94
The Nation of Wakanda
Mount Bashenga
12:18 a.m.
They could feel the electricity coursing through the wind as the tension filled the air. Bigger and bolder as the seconds ticked away, almost making it noxious. The fumes could choke any living creature that chose to remain within a close proximity to their feud, and so they backed away. The Black Order stepped aside—with Shining Armor right with them—and let their father deal with his own battles.
Let him have his fun, as the Maw used to put it.
There was little fun to be had for Thanos. Even then, he glared upon the Serpent God with as much malice as he could muster, recalling and truly absorbing Set’s words again and again. The dreams that kept him awake for many nights on end, the dreams where he envisioned a world ruled by magical, talking horses, a world he just couldn’t seem to get out of his head and was convinced that destiny itself led him to it… all came from him. From the demonic serpent standing miles taller than him. To Set, Thanos was nothing more than a pawn in his wicked game, another stepping stone to achieve his own destiny… and slaughter anything that got in his way.
To Set… Thanos’ destiny meant nothing. He could take it all away if he had acquired the Soul Stone. And unfortunately for him, he intended to go through with that plan. Thanos had robbed him of his vengeance, stole from him the world of Equus that should have faced his wrath and not the Mad Titan’s. Yet instead… the races of Equus now feared the name of Thanos… and had all but forgotten of the demon that nearly burned the world to its core so long ago.
To Set… that was unforgivable.
To Thanos… he saw only another barrier standing between him and his destiny.
So, he intended to push right through it.
With a ferocious roar, Thanos tore through the very fabric of reality and unleashed a Power Stone blast straight from his Infinity Gauntlet, so utterly raw and universally powerful that it ripped through the air at a screaming shock wave, fueled only further by the four other Stones. Set reared three of his heads backwards, screeching as he dove forward and unleashed three torrents of fire straight from those jaws. He was just a tad slow on that mark, the strength of the Power Stone striking Set right over his heart and blasting the Serpent God clear off the mountain peak and down into the smoke-filled, darkness-infested valleys beneath it. All seven heads screeched out, the wings extending but unable to catch flight in time when Set’s body impacted the earth with a tremendous earthquake that followed and shook all of Wakanda. Thanos was right on top of him, rushing forth and leaping off the shattered mountain, down into the murky depths of the Wakandan valleys.
That was the signal. That was the bell, the cry, the call. The horns of battle had sounded off and the armies were unleashed.
Countless demons and monsters straight from Equestrian legend cried out and charged the members of the Black Order. They were joined by numerous Set-Spawn, reptilian demons such as the fearsome Damballah and wretched Sligguth. Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian, Corvus Glaive, and Proxima Midnight had no choice but to engage with the demon army, holding their ground rather well considering the massive numbers against them. Shining Armor also proved to be a formidable fighter amongst the Children of Thanos. But it wasn’t he who turned the tides of war in favor of the Great Titan.
Over the hills, rushing down towards the valley surrounding Mount Bashenga, a nearly-limitless army of Outriders and Chitauri charged forth into the cataclysmic battle unfolding. The Outriders numbered in the hundreds, smaller than that of Set’s army. The Chitauri numbered in the thousands, already overcoming the Tartarian dragons and harpies filling the atmosphere. Dozens of Leviathans exited the Command Centers entering the valley’s airspace, joined by near-countless chariots and starships that dominated the skies. The battle upon the earth was bloody and brutal, Outriders slamming themselves into various Damballah and easily tearing through the skeleton hordes. Nothing was safe. Every single demon and every other alien engaged in total cataclysm.
Cataclysm.
The fate of the universe hung in the balance, every foundation, every corner, every eye and every soul gazing down upon the small and insignificant planet of Earth and witnessing it. Even those who could not see nor could not hear it, the battle raged so fierce and so powerful that the effects could be felt throughout all the universe. Specifically, when Thanos engaged the Elder God with the power of all five Infinity Stones leading him, fueling him, filling the void and spreading chaos and utter power with every blast. And the universe could feel it.
