Ch: 247 [Gcta]


    The girl tilted her head slightly as if pondering the question. "I''m Gali," she replied casually, twirling in ce as the dimensions around her seemed to bend and twist with every motion. "Thought I doubt you will remember that... After all, I''m gonna kick your ass."


    Proxima Midnight tightened her grip on her spear, the jagged weapon crackling with a lethal charge. She stepped forward, her tone sharp and unwavering. "We don''t have time for games, child. Step aside, or be destroyed."


    Gali''sughter rang out again, softer this time but no less unnerving. "Oh, dear. You really don''t understand where you are, do you?" She gestured with a delicate hand, and the space around the ck Order shifted. The fractured realities twisted violently, creating a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes. The ground beneath their feet crumbled and reformed as gravity seemed to defy itself.


    Cull Obsidian snarled, his massive frame tensing. "Enough talk!" He charged, his colossal axe swinging in a wide arc toward Gali.


    Without so much as flinching, Gali raised a hand. The axe stopped mid-swing, frozen in ce as though caught in invisible chains. Cull grunted, struggling to pull it free, but Gali''s serene expression didn''t change. With a flick of her wrist, the weapon disintegrated into shimmering motes of light.


    Cull stumbled back, roaring in frustration. "What kind of magic is this?!"


    Gali stepped forward, her bare feet touching the shifting ground as if it were solid. "Magic? Oh, no. This is something... more." She raised both hands, and the space around them surged with energy. The fractured dimensions began to close in on the ck Order, walls of shimmering light and shadow forming a shrinking prison.


    Corvus ive leaped forward, his de shing as he aimed for Gali''s throat. "We are the ck Order! You are nothingpared to—"


    Before he could finish, Gali sidestepped with an almostzy grace, her hand brushing against the edge of his de. The weapon shattered on contact, leaving Corvus holding nothing but the hilt. He stared at the broken remains, his expression a mix of shock and fury.


    "Nothingpared to... what?" Gali asked, her voice dripping with mock curiosity. "A purple guy with a fancy glove? Please. Try harder."


    Ebony Maw, watching intently, took a step back. His mind raced as he tried to analyze the situation. He reached out with his telekic powers, attempting to grasp Gali and hurl her aside. But the moment his mind touched hers, he recoiled as if burned.


    Her smile widened. "Oh, you tried to touch my mind? How cute." She flicked her fingers, and Maw screamed as his own powers turned against him, binding him in ce with invisible chains. "Let me show you what happens when you meddle in things beyond yourprehension."


    Proxima Midnight snarled, readying another strike. "You''ll regret getting in our way."


    Gali sighed, her yful demeanor fading. "You''re awfully persistent for pawns." She pped her hands together, and the space around them erupted in a cascade of light. The ck Order found themselves flung in different directions, eachnding in a separate pocket of warped reality. The team was now isted, unable to see or hear one another.


    ...


    The fractured dimensions swirled violently, separating the ck Order into isted pockets of warped reality. Each member was now utterly alone, with the chaotdscapes around them shifting into uncanny replicas of familiar battlefields from their past conquests.


    Proxima Midnight stood over what looked like the deste ruins of a deste. It resembled one of the countless worlds she had helped subjugate in Thanos''s name, its skies burned red and its ground littered with ash and bones. But something was amiss; movement caught her eye.


    Emerging from the darkness was a figure in dark armor, eerily like her own, holding a spear identical to hers. The figure''s face, when finally revealed, was her own, an exact doppelganger down to the smallest detail. Proxima raised her weapon instinctively, but to make things worse her weapon disintegrated into motes of light.


    Her doppelganger''s spear, however, remained intact—and it crackled with energy far more potent than anything she''d wielded before. The doppelganger smirked, her expression crueler and more bloodthirsty than Proxima could ever recall seeing in her own reflection.


    The doppelganger attacked without hesitation, the enhanced spear slicing through the air with terrifying speed. Proxima dodged, rolling across the scorched ground, but her disarmed state ced her at a dire disadvantage. She grabbed a jagged piece of debris and, using it as a makeshift weapon, lunged forward, but the opponent effortlessly swatted it away.


    "You call yourself a warrior?" the doppelganger sneered. "You''re nothing but a shadow of what you could be."


    Anger welled within Proxima. She used every speck of power and ruse at her disposal. But the doppelganger''s greater arsenal coupled with its onught left little room for maneuvering herself. For the first time, she realized what she had inflicted upon her victim so many times: inescapable hopelessness.


