Life Hunt
After Samuel released that message Empires across the universe began to send out scouts to search for a planet named Vormir. Empires such as The Kree, Skrulls, Spartioi, The Shi'ar Empire, Brood, and Xandarians all began racing to find the Soul Stone.
Hundreds of other lesser Empires all lured by the promise of the Soul Stone joined the race for it. Others question what the dream that affected so many about the Soul Stone, but the greed for the mystical stone made them ignore these questions.
Even powerful mercenary bands, pirate groups, and scavengers became interested in the race for the Soul Stone. Among these, the forces of Thanos who had been hunting the Stones for many years became aware of Vormir.
None of these groups knew that they were all being played. Samuel on the other hand using his great power was looking straight at Vormir from Earth. Already Mag'Ladroth The Void Dragon had been empowered to the state of a true C'Tan.
Its form shifted from that of a quadrupedal dragon to a bipedal humanoid dragon with a large Black Stone staff. Its power was so great that Void Dragon had to actively restrain itself to not consume every soul on Earth.
Samuel looked at the C'Tan in its full power that shimmered with unrestrained power. Though it still kept its rationale.
"My Lord, I swear to you that I will devastate all of your enemies in your name."
Samuel nodded.
"I know you will, all of you will. Remember, consume as many souls as you can, the Life Force of these Xenos is for me."
Diablo brought his hands up before he began to think of things.
"What will that woman say? She is Death so don't these souls belong to her?"
Samuel shook his head.
"Every culture has its own religion. Those religions create gods that exist, and among those gods exist Death Gods. From what Death told me, the souls of the dead go to each respective god of Death for a time. In time they eventually reach the Realm Of The Dead.
The real one which is owned by Death. So, in a sense, Mag'Ladroth will be taking souls from many gods. As for me, I will consume the Life Force that escapes as a result of their Deaths."
Diablo nodded to himself as he began to think of this.
"Won't that bring you into conflict with that woman?"
Samuel wasn't so sure about that.
"Maybe, maybe not. Regardless, all that matters is that I acquire the Soul Stone. Once I have all six stones, the level of my creations will increase even further. I will then begin to spread my influence across the multiverse."
He didn't explain further, instead, he kept himself seated on his temporary throne. Grayfia teleported back into his pocket dimension before she returned with a tea set. Despite being in space she poured him a hot cup of tea which he enjoyed.
"All I need to do is wait."
Giratina, Dialga, and Palkia together continued to look at Vormir where the slaughter would take place.
---
Speaking of Vormir on the desolate surface of the Planet, Schmidt through his cursed existence in servitude to the Soul Stone became aware of what was going to transpire. From his connection to the Soul Stone, he could feel the Soul Stone's feelings.
From what he could sense, the Soul Stone was terrified. As each Stone was a sentient thing, it had a sense of what happened to the other five Stones. Effectively they had been enslaved to the will of Samuel and they knew it would end up the same.
If it tried to flee, it would be captured, but if it stayed it would eventually fall into Samuel's hands. Regardless of what it did, Samuel would get his prize, the Soul Stone.
"It appears I will be leaving this cursed state soon."
He walked toward the sacrificial altar where those who sought the Soul Stone threw away what they loved. For the first time since he had arrived in 1945, he felt the Stone terror with clarity.
It brought him a small amount of hope to finally be free of his slavery.
---
For the next few days, Samuel continued to observe Vormir as more and more scouting ships arrived. There was such a variety of ship types, but they all had the same thing in common. None tried to land on the ship because the others would instantly shoot them out of the sky.
It became essentially an unspoken rule that no one was to land or the others would blow them up. Once the planet was found however and its location broadcasted massive fleets from multiple galaxies began flocking to Xander.
Among them were the Chitauri under the orders of Thanos who flocked toward Vormir. However, when Thanos and his forces arrived they weren't even the first to arrive. Already over the planet were several fleets from the Skrull, Kree, Spartoi, Shi'ar, Brood, and hundreds if not thousands of more alien species.
Aboard his flagship, the Sanctuary Thanos gazed out at the titanic fleets that filled the solar system on Vormir. His adopted children gathered around him as they looked at the huge fleets of ships that were in the middle of a standoff.
