Before Loki could even react, his body was already flying out of the ship, plunging toward the sea below.
On the surface of the ocean, Karl saw Loki being kicked off the ship and immediately knew Thor had sent him flying. But Loki wasn't Thor—he couldn't fly. Karl instantly conjured a gust of wind, sending it upward to catch Loki mid-fall, slowing his descent and gently guiding him onto their smaller vessel.
A moment later, a red figure landed as well. Thor touched down safely, holding the unconscious Jane in his arms.
"Hahaha—still as graceful as ever, Bambi~!"
Seeing Loki's sorry state put Tony in an excellent mood. He burst out laughing, delighted every time Loki got humiliated.
Everyone looked up at the Razor ship above them. Its engines were belching thick black smoke. After flying only a short distance, the ship suddenly detonated and disintegrated midair.
"Didn't expect you to be this clever," Loki said, watching the explosion. "You even managed to fool me, brother~"
"You're only realizing that now?" Thor replied. "Hurry up and take us to that passage you mentioned."
He laid the unconscious Jane down on the ship, then moved to the bow and looked ahead—the edge of Asgard was not far away.
Loki curled his lip, then glanced at Tony.
Tony shrugged and immediately understood, vacating the pilot's seat.
Loki grabbed the oar-like control lever. The ship suddenly accelerated faster and faster, then he wrenched it sharply to the side. The vessel made a ninety-degree turn and shot toward a distant mountain range.
Just then, another ship appeared and began launching a fierce attack on them.
Karl turned around and casually summoned a fireball, repeating his earlier tactic and hurling it at the pursuing ship.
The enemy ship immediately tried to evade, but it hadn't expected the fireball to be homing. It curved dramatically through the air, tracked the ship's movement, and slammed straight into it, sending it crashing into the sea below.
Loki guided the ship into a narrow mountain gorge. On both sides were sheer cliffs, sharp as blades, with only a few meters of space between them. Instead of slowing down, Loki accelerated even harder.
"Loki! What are you trying to do?!"
Thor grabbed the bow and turned back toward him.
"If it were as easy as you imagine, it wouldn't be called a hidden passage!"
Loki accelerated again, ramming straight into the gorge.
The ship lurched violently as it squeezed into the narrow gap. As it sped forward, multicolored lights suddenly ignited around them—brilliant hues just like those of the Rainbow Bridge. In the next instant, everything flashed white.
When they opened their eyes again, the ship had arrived in a desolate wasteland.
The sky was dim, the land black and barren. As far as the eye could see, not a blade of grass grew—only deathly silence.
The ship staggered through the air, sparks flying everywhere.
The surroundings were nothing but ruins. It was as if they had entered the remains of a vast, fallen civilization. Collapsed structures and wreckage littered the landscape, including the hulks of massive spacecraft, clear evidence that this place had once been extraordinarily advanced.
Jane had regained consciousness. Beneath her skin, faint red energy could be seen flowing constantly.
"If I had that kind of energy," Loki remarked, watching her, "there's so much I could do with it."
"You'd be consumed by it, Loki," Thor replied coolly. "I don't want to lose my little brother."
"She seems fine, doesn't she?" Loki countered.
"Only for now. The Aether feeds on its host's life force. It keeps draining it…"
Thor didn't finish the sentence.
Loki nodded as if understanding at last. "Then say goodbye to her. For us, a hundred years is nothing. For humans, it's the end of their lives. You should let go now—the deeper you become entangled, the more her loss will tear you apart."
He looked at the weakened Jane. Though awake, she was barely conscious. The Aether's corrosion was growing more severe by the second.
"Shut up, Loki!" Thor roared.
Loki wisely said no more. He really was thinking of Thor—Asgardians lived for five thousand years, far beyond the span of human life. Letting go now would only bring regret; waiting until later would mean unbearable heartbreak.
Off to the side, Karl and Tony huddled together, each holding up a phone, cameras trained on Thor and Loki. A moment this dramatic was far too good to miss.
---
Earth.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had completely evacuated the Royal Greenwich Academy. Since the school's relocation, the site had become part of Greenwich University. Now, it stood utterly empty—everyone had been evacuated. Even the dogs kept on campus had been taken away.
Not only that, the entire Greenwich district had been cleared. Residents and workers alike were forced to leave temporarily under the joint intervention of local authorities and S.H.I.E.L.D.
The official explanation was that the military would be conducting large-scale exercises throughout the Greenwich area, with no set end date.
Despite widespread protests—people decrying the violation of their freedom and the expulsion from their homes—the military paid no heed. The district was sealed off completely. Agents in black suits moved through the streets, conducting final checks. Anyone found still inside was immediately escorted out.
Helicopters circled continuously above Greenwich, monitoring the situation. Coulson was aboard one of them.
"All units, stay sharp," Coulson said as he studied the real-time meteorological data. "Ten hours until the eclipse."
With modern technology, predicting a solar eclipse was exceptionally accurate.
On the ground, inside a temporary tent, Natasha, Steve, and Barton were present. Jane's assistant Daisy and Dr. Erik Selvig—who had once been controlled by Loki—were busy calibrating the devices in front of them.
"Doctor," Natasha asked, eyeing a piece of equipment that looked somewhere between a cane and a launcher, "can these things really detect dark matter?"
"This detector is based on the energy fluctuations of the Tesseract," Selvig explained. "It can accurately capture dark-matter signals with an error margin of less than ten meters."
After finishing his adjustments, he picked up one device and handed it to Natasha.
"Place these around Greenwich University at intervals of one hundred meters. If one of them activates, it means dark-matter fluctuations have been detected—very likely a gateway to the Nine Realms."
Natasha nodded. She trusted Selvig. After all, the device that once opened a cosmic gateway had been his work.
She issued orders to the agents, who began deploying the detectors throughout the university grounds.
And so, everyone stood ready, waiting for the eclipse to arrive.
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