CHAPTER 163

After the whole fiasco with the Space Stone and impending danger that was remodeling of my psyche, I doubled down on accelerating my fusion with the Power Stone.

According to the Ancient One, each evolution would be different and after gaining the principle of space and extending my reach in the hierarchy of its domain, not that I knew what those meant, me fusing with the Power Stone was bound to draw some unsavory towards me.

Let's just say that someone having an almost primordial control over the concept of Power was a big no-no to most beings of power. 

It would have being different if I was just wielding the stones but fusing with them was what set them off. 

A sentient stone was something no one needed and that was exactly what I was. 

No one had ever wielded two Infinity Stones and those who were already aware of what I was doing were besides themselves, thinking that what I was dead set on undergoing was a fool's wish and also watching what would become of me. 

Even now I could fee the trickle of cosmic energy flowing into my body. According to the Ancient One, while I became the Space Stone, my body was only the outer shell that protected its essence. Meaning that the coagulation of the spatial essence was inside my body, like another heart, steadily pumping spatial cosmic energy into my body, drop by drop. 

While I may have completed my bodily evolution, I was still growing stronger by the day. 

Strong in the sense that my body was steadily adapting to handling energies that normally it could not – Cosmic Energy. 

I could harness the cosmic energy that was in me but I couldn't handle it for long. It was like a built-in security switch, something that prevents anyone who wielded the stones to have the amount of energy needed to warp space on a universal level. 

Not to mention the fact that the stones sought to be whole, what I had was only one-sixth of what was the result of the big bang. 

But since my body could adapt, the cosmic energy was slowly melding itself from my bloodstream into every single part of my body, even my brain. 

The Ancient One said that the monumental change would come if I could successfully fuse with the Power Stone, body and mind – a complete evolution. 

Considering it took me a while, months, before I could successfully fuse with the Space Stone, my estimate for the Power Stone was under two months, a stark decrease from my first cosmic endeavor. 

The only thing I was worried about was over saturation. 

My mutant ability was more energy based rather than physical adaptation like Darwin. It was also the reason why I could take in a planet's worth of energy and the most I would feel was a spring in my feet. 

But that doesn't exactly apply to the Infinity Stones. For all it's worth, the Infinity Stones held a universe's worth of pure energy in them, connecting them to each and everything inside the universe. 

Space, Time, Soul, Power, Mind, Reality. 

They were intricately linked to everything that existed inside the universe and me having the ticket to Power, well it was bound to piss some people off at one point. 

To be honest, I'm pretty surprised the Celestials haven't come for me, since what I was doing was undoubtedly put the universe under me should I succeed. 

I don't think the Celestials would take to it kindly if I was capable of harnessing the Power of Creation by wielding the Infinity Stones. 

They would usually fight anyone who came remotely close to them in power, which either ended up in most of their death or they somehow manage to win. Very rarely do they come to any kind of truce between their race and someone else. 

It had already been established that I could already destroy and that was due to the fact of my vast authority over space and wielding of the Power Stone. Though I could still do it without the Power Stone, there was no need to test it out now, was there? 

Being in possession of the Power Stone had been a real trippy experience. The ability to use any other ability was such a dangerous concept that it almost made me regret not fusing with it first. 

It also backed up my point of Thanos not really knowing how to use the Infinity Stones other than what was enabled of their bare minimum. 

There was also the fact that his body couldn't handle the strain of drawing more power from the Stones, at least that was true for Earth-199999 Thanos. The others however were more dangerous with the stones, being only one step away from true omnipotence. 

The rush I felt every time I held the Power Stone was vastly different from what I experienced what I was using the Space Stone. The feeling of overbearing might, of absolute power was such an intoxicating one that most would lose their selves in. 

Unlimited stamina, unlimited physical strength, or for as long as my body could handle it, and also a domain of authority over 'power'. Hands down, the Power Stone just jumped to my list of the most dangerous Infinity Stones out there, Reality and Time being a close second and third respectively. That was just a personal conjecture though, the final decision would have to wait until I've experienced what it was like to use all six of the Infinity Stones. 

Regardless of the complexity of the other stones, the simplicity of the Power Stone made it a very easy yet terrifying Infinity Stone to master. 

One of its terrifying aspects of the Power Stone I found out was when I had jokingly turned Steve back into a normal human. 

The way it worked was very easy as I had used the 'power negation' ability of the Power Stone to erase every trace of both mine and Erskine's serum in Steve's body. Though he didn't go back to being lanky Steve, he strength was nothing compared to what it had being even as a normal super soldier. 

