At that moment, Cull Obsidian stepped out of the Grandmaster's group and returned to Thanos's side, taking his place beside Proxima Midnight.
The Grandmaster stopped ten meters from Thanos, an unreadable smile on his face.
"Welcome to Sakaar, great conqueror." The Grandmaster bowed politely.
He pointed to Thor, the Valkyrie, and the Guardians of the Galaxy, all held captive on the ground.
"These are my property. They just caused a little trouble at my establishment," the Grandmaster said, spreading his hands. "Hand them over. I want to execute them myself."
Thanos gave the Grandmaster a cold look.
"No."
The refusal was blunt and final.
The Grandmaster didn't seem to mind. He kept smiling.
"Don't be so quick to refuse, my friend. We can make a deal."
Thanos said nothing. He simply watched him, waiting to hear his offer.
The Grandmaster shrugged at the lack of response.
"You want this, don't you?"
He pulled a controller from his robe and pressed a button.
A hologram of a cube glowing faint blue appeared in midair.
The Tesseract.
How had it ended up in that old madman's hands?!
Thor saw the projection and whipped his head toward Brunnhilde, disbelief written across his face.
Brunnhilde avoided Thor's gaze, whistling as she pretended to look at the sky.
The Grandmaster saw the slight change in Thanos's eyes and smiled smugly.
"I've put this thing somewhere very safe. No one will find it."
"But if you hand these people over to me, it's yours."
Thanos narrowed his eyes and considered it for a moment.
If it had been anything else, he might have gone straight into conquest mode.
But the Infinity Stones were essential to his grand plan for controlling the universe's population. He could not afford the slightest mistake.
At last, he nodded.
"Deal."
The