In space, Heisenberg possessed the power to fly freely while Thanos clearly could not. Thus Heisenberg unleashed a spectacular and unparalleled beating on Thanos.
In just a few short minutes Thanos took over eight hundred of Heisenberg's heavy punches. After this round of pummeling Heisenberg finally smashed Thanos hard toward Earth.
Thanos, lacking any ability to fly, shot straight toward the planet in an instant, but that was not the end. Heisenberg followed him, accelerating relentlessly, and slammed another vicious punch into his chest.
One punch and Thanos instantly sped up. Heisenberg stayed right on his tail and delivered a second punch. Third punch, fourth punch.
By the time Heisenberg drove Thanos into the atmosphere Thanos's speed had already exceeded thirty thousand Mach.
What did thirty thousand Mach mean? No one could even see the flames burning around Thanos as he fell. They only caught a flash of red light before Thanos had already smashed into the ground and vanished from sight.
Time seemed to freeze. Then, in the next instant, the ground near where Thanos had landed began to surge like a fragile wave.
Just like dropping a massive boulder into a lake, an unbelievably violent shockwave swept out madly. In mere two seconds almost no one on the entire battlefield was left standing.
After the fierce undulation the earth shattered into tiny clods. Heisenberg's strike had turned New York into a black-red crater three hundred meters deep and fourteen kilometers wide.
Even the Avengers forces suffered casualties, especially the Wakandan warriors. Fortunately Strange and the sorcerers of the Ancient One's order reacted extremely fast, pulling most of their own people into the Mirror Dimension at the first moment.
Otherwise that single impact could have wiped out ninety percent of the Avengers.
Why? Because Thanos's subordinates who had poured out of the portals had lost over ninety percent of their numbers.
Dust gradually settled and the battlefield, previously obscured, slowly came into view. Ebony Maw, who had protected himself with the power of the Infinity Stones, stared in shock at the army that had been reduced to ashes all around him.
That was Thanos's army, and it was also his army. But everything had vanished in that single instant of shockwave.
Ninety percent. A full ninety percent. Even the last ten percent of legion warriors still alive on the battlefield could barely walk properly.
The insect-like landing ships that should have been drifting in the sky fell to the ground like steamed dumplings while the Chitauri warriors linked to them lay there like dead ash, unable even to twitch.
Looking at such a force and then at the Avengers troops who had hidden in the Mirror Dimension, no one understood the meaning of "the situation is hopeless" better than Ebony Maw.
In the past Ebony Maw would have fled this damned battlefield long ago. But now…
He stared deeply at the Infinity Gauntlet on his right hand. Although it only held four stones, from another angle four Infinity Stones were already enough to let Thanos rally once more and gain the power to kill Heisenberg.
As long as he handed the gauntlet to Thanos, handed it to him…
"Ugh aaaahhh!!!"
At that moment, from the center of the incredibly deep crater came Thanos's heart-wrenching wail. The armor on his body had completely shattered and clear cracks had appeared on his exposed chest.
Even so he kept struggling, desperately trying to push himself up.
Seeing Thanos like this, Ebony Maw suddenly froze. The next moment he burst out laughing. His smile looked particularly glaring and the curve of his lips was filled with the word ambition.
"My boss is the undefeated Thanos, not the failure standing before me now. Thanos, you who have utterly failed no longer deserve to possess these powers."
He muttered to himself. At the same time he waved his right hand. Blue light flashed in his palm and in the blink of an eye he vanished from the battlefield.
…
At the same time, at the center of the crater…
Thud!!!
A muffled sound rang out as Heisenberg landed beside Thanos. Thanos paid him no attention. He continued his efforts, trying to shift from lying flat to at least sitting up.
But after struggling for a long time he only managed to lift his upper body slightly. Seeing this, Heisenberg took a bored breath.
"Tsk tsk, enjoying the taste of defeat?"
As soon as the words left his mouth Thanos suddenly gave up on trying to rise and lay back down calmly. He flexed his massive jaw, swallowed the blood pooling in his throat, and spoke to Heisenberg in a muffled voice.
"My destiny should not be like this."
"Of course you shouldn't have ended up dead like this. Who told you to run into me."
Heisenberg said with a laugh. At the same time he activated his bio-force field and, in the now-empty crater, used the shattered rock layers to create two passable chairs.
The two chairs faced each other. Heisenberg sat on one, then with a glance from his eyes Thanos floated up. Feeling his body lift, Thanos coughed violently twice. After spitting out a large mouthful of blood the tightness in his chest eased considerably.
Then Heisenberg placed him on the opposite seat. Heisenberg smiled, crossed his right leg over his left, rested his hands naturally on the armrests, and spoke to Thanos.
"As a cosmic emperor you have achieved everything you wanted, possessed the power you desired, and even after learning of the future you knew you had obtained the victory you always pursued."
