[Jane rushed forward as soon as she saw Thor.]
[Thor turned to her with a soft expression and said, "Jane."]
[The moment the words left his lips, Jane snapped her hand up and slapped him hard across the face. Her eyes widened afterward, breath trembling.]
["I'm sorry," she blurted, barely holding herself together. "I had to make sure you're real. Too many strange things happened today, way too many."]
[Thor nodded, trying to explain. "I'm real, Jane. I..."]
[Smack! Jane slapped him again before he could finish.]
["Where have you been?" she demanded, her voice shaking with anger and worry.]
The entire audience watching through the live broadcast froze in stunned silence, then burst out laughing.
"This greeting is legendary!"
"Fight! It's fine! The guy's got thick skin!"
"That's a strict girlfriend!"
"Long-distance relationship problems: domestic edition."
"Thor: If the wife hits you, you bear it like a man."
"Check reality by slapping his face? That's… creative."
"Because he's wearing armor everywhere else. The face is the only soft spot!"
"Bro literally came back with divine power and immediately triggered an emotional boss fight."
"Why does Thor look like that one celebrity from our stream?"
"Which one?"
"Now that you mention it… yeah."
[Thor took a breath. "Where have you been? Heimdall couldn't see you."]
[Jane's voice softened, but her hurt bled through. "I was right where you left me. Waiting. Crying. Then waiting some more. When you didn't come back, I went looking for you. You promised you'd return."]
["I know," Thor said quietly. "But the Rainbow Bridge was destroyed. Asgard fell into chaos. Robbers, wars, death, I had to stop the killing."]
[Jane blinked at him. "Okay… that excuse is actually pretty solid. But I also saw you on TV, in some other world, and you still didn't come find me."]
[Thor's expression turned solemn. "Jane… I was trying to protect you from my world. But I was wrong. Fate brought us together, and I should've trusted that. No matter where you went or what happened, one thing is certain..."]
[They were leaning closer and closer, their emotions finally aligning, and Darcy ran up, panting, jacket half on.]
["WAIT, WAIT, WAIT," she yelled, ruining the moment entirely.]
[Jane groaned and walked toward a nearby police car.]
["Excuse me," she said as an officer approached.]
["Are you Jane?" the policeman asked.]
["Yes."]
[He pointed at a nearby man. "Do you know him?"]
[Jane's brain crashed. "Uh… he's my intern. My intern's intern. Something like that."]
["This is private property," the officer said sternly. "You're all suspected of trespassing. Come with us."]
[He reached out to grab Jane's arm, but the moment his fingers brushed her, a tremendous force exploded outward.]
[BOOM. Police officers were flung off their feet. Car windows shattered in an instant. Jane's body jerked violently before she collapsed, unconscious.]
[Thor rushed to her side. "Jane! Jane, are you all right?"]
[Before he could lift her fully, officers shouted, "Hands behind your head! Now!"]
[Thor growled, "The lady is unwell."]
["She's dangerous," the constable countered.]
[Thor tightened his grip on Mjölnir. "I'm dangerous too."]
[He scooped Jane into his arms. "Hold on to me."]
[Jane, dazed, clung weakly to him. Peculiar glowing lines appeared beneath their feet, ancient runes pulsing with energy. A sudden column of light erupted, engulfing them. A heartbeat later, they vanished, leaving only the shimmering imprint of the patterns. The beam shot upward like a spear thrust into the heavens, piercing the sky.]
"Whoa! What was THAT?!"
"Heimdall express delivery, probably!"
"Thor is literally a wife-protection machine!"
"He just yeeted her into heaven!"
"He did this last time too, I still remember the flash burn!"
"I wanna fly to the sky, side by side with the sun~"
"You think they have oxygen up there?!"
The scene shifted abruptly.
[Dark World, Malekith stared at the scorched ground under his feet, "Look at what's left of us, Agham. I can barely remember the days before all this."]
[Agham placed a firm hand on his shoulder. "The continuation of our race will be your legacy."]
[Malekith crushed the soil in his fist. "I want the Asgardians to feel the suffering we endured. I want the Aether back. I want to restore our world. I want to END this poisoned universe."]
[He roared into the void, fury shaking the air.]
The audience stiffened in alarm.
"Yup. Definitely evil. Destroy-the-universe-level evil."
"He ruined the Terra Earth Era! That monster!"
"Asgard can handle them, but Earth?? We're toast!"
Inside the Administration Office, the Chief and various experts watched grimly. Dark Elves, a force strong enough to challenge all of Asgard. Terra Earth, whether in the modern era or the Federation age, wouldn't survive if caught in the crossfire.
Johan spoke up. "The Cube! Didn't Thor take the Cube before? If the Aether can destroy the universe, maybe it can fight it."
Tonio nodded. "Johan has a point. But… does anyone know where the Cube is?"
As the experts debated, the director's eyes widened. Light filled his gaze.
"New elements… Cosmic Cube… Aether…" he whispered. "Something connects all of this…"
But he couldn't grasp it fully yet.
[On Asgard and in a vast chamber, Jane lay on a strange device as healers examined her. An orange phantom drifted from her body.]
["What… what is that?" she whispered.]
["Do not speak," the healer said.]
[Thor frowned. "That's not of Earth. What is it?"]
