Kaleidascope
The angel, Azreal, his Antonia, his mortal who apparently is not, in fact, mortal, stood in front of him. His last tendrils of magic reached out towards her life-force, if she was truly his Antonia, his magic would know, it had always adored her just as much as the god who wielded it.
Her essence sang through him, running through his body like a river through a desert, replenishing him with her limitless amount of love, with the fact she was real, she was here, she was alive.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, Thanos don’t you know the rules?” Antonia, despite clearly being the angel with a thousand voices now spoke in just one, her mortal one. “You can only use your natural skills, you must win the allegiance of the stones, you cannot simply take them, otherwise they will never be wielded to their true power.” She raised her sword and knocked the blast of energy from the gauntlet up into the sky, a bright beacon. It slammed into the Chitauri ships in the skies and they rained down, chunks of alien, molten metal, armor, and weapons.
The shockwave that followed knocked Thanos back, clearly unprepared to have the stones deflected so easily.
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Death, taking advantage of the distraction, slipped towards her angel’s love and began to use her half-moon blades to cut away the magically enhanced manacles.
Loki felt the seals on his seidr fall away along with the bands, his stores were depleted, but if he could help his Antonia he would. A gentle but firm hand on his shoulder held him back, he turned to see Death standing over him. “Please,” he whispered, hating how broken his voice sounded. “Let me help her.”
Death shook her head sadly and looked forward, “this is the only way. Azreal, the soul stone, alone must stop him. I cannot because he is almost immortal, I cannot kill him. I foolishly made him immortal, so that not a soul alive could kill him because I did not want him anywhere near me.”
“Then why can Antonia, I mean Azrael kill him?” he asked, mind reeling. He had seen Antonia's soul, she definitely had one. It had been bright and warm, and come to think of it, the same shade as the soul stone.
“The soul stone leans more towards a concept, an ideal made corporeal. Life, mercy, justice, eternity, all of us, we are all beings. The infinity stones are not, they are alive, they are dead, and they were never living all at the same time. It’s what makes them so dangerous. They are the rules and the exception, they are an infinite paradox.” she sighed, “the avengers once called Azrael soulless, which was true but she was also the embodiment of every soul to ever exist.”
That sparked a memory, “once... She told me of a mortal, Yinsen. He called her someone who had everything and nothing.”
“And he was not wrong, but she will have everything even when she has nothing because she has found her happiness.”
Too tired to even begin to unpack what that could mean specifically, Loki turned back to the fight, knowing he could do nothing to keep Antonia safe, he had always known she was strong, but he had never known how strong.
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Thanos scrambled to his feet as he dodged the burning debris of his army. Grabbing his dual-bladed sword he lunged at Toni.
Her swords dissolved into a shield as Thanos slammed his sword downwards, towards her head. Her wings flared behind her and she was knocked a step back at the brute force behind the attack.
They drew back, circled one another like wolves, and threw themselves at each other over and over.
The earth shook as they clashed, wave after wave of power radiating out of them.
Toni’s weapons morphed into battering rams, swords, shields, and weapons Loki had never seen before. She was twisting and turning around Thanos like a dancer. She flew, sliced, kicked, punched, and fired shards of metal. The black and gold swirled around her, giving her the appearance of a hurricane, making her a one angel army and an arsenal.
She took punch after punch, brushing them off and throwing herself back into the fight as if they had never happened. She dodged blows that Loki knew he would have never been able to avoid. She pulled combat moves that, despite their lack of flamboyance, even had the black widow looking on in awe.
Loki wasn’t sure how strong the fact she was an angel of death made Antonia, but she was holding her own against a monster who had led to the fall of Asgard.
Loki had always known his Antonia had never been overly fond of magic that wasn't his, and in the beginning, she had been wary of his magic too. So seeing her surrounded in something oddly reminiscent of it surprised him. Could he truly call her his Antonia if he knew so little about her?
What was most surprising was the green glow coming from her wrist, the one she had been using to block blows that couldn’t be shielded in time, as she and Thanos warred over the stones.
That glow, he would recognize it anywhere.
The necklace he had given her, that she had been wearing before she had transformed, was now wrapped around her wrist. How it was still intact after taking such hard hits was beyond him.
In his rage and desperation, Thanos began to charge the gauntlet.
The air crackled with energy, from the fight and the infinity stones.
Letting out a monstrous roar, he took aim and blasted.
Loki watched in horror.
Despite the arm shielding it...
the soul stone was hit.
The world around Antonia erupted into a pulsing kaleidoscope of colors.
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Death felt the universe stop when the soul stone was hit.
She felt every being hold their breath.
She watched the souls from the stone as they drifted into the air surrounding her angel, and she could do nothing to stop it.