He raised his arm, eyes burning with grim determination.
SNAP!
The sound echoed like a thunderclap across the battlefield.
A blinding flash exploded outward.
Everyone flinched—waiting for the fallout.
Waiting to vanish.
But nothing happened.
Thanos blinked, confused.
He looked down at the Gauntlet.
One of the Stones was… gone.
A low chuckle echoed across the ruined battlefield.
Everyone turned sharply to look at Max, who slowly raised his hand.
In it, the Time Stone was conspicuously missing.
"I figured it out," Max said with a smirk. "Of all the Infinity Stones, you don't actually need all the power. But without the Time Stone, your little snap trick is worthless."
Thanos glared at him, eyes narrowing.
"So," Max continued, his voice calm but laced with challenge, "I took it."
He snapped his fingers—and the Time Stone disappeared from view, teleported away.
"If you want the final Stone…" Max's grin widened, eyes locked on the Mad Titan, "then your only option is to kill me."
Max stepped forward slowly, eyes locked with Thanos.
"Come on, Thanos," he said, spreading his arms wide. "You want your perfect ending? Then earn it. One-on-one… you and your entire army."
Thanos narrowed his eyes. "If that's what you want… then so be it."
He raised his blade and gestured behind him. In a rumble of footsteps and war cries, Thanos' entire army began to assemble—Outriders, Chitauri, Sakaaran soldiers, and massive warships looming overhead.
But Max stood unfazed.
"I said army," Max smirked, "but I didn't say I'd fight weaklings."
He closed his eyes for a moment—and then unleashed it.
Overlord Haki.
A tidal wave of raw, invisible power exploded outward from Max, shaking the ground and darkening the sky. A black aura surged around him like a storm.
One by one—99% of Thanos' army dropped to the ground, unconscious. Even the strongest lieutenants buckled under the pressure, gasping for breath or collapsing outright.
Only Thanos, his four generals, and a few elite warriors remained standing, visibly shaken but still defiant.
"You felt that?" Max asked, tilting his head. "That was just me waking up."
Then, with a single wave of his hand, Max's Nightmonarch Aura surged forward like a rising tide—black, crowned flame twisting around him, coiling like serpents of shadow and malice.
Thanos braced himself, gripping his blade with both hands.
"Now that we've trimmed the fat," Max said with a grin, cracking his knuckles, dark lightning sparking from his fingertips, "let's make this a real fight."
And then—
Boom.
Max launched himself forward like a meteor, the ground behind him shattering from the force of his takeoff. He clashed with Thanos mid-air—blade against fist—sending a shockwave through the ruins of the battlefield.
Thanos grunted as he was pushed back, skidding across debris.
The Black Order stepped in immediately—Ebony Maw levitating stones, Proxima Midnight twirling her spear, Corvus Glaive dashing to flank.
But Max's Nightmare Corps was already there.
Creatures of nightmare, clad in obsidian armor and howling with otherworldly rage, intercepted them mid-charge. Claws met blades, screams filled the air, and the battlefield became chaos incarnate.
Max didn't give Thanos a moment to breathe.
He was everywhere—striking from shadows, teleporting in bursts of void energy, manipulating the battlefield with fragments of reality, darkness, and force.
"You want to erase the universe?" Max growled as he delivered a devastating blow to Thanos' jaw. "Then let's see if you can handle the weight of a real king!"
Thanos roared in response, and the two titans collided once more—god against nightmare, as the stars seemed to tremble.
BOOM!
The ground split apart as Max and Thanos collided again, shockwaves blasting outward and leveling what remained of the battlefield. Sparks flew from the Infinity Gauntlet as Thanos brought it down like a hammer, empowered by five Stones—Power, Reality, Mind, Soul, and Space.
Max twisted to the side just in time, the blow grazing his shoulder but still sending him flying. He rolled mid-air, skidding to a stop, cloak of shadows rippling like living smoke around him.
Thanos didn't wait. He extended his palm—and Space warped.
Max blinked, finding himself suddenly crushed between two converging realities. The Reality Stone was bending the battlefield, turning air into molten glass and solid ground into liquefied tar.
"Tch—cheap tricks."
Max's Nightmonarch Aura surged again, and with a burst of will, he shattered the warped space around him, dispelling the illusion. A slash of void energy carved toward Thanos, but the Titan raised the Gauntlet, and the Mind Stone lit up—freezing Max mid-air.
"You think you're special," Thanos said, stepping forward. "But your strength means nothing in front of Infinity."
Max grinned, even as the psychic pressure crushed down on him.
"Funny. I was about to say the same to you."
A shockwave of Overlord Haki exploded outward—shattering Thanos' mental grip. Max landed and instantly charged, fists cloaked in black flame. He ducked under Thanos' swing, landed a brutal uppercut to the chin, followed by a spinning heel kick that cracked the Mad Titan's armor.
Thanos grunted, but raised the Gauntlet again. This time the Power Stone pulsed—he slammed the ground, and an eruption of purple force exploded in all directions.
Max was hit point-blank—slammed through three boulders and into a collapsed Quinjet fuselage.
Before Thanos could follow up, Max's Nightmare Corps returned, dragging what remained of the Black Order across the battlefield. Proxima Midnight was pinned, her spear shattered. Ebony Maw was locked in a psychic stalemate with a shadow-witch. Corvus Glaive was gone.
Max emerged from the rubble, coughing slightly—but grinning.
He raised his hand—and from it, the Time Stone shimmered into view.
"You forgot something," Max said. "See, I control time now."
He clenched his fist—and time bent. The world slowed, freezing Thanos mid-step. Max stepped forward, weaving through time like a phantom. He threw twelve strikes in a second, each impact glowing with compressed temporal backlash, before stepping back—and letting time resume.
BOOM—BOOM—BOOM!
The hits landed all at once, and Thanos was knocked across the field, roaring in pain as pieces of the Gauntlet cracked from the temporal disruption.
Bleeding, armor dented, and fury rising, Thanos slowly stood, now fully enraged.
"Enough," he growled. "You want a god's wrath—then face it!"
He lifted the Gauntlet high.
The Soul Stone flashed—and a blast of spiritual energy ripped outward, attempting to crush Max's very essence.
Max winced—his aura shuddering. But from the darkness around him, wraiths and shadows surged, shielding him from the soul burn. He rose slowly, eyes glowing red.
"You're not the only one who commands souls," Max whispered. "I'm the Nightmonarch."
He raised his hand—and the battlefield screamed.
The ground split, and from the abyss rose a shadow colossus, crowned in void flame—Max's true avatar. The being stood behind him like a looming god, a dark mirror to Thanos himself.
"This is your last chance, Titan," Max said, his voice echoing in stereo—one tone human, the other pure abyss. "Fight with everything you have… or be erased."
***
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It's 22 chaps ahead