Battle of Wakanda

"You are in Wakanda now. Thanos will have nothing but dust and blood." "We... have blood to spare."

- T'Challa and Proxima Midnight

The Battle of Wakanda was an open confrontation that pitted the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Wakandan armies and their allies against the Outriders and the remaining members of the Black Order.

Background
"Evacuate the city. Engage all defenses. And get this man a shield."

- T'Challa

After Vision was damaged by Corvus Glaive, Steve Rogers and his team, with the addition of War Machine and Bruce Banner, sought the help of Shuri to separate the Mind Stone from Vision so that Wanda Maximoff could destroy it. Arriving at Wakanda, the Avengers were greeted by T'Challa and Rogers was reunited with his old friend, Bucky Barnes. Banner and Shuri discussed on how to safely remove Vision's Mind Stone before a massive alien space ship crashed on Wakanda's borders, signifying the arrival of the enemy. In order to buy time for Shuri to remove the Infinity Stone, T'Challa ordered the city to be evacuated, the preparation of the city's defenses, and for Roger's to be given a vibranium shield. Rogers' team, with Bruce Banner using the Hulkbuster armor, T'Challa, Barnes, the Dora Milaje, Wakanda's new King's Guard, the Jabari Tribe, and the remainder of the Border Tribe prepared to face Thanos' army.

Battle
"Thanos will have that stone." "That's not gonna happen."

- Proxima Midnight and Steve Rogers

Rogers, Black Widow, and T'Challa went to face Proxima Midnight and Cull Obsidian. Black Widow inquired where Corvus Glaive was, and Midnight intimated that he was dead. Finding their opponent nonnegotiable, the trio rejoined the rest of the army as they prepared for alien invaders.

Countless alien soldiers began pouring out from the ship and charging into Wakanda's barrier force field. Despite killing numerous amounts of them, more and more began to force themselves through the barrier, before being quickly dispatched by the allied army. To prevent them from flanking their position and reaching Vision, T'Challa ordered the shield wall lowered to funnel the enemy towards them. Falcon and War Machine used their aerial agility and technology to great effect, while the Avengers battled the Outriders.

As the battle intensified, Thor used the newly forged Stormbreaker to summon the Bifrost, transporting himself, Rocket Raccoon and Groot to the Wakandan battlefield. They arrived not a moment too soon, as Wakanda's forces were on the verge of being overwhelmed by Thanos' army. Equipped with his new weapon, Thor quickly took out vast numbers of Outriders, turning the tide of the battle.

Seeing that their forces were still struggling against the Outrider onslaught and with the sudden arrival of Outrider reinforcements in the form of bladed tanks, Wanda leapt onto the battlefield and stopped several tanks before they could reach Black Widow and Okoye. She then threw several onto the Outriders charging towards the team, instantly eliminating a massive portion of Thanos' army.

Unbeknownst to everyone, Corvus Glaive had infiltrated Wakanda. Once informed by Proxima Midnight that Wanda was on the battlefield, leaving Vision unprotected, he launched his attack. While Ayo held him off, Shuri managed to shut down the work and enabled Vision to flee. Firing her gauntlets at Glaive, Shuri was nonetheless quickly incapacitated. Vision then confronted Glaive, with their fight bringing them to the battlefield. Meanwhile, Banner engaged Cull Obsidian in a ferocious fight, while simultaneously attempting to bring out the Hulk, to no avail. Banner was nonetheless able to use the Hulkbuster's severed left arm to kill Obsidian by trapping his arm in it and then activating the inbuilt thruster to send him crashing into the Wakandan defense shield. At the same time, Wanda was taken by surprise by Proxima Midnight, who threatened her with a lonely death until Widow and Okoye appeared as reinforcements. Meanwhile, Captain America engaged Corvus Glaive in battle to give Vision time to escape. Despite being told not to do so, Vision rescued Captain America just as he is about to be killed, by impaling Glaive with his spear.

After a lengthy three-on-one battle between Proxima Midnight and Wanda, Black Widow, and Okoye, Midnight began to gain the upper hand against Widow. Wanda, however, stopped Midnight from killing Widow by throwing her into the path of a tank passing overhead, causing Midnight to be gruesomely shredded. Following this, she quickly returned to Vision's side and tended to him. Suddenly, Vision sensed through the Mind Stone that Thanos was on the way and Captain America ordered every Avenger, Black Panther, Okoye and Groot to rally at his position to prepare for Thanos's inevitable arrival.

