บท 27: He is arriving

The Collector was also an elder of the universe but he was much smarter than the Champion. Collector whose name is Taneleer Tivan as an immortal being who foresaw the destruction imminent on the universe decided to collect different artifacts and species from different planets so that the world can be repopulated in the case of destruction.

But after billions of years of doing this, he created dozens of museum worlds with all kinds of artifacts and beings in them eventually forgetting his initial purpose. Now he collects for the sake of collecting. It has become his whole existence.

And the Collector is very protective of his collection. So, Thanos had to plan this out very carefully. Although Thanos had two infinity stones already, the artifacts in the Collector's hands still posed him some danger.

So, Thanos decided to make a trade using something precious that the collector could not refuse. And what is more precious than one of the elders of the universe, the Champion himself. He was one of a kind, immortal being.

So, Thanos contacted the collector and asked to make a trade. The Collector agreed and so, Thanos dragged the Champion through space to the Collector.

"You gave me your word that you would send me to a planet surface. Are you going back on your words, Titan?" Champion growled out a question while being dragged away.

"I am a man of my words, I am taking you to a planet right now so shut up. Or I'll just let you drift out here." Thanos shut him up and continued.

In one of Collector's museum worlds, Thanos was welcomed inside. It was clear to Thanos that there were many weapons pointing at him the moment he stepped into the planet.

"Where is the item you want to trade the gem with?" The Collector asked impatiently.

"He is above the atmosphere in outer space, below my craft." Thanos pointed up and Collector immediately opened up a screen to see that the Champion was suspended in space with a tractor beam.

"Hahahah, brilliant. It is indeed a great addition to my collection."

Before the Collector could continue, Thanos interrupted. "If I'm hurt even a bit, the spacecraft will initiate a space jump with the Champion in tow. If the craft is attacked, it will shoot the Champion onto this planet, freeing him."

Collector stopped laughing when he heard Thanos but still kept up a smile, "I'm not so treacherous. I'll give you your gem and you give me access codes to your craft."

Thanos nodded and when he had the reality gem in his hands, he gave the access code. But after confirming the code, Collector turned on Thanos. He brought out a weird looking gun and pointed it at Thanos.

Looking at the Collector, Thanos laughed out loud like a maniac. He looked at the collector as if he was the greatest idiot ever and spoke, "You don't understand just what you handed over to me. Let me show you, this is the true power of this gem, the reality gem. As a manifestation of all reality in this universe, one who has control over this stone can shape reality as they wish."

As Thanos was speaking, the gun in the Collector's hands turned into a smaller hand exactly like is own. And then, the Collector felt like he had gone into a bad drug trip where everything was made of hands. His hands hand hands which had hands and so on.

Then came the world of the guns, then a world where the Collector was an animal, then a reality where the museum world became empty and finally a museum world that was infinite and completely full before returning to normal.

All these realities created by Thanos broke the Collector's mind, who then slumped down on the ground. He kept mumbling, it's beautiful while Thanos casually walked out of the place after throwing the Champion at the Collector's planet.

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The last destination for Thanos before going to Earth was the place where the Grandmaster resided. Grandmaster as a master strategist and schemer had the mind stone with him. Grandmaster was possibly the oldest and strongest of all the elders of the universe.

When Thanos reached the Grandmaster's planet, he was already waiting there with an empty chair for Thanos. "You've been expecting me?" Thanos asked.

"I had a feeling that you would arrive soon after defeating my brother Taneleer." Grandmaster was casual about it.

Thanos saw that the mind stone was floating behind Grandmaster on a weird device. He stared at it and saw that there many force fields around the gem.

"I know you came for this gem. Unlike the others, I know the true power of this thing. So, I wanted to play a wager with you. If I am attacked, this thing gets teleported to random dimensions and get lost. If even a single of its hundreds of shields is attacked, same thing will happen.

But if I lose the wager, you get the gem. So are you willing to make a wager with the gems in your hand?" Grandmaster asked with a smile.

Although he was asking, Grandmaster didn't really give a choice to Thanos. He had to play the game. But Thanos never really thought of avoiding the challenge, "Sure. I'll wager my gems. What is the game?"

As Thanos spoke, the three gems floated behind him as well.

The Grandmaster then explained the game to Thanos which basically amounted to a highly realistic laser tag in the mind space.

The game began and was intense for a while but ultimately both of the players knew that the game really didn't matter. Just when Thanos had tricked the Grandmaster out and shot him from behind, the Grandmaster froze Thanos' battlesuit. It had been tampered with in advance.

But when the Grandmaster tried to finish off Thanos, the Grandmaster came back to reality where Thanos had destroyed the device which was supposed to host their game. The whole game had happened in a new reality that Thanos had created with the reality stone.

Both the players had rigged the game from the start but Thanos' rigging was on a higher level than Grandmaster's. Destroying the game device constituted his win so Thanos got the mind stone as well.

Thanos was now equipped with four of the infinity stones and only needed the last two which both happened to be on planet Earth.

Although it was a backwards planet, Thanos didn't underestimate the place. He had already seen how that place had all kinds of powerful beings despite just having entered the peaks of industrial age. He didn't want to be defeated a second time on Earth so he decided to find an army.

The army would keep those annoying guys busy while he can find the remaining gems in peace with minimal obstruction. And he knew just the right army for it, the Chitauri.

The Chitauri called themselves the immune system of the Universe and have been at odds with Earth for a long time. On the two occasions they mounted an attack on Earth, the Chitauri failed miserably and were stopped by SHIELD's predecessor organization the Brotherhood of the Shield.

Brotherhood of the Shield was an ancient organization created to stop the threats to Earth from other beings. Intellectuals from many eras like Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Newton, Tesla, and Nostradamus were once a part of this organization that had battled aliens and self-proclaimed gods many times.

Knowing that the Chitauri's goals and their hatred were the same as his own, Thanos decided to take over the Chitauri civilization as his vassals and bring them to war against the planet Earth.

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On Earth, somewhere in a secluded forest in India, 7 old sages were dressed in simple brown and yellow clothing and were sitting around a fire chanting something in meditation.

Suddenly, all of them opened their eyes in unison and looked around at each other with worry in their eyes. Atri then sighed, "What has to come will eventually arrive. Are we taking a part in this? I personally feel that we should take a wait and see approach."

Another old man nodded, "I agree with Sage Atri. Those powers are already beyond us so we can only minimize our losses, focus on preservation, and hope for the best."

Everyone gave a nod of agreement and kept silent until Atri spoke again, "We may not directly participate but we should still send some of the kids. It will be a sign of goodwill and some practice for the kids. We have to tell them to keep away from the Mad Titan though."

"It's too risky. We don't need to take such a risk at this point in time. Although destruction is imminent, it isn't total annihilation we are facing. Why risk the kids' lives?" One of the sages asked.

"I believe that the traveling soul has a plan for this disaster. And I want to see how far he can take the fight against the fates in this case. Those kids will help him while observing him." Atri said seriously.

All the sages kept silent at that, which showed their silent approval for Atri's little experiment.

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