Chapter 619: Night Guy Shatters the Infinity Gauntlet
Thanos leaned against the edge of the deep crater, gasping heavily. On his damaged left gauntlet, the yellow Mind Stone settled firmly into its groove.
Space, Power, Reality, Mind.
The four Infinity Stones resonated violently in that instant. Blue, purple, red, and yellow light exploded simultaneously. Pillars of light shot straight into the sky, brilliantly illuminating the gray skies over New York.
The Avengers, having just lowered their guard, were all blinded by the sudden, intense light. Looking at the radar data breaking the charts once more, Tony screamed in despair. "Damn it! Where did he get the Mind Stone!?"
"The guy in the pink feather coat dropped it in the rubble earlier!" Star-Lord shouted, clutching his head in a breakdown.
Rocket Raccoon's hands shook as he held his gun. "We're done for. Four stones. We don't even have a chance to run!"
At the bottom of the crater, Thanos bathed in the four-colored light. His deep, bone-exposing wounds healed rapidly under the dual effects of the Reality and Mind Stones. Even the right half of his body, scorched by Akainu, regrew powerful purple muscle. His physical size surged several meters taller as the stones' energy flooded into him.
He stood there, radiating the suffocating, oppressive aura of a god. "This farce is finally at an end."
Thanos's voice wasn't loud, but it echoed clearly across the entirety of the New York ruins. He slowly raised his left hand, the four stones flaring with blinding light.
Space was completely locked down. Reality was forcibly rewritten. The absolute law of power, mixed with a telepathic mind shock, crushed down like a collapsing sky.
Boom!
The ground within a dozen kilometers instantly sank by dozens of meters.
Whitebeard was just preparing to step forward with Murakumogiri when his body suddenly grew incredibly heavy. He crashed heavily onto both knees, pulverizing the solid stone slabs beneath him.
"What the hell is this gravity!?" Whitebeard roared. His muscles bulged as he tried to use tremor forces to fight back. But the space around him had been sealed dead, preventing the shockwaves from even propagating.
Akainu had just raised Ryujin Jakka before an invisible, massive force slammed him into the earth. Boiling magma splattered everywhere under the pressure, sizzling against the surrounding ruins. "Absolute bastard! A mere Grimace!" Akainu cursed furiously. His heavy face contorted from the strain, the veins on his neck popping out.
Shanks was forced down onto one knee, jamming Gryphon into the ground to barely keep himself upright. The Soul Stone glowed orange, barely fending off the Mind Stone's invasion. But he, too, was entirely unable to move, beads of sweat the size of beans rolling down his forehead.
In the distance, Kaido was rolling on the ground, clutching his stomach. The Time Stone's energy was still rampaging through his gut, making him oscillate between an old man and a baby. This sudden crushing pressure pinned his massive body firmly into the rubble. "Exhilarating! Absolutely exhilarating! Make it heavier!" Kaido laughed, even as he coughed up blood.
Kizaru was pressed flat against the ground, unable to even transform into light particles. "Oh my, my. Now I'm really going to get my pay docked. I can't even move a single finger."
Sengoku, in his giant Buddha form, was forcibly crushed back into his human state, lying prone on the ground and gasping for air.
The situation with the Avengers was even more gruesome. Tony's armor shrieked with failure alarms under the weight, threatening to break apart at any second. Steve was pressed flat, making even breathing incredibly difficult. Doctor Strange's magic shields didn't last a single second before shattering outright.
Thanos took massive strides, walking step-by-step toward the crowd. The earth emitted muffled tremors with his every footfall. He looked down upon these outsiders who had just driven him to the brink of death.
"I am destiny. You cosmic variables understand nothing of true balance."
Thanos raised his left hand, the light of the four stones growing brighter. He no longer needed to snap his fingers. He only needed to clench his fist to grind everyone present into meat paste.
"For the universe to endure, sacrifices must be made. Now, vanish along with your foolishness."
Just as Thanos prepared to clench his fist, a sickening sound of cracking bone abruptly broke the dead silence of the battlefield.
Crack... crack...
The sound wasn't loud, but it reached everyone's ears with absolute clarity. Thanos turned his head, his single eye narrowing slightly.
