Green light joined the chorus, and the six stones formed a complete circle across the back of his hand.
His chest—no, not just his chest, but his entire body—was filled with energy of six colors.
Five-colored light flowed beneath his skin, and his eyes became five-colored vortices.
The Ancient One stood before him, empty-handed.
She looked at him, the corners of her lips lifting slightly.
"You won," she said.
"I have not yet completed my mission," Thanos said.
"You never will, because you are not a god.
"You are merely someone holding a weapon greater than his own ability, and that weapon will be taken by someone stronger."
Her body began to dissipate. It was not death, but a return.
A return to the universe's cycle of energy, a return to the river of time, a return to where she belonged.
Her incarnation vanished, and her true body vanished as well.
The depths of Kamar-Taj became empty, with only the green traces of light left by the Time Stone still flickering across the walls.
Thanos turned and walked out of Kamar-Taj.
He crossed the valley, the snowfield, and the clearing where his spacecraft had landed.
His feet crunched through the snow, each sound seeming to measure out the end of this world.
He stopped before the spacecraft and raised his left hand.
The six stones shone on the back of his hand, illuminating the entire valley, the snowcapped mountains, and the sky.
Morgan Manor, study.
Loren sat in a high-backed chair, holding an old book he had taken from the shelf.
It was not a guide to technology, nor was it a product of the system. It was simply an ordinary book about botany.
He had turned to the page on oak trees and was reading about their growth cycle.