As Thanos fell into the crevice, into the darkness and through the smoke, he was instantly met with the rearing jaws of one of the many heads of Set. It broke the dark and entered the light that Thanos wielded, driving forth with its fangs leading and intending to end the Titan’s journey faster than either would have expected. Set expected too much, forced to watch as Thanos unleashed the power of the Space Stone and allowed himself to phase harmlessly through the beast’s awaiting jaws. As he fell through and exited on the other side, Thanos spun back, clenching his fist and firing a beam from the Power Stone onto the back of the serpent’s head.
An explosion of violet shot out, the screams of Set sounding off in the darkness. Thanos continued to fall, eventually coming to a crash upon the earth with both feet meeting ground. Dust and dirt shot out from his impact, the wave flushing outwards and pushing aside the smoke that filled the pitch-dark air. Thanos cleansed it, shooting out the Gauntlet and igniting the Space Stone once more. The smoke was cleared almost instantly, allowing the red of the second sun to shine down and give light to the battlefield.
There stood Set, almost right on top of him, waiting for the Mad Titan and already striking.
He reared back and slammed his right claw into the ground, right where Thanos so foolishly stood while blinded in the smoke. Yet even in the brilliance of emptiness, he was so slow. He was so utterly unprepared and outmatched by that of an Elder God. The very earth shook upon impact, rock and dust shooting out from the impact and pillars of landmass rising up from the strike. Set bared his fangs and hissed upon the shattered earth beneath his claw. When he pulled back his claw, however, he was met with pure nothingness beneath it. Nothing but rock… dirt… and—
The undeniable sound of a space portal appeared above, Set shooting all seven heads towards the skies and seeing it. Seeing him. Thanos jumped right out from the portal, the Space Stone dying as Thanos’ screams filled the air and shook the world. The resulting blast from the Power Stone proceeded to convulse the entire universe. The powers of reality quivered under its might, the blast striking Set in his middle head. The First head. It struck its scales and exploded, causing the First to screech out in agony and rear backwards. The remaining six charged forward, all intent to see the end of the Mad Titan.
Neither one of them succeeded. Despite breaking through the sound barrier with their conjoined speeds, Thanos was just too fast, his reflexes running and fueling him with precise and accurate leaps from one head to the other. As one titanic pair of jaws lashed towards Thanos, the Titan would jump—fueled by the strength of the Stones—and land opposite to another awaiting head. When things became hectic, when the air was filled with unearthly screeches and slithering towers of darkness and fire overshadowing the Great Titan, Thanos would fire a beam from the Power Stone to his intended targets. Each strike would deal a hefty amount of damage, the heads crying out and shrinking aside to allow Thanos a clearer passage. But even then, they would always come back, breathing hurricane-like winds to slow him down, fire to scorch his soul, and bit at him with fangs that were ten times his own size. Thanos just kept pushing forward, rushing across the Fifth’s neck until even the Fifth realized where the Titan was. It rose up, forcing Thanos to leap off and engage the center head in mid-air, his intended target. As the towering serpent heads surrounded him, Thanos just flew forward, using the momentum from his jump and firing the beam from the Power Stone right to towards the centered head.
The First was ready for him. It met Thanos’ attack halfway and unleashed a stream of otherworldly fire from its jaws, screeching out as it did so. The purple and orange connected, creating a blast so vivid and thunderous that it lit up the darkness more so than the eye of the storm ever could. The light shined in the valleys below and resembled that of the sun itself, filling the black with a blinding yellow. The shock wave that followed tore open the earth and shattered the remains of Mount Bashenga, leaving just the crevice of vibranium intact. While Set was merely pushed back a few yards, Thanos was blasted to the earth the second the explosion followed. The Mad Titan struck the world and shot out numerous veins throughout the rock.
