Arc VII Endgame - End. Game.

"I know what it's like to lose. To feel so desperately that you are right, yet to fail, nonetheless... it's frightening, turns your legs to jelly. But I ask you; why do you monologue like this, Thanos?" The figure that had just obliterated Thanos ship asked as it slowly floated down to the ground a few paces away from Captain America.

Eli held up his hand to call back Mjolnir, and when it came back, he casually threw it back to Steve. "Sorry, didn't mean to steal your thunder."

"You made a mistake coming here, Titan. Your plans surely included the death of the Allfather. But you came to a time where there's a new one," Eli said as he looked behind Thanos to Proxima Midnight and Corvus Black.

"An Asgardian? Who are you?" Thanos asked, his voice betraying nothing of his current disbelief.

"Eli, son of Thor. Let's keep talking after I kill these two," Eli said as he narrowed his eyes at the two children of Thanos that had cost him his arm. He was elated by the fact that he could send them to the afterlife a second time.

"Attack!" Thanos shouted, trying to win back some of the initiative.

Eli charged up his arm as he led the charge for the forces of Earth by flying forward at incredible speeds right into the middle of the enemy forces. When he reached Corvus, he grabbed the glaive-wielders head and let lose his charged up destroyer beam. Corvus screamed for a moment but was quickly silenced by the fact that he dropped dead to the ground, a good chunk of his head and torso missing.

Thanos' forces stopped for a moment to see what happened, and Earth's forces stood rooted in place.

Once he was done, he fragmented Shatterstar as his eyes began to glow a full pale green. The surroundings started to heat up in a few places, and wind picked up quickly, leaving small cuts on everyone on this side of the battlefield. The fragments of Shatterstar joined the winds, and Eli began decimating the enemy forces en masse.

Most earthly beings looked at all of this with gaping mouths.

"Uh, are we still needed?" Hulk asked with his arm limply hanging on one side.

"I want to say it again. I'm glad that dude was not there in Berlin," Scott, the ant-man, said as he shrank back to regular size.

"Always thought he would have been on your side, I mean Captain America's side," Hope, the current Wasp, said as she joined next to him.

"Holy shit, what is happening," Pietro asked from his spot next to Wanda.

"Haaa, that's kinda hot," Wanda said with a conflicted look. It's technically been 5 years, but to her, Vision had just died twice not even an hour ago. They weren't dating, but they had some weird chemistry between them.

"That's so hot," Tandy mumbled under her breath.

"Hey! Uh, but yeah, you're right," Ty, who heard his girlfriend, reluctantly agreed.

"Is that dude serious? I thought I got a little closer to his level of power over the last five years," Pietro spoke up again after he saw Eli destroyed one of the bigger tanks the enemies deployed without even looking.

"Unbelievable," Anya whispered with stars in her eyes from among the widows, who also looked startstruck.

"What happened to your son?" Steve asked he turned to Thor who, too, had stars in his eyes.

"He called himself Allfather! That probably means he was somehow snapped to Valhalla and earned Odin's blessing!" Thor shouted with a boisterous laugh.

"How does that work? When I was unsnapped, I felt like barely a moment had passed," Sam asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, same here," Rhodey added with the same disbelief written all over his face.

"Your past self really dodged a bullet. Did you know about this?" Gamora from 2014 asked the future Nebula from a remote corner of the battlefield.

"First time I've seen him. His grandmother kept on praising him, though," Nebula said as she looked at her father's forces being ripped apart in awe.

"His... grandmother?"

"Long story, she went to Vormir for the soul stone and didn't come back. She was a four millenia old Asgardian witch, though," Nebula explained. Gamora opened her mouth even wider and regarded her sister for a short moment. She must have lived a pretty exciting life in the...future that is the present.

"Woah dude, is anyone recording this? Ned is not gonna believe any of this," Peter gushed next to Dr Strange.

"You saw Stark get hit in the face with a moon. Is this really that much cooler?" Dr Strange asked with a raised brow.

"Are you kidding me? The way he just took Mjolnir from Captain America and was like *wooosh* *ka-BOOM* and leveled this gigantic ship and how he made fun of Thanos afterward? That was the coolest thing I have ever seen in my entire life!" Peter wildly argued as he vividly recreated the scene they all just saw with his hands. Dr Strange gained a small smile, too, but quickly lost it afterward.

"HEY, GUYS! I dunno about you, but this feels really cathartic! Don't you want to get in on that?" Eli's shout echoed through the battlefield as he reformed Shatterstar to throw it at a Chitauri leviathan. The flying monstrosity couldn't offer much resistance and fell on its allies with a watermelon-sized hole running through it.

