In the S90909 Universe.
With Hela and The Ancient One on the move, they soon clashed with Athena, who was guarding the Alliance of Gods' frontier.
But Athena was, after all, one of the mightiest gods beneath Zeus.
Her combat experience and divine artifacts let her hold her own against both of them.
Though The Ancient One and Hela had grown considerably stronger, they were still at a slight disadvantage without divine artifacts of their own.
When reinforcements from the Alliance of Gods arrived, they had no choice but to retreat.
Thanos didn't mind.
He only had to wait for Surtur to forge the core of the Infinity Gauntlet. Then all things would be at the mercy of a Snap.
Ruling the universe would take nothing more than a thought.
Time passed slowly amid the standoff.
To avoid provoking Gamil, the Celestial, Thanos never made a move himself.
The last time they had fought, they had shattered the boundary of the Reality Universe and been exiled to the Chaos Universe, where Gamil's true form had nearly killed him.
He had no desire to go through that again.
A month later.
While cultivating inside a star, he suddenly felt a pull on his mind. Before he could resist, he was dragged into his Mindscape.
Darkness surrounded him, and a sense of danger filled his heart.
He had thought reaching Universal Level would at least give him the power to protect himself. Now it seemed he had no such power at all.
Those mighty beings could still crush him at will.
The thought made him crave strength all the more.
He was growing stronger far too slowly.
Just then, a woman appeared. She wore something like a white evening gown and a gold headpiece, and her skin was purple.
She stood about