Vormir.
The sky was a murky orange—no sun, no clouds. The wind swept across the ground, stirring grains of salt into a faint rustling whisper.
Other than that, there was no sound at all.
Thanos gripped Gamora's arm as he walked across the desolate salt flats. His steps were heavy, each one firm and deliberate.
Gamora no longer struggled. She simply let herself be dragged along, dried tear tracks on her face, her eyes filled with a hatred that seemed ready to burn everything to ash.
"You'll never get that Stone," her voice was hoarse and dry, like sandpaper scraping against metal. "I swear it."
Thanos didn't reply. He simply dragged her toward the distant black cliff.
At the edge, a shadow in a black robe drifted forward, hovering in midair.
"Welcome, Thanos, son of A'lars."
The voice was hollow and ancient, like wind blowing out of a grave.
Thanos stopped. His deeply lined face remained calm as he regarded the figure. "You know me?"
"My curse is to know all who come here."
The robed figure pulled back its hood, revealing a crimson skull. Blue flames burned within its empty eye sockets.
Red Skull.
"Gamora, daughter of Thanos," Red Skull's gaze shifted to her.
Gamora turned her head away in disgust.
"Where is what I seek?" Thanos asked flatly. "How do I obtain it?"
Red Skull's withered finger pointed toward the swirling clouds below the cliff.
"It lies there, awaiting a sacrifice," he said without emotion. "To claim the Soul Stone, you must surrender the soul of the one you love most. A soul for a soul."
Gamora froze.
A second later, she burst into laughter.
It was sharp, tinged with sobs—filled with pure mockery and sudden relief.
"You see? You've lost!" She pointed at Thanos, fresh tears streaming down uncontrollably. "The entire universe knows—Thanos loves nothing! You monster—your plan has failed! You've lost!"
A muscle twitched in Thanos's cheek.
He wasn't angry.
It was something else—an unmistakable sorrow.
A single tear slid down from the corner of his weathered eye, falling onto the cracked ground beneath his feet.
Gamora's laughter stopped abruptly.
The mockery on her face froze, replaced by incomprehensible terror. She stared at that damp spot as if it were the most horrifying thing in existence.
She understood.
The monster who had slaughtered half her people… who had raised her as a weapon… the tyrant she had hated her entire life…
Actually loved her.
That realization was more terrifying than death itself.
"No…" She began backing away uncontrollably, her voice trembling with fear. "No, you can't…"
Thanos seized her arm, his grip like iron.
He dragged her, step by step, toward the edge of the cliff.
Gamora struggled wildly, kicking and striking—but it was useless.
"Let me go! You madman! Let me go!" Her screams were torn apart by the wind.
Thanos stopped at the edge. He looked down at the daughter he held suspended over the abyss, her face drenched in tears and despair.
His eyes were filled with bottomless sorrow.
"I'm sorry, little one."
He let go.
Crack.
The warped space of Knowhere finally straightened, like a bent steel plate forced back into shape.
Levi's gaze was ice-cold.
Asgard.
He stepped forward—and vanished.
---
Throne Room.
Loki lounged lazily against Odin's throne, idly twirling an ornate golden goblet, a smug smile playing at his lips.
The next second, Levi appeared before him.
The smile froze.
The goblet slipped from Loki's hand, clattering loudly as it rolled across the floor.
Levi didn't waste a single word. He grabbed Loki by the throat and lifted him into the air with one hand.
"You gave him the Tesseract?" His voice carried no warmth.
Loki's face instantly flushed purple as he struggled weakly, forcing out a few words through his constricted throat. "I… didn't… the Tes…seract… is with me…"
Levi released him and didn't even glance back.
It didn't matter anymore.
He now understood what lay beyond the Celestial-tier.
It wasn't about collecting abilities like stamps—it was about refining the laws he had mastered into a complete, self-consistent world.
His domain was merely the prototype of that world—an unstable framework.
But Thanos was different.
He had walked a single path—the Law of Body—and taken it to its absolute limit. Pure. Simple. Unreasonable.
Levi's Law of Power couldn't break him. His spatial laws couldn't cut him.
And now, Thanos had three Stones.
He needed a sharper blade. One just as unreasonable—capable of cutting through anything.
His gaze shifted to the other side of the hall, to the motionless figure that stood like a statue.
Hela.
The Law of Death.
Levi hesitated for a brief moment.
Adding a sixth law—especially something as extreme and incompatible as death—into his already unstable "furnace" of laws would exponentially increase the difficulty of progressing further. It might even trap him permanently at the Celestial-tier.
But he had no choice.
If he couldn't defeat Thanos, there would be no "later" to worry about.
He stepped forward, placing his hand on the mark at Hela's brow—a seal formed from five different laws.
"Copy: Law of Death."
A cold, silent power flowed into his body from his fingertips.
Unlike before, it didn't merge.
It coiled within his consciousness like a black serpent, utterly incompatible with the other five laws, radiating the aura of absolute annihilation.
Success.
Levi opened his eyes, a faint dark glimmer flashing deep within them.
He glanced at Loki, who was still gasping on the ground.
Loki lay there like a heap of rags, clutching his throat and coughing violently.
Then—he pulled out a Tesseract.
Levi's expression shifted slightly. He could clearly sense that this one was genuine.
A factor he had never considered before surfaced in his mind—
The Time Variance Authority.
Only they would be bored enough to supply Thanos with the Stones, just to preserve their so-called Sacred Timeline.
"Watch over Asgard."
With that, he vanished.
---
Meanwhile—Wakanda.
The deafening sounds of battle had stopped.
Tens of thousands of Outriders stood frozen outside the breach in the energy shield, as if time itself had been paused. They circled, but did not advance.
In front of the shield stood the silver-white robot army Levi had left behind, forming a steel defensive line. Their bodies were covered in claw marks and scorched by energy blasts. The air reeked of burnt metal.
Steve Rogers knelt on one knee, supporting himself with his shield, breathing heavily.
Tony Stark's nanotech armor was battered and pitted, large sections stripped away to reveal the machinery beneath.
The Hulkbuster armor, piloted by Bruce Banner, had lost an arm, sparks crackling from the severed joint.
Everyone was exhausted—but no one dared relax.
That suffocating pressure kept growing, like a massive weight pressing down on their hearts.
It wasn't darkness like storm clouds blocking the sky—
It was as if light itself was being devoured.
A massive purple vortex slowly opened above the clouds, like a colossal eye gazing down upon all life.
A towering figure descended from it.
Step by step, he walked down invisible stairs.
Clad in heavy golden armor, each step he took made the battlefield tremble.
On his left hand, the Infinity Gauntlet gleamed—
Four Stones shone upon it.
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