Odin fell silent. Thanos was cunning and insidious—he could not leave Asgard unguarded.
He had to remain seated in Asgard!
But Lucci could not be ignored, and Odin gripped the Eternal Spear tightly.
This supreme artifact symbolized the authority of the All-Father, now shining brightly,
gathering terrifying energy that could tear the stars apart, swirling violently.
Odin was ready.
If Lucci was endangered, he would not hesitate to come in person!
"Heimdall!"
Odin commanded with utmost authority.
"Synchronize Nidavellir's situation in real time!"
[As you command, All-Father!]
The next moment, light and shadow fused in the center of the throne room,
projecting a massive, vivid three-dimensional image into the air.
On the image, the black Chitauri army pressed toward the magnificent stellar ring like a tidal wave—Nidavellir.
The dwarves were still recovering from the grand blueprint of Lucci's "MagicNet,"
their excitement not yet faded.
That promise was as comforting as the finest wine, enough to protect generations,
immersing every cell in ecstasy and peace of mind.
But just then, Lucci, who had been standing indifferently, suddenly looked up—
his deep gaze seemed to pierce through the thick shell of the stellar ring into the endless depths of space.
"They're coming."
He quietly uttered two words. His voice was not loud, yet it struck the joyous atmosphere like a heavy hammer.
Here it comes.
What's coming?
Eitri and the dwarven masters present felt their chests tighten, unconsciously following Lucci's gaze upward.
"Prince Lucci, do you mean…?"
Before Eitri finished his question, he saw something appear above Nidavellir.
At first, it was a few faint spots of light in the distant starry sky—like new stars.
But in a flash, those points rapidly expanded!
They were no longer mere dots of light, but ships…
Ugly, vile, grasshopper-like attack vessels of cold metal!
Finally, as the wormhole stabilised, a canopy of steel made up of thousands of warships—enough to blot out the starlight—appeared in orbit above Nidavellir!
"My god…"
A dwarven craftsman's hammer dropped to the ground with a clang.
His face drained of blood, lips trembling, he was speechless.
Panic swept through Nidavellir like the most terrifying plague.
The dwarves, who had just been basking in hope, now stared blankly at the spectacle above.
The dense, endless Chitauri fleet was like an unending shadow of death,
almost extinguishing the flame of hope in their hearts.
"So… so many?"
Another dwarf's legs gave way, and he slumped to the ground, his eyes full of despair.
"How can we possibly defeat this… we're doomed…"
"That's Corvus Glaive's flagship! That's his scythe of death!"
Eitri recognized the symbolic warship at the center of the fleet,
his face uglier than ever before.
As king, he knew far more than the common folk—
he knew Corvus Glaive's cruelty and that this fleet represented Thanos's very will.
With difficulty, he turned to Lucci, his voice trembling,
"Prince Lucci… the enemy… there are too many. Are you…certain?"
It wasn't that he doubted Lucci, but the apocalyptic scene before him was simply overwhelming.
To him, this was not a battle, but a one-sided slaughter without suspense.
Yet, facing a fleet that could drive any civilization to despair, Lucci's face did not change in the slightest.
He glanced indifferently at the ashen dwarves around him, and calmly said,
"Don't worry. They're just ants."
His voice was still even, but it seemed to contain a strange magic that made the dwarves' nearly-stopped hearts start beating again.
Ants?
In Prince Lucci's eyes, this fleet of death that blotted out the sun… were just ants?
A master craftsman sighed involuntarily,
"Even if Prince Lucci is strong enough to repel them,
in a fleet battle of this scale, our homeland—Nidavellir—will surely suffer immense damage…"
When his words fell, all the dwarves were silent.
Yes, even if they won—at what cost?
Nidavellir was a miracle built from the wisdom, pride, and roots of their entire race.
Their hearts ached at the thought of those intricate forges, precious blueprints, and magnificent buildings being reduced to ruins by bombardment.
Eitri's fists clenched white with force.
He gritted his teeth and said with determination,
"As long as Nidavellir's legacy remains, as long as we dwarves live, we can rebuild our home after the war!
We may not excel at fighting, but building is our forte!"
His words reignited a tragic fighting spirit among the dwarves.
Yet Lucci only smiled indifferently at this.
He swept his gaze over Eitri and all the dwarves, and replied with a calm expression,
"Who said the battlefield would be on Nidavellir?"
Eitri and the dwarves were all stunned.
"Not Nidavellir? Then where?"
Lucci gave no answer.
Under their confused gazes, he took a single step forward—and vanished on the spot.
Nidavellir, orbital space.
Suddenly, Lucci appeared.
He floated quietly, with no spacesuit or spacecraft.
His black hair swayed slightly in the invisible energy field.
Behind him was the magnificent, glowing ring of Nidavellir.
In front of him, thousands of Chitauri warships loomed—like a dark cloud of killing intent.
On one side stood a miracle of creation and its lone guardian.
On the other, a vast army symbolizing destruction and conquest.
The individual and the legion, small and immense, formed the most extreme, absurd, and shocking confrontation in the universe!
Nidavellir, dead silence.
The dwarves forgot to breathe, staring wide-eyed at that solitary figure.
In Asgard's throne room—
"Lucci!" Odin suddenly sprang from his throne, his single eye full of shock and disbelief. "What is he planning?"
Thor was even more dumbfounded, unconsciously gripping his hammer, muttering,
"Is he sane? Is he really… planning to face an entire fleet alone?"
Even the ever-calm Heimdall's golden eyes flickered violently.
Everyone saw it—
Lucci did not plan to use Nidavellir's defenses.
He wished to face the Chitauri army, powerful enough to destroy a stellar civilization,
with only his body.
This scene was utterly insane—unbelievable!
