The moment Deep Blue reported the Olympian retreat, Thanos immediately understood what had happened.
After an entire week of nonstop attrition, even the Alliance of Gods could no longer withstand the pressure created by the Void Sentinel.
They had finally been forced to withdraw.
Sitting upon the throne inside Temple Number Two, Thanos lowered his head and stared quietly at the special Mind Stone in his hand.
The stone containing the primordial essence.
After several seconds of silence, he finally made a decision.
A dangerous one.
Slowly, he removed the ordinary Mind Stone from the Infinity Gauntlet.
Then he replaced it with the primordial Mind Stone.
The instant the stone locked into place—
A terrifying wave of mysterious energy exploded throughout his body.
Golden-yellow light burst outward from him instantly, flooding the throne room and spreading through the entirety of Temple Number Two.
In that instant, all life nearby froze.
Not just physically.
Even their thoughts stopped.
Executives halted mid-step.
Machines paused.
Conversation ceased.
Everything entered absolute stillness.
"Ghk…"
Thanos suddenly clenched his fists tightly.
An overwhelming discomfort surged through his mind.
Not physical pain.
Mental pressure.
It felt as though something was forcefully trying to invade his consciousness.
Then—
Countless memories erupted through his mind all at once.
The destruction of Titan.
The countless massacres he had committed.
The planets he conquered.
The civilizations he ruled.
The enemies who submitted before him.
The betrayals of his daughters.
Everything flashed past rapidly like fragments of a broken dream.
Then finally—
A woman's voice echoed through his consciousness.
Soft.
Seductive.
Mysterious.
"What is the balance of the universe?"
The moment he heard the voice, a name immediately appeared in his mind.
Nemesis.
The Goddess of Vengeance.
The primordial existence from which the Infinity Stones originated.
An ancient being who existed since the birth of the universe itself.
At that moment, the woman's voice sounded again.
"Yes… I am Nemesis."
Thanos's eyes narrowed immediately.
She could read his thoughts directly.
After remaining silent briefly, he finally answered.
"Balance is the cycle between life and resources within the universe."
"The ideal balance is one capable of continuing indefinitely."
After he finished speaking, Nemesis remained silent for a very long time.
Just as Thanos thought she had disappeared, a faint sigh echoed through his mind.
"…Perhaps our decision back then was wrong."
Then her voice softened slightly.
"Little one, take this."
"I hope you grow quickly enough."
The next instant—
An enormous flood of information poured directly into Thanos's consciousness.
Knowledge.
Experience.
Methods of power advancement.
Countless things he previously failed to understand suddenly became clear.
First of all—
The power classification system he had built for himself before was fundamentally flawed.
Once a being reached the Celestial level, simple attribute values no longer mattered.
At that stage, true strength depended entirely on energy.
His System allowed him to quantify attributes numerically, but ordinary beings didn't possess such conveniences.
So how could the universe itself possibly classify power according to attribute points?
Take Black Bolt, for example.
Purely in terms of physical statistics, Black Bolt might not even qualify as planetary level under Thanos's old standards.
Yet his voice could kill Skyfather-level beings instantly.
But at the same time, Black Bolt himself could still be ambushed and killed by weaker opponents under the right circumstances.
So was he weak?
Or strong?
The answer was both.
That was the problem.
In Marvel's universe, power levels were never absolute.
Abilities restrained each other.
Concepts countered concepts.
Reality itself was chaotic.
But one truth remained universal.
Energy.
Everything ultimately depended on energy.
As long as a being possessed enough energy, their strength would inevitably become terrifying.
Which also meant—
Thanos finally understood his current level properly.
Right now, he could only be considered Skyfather-tier.
At most, an unusually powerful Skyfather with monstrous physical strength.
But compared to true single-universe entities?
He was still far away.
Because his energy reserves had not yet reached universal scale.
Even the Void Sentinel barely qualified as single-universe level.
And the only reason it even reached that threshold was because it remained connected to another universe, granting it effectively limitless energy.
Even then, it only barely qualified.
Because its physical body remained relatively weak, and the amount of energy it could unleash at once was still limited.
Against a genuine universal-level powerhouse, a Void Sentinel would likely die in a single strike.
The minimum requirement for universal-level existence was simple:
Possessing enough energy to destroy an entire galaxy with one attack.
Beyond that came multiversal beings.
Those capable of destroying entire universes through direct force.
Above multiversal entities existed omniversal-level beings.
A single full-power attack from such entities could wipe out an entire multiverse completely.
The Five Cosmic Creator Gods belonged to that level.
Which also explained why they rarely acted personally.
Once beings at that level intervened, they wouldn't merely overturn the chessboard.
They would destroy the entire building.
Above omniversal beings existed something even stranger.
At that stage, power could no longer be measured through energy alone.
For example—
The One Above All.
And First Firmament.
Those two existed beyond ordinary scaling entirely.
The Beyonders had originally occupied a similarly transcendent position, but after repeated wars against the One Above All and First Firmament, they had gradually fallen to multiversal status instead.
The memories left behind by Nemesis also explained something else.
The One Above All and First Firmament were enemies.
Both sides were competing for something unknown.
The Five Creator Gods and the Living Tribunal belonged to the camp of the One Above All.
Meanwhile, the Celestials belonged to First Firmament's faction.
However, Nemesis herself had already disappeared for eight infinite cosmic eras.
Even she no longer knew whether those relationships had changed.
Still—
One thing Thanos had guessed correctly.
The primordial Mind Stone truly did contain a fragment of Nemesis's original power.
But unlike many beings in the universe, Nemesis had never prepared resurrection plans or hidden backup schemes.
She had willingly sacrificed herself.
Because in her understanding, true balance required destruction and rebirth.
Once the number of lifeforms within a universe exceeded the universe's ability to sustain them, destruction became inevitable.
Everything would eventually collapse.
Matter would compress into singularity.
Then the universe would explode again, creating new life from nothing.
Cruel.
But balanced.
And throughout that cycle, the Infinity Stones played a crucial role in both destruction and rebirth.
However—
Life always created miracles.
Some beings eventually transcended their universe entirely, becoming multiversal entities no longer restricted by the death of a single cosmos.
Such beings effectively possessed infinite lifespans.
But once too many multiversal entities accumulated…
The destruction of the infinite multiverse itself would begin.
Every collapse of the infinite multiverse marked the end of one cosmic era and the birth of another.
Nemesis had already witnessed eight infinite eras.
Meaning the infinite multiverse had already experienced eight creations and seven complete destructions.
No one knew when the eighth destruction would arrive.
…
Inside Temple Number Two—
The moment Nemesis's presence faded completely, everything returned to normal.
Executives resumed walking.
Machines restarted.
Conversations continued.
No one realized several seconds had vanished from their memories.
And none of them knew their minds had been frozen and examined completely.
After organizing the enormous amount of information left behind by Nemesis, Thanos slowly returned to reality.
Then he opened his eyes.
Because right now—
His attention still remained fixed on that Void Sentinel.
.....
Can't wait to read more exciting chapters then what are you waiting for Join my p*atreon right now.
Get 60+ Premium chapters.
Link: p*atreon.com/Earthly_Writer (Remove the *)
2 Chapters for all free members.