Chapter 39: Battle conclusion
Lord Chaos who appeared only as an angry deformed head replied with annoyance, "We are aware of your machinations and we also know that you followed Mephisto outside the bounds of this universe. So stop with your lies and bring out the infinity stones. They are too powerful to remain in the hands of one human."
"What machinations are you talking about? I'm just an honest businessman who wants to save his planet. As for following Mephisto, I don't even know where he went. One moment I disappeared and entered a strange world and the next moment, I was back here. I am a victim too." Savant adamantly refused and maintained his ignorance.
"Don't cross us human. We know you are a soul from beyond the source of this multiverse. You are an intruder and we can invoke the Living Tribunal and have you removed from this multiverse." Master Order used a more pragmatic approach of threatening Savant.
"You think I am stupid? Or do you think the Tribunal and the One Above All are incompetent? The moment I arrived in this place, they should've known about my existence just like you all. If I was to be destroyed or removed from this multiverse by them, it would have happened long ago. So, go ahead and call upon the Tribunal. Let's see what its judgment will be." Savant answered confidently.
While he was arguing confidently, Savant was disappointed a little. He was not able to gain much information from these beings. It was as if there was no information about their existence in the universe. If he could perceive the information on just Eternity and Infinity, he would be able to know everything in the universe.
But on second thought Savant realized that these beings were abstract for a reason. They were entities that represented aspects of the universe. The entities he saw were like holograms used by those aspects to project themselves inside the universe. Only, the hologram itself existed in between the states of existence and non-existence, thus being abstract.
So if Savant wanted to read the information of the universe, he had to explore the universe itself. He couldn't take a shortcut and just stare at those abstract entities.
"Bold words, outsider. It might be as you say, the Living Tribunal may have acceded to your continued existence in this universe. But do you think they will let an outsider have possession of artifacts as powerful as the infinity stones?" This time it was Oblivion who spoke.
If Infinity and Eternity represented all of existence and the universe itself, then Oblivion was their opposite and represented non-existence and void. He came before the multiverse and was among the oldest abstract entities.
Savant shook his head, "Like I said several times already, I do not have the stones. The last time I saw the infinity stones, they were still in the hands of Mephisto. You can check with me if you want. I have no way of hiding those infinity stones from you if I had them anyway."
Since Savant maintained his innocence, there was not much to discuss on the matter. "We hope that you understand just what those stones represent and how much destruction and damage they can cause to the universe, should they be misused."
Savant nodded, "I know. If I had them in my hands, even fighting all of you would not be a problem."
Some hot-tempered ones like Lord Chaos were angry at what Savant said but the others understood that Savant said those words as deterrence against them. And thus, with that, the meeting between Savant and the multiple personalities of the Universe came to an end.
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When Thanos lost his gauntlet, it was the end for him. While some heroes stayed to beat the purple Titan to a pulp, others went to provide support to Magneto's group who were fighting against the alien fleet.
Tony who was still vigilantly eyeing Thanos who was now handcuffed and put into a box made out of an energy shield, asked, "Anyone knows who that guy was? He said he made a deal with Mephisto to keep the Earth safe and handed over those infinity stones to the demon without question."
"Yeah, it was absolutely crazy. Who was that? And where are Mephisto and the stones?"
The heroes started discussing the identity and purpose of the self-proclaimed human who was making a deal on behalf of Earth. At this moment, Reed Richards gave a suggestion, since that guy appeared with Doctor Doom and Deadpool, maybe they knew something?
"Oh, him? My best friend introduced me to that guy. Hmm… what was he called again? Sanitary, cemetery…" Deadpool answered right away when asked about the identity of the unknown guy.
Dr. Strange flinched and Hulk showed a surprised expression, the both of them yelled at once, "Sentry!"
Everyone turned to look at the two and one of them asked, "You guys know him? Even Hulk?"
Hulk, known for his anger, gave an uncharacteristic smile and spoke, "Sentry friend!"
Dr. Strange looked at Hulk with a conflicted expression and asked him, "How can you remember him as well?"
Hulk glared at Strange but still answered, "Hulk no forget friend Sentry."
Even when the whole world had forgotten his friend, Hulk had always remembered him. Sentry was one of the very few people who treated Hulk as an individual and a friend instead of just a monster as everyone else saw him. Before Sentry disappeared from the world, Hulk was very close to the golden hero.
Sentry's golden energy was also one of the only known things to be able to calm down a rampaging Hulk. So, the relationship between the two could be imagined.
"What is going on Dr. Strange? Who is he? What do you know about that man called Sentry?" Everyone started to question Dr. Strange who was lost in his thoughts.
"Since he has appeared already, there is no need to hide his existence any longer I suppose." With a sigh, Strange started to tell the other heroes about the hero who was forgotten by the world.
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"So, you mean to say that this Sentry who we all used to know went into self-exile by removing his own existence from the world just so that he could save the world from his dark side? Sounds like a dramatic movie script." Tony Stark was the first one to speak after listening to Dr. Strange's story.
"The most important question still remains, what was his purpose in coming here and offering up the infinity stones as part of a deal to Mephisto? Whose side is he on? What happened after they disappeared?" Adam Warlock who was silent for a long time also questioned.
Reed Richards came forward with his theories at this moment, "From what I have heard so far, this Sentry should have anticipated our loss already. From the moment of his appearance, everything that happened was a calculated move that he had prepared."
"What do you mean? He planned all this?" Thor asked confused.
"I can't say for sure but he brought Doom to counter Mephisto, so he must have been aware of Mephisto and conspired with him to backstab Thanos from the very beginning.
First he used the arrival of Doom to stop Mephisto from getting the two infinity stones in the beginning. Whatever plan Mephisto had was thwarted and a rift between him and Thanos was brought out in the open.
Then he used the obsession of Thanos with Death against him by bringing out Deadpool. From the high of getting the powers of the infinity stone to the lows of seeing his object of love and devotion being taken by another man, he manipulated Thanos' emotional state until he broke.
From what I observed I can only speculate that he used this as leverage to psychically attack Thanos and used that brief moment to take away the gauntlet from Thanos. Even then during the struggle, he had already put in some failsafe on that gauntlet so that if Mephisto got it and tried to use it, he would fail."
Reed's theory sounded very reasonable. He even got Deadpool's thumbs up, "Woah, you are really smart. My mission was to fuck with Thanos' head as much as I can. Easiest money I have made in a long time. And I even got to meet my girlfriend after so long, this is the best deal in history."
Jean Grey turned to Deadpool in shock, "What? She… Death is really your girlfriend?"
"Shit! Did I say girlfriend? We are lovers, lovers! We don't have labels in our relationship. Anyway, I'm outta here. Goodbye." Deadpool bolted away from the conversation before he had to think about commitment to the relationship.
Dr. Strange coughed once to get everyone's attention away from the dumbfounding scene, "We can discuss other things later. Right now we still need to get back to the other battlefield and back to Earth to support them. There is still a lot to do. We can ask Sentry for the details when we met him."
Everyone agreed and divided the teams again before going on their respective missions.
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Send stones my friends. More stones.
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