By the time the fourth day rolled around, the eve of war was upon them, and all preparations were complete.
Proxima Midnight returned to the Sanctuary to seek an audience with Thanos.
He was still in the Gravity Room, but this time, the pressure had been cranked up to a staggering twelve hundred times Earth’s normal gravity.
Thanos was in the middle of weight training, bench-pressing a massive barbell labeled at two hundred tons.
Multiplied by the room’s terrifying gravitational field, that weight effectively ballooned to two hundred and forty thousand tons.
Yet in his massive hands, he lifted it as easily as if it were a standard gym weight.
“Four hundred and thirty-two… four hundred and thirty-three…”
The heavy doors slid open once again.
Proxima had learned her lesson this time; instead of stepping inside, she immediately dropped to one knee right outside the doorway.
“My Lord,” she called out respectfully.
Thanos lowered the barbell with a heavy thud.
“Deep Blue, shut down the gravity system,” he ordered, his voice a low rumble.
“Yes, Master,” the AI chimed.
As the invisible crushing force vanished, Proxima stood, walked into the room, and knelt once more at Thanos’s feet, bowing her proud head.
Thanos wiped the sweat from his purple skin.
“Are Sanctuary II and the Outrider legions ready?”
Proxima looked up, her eyes tracing the raw, bulging muscles of his powerful physique with absolute adoration.
“Everything is prepared.
We are simply awaiting your command.”
Thanos gave a curt nod.
“Since we’re ready, let’s move out.”
…
Meanwhile, the Ice Crystal planet was a world entirely swallowed in white.
Because it orbited incredibly far from its sun, the surface temperatures were permanently below freezing, leaving the ground eternally coated in frost and snow.
The natives of this world, the Ice Tribe, were a stark-white species possessing four arms and two legs.
Although they boasted incredibly resilient bodies and remarkable combat skills, their civilization was, unfortunately, still stuck in a primitive, tribal age.
Right now, the Ice Tribe’s chieftain was organizing a lavish banquet to entertain the hero who had just saved them from total annihilation.
This hero was a beautiful Caucasian woman with short blonde hair.
That’s right—she was an Earthling.
Her name was Carol Danvers.
She was better known across the stars as Captain Marvel.
Ever since she single-handedly defeated the Kree fleet back on Earth, she had been roaming the universe, acting as a cosmic vigilante.
She usually kept to the Milky Way, but after hearing whispers of Thanos’s notorious reputation, she ventured out into the Panlong Galaxy.
Not long after arriving, she stumbled right into his forces invading this helpless world.
Naturally, as a champion of justice, she didn’t hesitate to step in and drive the tyrant’s fleet away.
“We thank you for delivering us from ruin,” the Ice Tribe chieftain said.
Standing nearly two meters tall, he used his four hands to raise two massive goblets of wine toward Carol, who barely reached his chest.
Toasting with all four hands was the absolute highest honor in their culture.
Carol simply offered a polite smile, accepted a goblet, and downed it in one smooth gulp.
“You’re welcome.
It was the right thing to do.”
Seeing this, the chieftain threw his head back, downed his own wine, and bellowed, “A toast to our hero!”
The surrounding tribesmen immediately hoisted their cups high into the frosty air, their voices echoing across the village.
“To our hero!”
The celebration officially kicked off, filled with raucous singing and wild dancing.
Several Ice Tribesmen who fancied themselves handsome tried to invite Carol to dance, but she politely declined them all.
Even though she saw herself as an agent of justice, she secretly looked down on this alien race that hadn’t even reached a medieval level of civilization.
There was no way she was going to go dance around a fire with them.
The festivities raged on all day.
The next morning, while Carol was still half-asleep, an Ice Tribesman frantically burst into her room.
Well, ‘room’ was a strong word—it was really just a doorless igloo carved entirely out of ice.
“Hero!
Hero!
It’s terrible—pant, pant—the bad men are back!
It’s so big!”