Ebony Maw paned his hand from left to right seeing every part of the Solar System was inhabited by millions of ships. Ships as small as a few meters to titanic Behemoths the size of Moons.
"Sire, the Chitauri won't be able to fight their way through these kinds of numbers."
Thanos clenched his fist around his armrest as even if he threw his entire fleet and forces at the problem chances were he would fail. He was fine with risking his life, but against these odds, the odds didn't look too good.
Just as he was thinking, every flagship of the individual fleets received a communication attempt from the Shi'ar flagship.
The Shi'ar were considered the largest Empire with over a million worlds under their control. They had more worlds under their control than the Skrulls or Kree individually, but not when combined.
Everyone including Thanos accepted the communication from the Shi'ar Emperor. The Shi'ar race had traits of Avian and Mammalian creatures with feathers instead of hair. The race believed it was their destiny to rule the universe so the Emperor tried to use his power to muscle everyone away.
"This planet has been claimed by the Shi'ar Empire. Anyone who remains will be labeled an enemy and subject to immediate extermination. Leave now."
Among the Kree, aboard the Accurser flagship Ronin looked at the projection on his screen from the Shi'ar Emperor.
"My response shall be death. Fire on the Shi'ar fleet."
Instantly the vast fleet of the Kree began to fire at the Shi'ar Fleet destroying a few ships. Aboard the Skrull Fleet, their Emperor gave the same response.
"Fire on the Shi'ar. Show those squawking jokers what they deserve."
Following the example of the Kree and Skrulls, a temporary truce was taken by all other groups. They all began firing on the Shi'ar which enraged their Emperor.
"USE ALL ANTI MATTER PLANET KILLER BOMBS!"
From his Apocalypse Class flagship, a 120-mile ship, huge missiles containing an Anti Matter payload were fired at the millions of ships currently tearing his fleet apart. The Shi'ar's most powerful weapons made use of anti-matter weapons which made Samuel who was watching the battle laugh.
For the past few days, he had been using the Infinity Stones to feed Annihilation Maker. Through this process, he had begun to recreate the soul of Tiamat from scratch. Since her soul wasn't used in the Sacred Gear, he had to start from scratch, but what he had made would be a loyal Soul Beast.
Rather than a rampaging monster that had no control over herself. He hadn't finished because he wanted to use the Soul Stone to finish the process which meant the time was right.
"Alright people, they have started to battle. Let's make our way there now."
Samuel clapped his hands together and he teleported himself and his group in the middle of the fighting fleets. Already, explosions of Anti-Matter were destroying thousands of ships, but seeing Anti-Matter here just drove Giratina into a frenzy.
Samuel crossed his arms as he looked around at the tens of millions of ships that contained billions of souls to harvest. He glanced up at Mag'ladroth which barely restrained itself.
"Go, feast and tear."
The C'Tan in its most powerful state roared which caused the Universe itself to answer. If anyone was seeing a map of the universe they would see hundreds of stars across multiple universes being drank dry.
The C'Tan were not just gods of the material realm, they were aspects of reality who fed on Stars. All these stars surged into the Void Dragon which raised its hand creating its servants of raw Black Stone just like it had in the War In Heaven.
These servants were shaped from raw Black Stone containing the power of the Void Dragon. They appeared as Draconic Necrons that instantly began to decimate the gathered fleets.
Giratina, Dialga, and Palkia didn't stay back and instead split from each other. Giratina in particular attacked the Shi'ar fleet unleashing titanic gravitational fields that crushed ships into small particles.
Thanks to the enhancement from the Stones it even summoned several Black Holes which it threw against the Shi'ar fleet. Aboard his ship, The Emperor watched as tens of thousands of his ships got consumed by perfectly controlled Black Holes.
"KILL THAT BEAST! USE ALL ANTIMATTER BATTERIES!"
The ships of his fleet aimed their weapons at Giratina and they fired. The Anti Matter blasts could decimate planets with ease, but when these weapons stuck Giratina their energy was consumed.
