An hour passed, and night fell rapidly. The golden characters in the sky caught many people's attention, and because of their extreme height, they could be clearly distinguished almost as soon as one looked up.
Some people packed up their families and left the city, while others were unconcerned, posting the scene online as a topic of conversation, even excitedly adding the title "Dragon King" and using ridicule to satisfy certain unknown desires. The government's first move upon learning of this was not to organize an evacuation, but to quickly find the first eyewitness and start questioning.
Upon learning that these words came from the Dragon King, they contacted the World Security Council, which in turn contacted the Avengers. As the acting Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., who currently coordinates all Avengers affairs, Hill turned to contact Hong Fei.
"Is the news true?"
"What?"
"London, those words in the sky."
"Oh, it's real."
Hill's expression tightened: "What kind of aliens are they this time?"
"Hard to say."
You are just an ordinary Earthling; I can't explain too much to you. Hill paused and asked again: "Have the people over there evacuated?"
"I don't know."
"Hmm?"
"Don't 'hmm' me. I've already warned them, but they seem unconcerned."
"You can contact me directly, and I will handle the negotiations with the local government."
"The problem now is that I know they are coming, but I don't know when they will arrive, and even less where they will arrive first. Under these prerequisites, do you think those people would be willing to believe it?"
"Whether they believe it or not is their business; we need to fulfill our obligations to the best of our ability."
"My obligation is already fulfilled. Such large words have been hanging in the sky for nearly an hour now, yet I haven't seen them show any sense of urgency."
"They... just don't understand."
"I am not a babysitter."
"You are an Avenger."
"The responsibilities of an Avenger do not include babysitting. Hill, I have already arranged for the Avengers to be on alert. You had best not mobilize them, because my order is for them not to listen to anyone else's commands. If anyone follows your mission, I will have to deal with them in my own way."
As the voice fell, a busy signal sounded in the phone.
Hill stared at the phone for a while, then closed her eyes slightly and sighed, turning to contact the London side regarding evacuation matters.
The reason Hong Fei did not show the urgency Hill imagined was partly because he needed this war to affect as many people as possible, but in reality, the more important reason was that he fundamentally did not believe these people had the determination and courage to evacuate an entire city before the aliens arrived. If he went knocking on their door, the situation would very likely be like this.
"Aliens? Where are the aliens?"
"Not yet, but they will be here soon."
The other party looked at the completely normal sky, where in the dim twilight, birds were returning to the woods, and all things were pleasant.
"Sir, I'm sorry, we cannot..."
"Cannot what? The aliens are coming, do you know what aliens are? Like the Battle of New York, or even more brutal than the aliens in New York!"
"Well, sorry, when the situation is unknown, we cannot take the step of evacuating the whole city. People might protest and resist..."
"But if they don't leave, they will die."
"Sir, this is just your personal conjecture and speculation."
"But I know the aliens are really coming!"
"Sir, we need evidence."
"Please, I don't have evidence right now, but please believe me..."
"Sorry, sir, without evidence, we cannot make rash decisions. Do you know how big London is? It's impossible for the population here to move out in a short time, and where would they be resettled after moving out? These are all problems..."
"I don't give a damn, you better evacuate them for me, otherwise it will be too late!"
"Sir, please calm down..."
The above are all conjectures, but the reality would absolutely be even more infuriating. Do you think you are a superhero, and people will believe what you say? No, the people who believe you will only be a minority, and a minority that cannot influence the overall situation.
Those in power will not believe you, or rather, it is not that they don't believe you, but that their interests prevent them from believing you. Perhaps they reject you on the surface, but turn around and secretly move their families and assets away. What evacuation and transfer of the masses? What if what you said is false?
Even if you are a superhero, you could misjudge, and your "misjudgment" would directly destroy their political careers, so the best choice is of course to do nothing. If it happens, then my boss thought the same way, and he should take responsibility.
If there is no boss, then I can weep and repent on television, and after stepping down, take a break for a while until the wind blows over, and then make a comeback. As long as my money is still there, and as long as I didn't take the initiative to cause a major disaster, it has nothing to do with me how many people die.