He had only begun to rise again when he felt the tremor, then turned back to be met with Set’s gargantuan tail slamming on top of him. He wasn’t ready with the Stone that time. Thanos felt the full impact of Set’s tail come crashing down on his backside and planting him firmly into the earth once again. Set was relentless, narrowing his numerous eyes and removing his tail slowly, painfully, dragging it and its razor-sharp scales across the ground until Thanos was revealed to him. Chest-first on the earth, flattened… but still rising nonetheless. When fueled by that of the very universe, one could not fall so easily. Set knew that just as well as Thanos, the energy of the Power Stone itself flowing through Set’s veins alongside his own lifeblood. Regardless, the seven-headed serpent reared forward, unleashing seven towers of fire upon the Mad Titan in his prone state.
By that time, Thanos had raised his Infinity Gauntlet and flexed his muscles into a weak fist, the Space Stone creating a protective dome of energy above him. Despite the very might of space itself protecting him, Thanos was barely holding on against the heavy odds. He managed to rise both feet, but shortly fell to one knee when Set put on the pressure, unleashing the full might of the Elder Gods upon the Titan. It was as if he was holding the very weight of the world on top of him. No, not the world. The very weight of the sun, of a star that shredded and scorched the earth surrounding him fell on top of Thanos. And he held it.
Miraculously enough, he managed to hold it. Nothing could have lasted forever, however, and eventually Thanos began to truly feel that weight and power falling on him. The Space Stone began to lose its grip upon the might of the Elder God, especially when that might was strengthened by one of the most powerful Infinity Stones. The power of the universe fought against itself, buried itself and created a deadlock of no return. The power that could create stars, entire galaxies, and kill them off with just a breath struck and held off against even itself… and there was an impasse. Thanos grit his teeth, tightened his muscles and his position, even as the weight of the universe fell on top of him. Set narrowed his numerous glares, increasing the pressure and only intending to leave a scorch mark where the Titan remained. A consistent earthquake was traversing all throughout Wakanda, the African continent, and filled the oceans as Set battered the earth with his breath. The world quaked and the air screamed as the two powers of reality clashed on and on.
And it all ended. A Chitauri Leviathan roared out and caught Set’s center head between its jaws, chomping down and keeping the Serpent God within its grasp. The disruption was strong enough to cut off the towers of fire, Set roaring and lashing out on the Leviathan. He reared up with his claws, clamping down on the Chitauri beast and ripping it free from its head. Set proceeded to rip the alien to shreds with his remaining heads, the First slithering forward and spotting the source of the disruption.
An army more than a thousand strong filled the darkened skies and entered forth through the clouds of fire and smoke. Command Centers dotted the air and filled it with thousands of Chitauri of various kinds. They swarmed Set from all sides, surrounding the Elder God, ultimately coming to their master’s rescue.
The beast growled softly. Unfurling his wings, the ends of each scraping the heavens and bringing forth a shadow unlike any other upon the lands of Wakanda, Set showcased all of Thanos’ forces of what awaited them. The storm brewed and roared overhead, venom and acid raining down and filling the valleys with pestilence of every kind. The level of wind increased to over 300 miles per hour, creating vicious tornadoes of fire that filled the outer landscapes. They didn’t stop. Set fully anticipated such and showed them just what awaited their foolish decision. He cried out, each head firing off either a stream of fire, a shock wave of wind, or even heated bolts of red-hot lightning that filled the atmosphere with pure and utter chaos.
The fire blew right through anything caught in its wake, incinerating Leviathans, starships, and chariots in the hundreds and impacting a single Command Center. It erupted instantly. The powerful gusts of wind that escaped several other jaws sent chariots and starships spiraling out of control, impacting the earth and creating numerous domino explosion upon impact. Hundreds more died as the lightning struck the Command Centers, bringing down the flying behemoths into nothing but flaming husks of cinders and metal. Set’s wings finished off the rest, just a simple slash at the air creating a shock wave so powerful that it knocked every other Command Center right out of the air. Decimated them where they hovered. Their bodies succumbed to the otherworldly winds and fire and fell because of that. It was as if an atomic explosion had struck the nation of Wakanda. The largest portion of Thanos' armada crumbled, leaving thousands more to fall to the earth. Dead before any of them even hit the ground.