Thanos nodded with difficulty. Suddenly he revealed a bloody smile as well.
"You mean my goal of using the Stones to randomly destroy half the life in the universe? Indeed I saw my future. I succeeded.
In terms of the goal alone I completed it, and that was my victory. Even if I have lost it now I once possessed it.
I… should have no complaints."
Though he said this his eyes were filled with dejection and unwillingness.
"But in reality my so-called success was completely wrong. I thought that after I killed half their people the survivors would remember the reason for their kin's passing, then strive harder and live better because of it.
But as long as anyone still misses the past and remembers the hatred they will never achieve the future and peace I wanted to give them. So the moment I obtained the Stones I should have completely destroyed this world and created a new race of beings who know only gratitude, without disputes, without wars, without hatred."
"Hehe…"
Hearing this Heisenberg suddenly laughed.
"Thanos."
He said abruptly.
"Your ambition is truly unrealistic because every intelligent lifeform has the same goals and ambitions as you. Everyone wants more while losing less.
Everyone wants to charge ahead and feels ashamed to fall behind. From birth everyone is in a competition and that competition lasts their entire lives.
If you truly want a race that knows only gratitude you would have to prevent that race from ever advancing intellectually."
Heisenberg smiled and tapped his own head toward Thanos.
"But are you willing to spend the rest of your life with a bunch of idiots you created?"
"I…"
Thanos fell silent. A moment later he shook his head in disappointment.
"No matter what." he said. "The passing of some lives will always allow the remaining lives to develop better. The resources in the universe are fixed there, unchanging through the ages.
With fewer lives sharing them the remaining ones will receive more. This is my destiny and it is my gift to them.
But unfortunately no one cherished it. Stupid intelligent beings prefer to place memories of the past and hatred above future gains. They refuse to accept reality and try to reclaim the past.
I already pointed the way for them yet none of them took it. Instead they chose to launch spaceships against the current of the times, causing themselves and their races to regress at lightspeed."
As he spoke Thanos smiled with resignation, then weakly raised his blood-covered right hand toward Heisenberg.
"Kill me. Though I meet my end I have seen you. Our methods may differ but through battle I have come to understand you as well as I understand myself.
Our methods and ideals may differ but only we stand at the same height, bearing the weight as we move toward the same direction. I will not be mistaken. Only you and I are the ones who control the fate of the entire universe.
And we are both willing to change their fates."
"Hah, so I admire you, Thanos. But precisely because of that admiration I will never allow you to survive under my hand.
After all, between you and me one is enough."
With that Heisenberg slowly raised his right hand. At the same time Scarlet Witch, who had been hovering high above and watching the area, shot straight toward Thanos.
A moment later Heisenberg suddenly grabbed the eager Scarlet Witch. He held the restless Wanda and spoke softly to her.
"I only allow you to watch his death, Wanda."
"But he…!"
Wanda immediately tried to argue but Heisenberg quickly stopped her. He spoke to Wanda with a serious expression.
"But he was once a king, a god who decided your fates, and a great being who held an ideal you do not understand yet was willing to fight for it for over six thousand years. To such an idealist I must give him the respect he deserves."
With that Heisenberg tossed Wanda aside and roared at her sternly.
"The one you hate is the Thanos who killed your lover, not the Thanos before you who has not yet done any of that. Stay there and watch quietly."
As his words fell he slowly walked toward the slumped Thanos who could not stand. At the same time the Avengers forces who had been hiding in the Mirror Dimensions gradually emerged.
Since their previous battlefield had been completely turned into a crater and their enemies along with Thanos's portals had vanished with the crater's formation, the Avengers, now without enemies, almost all turned their eyes toward the very center of the crater.
There Heisenberg had reached Thanos. He floated into the air, looking down at the great defeated figure before him. Their gazes met. In Thanos's final pupils Heisenberg saw endless recognition and anticipation.
"Dying by your hand may be the most glorious end for me, far better than having my head chopped off by those opportunistic villains after I destroyed the Stones."
The moment his words left his mouth almost every Avenger who had participated in the battle to kill Thanos gritted their teeth in unwillingness. But after experiencing the earlier fight people now held the most basic respect for Heisenberg.
So while he had not spoken no one refuted Thanos. Heisenberg nodded at Thanos, then shook his head.
"You once possessed all the great power you could have but your only mistake was using that power to change their fates without using power to maintain the change you made to their fates. Any kind of revolution does not yield results overnight.
So do not blame them for taking advantage of your weakness. Everything is your own doing. They may have lost to you before but after that you laid down your arms and returned to the fields, so in the end you did not keep winning forever.
But no matter what you are the opponent most worthy of fighting for me."
/-\
Enjoying the story? Want to read ahead?
Support the novel and unlock early access to unreleased chapters!
~ +20 Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon! (+1 Chapter daily)
https://p-atreon.com/Its_Zack
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access Patreon normally)