I just rejected a brainless proposal from a superhero based on realistic conditions. In summary. Does Hong Fei need to do anything else? You don't care about your own people, why should I care for you? I am not your father. If I were your father, I would also let the aliens kill you bunch of idiots.
Returning to the room, a group of people sat in the living room, and Thor looked up and asked: "How is the situation outside?"
"Very quiet." Hong Fei replied casually.
"Those people didn't evacuate?"
Thor was very puzzled. Hong Fei shook his head. Thor frowned tightly, then he looked towards Jane's bedroom. Hong Fei asked directly: "Do you want to take her away?"
"I don't know, but I think the Dark Elves will descend based on her location."
"That is indeed the case, but now we need to let Malekith extract the Aether Particle from within Jane, preferably without harming her."
Dr. Erik Selvig interjected at this moment: "So we need to let him lower his guard?"
Hong Fei said no more; a hint was enough, and they could fill in the rest themselves.
Sif also added: "If we deliberately arrange for Jane to be in an open space, and Malekith discovers the anomaly, then he is very likely to kill Jane in the process of extracting the Aether Particle."
Thor looked at Hong Fei. Hong Fei: "I do possess something that can resurrect people, but if the Aether Particle is as miraculous as Asgard says, then I cannot rule out the possibility of accidents."
Thor's expression sank. Just at this moment, Hong Fei suddenly looked up, and in an instant, his nano armor was equipped. At the same time, he raised his hands and turned in the air, and immediately a golden magic shield expanded outwards, cutting off the entire roof in the blink of an eye.
Meanwhile, a rumbling sound erupted in the sky, and then the top of the roof quickly exploded into a pile of fragments. When the view cleared, everyone was shocked to realize that there was a giant warship standing straight up above their heads. When its bottom collided with the magic shield, Hong Fei's raised arms suddenly fell, and the bulging muscles lifted the iron armor high.
After the bursting golden light exploded, it was so piercing that people could hardly open their eyes. The main warship of the Dark Elves had arrived. After hitting the magic shield, this giant warship, which had originally hidden its tracks, was gradually exposed from bottom to top, with straight lines extending upwards until people had to look up high to barely see its full appearance.
The warship emerged from stealth, its obsidian hull glinting cold under the moonlight, dwarfing every skyscraper around it. A deep, resonant hum vibrated through the city as lights flared to life atop the vessel.
The seamless portal at its peak split open with a groan, unleashing hundreds of blade-like fighters in a vertical swarm. Chaos erupted below—first scattered shouts, then screams rippling outward. Hong Fei spun toward the frozen bystanders beside him.
"Move!" he barked.
Thor reacted first. Mjolnir flew to his hand as he vaulted through the shattered bedroom wall, Jane cradled against his chest. Sif was already herding Darcy and Dr. Selvig after him, her grip iron-tight on their arms.
They cleared the magical barrier's perimeter just as targeting arrays lit up across the mothership's underbelly. A storm of energy bolts rained down, zeroing in on Jane. Thor barely had time to swing his hammer before catapulting skyward, the air cracking with displaced thunder.
Dark Elf fighters banked hard in pursuit, blue energy cannons stitching the night with relentless fire. The city became a patchwork of flames and rising smoke. Sif shoved Darcy and Selvig flat as a blast meant for Thor cratered the street where they'd stood seconds earlier. Debris rained over them.
She was up first, shaking dust from her hair. After confirming the humans were unharmed, her gaze snapped to Hong Fei—still bracing against the onslaught. Then she saw it: a warship skimming the pavement behind him, blades carving trenches in concrete.
"Behind you!" she screamed.
Hong Fei's head whipped around. His chest expanded with one sharp inhale before his hands jerked backward. The air shattered as he launched himself sideways, just as the T-shaped dreadnought speared through his former position. The magic shield collapsed like glass.
The impact sent Sif and the others tumbling. Hong Fei rolled to his feet, flexing his wrists. Across the city, emergency lights strobed through smoke—police sirens, car horns, the panicked chorus of a metropolis under siege. Above it all, the golden warning sigil still pulsed.
The rumbling sound of explosions continued to drift from afar, each concussion marking another building reduced to rubble by energy cannons or bisected by razor-edged hulls. Even at this distance, Hong Fei could almost hear it—the living's cries, the dead's fury, thick enough to choke on.