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Knowhere. The Collector's Museum.
The kinetic shockwave from Carina's explosive demise hit like a physical wall of solid purple light.
Taneleer Tivan, who was closest to the pedestal, was violently thrown backward. He crashed heavily into the reinforced glass of a containment cell, spitting out a mouthful of silver blood, his flamboyant white hair singed and his aristocratic dignity entirely shattered.
Peter Quill, Gamora, Rocket, and Groot hurriedly dove for cover behind fallen debris, covering their heads as the apocalyptic energy storm shredded the museum's priceless artifacts.
However, despite being at the absolute epicenter of the blast, Ronan the Accuser did not retreat a single inch.
Instead, the towering Kree fanatic leaned into the gale force of the explosion. He pounced toward the core of the raging energy flow like a starving tiger. He swung his massive Cosmi-Rod warhammer, forcefully cleaving through the roaring purple flames to create a path. He lunged, his armored hand grabbing the heavy Cosmic Orb that had been thrown through the air.
With a brutal twist of his wrist, Ronan quickly snapped the metal halves shut, resealing the containment field.
"A Power Stone..." Ronan whispered, his deep voice vibrating with awe. He gripped the Orb tightly, his cold eyes suddenly gleaming with absolute, terrifying fanaticism. "It's actually the Power Stone!"
"Hmm?"
Suspended gracefully in mid-air above the chaos, Hermione was just about to make her move and retrieve the artifact when a new spatial signature caught her attention. She turned her head toward the shattered ceiling of the museum, a slight, highly amused smile playing on her lips.
"Looks like today's going to be quite lively after all," she murmured.
Through the jagged hole in the Celestial's skull, a strangely shaped, massive spaceship—resembling a giant, hovering metal donut—slowly descended into the Void.
A tractor beam illuminated the ruined floor, and two figures gracefully disembarked from the Q-Ship.
Leading the way was an alien dressed in exquisite, gorgeous, dark robes. He was tall, gaunt, and possessed a pale, flat face that looked remarkably like a certain grumpy squid from a terrestrial cartoon. He exuded an aura of twisted elegance and supreme arrogance in every gesture.
Following closely behind him, shaking the ground with every step, was a hulking, reptilian brute carrying a massive, cybernetic battle-axe.
They were the Children of Thanos. The Black Order's Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian (Black Dwarf).
Ebony Maw floated forward, a thin, satisfied smile creeping across his lipless mouth as he saw the sealed Cosmic Orb firmly in Ronan's grasp.
"Well done, Ronan the Accuser," Ebony Maw purred, his voice smooth and hypnotic. "You have fulfilled your purpose. Give the Orb to me, and come back with us to Sanctuary to meet Lord Thanos. He will surely keep his generous promise and bathe Xandar in the blood you so desire."
However, Ronan didn't move. He gripped the Orb even tighter, his knuckles groaning under the pressure. He looked coldly at the telekinetic alien.
"Ebony Maw?" Ronan spat the name like poison. "What are you doing here?"
"Lord Thanos received intelligence that an uninvited guest seems to have involved herself in this matter," Ebony Maw explained smoothly, clasping his long fingers behind his back. "Fearing that your... limited capabilities might fail, he specifically ordered me to come and assist you."
The implication of surveillance and distrust was blindingly obvious.
Upon hearing this, Ronan's face twisted into a mask of pure sarcasm and rage. "I see. Babysitters. However... that is no longer necessary."
Seeing that Ronan showed absolutely no intention of handing over the Orb, Ebony Maw's polite smile vanished. His voice dropped to a freezing, lethal hiss.
"Ronan. What do you think you are doing? Do you intend to betray Lord Thanos?"
"Betrayal?" Ronan laughed. It was a harsh, barking sound, as if he had just heard an excellent joke. "When have I ever been loyal to Thanos? My relationship with your master was nothing more than a transactional contract! I retrieve the Orb, he destroys Xandar for me. That was the deal!"
