On the dead and desolate world of Titan, swirling dust danced on the wind, and a flicker of loneliness crossed Thanos's expressionless purple face.
He clutched the gruesome scar on his chest and looked around him. The loyal Black Order had fallen one by one. Ebony Maw's headless corpse lay at his feet, Cull Obsidian had crumbled into rubble, Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight had been blasted to dust.
From mad Titan to cosmic warlord, he had walked that path alone. Now, he was truly alone once more...
"You should kill me now..." his gaze met Sean's, and invisible ripples sparked between them.
This human who had pushed him to the brink, who had traversed time and space to hunt him down, was the greatest variable in Thanos's grand design.
Everything had been like a cascade of dominoes. One fell, triggering a chain reaction. Link by link, the entire structure had collapsed in an instant.
"More than killing you... I want answers." Sean spoke softly, "Who knows, you might still turn the tables and kill me here, on this future timeline. Retrospective causality might correct everything... if I no longer exist. Then you wouldn't have failed. The Black Order and the Chitauri would have conquered Asgard. Loki would have been propped up as a puppet king, then taken the Tesseract, drawn out the Sorcerer Supreme of Kamar-Taj, and claimed the Eye of Agamotto. The Infinity Stones would have fallen into your hands. Then... with a single snap of your fingers, half of all life in the universe would be extinguished."
Sean spoke eloquently, as though he were genuinely imagining how the story might have unfolded if he had been erased from the timeline.
A self-deprecating smile crossed Thanos's face. He walked slowly, his gaze sweeping over the barren wastes of Titan, a faint nostalgia flickering in his eyes, "Titan was once a beautiful home, like so many worlds that birthed life and civilization. Its population exploded, but resources became scarce... We had no choice but to expand outward, seizing resource-rich worlds, colonizing, and exterminating the natives. The entire universe repeats this cycle. Historians call it the Age of Exploration, or the Colonial Boom."
Thanos sat down on a piece of rubble and continued, "But there will always come an end. I have seen countless civilizations march toward destruction because of expansionist colonial wars. Titan was doomed to repeat that fate. I foresaw that day coming, so I began searching ancient texts for a solution. Those countless brilliant civilizations... they all followed the same cycle: birth, rise, and annihilation; a death spiral from which no one could escape! The universe is like a dark forest... To ensure our own survival, we hunters have no choice but to shoot down every civilization we encounter, even if it might never become an enemy."
The Titan who was considered a lunatic now had a pure, almost philosophical look in his eyes.
He gazed at his long-dead homeworld and let out a heavy sigh, "But when only two hunters remain in that dark forest, only three outcomes are possible: either one side wins, or both are destroyed. No matter the outcome... it's never a good ending for the universe."
"So you chose to maintain balance through destruction?" Sean listened quietly, his deep eyes unreadable.
"That was my initial idea. Unable to find the answer, I one day encountered a woman in black robes. That was the turning point of my destiny. I suddenly understood... perhaps death is the best way to achieve order. To nip the progress of civilization in the bud and create a stable equilibrium, thus ending that vicious cycle." Thanos raised his head, his eyes burning with conviction.
He had dedicated his entire existence to this purpose. Whether building the Black Order, collecting the Infinity Stones, slaughtering civilizations, or extinguishing worlds... It was all for this.
"You sound like a prophet, or maybe a tragic hero." Sean remarked.
Thanos, sitting among the ruins, shook his head and denied that observation, "I am merely a fool who took the wrong path."
He rose with difficulty, his massive frame standing tall against the desolate landscape.
His weakened voice suddenly grew stronger, "Even with the Infinity Gauntlet, playing the role of custodian, culling half the universe's life again and again... we are still trapped in this dark forest. Scarce resources, outward expansion, war and chaos... It is all inevitable! So when I was gravely wounded, teetering on the edge of death, I understood once more. Rather than maintaining this fragile balance, it would be better to burn the forest down and break the cycle, bringing about rebirth through ultimate destruction!"
As Thanos's final words echoed, the entire planet of Titan shuddered. The fabric of space was torn asunder, warped beyond recognition. The great world shrank to the size of a marble, cradled in the palm of a colossal hand.
Sean looked up and saw five immense figures standing in the empty space, seemingly covering the entire universe. The boundless cosmos was nothing more than a plaything in their hands.
The five primordial cosmic entities had gathered over Titan.
Space collapsed, gravity shattered, and the entire universe seemed to tremble.
Sean narrowed his eyes. The Infinity Gauntlet on his right hand blazed with light, allowing him to look directly upon those supreme beings.
Eternity...
Oblivion...
Infinity...
Death...
Galactus...
Five towering forms straddled the cosmic backdrop. Titan was no more than a grain of sand in their eyes, insignificant and infinitesimal.
Even Sean, who wielded the Infinity Gauntlet, had barely earned the right to speak with them as an equal.
These five primordial beings were the ultimate symbols of all order in the universe. Mere mortals could not even begin to fathom them. They were conceptual existences, encompassing all dimensions, all time and space, all that exists and all that does not.
Even Galactus, whom Sean had encountered before, now seemed blurred and indistinct. The Devourer of Worlds who appeared here had no trace of emotion, not even hunger could disturb him.
"At last... you have come." Thanos stared directly at the five cosmic entities, "Today... is the end of the universe!"
He thrust out his arm, and Titan, now shrunk to a speck of dust, split open. A blinding white tide of light spread out.
Sean raised the Gauntlet and launched himself into the air, retreating to a safe distance like a shooting star, while Thanos's massive form stood within the tide of light, unmoving.
"I slaughtered the Three Empires. I destroyed the Nova Corps. I wiped out the Chitauri. I have committed countless atrocities... all to shatter the order of the universe and draw your attention!" Thanos, wreathed in light, proclaimed loudly, "Now, the supreme beings have finally appeared. I have been waiting for this moment!"
The dark void that filled the universe split open. A tiny, terrifying crack appeared, then expanded at visible speed into a colossal passage.
Waves of horrific energy surged forth like a cosmic tide.
Rules twisted. Time and space fractured. Everything that existed repeated the cycle of birth and destruction over and over.
"We transcend all things! We are the creators, the destroyers! We think, and stars are born! All things are but empty thoughts within our minds. Who dares to stand before us?"
Matter was annihilated, and energy erupted as though the universe itself were being unmade. An even more terrifying upheaval consumed the cosmos.
A great vortex turned slowly, and from within it, a host of extra-dimensional beings descended.
The Beyonders...