Outside the Old Royal Observatory, cold rain mixed with the night wind, beating against everyone's hearts.
Tony Stark floated awkwardly in mid-air, the surface of his mark armor dented and pitted, several sections twisted like pretzels, sparking dangerously. He looked at the old building enveloped in red light, feeling powerless against his own technology for the first time.
Physical rules were useless there; reality was being kneaded like playdough. Any attack launched would turn into something absurd, any logic a joke.
"Jarvis, analyze the energy composition, rebuild the model, and find its pattern for me!" Tony's voice was filled with annoyance.
"Sir, the energy composition is constantly changing, making it impossible to build a stable model. It defies all known scientific principles," Jarvis replied, equally helpless.
On the ground, Thor knelt on one knee, propped up by Mjolnir, a streak of golden blood at the corner of his mouth. He stared intently at the Observatory, his eyes a mix of anger, worry, and helplessness, almost consuming him.
"We can't get in," Clint Barton leaned against a twisted tree trunk, his arm dangling at an odd angle, clearly dislocated. "That woman... she's a god now."
"Bullshit god!" Tony cursed. "There are no gods in the World, only science we haven't understood yet!"
He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. He knew that ordinary weapons were useless. In the face of distorted reality, a missile was no different from a rose.
He needed a weapon that could solve the problem at the level of "rules."
A thought flashed in his mind.
"vulcans hammer..." he murmured, a glimmer of hope returning to his eyes.
"Jarvis, send over my 'toy' hammer!"
Upon command, six minutes later, an empty mark armor carrying a metal box—the vulcans hammer—arrived at the Observatory.
"Hey, big guy, taste this!" Tony roared, channeling all his energy into the hammer and smashing it fiercely onto the ground of the Observatory!
No explosion, no sound.
Just an invisible ripple spreading from where the hammer struck. The ground, walls, instruments, and even the entire Observatory touched by the ripple instantly lost the concept of "form," being reduced to their most basic particles, turning into dust everywhere!
The Reality Stone's energy could distort reality, but it couldn't affect things from another World, based on different rules!
Jane Foster, floating in mid-air, suddenly trembled. She seemed to try to reassemble these particles to create her own territory again, but controlling so many things clearly exceeded her current ability, and the Aether Particle's energy output faltered.
Now!
Thor's eyes flashed with electricity, and he streaked towards Jane like lightning. Before she could react, he delivered a swift hand chop to the back of her neck.
Jane's eyes rolled back, and she fell limply from the air, caught steadily by Thor.
"Jane!"
Thor's figure turned into a bolt of lightning, catching Jane before she hit the ground.
Seeing his lover, pale but breathing steadily, in his arms, Thor finally breathed a sigh of relief. He looked up at Tony in the sky, his gaze complex, and for the first time, he sincerely said, "Thanks, Tin Can."
Tony opened his faceplate, unusually refraining from sarcasm, just utterly exhausted: "Don't celebrate too soon, this is only a temporary suppression. We can't solve the root problem. I need to ask an expert."
He immediately connected to Lin Huai's encrypted communication.
"Hey, dear Lin, we've run into a bit of trouble here, the very 'unscientific' kind..."
But before Tony could finish, Lin Huai's short, urgent voice came from the communicator: "Tell Thor to take her back to Asgard immediately! Immediately! Right now! Only the equipment there can remove the Aether Particle, the Reality Stone, from her body! Thor, what kind of prince are you, do I need to remind you of this?"
Tony was stunned. He hadn't even explained the situation, how did Lin Huai know everything?
"Okay, Mentor, I'm not very attentive to technology, I apologize."
Thor didn't hesitate. He picked up Jane and raised Mjolnir high.
"Heimdall! Open the Bifrost Bridge!"
A rainbow-colored beam of light descended from the sky, engulfing Thor and Jane, and they vanished from above Earth in an instant.
---
[Unknown Space, inside the Dark Elves battleship]
"It seems we... fell for it."
Natasha Romanoff looked at the empty "bridge," where even the main console was covered in dust, her brows tightly furrowed.
After a near-death struggle, taking down a dozen enhanced Cursed Warriors, they finally broke into the command center of this battleship, but there was nothing there but some broken equipment.
"This isn't the flagship 'Ark of Sorrow,'" Loki's face was equally grim. "This is a modified decoy ship, a huge trap! Malekith isn't here at all!"
Lin Huai said nothing, but his face was so dark it looked like water might drip from it. He had been too careless. From the moment he easily found the target using divination and Loki's magic, he should have felt something was wrong.
Everything had gone too smoothly, so smoothly it was as if the enemy had actively delivered the address to their doorstep.
"Damn it! We've been played!" Pietro angrily kicked a metal wall.
"Arrodes, you...! How could you be fooled by this?" Lin Huai took out the magic mirror, his voice icy.
A pathetic little cat appeared on the mirror. "That main ship has Beyonder characteristics that can offset divination effects, I'm sorry, Master. But now he doesn't seem to be hiding at all."
