"Wood Style: Wood Dragon Technique!"
"Wood Style: Wooden Golem Technique!"
With a thunderous roar, the earth split and trembled. From deep beneath the soil, a towering wooden giant erupted forth—its body coiled with a ferocious wooden dragon. Though this was Su Xiuyu's first time deploying the Wooden Golem Technique in the Marvel world, and his control over it wasn't yet precise, the resulting construct still rose several hundred meters high—an intimidating colossus of chakra-infused wood.
The golem, guided by instinct and fury, rampaged across the battlefield. The wooden dragon lashed out in all directions, annihilating swathes of Thanos' army without mercy. It was destruction on a mythic scale.
Mjolnir pulsed in Su Xiuyu's hand, practically humming with anticipation. The enchanted hammer trembled, eager to rejoin the fray. It was calling to him.
"I'm sorry, Mjölnir," Su Xiuyu murmured, gripping the handle tighter. "Even now, I still don't have enough divine power to bring out your true might."
But the battlefield waited for no one.
His voice echoed through the smoke and screams: "Thanos! Are you just going to stand there and watch your army get slaughtered like lambs? Or are you too weak to intervene?"
Thanos' brow furrowed. He didn't particularly value the lives of his soldiers—but Su Xiuyu's provocation? That he could not ignore. He was the Mad Titan, the self-proclaimed destiny of the universe. He would not be mocked.
"Who are you? You're not with the Courtyard. Why help them? Why stand against me?"
Su Xiuyu cracked a grin. "Because I enjoy challenging the strong. And you, Thanos, at least used to qualify. But now? I'm not so sure. You've disappointed me."
"Titan is mine!"
"Then come take it!"
With a mighty leap, Thanos hurtled through the air, closing the distance in an instant.
"Mjolnir!"
The enchanted hammer surged forward like a meteor, crashing into Thanos and sending him flying back into the sprawling forest created by Su Xiuyu's earlier Tree World Birth. Trees shattered. Earth erupted.
Then—bam! Su Xiuyu blinked through space and reappeared at the heart of the battlefield, clashing with Thanos in brutal, close-quarters combat.
Their strikes rang out like iron bells: hammer against double-edged blade, godly force meeting cosmic fury.
Though Su Xiuyu lacked the physical supremacy of Thanos, his technique was refined. The Ōtsutsuki clan's mastery of space and gravitational control gave him advantages no ordinary fighter possessed. And his regenerative abilities? Monstrous. Even if half his body were obliterated, it would reconstitute in moments.
But Thanos was no ordinary foe either. While he couldn't land devastating blows powerful enough to shatter Su Xiuyu's body, he still pressed the advantage through sheer brute strength.
Still, Su Xiuyu adapted quickly. Though he'd been rusty with full-body combat at first, he now moved with fluid grace, matching Thanos strike for strike.
"I am destiny! I don't care who you are—you will fall by my hand!" Thanos bellowed, his sword sweeping through the air with renewed vigor.
Su Xiuyu's expression didn't change. Instead, he called upon his true arsenal.
Nine orbs spun into existence behind him, rotating with ominous stillness.
"Truth-Seeking Orbs..."
The moment Thanos laid eyes on them, a deep unease settled in his gut. He didn't know what they were, but the sheer aura they exuded screamed of danger.
His instincts screamed at him to treat them as lethal.
Mjolnir hovered at Su Xiuyu's side, but the warrior no longer relied on it. His focus was now entirely on the black orbs.
"Go."
The orbs flew, zigzagging through the air with intelligent precision, encircling Thanos like predatory beasts.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Thanos blocked six of them with his broadsword, sparks flying. But two slipped past his defenses, curving around behind him like snakes.
CRACK!
His armor buckled and shattered as one slammed into his back. With a grunt, Thanos dove to the ground in a graceless roll, narrowly avoiding lethal damage.