Carol’s eyes snapped open.
She sat bolt upright, entirely skipping the questions.
Brilliant, multicolored cosmic energy flared around her body, and she instantly rocketed out of the igloo.
But the moment she hit the sky, her eyes went wide with pure disbelief.
“Oh, my God!”
Hanging ominously in the planet’s upper atmosphere was an indescribably massive ship.
Despite all her years wandering the cosmos, this was the absolute first time she had ever seen a dreadnought the size of a damn moon.
Panic erupted on the ground.
“Where’s my weapon?!” “Get my armor, hurry!” “The enemy is here!
Everyone, rally!”
The Ice Tribesmen scrambled around in utter chaos.
Hungover and bleary-eyed from the previous night’s wild partying, they were completely caught off guard.
A moment later, the chieftain came flying over, panic etched across his pale face.
“Hero, what do we do?!”
Carol snapped out of her shock, her expression turning grim.
“Gather your warriors and follow as backup.
I’m going up there to check it out.”
With another explosive burst of glowing cosmic energy, she blasted toward the sky at breakneck speed.
…
Meanwhile, out in the cold void of space.
Inside Sanctuary II’s command center, Proxima Midnight watched the vibrant, multicolored blur hurtling toward them on a holographic monitor.
Unlike her previous panic on the ice planet, she looked completely calm this time.
“My Lord, that is the one who destroyed my fleet and slaughtered my soldiers.”
Thanos, who had been meditating with his eyes closed on his massive throne, slowly opened them.
He stared at the glowing figure on the screen.
It felt strangely familiar, yet distant.
He began sifting through his memories, trying to place her identity.
After living in this universe for over five hundred years, most of the movies he had watched in his past life had long faded into obscurity.
But there was something undeniably recognizable about her wildly flashy entrance.
He had definitely seen it somewhere before.
As the glowing streak drew closer and closer, a name finally clicked loose from the depths of his mind.
‘Captain Marvel?’
That was it.
The blindingly bright, wildly arrogant entrance—it could only be Captain Marvel.
Hearing him murmur the name, Proxima quickly nodded.
“Yes, that’s right!
When we clashed earlier, I believe she called herself Captain Marvel.”
Thanos fell silent, lost in thought.
Seeing her again acted as a catalyst, pulling fragments of his pre-transmigration memories to the surface.
If she was already out here fighting, that meant the main timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was officially in motion.
He couldn’t help but wonder about Earth—that familiar yet distant blue planet.
What was it like in this universe?
Time ticked by.
Carol broke through the ice planet’s atmosphere and shot straight toward Sanctuary II at Mach 10.
She was now only a thousand kilometers away—a distance that, on a cosmic scale, was practically point-blank range.
Seeing Thanos still deep in thought, Proxima hesitantly spoke up.
“My Lord, what are your orders?”
If the enemy wasn’t literally knocking on their front door, she never would have dared interrupt his silence.
After all, compared to some self-proclaimed Captain, her Lord was the single most terrifying entity in the known universe.
Thanos snapped back to reality.
He glanced at the screen and gave a calm, measured response.
“Send the Outriders out to test the waters.”
The Outriders were the very backbone of his army, his most fiercely loyal soldiers.
Possessing six arms, razor-sharp fangs, and pitch-black skin, these monstrous beasts boasted immense physical strength and absolutely zero fear of death.
Betrayal was genetically impossible for them.
Their only real flaw was a total lack of intelligence.
They weren’t even natural living creatures—they were mindless bioweapons bred directly in incubation pods.
As for why he wanted to test the waters?
It was simple military strategy: wear her down and gauge her actual power level.
Thanos was incredibly confident, but he wasn’t arrogant.
Blindly charging at an enemy whose limits he didn’t know was a fool’s errand.
If he recklessly provoked one of the universe’s many wildly overpowered cosmic entities, it could spell total disaster.
After all, he knew better than anyone just how dangerously deep the waters of the Marvel universe truly were.