This time, the dark elf battleships no longer dared to ram directly. Since the divine shield guarding the attic could not be broken, and direct collision had already failed once, they simply changed their approach and attacked the surrounding buildings.
As long as the surrounding supports collapsed, the attic would lose its foundation and fall naturally.
Fortunately, Thor had arrived in time. He restrained several battleships, smashing them apart with thunder. Otherwise, the attic would have already collapsed, and Lock would really have had a headache dealing with that.
If he wanted to wipe out all the battleships, he would have to drop the divine shield. But with so many cannons outside, if even a single shot slipped through, everyone in the room except Sif would probably die on the spot.
Now, with Thor, Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg joining the fray outside, along with the divine ground turrets, Lock finally felt a little pressure lifted from his shoulders.
But just then—
"Boom!"
A wall of the room suddenly burst apart, rubble flying everywhere, and a terrifying figure rushed in.
It was the mutated Kurse, the so-called "Hexagonal Minotaur"!
He had survived the explosion that destroyed the energy shield core. Now sensing the Aether's energy within Jane, he smashed through the wall and entered like a beast.
Kurse held a stolen Asgardian giant axe in one hand and swung it down toward Jane Foster and Queen Frigga without hesitation.
Sif had been guarding the window. She barely had time to react, stepping in front of the Queen with her sword raised.
But her block was too rushed, no power stored, and Kurse's immense strength instantly pressed her down. The axe was inches from Frigga's head—history was about to repeat itself, just like in the original plot.
Then came a clear metallic "clang!"
The axe stopped dead, no longer moving forward even a millimeter.
A hand was holding the blade. Lock's hand.
Five deep finger grooves sank into the thick steel of the axe's shaft.
Kurse's crimson eyes widened, shocked. He tried to wrench the axe free and strike again—
But Lock wouldn't give him the chance.
Lock stepped forward, his towering figure twisting sideways. Though Kurse was a head taller than him, Lock moved with frightening ease.
Instead of going for the throat, Lock's fingers pierced through the supposedly unbreakable scales and grabbed Kurse's spine directly.
Then—
"Hah!"
Lock lifted him and hurled him toward the hole in the wall.
At the exact same moment, a dark red energy bolt from outside struck. Kurse didn't even have time to scream before he was obliterated into a rain of gore.
Lock instantly raised his divinld to block, so that not even a single drop of blood reached Frigga or Jane.
Sif had just started to relax when—
Clink, clink, clink!
Several small grenades were tossed in through the same breach in the wall.
If it had been ordinary human grenades, Sif would have laughed them off. But these were thrown by dark elves. She didn't hesitate, stepping once more between the Queen and danger.
Lock didn't hesitate either.
A sharp "bang!" echoed as he used his supersonic movement technique. In less than a heartbeat, he snatched all the grenades midair and flung them back out through the hole.
"Boom!"
Instead of a normal explosion, each device collapsed into a small black dot.
Then a terrifying suction force filled the room.
The hair of Frigga, Jane, Sif, Daisy—all rose toward the grenades.
The two dark elves outside screamed, trying to flee, but it was too late. They were sucked in, bodies crushed into nothingness, leaving only fine dust clinging to the air.
This was the dark elves' gravity collapse bomb—a micro black hole grenade.
Although the black hole lasted only an instant, it was enough to pull in anything within three meters. And once inside, the matter would be compressed until even the electrons were forced into the nucleus.
No matter how tall a person was, what remained would be no larger than a grain of rice.
Sif's face paled as she realized just how close they had come to all being killed.
But Frigga, instead of fear, let out a soft sigh of relief.
Her gaze lingered on the spot where Kurse's body had been turned to pulp. This was the very creature fated to kill her, now slain before it could complete its destiny.
At least for now, fate had been changed.
"Don't get distracted, Sif!" Lock barked.
"Yes!" Sif steadied her breathing and refocused.
Outside, most of the battleships had already been destroyed. The dark elves' ambush was practically a failure.
But instead of retreating, the mothership in the distance raised its shield to maximum power and charged straight for the temple.
The massive hull, like a floating mountain, ignored the divine cannons. The golden shield patterns rippled under each strike, but still the mothership advanced.
Thor saw this and shouted, "Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg — pull everyone back!"
"What?!" Fandral yelled. "The Queen is still up there!"
"Then we can't retreat!" Volstagg roared.
The three refused to fall back, choosing instead to stand their ground, blocking the mothership with their own bodies if necessary.
Thor gritted his teeth, cursing them as idiots. He flew forward with Mjolnir, grabbed them one by one, and dragged them out of the line of fire.
"Thor! Do you even care about your mother?!" Fandral shouted angrily.
"Of course I care!" Thor snapped. "That's why I'm saving your lives first!"
"But the mothership is too big," Hogun shouted. "Lock's divine shield can't stop it!"
But then—
An unseen ripple spread across Asgard.
The entire realm fell silent.
From the attic, a massive blue fist imprint appeared. At first it was only the size of a man's head, but it grew larger and larger, until it seemed like the sun itself was descending upon the mothership.
"INFINITE DIVINE FIST!"
The punch landed, ed.
"BOOOOM!!!"
The mothership's energy shield shattered in less than a tenth of a second.
Its reactors overloaded and exploded in a chain reaction, fire blooming across the ship.
But the fist imprint did not stop.
It punched straight through the mothership, erasing most of the central hull, leaving only a shattered, donut-like frame drifting in the air.
Then, withofirstlowing, the punch continued into the distant void until it finally disappeared from sight.
Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg all stood frozen, staring at where the fist had vanished.
No wonder Thor had told them to retreat.
Prince Lock was a monster.
If they had stoven if themother'sdhandp hand hadn't killed them, that punch would have.
And if Lock had acted earlier with two punches like that—did they even need to fight at all?