Thanos arrives!

On the bridge of Sanctuary II, Thanos sat quietly on his Throne.

His deeply furrowed purple face betrayed no emotion. Yet the air around him seemed to freeze in his wordless silence. Even the replacement for his most loyal Corvus Glaive—a warlord from Slaughter Star who was every bit as powerful—lay prostrate at his feet, not daring to make a sound.

The holographic screen displayed a live feed of the battle in Wakanda.

He watched his proud legion of Outriders spill rivers of blood before Wakanda's defenses, yet remain unable to breach the central position held by a handful of "superheroes."

He watched Thor's lightning reap his frigates like a death god's scythe now that they had lost the layer of shielding Link had "modified."

He watched Cull Obsidian, his most valiant son, become entangled with a deranged Earth woman and a green beast, unable to gain any ground.

At last, a trace of impatience appeared on Thanos's face.

He had spent decades preparing for this war. He had studied Earth and its so-called heroes. In his original plan, this should have been an overwhelming conquest. But Link's emergence had thrown all his arrangements into disarray.

This suddenly ascendant New God of Earth was an unpredictable variable. With his unheard-of power over laws, he had turned what should have been Thanos's great crusade for cosmic balance into a chaotic, inefficient war of mortals.

"Enough."

Thanos's deep voice rang through the bridge, like a final verdict on the war.

He slowly rose from his Throne, his hulking frame obscuring the star chart behind it that represented the universe. He realized that relying on armies utterly countered by Link's power to secure ultimate victory was as futile as fishing in a tree.

He had to enter the fray himself.

Thanos raised his