["We don't know," the healer admitted. "Her body holds an overwhelming energy. She can't contain it."]
[Jane stared at the shimmering wave above her. "Isn't this a quantum field generator?"]
["This is the Soul Smelting Furnace," the healer answered coolly.]
["It manipulates molecular energy, right?" Jane pressed.]
[The healer glanced at her, surprised. "Yes."]
[Jane smirked and whispered to Thor, "Quantum field generator."]
[King Odin strode inside. "Do my words fall on deaf ears?"]
[Thor turned. "She's sick."]
["She is mortal," Odin replied. "Mortals get sick."]
["I brought her here because we can save her."]
[Odin eyed Jane. "She does not belong in Asgard. Goat meat does not belong on a banquet table."]
[Jane sat up straight. "Who do you think you are?"]
["I am Odin," he declared. "King of Asgard. Protector of the Nine Kingdoms."]
[Jane stuttered. "I'm..."]
["I know who you are."]
[Jane leaned toward Thor. "You… told your dad about me?"]
[Thor ignored the question. "She carries a substance I've never seen before."]
[Odin shook his head. "Her world has its own healers, doctors. Let them handle it. Guards, send her home."]
[A squad moved in, but at that moment, crimson light exploded from Jane, hurling the guards back. Odin grabbed her arm. Dark red particles crept across her skin like living ink.]
["This is impossible," Odin breathed.]
[The healer hurried over. "She's infected by something that's protecting her."]
[Thor whispered, "No. It's protecting itself."]
In the Federal Hospital, Jay leaned over a medical device examining a patient. "Boss," she joked to Tetsuo, "imagine if we had one of these Soul Smelting Furnaces. Our treatment success rate would skyrocket!"
Tetsuo ignored the humor. "Asgard is using quantum mechanics for medical diagnosis and treatment. Their technology is light-years ahead of our MRI and X-ray systems. And during the process, the patient remains completely conscious."
Jay scoffed. "Of course. They're gods! What did you expect?"
"No," Tetsuo murmured. "As Odin said, they outlived humans by five thousand years, but they're still essentially human. A parallel branch of humanity."
Jay froze. Now that she thought about it… they really were similar.
Tetsuo continued, "I even suspect Asgard might belong to the same life system as humans."
Jay grinned. "You can keep that theory. Let the director go bald over it."
The thought of a human-linked divine realm defied belief.
[In the History Room of Asgar, Odin guided Thor and Jane into a grand hall.]
["Some things predate the birth of the universe," he said. "She carries one of them."]
[Above them, glowing orbs of different colors floated in the air, "The Nine Realms are not eternal. They rise with dawn and fall with twilight."]
[Odin opened a radiant book, "Before the dawn, darkness ruled. The Dark Elves held dominion, unmatched by any."]
[Thor read aloud, "Born in eternal night, the Dark Elves will steal your light. My mother told us these stories."]
[Odin continued. "Malekith forged a weapon of pure darkness, the Aether. Unlike other relics, which are solid, the Aether is fluid. Ever-shifting. It turns matter into dark energy, hunts hosts to parasitize, and drains life."]
[He closed the book slowly, "Malekith sought to return the universe to darkness. But after a brutal war, my father prevailed. And thousands of years of peace followed."]
The team of experts listened intently to King Odin's explanation, and several physicists were stunned.
Odom exclaimed, "Is the ether particle they mentioned truly dark matter?"
"In our theory, dark matter formed alongside the universe itself. Doesn't that mean if the Dark Elves can control the Aether, they're controlling the universe's primordial energy?" Astrophysicist Hawking looked both shocked and exhilarated. This was a groundbreaking cosmology, something he had rarely encountered.
"Nine Realms, dark matter, Asgard… We now have reason to believe that during that ancient era, their understanding of cosmology was extremely advanced. Unlike us, who remain ignorant about most of the universe, even about Greater Terra itself." Hawking was so excited he nearly jumped up.
Darwin asked in confusion, "Dark matter… releases energy?"
Hawking thought for a moment. "How should I put it? Dark matter can be understood as inherently containing energy. It can also be seen as a device that manipulates even more energy. And if you can manipulate infinite energy… you could truly destroy the universe."
Everyone froze. These were words coming from a physicist. Destroy the universe?
Johan frowned. "I've recorded these fragments. They're filled with references to these so-called Nine Realms, but the information is still incomplete."
The director said, "Recovering the cosmology of that era, or anything related to the Nine Kingdoms, will be extremely valuable for understanding our universe today."
Everyone nodded.
And it wasn't just them. Throughout the Greater Terra Federation, countless astronomy enthusiasts were trying to analyze this themselves, but their summaries were still far from complete. Even posts about it on the Forum were performing worse than previous discussions.
Meanwhile, viewers in the broadcast felt like they were hanging off a cliff.
"The Aether is inside Jane, and she's in Asgard again. The Dark Elves must be heading there."
"Revenge + the ether particles… I feel like Asgard is about to end!"
"If Asgard collapses, doesn't that mean Greater Terra is doomed too?"
"But Greater Terra is fine right now… does that mean the Dark Elves failed back then?"
"Not necessarily. Who knows what actually happened?"
"We can only wait to see what appears in the memory feed."