Thanos slid backward through the air before forcing himself steady.
Luke landed first and immediately vanished again.
The next strike came from above.
Thanos crossed the blade upward just in time as Luke's kick crashed into it hard enough to bend the surrounding air. Another shockwave erupted outward, blasting apart the remains of nearby stone structures and sending debris flying into the abyss below.
Thanos twisted suddenly, the double blade spinning with brutal force toward Luke's neck.
Luke caught the weapon barehanded.
The metal groaned under his grip.
For a brief second, both remained locked against each other, strength pressing directly against strength.
Then Thanos' expression sharpened.
He drove his knee forward into Luke's stomach with enough force to launch him across the mountain. Luke tore through layers of rock before stopping himself mid-flight and immediately surged back forward.
The distance between them vanished instantly.
Thanos swung downward.
Luke stepped inside the attack instead of retreating and drove his fist directly into Thanos' chest.
The Titan staggered back a full step.
That alone was enough to make his eyes narrow.
Very few beings in the universe could physically move him against his will.
Luke didn't pause.
Dark energy exploded around his arm as he attacked again, punches landing fast enough to distort the air itself while Thanos countered with brutal precision, the double blade cutting through the battlefield in massive arcs capable of carving apart entire ships.
Every clash shook Vormir.
Mountains collapsed around them.
The sky trembled from the force being released each time their attacks connected.
"Your strength rivals gods," Thanos said as he attacked again, the massive blade driving straight toward Luke's heart with enough force to split apart the mountain behind him. "Yet I have never heard anything about you."
Luke caught the blade barehanded.
The edge stopped inches from his chest.
Thanos' eyes narrowed slightly as Luke's fingers tightened around the weapon.
Then Luke twisted suddenly, the metal groaning violently before the Titan lost grip on one side of the blade. Luke ripped it from Thanos' hand and threw it aside hard enough for it to disappear beyond the cliffs.
"I'm a family man," Luke said calmly. "I don't interfere unless the situation actually demands it."
Black energy flickered briefly around his arm.
"And one piece of shit in an iron suit dragged me into all this mess."
Thanos stared at him for a moment before surging forward again.
His fist collided with Luke's guard and the impact detonated the ground beneath them. Massive cracks spread across Vormir's surface while stone pillars shattered from the pressure alone.
Luke drove his knee into Thanos' stomach immediately afterward and followed it with a punch straight to the Titan's face powerful enough to send him skidding across the mountain.
Thanos stopped himself with one hand against the ground.
Blood ran lightly from the corner of his mouth.
Then—
He smiled.
Not mockery.
Respect.
"You possess extraordinary power," Thanos said while standing again. "Yet you waste it living quietly among lesser beings."
Luke rolled his shoulder once.
"Yeah," he replied. "Turns out normal life is better than becoming a genocidal purple philosopher."
Thanos vanished from sight instantly.
Luke barely turned in time to block the kick smashing toward his side. The impact launched him through three mountain peaks before he stopped himself midair and immediately counterattacked.
After some time, the battle ended.
Vormir no longer looked like a world capable of sustaining life. Mountains had been erased from existence, cliffs reduced to drifting debris floating through distorted gravity fields left behind by repeated collisions between Infinity Stone energy and Luke's power.
The sky itself looked fractured, violent storms of cosmic energy tearing across the atmosphere.
At the center of the destruction stood Luke.
Thanos' body lay beneath his feet.
The Titan's armor had been shattered apart during the final exchange, deep cracks running through the metal while blood covered the ruined stone around him.
His head was no longer attached to his body.
It lay several meters away near the edge of a broken cliff, separated cleanly from the corpse.
"The only reason you lasted this long," Luke said calmly, looking down at the dead Titan, "is because I wanted to fight you without relying on my powers."
Black energy flickered briefly around his arm before fading again.
"Otherwise," he continued, "you would've died much faster."
There was no answer.
Thanos was dead.
The Mad Titan who intended to erase half the universe had fallen on Vormir long before the Infinity Gauntlet was ever completed.
Then Luke looked at the Infinity Stones floating behind him.
Power. Space. Reality. Time. Soul.
They circled him slowly while the remains of Vormir cracked apart beneath the pressure leaking from them.
Luke raised his left hand.
The Power Stone struck first.
Purple energy burst across his arm, light cracking through his skin as the ground beneath him split apart from the impact alone.
The Space Stone followed, embedding beside it as blue distortions twisted the battlefield.
Next came the Reality Stone, crimson energy flowing into his arm like liquid fire.
The Time Stone entered after it, green rings spreading outward as the battlefield flickered between moments, time itself stuttering around him.
Then the Soul Stone merged into his body, orange light pulsing through him once before sinking beneath his skin.
Five stones.
Above his palm, yellow light began to gather.
The Mind Stone formed slowly before driving itself into his hand.
The instant the sixth stone connected, the world went still.
Energy surged through Luke's body as the Infinity Stones burned beneath his skin, their combined power twisting reality around him without restraint.
Luke closed his hand into a fist.
"It's time," he said.
Then he snapped his fingers.
*****
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