Chương 37: Tricksters

"If you do that, I will destroy you first. And then I will destroy your planet before going on that long voyage you are talking about. While I hate to drag this out, I don't mind taking a little more time to accomplish my goals." Thanos threatened Savant.

Savant shook his head and grabbed the two stones in his palms. "Looks like I will have to demonstrate it to you. You are just making it harder for yourself. I can have them be thrown out of this universe."

Thanos stood there in silence for a long time, probably thinking about how to get out of this situation as the winning party. But he finally relented, "Okay, I give you my word. I will not harm your planet when I wipe out half the life in this universe."

Under Mephisto's vigilant eyes, Savant slowly walked toward Thanos with the two gems floating over his palms. "I hope your word holds some weight, Thanos. I wouldn't want the mighty mad titan to go back on his word and ruin all credibility in the universe."

Savant knew that he was no match for Thanos in his current state. If the infinity stones were out of the equation, Savant was sure that he could beat down Thanos to the ground. But with those 4 infinity stones, Thanos who had the best control over them in the universe was not someone who could be defeated with kicks and punches.

Thanos snorted, "With my power, there is no need to deceive ants."

Savant just nodded and handed over the two stones to Thanos. Thanos put the stones in the gauntlet and a rainbow light of the colorful stones swept through his body. "This is it! This is it! I am finally worthy of you." Thanos shouted and laughed hysterically.

With all the stones coming together, Thanos also became a full-fledged cosmic being, and thus came the arrival of beings like Mistress Death, Lord Chaos, Master Order, Oblivion, the Watcher, and more.

The arrival of Mistress Death made Thanos laugh even louder. "How is it? Do you acknowledge me now? I'm no longer your lowly servant. I am your equal now, I can be with you as your companion."

The whole place was silent and had heavy pressure surrounding it due to the presence of those cosmic beings. Some of the heroes who were still conscious were at the side, trying their best to get up and fight.

None of them had associated the new arrival with Savant yet. They were shocked at the new guy's proposal to spare Earth at the expense of countless lives in the universe. They wanted to stop him from handing over the gems but none of them were able to do that.

For some it was because Thanos' power was still affecting them and for others, they didn't think it was unreasonable to save Earth by sacrificing the lives of aliens they didn't even know about. But no matter which side they were on, no one was able to stop the transaction that occurred.

Mistress Death didn't answer though. Her skeleton servant answered in her stead, "Lord Thanos, Mistress wants to congratulate you on your achievement. But she reminds you that you are now far above Mistress. Mistress is just a part, an aspect of the powers you hold in your hands."

This immediately angered Thanos and he vaporized the skeleton. "You still won't talk to me! Why? Why won't you speak to me yourself? I wasn't worthy of you before and now I am beyond you. Either way, you only want to reject my sincere feelings. Why do you hate me so? Can't you see my love for you?"

Thanos started shouting at Mistress Death who just turned away from him and coolly looked out into the horizon. It was as if Thanos didn't even exist and she didn't see him at her side, shouting out how much he loves her.

"Woah there buddy! That is not very gentlemanly of you, courting other people's girlfriend. And what is with your nice guy speech? Don't you know, nice guys always finish last?" A voice appeared abruptly from Lady Death's side, stunning Thanos into silence.

The clown that Thanos hated the most was here. His eternal love, Mistress Death had chosen that clown over himself on multiple occasions. He was much more powerful than that clown named Deadpool but Mistress Death who had not even acknowledged his existence a moment ago was now turning to look at Deadpool's direction.

"Hey there, my sugary pumpkin pie, I missed you so much. I couldn't even come to you after chopping my head off. This long distance thing is too difficult. I wanted to bury my face in these milkers for so long." Deadpool started rambling while he jumped and hugged Mistress Death while burying his face in her bosom.

All of this made Thanos even angrier. Mistress Death who didn't even spare a single word for him was allowing an ant like Deadpool to not only touch her but even embrace her. There was no doubt in Thanos' mind that she could have easily avoided or even vaporized Deadpool if she chose to.

