The void of sileer Gali's triumph was fleeting. Far across the battlefield, aboard the Sanctuary II, Thanos stood, his imposing figure framed by the colossal window of his fgship's bridge. His eyes narrowed as he regarded the tracker feed dispyed on a holographic s before him.

  One by ohe indicators representing the Bck Order—the loyal enforcers he had trusted for years—winked out. Ebony Maw. Corvus Give. Proxima Midnight. Cull Obsidian. Their life signals vanished into the abyss.

  Thanos's expression remaioic, but a subtle tightening of his jaw betrayed his realization. They were gone.

  He turned away from the s, the weight of their loss settling upon him not as grief, but as irritation. "They were powerful," he murmured to himself, his voice like gravel grinding underfoot. "Yet they uimated what y ahead."

  His gaze shifted to the Infinity Gau on his hand, the Power, Mind, and Space Stones gleaming ominously in their sockets. He flexed his fingers, the energy of the stones radiating through his arm like liquid fire. "If they ot plete my mission… I will."

  Thanos turo the Chitauri ander. "Hold the line. Focus fire on the orbital defenses and keep Earth's forces occupied. Do not let them interfere."

  "Yes, my lord," the ander replied, bowing low.

  Without further words, Thanos raised the gauhe Space Stone fred to life, its blue energy enveloping him in a swirling vortex of light. With a sihought, he tore through the fabric of space, his massive form vanishing from Sanctuary II.

  [Kamar-Taj, Earth]

  In the heart of Kamar-Taj, the air shimmered as the vortex of the Space Stoore open, depositing Thanos into the ter of the a stronghold. The courtyard was quiet, the usual hum of mystical activity repced by stillness.

  Thanos stepped forward, his giant figure casting a long shadow across the intricate patterched into the stone floor. He looked around. His sensors showed that the stones were here, but why wasn't it guarded? He wondered. But he could feel the energy rippling around him. This ce of great power, the nexus of Earth's magical defenses.

  As he moved deeper into the courtyard, the air around him grew colder. The energy around became dense. A faint sound, like the rustling of leaves in a windless forest, echoed through the space.

  From the shadows of a near archway, a figure emerged. The A One. She was robed in flowing yellow garments and carried an aura of timeless wisdom. Her expression was calm but unreadable as she stepped forward. Her bald head caught the faint light of the setting sun. The golden glow of the Eye of Agamotto rested against her chest.

  "Thanos," she said, her voice steady and precise. "I expected you sooner."

  The Mad Titan stopped, tilting his head slightly as he regarded her. "You knew I would e?"

  The A One nodded. "Of course. You're predictable in your arrogance. But your presence here tells me something… iing. Your forces are faltering. You've grown impatient."

  Thanos's lips curled into a thin smile. "My forces are distras. My goals are eternal. Your tricks and barriers are deying the iable."

  The A One raised an eyebrow, her demeanor seree the imposing presence before her. "And what iable truth is that?"

  "That your world will kneel," Thanos replied, his gau glowing as the Power Stone pulsed with energy. "And your defenses—magic or otherwise—will crumble under my will."

  The A Oook a slow step forward, her hands csped loosely in front of her. "You believe power is all that matters. That force alone will bend the universe to your design." She paused, her gaze pierg. "But you misuand the nature of true strength."

  Thanos's smile faded, repced by a look of mild irritation. "Spare me your philosophies, sorcerer. I've tods from their thrones and ripped worlds asunder. What you hope to do?"

  The A Oilted her head, her expression softening. "Perhaps nothing. Or perhaps, everything."

  She extended her hand, and the Sling Ring on her finger fred to life. A circle of golden light formed in front of her, its edges crag with raw energy. The A Owisted her fingers, and the portal expanded, revealing a vast, shifting realm of kaleidoscopic colors and shapes—the Mirror Dimension.

  Thanos took a step forward, unfazed. "A pocket dimension. Clever, but futile. No barrier tain me."

  The A One's lips twitched into a faint smile. "Oh, it's not a barrier."

  With a flick of her wrist, the portal snapped shut, only to reopeh Thanos's feet. The Mad Titan didn't flinch as he fell through, the golden light swallowing him whole. The A One followed, her yellow robes billowing as she stepped gracefully into the Mirror Dimension.

