In the end, Thanos still chose to withdraw his forces.
The vast Black Order possessed immense power, but when it came down to it, after his most capable children died one by one, Thanos had very few people left that he could actually use. Right now, if he went to war with Earth, he held no advantage whatsoever.
If it were an even match, he would have nothing to fear. The problem was, factoring in Asgard's stance, Thanos was far from optimistic about how this war would turn out.
So he opted to back down for the time being.
The Asgardians were bound to meet their doom sooner or later anyway. He might as well use this period to regroup. Once Ragnarok descended upon Asgard, he would return to Earth!
For Thanos, who possessed an immensely long lifespan—
he could afford to wait.
On the other side, Bant did nothing to stop Thanos's withdrawal.
That warship, built with everything the Korbinites could pour into it, certainly looked intimidating.
But in reality…
the ship didn't actually have much ability to go head-to-head against Thanos's Black Order.
Inside the ship, Korg's stone mouth pouted so hard you could hang a soy sauce bottle from it. He begged, "Please, stop him from talking anymore! Thanos's fleet could wipe us out with a single shot…"
No one listened.
Instead, quite a few people lunged straight at him, tackled him down, and dragged him off.
Everyone knew the colossal warship was all show and no substance—just a refugee ship for the Korbinites, incapable of touching Thanos in the slightest. But at a moment like this, showing weakness was the last thing they could afford.
Besides, Bant himself and Ruma were in bad shape too.
Ruma went without saying. She had gone through an extremely brutal fight earlier and had been defeated by the husband-and-wife duo of Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight. She was gravely injured.
After Bant arrived on Jotunheim, though he saved Ruma, he still took a few hits during the battle against Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive.
The crux of it was that those two had performed so pathetically in the movies that Bant got a little careless.
At first, he had no idea that Corvus Glaive had bound his soul to his blade—that the blade itself was, in every sense, his true body. So after smashing the body to pieces, he got ambushed by that very blade, and was immediately hit by an attack from Proxima Midnight's spear.
Having experienced the power of that spear in the comics, Bant honestly wanted to ask: how the hell did Captain America block that thing in the movies?
But in the end, these two gimmick-reliant freaks were completely obliterated under the raw stat-checking power of the Eternal Four-Armed Overlord!
Right after that, though, the giants swarmed them again.
So the two of them immediately switched to husband-wife beatdown mode and fought those Frost Giants all the way until Loki opened the portal.
That's why, despite his imposing aura right now, his actual condition was far from good.
And that was also why Bant let Thanos leave instead of preparing for a fight to the death like Tony.
Thanos turned and departed. At the sight, Supergiant made to follow him and leave as well, but Ruma stepped forward, her towering figure blocking her path directly.
Bant's gaze swept over. Coldly, he said:
"No one said you could leave."
"Thanos attacked Earth for the Stones. Since he lost, leaving one Stone behind is only right and proper."
"And you—as the primary offensive asset in this war—did you really think you could just walk away?"
Letting Thanos go was a move born of necessity. But if he allowed Supergiant to leave with the Mind Stone, then Bant would simply be far too stupid.
In fact, it wasn't just about the Mind Stone. Supergiant herself could not be allowed to leave either.
Because aside from Loki, she was the only one who knew how to reverse-activate the Space Stone. This was knowledge she'd extracted from Loki's mind using the Mind Stone. Even Thanos didn't know it yet.
If Supergiant got away, then as soon as Thanos obtained another Stone, he could launch another attack, bypass the planetary shield, and strike from within.
And so, the war concluded with Thanos retreating, the Chitauri vanguard completely wiped out, four of the five Black Order dead, Supergiant captured, and the Mind Stone falling into Bant's hands.
The price Earth paid: every building in the Manhattan area destroyed, a massive number of Plai-mos steel soldiers scrapped…
Casualties, on the other hand, were practically nonexistent.
Only the Winter Soldier's prosthetic arm was wrecked. T'Challa said he'd get him a new one.
Now, the heroes sat amid the ruins.
Up in the sky, the Korbinites' colossal warship had not departed. Bill descended from above, bringing his warriors and the rest of the Korbinites to pay homage to the King of Sakaar. After all, without Bant, his people would have remained the Collector's exhibits forever.
Luckily, Bant was still presenting himself in his Four-Armed Overlord form.
Seeing Bill leading so many Korbinites with the intention of joining the Plumbers, Bant welcomed them.
"The Korbinite population isn't large. Perfect—Sakaar's land is vast, with plenty of wilderness. Plenty of room to accommodate them."
"Loki, send us to Sakaar."
