"Kill him!"
With Cull Obsidian pinned and Ebony Maw already dead, Thanos knew there was no room left for negotiation. He roared and charged first, gripping his double-edged blade. Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive followed instantly. Around them, the remaining Vanguard troops and Titan war beasts surged forward as well, answering their master's call.
The earlier lightning storm had wiped out the weaker soldiers, but it hadn't been enough to bring down the heavier units. The Vanguard and Titan beasts were still very much alive.
Which meant there were plenty of targets left.
"Alright," Rowan said lightly, wings unfurling as he rose straight into the sky. "Time for a mage to show you how this is done."
Thanos and his lieutenants froze for half a second.
They couldn't fly.
With the ships destroyed and Ebony Maw gone, there was no way to reach him in the air. The Vanguard and Titan beasts were brutal in close combat, but ranged weapons were beyond them. Against a flying opponent, they could only stare upward.
Normally, Thanos's forces were terrifyingly balanced. Air superiority from warships and Leviathans, ground dominance from shock troops and heavy beasts. But Rowan had already erased every aerial unit.
Now the battlefield belonged to him.
"A field full of tough, oversized targets," Rowan mused. "Perfect for testing spells."
He pointed downward.
"Avada Lightning Chain."
A bolt of green light slammed into Cull Obsidian, who was still crushed against the ground by Rowan's metal control. Instead of dissipating, the spell jumped outward, chaining from body to body.
In an instant, dozens of Vanguard soldiers and Titan beasts collapsed.
Cull Obsidian twitched violently. His physique and soul were strong enough to keep him alive for the moment, but barely. Breath rattled in his chest. He wasn't getting back up.
The others weren't so lucky.
The Vanguard and Titan beasts had powerful bodies, but their souls were shallow, artificial things. The curse erased them outright. Flesh corroded, bodies half-dissolved, and then went still.
The Killing Curse had never been about raw destruction. It was simple, direct, and devastating to the soul. Rowan had spent years refining it, merging principles from multiple worlds, correcting its flaws.
The result was this.
A curse that no longer stopped at one target.
Lightning-linked Avada Kedavra turned execution into extermination.
He cast it again. And again.
Hundreds fell.
Thanos, Proxima, and Corvus avoided the green arcs with ruthless precision, weaving through the chaos without ever attempting to block the spell directly.
"Fast," Rowan admitted. "And experienced."
He stopped casting.
Time to try something else.
Rowan folded his wings and dropped back to the ground, palms slamming into the earth.
A massive magic circle spread beneath his feet.
"Terrain Effect: Quagmire."
The solid ground liquefied instantly, transforming into a vast swamp of sucking mud. Vanguard troops and Titan beasts sank at once, roaring as they struggled. Even Thanos and his two lieutenants felt their movement sharply slowed.
Another magic circle appeared.
"Verdant Bind."
Thick, arm-sized vines erupted from the swamp, wrapping around limbs and torsos, dragging soldiers down into the mud. The battlefield turned into a living trap.
These spells were experimental, borrowed concepts refined into something new. Terrain manipulation paired with mass restraint.
The result was devastating.
Within moments, every remaining Vanguard soldier and Titan beast was gone, swallowed by mud and vines.
"Die!"
Thanos struck.
Using the moment Rowan focused on spellcasting, Thanos, Proxima, and Corvus cut through the vines and attacked from behind. Their weapons were anything but ordinary. Enchanted restraints meant nothing to them.
But Rowan had expected this.
"Good," he said calmly. "The tests were successful."
Without even turning, his power surged.
An invisible force tore through the metal in their armor, yanking all three attackers off their feet and hurling them away in different directions. They slammed into the ground hard enough to crack stone.
Armor was still armor.
And metal was still metal.
Rowan could bend it as easily as breath.
The only reason Thanos and the others had lasted this long was because Rowan had been experimenting, not fighting seriously.
Otherwise, this lesson would have ended much sooner.