Ronan held the Cosmic Orb high in the air, his eyes blazing. "I thought this was just an ordinary relic! A bauble! But I never expected it to be a containment vessel for a genuine Infinity Stone! With the Power Stone in my grasp... what do I need that old, purple Titan for?!"
"Well," a clear, cheerful voice suddenly echoed across the ruined hall. "It looks like quite a few people want this shiny rock."
Hermione floated down slightly, grinning widely at the standoff. "It's such a pity there's only one Stone to go around. How are we going to divide it between a pirate, a squid, and me?"
Ebony Maw snapped his head up, his attention finally turning to the girl hovering above them.
When his eyes focused and he saw Hermione's face clearly, his pupils contracted sharply. He took an involuntary step back, his calm facade shattering.
"You... The Cabbage Witch?!" Maw exclaimed in genuine shock.
The next second, the profound astonishment on his flat face twisted into a look of absolute, overwhelming ecstasy.
"Praise be to Thanos! This is truly effortless!" Ebony Maw crowed, spreading his arms wide. "The Mind Stone and the Reality Stone... it seems I can take all three back to my Lord today!"
Before he even finished speaking his villainous monologue, Ebony Maw struck. He remained physically motionless, but his immense telekinetic power flared.
The surrounding rubble, shattered glass, and heavy metal beams instantly came alive. They transformed into hundreds of razor-sharp spikes, launching themselves like a storm of missiles, raining down on Hermione from every conceivable angle.
At the exact same time, Cull Obsidian let out a deafening roar. The massive brute swung his giant, crushing battle-axe and charged forward like a runaway freight train, aiming straight for Hermione!
Faced with this sudden, devastating pincer attack from two of the universe's deadliest assassins, Hermione's face remained completely, utterly bored.
She didn't even draw her wand. She simply raised two fingers.
"Sectumsempra." (Divine Sharpness Without a Shadow)
Cull Obsidian's massive, charging body suddenly froze mid-stride, mere feet from Hermione.
Immediately afterward, an invisible, hyper-compressed wave of dark magic swept silently through the air.
Schlllick.
The invincible armor and impenetrable hide of the Black Dwarf offered zero resistance. In the blink of an eye, the massive brute was seamlessly sliced into dozens of perfectly uniform, bloody chunks of flesh and bone. The pieces collapsed to the floor in a wet, heavy pile, scattering blood across the glass tiles.
One-hit kill.
On the other side, the telekinetic storm of rocks and metal spikes instantly turned to fine, gray dust the moment they came within three feet of Hermione. It was as if they had collided with a sphere of absolute, unyielding reality.
Ebony Maw's expression changed from ecstasy to sheer horror. He gritted his teeth and immediately increased his psychic output, veins bulging on his pale forehead as he attempted to crush his opponent with overwhelming telekinetic pressure.
However... he felt nothing. Or rather, he felt his immense, peerless mental power being casually, effortlessly swatted away like a spiderweb in a hurricane.
Hermione merely blinked at him. Her Mind-Stone-enhanced consciousness slammed forward like a sledgehammer.
"Puff—!"
Ebony Maw was struck invisibly in the chest. He flew backward, spitting out a massive mouthful of blue blood, his eyes wide with absolute, world-shattering disbelief.
Both of them were "Mages" who manipulated telekinesis and reality. Yet, he, the greatest telepath of the Black Order, had just been effortlessly, humiliatingly crushed in his absolute area of expertise!
As he hit the ground, coughing up blood, Maw finally understood why Thanos had explicitly warned his generals not to provoke trouble on Terra for the time being. This 'Cabbage Witch' wasn't a hero. She was a cosmic monster!
The Hammer and the Stone.
While Hermione was casually dismantling the Children of Thanos, a desperate battle broke out on the other side of the room.
Gamora, Peter Quill, Drax the Destroyer, and Rocket Raccoon pounced on Ronan almost simultaneously, desperate to rip the Orb from his hands. Groot extended his massive wooden branches, attempting to entangle and restrain the Kree warlord's thick legs.
However, Ronan was a Kree Accuser. His physical strength far surpassed that of ordinary beings, almost comparable to a baseline Hulk.
