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Malekith rose from the rubble, his body fully restored.
"It hurts… it really hurts…"
Malekith flexed his newly-mended limbs, eyes blazing with hatred.
"Midgardian… you have truly enraged me."
Anthony wasted no words on Malekith.
"You look pretty tough. Hope your insurance covers 'getting pummeled by Superman'."
The instant the words left his mouth, Anthony vanished.
"BOOM—!!!"
A sonic-bloom cloud erupted above Shibuya Crossing; the asphalt shattered like glass.
Before Malekith could blink, a hand wreathed in destructive force clamped over his face.
Colossal kinetic energy hurled him backward.
Anthony rammed Malekith's skull like a human cannonball, punching straight through Shibuya 109.
Reinforced concrete crumbled like wafers; the tower's curtain wall exploded into glittering rain.
But that was only the beginning.
Without slowing, Anthony ploughed Malekith across the street and into the opposite office block—desks, computers, paperwork swirling skyward.
"Building three!!"
"Building four!!"
The roars merged into one, like a runaway express train raging through an urban forest.
In a straight line, ten high-rises were carved clean through.
"ENOUGH… MORTAL!!"
Malekith's fury detonated from the wreckage.
"BUZZ—!!!"
A terrifying wave of power erupted, concentric ripples tearing the air apart.
His shattered form was swiftly mended, cocooned by dark-red streaming fluid.
The unreasonable force flung Anthony aside; he flipped twice in mid-air and landed, heels gouging twin furrows in the tarmac.
Dusting his chest, he studied the crimson-mist-shrouded figure in the distance.
"Interesting."
Malekith levitated from the debris and glanced skyward.
He could feel space warping; the Convergence had peaked.
The Nine Realms were one—cosmic barriers at their thinnest.
"Time…" His voice was hoarse, urgent.
He sensed he had less than thirty minutes.
If he failed to reclaim the complete Aether and release it at the convergence nexus within that window, the doorway would close.
The next opening: five millennia away.
He could not wait five thousand years.
"Return… the Aether to me!!"
With a roar he flung his arms wide.
This time he held nothing back.
"RUMBLE—"
The ground quaked. Countless dark-red tentacles burst from his body—solidified Aether Particles—thrashing like starving pythons.
"Tentacle play?"
Anthony snickered; his form blurred.
Super-speed.
He threaded the tentacles' gaps, leaving only a red-blue blur.
Where tentacles struck, asphalt vanished into black ash.
"Too slow!"
Anthony braked hard, ducked a sweeping tendril, then accelerated—straight punch aimed at Malekith's chest.
The instant his fist neared Malekith—
"WHUM!"
The crimson mist around Malekith snapped into a conscious shield, blocking the blow.
"CLANG—!!!"
A deafening clang rang out.
Anthony felt as if he'd punched an invisible rubber wall, his force scattered and absorbed.
"It moves on its own?"
He frowned, recoiling.
"You cannot touch darkness," Malekith said coldly, half his attention on Jessica Jones nearby.
He could feel the other half of the Aether calling to him from within that woman.
"Really? I like my challenges different."
BOOM—!
Anthony disappeared entirely.
He moved faster than human eyes could track.
Countless after-images ringed Malekith.
They were only echoes.
"BAMBAMBAMBAMBAM—!!!"
A tempest of impacts drummed out.
Anthony attacked from every compass point—above, below, front, back—like a hurricane.
At the storm's eye, Malekith's Aether surged, a living chrysalis, auto-defending each angle.
The red fluid morphed mid-air—shield, spike, tentacle—countering every strike.
"Still not fast enough!"
Anthony roared while sprinting.
He sensed the Aether reacting quicker with every hit; the fluid was adapting.
"Then go faster!!"
His eyes blazed scarlet as he pushed toward the speed limit.
"BOOM!!!"
Another burst of acceleration.
Shibuya's air seemed to ignite.
The supersonic shockwave shattered every pane within a kilometre and tossed parked cars like toys.
Malekith's defensive cocoon began to quake… Meanwhile…
On the far side of Earth—New York.
Ten kilometres above the city, the Dark Elves' cruciform mothership hovered in the clouds.
On the bridge, the Cursed Warrior Algrim watched a hologram frozen on the moment Malekith was sent flying.
"Malekith is in danger!"
Algrim growled, spinning toward the console.
"Turn the ship! I'm going to help him!!"
"Hold on, big guy."
A hand blocked him.
Loki lounged against the console, twirling a dagger, wearing an idle smile.
"What do you want?" Algrim glared at the Asgardian.
"To save your master—and your sorry brain."
Loki pointed at the red-blue streak on the screen.
"See that fellow? He can bat your master from one end of the Planet to the other. Do you think this lumbering ship will even graze his cape?"
Algrim fell silent.
The mortal's speed defied comprehension.
"Then what brilliant idea do you have, God of Tricks?"
"Simple."
Loki waved; the holo-display switched to ground-level New York.
The so-called 'super heroes' were busy amid the rubble—
Iron Man, Captain America, and costumed trainees.
"Look at them," Loki said, savoring vengeance.
"They're that man's friends."
Loki stepped close and lowered his voice.
"If you charge in now, he'll tear your ship to scrap."
"But if you stay here—"
Loki pointed toward Manhattan below.
"—and seize them. Seize the ones he cares about."
"Hold the tin man by the throat; grind the shield-bearing veteran underfoot."
"Then tell the caped wonder: move another inch and your friends die."
Loki grinned, foxlike.
"Trust me—this trick works on so-called 'super heroes' every single time."
Algrim studied the screen, then nodded.
"You're right, Asgardian."
"Dirty—yet effective."
Algrim turned and strode toward the hatch.
"Exactly," Loki murmured, his smile widening as he watched the Cursed Warrior leave.