"Holy hell… that was brutal," Quill breathed, eyes bulging as he watched Rowan tear the Dark Aster in half with his bare claws. "Headmaster, starting today, you've officially replaced Kevin Bacon as my hero."
Rocket didn't even look away from the viewport. "Funny. Five minutes ago you were calling him reckless."
Quill waved that off without shame.
Below them, Gamora stared at Thanos on his throne, her expression tangled with hatred, grief, and something dangerously close to sorrow.
She had dreamed of killing him more times than she could count. Now that it was truly within reach, her chest felt tight. Memories of her family, her world, pressed in all at once.
Thanos, however, was not the type to sit still and accept death.
Watching Sanctuary II collapse and his armies disintegrate under Rowan's assault, the Titan's fury finally broke through his composure.
"Ebony Maw," Thanos said coldly, drawing the double-edged blade from his back. "Send me up."
This was not rage clouding judgment.
If he didn't take the field himself now, this battle was already lost.
And Thanos did not believe himself helpless. The creature above was devastatingly powerful, but its size was also a weakness. If Maw could put him within striking distance, Thanos trusted his blade and his strength to finish the fight.
Ebony Maw shared that confidence.
At once, he raised chunks of metal into the air, forming a crude platform. Thanos stepped onto it, followed by Cull Obsidian, Proxima Midnight, and Corvus Glaive. Together, they were launched skyward.
"Good timing," Rowan murmured.
After tearing through the remaining Leviathans and scattering the last attacking ships, he sensed their approach and shifted back into human form midair.
Thanos was dangerous up close. Combined with the blade and the Black Order at his side, a careless moment could cost him. A dragon might swat a hornet, but even a hornet could sting if ignored.
Human form was better. Faster. Cleaner. More precise.
His raw power dipped, but his control multiplied.
And with most of the fleet already destroyed, escape was no longer an option for Thanos anyway.
"Coming up here was a mistake," Rowan said calmly.
The moment Thanos's group rushed forward, Rowan seized control.
The metal platforms beneath their feet wrenched sideways, ripped free from Ebony Maw's control. Maw's telekinesis was broad, capable of moving stone, wood, and steel alike, but his grip on metal alone was nowhere near Rowan's.
The contest wasn't even close.
The platforms vanished.
Unable to fly, Thanos and the Black Order plummeted toward the ground.
They landed hard but intact, their bodies strong enough to absorb the impact. The four regrouped instantly, standing in a line as Rowan descended to face them.
Thanos glanced at the Ravager carrier drifting down behind Rowan and narrowed his eyes.
"You didn't come because of a distress call," he said. "Did you?"
Rowan smiled.
With a flick of his wrist, the Tesseract appeared in his hand.
"I came because of this," he said lightly. "Heard you put a billion-credit bounty on it. Thought I'd deliver it personally."
Thanos's gaze locked onto the cube.
"The Space Stone," he said quietly. "Very well. You have my thanks."
He gestured subtly to Ebony Maw.
Maw's power surged toward the cube.
A fraction of a second later, a metal spike erupted from the ground behind him, punching cleanly through the back of his skull.
Ebony Maw dropped without a sound.
He was powerful, capable of restraining even skilled sorcerers, but his body was fragile. Against an attack like that, he had no chance. Against Thanos or the others, the same strike might have failed.
Rowan closed his hand, the Tesseract vanishing again.
"I didn't say you could touch it," he said coldly. "The cube is yours. One condition."
He looked Thanos straight in the eye.
"Trade it for your head."
Cull Obsidian roared and leapt forward, axe raised high.
Rowan didn't move.
"Down."
An invisible force slammed Cull into the ground, flattening him like a meteor strike. His axe and armor screamed as the metal twisted under Rowan's control, pinning him helplessly.
Rowan could have done worse. Much worse.
His mastery over metal now rivaled the legends. Tens of thousands of tons bent to his will without effort. Against enemies like the Black Order, raw superpower alone was enough.
Thanos, however, was different.
That fight would require more than brute force.
And Rowan was already preparing for it.