Nearing two years into his long journey, Riku winds up flying into a familiar location. The very same asteroid belt he first trained to gain Chaos Form at.
Thinking about the time he's spent in space, and how unbelievable a journey its been, fills him with a sense of nostalgia.
He decides to drop by Pop Star since he's in the area and visit Kirby, but upon reaching the planet he comes across a dreadful sight. The whole world has been crystallized, and even the atmosphere is gone.
Takashi fears this was caused by someone with power equal to the "higher-ups", but Riku has his doubts...Still, the foe in question must be dangerous, and a threat beyond compare.
They happen across a strangely sentient looking castle made entirely out of crystal dragon scales and assume it has a connection to what happened to Pop Star.
Upon landing at the front entrance Riku encounters a strange being that control nuclear power. He fights him off without having to transform and learns that it was a mannequin. Its a strange start to this castle infiltration, but he continues to move on regardless.
The mannequin left behind one clue...That the castle's owner is named "Cryxis". Its a name that's familiar to Sodenko, somewhat, as it was used in tales from her tribe.
The tale spoke of a castle that could fly to other planets, but seemed to do nothing before vanishing. And slowly over time, it became less and less visible, until not even the "higher-ups" were said to be capable of seeing it.
It seems the tales were true, though that raises further questions as to how and why this castle exists.
Upon reaching a higher floor Riku comes across a strange sight: The Reaper. No, not "A" Reaper, THE Reaper. The very same one Mew encountered during the Mr. Reality event, though obviously Riku has no awareness of this.
The Reaper has been crystallized, and he's not alone. This room is filled entirely with beings of a similar nature. Majora's Mask, Death from Castlevania, the Pokemon Yveltal and Giratina, and so forth and so forth. These beings share one thing in common...A connection to the concept of death.
Riku begins an unnervingly slow walk through this hall and keeps encountering more of these statues. Eventually he arrives upon Nyx, the conceptual manifestation of death, meaning it should've been impossible for it to be seen let alone captured.
This discovery is followed by whispers of fear from another source, which tries to claw its way inside of Riku's mind and take advantage of his fears.
But Riku, having fought his fears too many times to count by now, is able to hold on long enough to activate Light Form and flush out this being with pure light. Then he kills it in one strike before it ever manifests into a physical form.
Due to this encounter, along with this room, Riku starts to suspect that there's more to the name "Cryxis" than what appears to be said.
As Riku climbs to the top of the castle, he tries to question Sodenko and Takashi if they know the name "Galactus". Despite most of the things they've said to him thus far, the name "Galactus" means nothing to them.
It disturbs Riku, moreso than the possibility of Cryxis' true identity could possibly have.
He makes it to the top and finds a beating crystal heart behind a throne. Demanding the presence of Cryxis, he is instead greeted by a cloaked woman with pale skin and long, ebony hair.
But the curious thing is that Takashi and Sodenko see this person as having the face of the Elemental Overlord. Riku determines that this is another mannequin, one that lies on reflections.
Riku draws his blade and uses the power of Light and Darkness separately to get around his foe's tricks, eventually severely damaging it.
Then Cryxis emerges from the shadows, finishing the mannequin off, and admitting to Riku that he fell for his lure.
Riku demands answers but Cryxis shall give none. Even though Riku has pieced together Cryxis' true identity, Cryxis refuses to let it be revealed. All he cares about is vengeance upon Riku, his wrath ever-lasting.
Riku draws his arms and prepares for the fight of his life against this familiar stranger.
Cryxis attacks with crystal magic while Riku dodges and evades, getting in close enough to smash his foe's helmet in half. And then, with no options left available to him, Cryxis grins as the helmet splits off his face...And reveals the Mad Titan, Thanos.
Thanos throws accusations of Riku being an entity called the "Phoenix of Destruction", that this is the moment of time to intercept him. But Riku's just entirely clueless as to what Thanos is talking about.
Thanos recounts a day unlike any other, when the being called the Phoenix of Destruction descended upon Earth-616, the world of Marvels.
In the span of a mere couple days, the Phoenix of Destruction burned through the Earth's mightiest heroes and turned the entire world to ash. He then charred the Nine Realms to cinders, and continued on a rampage that spanned the strongest galactic armies in the universe.
