Lucien landed hard on the floating city of Attilan, his feet touching down on what should have been a bustling street.

Instead, he found himself surrounded by complete silence. The city that normally housed thousands of Inhumans was eerily empty, like a ghost town suspended in the sky near New York.

He began walking toward the center of the city, where the main palace stood, his footsteps echoing off the empty buildings. Every doorway was vacant, every window dark. Whatever had happened here, the Inhumans had either fled or been taken.

The silence was broken by a scream that shook the very foundations of the floating city. The sound was so powerful it made Lucien's ears ring, and he could feel the vibrations through his bones.

Black Bolt.

Lucien broke into a run, his speed carrying him through the empty streets toward the palace. The fight had already begun, and from the sound of that scream, it wasn't going well.

....

Inside the royal palace, Thanos stood amid the rubble of what had once been an ornate throne room. He brushed dust from his golden armor with casual indifference, completely unaffected by the devastating sonic attack he had just endured.

Black Bolt stared at him in shock. His scream could level mountains. Yet this purple giant stood before him as if nothing had happened.

"I will ask one last time, little king," Thanos said, his voice carrying the weight of absolute authority. "Where is my son?"

Black Bolt's response was another scream, louder and more focused than before. "DIE!"

The shockwave that followed was catastrophic.

The remaining pillars in the throne room crumbled to dust, the floor cracked and split, and the very air seemed to tear apart from the sonic assault. Black Bolt put everything he had into this attack, certain that nothing could survive such power at close range.

He moved forward through the settling dust, expecting to find a corpse. Instead, a massive hand shot out from the debris and clamped down over his mouth, silencing him completely.

This time, the effects of the scream were visible on Thanos's body. His golden armor had been completely destroyed, leaving him bare-chested and bleeding from several parts of his body.

Blood trickled from his eyes and mouth, evidence that even his durability had limits.

But he was still standing. Still alive. Still stronger than Black Bolt could possibly match.

Thanos's grip tightened around the Inhuman king's face, and his voice carried a rage that made the air itself seem to vibrate. "Very well. Keep your secrets to your grave. Now your entire race will perish."

He lifted Black Bolt high above his head and slammed him into the broken floor with enough force to create a crater. The Inhuman king's body went limp, consciousness driven from him by the devastating impact.

Thanos raised his fist, red energy beginning to gather around his eyes as he prepared to deliver the killing blow. The laser beam would reduce Black Bolt to atoms, ending the bloodline of the Inhuman royal family forever.

But the sound of approaching footsteps made him pause. He turned toward the main entrance to see a figure stepping through the destroyed doorway.

A young man in dark clothing, moving with the confident stride of someone who had never learned to be afraid.

Thanos could sense power radiating from him, yet what surprised him was not his power... but his aura.

The aura of death was looming all around Lucien, and that only happened with beings who were the champions chosen by his eternal love... Lady Death.

Yet none of those beings met a good end after meeting Thanos.

After all, the only one who had any right to have anything to do with Lady Death was him... The Mad Titan, Thanos.

....

The battle for Wakanda had begun as the battlefield was soaked in blood. More than ten thousand Outriders had descended on the hidden kingdom like a living plague, their four-armed forms swarming across the protective barrier until they found weak points to exploit.

Wakandan forces fought with the desperation of people defending their homeland. Their vibranium spears and energy weapons carved through alien flesh, but for every Outrider that fell, three more seemed to take their place.

Black Panther was leading his people to safeguard his motherland from these invaders.

SHIELD agents had arrived in force, and their weaponry added firepower to the defense. Quinjets circled overhead, their pilots diving into the thick of battle to provide air support.

Scott Summers stood on a raised platform overlooking the main battlefield, his ruby quartz glasses off and his eyes blazing with barely controlled fury. Without the restrictions of evacuation that had limited him at the mansion, he was finally free to use his powers at full strength.

His optic blasts carved through the Outrider ranks like a laser through paper. Each focused beam could punch through multiple enemies, leaving smoldering holes in their wake.