"Smart move," Su Xiuyu remarked, his tone almost appreciative. "Not many survive a direct hit from a Truth-Seeking Orb."
Thanos stood slowly, bruised and fuming.
He had never encountered a warrior like this—so versatile, so unpredictable. Su Xiuyu was a walking weapon, a combination of divine might, ninja mastery, and something utterly alien to Thanos' understanding.
"Who are you really? I've never heard of a 'Su Xiuyu' before."
"Why would you have? I'm not from your world."
Thanos gritted his teeth. His initial arrogance had crumbled. He could no longer maintain the façade of superiority.
"You pity them? All these people you protect?"
Su Xiuyu raised an eyebrow. "Pity? No. I don't carry that kind of burden. But I won't let a tyrant rewrite the laws of life just because he thinks he knows best."
Thanos stepped forward. "Resources in this universe are finite. Life cannot expand infinitely without consequence. If unchecked, extinction is inevitable. My mission—to balance it—is mercy. Can't even someone as strong as you see that?"
"Your mission," Su Xiuyu echoed, his voice sharp, "is rooted in your trauma. You think because Titan fell, the entire universe must pay for it."
He stepped closer.
"But who are you to decide what life deserves to survive? You erase half of all life and call it salvation. I call it ego."
Thanos flinched.
"You act as though the cosmos appointed you its guardian. But have you ever considered that life—real life—finds a way? Maybe it adapts. Maybe it falls. Maybe it burns itself out. That's its right."
He pointed at Thanos, eyes gleaming.
"You think you're saving the universe. But maybe… you're just scared. Scared of letting it choose its own path."
Thanos' mouth opened, but no words came.
Su Xiuyu continued, his voice calm but laced with finality.
"You're not destiny, Thanos. You're just another tyrant with a god complex."
------------------------
"Or let me put it another way," Su Xiuyu said coldly, his eyes narrowing. "Even if you're not clinging to some twisted idea of balancing the universe because of your past, then what's the point of telling me your ideals now?"
His words struck deep. Thanos paused. For the first time in a long while, he hesitated—reflecting on everything he had done.
After a long silence, Thanos finally shook his head.
"Maybe what you said is reasonable," he admitted. "But I still stand by my belief. If this world lacks a mechanism to maintain balance, then I will become that mechanism."
He gripped the hilt of his broken blade.
"What I do... is not out of selfishness, but for the sake of universal balance."
His eyes ignited with stubborn resolve.
"Now, continue our duel!"
Without waiting for an answer, Thanos charged at Su Xiuyu, wielding the incomplete sword with brutal force. But Su Xiuyu met his fury with calm precision. Having already analyzed and seen through Thanos' techniques, he countered each move fluidly. His footwork, enhanced by chakra, danced through space like wind brushing water.
Eventually, with one final strike, Thanos collapsed—his massive body slamming into the earth with a heavy thud. He couldn't stand anymore. His breathing was ragged, and his body was bruised and battered.
"Kill me," Thanos said hoarsely. "Though I hate to lose, I can accept defeat at the hands of someone stronger."
A streak of crimson flashed from the side.
"Thanos!!"
Wanda Maximoff lunged forward, eyes blazing with grief and rage, determined to end Thanos with her own hands.
But before she could reach him, a giant wooden dragon surged from the ground and swept her away.
"Don't touch my prey," Su Xiuyu said sharply. "Thanos' death is certain. But I need his body."
He stood over the fallen titan.
"Goodbye, Thanos."
With one hand, he gripped Thanos by the head. His other hand pulsed with the power of hell—a dark, suffocating aura coiled around his fingers. Then, with a surge of energy, he extracted Thanos' soul and hurled it into the mouth of Hades itself, sealing it within the underworld.
The Mad Titan, soul extinguished, was now nothing more than a corpse.
And his conquest was over.
---
What followed was the clean-up of Thanos' forces. The Avengers and their allies fought tirelessly for an entire day and night, purging every last remnant of the invading army. A few of the aliens were captured alive for interrogation. But the majority were obliterated in the battle's aftermath.