But she didn't. Thanos was very angry now. He wanted to destroy Deadpool first and attacked him but a barrier made of death energy appeared to stop the attack. Although the barrier broke, it was enough time for Mistress Death to pull Deadpool out of the attack's range.

"You even save him from me? What is it that he has that I don't? What makes him so special? Why do you scorn me so?" Thanos once again shouted out sadly.

The heroes of Earth, cosmic beings and others who were watching the drama unfold were dumbfounded at the events unfolding in front of them. They had come expecting a great battle but all they got was Thanos acting like a virgin simp.

"Of course I'm different from you. I was clapping her cheeks when you were busy begging for her attention. You just don't understand what women want." Deadpool taunted the devastated Thanos even more while still holding on to Death.

Thanos was stunned once again. The emotional blows came one after another and had been affecting his state of mind. This left a gap in his otherwise impenetrable mind. And that last taunting of Deadpool was all that Savant needed to breach Thanos' mind.

Originally, it wasn't a big deal even if anyone found some flaws and got into Thanos' mind. He could always use the mind stone to tank all attacks and defend his mind. As for tampering with his mind, it was even more impossible. But Savant did none of those things.

Using Thanos' vulnerable psyche, Savant just pumped as much useless information as he could into Thanos' mind. With the mind stone, this attack would not affect Thanos too much. It would only take him a couple seconds at most to become conscious and clear away the information dump.

But that very short time was enough for many things to happen. In the short moment when Thanos was frozen, both Mephisto and Savant were already pulling on the infinity gauntlet that carried all the stones. Mephisto came out as a winner in this brief struggle, mainly because Savant was focusing on attacking Thanos' mind.

"Hahahaha! Didn't we have an agreement? Why would you want to snatch the gauntlet while I am still here?" Mephisto was laughing wildly while holding the gauntlet and admiring it.

"Of course! I wanted to get the gauntlet to present to you just like our agreement dictated. Now that you have got the gauntlet, you need to keep your promise and keep your hands off Earth. Also, don't forget that you agreed to help Earth through at least three crises."

"Yeah, yeah I know. This power, all this power in my hands. Now I can do anything I want with a snap of my fingers. Yes, only someone like me is worthy of an artifact like this." Mephisto was giddy with joy.

This new twist had once again left the audience speechless. Even Thanos who regained his consciousness took a moment to wrap his mind around the chain of events that were currently unfolding around him.

"Yes, with this power, you can come out from hell with your original body. You don't even have to fear being weakened anymore." Savant provoked Mephisto without any subtlety. But Mephisto was too lost in the intoxicating feeling of the power in his hand to even notice the subtext of what Savant said.

A demon that looked exactly like Mephisto appeared beside Mephisto and the two of them quickly merged into a single entity. "Ahh! Finally, finally I get to come out to this place with my own body. It had been too long. So, now what shall we do with this power?"

Thanos who had regained his mental faculties was enraged. And after hearing Deadpool's teasing snicker and seeing the disappointment in Mistress Death's face, Thanos charged like an angry bull at Mephisto.

"Oh, my friend, why are you so angry? It's not like I stole your love. Do you want me to use my powers to make her submit to you? It would be my return gift to you." Mephisto chuckled.

Thanos flinched a little mid-dash but he still continued to charge. Mephisto put on a sad expression and shook his head, "If you don't want to accept my gratitude then I can only use you as the first test subject to use my new power. Forgive me, my friend."

Although he was speaking emotional words, Mephisto's mouth was curving upwards into a creepy smile and then he snapped his fingers. Everyone turned to look at Thanos to see what will happen. But, nothing happened. After a moment everyone turned back to look at Mephisto, but he had disappeared.

The keen ones also discovered that the new guy, Savant was missing along with Doctor Doom as well. Thanos punched the air and flew into the ground face first due to his own momentum, once again bringing an awkward silence to the battlefield.

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