Thor beside him.
"His body should be in great shape, right?"
"Just a personal habit. Don't mind it."
Ethan's hearing was excellent, so he clearly heard Rhodey's complaint and continued stretching his neck.
"Are we leaving now?"
"Yes. The spaceship is ready too, fully stocked with enough supplies."
"Spaceship?"
Ethan was stunned for a moment, then remembered that he had not informed Steve and the others. Everyone assumed that to revive Thanos, they would need to travel to the planet where Thanos died, the one where he had decided to live in seclusion.
"No need for all that trouble."
That planet was not close. Even with a jump function, flying a spaceship there would take some time.
Ethan was not some bumpkin who had never been to space. He had no interest in traveling to a parallel universe just to experience space travel.
"Did you forget I'm a sorcerer?"
"Can you just open a portal and send us there?"
The Avengers knew sorcerers could open portals, but since Ethan had not mentioned it before, they assumed he could not teleport that far. After all, Earth was quite a distance from that planet.
"Of course."
Ethan finished his warm-up and looked at the group with strange expressions. To avoid more complaints and ease their awkwardness, Ethan directly opened a portal in the empty space nearby.
Blue energy formed an oval-shaped doorway. Through the portal, everyone could see the scenery on the other side. They had only been to that planet once, but they would never forget its appearance. Everyone recognized the familiar field, the very place where Thanos had secluded himself.
The Avengers exchanged glances, then stepped through the portal one by one.
Tony and Ethan were the last to go through, and the Avengers were waiting for them. Steve immediately asked, "What should we do next?"
"I'll revive Thanos. Do you have a plan?"
Steve and the others had already formulated a detailed plan. They planned to ambush Thanos. As soon as he was revived, the first thing they wanted to do was chop off his left arm.
This task was given to Thor. Although Thor was confident he could face Thanos head-on, he was not willing to risk the lives of the entire universe again. If Thanos snapped his fingers again, everything would be over.
However, the plan formulated by Steve and the others was rejected by the Tony who came with Ethan.
"I said, this guy is mine!"
He even had the nerve to wink at this world's Tony.
"Watch how I avenge you."
This world's Tony Stark rolled his eyes helplessly. He had long known his personality was not very likable, but facing himself in person, he found it truly speechless. However, this was indeed something he would do, especially since this Tony had clearly never suffered any hardships and could not have changed as he had.
"Tony, we can't gamble with the safety of the entire universe."
"No, no, I'm not joking."
He looked at Ethan resolutely, and Ethan just shrugged.
"Alright, since you insist."
He did not think Tony was joking. With Tony's current strength, facing Thanos head-on was no problem. The only variable was that Thanos might immediately snap his fingers.
As for that problem, Ethan could also solve it.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure Thanos can't snap his fingers."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure."
Although the Avengers still had some doubts, they could not change Ethan's mind. The only reliable option was to prepare for any contingencies and act immediately if something went wrong.
As for this world's Tony Stark, he was even prepared to ignore Ethan's warning and act according to his own ideas, but his thoughts were directly exposed by his other self.
There was nothing to be done. They were the same person, so it was easy to guess his own thoughts.
Walking up to the small cabin built by Thanos, Ethan stopped everyone.
"No need to go in. Here is fine."
Actually, it did not matter where. As long as it was a location where Thanos had appeared, Ethan could revive him there.
Telling everyone to spread out and clear an open space, Ethan extended his hands.
This was a big job. He could not solve it with a casual snap of his fingers or a lift of his chin like usual.
Connecting to the rules of time and rewinding Thanos's personal timeline required not only connecting to the time rules of this universe, but also extremely precise control and sufficiently powerful energy.
Green energy began to appear on Ethan's hands, and a magic circle formed by purple energy appeared at his feet. As Ethan moved his hands back and forth, setting his right hand in front and his left hand behind, a green magic circle also appeared in the open space.
