As one of the top rulers in the main universe, Thanos had dealings with many powerful beings, so he knew plenty about the multiverse.
Of course, he'd heard of Dormammu, the Dark Lord who stood at the very top of these powerful beings.
The problem was that, as far as Thanos remembered, he'd never dealt with this Dark Lord before. There was no grudge between them.
It didn't make sense for Dormammu to suddenly attack him.
"Could it be because I recently teamed up with Ronan?" Thanos wondered to himself.
Recently, apart from steadily carrying out his "population control" mission, Thanos hadn't really done much else.
The only change was forming an alliance with Ronan the Accuser, leader of the Kree rebels.
If there was anything that might have made Dormammu target him, it would probably be this.
Other than that, he couldn't think of anything else.
After all, the planets Thanos targeted were mostly weaker civilizations unlikely to have connections to Dormammu, a top-level being.
Even if Thanos had accidentally killed some of Dormammu's followers, it wouldn't be enough to make the Dark Lord angry.
Dormammu controlled the entire Dark Dimension—would he really bother to retaliate over a few minor followers, even going so far as launching suicide attacks against Thanos?
That made no sense at all.
Even Thanos himself wouldn't waste his time getting angry over losing a few weak soldiers. It was simply beneath someone at his level.
"If it really is because of Ronan, there could be too many reasons…" Thanos rubbed his forehead, feeling troubled.
Ronan had a lot of enemies—from the Nova Corps and the Kree Empire's leader, the Supreme Intelligence, to the Skrulls, who hated the Kree with a passion.
Thanos wouldn't be surprised by whoever wanted to attack Ronan.
"Maybe joining forces with Ronan was a mistake?" Thanos began questioning his earlier decision.
Originally, he allied with Ronan to make use of Ronan's Accuser army, hoping they could help him quickly find the Infinity Stones.
He personally didn't think much of Ronan.
In terms of strength and intelligence, Ronan was nowhere close to Thanos, so he wasn't worried about Ronan betraying him.
But if teaming up with Ronan meant offending a powerful being like Dormammu, it suddenly seemed like a bad deal.
Still, he wasn't necessarily afraid of Dormammu.
Though beings like Dormammu were powerful, entering the main universe wasn't easy for them—and many didn't dare try.
After all, the main universe was under close watch by powerful groups like the Celestials and the Watchers.
If someone like Dormammu showed up and disrupted the universe's balance, the Celestials or Watchers might step in to stop him.
The Watchers' rule of non-interference only applied to civilizations within the main universe, not to powerful beings from other dimensions.
The Celestials were even more ruthless. They eliminated anyone they believed would interfere with their experiments.
Even the Watchers, beings equal to them in power, could be attacked without hesitation if the Celestials thought they interfered with their plans.
That's why the Celestials and the Watchers had conflicts dating back billions of years, continuing even now.
If Dormammu shamelessly came to attack Thanos personally, Thanos still had many ways to remain undefeated.
Besides, he had his biggest advantage—immortality.
Having been cursed by the Goddess of Death, Thanos was truly immortal. (TL/N: It seems that the thanos in this book is from Comics)
Except the five abstract entities, no one could kill him.
He was practically invincible, so fear wasn't in his vocabulary. At worst, Dormammu could only annoy him or cause trouble, but never truly scare him.
"Father, who exactly is this Dark Lord Dormammu? Why would he attack us?" Gamora asked, pulling Thanos back from his thoughts.
"He's the ruler of the Dark Dimension, one of the strongest beings in existence," Thanos explained openly.
"What?" Gamora was shocked. She clearly knew what "one of the strongest beings" meant. "Then what should we do now?"
"No need to worry too much… For now, investigate carefully to see if someone is pretending to be Dormammu to cause trouble," Thanos instructed calmly.
"And if it really is him?" Gamora asked nervously.
Thanos smiled and shook his head. "Even if it is him, it's not a big deal. Don't worry—I'll handle it."
Gamora nodded. "Understood, I'll start investigating immediately."
After chatting casually a bit more, they ended their communication.
Once the screen went dark, Thanos's smile instantly vanished. Clearly, he had only acted relaxed to comfort Gamora.
Facing a powerful being like Dormammu could never be as easy as he had pretended.
Sitting alone on his throne, Thanos sighed softly.
He didn't want to make Dormammu his enemy, as that could greatly disrupt his mission of "population control."
And if he couldn't complete his mission, how would he ever please the Goddess of Death?
"I hope it's all just a misunderstanding…"
Under the care of Itachi, the man in the black robe revealed everything he knew about the Church of Darkness without holding anything back.
Raymond mercifully fulfilled the man's wish and ended his life.
Ever since realizing he'd been tricked and had caused trouble for the Church of Darkness, the man had lost his will to live.
If Itachi hadn't been watching closely, he would have ended his own life long ago.
No one could really blame him for betraying the Church of Darkness either—very few people could resist Itachi's powerful illusions.
Interestingly, the man in the black robe and his subordinates hadn't given Raymond any Exploration or Development Points, including the appearance of Dormammu's funny-looking illusion.
Raymond certainly didn't believe Dormammu was worthless to the system.
It was probably because Dormammu had only appeared as a weak illusion, like someone making a cross-dimensional phone call.
If such small things counted, Raymond might even gain points just by watching characters on TV, which clearly wasn't possible.
Raymond didn't mind this too much, though, because the Church of Darkness behind the man in black was like a giant sheep ready for shearing.
Whether for revenge for his father or simply to gain more rewards, Raymond had no intention of letting the Church of Darkness off easily.