After using the Soul Stone to rewrite the Sentinel's soul, Thanos finally released the Mind Source Stone's control over him.
The pale blue glow inside the Sentinel's eyes disappeared instantly.
Then the man looked around blankly.
"Where am I?"
"Who are you?"
Sitting calmly upon his throne, Thanos answered indifferently.
"You're aboard my flagship."
Hearing the voice, the Sentinel slowly raised his head.
The moment he recognized Thanos, fear flashed across his face immediately.
"It's you!"
Even though the current personality controlling the body was the Sentinel rather than the Void, the memories between them were still shared.
And unfortunately, the memories of getting beaten nearly to death by Thanos were extremely vivid.
Thanos ignored the fear in the Sentinel's expression completely.
Instead, he silently called upon Death once more.
The next second, darkness swallowed his vision instantly.
His consciousness was dragged into a familiar mental space again.
Soon afterward, he saw Death standing before him in revealing black clothing, her beautiful figure impossible to ignore.
This time, however, Death seemed to be in an unusually good mood.
"Well done," she said with a slight smile.
"I thought it would take you longer to finish."
Naturally, she already knew the mission had succeeded.
After all, she herself had become the little girl added into the Sentinel's rewritten childhood memories.
Now she had become the emotional pillar supporting the Sentinel's soul.
Compared to Thanos, Death possessed far more experience manipulating emotions and belief.
Thanos lowered his head slightly immediately, avoiding direct eye contact.
"My reward."
Seeing his reaction, Death shook her head with an amused yet slightly bored expression.
Then she casually waved her hand.
A stream of death energy poured into Thanos' body instantly.
"I also prepared a special gift for you," she said softly.
"You'd better make good use of it."
After speaking, she slowly walked toward him.
Then she reached out gently and lifted his chin teasingly.
Yet Thanos remained completely unmoved.
"When can I retrieve the Reality Stone?"
He already possessed four Infinity Stones.
Only two remained.
And the Reality Stone was clearly hidden somewhere on Earth.
Unfortunately, he still couldn't obtain it.
That alone was enough to irritate him greatly.
Especially since staying trapped near Earth for years was essentially wasting his time.
Hearing his question, Death moved even closer intentionally, pressing her body against him slightly before speaking seductively.
"Can't we talk about something else?"
Thanos immediately turned his head away from the white softness before him.
"Then where is the Time Stone?"
From beginning to end, he never forgot his position.
He was merely a pawn in a cosmic game.
Nothing more.
He didn't dare overestimate himself, nor did he intend to.
If Death truly cared about him personally, she wouldn't have ignored his countless summons earlier simply because the task hadn't been completed.
Everything happening now was merely entertainment for an abstract cosmic entity.
Seeing that Thanos remained unaffected, Death instead became more interested.
Unfortunately, hearing him ask only about the Reality Stone and Time Stone killed her mood again almost instantly.
"You really are boring."
Then her expression finally became slightly more serious.
"It's not that I don't want to harvest souls sooner."
"But Annihilation intends to use the newborn Celestial, Tiamut, to deceive Eternity."
As Thanos continued growing stronger and proving useful, Death had gradually become more willing to reveal certain information to him.
In the past, she would merely tease him briefly before disappearing immediately.
Now, however, the amount of information she revealed had clearly increased.
"Make proper use of the gift I gave you," she continued.
"You'll benefit greatly from it."
"Don't disappoint me."
Before Thanos could ask anything else, Death vanished instantly.
The next second, his consciousness returned to reality.
Back inside Sanctuary II, Thanos slowly opened his eyes.
Then he fell into deep thought.
Death had revealed quite a lot this time.
Apparently, not only did Death and Eternity oppose each other, but even Annihilation seemed hostile toward Eternity as well.
More importantly, Death had deliberately avoided answering questions about the Time Stone.
Clearly, other plans were already in motion.
But what exactly was the "gift" she mentioned?
Why act so mysterious about it?
After thinking for a while, Thanos suddenly realized something else.
The Sentinel had disappeared.