Although the war brought immense loss, this time—finally—Thanos' legion was annihilated. His influence would wither. His grip on the universe would loosen. Without their master, his remaining forces scattered like dust in a storm.
---
"I'll be taking Thanos' corpse with me," Su Xiuyu told the assembled heroes. "I still have use for it. Don't even think about turning him into a Shura Path puppet. That's off-limits."
He glanced over the battlefield.
"As for the Infinity Gems… you can deal with those. I'll be keeping the ones I acquired myself. Any objections?"
No one spoke.
Even the ever-curious Tony Stark remained silent, merely nodding in understanding.
---
Later, as the dust began to settle and the heroes regrouped, Tony approached Su Xiuyu.
"We owe you one," Tony said. "Big time."
Strange, who had been silent all this time, finally stepped forward.
"In the original fate… you died," he said softly. "You snapped your fingers and sacrificed yourself. That was the only path to victory."
Tony blinked. "Seriously? That was the only way?"
Strange nodded. "That timeline was cruel. But with your death… we won."
"But I didn't die this time," Tony said, half-joking, half-amazed. "Did I still do okay?"
"You didn't just 'do okay,'" Strange replied. "Su Xiuyu's appearance rewrote everything. He changed the outcome—made it better."
Strange's voice grew more somber.
"To be honest… if he had wanted to take over this world, we might not have been able to stop him."
Tony forced a chuckle. "Don't go giving him villain monologue fuel."
"He's a supreme mage, like me," Strange replied. "But far more experienced—and unbound by our world's rules."
Tony smirked. "Sounds like you're jealous."
"You try dragging Karma Taj's entire legacy on your back and see how you feel."
Tony laughed. "Well, at least Xiuyu liked Wong. I saw him giving the guy private lessons. What about you, Strange? Feeling left out?"
---
As farewells were exchanged, Su Xiuyu stood near the portal that shimmered with dimensional energy.
"Don't worry," he said. "Traveling between our worlds is easy for me now. I don't even need the quantum tunnel."
He turned to Tony.
"Next time your daughter turns one, give me a shout. Just send me a pair of quantum headphones. I'll drop by."
Tony tossed him a nano-watch. "Here. Contains a basic armor blueprint. Maybe the Tony Stark in your world will build something sooner this way. If he's like me, he's probably obsessing over Thanos and panicking on the inside."
Su Xiuyu nodded, pocketing the device. "Thanks. That'll help."
With one final glance at the gathered heroes, he vanished—slipping cleanly out of their universe.
---
But the moment he returned to his own world, he frowned.
He had expected peace. Instead, Penglai Island shook with the rumble of artillery.
"What's going on?" he muttered, quickly stepping inside.
Uchiha Chisato, now visibly pregnant, looked up in surprise. Uzumaki Mito was there too, her expression grim.
"Xiuyu, you're back!" Jiri exclaimed in relief.
"Yes. But what's happening out there?"
Mito wasted no time.
"After the Battle of New York, tensions exploded. The American military feels threatened by superpowered individuals. They've started arresting them in the streets."
She sighed deeply.
"Civilians are protesting too—demanding compensation for the Chitauri invasion. They're blaming superheroes for the destruction and deaths."
Su Xiuyu's expression darkened.
"Even though they didn't lift a finger during the invasion?"
Mito nodded. "Exactly. Captain America is now stuck in court every day, dealing with lawsuits. Tony is holed up in Stark Tower and doesn't leave without armor."
"The military even contacted us," she added. "They demanded we hand over Chitauri corpses, warships, and tech. If we refuse… they're threatening military action."
Outside, the noise grew louder.
Crowds swarmed around Stark Tower.
"Compensate our losses!"
"Our homes are gone!"
"You're the richest man in America, Stark! Pay up!"
"Come out, Tony!"
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