The Soul Stone had finally arrived.
But Aron was not happy.
The reason wasn't that he had thrown his phone and broken it, but because…
"He took my phone."
Aron's way of obtaining the Soul Stone wasn't a classic sacrifice at all.
Simply put, he destroyed the planet Vormir.
The reason was that the Soul Stone refused to acknowledge him, even though Aron had supposedly already sacrificed what he loved.
Enraged by such arrogance, Aron drew his sword and sliced the planet Vormir into several pieces, as if cutting a watermelon.
But even then, the Soul Stone did not appear.
Still, Aron, who had watched countless movies and was rather perceptive, quickly found the solution.
Since the Soul Stone was a conscious entity, it reacted to emotions.
"Dear Soul Stone," he said with an ironic smile, "you don't really want to watch reality, space, time, and mind collapse before you, do you?"
He took out four Infinity Stones, Reality, Space, Time, and Mind, and slowly raised them into the air.
His words echoed like both a threat and a promise.
At that moment, the Soul Stone finally appeared.
Now Aron had five of the six Infinity Stones.
The only one still missing was the Power Stone, which was located in the DC Universe.
"Let's go get it," he said coldly, closing his hand around the newly obtained stone.
When he turned around, he saw Tony, Steve, and Natasha standing on a meteor, looking at him with expressions of mixed respect and fear.
In their eyes, Aron now looked like a demon.
"Aron," Tony raised an eyebrow suspiciously, "are you sure you weren't starring in some villain movie?"
"Get out of here."
Aron just laughed. Short, but enough to break the tension.
Tony, Captain America, and Natasha gathered around him.
They were all wearing light space suits, technology they had received from Rocket and Star-Lord before leaving Earth.
These suits, similar to the masks and gear of the Guardians of the Galaxy, allowed them to survive in space.
Red Skull, however, wasn't so lucky.
Before the explosion of Vormir, Captain America had, for some reason, saved him.
But there weren't enough suits for everyone.
So Red Skull ended up unprotected in the vacuum of space.
"Ugh…"
The sound he made was more like cracking than speaking.
His bare, red skin was covered with a layer of ice and crystallized blood, which cracked and regenerated in a loop.
In essence, Red Skull had long been dead.
Since World War II, his soul had been kept alive only by the Soul Stone.
Now that the stone belonged to Aron, the connection was broken.
Death, which had avoided him for decades, finally found him, but still didn't allow him to die.
His body was decaying and reforming, in pain that had no end.
"Captain…" Natasha looked at him suspiciously. "Are you sure you didn't save him on purpose?"
"I didn't! And stop talking nonsense," Steve answered too quickly, almost in panic.
....
The Atilan Prison.
The cell next to Supergiant soon got a new roommate, Red Skull.
He had finally escaped the hell of space, but peace didn't last long. After enduring the torment between life and death, Red Skull barely took a breath when he heard insane laughter and inarticulate noises coming from the neighboring cell.
"#$#%$!"
At first, he tried to ignore the noise, but as time passed, those conversations became louder, crazier, and unbearable.
He finally snapped.
"Aaaa! Spare me! This is worse than death!"
Red Skull began to wildly pound on the door, but the cell, made of vibranium provided by Black Panther, showed not the slightest sign of damage.
The guards outside the door didn't react. They couldn't, they had long since lost their sanity from the noise coming from those cells.
...
Meanwhile, in the royal palace of Atilan.
Aron was talking with Crystal, a member of the royal family of the Inhumans. The conversation was brief, but strong enough to leave Tony Stark, known for his charm, speechless.
"I can't believe it…" Tony muttered, watching them. For the first time in his life, he felt what it was like to lose a battle on the field where he thought he was unbeatable.
Aron was stronger than him. And now, apparently, better with women.
"This is too much!"
Crystal was glowing with happiness, touching the necklace Aron had just given her.
"Wow! How did you know this was my favorite color?" she asked excitedly. "Even the style is exactly the way I like it! Oh my God… it's like you know me!"
As the sister of Queen Medusa, Crystal felt her heart race for the first time because of someone she had just met. Aron spoke calmly, but every sentence of his was carefully measured, warm, and reassuring — like a spring breeze.
"My God, how do you do that?" she laughed. "It's like you know my every move."
In her eyes, there was already a spark of emotion, almost love.
"So that means I'm not excluded?" Aron smiled quietly, setting aside the Time Stone.
At that moment, the palace doors opened. Black Bolt and his wife Medusa entered.
Their presence brought instant authority into the room.
Tony Stark stood aside, watching the gathered. His former vision of the Illuminati, a secret organization meant to govern the world from the shadows, was now unexpectedly becoming reality.
Thanks to Aron, the original version of the plan was never carried out. But now, all the key members were gathered.
Iron Man, Captain America, Mordo, Dr. Bruce Banner, Black Bolt, Black Panther, Namor, and Aron.
When he looked at them all, Aron scratched his head.
"I feel like we've gone back to the old gang," he said with a laugh.
On the table before them, the symbol of the Illuminati gleamed. Although no one said it aloud, everyone felt the same, as if the universe had once again united all those who had ever tried to protect it.
"Gentlemen," Tony began, his tone full of both irony and seriousness, "we've gathered here to discuss yet another catastrophe. One even more serious than the last."
He paused and looked at Aron, who stood by the window as gentle light fell on the five Infinity Stones in his hand.
"Seriously," Tony added with a nervous smile, "it's still hard for me to believe that comic book characters have become reality."