Chapter 2140: Death of Thanos
Luke and Selina had discussed grabbing the Stones many times before this; the idea had come from Tony's attempt to steal the Stones in 2023.
However, they had never fixed on a certain person to grab the Stones. Instead, Knight, Big Dipper and Selina would play it by ear and take the opportunity if they saw it.
Selina hadn't awakened her Evolution ability during the fight in the warship. There were a few times when she wasn't far from the glove, but the chance of failure had been high.
Given Thanos's combat awareness, if she couldn't succeed in one hit, it would be very hard for her to make a second attempt.
Right now, Selina had the Evolution ability, and was immune to most of the Stones' energy. Thanos even planned to take Luke down with him; even if she didn't make a grab for the Stones now, it would be too late.
Also, Luke was confident that it wouldn't be Selina whom Thanos chose to take down with him.
From beginning to end, she had only pestered Thanos a few times, while the person who had made Thanos doubt life was Luke.
Thus, when Luke was about to punch Thanos, the galactic tyrant finally turned his head and looked at him one last time. With a cold smile, he grabbed the Power Stone with his left hand.
Then... he touched something metallic and very elastic.
Stunned, Thanos lowered his head and looked at his right hand. He saw a black palm swiftly pulling back. He couldn't help but roar, "No..."
As soon as he spoke, Luke had already lunged at him from dozens of meters away, his body suddenly swelling up to over three meters tall.
Ten-fold outburst, activate!
Luke's strength instantly skyrocketed tenfold. Even with his strong physique, he could feel his muscles and organs crack.
This was the effect of a ten-fold outburst of 140 Strength.
Pu!
Wrapped in Annihilation energy, Luke's hand broke through the golden armor like a knife and pierced Thanos's chest and heart.
Then, the power of faith surged into Thanos's chest.
Thanos stiffened. He glanced at the thick arm in his chest, then looked up at Luke blankly.
Luke's expression was similar to Thanos's. His eyes were indifferent, and he didn't look excited at all about killing a powerful enemy.
More importantly... the system hadn't given him a kill notification yet. Who the hell knew if Thanos still had a backup plan.
The power of faith continued to pour into Thanos's body, wearing down his strong body and his still tenacious consciousness.
Many scenes gradually appeared in front of Thanos.
When he was besieged and humiliated by others on Titan as a youngster, and desperately slaughtered his way to the top; when he commanded armies in raids and massacres as an adult; and finally... the indescribable expression on Gamora's face when he threw her off the cliff on Planet Vormir.
The images appeared one after another, before they collapsed under the impact of the power of faith and completely disappeared.
His lips parted slightly, and Thanos sighed soundlessly. Finally... it was over.
The consciousness of this galactic tyrant collapsed, and his mind and soul were turned to dust.
Luke grabbed Thanos's body with one hand and pulled his other hand out of his chest. He then sprayed the hole with a freeze spray.
He didn't want to leave a single drop of Thanos's blood outside.
Who the hell knew when someone in this universe might be able to clone Thanos one day.
Although the chances were very low, Luke didn't want to test his luck.
When it came to Thanos, this cosmic 'child of luck,' it was best to avoid trouble as much as possible.
Selina asked suspiciously, "That's it?"
Luke hummed in response and quickly returned to a height of 2.6 meters.
After a ten-fold outburst, it would take about an hour for his body to go back to his regular height.
For the time being, he didn't want to reactivate his clones.
This was the first time in years that all his stats had returned to him. He needed some time to do research.
Now that Thanos was dead, Luke could say that he had used some 'forbidden technique,' and could legitimately 'recuperate' for a period of time.
In response to Selina's question, he simply asked, "Otherwise?"
Something like a battle with 300 rounds and a reversal on top of a reversal could only happen in a movie.
In a battle of this level, victory and defeat were usually decided in an instant.
If they overlooked anything, the victors would become complete losers, and wouldn't even be able to keep their lives.
Thanos's death looked simple, but he had actually been really hard to kill.
If it wasn't for the fact that he was too obsessed with obtaining the Infinity Stones and carrying out his plan to cull the universe, Luke and Selina wouldn't have had a chance to kill him at all.
Even then, all of Earth's allied forces and the superheroes - the Justice League, New SHIELD and Wakanda's elites - had been deployed.
Luke's people - the civilian executives and the reserve members - who had been hiding all this time and who had never taken part in an official battle were all mobilized.
Selina's unexpected awakening of an Evolution ability gave her and Luke an exceptionally good chance against the energy of the Stones.
In the end, Luke recalled his clones and recombined all his stats. Only after he used a ten-fold outburst, an Annihilation blade, and the power of faith one after another was he able to kill Thanos in one attack.
This was how troublesome it was to kill Thanos, even when the latter wasn't wearing the cheat-like Infinity Glove.
If Thanos had still been able to run after all that, it would be a huge problem for Luke.
An opponent who couldn't be killed even after Luke used all his trump cards basically had the upper hand.
As long as the other party didn't act stupid again, Earth's population could only scatter to try and preserve the embers of their civilization; it was unlikely they would have the chance to turn things around.
Selina was lost for words. It wasn't like she could say that she wanted Thanos to come back to life so that she could kill him again.
A few minutes later, Tony, Steve and the other Avengers flew straight to the temporary base.
The other people who were further away also arrived through portals.
Earth's superhero team gathered to look at Thanos's body - it wasn't just one or two people who personally checked to make sure that he was dead for good.
The last person to arrive was Thor, with Wade in tow.
The destruction of the warship had sent them flying. Wade had passed out for a bit, and the GPS or comms on his suit couldn't be used.
In the end, they were discovered by fighter planes from Earth that had been hunting down the last of Thanos's fighter planes, and Strange brought them back.
When Thor saw Thanos's body, he looked at Luke with a conflicted expression. "You killed him just like that?"
Pondering for a few seconds, Luke said, "Then how about you cut off his head now? This was left especially for you."
After a brief silence, Thor suddenly raised his hand and swung.
Swoosh!
Thanos's head was sent flying.
Everybody was lost for words. You really did it!
After venting, Thor relaxed.
He was still a little depressed, but he had cut off Thanos's head for Loki, Heimdall and the people of Asgard - he hadn't gone back on his word.
Noticing everybody's strange expressions, he put his ax away. "I'm just confirming that Thanos is really dead. Hm, that's it."
Everybody: ...