Thanos: ???
Staring at the Power Stone in Bant's hand—identical to his own—Thanos froze on the spot.
His fervent, impassioned emotions were doused as if by a basin of ice water, snuffed out in an instant.
What the—?
Two Power Stones?
In that moment, Thanos felt his entire worldview teeter on the edge of collapse.
But he quickly pulled himself together.
Each Infinity Stone was unique. Unless Bant could cross into other universes and bring back a Power Stone from a parallel reality. Even if Bant could somehow manage that, an Infinity Stone from another universe would be powerless in this one.
Thanos knew with absolute certainty that the stone in his grasp was genuine. Barely a second ago, its power had surged through his body—the terrifying destructive force, the incomparable might, the sensation of holding the universe's truth itself, and the searing agony of a mortal vessel straining to contain infinite energy. All of it told him his stone was the real one.
So he steadied himself.
The look he directed at Bant became one of watching a clown.
"What are you doing?"
"Can't you tell?" Bant, assuming Thanos had poor eyesight, lifted the Power Stone higher to make it more conspicuous. "You thought you'd already won because you have the Power Stone. Well, so do I."
Hearing this, Thanos shook his head with disappointment.
"Your stupidity is unbelievable."
Under normal circumstances, a foe as powerful as Bant would have earned his respect, even as an enemy.
But now, Bant's antics struck him as utterly ridiculous.
"You possess two stones. Had you produced either of the others to confront me, I wouldn't question your intelligence. I'd be wary instead—comparing the strengths of different stones is never clear-cut." Thanos said.
"And yet, of all things, you pulled out the Power Stone…"
"Fighting magic with magic, fighting the Power Stone with the Power Stone. What's wrong with that?" Bant countered.
Believe it or not, in a minute I'll just turn into you and beat you up.
Thanos pressed a hand to his forehead, looking at Bant as if he were an idiot.
What's wrong?
He actually asked what's wrong?
"There are six Infinity Stones, representing Power, Space, Time, Reality, Mind, and Soul. Each one is utterly unique." Thanos leveled his accusation. "The Power Stone was retrieved from the Orb by Ronan and delivered to me. How dare you stand before me with a fake?"
If Bant were now holding the Mind Stone or the Space Stone, Thanos might have paused to weigh his chances.
But no—Bant had produced a Power Stone.
Who held the real Power Stone was something Thanos knew perfectly well.
Yet Bant only shook his head.
"You're mistaken, Thanos. You know there are six Infinity Stones, but you don't know that each one actually comes in a pair." Bant was spouting nonsense with a perfectly straight face. "All things in the universe exist in opposing pairs—good and evil, yin and yang… The Infinity Stones are no different."
Yeah, right!
Thanos very much wanted to say that aloud.
But before he could open his mouth, Bant waved a hand. Six glittering stones materialized, hovering between his palms, revolving like a miniature solar system, forming an infinite circuit.
Thanos was stupefied.
With his insight, he could sense the radiance and energy radiating from those stones—immense and unmistakable.
They were exactly the six Infinity Stones he had yearned for.
"This is impossible…"
His eyes bulged with pure shock.
Once the Infinity Stones linked into a circuit, their brilliance far exceeded normal. Such a phenomenon could never be counterfeited.
That meant all six stones in Bant's hands had to be real!
But how?
Not only could Bant not possibly have gathered so many stones, but the Power Stone was literally in Thanos's own grip.
"Could it be that the Infinity Stones really do come in two sets?"
In that moment, Thanos's conviction wavered.
In truth, aside from the Power Stone, all the others Bant had conjured were duplicates created by X-Man. While they emanated spectacular energy, the power within couldn't form a true infinite circuit. They were just for show.
So after that brief display, Bant stowed all the stones away, keeping only the Power Stone.
"Thanos, do you now believe the Infinity Stones actually come in pairs?"
Thanos fell silent, then slowly regained his composure.
A question surfaced: if Bant had already assembled all the stones, why hadn't he used them?
The moment this blind spot registered, Thanos's mind raced into analysis.
Clearly, with a physique strong enough to match him in combat, Bant could certainly wield all six stones. It wouldn't be easy, but he could absolutely do it.
A single thought, and Bant could annihilate him completely.
Yet he didn't.
Why?
Because he didn't want to?
Thanos didn't believe Bant was that merciful. There had to be something wrong with those six stones.
With his intelligence, he quickly arrived at the crux of the matter.
