The park, already devastated by the earlier clash, trembled again as the standoff escalated. Broken fountains sputtered, fractured stones groaned, and the last stubborn flowers bent under invisible waves of pressure.
Proxima Midnight, pride still burning in her chest, clenched her obsidian spear. She had seen gods, kings, and champions fall before her master, and yet the sight before her unsettled even her seasoned heart. That woman — the golden-haired warrior who had cast Thanos himself through the skyline of Qaidar's capital — was standing unshaken, her aura swelling with every breath.
Proxima tried to rally her own courage, but the moment their eyes met, everything inside her seemed to falter.
Those pupils — not ordinary human eyes, but spheres painted in searing, holy gold — struck like spears through her armor of will. A deathly chill, commanding and divine, surged through Proxima's body.
It wasn't just her.
Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian, and Corvus Glaive all stiffened under that gaze. Even hardened soldiers of the Black Order shifted uneasily, while the rank-and-file Thanos soldiers — already struggling against fear — began collapsing one by one. Bones cracked under the invisible pressure as their knees hit the ground, unwilling servants kneeling simply because they could not endure the sheer oppression of Bella's presence.
The atmosphere thickened like molten lead. Breathing became a luxury. The park had turned into a mountain pressing down upon every chest.
Only the strongest of the generals resisted, knees bending slightly as though gravity itself had multiplied, their spines straining to keep upright. Proxima Midnight's hands shook despite her stubbornness. She refused to kneel, but her body betrayed the price of that refusal.
"How… can one gaze hold such power?" she thought bitterly.
---
Ebony Maw's Gambit
Ebony Maw, teeth clenched, forced his lips into a thin smile. His face was pale, but his voice remained smooth, laced with malice.
"Kneel down."
It wasn't anger. It wasn't even a suggestion.
It was his ability.
The insidious whisper of Ebony Maw's psychic command slithered outward, an invisible snake of willpower that sought to coil around Bella's mind. He had broken beings far greater than kings with those two words. Entire planets had fallen to their knees because of the poison in his voice.
He had once bent the will of a Sub-God Father–level powerhouse. Compared to them, this woman should have been easy prey.
Yet this time—
The command met a wall of fire.
Bella blinked, and for the first time since she revealed her face, her expression changed — not from strain, but from sheer irritation.
"Let me kneel?" she repeated coldly. The holy fire in her eyes flared brighter, golden light spilling across her face.
Then her voice, sharp as a whip, tore the sky:
"You are not qualified."
---
The Storm Unleashed
The air shattered.
Boom!
It was as if the heavens themselves had collapsed. An ocean of mental force — endless, surging like a tidal wave of stars — burst outward from Bella's body. The very capital quaked. The sky twisted into rippling currents of psychic energy.
She raised one slender finger and pointed at Ebony Maw.
The effect was immediate.
The soldiers nearest to Maw screamed as if crushed by invisible fists. Their armor buckled, their lungs compressed, and then—
Crack!
Bones splintered. Blood sprayed. Men who had survived entire planetary campaigns were reduced to crimson pulp beneath the suffocating force.
The battlefield fell silent for a heartbeat, broken only by the wet sounds of collapsing bodies.
Ebony Maw's smirk finally faltered. He bared his teeth and unleashed his full telekinesis, his psychic field whipping violently as he tried to shield himself and the other generals.
But the truth was undeniable — Bella's power was drowning him.
---
A Battle of Wills
The collision of two immense psychic forces rippled through Qaidar's capital. Fluctuations rolled outward like tsunamis, tearing through walls and tossing debris into the sky.
Nova centurions braced themselves in front of Queen Qaida, forming a living shield. Even so, several of the weaker recruits were hurled away, their screams vanishing into the storm.
Bella's hair danced like a golden flame in the invisible winds. Her gaze remained locked on Ebony Maw, unblinking, unmerciful.
Queen Qaida, protected behind the human wall, peeked through a gap and felt her blood chill. Bella had kicked Thanos into the horizon with one strike — and now, she was dismantling the Black Order with nothing but her will.
"When… did such a monster appear in the universe?" she whispered under her breath. Yet with her fear came an odd, desperate hope. If anyone could check Thanos… perhaps it was her.
But hope was poison, too. For every mothership orbiting Qaidar carried weapons that could erase a planet. If this escalated into full war, could her people survive the aftermath?
---
The Collapse
Ebony Maw strained, veins bulging as blood seeped from his nose and eyes. He had believed himself untouchable in the realm of mental control. Yet Bella's psychic force was vast, unyielding — an ocean against his fragile dam.
"Damn… damn it!!" he roared, sweat pouring from his temples.
With a final groan of resistance, his knees hit the ground.
Poof!
Blood sprayed from his mouth as he collapsed under the crushing tide. His psychic barrier flickered violently, threatening to shatter. The other generals trembled within it like ants clinging to a leaf in a hurricane. If the barrier broke, they would be obliterated in an instant.
Bella's lips curled into a faint, merciless smile.
She wasn't simply defeating them. She was humiliating them. Crushing their pride, their arrogance, with the very power Ebony Maw prized most.
That was the punishment. To be broken not by brute force, but by the destruction of his own conceit.
---
The Interruption
And then—
Boom!
A shriek split the air as something tore through the sky with a sonic boom. The ground cracked beneath the shockwave. A double-headed sword, massive and gleaming, whistled like a thunderbolt as it hurtled toward Bella.
She did not flinch.
One hand still maintained her psychic stranglehold. The other rose calmly, fingers snapping shut around the weapon's blade with perfect precision.
The impact thundered through the city, blasting dust and wind in every direction. Cracks radiated beneath her boots. Her golden hair whipped wildly in the storm.
Yet she remained standing. Unmoved.
But this was only the herald.
A colossal shadow followed close behind, wrapped in murderous intent.
Thanos.
His massive frame blurred with speed that belied his size. Every stride consumed distance. In the blink of an eye he was less than two meters away, his fist drawn back like a mountain preparing to collapse.
The knuckles were bigger than the Hulk's skull, wrapped in layers of energy and hate. The air compressed around the blow, blasting concentric rings outward before it even landed.
The fist aimed directly at Bella's head.
The sheer force in that strike eclipsed every opponent she had ever faced. This was not a test. This was extinction given form.
---
And in that frozen moment, as golden eyes met the void of inevitability, the universe itself seemed to hold its breath.
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