Apparently, the moment he returned to reality, the man had already fled.
This made Thanos shake his head helplessly.
Originally, he had planned to keep the Sentinel around as a useful subordinate.
Still, it wasn't a major issue.
After calming his thoughts, he spoke inwardly.
"System. How many points do I currently have?"
After receiving two rewards from Death, he should have accumulated enough points to exchange for something valuable.
Soon, the system's mechanical voice sounded.
"Ding. Current total points available. Would you like to exchange for a skill?"
"Open the exchange list."
A massive list appeared before his eyes instantly.
After searching through it for a while, one particular skill caught his attention.
God's Blood Rage (Passive Skill)
The more damage received during battle, the greater the increase to strength and defense.
Exchange Cost: 200,000 Points.
The moment he saw it, Thanos immediately understood how powerful the skill was.
As a close-combat fighter specializing in physical combat, this ability suited him perfectly.
Unfortunately…
Two hundred thousand points was extremely expensive.
After purchasing it, he would only have forty thousand points remaining.
And his Power of Ten Million Stars still required another five years before the cooldown naturally ended.
Refreshing the cooldown manually required fifty thousand points.
Meaning that after buying the skill, he would temporarily lose one of his greatest emergency trump cards.
After considering it carefully, Thanos ultimately decided against exchanging for it immediately.
There were no immediate threats yet.
Saving points for emergencies remained the safer option.
So he continued browsing for cheaper abilities instead.
Eventually, another skill caught his attention.
Divine Grace
Bestows a portion of the user's power upon devout believers. The bestowed power may be reclaimed at any time. Upon the believer's death, all cultivated power and the believer's soul return to the caster.
This ability resembled planting seeds.
Believers would use the granted power to cultivate themselves, yet everything they gained would ultimately belong to him after death.
Although Thanos still didn't fully understand the value of souls yet, he trusted the system enough to know the ability wouldn't be useless.
His current strength simply hadn't reached the level necessary to fully utilize souls yet.
Still, this ability essentially allowed him to imitate powers typically available only to true multiversal gods.
After considering it briefly, he exchanged for the skill immediately.
The next second, large amounts of knowledge flooded his mind automatically.
Usage methods.
Operational principles.
Limitations.
Precautions.
Everything appeared clearly.
Soon afterward, Thanos summoned several Dark Order warriors and executive officers into the throne hall.
Then he attempted to use Divine Grace on them.
Dark energy flowed outward from his body briefly before entering his subordinates.
But almost instantly, the energy returned to him again.
The process failed completely.
"Hm?"
Thanos frowned slightly.
The Dark Order's loyalty was absolute.
They would willingly die for him without hesitation.
So why had Divine Grace failed?
Then realization struck him quickly.
The problem lay within the phrase "devout believer."
The Dark Order members were heavily modified cyborgs controlled through mental programming.
Their loyalty was unquestionable.
But loyalty wasn't faith.
The two were completely different concepts.
After dismissing them, Thanos immediately thought of the Black Order instead.
During the past three years, the Black Order had continued conquering territories inside the Panlong Galaxy.
Although progress remained slow, they had still managed to occupy several star systems already.
That was understandable.
The Panlong Galaxy was enormous.
Besides the Alliance of Gods and the Commercial Alliance, countless independent civilizations and powerful forces existed there as well.
None of them were easy opponents.
If the Black Order received Divine Grace…
Could they perhaps reach the Heavenly Father level?
If so, the conquest speed of the Panlong Galaxy might increase dramatically.
Then there were also Hela, Laufey, and the Ancient One.
Over the past three years, those three had already conquered most of the Milky Way.
Strangely enough, ever since the Alliance of Gods suffered heavy losses against the Sentinel three years ago, their forces had gradually retreated instead of continuing direct confrontation.
Just as Thanos prepared to grant Divine Grace to some of his stronger subordinates—
Deep Blue's mechanical voice suddenly echoed throughout the hall.
"Master."
"We have detected traces of Miss Nebula inside Sanctuary II."
"And there is also an unidentified individual accompanying her."
.....
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