In the vastness of space, a purple potato monster... no, the galactic overlord Thanos drifted through the cosmos for a while.
The force of the nuclear blast could not do much damage to him. After all, he was a man capable of smashing the Hulk with his fists. His muscular body could shrug off bullets and nuclear radiation with ease.
However, Thanos was still a living being. He needed air and food. Even with a body powerful enough, he could not survive in this void for long.
Fortunately, aside from being invincible in hand-to-hand combat, Thanos was also an exceptionally brilliant scientist. Even as a youth, he could hammer together a spaceship capable of crossing the stars.
And fortunately enough, in this starfield that resembled a cosmic graveyard, Thanos found a spaceship that was not too badly damaged. It was an escape craft prepared aboard his mothership. Its life-support system was still largely intact, though its propulsion system had been badly damaged.
Thanos climbed inside the ship and took a few breaths of oxygen before swiftly getting to work. Using spare parts and simple tools, he began repairing the damaged engine.
Perhaps surviving a great disaster truly brought good fortune. Before the Black Blade Fighter found him, Thanos successfully repaired the engine. Even more fortunately, he found Luo Xia drifting through space as well.
Thanos had dearly wanted to smash the culprit responsible for destroying most of his forces to death with one punch. However, the protective barrier had still been active at the time. By the time Thanos had taken Luo Xia out of that star system and the barrier finally failed, he had already calmed down.
Planet after planet had fallen, fleet after fleet had been destroyed. More than half the resources he could still mobilize were gone.