Just as the runes of the dark magic teleportation array beneath Thanos's feet lit up halfway, an invisible force suddenly descended.
The spatial structure of the entire area was completely rewritten in the blink of an eye.
Within a 30-meter radius around Thanos, a spatial barrier rose from the ground, and six transparent spatial prisms trapped him, Ebony Maw, and Supergiant beside him inside.
The moment the runes of the teleportation array touched the spatial barrier, they shattered completely, and the dark magic energy was crushed into powder by the Law of Space.
Thanos's teleportation attempt failed.
Ebony Maw stretched out his hand, and his psychic power transformed into strands of dark golden threads that wrapped around the spatial barrier, attempting to dismantle the spatial structure at a microscopic level.
The moment the silk thread touched the surface of the barrier, it snapped with a crack, and the force of the recoil sent Ebony Maw flying three meters away.
The Supergiant also launched their own attacks, but unfortunately, neither of them managed to create even a ripple on the spatial barrier.
Thanos ignored the disheveled state of his two henchmen; he stared at Thor, who was slowly walking towards them carrying a glowing battle axe.
Those five dimensional demons failed.
Thanos has fought for half his life and has seen countless ways enemies appear: arrogant, angry, and fearful.
But this relaxed and carefree attitude gave him a strange feeling for the first time.
It's not fear; Thanos never experiences fear.
It's the anger of a chessboard being overturned.
With the Power Stone at full power, Tyrant's Blade's Blade, Thanos with both hands and unleashing the most devastating blow of his life against the spatial barrier.
boom!!!
A torrent of purple energy exploded inside the space prism, the shockwave slamming Ebony Maw and Supergiant against the barrier.
A tiny crack appeared on the surface of the barrier, extending less than twenty centimeters outward from the center.
Then it stopped.
Just that one crack, like a fingernail mark on a diamond.
Thanos stared at the crack, the Power Stone on his Infinity Gauntlet still firing wildly, wave after wave of purple energy pulses bombarding the same spot.
The cracks are slowly widening, but at a slower rate than the space barrier can repair itself.
The caster of this spatial confinement possesses a mastery of the Law of Space far exceeding the dimensions that the Power Stone can reach.
Thor watched Thanos struggle silently from outside the barrier.
Stormbreaker stood with its axe planted on the ground, tilting its head to look at Thanos for two seconds.
I'm very curious.
Thor spoke, his tone excessively casual.
"Where did you hear about the Black Vortex?"
Thanos did not answer. The purple pulse continued to bombard the barrier.
Thor shrugged.
"But I don't think you'll tell me, so—I'll just see for myself."
He raised his left hand.
The green patterns of the Law of Time spread from his fingertips, pierced through the barriers of space, and precisely wrapped around Thanos's Infinity Gauntlet on his left hand.
Thanos reacted with astonishing speed, swinging his Tyrant's Blade horizontally in his right hand, attempting to sever the green threads.
The instant the Law of Time applied to the glove, the flow of time around the glove was accelerated by ten thousand times.
The latch is worn out.
Alloy fatigue.
The seams are loose.
The entire process took Thanos less than half a second. The Infinity Gauntlet slipped from his left hand, passed through the spatial barrier, and Thor steadily into Thor's palm.
Thanos abruptly pulled his left hand back, his fingers clenched tightly, veins bulging.
Everything was gone; his grand ambitions and all his plans were gone.
Thor held the still-steaming Infinity Gauntlet in one hand and pried the two gems out of the slots like he was unpacking a package.
The purple Power Stone and the orange Soul Stone rolled twice in his palm.
He didn't even turn his head, just tossed it behind him.
" Tony, here."
The two Infinity Stones traced two arcs and landed precisely in Tony's outstretched hand.
Tony looked down at the two gems in his palm. The purple light of the Power Stone reflected on his damaged nanotech armor, while the orange light of the Soul Stone cast contrasting shadows on his dusty face.
"... Oh my god, Thor! You just dumped these two dangerous things on me like that?"
Strange was standing next to him, leaned over for a glance. His eyes, hidden beneath deep dark circles, were wide open like saucers.
"He just... pried it off? The Infinity Stones? With his hands?"
Tony didn't answer; he carefully stored the two gems inside the isolation compartment of his armor.
Inside the space prism.
Thanos stood still, his left hand, now devoid of the Infinity Gauntlet, hanging limply at his side.
