Upon hearing this, Gamora's heart skipped a beat. How did he know her secret?
After a moment of hesitation, Gamora immediately denied, "What are you talking about? The Soul Stone is not with me!"
Doctor Strange looked at her with a calm gaze. "I've mentioned before, we've seen the future, Gamora. I'm sorry, I didn't want to tell you this tragedy now..."
He didn't hide it anymore and explained how Thanos sacrificed his own stepdaughter, Gamora, to obtain the mysterious Soul Stone.
Gamora listened, stunned. Peter Quill, who was beside her, was also in shock. But he quickly regained his composure and shook his head vigorously. "No, no, this can't be! I will protect Gamora, no one can harm her, not even Thanos!"
"I know you love her, and the entire universe in another timeline knows that," Doctor Strange rolled his eyes.
Peter Quill's performance in the battle against Thanos was indeed impressive. He managed to formulate an effective strategy against Thanos in a short time. If it weren't for the last-minute mistake, they might have actually defeated Thanos, who possessed four of the Infinity Stones!
Of course, the success of the strategy also depended on the cooperation of Iron Man, Spiderman, Doctor Strange, and Mantis. It wasn't solely Star-Lord's achievement, and he himself contributed to the failure in the end.
After this future video was exposed, Peter Quill's title as a useless teammate surpassed Star-Lord's title.
However, Doctor Strange didn't need to dwell on this future. He made a hand gesture to keep everyone calm and said, "We don't have time to delay, Gamora, you're more crucial than you think. We need to go to Earth right now, understand?"
"But..."
Gamora understood the gravity of the situation. If Thanos collected all six Infinity Stones, it would mean the end of the universe, and she held the key to the whereabouts of the Soul Stone, which made her a sacrifice.
But as she glanced at the densely packed fleet outside, she took a deep breath and looked at her lover. "I'm leaving. What about you? Thanos won't spare you!"
Stephen Strange smirked. "Of course, we'll make our escape. Clark and Carol will help us keep Thanos busy!"
As he finished speaking, a voice behind them chuckled, "Ah, who can keep me in check?"
It was Thanos's laughter!
Unbelievably, Thanos had silently infiltrated their spaceship!
Doctor Strange widened his eyes. With a swish of his red cloak, he instantly conjured a golden magical shield. As the red glow slowly faded in the corner, Thanos's imposing figure was revealed.
Undoubtedly, he had once again used the Reality Stone's power. He had silently teleported from his own ship. His ship had teleportation capabilities, but it was noisy and would have alerted them. With the cover of Reality Stone, Doctor Strange and the others are completely unaware, and it even allows Thanos to eavesdrop on part of their future.
"Daughter..."
Facing Gamora's terrified and resentful eyes, Thanos showed a hint of sorrow. "Forgive me, you know, I had to do it."
Before this, he only intended to extract the whereabouts of the Soul Stone through interrogation and didn't know he had to sacrifice an offering to obtain it.
If possible, he didn't want to kill his most favoured adopted daughter. Thanos genuinely cared for Gamora, tolerated her wilfulness, and even wanted to groom her as his successor. This was a level of favouritism that none of his other adopted children received.
But in order to achieve the greater goal and belief of balancing the universe, Thanos believed that nothing was too great, not even his own life, as long as it served his purpose.
Gamora took a deep breath and stared directly into Thanos's eyes. "Don't look at me like that. Your hypocritical act disgusts me!"
"No, you know I would never..."
"Thanos!"
Thanos didn't make a direct move, and Doctor Strange, Gamora, Peter Quill, and Mantis also didn't react. But Drax suddenly roared and charged at Thanos with his dual blades.
Thanos had previously decimated Drax's homeworld, killing his friends and family, and creating an unforgivable enmity!
"Damn it!" Star-Lord couldn't stop him and had to draw his gun, aiming it at Thanos. But he didn't dare to shoot, afraid that Thanos would kill his beloved Gamora.
Doctor Strange furrowed his brows, his gaze shifting to the Reality Stone on Thanos's glove. This stone was incredibly powerful, capable of creating convincing illusions, or rather, altering reality itself.
So, Stephen Strange couldn't detect it using magical means.
He looked at Thanos and said in a deep voice, "Hiding and attacking your enemies from behind, you're cunning, Thanos. This doesn't seem like your style."
In the future videos shown by the players, Thanos's strength was indeed overwhelming, and his fighting style was straightforward, defeating the Avengers one by one.
But now, Thanos was starting to play tricks!
Thanos silently looked at him. "Style? I'm just making reasonable use of the Infinity Stones."
He wouldn't admit that he was using the Infinity Stones more frequently because of the extraordinary powers displayed by Superman and Captain Marvel. To him, it was just practice to improve his proficiency, preparing for a future showdown. There was nothing wrong with that.
"The Time Stone is on you, right? Hand it over, and I can let you all go."
Thanos glanced at the ongoing battle outside. Superman and Captain Marvel were trapped by the warships, and the dense artillery fire continued to bombard them, but it was difficult to stop them.
Stephen Strange also noticed this and had been keeping the communication device open. Clark and Carol probably knew by now that the spaceship was in trouble.
He decided to stall for time and shook his head. "Thanos, I admit that there is some truth to the balance of the universe you said, But why do you have to kill half of all life in the universe?"
Thanos replied confidently, "No matter how vast the universe is, resources are still limited."
Doctor Strange interrupted, "Then why not make the universe's resources unlimited? Since you can wipe out half of all life in the universe and gather all the Infinity Stones, making resources limitless should be within your capabilities."