Thanos saw such, his eyes widening in awestruck alarm. Set had simply wiped out a significant portion of Thanos’ own fleet, leaving less than ten Chitauri Command Centers out of his entire army. That alarm quickly shifted to unbridled fury, the Mad Titan rising to his feet and jamming his Infinity Gauntlet out to the valleys above.
“Retreat!” he ordered to the remainder of his Chitauri fleet. The power of the Infinity Stones amplified his voice, allowing him to be heard to one and all within the nation of Wakanda. He didn’t need to say it twice. The order was sent and received with renewed and valiant vigor, the remaining warships instantly flying off from the near-surface of the planet. Sanctuary II followed suit, the many hundreds of Chitauri and Outrider Dropships retreating alongside the motherships and entering the outer atmosphere of planet Earth. They flew even further than that, vanishing from the battle.
Leaving just a couple hundred Outriders, the Black Order, Shining Armor, and Thanos to deal with the rest.
And within the heart of the aftermath, as Thanos struggled to fully stand up, he listened in the wind and heard… the laughter. The soft chuckle reverberating through the air and holding the weight of a hundred worlds. The weight and power of the universe. Once Thanos was fully standing, he kept his head low, his hand relaxed, and his breathing shallow as he listened… and waited.
Didn’t even look as Set stood over him, all seven heads overshadowing the Great Titan and glaring down. So mighty compared to the speck that was Thanos. So unrealistically massive with his wings extended, body and tail rising, and all seven heads unfurling and centering directly over the Mad Titan. Thanos made no form of movement, like he was but a mere statue frozen in time. His head low. Eyes unseen. Looking utterly defeated beneath the stare of the Serpent God.
And Set chuckled because of that.
“Ohhh… you feel it now, Thanos?” the Seventh head taunted, rising high and above the others. “The horror… the rage… that feeling of utter hopelessness. Everything you’ve built, everything you’ve done to become greater than your past failures… and forced to watch it all fall before you… knowing you could do nothing to stop it. Just like your home world.”
The desolation of the Chitauri fleet sat around them, surrounded them, filled the air with vile stench of destruction and death. The type Thanos hadn’t known since the fall of the very world Set spoke of. Bringing up that painful memory—especially how he knew of such traumatic and personal history belonging only to the lone survivor of Titan—it sparked something deep within Thanos. He lifted up his head, witnessed the remains of his fleet as but mere bones of what they once were. Resembling so closely to the remains of his home world. Thanos’ eyes flared open at that, his hands slowly but certainly closing into tight, furious fists. The earth trembled around him—around his gauntlet. Yet Set paid no heed, his heads rising back and ready to finish what he started.
With the Seventh declaring proudly, “Do not be frightened for long, Thanos. When the Soul Stone is mine… I will be certain your soul finds proper rest… with the billions of other titans you failed to save!”
It was that statement that silenced all else, that declaration that finalized Set’s intentions in the grand scheme. The Serpent God reared back, the Seventh leading, its mouth glowing with a fiery intensity rivaling that of a thousand supernovas. And just before it could unleash that power, Thanos lifted up his eyes to meet Set’s.
He was followed shortly after by the Infinity Gauntlet, jutting forth and killing the Seventh head with a blast from all five Stones.
It came so fast. So quick that Set never even expected it. So swift and so deadly that it met Set’s open maw and incinerated everything that kept the serpent head functioning. The following eruption blew apart the Seventh with a blast that lit up the skies, the remaining six heads screeching out in mixes of shock, anger, and most importantly… pain. Pure, unfathomable pain. A kind Set had never experienced, not even during his defeat on Equus so many years ago. When the light and smoke settled, the six heads slowly turned near the center, their jaws agape in a frozen state of that singular shock and agony. For the Seventh, they could see nothing but a smoking stump at the towering neck, shorter than the others, swaying before falling to the ground, hanging limply upon the rest of the body.
Lost.