Ebony Maw and Supergiant looked at each other in dismay. Even Thanos, whom they had always admired, was powerless to resist. No matter how hard they struggled, it was all in vain.
It's meaningless.
Thor's mental power unfolded at that moment.
The Law of Soul and the Law of Mind intertwined into a fine net, seeping in through the gaps in the spatial barrier and silently covering Thanos's sea of consciousness.
Thanos's mental defenses were breached in just three seconds by the Law of Soul.
Fragments of memory surfaced.
A dim void, a blurry outline shrouded in black mist.
There were no faces, no physical forms, only an all-pervasive, decaying, and ending aura.
die.
The Goddess of Death did not appear directly; she merely cast a guiding message deep within Thanos's consciousness—a winding chain of information pointing to the coordinates of the Black Vortex.
Thanos didn't even know when this guidance was implanted; it might have been a year ago, or it might have been even earlier.
My memory ends here. The Goddess of Death was cautious and left no complete trace of the interaction.
Thor withdrew his mental energy.
Before seeking out herself, the Goddess of Death had already approached Thanos.
This plan wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision; it was a pre-arranged scheme—using Thanos as a pawn and the Black Vortex as bait.
But there's one thing that doesn't make sense.
Thanos in the MCU is not a sycophant of the Goddess of Death.
He's not that madman in the comics who Carnage half the universe to please death.
Thanos's motive is "balancing cosmic resources," which has absolutely nothing to do with the Goddess of Death.
What does death want with him?
Unless—what the Goddess of Death needs is not a believer, but a useful pawn.
Thanos is ambitious, powerful, and obsessed with the order of the universe. If you give him the coordinates of the Black Vortex, he will definitely go and get it.
As for what happens after she gets it, whether Thanos uses it to "balance" things out or to lure herself out, Goddess of Death will definitely profit.
Thor looked at Thanos's purple face Thanos in the spatial prism.
We know what we need to know; it's time to send them on their way.
He raised the Stormbreaker, blade pointing skyward.
Without any buildup or unnecessary movements, the sky over Wakanda lit up for a fleeting moment.
A simple, unadorned blue bolt of lightning struck down from the center of the clouds.
The spatial barrier opened a passage the instant the lightning made contact.
Blue lightning pierced through the prism, simultaneously engulfing the figures of Thanos, Ebony Maw, and Supergiant.
After the lightning dissipated, the interior of the space prism was completely clean.
Not even ashes remained; Thanos's armor, which had withstood countless interstellar wars, was reduced to nothing, not even a single fragment.
Chibi Hulk hopped over from a distance, peeking inside the remaining framework of the spatial barrier.
"Where's Thanos? Hulk hasn't had enough!"
Thor patted his hammer.
"That's all. I'll find you a bigger one next time."
"... Hmph." The little green man, clutching the Vibranium hammer, squatted down on the ground, looking disgruntled.
Thor turned around, just about to say something.
A glittering golden portal suddenly tore open in front of him.
The chubby Master Wong rushed out of the door, the hem of his mage robe still stuck on the edge of the portal, which he yanked out, his round face filled with anxiety.
" Thor! The Sorcerer Supreme is missing!"
Everyone's attention was instantly drawn to it.
Thor was a little confused. What did it mean that the Sorcerer Supreme was missing?
What do you mean by "disappeared"?
Wanda Maximoff, host of Chaos Magic, current Sorcerer Supreme, and a key member of the Avengers.
This woman's strength, if placed on a global scale, would be arguably top-tier (T0).
The phrase "disappeared" sounds utterly absurd when applied to her.
The Master Wong took a couple of breaths and quickly spoke.
"Just half an hour ago, the Sorcerer Supreme was meditating in the Sanctum when—whoosh—he was teleported away by a force! It wasn't spatial magic, it was a dimensional portal, the kind that pulls you directly from the real dimension!"
"I consulted ancient texts and examined the remaining dimensional characteristics."
The Master Wong lowered his voice slightly.
"It's Chthon."
Thor was silent for two seconds.
Chthon. The source of Chaos Magic, one of the dimensional demons.
Wanda's power originated from him; the overpowered system of Chaos Magic was created by Chthon, so it's perfectly normal for him to have hidden tricks within this power.
These dimensional demons, unable to defeat themselves head-on, resorted to underhanded tactics.
How shameless!
