Marvel: Empire of Power-Chapter 157 - 156: The Mad Titan’s Gambit, a Universe on the Brink, and a Desperate Hope

The arrival of Thanos aboard his flagship, the Sanctuary II, a monstrous obsidian throne-ship that dwarfed even Kree Super-Dreadnoughts, cast a pall of absolute dread over Vormir. His psychic roar, a wave of pure, nihilistic will, slammed into Elias Thorne's consciousness with the force of a dying star, even across the interstellar gulf. Elias's Omega-Minus Psionic Shielding buckled, cracked, but held, though he felt a trickle of cold, alien despair seep into his meticulously ordered mind. Nox Thorne, on Vormir, staggered, his Klyntar symbiote screeching in primal terror and rage, the golden light in his eyes flickering erratically. Logan and Miller Argent instinctively went back-to-back, adamantium and bone claws extended, their feral senses screaming at the sheer, overwhelming presence of this cosmic butcher.

[THANOS THE MAD TITAN (PRIME COSMIC ENTITY – OMEGA-PLUS/ETERNAL HYBRID) – ARRIVAL CONFIRMED. POWER LEVEL: INCALCULABLE (WIELDING POTENTIAL INFINITY GAUNTLET – CURRENTLY EMPTY SAVE FOR THE MIND STONE HE IS CLEARLY TRACKING VIA LOKI'S FORMER SCEPTER ECHO). INTENT: ACQUIRE SOUL STONE; ELIMINATE ALL OPPOSITION; UNIVERSAL GENOCIDE (PROJECT BALANCE). THREAT: EXISTENTIAL/MULTIVERSAL.]

Elias knew this was a confrontation he was not yet prepared for, not even with his Stellar Sentinels and his own ascended power. Thanos was an order of magnitude beyond Apocalypse, beyond any Kree Accuser. He was a fundamental force of cosmic destruction. Retreat, survival, denial of the Soul Stone – these became the immediate, desperate priorities.

"Nox! Logan! Miller! Elena! O'Malley!" Elias's mental command was a steel whip cracking through the psychic chaos. "The Soul Stone is a secondary objective! Your primary: EVACUATE VORMIR NOW! Deny Thanos his immediate prize. Scuttle all Kree/Skrull salvage on the surface! O'Malley, get the Nightfall III to maximum stealth, plot a randomized FTL jump vector away from Earth! Thanos must not acquire our homeworld's coordinates from your ship's logs!"

He continued, his mind racing, "Marcus, if you can, try to destabilize the Soul Stone's altar remotely with a focused Klyntar energy pulse as you leave – make it harder for him to claim it immediately. But do not engage Thanos directly. That is an order."

On Vormir, chaos reigned. Thanos, with a contemptuous gesture from his orbiting throne-ship, unleashed a devastating energy beam from Sanctuary II's primary cannon. It wasn't aimed at Elias's team, but at the very mountain peak where the Soul Stone altar stood. The ancient edifice crumbled, a shockwave of displaced reality and raw, sorrowful energy erupting outwards. Thanos clearly intended to secure the Stone himself, directly, rather than relying on his (now deceased) Children.

Logan, seeing the incoming devastation, roared, "Scatter!" He grabbed the critically wounded (but still conscious) Proxima Midnight – Elias's System had registered her as a potential, if extremely high-risk, future Shard/intel source – while Miller Argent shielded a dazed Elena Scythe, whose kinetic abilities were useless against such overwhelming cosmic force. Nox Thorne, his Klyntar symbiote already forming a hardened, ablative cocoon around them, unleashed a desperate, focused bio-photonic blast at the destabilizing altar, hoping to trigger a feedback loop, then grabbed his comrades and launched them with a symbiote-enhanced leap towards the rapidly descending Nightfall III.

O'Malley performed a near-impossible feat of piloting, snatching them from the collapsing mountainside just as Thanos's personal boarding craft, a sleek, obsidian dart, detached from Sanctuary II and descended towards the Soul Stone's exposed, raw energy signature. The Nightfall III, its FTL drive screaming, jumped into the void, leaving Vormir and the Mad Titan behind.

[VORMIR EVACUATION – PARTIALLY SUCCESSFUL. ALL HOST ASSETS EVACUATED. KREE/SKRULL SALVAGE – DESTROYED/ABANDONED. PROXIMA MIDNIGHT (CHILD OF THANOS) – UNINTENTIONALLY "RESCUED"/SECURED BY LOGAN. SOUL STONE – STATUS: UNSECURED (THANOS INTERVENTION IMMINENT). SYSTEM NOTE: Thanos's direct arrival and overwhelming power necessitates immediate re-evaluation of all current strategic objectives. Avoid direct confrontation at all costs.]

