Encountering the Enemy

The fourth day arrived quickly.

Everything was ready on the eve of war.

Proxima Midnight came to the Sanctuary again to seek an audience with Thanos.

It was still the same Gravity Room, but the gravity had been increased to twelve hundred times normal.

Thanos was lifting a barbell marked at two hundred tons.

Under twelve hundred times normal gravity, that two-hundred-ton barbell effectively weighed two hundred and forty thousand tons.

Yet he lifted it as easily as an ordinary barbell.

"Four hundred and thirty-two... four hundred and thirty-three..."

The door opened again.

Proxima Midnight had learned her lesson. Instead of entering at once, she knelt on one knee outside the door and said respectfully, "My lord."

Thanos set down the barbell and said in a deep voice, "Deep Blue, turn off the gravity system."

"Yes, Master."

Proxima Midnight stood, entered the room, then knelt before Thanos again and bowed her proud head.

Thanos wiped the sweat from his body. "Are Sanctuary II and the Black Order ready?"

Proxima Midnight looked up at his powerful build and rippling muscles, admiration shining in her eyes. "Everything is ready. We await your command."

Thanos nodded. "Then we depart."

Ice Crystal Planet was a world blanketed in white.

It lay so far from its Fixed Star that temperatures stayed below freezing year-round, leaving the ground covered in frost and snow.

Its inhabitants were the Ice People, a white-bodied race with four arms and two legs.

The Ice People had formidable bodies and impressive fighting skills.

Unfortunately, their society was still primitive.

Now the chief of the Ice People was organizing a lavish lunch to honor the hero who had saved them.

She was a beautiful blonde woman with short hair. Yes, she was from Blue Star, and her name was Carol Danvers.

Captain Marvel

Few might recognize that name, but everyone knew her title: Captain Marvel.

Since defeating the Kree fleet on Blue Star, Captain Marvel had roamed the universe, fighting injustice.

She had mostly stayed in the Milky Way, but after hearing of Thanos's infamy by chance, she had come to the Panlong Galaxy.

Soon after arriving, she had found his forces attacking someone else's planet. Certain that justice was on her side, she had stepped in without hesitation and driven them back.

"Thank you so much for saving us."

The chief stood about two meters tall. Holding two cups in his four hands, he raised a toast to Captain Marvel, who barely reached his chest.

Raising cups with all four hands was the highest form of courtesy among the Ice People.

Captain Marvel merely smiled, accepted a cup, and drained it in one gulp.

"You're welcome. It was the right thing to do."

Seeing this, the chief raised his own cup and drained it too. Then he shouted, "A toast to our hero!"

The surrounding Ice People lifted their cups and joined in.

"A toast to our hero!"

The celebration soon began in earnest. The Ice People sang and danced, and quite a few who fancied themselves handsome asked Captain Marvel to dance. She politely declined them all.

She might have believed herself a champion of justice, but deep down she looked down on the Ice People, whose civilization had yet to reach even a medieval level.

There was no chance she would dance with them.

And so the entire day passed in celebration.

The next morning, while Captain Marvel was still half asleep, an Ice Person burst into her room in a panic.

Calling it a room was generous. It was an igloo built from blocks of ice, without even a door.

"Hero! Hero! This is bad! Hah... those bad people are back! It's huge!"

Captain Marvel's eyes snapped open, and she sat up.

Without another word, multicolored light flashed around her, and she flew straight outside.

But the next second, her eyes widened in disbelief.

"Oh. My. God!"

An unimaginably massive Spaceship had appeared in outer space.

She had wandered the universe for years, but this was the first time she had seen a Spaceship as large as a moon.

"Where's my weapon?"

"Where's my armor? Hurry!"

"The enemy's here! Everyone, assemble!"

All around her, the Ice People rushed about in a panic. Some searched for weapons, others for armor.

After last night's revelry, many were still groggy and completely unprepared.

A little later, the chief flew over, looking just as panicked.

"Hero, what do we do?"

Captain Marvel collected herself and said gravely, "Gather the Warriors and follow me. I'll go up and take a look first."

Multicolored light flashed around her once more, and she shot into the sky.

Meanwhile, in outer space.

From the three-dimensional display in Sanctuary II's control room, Proxima Midnight immediately spotted the brightly glowing Captain Marvel.

This time, however, she was far calmer than before.

"My lord, that's the one who destroyed my fleet and killed my soldiers."

Thanos had been sitting on his Throne, eyes closed in meditation. At Proxima Midnight's words, he opened them.

The figure on the screen looked both familiar and strange. He searched his memory for who she was.

He had been in this world for over five hundred years. By now, he had forgotten almost everything about the films he had once watched.

Still, something about her entrance seemed familiar. He was sure he had seen it somewhere.

As she drew closer, he finally dredged the answer from the depths of his memory.

"Captain Marvel?"

Of course. Only that arrogant Captain Marvel would make such a flashy entrance in a blaze of color.

Hearing the name, Proxima Midnight nodded quickly. "Yes, yes. When I fought her before, I think she said she was called Captain Marvel."

Thanos fell into thought.

At the sight of Captain Marvel, memories from before his arrival in this world began to resurface, bit by bit.

If Captain Marvel had appeared, then the story of the Marvel Universe had already begun.

He wondered what Blue Star, that home so much like the one he remembered, was like in this world.

Time ticked by. Captain Marvel soon left Ice Crystal Planet and flew toward Sanctuary II at ten times the speed of sound. She was now only a little over a thousand kilometers away.

In space, a thousand kilometers was practically point-blank range.

Seeing Thanos still deep in thought, Proxima Midnight could only ask quietly, "My lord, what should we do?"

She would never have dared interrupt him if the enemy had not been nearly upon them.

After all, compared with Captain Marvel, her lord was the most terrifying being in the universe.

Thanos came back from his memories, glanced at the screen, and said calmly, "Send the Black Order in to test her."

The Black Order made up the backbone of his forces and were his most loyal soldiers.

They had six arms, sharp fangs, and jet-black skin. Possessed of immense strength, they feared neither death nor battle and would never betray him.

Their only weakness was their lack of intelligence.

And "they" was the right word: the Bio-Warriors produced in the Black Order's incubators were not natural life-forms.

As for why he wanted to test her, it was to wear her down and gauge her strength.

He was confident, but he was not arrogant.

Charging in without knowing an enemy's strength could be disastrous if he encountered someone whose power defied reason.

The Marvel Universe, after all, held dangers far deeper than they appeared.