Facing the coordinated attack of the Guardians, Ronan didn't flinch. He wielded his massive Cosmi-Rod, swinging it in devastating, heavy arcs that produced a terrifying whistling sound as it cut through the air.
"A bunch of rabble!" Ronan sneered.
He swept his warhammer in a brutal, 360-degree arc. The kinetic blast sent Gamora, Drax, and Quill flying across the room like discarded ragdolls, smashing through the remaining display cases.
Ebony Maw, bleeding heavily and realizing he had zero chance of surviving a fight with Hermione, scrambled to his feet. Seeing Cull Obsidian turned to minced meat, Maw abandoned his pride.
"Ronan!" Ebony Maw shrieked desperately, backing toward the tractor beam of his ship. "Help me! Without Lord Thanos's power, you are no match for the Witch! Give me the Stone and we can kill her together!"
"Shut up!"
Ronan roared, his pride deeply, fundamentally insulted by Maw's cowardly begging.
One or two of them, they all look down on me! Ronan thought, his mind snapping into pure, fanatical madness. Thanos uses me! This Witch mocks me!
"Since you all want to see my limits..." A glint of absolute, suicidal madness flashed in Ronan's dark eyes. "...then I will show you what true, absolute power is!"
Ronan dropped his hammer. He grabbed the metal Orb with both hands, roaring as he forcefully twisted the containment vessel open!
He reached his bare, armored hand inside and grabbed the raw Power Stone!
FWOOSH!
A blinding, apocalyptic purple light erupted once more!
"UGHHHHHHHH—!"
A scream of unimaginable agony tore from Ronan's throat. A sharp, world-ending pain instantly spread through his entire body. It felt as if every single cell in his Kree anatomy was being submerged in boiling acid and torn apart at the molecular level.
Blinding purple energy patterns, like glowing veins of lava, spread rapidly up his arm, crawling across his neck and face. His flesh began to smoke and char.
But Ronan's hatred was infinite. With his fanatical will and superhuman physique, he withstood the violent, disintegrating force for three crucial seconds.
He slammed the raw Stone down hard onto the head of his Cosmi-Rod warhammer!
CLAAANG!
The magnetic containment field of the hammer snapped open, fusing perfectly with the Power Stone.
The weapon unleashed an unprecedented, terrifying energy surge. A blinding pillar of solid purple light shot straight up into the sky, effortlessly piercing through the armored dome of the Void, shooting out into the cosmos!
Immediately afterward, a devastating, omnidirectional purple shockwave exploded outward from Ronan. The kinetic force caused the reinforced walls to collapse, the ground to crack open into deep fissures, and everything in its path to be ruthlessly, violently vaporized!
Upon witnessing this earth-shattering power, Ebony Maw's pupils constricted sharply.
"Madman!"
Maw screamed in horror. He no longer cared about the Stone, Thanos's orders, or his own pride. He made a split-second decision. Maw activated his psychic powers to the absolute limit, barely managing to create a telekinetic shield around his donut-shaped Q-Ship.
He dove into the tractor beam, boarded the ship, and without looking back even once, the vessel transformed into a streak of light, fleeing the Void at maximum warp speed.
Standing in the center of the cratered museum, watching Ebony Maw flee in a disheveled panic, Ronan felt the surging, seemingly inexhaustible cosmic power flowing from the hammer into his veins.
The pain vanished, replaced by godhood.
Ronan threw his head back and burst into wild, maniacal laughter. His voice was amplified by the Stone, shaking the very air with his arrogance and triumph.
"HAHAHAHA! Behold! This is the power of the Infinity Stones!"
Ronan slowly lowered his glowing, crackling purple warhammer. His fanatical gaze swept across the broken bodies of the Guardians, past the trembling Collector, before finally settling squarely on Hermione Granger.
His eyes burned with pure provocation and absolute, unshakeable confidence.
"Now," Ronan the Accuser boomed, pointing the ultimate weapon at the Witch. "Let us see who divides the universe!"