—The six Infinity Stones Bant had shown could not be real. They had to be illusions created by some kind of power.
Once he reached this conclusion, Thanos had his answer.
"I see… So you've obtained the Reality Stone." Thanos said with certainty. "Those stones you showed must have been conjured by the Reality Stone. Otherwise they wouldn't look so convincing."
"Unfortunately, while the Reality Stone can manifest their appearance and mimic part of their power, a single stone's energy is still limited. It can't truly conjure up the other stones out of nothing. What you hold is nothing but a fake."
His guess was basically right on the money.
The only error was mistaking X-Man for the Reality Stone.
"In that case, why don't you come test whether my Power Stone is real or not?" Bant smiled faintly. "I'll let you in on a secret: the stones have yin and yang too. Your stone is male, mine is female. When it meets mine, yours simply won't work."
Listening to this, Thanos decided Bant must have genuinely lost his mind.
"Enough. This farce ends now. I'll finish it."
He shook his head, raising the arm that clutched the stone.
After completing the motion, Thanos calmly shut his eyes.
In his view, the outcome was already sealed.
He only had to wait for the stone's power to surge through his body again, for that infinite energy to destroy everything.
Yet several seconds passed, and he felt no destruction descend.
Thanos opened his eyes in bewilderment. Looking down, he saw the Power Stone in his hand—once blazing with enigmatic violet light—had suddenly turned dim and lusterless.
The energy inside it streamed away like grains of sand slipping through his fingers, leaving behind nothing more than a transparent purple rock.
"This…"
His heart plummeted into a void.
"What is…?"
At that moment, Bant's voice sounded at Thanos's ear once more.
"I told you. When your stone meets mine, it stops working."
Thanos looked up sharply. Bant's stone now blazed even brighter, its violet glow seeming to embody the infinite, mysterious power of the cosmos.
His gaze darted back and forth between the dazzling stone in Bant's hand and the darkened one in his own. The expression on his face turned profoundly bitter.
Could the Infinity Stones truly have yin and yang aspects?
In that instant, Thanos felt as though he had crossed dimensions and was being overshadowed by the silhouette of a monkey.
Even Death, who had been watching behind Thanos, was now somewhat baffled.
She knew the Infinity Stones were indeed not limited to six. In some universes, more stones existed. But the idea of stones being male and female, and the male one failing in the presence of the female—that was far too absurd.
What?
Now a rock has to be politically correct?
If you're so correct, how dare you assume the gender of the Infinity Stones?
In a word, something was definitely off.
But Thanos no longer had the chance to investigate.
Because Bant had fully unleashed the Power Stone's might. Once the stone's terrible energy was truly released, not even Thanos could withstand it.
In a flash, a destructive violet radiance consumed the entire area.
Like the energy of destruction from the world of Dragon Ball, everything the Power Stone's light touched instantly transformed into streaks of light and began to disintegrate.
Thanos tried to flee, but Bant had no intention of letting him escape.
A vortex of searing flame roared up beneath Thanos's feet, trapping him completely.
In that moment, Thanos was a cornered beast.
Out of the flames, Bant strode forward, facing Thanos directly.
At this point, Thanos resolved to meet his end calmly.
"Do it," he said.
"Don't be so hasty. I'll give you a fair fight—"
Instead of obliterating Thanos with the Power Stone immediately, Bant put it away. He even canceled his transformation entirely and walked through the fire to stand before Thanos.
"You're not using the Power Stone?"
Thanos had not expected Bant to set aside the stone's power and face him head-on.
"That would be boring." Bant grinned.
If he'd really wanted to end it with the stones, he could have brought the Space Stone and Mind Stone into play, using three stones at once to just slap Thanos around a few times. If Thanos dared make a sound, that alone would be a credit to his backbone.
But that wouldn't be any fun.
"You think you can defeat me?" Thanos looked down at the now "diminutive" Bant, still unable to understand this decision.
They had fought to a standstill before. If they continued, the outcome was far from certain.
"Of course!"
Bant nodded matter-of-factly, strode right up to Thanos, and, to Thanos's astonishment, casually swiped a trace of blood from his body and smeared it onto his watch.
Then he lifted his head, met Thanos's eyes, and asked:
"Know why I always win, no matter the battle?"
"Because I never accept defeat."
Then, under Thanos's stunned gaze, Bant pressed down on the watch. A flash of green light burst forth. And in the next instant—as if stepping out of a mirror—a purple yam monster identical to Thanos in every way appeared before him.
"Atlas!"
/-\
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