Chapter 33: Killing Thanos
"Oh? In that case, I'd like to see exactly how you plan to beat me to death." As those words left his lips, Thanos's massive frame vanished, reappearing instantly right in front of Black's eyes.
A palm the size of a grinding stone swung out with brute force, reaching out to crush Black's chest...
The sound of a dull thud echoed through the air.
In that same heartbeat, Thanos's pupils shrank instantly!
What kind of creature was this human standing before him? As a member of the Eternals, he surprisingly held no advantage whatsoever in terms of pure physical strength.
No, it would be more accurate to say that his physical power was far below that of his opponent!
It was only at this moment that the surrounding onlookers could finally see the situation clearly.
Black's palm had somehow moved faster than the eye could follow, firmly catching Thanos's thick wrist.
Compared to Thanos, Black's hand looked almost slender.
Yet, it was this very hand that now held Thanos's arm pinned steadily to his side, unmoving.
Since Thanos had abandoned conversation and chosen to use his fists to settle the matter, Black was more than happy to oblige.
Folding his fingers from a palm into a grip, Black tightened his hold on Thanos's wrist. With a sudden, fluid twist of his arm, he hurled Thanos toward the sky.
Thanos felt a surge of overwhelming, irresistible power erupt from his wrist. This massive force wrapped around his entire body, launching him upward like a projectile.
In an instant, Thanos streaked into the atmosphere, exceeding the speed of sound dozens of times over. The sheer friction of the air caused the clothes on his body to disintegrate into ash.
Fortunately, Thanos usually wore his Golden Armor. It was this very breastplate that helped him endure the erosion of the high temperatures, sparing him the embarrassment of losing his garments entirely.
Watching Thanos fly further and further into the heavens, nearly breaking through the planet's atmosphere yet still unable to break free from the shackles of that force, Black simply shook his head with a bored expression.
It seemed that the Thanos he encountered in this world was likely based on the Avengers film adaptation. In the original comic settings, Thanos himself possessed quite a formidable level of power.
The Thanos before him now, if Black were to describe him with a touch of sarcasm, was a man who couldn't even hold his ground before Black had truly started trying...
The reality was exactly that. Just by relying on the "Qi" he had cultivated for over a decade, Thanos was already completely incapable of putting up a fight.
If converted using the Battle Power scales of the Dragon Ball world, Black's current Battle Power had only just reached a bit over one million.
In the world of Dragon Ball, what did a Battle Power of one million signify?
Calling it cannon fodder might be a bit much; perhaps call it high-level cannon fodder.
However, in the Marvel Universe, a Battle Power of one million points was enough to dominate the stars. Aside from feeling a bit helpless when facing certain Magic Rules or specific haks, he was essentially the "father" of this world in terms of pure physical offense.
As for a Thanos who hadn't yet obtained the Infinity Stones, his strength was truly a bit underwhelming. Black estimated that even if this version of Thanos were allowed to invade Earth right now, he probably wouldn't even be able to get past Superman.
Yet, this same Thanos, after acquiring the six Infinity Stones, would be able to borrow their might to unleash extraordinary power... such as a single snap of his fingers killing half of all living beings in the universe.
Rather than saying Thanos was strong, it was more accurate to say the Infinity Stones were strong. After all, a single snap from Tony Stark could still resurrect the half of the universe that Thanos had slaughtered.
This sort of thing was something the current Black couldn't achieve. Under a full-power burst, relying on the primordial powers of the two great dimensions of "Destruction" and "Order," he could certainly destroy this world, but he lacked the ability to perform such precise operations.
Thinking about it this way, Black actually began to feel a slight sense of expectation toward the Infinity Stones...
——
Even though the strength of this purple sweet potato crystal made Black a little disappointed, those who needed to be killed still had to be killed!
Pressing his index and middle fingers together, a wave of blue energy crackling with electric arcs instantly formed at Black's fingertips. With a sharp flick of his hand, he fired the energy beam toward Thanos.
"Special Beam Cannon!"
This was a signature technique belonging to Demon King Piccolo from the Dragon Ball world. Its advantages were high damage and incredible penetration, capable of detonating energy far beyond the user's own base strength. Its weakness was a long casting time and the requirement of remaining undisturbed.
However, for Black, who had trained to the level of a "God of Destruction," the flaws of the Special Beam Cannon had naturally long since vanished.
A spiraling blue energy wave instantly crossed the distance of hundreds of kilometers. Like a hot knife through dry wood, it pierced directly through the point between Thanos's eyebrows!
Although Black had killed Thanos way out in space, in reality, only a few seconds had passed. On the surface of Planet Titan, Thanos's subordinates—Ebony Maw and Proxima Midnight of the Black Order—had only just realized the gravity of the situation.
Proxima Midnight swung her blade and lunged toward Black, while Ebony Maw, standing further back, simultaneously gestured with his Telekinesis, sweeping up countless massive boulders behind him to smash into Black.
Neither of them knew that Thanos, who had been thrown into the sky, was already dead.
The problem was simply the distance; aside from special existences like Superman, the five senses of an ordinary person weren't that sharp.
...
Looking at the two people launching a fearless attack toward him, Black simply waved two casual energy waves. The two members of the Black Order were instantly vaporized.
He turned his gaze back to Thanos's body floating in the vacuum of space.
For some reason, Black felt a faint sense that something wasn't quite right.
After a moment of thought, Black used Flash and appeared beside Loki. After severing the magical chains locking Loki's body, Black immediately told Star-Lord and the others to get Loki onto the spaceship and leave the planet at once.
As for Black, he remained behind on the spot alone.
...
Just after Star-Lord and the others left in their spaceship in a state of confusion, outside Planet Titan, the Thanos whose brain had been destroyed and who should have been dead suddenly stood upright in the void of space!
Even the original wound that had pierced from between his eyebrows through to the back of his head had now completely vanished.
However, at this moment, Thanos's expression looked rather strange.
How to put it... Black felt that Thanos seemed reluctant to leave.
Could Thanos have become an idiot because of the blow?
Or perhaps, at the very brink of his physical death, he had encountered something that made him unable to let go...
"Is it finally time to meet you? One of the four fundamental powers of rule that possesses its own independent consciousness in this world... Death!" Looking toward the sky, Black murmured softly.
Thanos rising from the dead reminded Black of something else.
In Marvel lore, Thanos seemed to have a certain ambiguous relationship with "Death."
Rumor had it that Thanos had always been one-sidedly in love with "Death." Even his plan to slaughter half of the living beings in the universe was actually done to please her.
As for what "Death's" attitude toward Thanos was, Black didn't know.
But judging by the current situation of Thanos's resurrection...
"Death" likely didn't want Thanos to be reunited with her quite so soon.
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