    Second area...


    Corvus ive stood amidst a battlefield frozen in time. The bodies of warriors, some familiar,y scattered around him, their expressions locked in agony. Before him stood another Corvus, his reflection d in shimmering, indestructible armor, the ive in his hand glowing with power that dwarfed Corvus''s memory of its strength.


    "You''ve failed him," the doppelganger hissed, his voice dripping with contempt. "You were never worthy of the ive."


    Corvus clenched his jaw, raising the hilt of his shattered weapon. He hurled himself at his doppelganger, fists striking with brutal precision. But the enemy Corvus was faster, stronger, and seemingly untouchable in his wless armor. Every blow Corvusnded seemed to bounce harmlessly off the shimmering surface, while every counterstrike from the doppelganger tore into him with surgical precision.


    Bleeding and disarmed, Corvus roared in defiance. But his doppelganger merelyughed, a cruel sound that echoed through the battlefield.


    "You''ll die as you lived," the doppelganger said, raising the enhanced ive for a killing blow. "A pathetic servant."


    Third area...


    Cull Obsidian roared as he charged at his doppelganger, who was smaller yet somehow more imposing. The doppelganger wielded a massive, gleaming war axe that made Cull''s lost weapon look like a toy byparison. Worse, Cull found his usual brute strength decreased out of nowhere, his body felt sluggish and his attacks were too weak.


    The doppelganger, on the other hand, moved with supernatural speed, dodging Cull''s attacks andnding crushing counterblows that sent the ground shuddering. Each swing of the doppelganger''s axe set shockwaves rolling through the warpedndscape, forcing Cull onto the defensive.


    "You think you''re strong?" the doppelganger mocked. "You''re nothing but a dog!"


    The onught continued and Cull had to jump back just to avoid the attacks.


    "Is that all you''ve got?" the doppelganger taunted, his voice a cruel mirror of Cull''s own. "How did you ever think you were worthy to stand at his side?"


    Cull let out a roar of frustration, grabbing a hunk of the warped ground and hurling it at the doppelganger. But the enemy shattered it with a single swing, closing the distance and mming Cull to the ground with brutality that left him gasping for air.


    "Worthless..."


    Fourth area...


    Ebony Maw found himself in a void of absolute silence, the usual hum of his psychic powers absent. He tried to speak, to call upon his telekic abilities, but his voice and mind were muted. "What?!" Panic set in as he couldn''t feel his power.


    His doppelganger stepped out from the shadows, dressed in a flowing robe that shimmered with runes of unearthly power. The replica''s eyes glowed with such an intensity that it pierced Maw''s very soul.


    "You''ve always prided yourself on your intellect," the doppelganger said. He spoke with a strange, multiyered voice, echoing not only in the air but also inside Maw''s head. "But now, you are nothing. Less than nothing."


    The doppelganger raised a hand, and Ebony Maw got lifted into the air, his limbs twisting painfully. His bones cracking, muscles tearing... His doppelganger''s telekic power dwarfed his own, bending gravity around him. Chains of energy wrapped around Ebony Maw, tightening with every word.


    "Beg," the doppelganger whispered. "Beg for mercy, and I might make this quick."


    Maw''s pride warred with his terror, but the chains tightened, and he screamed silently, his will crumbling under the relentless assault.


    ..[Outside the wrapped realm]..


    Gali watched the chaos unfold, her expression one of detached amusement. The ck Order, stripped of their weapons, armor, and pride, were being dismantled by their own superior doppelgangers. Each confrontation pushed them closer to despair, and their once-unbreakable pride and arrogance shattered.


    "It''s fascinating, really," she mused aloud, twirling in the air as the dimensions around her danced to her will. "They thought they were invincible, and now they''re losing to themselves. Poetic, don''t you think?"


    With a wave of her hand, the doppelgangers grew even stronger, their weapons glowing with unearthly power. The real ck Order was now on the verge of defeat, their every effort met with overwhelming force. One by one they all fell.


    As Proxima Midnight fell to her knees, her body battered and her will broken, Gali appeared above her. She nced up at Gali through bloodied eyes. "What… what are you?" she rasped.


    Gali descended gracefully, her pink gown shimmering with light. She crouched in front of Proxima, her happy smile contrasting with the menace in her glowing eyes.


    "I''m the one who ends you," she said softly, cing a gentle hand on Proxima''s head.


    And with a final, blinding surge of light, the battlefield dissolved into silence.