Less than fifty meters away, pushing against the crushing pressure capable of flattening a mountain range, Garp slowly stood up straight. His white suit had been shredded into ribbons. Fine, bloody cuts split open across his bronzed skin. Blood flowed down the lines of his muscles, pooling in a puddle at his feet.
Garp raised a hand, casually wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth. He flashed a massive grin, letting out an utterly unhinged laugh.
"Hahahaha! Grimace, you didn't really think this little bit of strength could keep me pinned down, did you!?"
Anger flashed in Thanos's eyes. He forcefully pushed his left hand down. The gravity pinning Garp instantly multiplied tenfold. The ground beneath Garp's feet exploded into a deep crater. Yet he remained standing perfectly straight, his bones groaning under the unbearable weight.
Garp slowly crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"I am a Marine Hero!" Garp let out a roar that pierced the heavens. The Chakra and Haki inside his body went entirely berserk at this moment.
"Eighth Gate: Gate of Death, Open!"
BOOM!
An impossibly thick pillar of blood-red fire erupted from Garp into the sky. It wasn't ordinary fire. It was the blood-red steam formed by the instant vaporization of the blood in Garp's body. This frenzied energy completely pulverized the laws of space and power pressing down on him.
The final gate of the Eight Inner Gates was a technique that exchanged one's life force for power transcending all limits. If it were a normal person, the moment the Gate of Death opened, their body would begin to collapse and carbonize.
But Garp possessed a Sage Body! The terrifying regenerative power of the Sage Body was fully activated the moment the Gate of Death opened. As soon as Garp's muscles were torn apart by the gate's power, the Sage Body repaired them. His cells reached a bizarre, perfect, ultimate balance between destruction and regeneration.
The blood-red steam grew thicker and thicker, dyeing half the sky a blinding crimson. Garp's presence climbed exponentially. The surrounding air was expelled away by the violent energy, creating an absolute dead zone. Even the light of the four stones on Thanos was suppressed and dimmed by the sheer output of the blood-red steam.
"What the hell is that!?" Tony screamed in terror from inside his suit.
Doctor Strange's eyes were wide, his voice shaking. "He is burning his own life force! With energy output on that scale, the Earth is going to shatter under his foot!"
Whitebeard looked at the back enveloped in blood-red steam and burst into wild laughter. "Gurararara! Old man Garp is finally getting serious!"
Akainu, lying on the ground, let out a cold snort. "This old fool always loves to show off."
Thanos felt an unprecedented, lethal threat. He wasted no more words. Aiming his left hand directly at Garp, the energy of the four stones abruptly merged into a single, world-ending, four-colored beam. Carrying the rule of ultimate erasure, the beam shot straight for Garp.
Facing the incoming four-colored beam, Garp didn't dodge or evade. He drove explosive power through his legs.
Bang!
The earth beneath Garp's feet vaporized, leaving a bottomless crater. He transformed into a streak of blood-red lightning, charging head-on into the beam.
"Night Guy!"
With Garp's roar, the blood-red steam around his body expanded rapidly. The frantic energy formed a colossal, blood-red dragon in mid-air. The dragon opened its gaping maw, letting out an ear-shattering roar. The very space of New York trembled violently from the sound.
Garp's body was at the core of the dragon's head. He raised his right leg, carrying an aura of absolute destruction, and delivered a devastating kick toward Thanos.
The four-colored beam, capable of piercing through planets, was split cleanly down the middle the moment it met the blood-red dragon. The violent energy spilled out to the sides, leveling several distant mountain peaks. Space twisted and warped beneath the sheer force of the kick. All laws and energies became nothing but a joke in the face of absolute, physical violence.
Thanos's eye widened in sheer terror. He frantically channeled the Infinity Gauntlet, trying to erect more spatial barriers. Layer after layer of blue light formed in front of him. But under the impact of the blood-red dragon, those barriers couldn't hold for even half a second, shattering layer by layer.
The blood-red dragon opened its maw, swallowing Thanos whole. Garp's right leg, wrapped in ultimate Armament Haki and the energy of the Gate of Death, landed perfectly on the Infinity Gauntlet.
Blinding white light swallowed everything.
The entire expanse of New York's ruins lost all sound under the impact. Time itself paused.
Then, a remarkably crisp sound of shattering metal rang clear through the dead-silent white light.
Crack.
The damaged gauntlet, bearing the weight of four Infinity Stones...
Shattered.
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