Chapter 417
"Yes, you needed to act personally from the very beginning.
Do not wait. Do not wait for them to grow. Do not wait for them to unite. Do not wait for them to become powerful.
Strike before they were ready, before they knew who you were, before they became a threat.
Seize all the Infinity Stones and fulfill your mission."
Thanos remained silent for a long time.
Then he rose to his feet.
"The Power Stone is on Morag. The Soul Stone is on Vormir.
The Reality Stone is in the Dark Elves' territory. The Space Stone is on Earth. The Time Stone is on Earth."
He turned toward the bridge's observation window and looked out at the endless, glittering sea of stars.
"Where do I begin?"
"The Soul Stone," Ebony Maw said.
"It demands a price. The greatest price. But if you could make up your mind.
If you could do now what you had delayed until the very last moment in the future, then obtaining the other stones would be much easier."
Thanos's right hand clenched around the armrest.
"Gamora?" he said.
"Yes."
Silence descended over the bridge once more.
Thanos stared into the stars, at constellations he did not know, at the distant lights of worlds he was about to conquer.
He said nothing, but Ebony Maw could see the change in his shoulders.
It was neither relaxation nor tension, but a deeper, more fundamental adjustment.
As if something deep within him had been compacted, compressed, and molded into another shape.
"Send Gamora to see me," Thanos said.
His voice was low and even, devoid of emotion.
But Ebony Maw heard what lay beneath that calmness: the certainty of a decision already made, one no one could change.
"Yes, Master."
Vormir.
Gray-blue skies, heavy clouds,