The star field was in ruins.
Where galaxies once glimmered, only a fractured tapestry of collapsing time and eroding space remained.
Soren hovered at its center, pouring out power far beyond the boundaries of sanity.
The moment he forced the Time Circle and Space Circle into total fusion, the laws of reality began to protest.
Now, as he held them apart again, trying to control the impossible, his body trembled violently.
A surge of agony rippled through his mind… he had used too much.
Even the Mind Gem, burning like a miniature sun on his forehead, strained to supply the ocean of spiritual power he was bleeding into the spell.
Without it, he would have been an empty husk moments ago.
If this output keeps up… I won't last long. The thought flickered across Soren's mind, thin as a dying spark.
The destruction of time and space continued to spread, devouring stars, void, radiation… everything.
To mortal vision it looked almost slow, drifting like a tide.
But in truth, the entire dark star field had already fallen under its dominion. Entire solar systems collapsed in an instant.
Space folded, time reversed, then shattered again.
Shockwaves rolled across countless galaxies. Civilizations felt the tremor like an apocalyptic heartbeat.
Even those with no concept of magic or cosmic powers felt dread rising in their instincts.
The butterfly effect from such a wound to reality could ripple outward forever… yet Soren had no choice.
Thanos' immortality left him only one path… break the rules of creation itself.
The star field died… then regenerated… then died again.
A violent cycle of destruction, restoration, destruction until the universe's natural recovery force finally rose in full.
Two titanic energies collided, the law-breaking storm of Soren's temporal-spatial annihilation
vs
the universe's own will to heal.
For a breathless moment, the cosmos balanced on a knife's edge.
And then… the collapse stopped.
The annihilation ceased expanding and the scar on reality stabilized.
"…" Soren let out a low, shaky exhale.
His face had gone pale and his mind felt hollowed out, scraped raw.
Even with the Mind Gem pumping torrents of energy into him, the overload threatened to tear his spiritual circuits apart.
The merging point between the Time Circle and Space Circle pulsed violently, threatening to fuse again.
Carefully… inch by inch… Soren forced them apart, unraveling the catastrophic power he had unleashed.
As the Circles separated, the torn star field began to mend. Energy from the universe seeped inward, stitching the void back together.
Darkness and silence once again reclaimed the shattered expanse.
When the last ripple faded, there was no trace of the monstrous titan who had stood against him.
Not even a hint of Thanos' presence remained.
…
Far across the cosmos, beings of great power watched the star field's collapse with horror.
In Knowhere, the Collector's face twisted in disbelief.
The shockwave of broken time had reached even here, rattling ancient relics and stirring forgotten cosmic beasts.
"This… this is too much," He whispered.
Panic spread across planet after planet.
Creatures trembled beneath that apocalyptic majesty, some sinking into despair, believing the very end of the universe had come.
…
On Sakaar
The Grandmaster stood motionless, staring into the cosmic horizon.
The aura of time-space destruction had washed over his world moments earlier, and the sensation left a cold pit in his chest.
There was only one being capable of releasing such power.
Soren.
And he had already received word from the Sanctuary Domain…
Thanos had dispatched the Black Order and a vast fleet to Earth to seize Soren's Infinity Stones.
Now this rupture… this impossible burst of reality-breaking force…
Had Thanos lost?
Had Soren of all beings, overwhelmed the Mad Titan?
For the first time in eons, fear slipped into the Grandmaster's expression.
He regretted everything he had withdrawn from the Cosmic Elders and lost his protection.
And if Soren survived this battle… if Thanos had fallen, then the first place Soren would visit would undoubtedly be Sakaar.
To settle accounts.
But even if Thanos had won and gathered the six Stones, the outcome for the Grandmaster was just as grim.
Thanos cared nothing for old alliances.
Knowing the Grandmaster was no longer an Elder, he would likely execute him without hesitation.
"And now," the Grandmaster whispered with a trembling grin, "I have no paths left…"
The last shreds of time-space distortion finally faded from the cosmos.
The Grandmaster felt the pressure evaporate… like a storm that had suddenly passed. But the relief only made him more anxious.
The universe was calm again, which meant the battle was over.
He just didn't know who had survived.
Had Thanos fulfilled his threat and annihilated Soren? Or had Soren done the impossible… and erased Thanos?
The Grandmaster didn't dare guess. His future depended on the answer.
…
In the deadened expanse of the shattered star field, Soren slowly lowered his hands.
The three tones… time, space, and mind dimmed, withdrawing into his palms and the mark at his brow.
His chest rose and fell sharply, exhaustion clung to him like gravity.
The burst he unleashed had drained him almost completely. Such annihilation of time and space came at a price and it only proved how dangerous Thanos had truly been.
If Thanos hadn't pushed him to the brink, Soren would never have resorted to such reckless force.
Before him, the dying star field healed bit by bit.
The universal restorative laws stitched the broken space back together, repairing the fractures as if rewinding a catastrophe.
New darkness seeped into the void.
The order of time reasserted itself, settling like dust across a battlefield.
Soren closed his eyes and released his spiritual power, extending his senses through the reborn void.
Nothing.
Only emptiness.
Yet… something tugged at him… a faint, unsettling intuition.
Even though he had watched Thanos' body dissolve… erased into fragments swallowed by annihilation, Soren could not shake the memory of the titan's expression…
No fear.
Not even at the moment reality folded into itself and reached for him.
Thanos hadn't panicked… barely even reacted.
"…" Soren's brows knit tightly.
That was not the behavior of a being who believed he was dying.
He expanded his mental power again, sweeping the entire area… still nothing.
Not convinced, Soren tore open a path into the surrounding subdimensions.
Space turbulence battered his psychic form, but he pushed deeper, probing every hidden pocket of existence where a being like Thanos might have slipped away.
Nothing… just the void.
Yet the feeling persisted, impossible to ignore.
Thanos is not dead.
He didn't know how he knew, he simply knew.
After a long search yielded no trace, Soren finally pulled back. In the time he'd spent scanning, his mental strength had already recovered to nearly eighty percent.
His aura rose with every breath, stabilizing near his peak once more.
And something else had changed.
The violent clash of time and space had deepened his understanding of both.
The experience burned new insights into him… fascinating insights.
If he had enough time to study… if he pushed the Circles further…
He might be able to truly integrate the space-time matrices.
What would that become?
What would it allow him to do?
He didn't know.
The magical arrays faded completely, leaving Soren floating alone in the restored star field.
Yet the light of ambition burned brighter in his gaze.
If he could gather all six Infinity Stones… his system task would be complete.
He would command the strongest force this universe had ever known.
And not even 'immortals' like Thanos would be beyond his reach.
Now, he only needed the remaining Stones.