Vast energy emitted an emerald green light, condensing into a beam of light. Faintly, everyone could see Thanos's form within this light beam. He seemed to be passing through this spot, and each manifestation of Thanos had some differences.
"Are these... Thanos walking through here at different times?"
The Avengers members were not unintelligent and quickly guessed the truth. Just as they were about to ask something, the image in the light beam suddenly froze. It was Thanos wearing a slightly damaged Infinity Gauntlet, wrapped in bandages. It was clearly the Thanos who had completed his mission and been injured by Thor.
"This is the one. How about it?"
"Okay!"
An earlier Thanos did not have the Infinity Gauntlet, and a later Thanos had already destroyed the Infinity Gauntlet. So Thanos from this period was the most suitable for Tony's requirements.
"I've only rewound his body to this state. He still retains the memories from before he was killed."
"That doesn't matter."
Ethan nodded, increasing the output of divine power. The emerald green energy became thicker, and the green light beam seemed almost solid. As Ethan finally rotated his right hand forward, the green energy suddenly paused, then disappeared as if rewound.
In its place stood the purple giant the Avengers would never forget, Thanos, standing still with his eyes closed.
Opening his eyes, Thanos was stunned for a moment. Half a second later, he made the correct judgment. His left hand, wearing the Infinity Gauntlet, immediately prepared to snap his fingers. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, his left hand would not lift.
He looked down and saw his entire left arm encased in blue energy, with green energy rings outside the blue energy, slowly rotating around his arm.
"This is..."
Thanos looked around, finally resting his gaze on Ethan.
"Who are you?"
"An insignificant passerby." He rotated his right hand another half turn, and with a gentle clench of his fist, the Infinity Gauntlet on Thanos's hand directly disappeared, turning into a pile of ore that fell at his feet. At the same time, the Stones on the gauntlet all vanished.
Thanos knew where the Stones had gone. They were all in the hands of the person opposite him. Besides sensing the familiar energy of spatial transfer, since he had used this power extensively when using the Infinity Gauntlet, Ethan was not hiding them at all.
Six Stones floated in his open hand, circling like planets orbiting a star, emitting a faint glow.
Seeing Ethan directly turn the Infinity Gauntlet into ore and take the six Stones, the Avengers finally breathed a sigh of relief.
No matter what, Thanos could no longer snap his fingers.
"My job is done. It's your turn."
After Ethan finished speaking, he did not even bother to look at Thanos again and directly took two steps back.
By this time, Thanos had understood the surrounding situation. With his exceptional intelligence, he had deduced several possibilities. It was not until he saw Tony Stark appear before him, and another Tony Stark standing not far away, that he guessed the truth.
"So you found a way to travel to parallel universes."
Thanos glanced at the ore at his feet, then looked at Ethan.
"Are you a guardian of parallel universes, a Guardian of the Time Stone?"
"Not at all. I have no interest in being a guardian."
Thanos smiled, not caring that he had guessed the other party's identity incorrectly, and turned his gaze to Tony.
"Tony Stark from a parallel universe, why are you standing before me?"
"No reason. I just purely want to defeat you."
"I don't exist in your world?"
"Because I lost rock-paper-scissors to Thor, I regret not being able to kill you myself." Tony spread his hands. "However, I think the version of you in this world is more worth my effort."
Thanos's eyes flickered. In the time it took to exchange a few sentences, he had gathered a lot of information and understood that he only had one option left.
Kill everyone and reclaim the Infinity Stones!
"In that case, shall we continue chatting?" Thanos reached out and tore off his bandages, clenching his fist as he faced Tony Stark. "Come on. Let me see what you've got!"
"You'll definitely be satisfied!"
Although Tony stood still, the glasses and the watch on his wrist slowly began to transform into armor, gradually covering his entire body.
Seeing the familiar nanotech armor, Thanos revealed a disdainful smile. However, in the next second, it turned into surprise, because he saw Tony Stark take out a red Stone and slap it onto his chest, where it directly fused with the nanotech armor.
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)