Realization struck Set the moment that limp neck touched his scales. That realization came and stood before him as that of the Great Titan. The Dark Lord. The lone survivor of his home world and the Mad Titan himself. Thanos stepped forward, lifted his eyes, and glared at the six heads that remained. He showed Set the power of which he held, the Infinity Gauntlet tightening and all five Stones shimmering brighter than any star.
Showing Set what he was destined to control.
And still he resisted.
The Elder God roared out, charging Thanos with everything that he was and could become. He fired streams of lightning, gusts of wind, and towers of fire onto the Mad Titan and still it did nothing. Thanos merely walked through it all with the Infinity Stones protecting him every step of the way. The Third head had enough, Set rearing forward and fully intending to crush the Titan within his jaws. Yet when he met Thanos, the Third head merely popped its eyes clear out of its skull, Thanos leaping directly into its open maw and leading his punch with a Power Stone-fueled strike. Strong enough to shatter a planet. It blew apart the Third head even easier than that.
The violet fires shot out with the strength of a megaton explosion as Thanos landed upon Set’s right arm. Instantly, he was swarmed from all sides by the hundreds of miniature serpents upon the beast’s arm. Even the Fourth head charged towards him, a burning hellfire boiling between its jaws and fully willing to sacrifice the serpents upon its arm to ensure the Titan’s death. Instead, the Fourth and the many serpents surrounding Thanos were trapped in that moment, frozen in reality as the Time Stone ignited and held them in place.
Witnessing the events unfolding before it, the Second head took action and slithered forward with unreal speeds directly towards Thanos, reaching the Titan in less than three seconds. It was met… with the sickening glare of the Mad Titan. That, and the fearsome red glow of the Reality Stone.
Thanos roared, ripping his left arm directly upwards and allowing the power of the Reality Stone to take command. The very earth beneath Set’s right arm reacted to Thanos’ will, the Reality Stone reconfiguring the rock to form a jagged, sharpened dagger that when brought upwards… completely sliced through the arm, the Second’s neck, and finally settled to impaling the Fourth right at the top of its agape mouth. Exiting clearly on the top of its skull. Thanos felt himself flung off and disappeared through the storm of dust, smoke, and blood.
Set reared backwards, the remains of its right arm hanging by a simple strand of hardened flesh. Even that surely snapped free as Set clutched its stump of an arm, the remaining three heads wailing in profound torment and agony. He only felt that type of pain once before, flashes of his suffering in Tartarus returning to Set in full force, trapping his mind within that hell. The Fourth head hung limply by the tower of rock impaled through its skull, the Second and Third heads but mere stumps. Like the Seventh. Leaving just three alive and thrashing.
Kicking off the earth, Set shot out his wings and hovered menacingly above, to escape Thanos’ wrath and unleash everything else he had to ensure the nation of Wakanda sunk to the bottom of the ocean along with the rest of the continent. To ensure Thanos’ death. He would take any means necessary, even if he sacrificed the Soul Stone. The conditions he currently felt outweighed his future predicaments. The pain of which he was trapped in reminded Set too much of his times within Tartarus’ grasp. And that…
That terrified him.
But not as much as when Thanos ripped his wings clean off his body.
His three remaining heads—the First, Fifth, and Sixth—began to breathe in deeply, ready to unleash every ounce of his universal power that was contained within his very being upon the entire nation. But before he could even reach a safe distance above the earth, before he could take in another ounce of air within his mouths or unleash another flap of his wings… Thanos stopped that. He used the power of the Space Stone to rip his own two wings clean from his body.
Set fell to the earth with a devastating and world-shattering crash.
Through the storm of dust Thanos walked. Straight ahead and into the heart of the madness of which he created. Within that crevice, that impact that Set had formed, the withering beast thrashed about and cried. When he spotted the Mad Titan approaching him, blowing away the storm and leaving just him… only him… then Set reacted. He charged forth with the Sixth head leading, followed shortly by the Fifth. The First was unseen, but Set was still there, still controlling the survivors.
