The hangar doors split open.
Smoke drifted across broken concrete as the remaining Avengers stepped out into the battlefield.
Thor, Steve, Tony, Rhodey, Scott, and Elias.
The sky above them burned with reflected firelight.
Even before they looked up, they knew.
There was no confusion.
No doubt.
That oppressive weight in the air.
That suffocating inevitability.
Slowly, their eyes lifted.
Hovering just beyond the shimmering forcefield dome was the massive warship of Thanos.
The Sanctuary II.
Its cannons still glowed faintly from the recent orbital bombardment.
It loomed like judgment itself.
Scott swallowed.
"Please tell me that's just… like… a cruise ship for bad guys."
No one answered.
Then,
A golden beam lanced down from the underside of the warship.
It struck the earth just outside the forcefield perimeter.
Dust exploded outward. The beam faded. A towering figure remained.
Broad shoulders.
Double-edged blade resting at his side.
Armor gleaming beneath the dying sun.
The Mad Titan himself.
Thanos.
He lifted his gaze slowly. Studied them.
There was no rage in his expression.
No frenzy.
Only certainty.
"So," Thanos said, voice carrying effortlessly across the battlefield, "you could not live with your own failure."
His eyes settled on the gauntlet's distant glow within the compound.
"Where did that bring you?"
He looked back at them.
"Back to me."
Thor's fist tightened for bit then with a gesture called his weapons.
Mjolnir and Stormbreaker easily came to him as lightning wrapped around him and he was now in his Asgardian Armor, red cape and all.
Steve stepped forward slightly, shield raised.
Thanos continued, almost contemplative.
"I thought by eliminating half of life… balance would be restored."
His tone hardened.
"But you showed me something."
He gestured faintly toward the compound behind them.
"As long as there are those who remember what was… there will always be those who seek to undo what I have done."
His gaze sharpened.
"They will resist."
"They will rebel."
"So now," he said, voice deepening like distant thunder, "I will shred this universe down to its last atom."
The ground seemed to tremble under the weight of his conviction.
"And then…"
A faint, almost serene smile touched his lips.
"With the stones you've gathered for me… I will create a new one."
"Teeming with life."
"One that knows not what it has lost… but only what it has been given."
Steve stepped forward fully now.
"You're talking about killing everyone." He said firmly.
Thanos regarded him calmly.
"They will not be innocent," he replied.
"They will not exist."
A simple statement.
Cold.
Final.
"It's still a world built on genocide!" Steve pressed.
Thanos tilted his head slightly.
"They will never know it. And you won't be there to tell them."
Silence fell between them.
Wind carried dust across shattered concrete.
Behind them, the forcefield flickered under renewed strain.
In front of them stood inevitability given form.
Tony's nanotech shifted around his hands.
Thor's eyes sparked with lightning.
Elias watched quietly from beneath his hood.
The system prompt still hovered faintly in the corner of his vision.
[Task # 1: Help defeat Thanos.
Without sacrificing Iron Man. ]
He exhaled once.
So be it.
Across the field, Thanos spun his double-bladed sword once and slammed it into the ground.
"Rain fire."
Above them, the Sanctuary II's cannons began to charge again.
It rained fire.
A renewed orbital bombardment hammered against the Avengers Compound's forcefield.
Explosions cascaded across the hexagonal barrier, each impact rippling outward in violent waves of energy.
The ground trembled.
Chunks of concrete lifted and shattered midair from the shockwaves alone.
Inside Tony's helmet, alerts flared red.
"Boss, shield integrity is dropping rapidly," FRIDAY reported.
"Seventy percent… sixty-four… fifty-eight."
Another barrage struck.
The barrier flickered dangerously.
Steve turned sharply toward Tony.
"Can you open a section? We need to get outside it."
Tony hesitated only half a second.
"I can but we must close it immediately, Banner is still hurt."
"Do it."
A narrow opening formed along the right flank of the dome.
"Go!" Tony shouts.
The five of them burst through the temporary gap just as it sealed behind them.
They moved across scorched earth, positioning themselves on the right side of the compound.
Across the battlefield, Thanos watched them.
Despite commanding overwhelming firepower, he did not look impressed.
He looked… disappointed.
Then, with a subtle motion of his hand, he issued a silent command.
The bombardment stopped.
The cannons of the Sanctuary II powered down.
The battlefield grew quiet except for drifting smoke.
Thanos bent down and lifted his massive double-bladed sword.
He stepped forward alone.
Honor.
Arrogance.
Confidence.
Five Avengers stood opposite him.
Captain America.
Iron Man.
Thor.
Ant-Man.
War Machine.
Five against one.
Behind them, Elias walked.
Not running.
Not rushing.
Watching from a distance.
The others noticed mid-stride.
Tony spared him half a glance.
Steve didn't.
"Focus!" Steve barked.
"Now!"
Thanos charged.
So did they.
Thor was first.
He leapt high into the air, lightning exploding from his body.
Both Stormbreaker and Mjolnir crackled with divine lightning-fire energy.
With a roar, he brought them down.
Thanos met the strike head-on.
Steel met enchanted uru with a deafening metallic crack.
The ground fractured beneath them.
It was even.
Thanos didn't move.
Thor wasn't thrown back.
Before Thanos could follow up an attack, others were already closing in.
He applied more force, pushing forward and shoving Thor backward just enough to reset the momentum.
Tony and Rhodey were already in firing range.
Repulsor blasts screamed forward.
Micro-missiles and shoulder cannons erupted in synchronized volleys.
Thanos rotated his double-bladed sword with brutal precision.
Bullets deflected.
Repulsors split apart.
Explosions detonated harmlessly to the side.
Seeing ranged combat failing, Iron Man and War Machine took to the air.
Steve charged in.
So did Scott, Growing.
