"I know where it is. Gamora knows too. She's been there." Thanos interrupted him and turned toward the direction Gamora had been taken.
A flicker crossed Ebony Maw's pale face—not surprise, but understanding.
"You need her to guide you."
"I need her to do more than that," Thanos said, purple light pulsing slowly across his gauntlet.
"The Soul Stone comes at a price. It demands... sacrifice."
Ebony Maw fell silent.
He knew what Thanos meant.
The conditions for obtaining the Soul Stone were an open secret in the universe.
Not openly known to all, but a carefully guarded secret passed among those beings who truly understood the Infinity Stones.
The Soul Stone could not be seized by force, tricked out through wisdom, or stolen through speed.
There was only one way to obtain it: sacrifice the life you loved most, trading soul for soul.
Thanos walked toward the room where Gamora had been taken.
His footsteps echoed across the metal floor, heavy, steady, unstoppable.
The Power Stone glowed on his gauntlet, its purple radiance casting his shadow across the floor.
A massive shadow wearing the Infinity Stones gauntlet, like a prophecy of doom about to descend upon the universe.
Vormir.
It was a planet without any sign of life.
Its gray-blue sky was forever blanketed by thick clouds, while the ground was a wasteland of rough stone and sharp gravel.
There was no vegetation, no water, no animals.
The wind was fierce, but it was not the kind of wind on Earth that carried the breath of life. The wind here was dead, freezing to the bone, as if it had blown out from the graveyard of the cosmos.
Thanos's ship landed on Vormir's surface, and debris kicked up by the thrusters struck the hull in a rapid patter.
The