Note that Steve could very well lift over a thousand tons and that was nowhere near his upper limit, his negated lifting strength sharply dropped to a little over 300 kg. It was such a frightening aspect when the others realized that even shooting nukes at me wouldn't do anything, not that it could, as I could just negate the kinetic energy outbursts with either the Space Stone or the Power Stone. 

The capabilities of the stones were vastly undersold in what the screens portrayed. If we were to go by the comic version of Thanos then he would have killed them all without struggle when he had the four stones and fought the makeshift Avengers on Titan. 

I was in the midst of absorbing the energy from the power stone when I felt something breaking into our Solar System. 

Something just ruptured space and given our backwater location in the universe, whatever could rupture space was always a source and call for caution. 

The reason I felt this was because usually when I was absorbing the energy from the Power Stone, I would also be using the one of the Space Stones passive abilities which was connecting myself with the Space around me and me being spatially alert was more than enough to pick up on the quite boisterous entering into the Solar System. 

I don't know if they were that strong that they didn't care if someone noticed their arrival or they were that subtle that no one should have noticed their arrival. Regardless, since I sensed them, it wouldn't do I didn't check on who they were.

If they were some aliens who came to abduct humans then that was fine, but if it turns out that they were part of the group I was hoping to face later in the line then that would be catastrophic. 

Tracing the origin of the spatial pocket, I warped into outer space and saw the camouflaged ship making it's way towards Earth at ridiculous speeds. 

I could sense alien lifeforms aboard the ship which made me release a breath of relief. 

'Looks like they are into the abducting business.'

Being my first time meeting aliens, I warped directly onto the ship with no one being aware of my presence and started walking around. 

I paused my feet when I saw them dressed in a way that was reminiscent of soldiers, or at least my stereotype of alien soldiers. 

They mostly had blasters on their hands while others, a very scant few had by their sides, primordial weapons. 

I was about to leave the ship and let them carry on with their endeavor when I came across her. 

Even if I've only ever seen her on screen, the green skin accompanied by the dark red hair and the soldiers aboard made it click. 

'The Children of Thanos.'

And here I was thinking that I could just let them be and have them continue their trafficking in peace. 

"How do you suppose we find the Infinity Stone located here? For all we know it could be scattered across this solar system." An alien humanoid woman spoke to Gamora who without taking her eyes off the glass panel that was showing the outer view of the earth. 

"Father said that there was a cosmic occurrence in this solar system and seeing as that planet is the only one with life means that whatever caused the cosmic wave is on that planet. The scanners haven't picked up on any readings yet but we should give it some time. I will not return back to father empty-handed."

I listened in on their conversation with an impassive expression on my face and studied the entire ship, running different scenarios in my head. 

This all but confirms that Earth is already on Thanos' conquest path and sooner or later I would come face to face with the Mad Titan. 

Two of the Infinity Stones were already in my possession, one was in Kamar-Taj, one was in a hidden realm, one was in Vormir which left only one stone that was a free for all. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say Thanos was already in possession of one of the stones. 

The Mind Stone. 

Thanos hasn't made the gauntlet yet which means the Mind Stone should be inside Loki's scepter and he shouldn't be able to draw out more power from it. 

That was my assumption but I couldn't underestimate the Mad Titan… but then again, I had the Space and Power Stone, this should be easy. 

I materialized my body and immediately I was surrounded by the alien soldiers with blasters pointed at me. 

"A Terran? It looks like there are more advanced than we thought, though this one appears quite foolish."

I had already taken a precaution to envelope the entire ship in an EMP field to prevent any signal from being transmitted to and from the ship. 

I then turned my attention onto my audience who were but a command away from blowing my brains to bits… of they could that is. 

"Who are you?" Gamora stepped forward and asked seeing as my attention had been somewhere else. 

"Who I am doesn't matter. What matters is what I want with you." A spear was leveled against my throat by the somewhat tall woman with horns. 

'I guess that one dies too.' 

Before any of them could react, apart from Gamora and the blue-haired horned woman, everybody else on the ship burst into a gore of blood, taking the two women by surprise. 

Before they could put up any meaningful struggle they were bound in a space lock. 

"Allow me to reiterate: you are going to die, so it's better if we get things sorted out and be on our merry way."

One looked ashen while the other looked fierce, this should be easier than I thought. 

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