Giratina was Anti Matter attacking him with it was like throwing water at the ocean. He opened his mouth as he grew larger with each Anti Matter blast. The Emperor gasped as Giratina unleashed a beam of pure Anti Matter that destroyed the Emperor and hundreds of thousands of his ships with it.
Giratina's brothers were no less brutal. From Dialga, it unleashed the horrors of time itself. Causing copies of ships to appear in the same moment of time causing the destruction of both.
It caused thousands of ships to be aged to dust along with their passengers, or it unaged them to atoms. As for Palkia, it unleashed spatial slashes that tore through the fleets of several races.
It blasted a pure beam of Spatial Energy continuing the devastation of its brothers. Taking this chance Mag'ladroth began to consume the souls of the dead. As its Necron servants unleashed their power across the vast fleets it continued to consume souls by the millions.
The Void Dragon's power swelled as it consumed soul after soul. As for Samuel, he flew toward the middle of the slaughter where he raised activated his dreadful new ability.
"Life Hunt."
The moment he uttered those words, the Life Force of the dead and dying surged toward him. The Life Force of hundreds of millions flowed into him causing his strength to rise by the second.
Beru, Belion, Igris, Puck, Grayfia, and Diablo floated around him as he began to feed on the Life Force of the dead. However, he was focusing on the titanic fleet that began to fire on his creations rather than each other.
Across the corner of his eye, he saw that several ships began to land on Vormir. He smiled as among them was the Sanctuary, the Flagship of Thanos. Even Ronin THe Accurser had managed to make the planet fall along with Brood, Shi'ar, and several mercenary groups among them.
From what he could tell, among the ships landing, several people met the requirements. True love, but would they be willing to sacrifice what they loved for the Soul Stone? One way to find out. Samuel whistled causing Giratina, Dialga, Palki, and Mag'ladroth to stop their attack.
They flew back toward him as he stepped forward.
"Leave this to me."
Samuel raised his hand which began to crackle with dark fire and crimson black lightning. He recalled one of Arimane's personal spells. It had a chant as Arimane was big on chants, so Samuel followed his example.
"Watch the sky, it will fall on you. Hold your heart pierced by death, Fall The Darkest Night, Eterna Night."
When he finished his chant, Samuel's right hand shifted into a writhing blade infused with the power of the Five Infinity Stones, potent Mana, Divine, and Infernal Energy. He swung in a perfect circle which caused titanic arcs of black fire and crimson black lightning to obliterate every single ship still in orbit.
Through this, he exterminated millions of Brood, Shi'ar, Kree, Skrull, Xandarian, and Spartoir ships slaughtering them all. Of course, he purposely let a few land on Vormir, but his spell didn't just destroy every ship in orbit, they surged through the entire Galaxy Vormir was in.
Hundreds of Star Systems got blown up, but nothing really lived this far out. It was why the Soul Stone came to Vormir, but now it was just trapped. Samuel lowered his hand before he spread his hands out.
"Life Hunt."
A titanic cloud of life force surged into his body, and soul increasing his power even further. He used the Five Infinity Stones to speed up the rate of his absorbing and assimilating the Life Force.
As for Mag'ladroth, the C'Tan flew forward before it began to feed on the souls of all the dead. The souls of the many aliens Samuel had slaughtered went to the C'Tan rather than their respective gods.
In minutes every last soul and speck of Life Force had been consumed by Samuel and Mag'ladroth. Thanks to the Infinity Stones Samuel once again sped up the time in his own body speeding up the growth of Timat's soul with the Life Force he collected.
Most of it went to growing his power, but some of it still helped his gestating Soul Beast.
"Now, I just wait."
While he had slaughtered most of the ships in orbit, over 150 had still managed to make landfall. Off of them would be racing to get to the mountain temple where Schmidt and the Soul Stone rested. Regardless of who got it, Samuel would get his prize.
(The Shi'ar is like The Imperium of Marvel. They are expansionists, have a million worlds, and their greatest weapons are Anti Matter bombs. They have weapons that can blow up galaxies, solar systems, or planets all Anti Matter based.
Not much use when you fight the Anti Matter God.)