As winds blew hard, Thanos finally arrived on Wakanda via a portal, having obtained the powers of the Time, Space, Reality, Soul, and Power Stones. Intent on retrieving the Mind Stone and completing the Gauntlet, Thanos began to calmly walk towards his foes after briefly staring at the remaining heroes. Seeing this, the Avengers and their allies began to charge with full force to stop him.

Vision told Wanda that she must kill him to destroy the stone as they knew fully well the Avengers were no match for Thanos. However, she still refused to do so. Vision began to reason with her, stressing that they had run out of time and that destroying the Mind Stone was the only way to thwart Thanos' plans. He reassured her that he would feel no pain from its destruction. Reluctantly, Wanda unleashed a stream of energy into the stone. After effortlessly stopping the Hulkbuster and imprisoning it in solid stone by making it intangible for a while, Thanos sent Rogers to the ground, before easily stopping T'Challa's attempt to use his energy pulse by gripping him in the shoulder with the Gauntlet to use the Power Stone to negate it, before slamming him down to the ground to redirect the blast, downing two individuals within seconds.

Thanos then calmly sent Falcon to the ground after withstanding his bullets, casually crushed and twisted the guns of War Machine's armor and pinned him with large debris to interfere with his flight before simply flinging him away. The titan then knocked down Barnes soon after with a single shockwave of energy, stopped Okoye's spear and then easily downed her to the ground, trapped Black Widow with large concrete walls, and then easily broke out of Groot's vines while incapacitating him as well.

As Thanos was about to move to Vision, Rogers, determined to buy as much as he could, and to Thanos's shock, desperately charged at him and was able to land a few hits and block the Infinity Gauntlet hand, but it was only temporary as Thanos swiftly dispatched the Super Soldier with a single punch. Wanda then created a separate stream of energy to stall him further, before managing to destroy the stone just as he finally reached them. She was then knocked onto the ground as the stone exploded in its destruction along with Vision. As she lay on the ground, heartbroken, Thanos sympathized with her pain at sacrificing what she most loved, as he too had sacrificed Gamora for the Soul Stone. Wanda bitterly retorted to him that he knew nothing. She then watched in horror as Thanos used the Time Stone to restore Vision with the clear intent to rip the Mind Stone from his head. Although she attempted to stop him, Thanos easily flung her aside and ripped the Mind Stone from Vision's head, killing him a second time. Now in possession of the final Infinity Stone, his gauntlet was completed.

Moments later, Thor struck him with a lightning bolt. Thanos responded by shooting an energy beam from the gauntlet, which was deflected by Thor throwing Stormbreaker, ultimately striking him in his chest. Thor proceeded to mock Thanos for ignoring his promise of vengeance while forcing the blade of the axe further into Thanos' chest. However, even while mortally wounded and in severe pain, the Mad Titan was unfazed; he weakly mocked Thor for not aiming for his head, and then proceeded to activate the gauntlet by snapping his fingers, much to Thor's horror.

Aftermath
"What just happened?" "Oh, God."

- War Machine and Steve Rogers

Thanos briefly passed out, and to his great surprise, reawakened in a vast orange void. The void was empty, save for Thanos himself and one building in the distance. The building resembled the same archway on Zen-Whoberi where Thanos and Gamora met many years ago. Sure enough, as Thanos approached the arch, he encountered the child Gamora once again. Thanos excitedly told her that he had finally completed his mission. When Gamora asked "what did it cost?", he became solemn in his demeanor and simply replied, "Everything".

Regaining normal consciousness, Thanos returned to his body in Wakanda. Thor furiously questioned Thanos about the finger-snap, but he offered no answers. Though the Gauntlet appeared scorched and in an otherwise disabled condition, Thanos was able to teleport away with the Space Stone.

The consequences of Thanos' actions quickly became apparent: Barnes disintegrated into dust in front of Rogers, M'Baku watched as many members of the Wakandan army faded out of existence, Wilson disintegrated into dust in long grass while Rhodes called out to him, T'Challa picked up Okoye, saying it is no place for her to die before disintegrating. Rocket tearfully watched Groot fade away, and Maximoff sadly knelt over Vision's lifeless body before vanishing into dust. The survivors simply stood around in shock, unable to process the reality of Thanos’ victory and the consequences it had for them and the rest of the Universe.