Star-Absorbing Technique

After watching for a while, Thanos flew above the pyramid-like structure and reached out with his right hand to seize the Mind Stone.

The next instant, he felt a psychic force invade his mind.

But nothing seemed to happen. It was as if it had no effect on him at all.

With the Mind Stone in hand, he left Ice Crystal Planet.

Over the next few years, he used his overwhelming strength to destroy planet after planet and rule star system after star system.

At last, he found Blue Star. Leading his forces, he wiped out the Avengers, the Illuminati, Wakanda, Kamar-Taj, and one faction after another.

In the end, he gathered all six Stones and became the supreme being of the Marvel Universe.

But as the years passed, he slowly grew old and lost his power.

The six Stones could do nothing to stop it.

As he waited for death in despair, Thanos felt a strange tremor growing steadily stronger.

The next second, he broke free of the Mind Stone's power and returned to reality.

He was still in the same cavern.

The ground shook, sending stones tumbling from the ceiling now and then.

One of those stones had struck him and woken him.

Looking ahead, he found his hand was still three centimeters from the Mind Stone.

He quickly understood.

Everything he had just experienced was an illusion created by the Mind Stone.

Ding! Mental Energy tempered. Increased by 50 points.

Hearing the system's voice, Thanos smiled faintly and reached forward to snatch the Mind Stone.

As if unwilling to be seized, the Mind Stone unleashed a powerful surge of psychic energy.

But Thanos was ready. He shielded his consciousness with energy and was not drawn into the illusion again.

Below him, the Ice People who had been lost in the Mind Stone's illusion clutched their heads and screamed.

"Ah!"

"It hurts!"

"My head! My body!"

Once Thanos took the Mind Stone, the Ice People emerged from the illusion.

Some had been under its influence for too long. Back in reality, they immediately felt that something was wrong with their bodies.

Those who had gone without food for so long that they were little more than skin and bones could hardly feel fine.

Some even died the moment they emerged from the illusion.

Others had only recently entered it. They spotted Thanos overhead and, when they saw that he had taken the Mind Stone, roared in fury.

"Our sacred relic has been stolen!"

"Give it back!"

"You damned invader! Die!"

The Mind Stone was the Ice People's sacred relic, their only source of mental pleasure for centuries—or rather, their mental opium.

For most of them, their lifelong goal was to enter the Holy Land and touch the relic.

Within its illusions, they could experience every joy and happiness denied to them in life.

They could even see loved ones who had died.

So when faced with the end of the world, their first thought had been to use the relic to escape reality.

But the Mind Stone was no true sacred relic. It was a malignant thing.

While they were lost in its illusions, the Mind Stone absorbed their mental energy. The process was addictive, drawing them ever deeper until they died.

Now that they saw an invader take their relic, their craving overwhelmed their fear. They charged at him, ready to fight to the death.

Even death would not make them give up their sacred relic.

But great chunks of rock fell through the cavern, striking the Ice People and claiming life after life.

Thanos watched them leap up to attack him, shook his head, and flew out of the cavern.

These ants were not worth his effort.

Outside, he found that the quakes shaking Ice Crystal Planet had grown even stronger.

More and more rock fell, and before long, the cavern entrance was sealed. The Ice People inside could no longer escape.

Rumble...

As if Ice Crystal Planet sensed its approaching death, dark clouds gathered across the sky, and bolts of lightning began to strike.

The lightning hit Thanos, but he felt nothing.

At his level, such displays of nature's might were no longer worth his attention.

Ignoring the lightning, he looked down at the fingertip-sized Mind Stone in his hand.

If Captain Marvel's appearance had merely confirmed that the events of the Marvel Universe had begun, the Mind Stone's appearance let him pinpoint the period.

He would probably run into that unlucky fool Loki soon.

Shaking his head, he flew out of Ice Crystal Planet's atmosphere and into space.

From there, he could watch the planet die before his eyes.

Black fissures spread across its snow-white surface like gaping wounds, followed by spots of red.

Volcanoes were erupting.

This was a planet whose surface was ninety percent covered in ice.

Volcanoes should rarely erupt on its surface.

The eruptions meant that its crust had undergone a major upheaval.

Closing his eyes, he sensed that the Destructive Power he had cast down had expanded to eight kilometers across. It was now just over a thousand kilometers from the planet's core.

In another ten minutes, it would destroy the core.

Once a planet's core was destroyed, the planet became a dead world.

With no magnetic field to block solar storms, its atmosphere would slowly vanish. Eventually, cosmic radiation would kill every form of organic life.

It was also possible that the destructive energy would consume only part of the core, causing earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other disasters across Ice Crystal Planet.

But despite imagining all sorts of outcomes, he had underestimated the power of his Destructive Power.

The instant it touched the core, the Destructive Power unleashed a tremendous force.

The material of the core was annihilated, throwing it out of balance.

The resulting explosion made the whole of Ice Crystal Planet swell and then fracture.

Seeing this, Thanos ordered his fleet to retreat again and again.

It pulled back several million kilometers.

A few hours later, Ice Crystal Planet blazed with intense light.

BOOM...

Of course, no sound traveled through the vacuum.

But as they watched Ice Crystal Planet explode, everyone heard the blast in their minds.

The sight was simply too staggering.

Just then, the system's voice sounded again.

Ding! Host has destroyed a planet and earned the Star Destroyer achievement. Reward: unique skill, Star-Absorbing Technique.

Thanos froze.

He knew about achievements. When he first came to rule a planet, he had received the title of Ruler, along with its skill.

But what was this Star-Absorbing Technique supposed to be? Had something from a martial arts novel slipped in?

After studying the system panel for a while, Thanos finally understood. This Star-Absorbing Technique was nothing like the one from martial arts novels.

It was a skill that let him absorb energy from a planet's core to strengthen himself.

Of course, any planet whose energy he absorbed would be destroyed.

Looks like I won't have to destroy a planet so brutally next time. Absorbing it would work even better.