Earth's forces snapped out of their stupor. With a warcry, they finally joined the battle. Thor immediately flew in the direction of his son to start a conversation as the two heavy-hitters started swatting the leviathans out of the air.

"Were you serious when you said you're the Allfather now?"

"Well, if we're going to be technical, I am A Allfather, now," Eli said as he shot down another leviathan with a blast from his destroyer arm.

"What does that mean?"

"That's gonna take a while to explain. Let's wait until we wiped the floor with Thanos. Are you gonna let Tony, Wanda, and Pietro have all the fun, by the way? I got the gauntlet with me now, so he's just a punching bag at this point," Eli said as he stopped moving for a moment to point to Thanos with a thumb and a lot of sass.

"Can't believe you come back from Valhalla with more stories to tell than I could," Thor quipped as he threw a charged up Stormbreaker at one of the triangular troopcarriers.

"Can't believe grandma's last words to you were to go take a shower," Eli joked with a smirk.

"If I'm going to be honest, that stung a little," Thor replied with a wry smile.

"No worries, she left me some really inspiring last words for you right before I was unsnapped, dad."

Thor sniffled a little as he heard that, and simultaneously, he obliterated another troopcarrier with a charged up Stormbreaker.

Eli ordered Shatterstar back, caught it in a back-hand grip, and just as he saw Proxima Midnight and wanted to fly toward her, a bright glowing shooting star broke through the clouds. Eli detected a gigantic energy level from the shooting star and instantly flew up to block it for his allies. Weirdly, he couldn't get a quick read on what was inside that energy ball, and that rarely happened at his current power level.

However, before Eli and that shooting star could clash, it slowed down and revealed itself to be a blonde woman in a blue and red suit, enveloped in massive amounts of energy.

"Uh, hi? Are you on our side?" Eli asked cautiously.

"Yeah, I'm here to kill Thanos. Are you Thor's kid?" Carol Danvers, or Captain Marvel, asked with a raised brow.

"One and only. I think, haven't been here in a few years. Didn't know we had someone... like you on our side. Strong, I mean," Eli mused.

"Same. I mean, Thor wouldn't shut up about you, but five years ago, you were... not this," Carol tried to describe as her eyes roamed up and down his body.

"How about we catch up later then? I'm still not done venting if I'm going to be honest," Eli suggested with a shrug.

"Yeah. Can't believe I almost missed all of this," Carol agreed with a nod and flew toward and through some carriers and caused explosions wherever she went.

Eli charged back down to help deal with the Maw, who was currently battling two Midgardian sorcerers. A man with a goatee and a red cape, and an asian man in monk clothing. The maw appeared to be winning, but it was a slow process.

"Hear me! And rejoice! You have had the privilege of getting your shit kicked in by the son of Thor. You may think this is suffering. No... it is salvation," Eli narrated as he raised his destroyer arm with his eyes glowing in emerald green. The young Allfather flexed his full psychic powers to gain a grip on Maw's body and squeezed his limbs as hard as he could. The maw screamed in agony, and Eli nodded toward the sorcerers.

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself. His little speech as he stepped on Asgardian corpses was seared in my mind. Eli, by the way."

"Doctor Stephen Strange and Wong. Thanks for the assist," the red caped sorcerer introduced.

"Sorcerer Supreme Wong," the monk added with a nod.

"Really? Are we going to have a talk about that title after this?" Dr Strange asked as he conjured a blade of eldritch energies and threw it toward the Maw.

"You were gone for five years. That's your mistake, not mine," Wong argued back.

"So we're going to have a talk after this," Strange added as Wong moved away to help out wherever he was needed.

A weirdly cybernetic gorilla looking alien was moving toward a man with a mechanical mask with round, glowing red eyes. The man had thrusters on his ankles that allowed him to fly, but apparently, they broke in the battle. The shots of his weapons were barely scratching the alien gorilla and looked like he was out of other options at this point.

Eli saw that and stopped the gorilla's fist with telekinesis as it was just about to punt the masked men away. Eli flew closer and beheaded the gorilla.

"Maybe don't bite of more than you can chew, buddy," Eli said with a wink. The masked man pressed behind his ear to release the mask.

"I had that! You just swooped in at the last moment when I had already exhausted that thing!"

"Uh, sure thing," Eli replied, a little confused.

"Ugh, you're just like your father. Anyway, I'm going to be the bigger man and ignore what just happened. People call me Star-Lord, by the way," Quill said.