And not even that was enough to satiate his burning rage. The Celestials, the Cosmic Abstractions, and even the Living Tribunal, gathered to stop him.
Yet even they could not survive, as time began to lash out from the Phoenix of Destruction's body, reducing even the mightiest of the celestial wards to dust from before the beginning of time.
Thanos, as mere luck would have granted him, survived thanks to Lady Death's help. She gave him the Infinity Gauntlet and told him to "Run". He shunted himself forward through time, watching as his universe reached a swift and sudden end.
And Lady Death, as per the will of the "higher-ups" paid for her acts by being splintered into many other forms, which exist now as the beings Thanos has in this castle's museum.
He awoke on a world of crystal with a broken Infinity Gauntlet and a slight bit of amnesia. He forged new armor and a new identity, and for the last thousands upon thousands upon thousands of years scanned the universe for the fragments of Death...Awaiting the day when he could intercept the Phoenix of Destruction before he traveled back in time to destroy his universe.
Thanos refuses to listen to Riku's attempts to defend himself and begins attacking more furiously. Riku shifts into Chaos Form and fights back, only to find the Mad Titan's boasts of remaining strong to be woefully true.
It is only through sheer luck that Riku manages to land a fatal blow to Thanos' heart, putting the Mad Titan onto his knees.
Thanos, however, feigns surrender and tricks Riku into going towards the device that will return Pop Star to normal.
As Riku leaves, Thanos activates the pulsing heart of the castle, forcing Riku to fly out before he's consumed by the beast's carnal teeth.
The castle transforms into a planet-sized dragon, with Thanos boasting that he shall change history at this moment, so that he and he alone shall deliver death upon those from his world.
Riku tries his hardest to fight this beast, but even its weakest attacks toss him around with ease.
Sodenko cannot keep watching this, and neither can Takashi, but Riku's cutting them off from helping. But when it appears he may die, he decides in his final moments to break Sodenko's chain so she can at least continue to live.
Seeing how selfless Riku has been despite all her attitude up until this point, Sodenko refuses to leave. Her and Takashi break through their confinement realm and band together into the Lord of Chaos to engage the crystal dragon.
They open the way for Riku to blast into the core of the castle and confront Thanos once more. Thanos stands, triumphant in his ability to prevail over predetermined history.
Riku, however, draws his weapons and prepares to show him the truth of his ways.
Through the course of a climatic battle that takes them close to the sun and then deeper still, Riku figures out Thanos' biggest weakness due to the story he presented before.
Infusing Thanos with the power of Light and Darkness together creates "Life", and Thanos expunges blood in a gruesome manner before falling to his knees in defeat.
Riku understood what Lady Death had truly done in her last moments. She had given Thanos a parting gift...A piece of herself. Thus, he truly represents Death, and Life can hurt him just as it had hurt her.
Riku then declares again that he is NOT the Phoenix of Destruction. Thanos is about ready to deny his lies, when Riku suddenly drops the name "Chronicler".
Curiously, it was the Chronicler who awaited him at the time he regained his memories, and told him the title of "Phoenix of Destruction" in the first place.
By process of elimination, Riku realizes that it can't be him or Mew...The Phoenix of Destruction is the third Elemental Overlord successor.
Yet it is too late to stop them from going back to the past, Thanos realizes that to be true. Riku vows to kill them in the present, as no doubt he did not stay there for long.
Thanos calls him a fool, yet Riku doesn't care. He has a duty to uphold as an Elemental Overlord.
Thanos chuckles at Riku for then refusing to kill him. Riku knows of the trillions of lives Thanos has trampled over in his wake...The blood that has spilled over countless worlds...But he won't kill Thanos.
Thanos can never truly get what he wants if he lives. The only way to restore Lady Death is to sacrifice himself as well. In the end, just as she always has, Lady Death has denied his love, and he can rot with that realization until the end of days.
Riku then leaves the castle and greets Sodenko and Takashi. With this battle over, and both of them free, neither have reason to be with him anymore.
They decide to part their separate ways here, though Takashi hints that if necessary, they will meet again (Spoilers: They will not).
Now, all alone, Riku travels through space on a hunt for the Phoenix of Destruction..As the Chronicler watches on, delighted for what's coming next.
Special 2 END.