Something just doesn't feel right no matter how I write it; I'm starting to break down.
It seems like I've been possessed by another author again; as I write, I end up writing in a very literary style.
If anything feels off, leave a comment and I'll revise it.
I read it over and over again, revising it countless times... I was utterly exhausted...
From that moment on, the Garden Planet became Thanos's nightmare.
The fertile wooden house that Thanos meticulously repaired had long been reduced to ruins in the previous battle.
Broken wooden beams lay askew in the cracked earth, the once-flat fields were now riddled with gullies of varying depths, and gravel mixed with dust covered the land, obscuring any semblance of tranquility.
Thanos sat cross-legged on the cold, rocky ground, his massive body slightly tense, covered with a crisscross of old and new wounds. His purple skin was covered with dense bruises and contusions, many of the open wounds had just scabbed over, yet they ached again with the slightest movement, constantly reminding him of his recent humiliation and defeat.
He lowered his eyes, concealing the resentment and stubbornness surging within them, and his whole being was enveloped in an aura of unwilling violence.
To this day, he still doesn't think he's done anything wrong.
In his understanding gained from a thousand years of conquest, the imbalance of the universe, the depletion of resources, the insatiable greed of civilizations, and the endless wars are intractable problems rooted in the origin of the universe.
The rampant proliferation and expansion of weak civilizations, and their reckless consumption of limited resources, will only lead to greater wars and a greater cosmic crisis.
His approach is the ultimate means of eliminating redundancy and balancing the universe; it is the only righteous path to cut off chaos and end conflict.
Sacrificing half of all life at a completely random cost to preserve the entire universe is the fairest, most rational, and most resolute form of redemption.
He couldn't understand why he, with his noble aspirations, would be humiliated and rejected by this young man.
In his heart, Lynn was nothing more than a bully who took advantage of his serious injury to distort the truth.
A gentle breeze blew by as Lynn leaned lazily against a perfectly intact boulder, his expression relaxed.
He simply watched the stubborn cosmic overlord before him, observing this deep-seated obstinacy and arrogance.
For him, killing Thanos in front of him was simple.
A single fatal blow can only end the life of an abuser, but it cannot crush this extreme ideology that plagues the universe.
Even if Thanos is killed today, other powerful figures will still hold the same extreme ideology tomorrow, repeating the same mistakes and continuing to slaughter living beings in the name of "righteousness".
What he needs to do is Thanos Thanos's distorted values, shatter his perceptions, and make this self-proclaimed savior of the universe admit that his actions are fundamentally an absurd and evil affair.
"Still not convinced?"
Lynn's voice was light and casual, and it sounded exceptionally clear over the hot and empty wasteland.
Thanos stiffened slightly, remained silent for a long time, and then slowly raised his head, his deep voice carrying an unyielding stubbornness and coldness. "What did I do wrong?"
"Cosmic resources are finite, but the desires of living beings are infinite. Unrestrained proliferation and expansion will only accelerate collapse. By eliminating half of the redundant life forms, I slow down the universe's depletion and end the endless interstellar warfare. I am saving the universe."
Lynn raised an eyebrow slightly, a hint of mockery flashing in his eyes, and slowly and calmly said, "Your so-called salvation is nothing but the tyranny of lazy people, the escapism of cowards."
The scarcity of cosmic resources and the constant conflicts between civilizations are systemic problems, developmental issues, and the normal course of civilizational iteration. The solution always lies in innovation, exploration, checks and balances, and guidance, not in Carnage, wiping out, or destruction. Even if you eliminate this generation, the problem will persist even after thousands of years of development.
"You possess the Infinity Stones, the most supreme primal power in the universe. You could create resources, regulate the order of civilizations, and restrain interstellar conflicts. You have the ability to rewrite the cosmic order, yet you chose the most brutal, mindless, and cruel method."
Thanos's brows furrowed deeply, his chest heaving with resentment, and he instinctively wanted to retort, "Gentle restraint is useless. Greed is human nature. Only by making extreme choices can we achieve lasting peace!"
"Is that so?" Lynn asked calmly, her tone piercingly sharp. "Then tell me, what wrong did the half of the lives you randomly wiped out do?"
"The infants still in swaddling clothes, the scholars dedicated to scientific research seeking to establish new homes, the warriors protecting the peaceful survival of their people, the ordinary people living diligent lives—they have never been greedy, never fought, never plundered, so why should they pay the price for the imbalance of the universe?"