Then, a shimmer of water light flashed on the mirror, and a new star map quickly emerged, along with a violently flickering light point. That light point was hidden in another dimensional rift, at least three space jumps away from their current location.
"Are you sure there's no problem now?" Lin Huai looked at the coordinates in the mirror and chuckled self-deprecatingly.
"Loki, can you open a door again?" Lin Huai looked at Loki, whose face was a bit pale.
"It's a bit strenuous, but... for the glory of Asgard and for myself," Loki gasped, raising his scepter again, his eyes flashing with resentment and anger. "Of course, no problem!"
Green magic light shone again, and a spatial rift, more unstable than before, was forcibly torn open.
Lin Huai nodded to everyone: "Go!"
Passing through the twisted light door, a cold and dead silence assailed them.
This was the true Dark Elf flagship—the Ark of Sorrow!
The corridor style was completely different from the previous ship, filled with ancient and evil runes. They didn't encounter any patrol teams, but every step felt like walking on knives.
Lin Huai activated Spirit Vision; he could "see" that every inch of the walls, floor, and ceiling was covered with deadly curses and traps.
This time, they didn't split up. Wanda's Chaos Magic cleared the way, neutralizing the malicious curses; Loki's illusions confused the magic alarms; Lin Huai, holding the Arrodes magic mirror, led the way, guiding them along the only safe path.
Five minutes later, they finally reached the true bridge.
It was a large door forged from a mix of black bones and metal.
Loki and Wanda teamed up again, using magic to dissolve the seals on the door.
The door slowly opened.
The sight inside the bridge struck everyone like lightning, leaving them frozen in place.
In the massive command cabin, Malekith, the leader of the Dark Elves, stood with his back to them, before a huge holographic projection, seemingly engrossed in admiring something.
Around him, dozens of terrifying Cursed Warriors stood in neat formation, their cold gazes uniformly fixed on the intruders at the door, yet none attacked, like a pack of well-trained hounds awaiting their Master's command.
What made Lin Huai and the others' scalps tingle even more was that the holographic projection in front of Malekith was not showing their infiltration, nor was it the bridge's surveillance.
The screen showed Thor, the Thunder God, holding Jane Foster, being taken away by the colorful Bifrost Bridge beam, soaring into the sky.
Malekith had been monitoring the battle in London the entire time! He knew everything that happened there clearly!
"Look, what beautiful fireworks."
Malekith slowly turned around, his face showing no surprise, only the calm satisfaction of a playwright watching his play unfold on schedule.
He looked at Lin Huai and elegantly clapped his hands.
"Welcome, gentlemen from Midgard," his voice carried an ancient tone, echoing in the silent bridge. "I thought my incompetent subordinates would delay you a bit longer, but I didn't expect you to find your way here so quickly. It seems I underestimated you."
"It was you, you led us to that derelict ship!" Pietro fumed.
"Of course," Malekith admitted frankly. He pointed to the metal floor beneath his feet, and a surveillance video simultaneously appeared on the command screen.
In the footage, the massive "Ark of Sorrow" was shaking violently and uncontrollably as it approached Earth. On another split screen, a terrifying creature, like a mythical giant dog, confined in a cage, was cowering in a corner, its black mane bristling, emitting fearful growls.
Malekith's voice carried a hint of confusion and apprehension he himself didn't understand.
"Thank you for helping me get the Aether out of Midgard. I don't know why, but it trembled all over whenever it got close to your Planet. Without a doubt, it was afraid."
"Midgard has something more terrifying than Asgard... no, more terrifying than anywhere in the Nine Realms. My intuition tells me I cannot do too much to that Planet."
"Although I don't know why, I trust my intuition. My only goal is the Aether Particle; I need to know its whereabouts. So, I set this trap, using a Cursed Warrior to expose himself, waiting for you self-righteous heroes to jump into it."
"My original plan was, if all of you came to this ship, then perfect, I would personally lead a team to Midgard to retrieve my sacred artifact. I had the confidence to accomplish all of this before the source that even 'It' feared discovered me."
He spread his hands, a mocking smile on his face.
"But you chose to split up. That's even better."
"Besides us, the only ones who can safely remove the Aether Particle are in Asgard. So, whether you succeed or not, the final outcome is the same—the Aether Particle will leave Midgard."
He looked at Lin Huai, whose face was ashen.
"Just like now."
"To be honest, among you, the only variable is you, the unknown 'Mentor' Mr. Malekith observed Lin Huai with interest, "I cannot see through you, nor can I guess your origin. Fortunately, the outcome is good; the Aether is now in Asgard. My most troublesome problem has been solved by you."
He spread his arms, extending a warm invitation to the group, who were surrounded by dozens of Cursed Warriors and trapped in a desperate situation.
"So, guests, let us go to Asgard together! To reclaim what rightfully belongs to us."