And Thanos met them with his clenched gauntlet, the yellow shimmer of the Mind Stone igniting and entrapping the Sixth head within its light.
The Fifth did not stop. It was relentless, charging forth with fangs and screams leading it as it narrowed its reach and bit down on the Mad Titan. It nearly would have. The Sixth head chomped down on its throat, bringing both of them crashing down onto the earth. The Fifth cried out, screeching in pain as the Sixth’s fangs dug deeper and sliced open its throat. When the Fifth gained some form of headway, fought against the Sixth and glared into its own eyes… Set saw something. Something beyond his control.
The bright blue, alien eyes of the Sixth glared into the burning red of the Fifth. It roared out, rearing forward and chomping down on its throat once again. Set retaliated against himself, the Fifth doing the same and driving its teeth into the Sixth’s neck, intending to pry it off. Thanos ended their conflict by slicing horizontally at the air, the Space and Power Stones severing both heads clean from the rest of the body.
The two massive serpent heads struck the earth and settled there with the others. With the lacerated corpses and limbs that Thanos had made of the Serpent God. And when that dust settled, when the heads had fallen into a state of frozen death and no longer made a single movement… that’s when Thanos stopped. He stopped when his eyes return to the crevice of which the beast breathed. Of which the six stumps upon the Elder God swayed and hung uselessly upon the creature’s body…
Leaving just one.
The First head… the only being that was truly and only Set from that point forward looked about, stared into the mists of uncertainty as the pain amplified around his form and made him numb. That numbness became a sickness, infecting his body and making him weak, the mighty Serpent God actually returning to that sense of weakness, uncertainty, and actual trepidation clutch his being and sense of realism once again. His many heads became one. His wings were clipped and brought him to the world. Like a fallen angel. Like a true demon. In his wounded and crippled state, Set could do nothing more than think of that, the agony resembling that of Tartarus and every horror that came with it. And through that horror stepped the one.
Through those fires and smoke, Thanos approached the crevice and stared onto what remained of the great Serpent God. His right arm was severed, the hundreds of serpents crying out in pain, to the heavens for salvation, yet nothing would ever come. The six heads became nothing, showed nothing but smoldering stumps that hanged from the mighty Elder God. His wings remained scattered, the torn skin and broken bones hanging in the distance like crumbled towers. And Set… was all that remained.
The only head left to meet the Titan’s endless stare and glare right into it. Never once backing down, never accepting defeat, but knowing deep down… that there was nothing else but that.
Nothing that destiny could determine otherwise.
And Thanos spoke to him. In his broken state of being, Thanos spoke to the fallen god and lifted the Infinity Gauntlet, the face of it meeting Set’s own. All five Infinity Stones… one empty space that Thanos made sure it was one of the last things Set ever witnessed.
“Deal’s off.”
That… and what followed.
Set could only watch as time itself seemed to shutter to a standstill. He was forced to witness as Thanos opened his palm, let the Power Stone glow violently, and then close his fist in a devastating wave of death that followed. The Power Stone infected the earth, ignoring Set and crawling up the mountain in hundreds of wicked, purple veins. That sickness of violet struck the battling armies surrounding Mount Bashenga. As that power struck the armies, it only killed Set’s children. Every last offspring. Every demon, every beast, every Set-Spawn killed as the Power Stone infected them and combusted their bodies into nothing but purple cinders. The Black Order, Shining Armor, and the remaining Outrider horde gazed in silence to it all, frozen where they stood.
And Set could hear their screams. He heard every last and violent scream escape his offspring. He heard every last one of them silenced. In an instant. And it was at that moment did Set come to a horrifying realization. The pain of the past, witnessing his children suffer in torment… only to no longer be able to hear them. He no longer had that assurance. His children were gone. For good.
The worst part wasn’t that he couldn’t do anything to stop it. No... the worse part was that he could have… and still he did nothing, trapped in that perpetual state of pain and terror. So, he unleashed that rage, that fiery inferno that bellowed from his remaining maw and fueled him as he charged Thanos in a last-ditch attempt to end the Titan right then and there. Just as the terrifying realization came to him when the light of the Stones—of all five of them—burned.