Chitauri fleet, Deathscythe flagship.
On the bridge, Corvus Glaive gazed at Nidavellir, illuminated by the distant starlight,
like a discerning artist admiring a flawless piece of jade he was about to destroy.
After a moment, he was already imagining where to begin, to make the destruction more pleasurable—
Perhaps the gap in the stellar ring?
Or threaten with the neutron star?
The dwarves' screams would make the perfect accompaniment to his symphony of destruction.
This was not just Thanos's mission, but also his own craft of destruction.
Suddenly, a piercing alarm blared throughout the bridge,
crimson lights flickered violently, casting a ghostly light on Corvus Glaive's ashen face.
"What is it?"
His smile vanished instantly, replaced by a look of displeased impatience.
"Reporting, General!"
A Chitauri operator hurriedly said,
"We have detected… an unknown high-energy lifeform ahead of the fleet! It's… it's that one!"
"Unknown existence?"
Corvus Glaive frowned. "What is it, Nidavellir's automated defenses? Some secret weapon from the dwarves?"
"No… no, General. The life signal… is very unique."
"Worthless!"
Corvus Glaive sneered, "Project an image!"
"Yes!"
The flagship's main screen zoomed in rapidly,
pixels in the distant stars enlarging quickly until the image stabilized.
A strange silence befell the bridge.
In the center of the image, a lone figure floated quietly against the dark backdrop of space.
He seemed tiny compared to the enormous stellar ring and fleet—like a speck of dust.
Yet this "dust" radiated an undeniable presence.
Black hair swaying, an indifferent expression—
as if the massive fleet before him, enough to terrify any planet,
were no different from the void in his eyes.
"Look at that attire…"
A Chitauri commander muttered in confusion,
"Seems… Asgardian."
"Asgardian?"
Corvus Glaive was stunned, then burst out laughing as if hearing the funniest joke in the universe.
"Haha…haha!
An Asgardian? Alone? Here to stop our army?"
He gestured playfully at the image,
"Is he dreaming? Or has Odin gone mad, sending a fool to die as an appetizer?"
The Chitauri officers behind him also burst into laughter.
To them, this was nothing but a ridiculous joke.
No matter how strong, before a torrent of thousands of warships, he would be vaporized instantly.
"General, should we warn him first, or try to capture him?"
An adjutant asked cautiously.
"Warn? Capture?"
Corvus Glaive's smile vanished, replaced by icy coldness as he glanced at the adjutant like an idiot.
"Our lord's cause has no time for such tedious formality."
He waved his hand as if swatting a fly.
"Transmit my order. Vanguard ships… destroy him!"
"Yes!"
The order was instantly relayed.
Dozens of Chitauri attack ships at the front of the fleet responded immediately,
their ugly bows opening slowly to reveal deep muzzles.
Buzz—
A blue-violet energy, visible to the naked eye, began to frantically gather and compress within their barrels,
distorting the surrounding space.
The energy was enough to flatten a mountain in an instant.
Dozens of main cannons charged at once,
creating the spectacle of dozens of stars of destruction about to explode simultaneously!
This was all displayed vividly before the dwarves of Nidavellir.
Eitri's heart leapt to his throat!
The dwarven masters by his side all gasped, fists clenched, palms slick with cold sweat.
Their eyes were wide as they watched the lone figure on the screen facing dozens of death-dealing muzzles.
Their only hope was that, at this moment, their homes wouldn't be destroyed dozens of times over by the terror attacks about to happen!
The tension was suffocating!
At that moment, all of Nidavellir seemed to freeze.
All life, all will, was focused on the terrifying strike about to unfold!
Their minds went blank, with only the most instinctive prayer remaining—
Prince Lucci… hold on!
Nidavellir, orbital space.
Even as dozens of Chitauri main cannons charged up, about to unleash a catastrophic volley,
Lucci's face remained indifferent.
He even had the leisure to admire the beautiful aurora formed by the blue-violet energy.
In his eyes, the so-called "Chitauri army" was nothing but a noisy fireworks show.
If he wanted to destroy the fleet, there were too many simple ways.
He could unleash "spacetime sword energy"—an invisible blade merging the laws of time and space,
which could erase the entire fleet and its soldiers from this timeline without a trace.
Or, using the Reality Stone's power, he could turn this massive fleet into colorful bubbles with a single thought—
such conceptual changes could never be understood or defended by any technology.
Or, simply by expanding his mastery over space, he could fold and compress this area,
instantly crushing all the warships into a singularity like squeezing a can.
But at that moment, a thought struck him.
"The MagicNet has never been tested in actual combat for its defensive function."
A hint of interest flickered at the corners of Lucci's mouth.
In the first two wars, neither Loki's Chitauri army nor Malekith's Dark Elf fleet
entered via space—they came directly through atmospheric portals to Earth.
In those cases, the MagicNet played no role.
But now, with Corvus Glaive's Chitauri army approaching from the vacuum of space, preparing an orbital bombardment on Nidavellir—
this was the perfect opportunity for a live test!
"Let's see the results."
As the Chitauri fleet's main cannons reached their peak charge—
at that instant, Corvus Glaive's face twisted in a cruel smile, about to give the order to fire.
At that moment, all of Nidavellir and the three in Asgard felt their hearts leap out of their chests!
Lucci's mind moved.
Buzz—
Drawing from the dormant neutron star at Nidavellir's core, and channeling multidimensional cosmic energy,
a surge of magic erupted!
Incomparably swiftly, the magic wove, tangled, and connected itself across Nidavellir's orbit,
forming a massive MagicNet!
It was like an immense magical shield, enveloping the entire stellar ring of Nidavellir,
with Lucci floating in orbit above!