"And you let them? Haha, kidding. I'm Eli," Eli said as he flew away.

"Thinks he is all cool and that, what a poser," Quill scoffed under his breath.

"He IS cool," Drax added from just behind Quill.

"AH! What the hell, man? Where did you come from?" Quill shouted.

"I was always here. I just stood so extremely still that you couldn't see me," Drax explained.

"We went over this! That's not how this works!" Quill shot back.

"You didn't see me before, though."

Quill could only narrow his eyes at that, too lazy to reply.

"He looks like that god-man we picked up on that distress signal a few days ago. Do you think they are related?" Drax asked in wonder.

"What do you mean? He literally said he was the son of Thor a few minutes ago. And it was five years ago, not five days," Quill pointed out in annoyance.

"I wasn't listening," Drax immediately answered and ran toward the next enemy with both swords raised.

"I am Groot," Groot said a little distance away.

"What do you mean you made his arm?" Rocket asked as he kept shooting at enemies with a wild smile.

"I am Groot," Groot intoned a little differently in reply.

"But it's metal, not wood."

"I am Groot."

"It's NOT the same. What do you mean it's the same?"

"I am Groot."

"Yes, you did get the bones out of his real arm," Rocket said as he finally looked at his wooden friend.

"I am Groot."

"Yes, you did break that brick, and an arm fell out."

"I am Groot," Groot said with finallity and a nod.

"That is not how that works, Groot. You didn't give birth to it because you broke the arm out of its 'eggshell'. Where did that idea even come from?" Rocket asked in disbelief.

"I am Groot?"

"We're going to have a serious talk about where babies come from and what babies are after this," Rocket replied before they were rushed by more enemy forces.

Eli, in the meantime, arrived above the back of the enemy forces and fragmented Shatterstar again. All the heavy hitters were currently occupied, so Eli would use this time to cull the numbers heavily. Winning by exhaustion through sheer numbers was one of the Chitauri's favorite tactics, after all.

A good ten minutes later, Eli switched back to destroying carriers and leviathans. Different from the battle of New York, where he needed to employ a 'death by a thousand cuts' tactic, Eli had a variety of options now to deal with the flying worms.

With his destroyer uru arm, he could charge up a beam or a heavy magically enhanced punch to plant the worms in the ground. With Shatterstar, he could charge up the blade to pierce a giant hole with a throw or combine his divinity with the fragments to kill the leviathan in much less than a thousand cuts.

Eli could, with his varying other powers from magic to divinity and psychic abilities, kill several of the flying fortresses at the same time, and his kill count quickly increased. He could see Thanos in the far distance with a worried frown on his face. A look Eli quite enjoyed seeing on the titan's face.

Most of Thanos' stronger forces were already dealt with. By now, the Earth forces were more than triple of his forces. His ship was gone, and the carriers were falling in droves.

Thanos was pretty much out of trump cards. The young Asgardian wasn't wrong when he said he made a mistake in coming here.

Just as Thanos was thinking that it couldn't get worse, the three bugs, Iron Man, Captain America, and Black Panther, he had just swatted away came back and were joined by Captain Marvel. He knew all about the Terran turned Kree turned Nova corps henchwoman, of course.

All his attempts at recruiting the super powered woman in the last decade ended up in him losing forces. Ultimately, he thought her to be a minor nuisance, so he never bothered to get involved himself. His quest for the stones was much more important. His chess pieces were slowly falling into place, and he couldn't deal with her himself or sacrifice more of his forces to deal with just one woman.

As his face was punched by Carol again, he finally realized. He couldn't believe he had miscalculated by this much. Despair started to settle in. He had no way out of this. He knew from Nebula's recorded memories that these people would never let him go. And it was all that Asgardian's fault. He needed to take something from him before he was gone. A plan bloomed in his mind.

Eli was watching Proxima Midnight, who was currently fighting Anya and Misty. The spear wielding assassin was getting beaten resoundingly.

"You guys having fun here?" Eli asked in a jovial tone as if he was in an arcade and not a battlefield.

"What a blessed day. I get you back and I call kill this bitch who dared to lay a hand on you," Misty shouted in glee as she stabbed Proxima in her left leg.

"I gotta tell you. Killing you once was great. Getting to do it twice is really therapeutic," Anya supplied with just as much glee as she managed to land a deep cut on Proxima's torso.

