Chapter 615: Kizaru Actually Steals the Stone
Imu offered no reply. She stomped her foot, the dark red aura blasting away the surrounding dust as she launched herself directly at Thanos. Thanos answered with a punch of his own.
Fist and palm collided.
Boom!
The ground sank several meters, and the surrounding ruined buildings collapsed simultaneously. Tony was blasted out of the sky by the shockwave, crashing into the remains of a half-destroyed tower.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., make a note. This is the thirteenth time today I've been swatted out of the sky by forces that completely ignore science."
J.A.R.V.I.S. responded promptly. "Sir, the accurate count is the fourteenth time."
"Shut up, this is not the time to be pedantic!"
Imu flipped and landed gracefully, the Mind Stone in her palm flaring. A beam of red light lanced straight toward Thanos's brow. Thanos raised his hand, using the Space Stone to deflect its trajectory. The red beam grazed past his helmet and blasted into the Chitauri army formations in the distance.
A massive swath of alien soldiers went instantly blank-eyed, turning their weapons and opening fire on each other.
Rocket Raccoon's eyes lit up. "I like that one! That stone is perfect for repo jobs!"
Star-Lord grabbed him by the shoulder. "You'd better not get any ideas. We aren't even qualified to buy a ticket to this show right now."
Thanos swung his blade in a brutal backhand. A spatial rift tore open ahead of the edge, appearing instantaneously right behind Imu. Imu twisted to dodge it, firing a ki blast right at his face at point-blank range.
Thanos took the hit head-on with the Power Stone. Purple light exploded across his chest, but he was still knocked back dozens of meters. The ground beneath his feet caved in once again, the tectonic plates of the ruins groaning heavily under the pressure.
Sengoku finally couldn't hold back anymore. "We cannot let them keep fighting like this!"
The giant Buddha rose from the earth, a thousand hands slamming down simultaneously toward the space between the two fighters. Akainu charged in from the opposite flank, Ryujin Jakka blazing with searing white heat.
"Scatter the stones first!"
Just as the two entered the core zone, Imu and Thanos turned their heads simultaneously. Imu swept a wave of dark red energy outward with her palm. Thanos raised his hand, detonating a shockwave of raw power.
The majority of Sengoku's thousand Buddha hands were instantly pulverized. He was sent flying backward, crashing through three ruined buildings. Akainu's flames were folded back onto him by a spatial distortion, leaving a scorched burn across his own shoulder. He slammed into the ground, magma churning around him.
"Damn it!"
Kizaru hovered in the distance, casually raising a hand to block a chunk of flying debris. "Oh my, my. The Fleet Admiral and an Admiral just got swatted away like lowly grunts. If word of this gets back, we'll lose all our face."
Garp was about to charge in when Whitebeard grabbed him. "Don't be hasty, old Marine."
Garp glared at him. "What the hell are you stopping me for!?"
Whitebeard looked toward the core zone. "You want to get caught in the middle of that madwoman and Grimace and be used as a punching bag?"
Garp stroked his chin. "Sounds like a pretty good time, actually."
Whitebeard completely ignored him.
In the center of the ruins, Imu and Thanos clashed once more. Imu used the Mind Stone to disrupt Thanos's judgment; every time the red light flashed, Thanos's movements slowed by a fraction of a second. But Thanos had the Space Stone. His attacks materialized from every conceivable angle, his blade grazing past Imu's vitals time and time again.
The Reality Stone on Imu's forehead flared, and the fractured ground suddenly rose up into a towering wall. Thanos threw a punch, the Power Stone obliterating the barrier instantly. The two fought from the ground to the sky, and then smashed from the sky back down into the ruins.
Hela stood in the distance, her expression ugly. "My Power Stone."
Thor shot her a look. "If you go over there right now, they'll just beat you to death together."
Hela sneered. "Are you worried about me?"
Thor was silent for half a second. "I'm just afraid you'll bring trouble back to Asgard again."
Loki nodded in agreement. "I second that. She is extremely troublesome."
Hela was about to strike when a blinding red light erupted from the core zone. Imu had used the Reality Stone to lock the space beneath Thanos's feet in place. Simultaneously, the red light of the Mind Stone pierced straight into his consciousness.
Thanos's body froze.
Imu raised her hand, compressing a sphere of dark red ki into her palm, aiming directly for his chest. "It's over."
But Thanos violently snapped his head up. The Space Stone on his left hand flashed, and he forcibly shifted his body half a step. The ki blast tore through his shoulder armor, completely missing his heart. In that exact same split second, his double-bladed sword swept out in a horizontal slash.
Squelch!
Imu's left arm was severed clean at the shoulder, flying into the air. Blood sprayed across the ruins. The Reality Stone was jolted loose from her forehead, and Thanos snatched it out of the air with a backhand grab.