  Thanos nded on a floating shard of fractured stohe surreal ndscape around him shifting and t. Towers of crystalline gss twisted into impossible shapes, while rivers of liquid light flowed upward into an endless void. The air was alive with a hum of mystical energy, and the grouh his feet shifted with every step.

  The A Oerialized a few paces away, her feet h just above the fractured ground. She regarded Thanos with the calm authority of a teacher addressing a particurly stubborn student.

  "In this realm," she said, her voice carrying a slight echo, "your stones are powerful, yes. But the ws of reality are... malleable."

  Thanos raised the gauhe Mind Stone glowing as he attempted to seize trol of her mind. But the A One moved faster, trag a sigil in the air. The spell deflected his attack, the golden light dissolving the psychidrils before they could reach her.

  "Impressive," Thanos admitted. "But this is a waste of time."

  He smmed the gau into the ground, releasing a shockwave of purple energy from the Power Stohe fractured ground around him disied, sending shards of stone hurtling toward the A One. She raised her hands, the air around her rippling as the shards froze mid-flight, then dissolved into nothingness.

  The A One's gaze remaieady. "Time," she said, her tone deliberate, "is something you do not fully prehend."

  She extended her hand toward the Eye of Agamotto. The amulet opened, revealing the green glow of the Time Stone within. Its light filled the dimension, weaving through the shiftiy like threads of silk.

  Thanos's eyes narrowed as the A One began to manipute the flow of time itself, the shards of the Mirror Dimension freezing, reversing, and colliding in a dizzying dispy of temporal mastery.

  "Let's see," she said, her voice calm yet resolute, "if you're as iable as you believe."

  The fractured realm twisted and turhe once-shifting shards of reality now caught in an endless cycle of destru and reformation. The Time Stone's emerald glow pulsed rhythmically, eg through the air as the A One wove intricate patterns of light with her hands. Time bent to her will, creating ripples in the already surreal ndscape.

  Thanos, standing at the eye of this storm, watched the spectacle with cold calcution. His gau fred to life, the Space Stone and Power Stone radiating energy as he sought to ter the A One's manipution.

  "You toy with forces you barely trol," Thanos growled, smming his fist into the air. The Space Stone opened multiple rifts in the fabric of the Mirror Dimension, pulling fragments of its reality into swirling voids.

  The A One's expression remained serene. She moved her hands in fluid, deliberate motions, creating shields of golden light that deflected the rifts' pull. "trol is an illusion, Thanos," she replied. "Even for someone like you."

  With a wave of her hand, she directed the flow of time toward Thanos. The very grouh him began to age and erode, turning to dust. For a brief moment, the energy in his gau flickered as the a entments binding it were disrupted by the temporal manipution.

  But Thanos did not falter. He ched his fist, and the Power Stone erupted in a wave of raw energy, bsting through the deg ground and dispersing the temporal attack. The shockwave sent ripples across the dimension, shattering nearby floating structures into glittering fragments.

  "You dey the iable," Thanos said, his voice low and ominous. "You've bought Earth minutes. Perhaps seds. But nothing more."

  The A One hovered higher, her hands moving faster now, her face refleg a mix of focus and faint amusement. "Oh, I'm not deying anything. I'm preparing you."

  With those words, she gestured sharply, and the fabric of the Mirror Dimension respohe floating shards of reality coalesced into massive, rotating rings around Thanos. The rings glowed with golden energy, eae etched with a runes.

  Thanos g the rings as they began to tighten, closing in on him like a celestial trap. He smirked. "You believe a cage will hold me?"

  "It's not a cage," the A One replied. "It's a lesson."

  She twisted her hands, and the rings began to spin faster. Time itself fractured within the rings, splitting into tless streams that ehanos in overpping versions of himself, each trapped in different moments. Iream, he was mid-strike, the gau raised. In another, he stood frozen, his expression one of frustration. I another, he was locked in bat with his own refle.

  "This is the weight of your ambition," the A One said, her voice calm but carrying an undeniable power. "Infiimelines colpsing uhe burden of your hubris."