Proxima for the first time in a long time felt true desperation. Her husband had already died and these people all seemed to have a deep hatred toward her. Getting toyed with like this felt terrible. She was almost feeling regret for making so many people feel the same.

A few cuts later, Proxima no longer saw a way out and moved into Misty's sword deliberately to end her life just so she wouldn't need to live through more humiliation. However, Eli used his telekinesis to move the woman away and she only had her arm half torn off by the cut.

"You don't get to die easy. And especially not on your own terms," Eli gloated.

The fight lasted a little longer and finally the last of Thanos' children on the battlefield that were still on his side died. At that point, Proxima's body was no longer in one piece and she died with an aggrieved look on her face. Cull Obsidian, the pickaxe-wielding reptilian Hulk had died to a team up of Iron Man, Pepper Potts in her Rescue armor and the Hulk a little earlier.

When only stragglers were left and the Earth forces outnumbered Thanos' by more than ten to one, Eli finally joined in on the beatdown of Thanos. Misty and Thor were also fighting the mad titan and were fighting the purple maniac in tandem.

Eli reached just in time for another cut from Misty, however Thanos deliberately left open that apparent hole in his defense for the Asgardian to get closer. In a surprising burst of speed, Thanos stepped closer to Misty and managed to put her in a one armed chokehold while he grabbed her sword-arm and twisted to point the sword at her own gut.

"You might have won Asgardian. But you still lose," Thanos huffed in clear exhaustion.

"Oh? And what did I lose?" Eli asked with a raised brow.

"Despite all your power and all your calculations, you still lose one of your own. Because of your arrogance, your hubri-"

"Please... stop. It's embarrasing," Eli groaned out.

"Hmph, then let these be the last words your fellow Asgardian shall hear," Thanos spat in disdain as he drove the sword into Misty's gut and twisted the blade, eviscerating the woman.

"That was a little graphic. Sorry guys! I'll tone it down a little next time!" Eli shouted as he raised his hand in apology.

Thanos was confused. What was the young Allfather talking about? He looked down toward the bloody mess he had just created and as he heard a clap from Eli, Thanos' eyes widened in disbelief. He hadn't actually eviscerated the Asgardian warrior he thought he caught in a chokehold. Instead he was holding a general from his Chitauri forces in his arms. Misty stood behind Eli with labored breathing and an annoying smirk.

"Man, that was way too realistic. Do you dream of that happening to me that you got it to look so real?" Misty asked, maintaining her smirk.

"I'm just talented. You know I wouldn't even wish you to stub your toe," Eli argued.

"Yeah, right. I'll believe you this once," Misty replied with narrowed yes.

"Alright. Anybody still want a hit in or can I just end this now? Or is there maybe someone who wants to contest me for the honor of taking his head?" Eli's shout reached everyone on the battlefield. Thanos' forces had at this point pretty much given up. Some were doing some last moment kamikaze attacks to take down as many enemies as they could, but the sorcerers of Earth were very adapt at either moving these Chitauri and Black Order warriors to the mirror dimension or block explosions with shields.

"I say we keep it in the family. I took his head first, let my son take the second," Thor said as he landed with Stormbreaker next to Eli, heavily clapping his son's non-armored shoulder on the left.

"Can I get another kick on his nutsack in first?" Pietro asked as he arrived next to them in a blur.

"Chin or actual nutsack?" Eli asked, receiving quite a few chuckles from the slowly gathering heroes.

"How distateful. You were sore losers when I won. And now in victory you gloat like little children. Having lost to juvenile, immature, bickering babies like you is the hardest pill to swallow," Thanos spat in disdain.

Eli bound Thanos with a spell of green magical energy constructs and moved closer to whisper in his ear.

"In my decade in Valhalla, they taught me a spell to travel to different realities. I will make it my personal mission to find the you in each reality I jump to and remove you from the board," Eli whispered so nobody but Thanos could hear.

"Okay, I feel like I gave you all a chance to step forward and I heard no complaints. I'll claim his head for Asgard then," Eli shouted.

"Wait!"

Eli looked toward Gamora who ran forward after her shout. Instead of asking why she would interrupt like this, he read her surface thoughts in order to get no nasty surprised. Eli was still surprised, but not because Gamora was secretly still on Thanos' side and wanted to find him a way out. She wanted to simply look in his eyes as he lost his life. It had something to do with the way her future self died, though even with mindreading it didn't make much sense to Eli.

"Okay then, I declare this game over for Thanos," Eli shouted as he raised his sword after reached next to him.

"He went for the head!" Thor shouted excitedly after Eli had beheaded Thanos successfully.