The entire battlefield fell dead still.
Imu stumbled backward, dark red aura boiling violently from her severed stump. Thanos gripped the Reality Stone, pressing it down into an empty slot on his gauntlet. "Your reality belongs to me as well."
There was no pain on Imu's face, only a bone-chilling murderous intent. Her remaining right hand shot up. The Mind Stone erupted in a burst of crimson light, stabbing directly into Thanos's left eye.
Thanos let out a muffled groan, half his helmet blowing apart. His left eye exploded on the spot, purple blood streaming down his cheek.
Rocket Raccoon sucked in a sharp breath. "Good lord, one loses an arm, the other loses an eye. These two are the textbook definition of a failed negotiation."
Star-Lord swallowed hard. "I am never calling Gamora hot-tempered ever again."
Thanos clutched his ruined left eye, his right hand still gripping the Reality Stone tightly. Imu stood her ground with her severed arm, the Mind Stone floating just in front of her palm.
Neither of them retreated a single inch. The air was so suffocatingly heavy it was hard to breathe.
Right in the middle of this tense stalemate, a streak of golden light suddenly flashed from the edge of the ruins. There was no killing intent, no warning, and the speed was so absolute that not even Tony's armor could track it entirely.
Kizaru, transformed into light particles, slipped past Thanos's flank in the blink of an eye. He didn't aim for Thanos's head, nor did he try to grab the Reality Stone. His fingers delicately and precisely dug into the side of Thanos's wrist.
Click.
The green stone was pried loose by sheer force.
Thanos whipped his head around, throwing a furious right hook. But Kizaru was already a hundred meters away, casually tossing the Time Stone in his hand. "Oh my, my. Fighting so viciously... It's not too much to ask to take a little overtime pay, is it?"
Sengoku, crawling out of the rubble, nearly blew a gasket when he saw this. "Borsalino! You actually dared to steal it!?"
Kizaru threw his hands up. "Don't make it sound so ugly. This is battlefield reclamation."
Garp roared with laughter. "Beautifully done! The brat finally did something useful!"
Kizaru was just about to crack another joke when the sky suddenly exploded with black and red lightning. A colossal dragon phantom smashed down from the clouds with devastating force. Wild, overwhelming Conqueror's Haki crushed the air, and the ground collapsed in its wake.
Kizaru looked up, the smile freezing instantly on his face. "Oh my..."
BOOM!
A dragon claw stomped down. Kizaru, along with the Time Stone, was driven heavily into the ruins by Kaido. The massive claw flattened three city blocks, caving the earth into a crater dozens of meters deep. Kizaru didn't even have time to make a sound before he was pinned dead to the bottom of the pit.
Watching this, Sengoku cursed furiously. "Kaido! Are you blind, you bastard!? Why are you stepping on your own people!?"
Kaido completely ignored Sengoku. He slowly stood up to his full height from within the crater. At this moment, his appearance had completely changed.
The brutal, bloody battle just moments ago with Cull Obsidian and the Chitauri army had left him severely wounded. But that very near-death state had triggered the Saiyan bloodline within him. The ultimate breakthrough at the edge of death was complete.
A blinding, golden-yellow aura burned madly around his body. His wild, unruly mane of hair had turned a brilliant, radiant gold, standing straight on end. The scales of his Hybrid Form, originally dark red, had morphed into a pure, pitch black. His physical size had surged against the wind, towering dozens of meters tall.
The violent Conqueror's Haki mixed with the golden Saiyan aura, warping the very air around him with its heat.
Garp laughed heartily from a distance. "The big loach got stronger again! Sure knows how to take a beating!"
In mid-air, Tony stared at his armor's screens as warnings wailed continuously. "J.A.R.V.I.S.! How are this guy's energy readings breaking the charts!? He was almost dead just a second ago!"
J.A.R.V.I.S. replied immediately. "Sir, the target's cellular activity is increasing exponentially. It cannot be explained by conventional biology."
Star-Lord swallowed hard, backing up two steps. "Did that big guy with the horns turn on a cheat code!? Who the hell is supposed to beat that!?"
At the bottom of the crater, Kizaru weakly twitched his fingers. "Oh my, my... My back is going to break. Kaido, you've got quite the heavy foot."
As Kizaru spoke, the Time Stone rolled out from his hand. The gem, emitting a faint, eerie green glow, came to a stop right at Kaido's feet. Kaido lowered his head, his massive eyes staring at the green rock. He bent down and pinched the Time Stone between two thick fingers.
Seeing this from afar, Doctor Strange shouted in panic. "Stop him! Don't let him master the power of time! He'll completely destroy the timeline!"
Tony immediately raised his repulsors. "Big guy! Put that thing down! That's not a jellybean for you to eat!"
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