Elias watched this unfold with a cold knot of dread tightening in his core. He had underestimated Thanos's speed, his directness, his sheer, world-breaking power. Vormir was lost. The Soul Stone was likely now in Thanos's grasp, adding another Gem to his dreadful Gauntlet. This changed the entire cosmic equation.

His immediate concern was Earth. If Thanos, having acquired the Soul Stone, now turned his attention back to the Mind Stone fragment within the Scepter (still securely vaulted in Montreal, its psychic whispers now a constant, faint thrum in Elias's consciousness), Earth would become the next Vormir.

"Finch!" Elias's mental voice was sharp, urgent, reaching his Arch-Necromancer. "The Klyntar containment protocols. Can they be... adapted? Not for bonding, but for... consuming an Infinity Stone's energy? To render the Scepter inert, or even... destroy it, if necessary, to deny it to Thanos?"

Finch's response was hesitant, filled with academic terror. "Creator... the energies of an Infinity Stone... they are fundamental forces of the cosmos. The Klyntar, even Specimen Alpha (Nox) and the captive prime, might be annihilated attempting such a feat. But... theoretically... if we could create a controlled symbiotic 'grey goo' scenario, using multiple Klyntar fragments to slowly, painstakingly dismantle the Scepter's energy matrix... it is conceivable. The risk of creating a sentient, Stone-corrupted Klyntar super-predator is... almost absolute."

A desperate, horrifying option. But Elias filed it away.

Anya Petrova and Wraith (Bucky Barnes) were now Elias's most critical Earth-bound assets for the coming crisis.

"Anya," Elias commanded, "all Blackwood Conglomerated resources are now to be diverted to Project Aegis Galactica's full defensive deployment. Every orbital cannon, every Legionnaire, every Atlantean accord – all must be focused on a single objective: planetary denial. If Thanos comes here, Earth must be a fortress he cannot crack. Simultaneously, initiate 'Protocol Chimera Sleep' – place all non-essential enhanced assets (Feral Striker Hybrids not part of Thomas's core Adamantium Guard, minor empowered agents, even some of his less combat-critical True Legionnaires) into secure, deep-System cryo-stasis at hidden Blackwood facilities. We cannot afford loose cannons or potential turncoats if the Mind Stone's influence (or Thanos's own psionic might) reaches Earth directly."

"Wraith," he continued, his mental voice reaching Barnes, who was currently overseeing the (reluctant) dismantling of remaining rogue Hydra cells in South America, "your new priority: Earth's other 'super-humans.' The Avengers. Xavier's X-Men. Magneto's Brotherhood. Even rogue elements like Captain Marvel. They are now... potential liabilities or desperate, last-ditch allies. We need to know their status, their loyalties, their breaking points. If Thanos offers them power, or threatens them with annihilation, who will stand with Earth? Who will break? Who will betray? You are to become the ultimate internal affairs investigator of Earth's enhanced, Barnes. Your discretion and your... ruthlessness... will be paramount."

This was Elias preparing for a siege, for a world where every loyalty would be tested, every power stretched to its limit.

Namor was already a committed ally, his fury at any cosmic threat to Earth's oceans absolute. Logan, Miller, Nox, Elena, O'Malley, and the captured Proxima Midnight (who, Elias sensed through Nox's link, was already being subtly probed by the Klyntar's alien consciousness, her fanatical devotion to Thanos being tested by its terrifying psychic tendrils) were now in deep FTL, hurtling towards a secure Blackwood relay station in the Alpha Centauri system, far from Thanos's immediate reach, to debrief, repair, and re-strategize. Elias needed his prime cosmic strike team intact and informed.

His [Prime Essence Shard Reserve], now standing at a meager [0.3] after the intense energy expenditure of his various gambits, the Klyntar stabilization, and the costly process of forging his Legion, was a stark reminder of his limitations. He couldn't just create more power out of thin air indefinitely. He needed to be smarter, more ruthless, more willing to make horrifying sacrifices.

The vision of Thanos, a purple-skinned demigod on his obsidian throne ship, his empty Gauntlet slowly but surely filling with the universe's ultimate powers, was seared into Elias's mind. This was no longer a game of shadow empires and geopolitical chess. This was a struggle for the very fabric of reality.

Elias Thorne, the System Lord who had deferred his own apotheosis to build an army, now faced an enemy who was a god, a god of death and nihilistic balance. He had prepared Earth, fortified it, seeded it with his champions and his influence. But against the coming of the Mad Titan, with potentially multiple Infinity Stones at his command, would even the Thorne Ascendancy be enough?

The universe, Elias realized with a chilling certainty, was on the brink. And the next battle might very well be its last. His only hope lay in deception, in desperate alliances, and in the terrifying, unknown potential of the cosmic powers he had so carefully, so ruthlessly, accumulated. The shadow of the Infinity Gauntlet had fallen, and Earth was directly in its path.