Just then, the pink room turned black, and countless Nightmare Lords appeared around them.
But Thanos knew they were illusions, not the Nightmare Lord at all.
As he swung the Tyrant's Blade and cut down one enemy after another, he gradually sensed something was wrong.
His energy was draining at an astonishing rate.
It was unbelievable.
His vast reserves held as much energy as ten Fixed Stars combined. Even destroying an entire Star System outright would consume only a tenth of it.
Yet in this short time, he had already lost one percent—enough energy to destroy a Planet a thousand times the size of Blue Star.
All he had done was use his physical strength to kill a few hundred illusions. Why would that drain his energy?
When he killed another illusion and felt his energy drop sharply, he understood: there was something strange about them.
The Nightmare Lord must have made these illusions with some special energy. Killing one took a portion of the killer's energy with it.
But knowing that did not tell him how to stop it.
After a while, he tried standing still and taking the attacks with his formidable body.
Before long, a blade wielded by one of the Nightmare Lord's illusions struck him, but it left only a white mark. It could not pierce his skin.
He soon discovered, though, that every hit still drained a little of his energy.
It drained less than killing an Avatar, so he stopped attacking them and stood in front of Captain Marvel. "Have you found a way out of the dream?"
"Wait," Captain Marvel said anxiously. "I'm trying to wake myself up."
The Nightmare Lord's dream was not so easily broken. Knowing it was a dream did not mean they could leave whenever they wanted.
Thanos was