Bant planned to head to Sakaar first and get the Korbinites settled. Not only that, but Ruma's injuries also needed immediate treatment.
Of course, the most important thing was…
Now that Ruma and Felicia were sharing a screen, it made him a little uneasy.
Felicia was one thing. With Mary Jane right there as a precedent, her capacity to accept things was probably pretty high.
It was mainly Ruma. Bant was kind of afraid she'd raise her hammer and say to Felicia:
You want to be little Bant's girlfriend?
Beat me in a fight first!
What Ruma cared about most was whether Felicia—or anyone else—had the strength to be Bant's wife.
Powerful women like Brunnhilde and Kaila? She had no objections.
On the contrary, the more the merrier as far as she was concerned!
A few of them could throw down whenever they had free time—how great was that!
"No problem."
Loki took out the Tesseract and opened an enormous spatial passage directly outside Earth, large enough for the colossal warship to traverse.
Just as had been said before:
how much power a Stone could unleash was closely tied to its user.
The current Loki was clearly no longer the waste from the movies who needed a machine just to open a passage a dozen meters wide.
After finishing, he handed the Tesseract back to Bant, then spread his arms, showing off his armor.
"So? Doesn't my new outfit look handsome?"
He wasn't asking about the outfit—he was fishing for praise.
"It suits you, Loki."
Bant nodded approvingly, then asked, "When's the coronation?"
"I'll probably pick an auspicious day. I won't be going to Sakaar with you," Loki said smugly. "I have to send a certain unworthy individual back to Asgard."
He was referring, of course, to the still-unthawed Thor.
And so, the various parties went their separate ways.
Felicia had originally wanted to ask where Hacker had gone, but considering she'd been in the bathroom for far too long already and was terrified of arousing Mary Jane's suspicion, she immediately rushed back to Plai-mos.
Thus, a terrifying bloodbath of a showdown was ultimately avoided.
The perspective returned to Sakaar.
In the vast wilderness, the enormous portal opened, and then, under the gazes of countless Sakaarians, the colossal warship slowly emerged from the portal.
Because they had given Kaila advance notice, the appearance of the gigantic ship did not draw any attack.
Kaila arrived with the reorganized Sakaarian Royal Guard to receive them.
By now, Sakaar had completely transformed.
The garbage-choked wilderness had been cleared away, and the parched red desert had been revitalized after the King of Sakaar's red lightning enveloped the entire planet, breathing life into the world.
Forests began to flourish again.
The planet itself was recovering.
"Kaila, how's the situation here?" Bant asked the moment he disembarked.
"No problem. The army Thanos sent could only pin us down. They've now been completely eliminated."
Hearing this, Bant nodded.
Then Kaila looked behind him and asked in great surprise,
"So this is the Korbinites' colossal warship Bill spoke of?"
The gigantic spacecraft looked enormous from afar, but only when you truly got close could you feel the sense of insignificance brought on by that immense, colossal object.
Compared to it, a person three or four meters tall was as tiny as an ant.
The colossal warship's size was nearly that of a small island, housing several hundred thousand Korbinites inside.
"Designate a province-sized area for the Korbinites."
Although Sakaar had many alien races, Bant didn't immediately have the entire Korbinite population integrate into Sakaar's diverse races all at once.
Different races had different customs. A handful of outsiders naturally posed no risk of conflict.
But with several hundred thousand Korbinites placed here, they couldn't possibly blend in overnight.
"Bill, the task of integrating the Korbinites into Sakaar is yours," Bant instructed.
"It is my duty."
Bill placed his hand over his chest and bowed to Bant.
As the guardian of the colossal warship, his original purpose had always been to lead the Korbinites to find a new home.
Shortly after, Bant got a look at what actual Korbinites looked like.
Unlike Bill's protruding, horse-like face, ordinary Korbinites looked somewhat more human.
They had brown, loess-like skin, were tall, had no hair on their heads, and their facial features were indistinct.
To Bant, they all looked the same anyway—kind of like a brown-skinned Red Skull.
After settling these people in, Bant and Kaila returned to the Plumbers' headquarters.
Along the way, every Sakaarian who saw him couldn't help but kneel, raising their hands and hailing him with tears streaming down their faces.
They thanked the King of Sakaar for bringing new life to the planet and to their destinies.
Bant, however, wasn't all that pleased about it.
"I've already said it: no need to kneel and bow to me."
He said, "I didn't turn them from one person's slaves into another person's slaves."
"But the people truly respect you from the depths of their hearts," Kaila said with a smile.
A short while later, they returned to the Plumbers' headquarters.
Which was also the rebuilt Totem Tower.
/-\
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