He swept his gaze across the battlefield in calculated arcs, each movement of his head resulting in another dozen alien deaths.

"Left flank needs support!" Wolverine's voice crackled through the comms as he appeared in Scott's peripheral vision, his claws dripping with black ichor. "These things just keep coming!"

Scott adjusted his aim and sent a wide-beam blast toward the left side of the battlefield, clearing a path for the Wakandan warriors to regroup. "How many more of these things are there?"

"Too damn many," Logan replied, disappearing back into the melee with a feral growl.

Spider-Man swung between the flying Quinjets, his web-shooters working overtime to entangle groups of Outriders and slam them into the ground. "Hey Scott, you might want to—"

His warning was cut short as a two-headed spear came whistling through the air, aimed directly at Scott's head.

Scott threw himself to the side, his reflexes saving his life by inches. The spear embedded itself in the stone behind where he had been standing, the impact creating a spider web of cracks.

But his desperate dodge had consequences. An Outrider that had been climbing the platform launched itself at him while he was off-balance, its claws raking across his leg and opening deep gashes in the muscle.

Scott gritted his teeth against the pain and vaporized the creature with a point-blank optic blast, but the damage was done. His leg wouldn't support his weight properly, and he could feel blood soaking through his uniform.

Before he could recover his footing, something heavy landed on his back and drove him face-first into the stone platform. A boot pressed down on the back of his head, grinding his face against the rough surface.

"I will just ask one question," a feminine voice said above him. "Answer it, and I will kill you without pain."

Scott could see the two-headed spear in his peripheral vision, now held by a blue-skinned woman in dark armor. Her voice carried the same cold authority he had heard from other cosmic-level threats.

"Where is the one who killed Corvus?" Proxima Midnight demanded.

Scott managed a bitter laugh despite his situation. "Why, was he your boyfriend or something?"

He was buying time, using the conversation to slowly charge his optic blast while pressed against the ground. If he could angle it right, he might be able to create enough of a distraction to break free.

Proxima's boot pressed down harder, making his vision blur from the pressure. "Where is he?"

Scott's eyes began to glow red behind his closed lids as he prepared to blast through the platform itself. The explosion would hurt him too, but it might give him the opening he needed to—

Suddenly, the weight disappeared from his head. He rolled over quickly to see a massive shadowy figure holding Proxima Midnight aloft on the end of his spear, the weapon having been driven completely through her torso.

The shadow stood over him like a dark guardian, its purple eyes burning with ethereal fire.

Around them, more shadows were materializing from nothing, their weapons ready as they took defensive positions.

Scott stared up at the impossible sight, his mind struggling to process what he was seeing. These weren't any heroes he recognized, and they certainly weren't SHIELD assets.

Proxima writhed on the spear, black blood flowing from her wound, but even impaled she was still dangerous. Her hand shot out toward one of the shadow knights, some kind of energy weapon materializing in her grip.

The shadow that had saved Scott simply twisted the spear, and Proxima's attack went wide. Her weapon clattered across the platform as her strength began to fail.

It was then she recognized the assailant... it was her lover, Corvus.

"Impossible," she gasped, "My love... no... what are you?"

Corvus, now a shadow, said nothing as he mercilessly slashed off her head.

As more shadows appeared around him, the outriders near him were immediately cleared, and the shadows then moved to attack the other outriders.

The Shadows did not speak at all, yet Scott could sense a bit of intelligence in some of them.

The only thing Scott hoped for right now was that these shadows were truly on their side.

...

A.N.: Sorry, Dear Readers, I got into a bit of trouble that led to my body aching all over with a fever that just went away a few hours ago.

Even now my legs are aching as f*** 😭😭😭.

Hope you like the chapter... I will post another chapter in around 5-10 hours, and I will also be launching the cultivation fanfic I was talking about.

Thank You~

....

POWER STONE GOAL: 700 ( 1 Extra Chapter)

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