Just as Thanos finished what he started, all five Stones blasting right though his heart. The mighty Serpent God froze. Thanos ripped his arm back, ending the beam and staring in silence to the Elder God. To what he had done. Set shakily stood, his last remaining head slowly gazing downwards to the large crevice over his chest, the dark hole exiting through his backside. He fell. Landed upon the earth. Lying before the Great Titan, the First and last head’s eyes… slowly dimmed from red to black. Slowly falling.
Quickly dying.
All the universe was silenced.
The wind stopped. The tornadoes slowly dissipated. The rain and fire had faded away as the smoke began to clear and the darkness of the night returned. Only… the black never managed to slip into Wakanda. The burning red eye of the storm died as Set did… and instead showered a luminescent orange over all the land. Directly over the massive crevice where Mount Bashenga hardly stood. Thanos breathed out and let his body, his mind, and his soul relax. The calming orange light called to him, Thanos turning his weary gaze towards it. It showered over him, filled his eyes with renewed strength, but his heart… it still hurt. His body was still battered and bruised.
But he walked anyway. He let the call of destiny push him every step towards the mountainside, where he used the power of the Space Stone to teleport the rest of the way. The portal returned him to the valley just before Mount Bashenga, where he was instantly greeted by his children. They witnessed his state with obvious concern, but Thanos waved them aside, declaring with not a statement… but his gaze… that their concerns would be met. That all their troubles would come to an end at long last.
Because resting before them, deep inside the smoldering crater that once was Mount Bashenga, now remained nothing. Just nothing that stood in their way to the last of the Infinity Stones. The Outrider army backed away as Thanos and his Black Order approached it. But even then… his children stopped. They and Shining Armor allowed Thanos to take the necessary steps that belonged solely to him. For with every step up that hill, it was a step closer to his own destiny. The bright light of the orange storm shined heavy as Thanos pushed himself up the mountain, his head low, his mouth agape, breathing so very heavily but never once giving in.
Because he made it.
Deep within the darkness of the crevice, Thanos stood on the edge and witnessed the light for himself. It was concealed, barely held by the strength of the vibranium… but still there. Still ripe for the taking. The orange heart glowed with a fierceness unlike any other Infinity Stone, Thanos’ eyes widening and his heart truly opening when he witnessed it for himself. When he knew with pure certainty… that his journey had finally come to an end.
And yet… he could not take that next step. Something held him back. Something beyond his will. Something beyond his power, so strong that he couldn’t even lift his gauntlet to change that. Something…
“Son of A’Lars…”
Thanos lifted his head, his gaze narrowing forward. His heart stopped when he heard that voice.
“Come to claim… that which he lost.”
He knew that voice. It caught him somewhere he wished to forget, a part of himself that was better left in the past. What he saw when he turned around to meet that voice, however, was something that took his breath away. Someone that took his breath away. The wind seemed to settle, all silence filling the area surrounding the peak of Mount Bashenga as the being descended forth from the darkness and settled directly behind the Titan. A cold unlike any natural chill struck Thanos, covered his skin and actually entered within him… only he didn’t fight it.
Thanos had heard of the legends, studied every single Infinity Stone and knew… that the guardian for the Soul Stone stood before him. The being was cloaked all in black, the wisps of its darkness like tendrils as it flowed, thrashed… and danced around the being. That darkness covered the being from head to toe, a pair of hands jutting downwards to slow its descent. Its naked feet touched the dead grass, and so did the darkness settle around it. Still moved, still danced like a living being as it confronted Thanos. Within that distance, they stared solely at one another, one staring with blackness covering its eyes and the other… with pain. Maybe both of them wore that.
The being finally addressed the Mad Titan once again… in a cold, feminine voice.
“Hello… Thanos.”
Even in his weakened state, Thanos slowly smiled. “Mistress Death.”