Expanding into Giant-Man mid-stride.
Cap hurled his shield.
Thanos deflected it aside, yet it curved impossibly and returned to Steve's hand.
Before Thanos could adjust, a colossal shadow loomed overhead.
Giant-Man lifted his massive foot to stomp.
But it never came down.
Just outside the Sanctuary II, floating calmly, was Ebony Maw.
His fingers curled subtly.
Invisible force locked around Scott's leg mid-descent.
Scott strained, but he was suspended in place.
At the same time, a massive axe whirled through the air toward Tony and Rhodey.
They dodged in opposite directions as it embedded itself into the ground below.
Its owner followed.
Cull Obsidian charged forward.
Landing beside him were Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight.
The Black Order had entered the field.
The battlefield split instantly into chaos.
In the center, Thanos moved.
Steve met him head-on.
Shield raised.
Yet in just two strikes. That's all it took.
Even with vibranium absorbing impact, the force behind Thanos' blows broke through Steve's defense.
A brutal kick sent Captain America skidding across broken earth.
Thor charged again before Thanos could capitalize.
Hammer. Axe. Hammer. Axe.
Relentless alternating strikes, both aiming for the head.
Lightning ripped through the battlefield.
But Thanos moved with terrifying speed for someone his size.
He ducked.
Shifted.
Parried.
With one devastating motion, he knocked Mjolnir from Thor's grasp.
It spiraled across the field.
Before Thor could recover, Thanos seized Stormbreaker which was just swung to the side.
He forced it downward, the blade pressing against Thor's chest.
Thor strained desperately, both hands gripping the handle to keep it from piercing through him.
Thanos leaned in.
Muscles tightening.
Slowly overpowering him.
Not far away, Elias stopped walking.
He was within distance now.
Close enough to intervene.
But he didn't.
His eyes remained fixed on the unfolding sequence.
He was waiting.
Waiting for 'that' moment.
Elias watched as Steve was kicked across the battlefield.
The impact carved a trench through shattered concrete.
Steve grunted.
Rolled.
Forced himself back up with clenched teeth.
Then, his expression changed.
His eyes shifted.
Not toward Thanos.
But past him.
To where Mjolnir lay in the distance.
Thor was still pinned beneath Stormbreaker, the Titan forcing the axe toward his chest inch by inch.
And Steve felt it.
A pulse.
A vibration in the air that wasn't sound, it was a call.
Mjolnir.
It was calling him.
Steve stretched out his hand.
Elias blinked, and for a brief, absurd second.
He almost regretted not bringing popcorn.
In that moment, he forgot the system.
Forgot the task.
Forgot that he was part of this war.
He simply watched.
Mjolnir lifted from the ground.
Shot across the battlefield.
And landed perfectly in Steve Rogers' hand.
Even Thanos paused.
Steve didn't.
He swung.
The hammer connected with a thunderous crack and sent Thanos upward.
Lightning exploded from the sky as Steve raised Mjolnir and brought it down again and again, bolts crashing into the Mad Titan in rapid succession.
For the first time since the fight started, Thanos struggled.
Elias felt something stir in his chest.
Unconsciously, his hand reached for the hilt at his side.
The lightsaber ignited with a sharp snap-hiss.
He began walking.
Then faster.
Then charging.
Steve leapt high, hammer coated in lightning, and hurled himself downward.
Thanos rolled aside at the last second.
The ground exploded where the strike landed.
But Elias was already there.
Waiting.
His blade came down in a clean arc—aimed for the Titan's neck.
Thanos twisted unnaturally fast.
The saber sliced only air.
The Titan used the motion to rise to his feet.
And now, it was two against one.
Steve and Elias pressed forward together.
Hammer and shield.
Blade and telekinetic bursts.
Thanos met them head-on.
Every movement precise.
Every counter calculated.
Years—decades—centuries of war lived in his muscles.
Steve was a veteran.
Thanos was something more.
Elias did his best to keep up.
Footwork Kristen had drilled into him.
Angles.
Timing.
Minimal openings.
It wasn't enough.
Not against someone like this.
Somewhere in the chaos, Thanos retrieved his double-bladed sword.
Thor rejoined the fight, fury in his eyes.
For a brief, fleeting moment, the three of them pressed the Titan back.
Iron Man, War Machine, and Ant-Man were locked in brutal combat with the Black Order across the field.
Thanos adjusted quickly to Steve wielding Mjolnir.
He baited.
Parried.
Countered.
Then, he kicked Elias.
Hard.
Pain exploded through Elias' ribs as he was thrown backward, skidding across the battlefield.
For the first time since arriving in this world.
Pain felt real.
Raw.
Thor charged.
Thanos disarmed him with brutal efficiency, ripping Stormbreaker away and slamming him into the ground.
Then it narrowed again.
Just as before.
Thanos.
And Steve.
As if time itself insisted on repeating the scene.
Steve fought with everything he had.
But Mjolnir was knocked from his grip.
The shield splintered under relentless blows.
Cracked.
Then shattered in half with most remaining the lower part of the Vibranium shield.
One final devastating strike sent Steve flying across the ruins.
Silence lingered.
Smoke drifted.
The battlefield burned.
Elias lay on the ground, trembling slightly, not from fear.
From pain.
His body was not used to this.
His lungs burned.
His ribs screamed.
His vision swam.
Thanos stood tall once more.
Unbroken.
Unyielding.
Elias slowly pushed himself up onto one knee.
His hand trembled slightly, and rose.
He was this close.
This close to raising his hand.
To speaking two words that woudl activate the Killing Curse.
End the Mad Titan and complete the task.
The green light would not miss at this distance.
And yet, he hesitated.
He needs to wait for the reinforcements from both sides. Thanos wasn't the only one on his list for this task.
End of Chapter