I'm Turning Into Gacha Characters?!

Chapter 449 449: Turned Into Gacha?! - 449

"There is something you must know, Sire."

Deep in the cosmos, Thanos sat upon the throne within his warship, weighing his odds against Herta, when Ebony Maw approached from the shadows.

"Speak," Thanos commanded.

"We have been monitoring the movements of The Blue since Herta's fleet made planetfall on Earth," Maw's voice carried a rare tremor of tension. "Just two hours ago, our scouts sent word—Herta's vessel has vanished from the vicinity of Midgard."

"Vanished?"

A ripple of unease disturbed Thanos's usually stoic expression.

As expected... is Madam Herta the only one capable of truly unsettling Lord Thanos? Maw wondered silently.

"Our scouts were unable to lock onto the coordinates of Herta's warp jump," Maw continued, noting the shift in his master's demeanor.

Thanos did not offer a word of blame. It was only natural; it would have been a miracle if they had managed to track her.

Thanos didn't know Herta's exact endgame, but he was more than willing to assume the worst: that she, too, was hunting for the Infinity Stone on Xandar.

This was a nightmare scenario. He had been as discreet as possible specifically to avoid her notice.

Was this mere coincidence? Or could The Blue... no, could Herta truly piece together the truth behind the Kree and Xandar from such minuscule threads?

Thanos stood, unable to remain still. He couldn't delay on Xandar any longer. Whether he was exposed or not was irrelevant now; he had to seize the Power Stone immediately if he wanted any hope of standing against Herta in a direct confrontation.

"Cease the shadows," Thanos declared, resolve hardening his features. "Secure the Stone with maximum haste. Our window of opportunity is closing."

Ebony Maw bowed deeply and hurried out of the throne room.

Thanos leaned back into his seat, his face a mask of calm once more, yet a tide of cold dread surged through his heart. For a man who had always believed time was his greatest ally, Thanos felt the sting of anxiety for the first time.

Herta...

Though his fleet was still some distance from Xandar, pushing the engines would get them there in less than a day. This time, he had to beat her to the punch.

At the frontlines of the Xandar-Kree conflict, the battlefield ignited with unprecedented ferocity as warships from both sides traded heavy fire.

As the line of battle surged forward, several planets were already scorched by the flames of war.

Some had even been reduced to shattered, lifeless husks—dead stars broken by the sheer scale of the engagement. The Xandarians were grieving their losses, but they were also suspicious of the Kree's sudden, frantic aggression.

Did the Kree know that the task force from The Blue was on its way?

Ronan was nearing a breaking point, trapped in a stalemate where one side attacked with suicidal desperation and the other held on with gritted teeth.

He cursed Thanos for his tardiness and fumed at The Blue for their constant meddling.

The last time they had a clean shot at Xandar, The Blue had ruined everything. Now, it was happening all over again. Who did they think they were? The cosmic police?

But his fury was nothing more than the howling of a caged beast.

Xandar was a civilization that had stood toe-to-toe with the Kree for millennia. Thanos's covert support had been subtle, much like The Blue's previous aid to Xandar, all to avoid drawing Herta's eye.

But now, that subtlety had become a death knell. Until Thanos's main fleet arrived, they had no way to crack Xandar's shell.

Sixteen hours later, the world turned upside down.

Herta's Star-Destoryer and Thanos's fleet arrived almost simultaneously, cranking the battlefield's intensity to its absolute peak.

The might of the Chitauri fleet was legendary across the stars.

In another timeline, Thanos and his Chitauri had razed Xandar in a single day to claim the Power Stone. Much of that power came from Thanos himself, but in a war of this scale, the sheer weight of a collective army was a force to be reckoned with.

However, while the Chitauri were famous, were the names of Herta and The Blue any less formidable?

Looming over the battlefield was Herta's Star-Destroyer, a vessel so gargantuan that its cold, steel hull exceeded the average volume of a planet. It made the surrounding warships look like mere dust motes.

A ship of that size wasn't just a hunk of metal. Even Thanos felt a twitch in his eye when he beheld it.

Asta led the Avengers into the command deck, where they watched a Vice General orchestrate the true terrifying potential of this Star-Destoryer—or more accurately, this Star-Destorying Carrier.

Endless bays slid open, vomiting forth a swarm of "carrier-based craft." These smaller ships fanned out with surgical precision, surrounding and dismantling the enemy vessels in coordinated strikes.

What should have been a war of "quantity versus quality" instantly shifted into a slaughter of "quantity and quality."

The tide of battle tilted the moment the Star-Destoryer joined the fray, even with the Chitauri bolstering the opposition.

But... Thanos had yet to show his face.

As if answering the silent anticipation of the Avengers, Thanos's silhouette finally flickered onto the command screen.

He was clad in heavy, ornate armor, gripping a massive, razor-sharp double-bladed sword. Even standing alone atop a warship screaming through the vacuum of space at high velocity, he was as immovable as a mountain.

Every eye was glued to him. This expressionless titan radiated a suffocating pressure, like a living nightmare that could never be overcome.

Yet, Thanos's internal state was far less composed than his outward appearance suggested.

The reason lay in a conversation he'd had moments before.

"Are you here for the Stone? For that 'prophetic' ideal of yours?"

A projection of Herta had manifested directly before Thanos inside his ship. This sudden intrusion left the Black Order standing beside him wide-eyed with shock.

This was their ship! No matter how advanced Herta's technology was, how could she hijack a system she had never even touched?

"No," Thanos replied to Herta's question, his voice low. "Before my ideal, there is a task that must be finished."

He looked at her, his eyes a cocktail of respect and profound wariness.

"A bird that matures too quickly will shatter its shell to fly toward a more distant horizon... but the shell it leaves behind, once whole, is left in ruins."

Thanos's metaphor wasn't hard to grasp. Herta was self-aware enough to understand it, but she didn't accept it.

"That is why I am searching for a way to protect this universe," Herta stated plainly.

"If I can analyze the Infinity Stones and use them to understand the fundamental laws of this reality, I can break through the rules of this universe without harming it."

Thanos remained unconvinced. "Your words alone cannot serve as the foundation for the universe's survival, nor can they guarantee its safety."

"Leave this universe," Thanos declared, "or I will be the one to cast you out."

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T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.

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