Thanos was speechless, his pupils trembling slightly.
He had never thought about this question.
In his view, before the greater good, the life, death, good, evil, right, and wrong of individuals are all meaningless.
As long as the ultimate goal of achieving cosmic balance is achieved, all sacrifices and sins in the process can be forgiven and deserve to be fulfilled.
He was looking at the future of the entire universe, but he overlooked the billions of individuals that make up the universe.
"See, you can't answer that."
Lynn slowly rose and walked towards Thanos, his steps unhurried, his aura calm yet undeniably oppressive, "Because you've been indulging in self-pity from beginning to end."
"You're not a savior; you're just tired of conflict, too lazy to expend the energy to think things through and innovate, so you choose destruction to escape all trouble."
"You dare not confront the greed of civilization, dare not face the intractable diseases of the universe, dare not spend time gradually changing the landscape. You choose a one-size-fits-all Carnage, using the simplest violence to cover up your incompetence and cowardice."
Thanos's face was grim, his massive body trembled slightly, and for the first time, the stronghold of his beliefs, which he had held for thousands of years, showed obvious signs of loosening and cracking.
In the days to come, Lynn will draw upon the rise and fall of countless civilizations throughout the universe to tell Thanos true cosmic balance is never about eradicating life, but about embracing existence and promoting healthy development.
If Thanos continues to stubbornly talk back and refuses to change his ways, Lynn wouldn't mind taking action again, using just the right amount of force to teach him a lesson he'd never forget.
Let him suffer excruciating pain, let him calmly reflect amidst the agony, and remember the absurdity of his own ideas.
Initially, Thanos was filled with resistance and resentment.
He would argue his point, he would fight back with gritted teeth, he would angrily denounce Lynn for not understanding the suffering of the universe and the vicissitudes of a chaotic world, he would firmly believe that his sacrifice was the only right path, and he would firmly believe that Lynn's gentle philosophy would only condone chaos and accelerate the collapse of the universe.
Even though he was beaten until his body ached and he was covered in wounds time and time again, he still clung to his path and refused to give up, the stubbornness in his eyes never diminishing in the slightest.
He is a cosmic overlord who has conquered for millennia, arrogant, stubborn, and conceited, with his ideals etched into his very bones. How could he possibly be easily swayed by a few words?
It can happen day after day, in a never-ending cycle.
As time went on, Thanos's stubbornness began to loosen and crumble little by little.
He began to remain silent for longer periods, offering fewer and fewer rebuttals. The anger and arrogance in his eyes gradually faded, replaced by deep hesitation and confusion.
He began to calm down and carefully consider every word Lynn had said.
He began to recall his life's battles, the billions of lives he had slaughtered, the innocent tribes that had perished, and the resolute indifference he felt when he snapped his the Snap.
For the first time, he began to question whether the beliefs he had held onto his entire life were truly correct.
If I truly am saving the universe, why does a persistent, indelible emptiness and loneliness linger deep within my heart?
Although he still couldn't fully agree with Lynn's ideas, he could no longer be absolutely certain that his approach was correct.
He was once extremely arrogant, regarding all living beings as ants, sacrifice as inevitable, and himself as the only truth.
On this day, Thanos sat cross-legged on the ground as before, his face devoid of the previous rage and resentment. He remained silent for a long time, a hint of confusion mixed with a softened honesty. "Was I... really wrong?"
"Your mistake was never trying to balance the universe."
"You're wrong because you've never given the universe, or any living being, a chance for self-redemption and self-renewal."
"You are arrogant and self-righteous, arbitrarily deciding the life and death of all beings, replacing all gradual progress with extreme violence."
Thanos looked down at his calloused, scarred hands, hands that had once slaughtered countless races and snapped their the Snap of the universe, hands stained with endless blood and sin.
At this moment, these hands, which had once held the destiny of the universe in their hands, were trembling slightly.
He spent half his life waging war, abandoning his homeland, his family, and his honor and disgrace, only to receive not universal harmony, but an even greater catastrophe in return.
The most tragic thing is that he only realized this at this moment.
"You've finally realized your mistake; you're not beyond redemption."
Thanos finally let go of all his arrogance and prejudice, and for the first time, with humility, faced his sins and yearned for the possibility of making amends.
"Opportunities are always there."
