The sleekly designed Lothar ship streaked through the vast emptiness of space.

Lothar stood by the window, his arms crossed over his chest, his calm gaze fixed on the rapidly changing cosmic scenery outside. In his mind, he was replaying the instructions Thanos had given him before he left the Black Quadrant.

The sleekly designed Lothar ship streaked through the vast emptiness of space.

Lothar stood by the window, his arms crossed over his chest, his calm gaze fixed on the rapidly changing cosmic scenery outside. In his mind, he was replaying the instructions Thanos had given him before he left the Black Quadrant.

An hour ago, in the main hall of the Black Quadrant base in the Centauri system...

"Go to Sakaar?"

"The Grandmaster's planet?"

"Is there a problem there?"

Lothar stood before the throne, puzzled. That place was just a cosmic junkyard with no use for the Black Quadrant. Why would his father want him to go there specifically?

"I need you to confirm something for me, Lothar," Thanos said, not beating around the bush. "Confirm how many Thors there are on Sakaar."

"How many Thors?"

"What do you mean?" Lothar asked, a frown on his face.

"I suspect that the Thor you once met on Asgard has not yet left," Thanos said calmly, his fingers interlocked. If his suspicions were true and the planetary observer's reports were accurate, then he might be able to use the future Thor to find a way for Lothar to break the cosmic rule limitations.

After all, a person from the future lingering in the past was a violation of the universe's natural order. This was also why Thanos had stopped Lothar from pursuing the traitor Gamora. A single traitor was insignificant compared to the potential opportunity for Lothar to gain a massive breakthrough.

"The Thor I met on Asgard? That Thor?" Thanos's words made Lothar instantly recall the Thor he had encountered during his rampage on Asgard, the one he had casually thrown onto Sakaar.

"Precisely," Thanos said. "If he really is on Sakaar, I want you to bring him back alive." Thanos had many plans for the God of Thunder who had traveled through time.

"Yes, Father," Lothar said respectfully, accepting his orders.

....

On Sakaar, in a hidden cave...

Still wearing his mask, the Horse-Faced Thor stood outside the cave, looking toward the cosmic arena in the distance. Even from miles away, he could almost hear the cheers from the arena and see the young man who had reclaimed the title of God of Thunder, tearing through the competition. He had become the biggest dark horse in the cosmic arena.

"He won," the Grandmaster said, appearing next to the Horse-Faced Thor. The Grandmaster should have been hosting the awards ceremony, but he was here to give him the final result. "He won easily."

"I know," the Horse-Faced Thor said. "You should only come to me if he lost."

"But don't you think it's immoral for a single person to get their face stamped on my arena wall twice?" the Grandmaster said slowly.

"After everything you've done over the years, I don't think you're in a position to talk about morals, Grandmaster," the Horse-Faced Thor said with a laugh. He wasn't surprised that his identity had been exposed. A month ago, after his younger self had arrived and he had decided to help him, he had prepared for this very moment.

"Wouldn't it be better just to live your life?" the Grandmaster sighed, his eyes distant. If the Horse-Faced Thor had kept his identity a secret and hadn't done anything to disrupt the universe's rules, he could have lived a long and peaceful life. Until his natural death.

"In my original timeline, where Tony Stark sacrificed himself, I no longer exist. In other words, I'm forging a new future now. Do you understand?" The Horse-Faced Thor still hadn't taken off his mask, but his voice was no longer disguised.

"You'll be corrected," the Grandmaster said, still unable to understand why a being as powerful as the Horse-Faced Thor could take death so lightly.

"You know, Grandmaster," the Horse-Faced Thor said, looking up at the polluted skies of Sakaar. "A new future is far more important than my life."

The destruction of Asgard, the tragic deaths of his people, his parents, and his brother—that was a truly hopeless future for Thor.

"I fell into darkness," he said, his voice heavy and weathered. "I shamefully abandoned my responsibility as king, my dignity as king. I gave up all hope. I thought nothing mattered anymore because I had nothing left to lose. But he's different. He still has a chance to make things right."

"So you're willing to be erased?" the Grandmaster still couldn't understand. He even wondered if this Asgardian's head had been knocked loose.

"I told you, I have nothing left to lose," the Horse-Faced Thor said with a smile, blue lightning arcs dancing across his fingertips. "If you must know, you can see my actions as redemption. My own redemption."

BOOM!

With a flash of electricity, the Horse-Faced Thor vanished.

"Warning! Warning! Prince Lothar, an unknown energy body is rapidly approaching!"

"Warning! Warning! Prince Lothar..."

"Warning..."

The artificial intelligence on the Lothar, Woz, suddenly sounded a piercing alarm just as the ship was about to enter the Sakaar territory.

Startled, The Other, who had been dozing in his seat, hastily unbuckled his seatbelt and grabbed the Mind Stone scepter beside him, his gaze alert.

"It seems Father was right," Lothar said, opening his eyes. His gaze fell on the figure floating silently in front of the Lothar.

The horse-like face he remembered was unchanged, but the old, bloated figure was gone. Lothar stood up and slowly flew out of the cabin, watched by The Other and Woz.

"It's been a long time, Lothar." In the "vacuum" of space, now twisted beyond recognition by power, the Horse-Faced Thor took off his mask. The face of a middle-aged, grizzled Thor appeared before Lothar.

"Are you coming with me willingly, or do I have to knock you out and drag you along?" The cold Lothar's response was equally frigid.

"You won't have a chance to rewrite the rules, Lothar," the middle-aged Thor said, shaking his head, his eyes now filled with ancient, powerful runes. White-haired Thor was going all out.

BOOM!

Lothar's energy levels surged, causing a ripple of unrest throughout every planet in the Sakaar territory. At the same time, his appearance gradually changed.

"You can try."

His gray-white eyes were filled with arrogance and disdain. His carmine hair radiated with an evil charisma and an overwhelming might.

Carmine Lothar was unstoppable.

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