Arriving at a remote and deserted spot, Fini cautiously prepared to open a teleportation portal. Hampered by the energy interference of the Aether, he actually found it a bit strenuous to open a portal under the conditions of the Convergence.
Fortunately, once the portal was open, the Aether didn't interfere any further. If it had blocked him from even using his portals, things would have been a massive headache.
Although his landing coordinates were slightly off, he fortunately still made it to Svartalfheim. After spending some time, Fini successfully reached the ambush point.
Standing at the position where he intended to lure the Dark Elves, Fini prepared to test the status of his skills.
If the Aether affected his ability to activate the Tyrant's Eye and channel dimensional power, he could forget about setting an ambush altogether. He certainly didn't want to end up getting blown to pieces by a missile while the Dark Elves walked away unscathed.
"Explode, reality! Shatter, mind! Banish this world!"
Golden light erupted from Fini's right eye, and the surrounding dimension began to shift. Because they weren't on Earth, they lacked the fusion of the Sanctum's power and the Earth's dimension, making this pocket dimension significantly smaller.
Sensing that the pocket dimension had successfully opened, Fini breathed a huge sigh of relief. Although being unable to equip Incursio reduced his strength considerably, the Tyrant's Eye was his true trump card now.
Inside the pocket dimension, Fini summoned the Breath of White Dragon and tried to extract the Aether from his body, but after exerting himself for a long time, he ultimately failed.
"Do I really have to let the Dark Elves take it back first?"
Fini couldn't help but frown. Doing so would drastically increase the risks and variables. Unless pushed to absolute desperation, he truly didn't want to make that choice.
After all, the Aether was crafted by the Dark Elves for themselves, and they possessed a specific method to control and utilize it. Once it fell into their hands, snatching it back wouldn't be so easy.
"How on earth did Rocket use that device to suck this thing out?!"
Fini couldn't help but recall the original plot. In the original timeline, when Rocket and Thor traveled back to Asgard through the quantum tunnel, they had clearly used some alternative method to extract the Aether from Jane's body.
This proved that besides the Dark Elves, there was indeed another way to solve this problem.
"Should I take a gamble..."
Fini gritted his teeth in thought. With the presence of Zaphkiel, as long as he stayed alert and shot himself every now and then, his life and safety should be guaranteed.
Therefore, he wanted to stick to the original plan and ambush the Dark Elves here, wiping them out in one fell swoop.
However, if he did this, he could no longer rely on the Dark Elves to remove the Aether from his body. He would have to find another solution on his own afterward.
Yet Fini couldn't guarantee that no issues would arise during this search. For instance, if the Aether suddenly went berserk, he would be in deep trouble.
Sensing the Aether inside his body, Fini frowned deeply. After some deliberation, he ultimately decided to take the gamble.
Rather than letting the Dark Elves get it and then fighting to steal it back, he felt it was more reliable to find a way himself. After all, he didn't know much about the Dark Elves to begin with. If they obtained the Aether, they would only become harder to deal with.
Having made his decision, Fini resealed the Tyrant's Eye and waited for the Dark Elves to arrive.
Since he couldn't be certain when the Dark Elves would arrive--or if they would even show up--Fini could only continue studying the Aether. He tried to master it while also testing whether it affected his other skills.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Jane woke up shortly after Fini left. Facing a nervous Daisy and a group of worried kids, she looked somewhat bewildered.
"Where did you just go? Why were you lying on the ground?"
Seeing Jane wake up, Daisy immediately asked while letting out a sigh of relief. While Jane was still unconscious, Daisy had already done a quick check; nothing was missing, and there were no injuries on her body.
"I don't know!"
Jane shook her head at Daisy, then recalled, "I was following the device to look for anomalous readings, and then suddenly I was sucked into the wall."
"It felt like I went to a very strange place, and then everything went black, and I didn't know anything else."
Hearing Jane's words, both Daisy and her intern, Ian, looked entirely surprised. Ian couldn't help but ask, "Then what was that sound just now?"
"I don't know!"
Jane frowned with a bewildered look and then countered, "What sound?"
"It sounded like the roar of some wild beast!"
Daisy shrugged, adopting a casual attitude. "But when we came over, we only saw you lying on the ground, looking like a Sleeping Beauty waiting for her prince to wake her with a kiss."
Jane ignored Daisy's joke. She felt that things were highly unusual right now. As an outstanding researcher and scientist, seeking knowledge and exploring were practically hardwired into her soul.
So she immediately stood up, dusted herself off, and said, "I need to go back and check that place again."
Hearing Jane's words, Daisy blinked in surprise and couldn't help saying, "But shouldn't you go to the hospital for a check-up first?"
"I'm fine!"
Jane replied briskly and headed straight back to the spot where she and Fini had entered the Aether's sealing ground.
Behind her, Daisy sighed helplessly, ultimately choosing not to abandon her former mentor and current best friend.
But before catching up, she turned to the surrounding kids and instructed, "It doesn't seem very safe here. I think you guys should head home early."
"And if you can manage not to tell anyone about what happened here, I think I can treat you all to some burgers!"
After speaking, Daisy signaled her intern, Ian, with her eyes to pull out some cash. However, Ian didn't catch the meaning behind Daisy's look and stared back at her blankly.
Daisy rolled her eyes and explained speechlessly, "Get your money out, dummy!"
"Oh!"
Although he wondered in his head why it had to be his money, to successfully earn his college credits, the somewhat timid Ian could only obediently pull out his meager savings.
Fortunately, Daisy wasn't completely ruthless. She merely pulled out a stack of bills, held back a few for herself, and then took the remaining notes, waving them at the kids. "How about it?"
These kids weren't completely reckless. They had just heard the roar of Incursio's dragon phantom, which had already sparked some fear in their hearts. Combined with the offer of cash, they exchanged glances and immediately nodded in agreement.
"OK, deal!"
Daisy handed over the money. Watching the group of kids leave together, she then turned to her pitiful intern and urged, "Let's go, Phase Meter, don't lose her again!"
With that, she quickly hurried in the direction Jane had gone, leaving behind a aggrieved Ian, who muttered to himself, "My name is Ian!"
When the two finally found Jane, she was carefully hiding around a corner, holding an empty soda can and throwing it forcefully at the wall.
Instead of bouncing back off the wall as the two expected, the soda can passed straight through the wall and vanished, exactly as if it had dropped into the surface of water.