Lynn stood up, raised his eyes and looked into the dark and distant deep space of the universe, his gaze distant and serene.
In the days that followed, the wasteland returned to peace.
Looking at the transformed Thanos, Lynn's anger had largely subsided.
While the Garden Planet returned to tranquility and Thanos completed his ideological transformation, distant Earth remained immersed in the devastation and deathly silence that followed the catastrophe.
Half of all life Oblivion, countless families were torn apart, cities were littered with ruins and cries of agony filled the air, and the entire planet was plunged into unprecedented turmoil and panic.
SSC became the sole core after the disaster. Tony, Steve, Banner, and their group suppressed their guilt and rushed to the front lines, taking on all the work of post-disaster reconstruction and stability maintenance.
For days on end, everyone worked day and night, shuttling between the ruins of major cities, counting missing persons worldwide, registering disaster data, and comforting civilians on the verge of collapse.
Everyone is working themselves to the bone, filling the void of guilt and regret in their hearts with endless work.
They knew perfectly well that this catastrophe could have been stopped earlier, but their own cleverness and arbitrary decisions betrayed Lynn's efforts and led to this human tragedy.
Only by doing everything in our power to clean up the mess can we slightly alleviate the torment in our hearts.
No matter how they tried to salvage the situation, one thing remained lingering in everyone's minds... they had lost track of Lynn and Thanos.
Several days later, the post-disaster stability maintenance work came to a temporary end, order was initially restored in major cities, and all survivors were resettled.
SSC headquarters held an emergency internal high-level meeting. The atmosphere in the large conference room was heavy, and a sense of oppression enveloped everyone.
The relentless pace of the past few days and the guilt weighed heavily on everyone, leaving them physically and mentally exhausted. The desk was covered with densely packed post-disaster data and cosmic scan reports, but after reviewing all the data, not a single useful clue was found.
Steve Rogers, seated at the head of the table, lightly rubbed his fingertips across the surface, his eyes filled with melancholy and helplessness, and broke the silence first.
"During this time, we've exhausted all our resources searching for Lynn and Thanos."
But in the end, nothing was gained.
"No results, no clues, no breakthrough."
"To this day, we still can't do anything; everything is a blank."
After he finished speaking, the conference room fell silent once again.
Tony leaned back in his chair, one hand pressed against his forehead, his eyes filled with exhaustion and regret. He blamed himself more than anyone else; if he had contacted Lynn decisively back then, perhaps none of this tragedy would have happened. But there are no "what ifs" in life, and now they were trapped in the same place, unable to even find a way to make amends.
Banner silently perused countless exploration reports, densely packed with data, all of which were invalid records. The vast universe was like a boundless giant net, concealing all traces of Lynn and Thanos within it, leaving them with no way to explore.
Everyone carries a huge weight in their hearts; confusion, helplessness, and guilt intertwine and suffocate them.
Just as everyone was sinking into despair and the atmosphere in the conference room reached its most oppressive point, the entire SSC headquarters building suddenly shook violently!
A dull, heavy tremor swept through the entire building; documents and water glasses on the desks shook violently; trees outside the windows swayed wildly; and clear rumbling came from the ground, as if a colossal object had suddenly descended upon the earth.
Everyone's expression changed drastically; they instantly stood up and looked warily out the window.
"Go out and take a look!" Steve shouted in a low voice, and everyone immediately followed, rushing out of the conference room and heading straight for the large lawn outside the headquarters.
The moment everyone stepped out of the building, their gazes were all fixed on the sky, and their pupils suddenly contracted.
Above the clear sky, a dazzling golden humanoid figure floated among the clouds, illuminating the entire gray sky.
The golden light hovered high in the sky, its radiance slowly receding, before it descended steadily and slowly towards the grassy ground.
As the light faded, Carol Vers, with her short hair and sharp posture, landed steadily, the remaining golden energy around her slowly circulating.
Her sharp gaze swept over the group of people in front of her, a hint of seriousness flashing in her eyes.
Following the trajectory of unusual energy bursts in the universe, she traversed star systems and finally pinpointed the source of this catastrophe on Earth.
The moment she landed, her gaze swept over the Avengers before her, each with a different expression. "Where's Nick Fury?"
Steve's body stiffened slightly. Suppressing the surging bitterness and sorrow in his heart, he took half a step forward, his voice heavy and hoarse. "He... he's gone too."