First, the Goddess of Death used Thanos to set up the Black Vortex, and now Chthon has directly taken Wanda away. One after another, it's as if they planned it all together.
"Knew."
Thor's calm tone only made the Master Wong more flustered.
"I'm going to find Wanda now."
He pulled something out of his pocket. It was a Crystal the size of a fist, crystal clear, with a miniature dimensional space faintly visible inside, containing mountains, water, and buildings, its complex and precise structure seemingly not naturally formed.
This is a complete pocket dimension.
Thor tossed the Crystal to Emma Frost.
Emma Frost looked down at the Crystal in her palm; the miniature world inside the ball refracted tiny specks of light.
"What's this?"
"That thing I promised that brat Valeria." Thor stretched his neck.
"She should be very familiar with this pocket dimension; her brother plays with it all the time. Mephisto, the lord of Hell, is imprisoned inside."
Emma Frost looked up.
"I'm leaving now." Thor's Stormbreaker was already glowing. "Remember to keep her eyeing my blood. I don't want to be targeted by a weird little girl every time I go back."
brush!
The rainbow beam of light fell and rose again, Thor disappeared into the Wakanda sky.
Tony, Strange, and the Master Wong gathered around, all six eyes fixed on the Crystal in Emma Frost's hand.
Tony tilted his head and stared at it for a long time.
"Pocket Dimension. Is this what Valeria said her brother Franklin liked to play with the most?"
Strange's dark circles appeared even deeper under the refraction of the Crystal.
He bent down to take a closer look, and then froze.
Deep within the pocket dimension inside the Crystal.
A demon with red skin and wearing a red suit is sitting on the ground.
His face was disheveled, a piece of his horn was missing, and his suit was wrinkled and covered in dust.
The whole person exudes a decadent temperament of "I don't want to live but I don't want to die yet".
Mephisto.
Lord of Hell.
The most cunning among the dimensional demons, the most adept at bewitching people and forging Soul Stone contracts.
A nightmare-level entity that countless mages have spent their entire lives unable to confront head-on.
Now, like a dried-out salted fish, it lies limp on the ground in the pocket dimension.
The Master Wong's mouth opened wide, unable to close.
Tony straightened up, rubbed his eyes hard, and stared incredulously at the red demon inside the Crystal.
"... I read in the ancient texts of Kamar-Taj that summoning Mephisto's projection requires at least three archmages to work together to set up an array for seven days and seven nights."
He paused, his voice unconsciously rising.
" Thor captured his true form? And locked it in the Pocket Dimension? Just to give it as a gift to a sixteen-year-old girl?!"
The three of them remained silent for a full five seconds.
Strange was the first to speak.
"So, is it possible to discuss paying the 100 million I owe him in installments?"
No one responded to him.
Emma Frost's diamond fingers caressed the surface of the Crystal. Mephisto, inside the ball, sensed the gaze from the outside, looked up for a moment, and then lowered his head again.
They've completely given up.
He could have escaped, but unfortunately, Thor lacked sportsmanship and called for reinforcements, including someone he might not even be able to defeat in his own dimension.
In the entire multiverse, everyone of any caliber knows that Franklin is not to be trifled with.
He was just taken in for research, not killed. He could tell what was more important.
"He's really good to Valeria."
Emma Frost's voice was indifferent, revealing no emotion, as she put the Crystal into her diamond space.
Beside her, Betsy retracted her psionic blade and wiped the dust off her face.
She looked in the direction Thor had disappeared, then glanced at Emma Frost, her expression visibly darkening.
I promised to spend time with her after the war.
They ran away again.
Go save another woman.
She turned and walked silently toward the edge of the battlefield.
Sylvie pulled the dagger from the trident, wiped away the blood, and just then saw Betsy's back.
The Lady Loki raised an eyebrow, moved closer to Emma Frost, and lowered her voice.
She doesn't seem very happy.
Emma Frost's diamond form slowly faded, revealing fair skin and a calm, expressionless face.
She's not the only one who's unhappy.
Sylvie blinked and wisely kept quiet.
In the distance, Pietro ran over carrying Captain America's shield and shoved it back into Steve's hands.
So, Wanda has been kidnapped?
His silver-white hair was blown about in the wind, but there was little worry on his face.
"That Chthon probably doesn't even know what he's messed with."
Steve took the shield and dusted it off.
" Thor will bring her back."
Pietro scoffed.
"Of course I knew he could, but why couldn't you take me with you?"