The Dark Elves now were like a lamb that had wandered into a pack of wolves—there was no way they'd make it out alive!
Inside the mothership, Malekith was in a state of sheer panic.
Who am I? Where am I? What was I supposed to do?
As he regained his composure, the first thing Malekith did was curse his lieutenant furiously in his mind.
Damn it, I believed your nonsense!
Where's the chaos you promised? The inside-outside coordination?
Right now, it's clear that they've got their guns loaded and cannons ready, just waiting for me to walk into my own death!
Are you secretly working for Asgard? To hell with all that brotherhood nonsense!
Malekith had no idea that the real cause of this disaster wasn't his lieutenant at all, but rather the young man standing on the Bifrost Bridge, currently annoying Odin.
Faced with this nearly certain death scenario, Malekith's eyes showed deep conflict, but the next moment, they hardened with resolve. He decided to do what he had done thousands of years ago—leave some of the Dark Elves behind as a distraction while he escaped with the majority of his forces.
He would hide in a corner of the universe, waiting for the next opportunity. Even if it meant missing this rare Nine Realms Convergence, so be it. After all, if he lost his life, then ideals, beliefs, and ambitions would mean nothing.
If it doesn't work this time, there's always the next time. And if not the next time, then the time after that.
Malekith was convinced that the Dark Elves would eventually get their chance.
As soon as Malekith issued the order, the Dark Elves, thoroughly brainwashed by their beliefs, didn't hesitate. They piloted their ships away from the mothership and charged directly toward the advancing Asgardian forces.
Meanwhile, the mothership reactivated its cloaking system, increased the power output of its dark matter reactor, and prepared to escape amidst the chaos. Once they left Asgard, with their cloaking technology, even Zane wouldn't be able to find them in the vastness of the universe.
It was with this strategy that Malekith had previously managed to escape the siege by King Bor and survive.
The mothership was also equipped with stasis pods, so even if thousands or tens of thousands of years passed, the crew inside would remain unchanged.
Malekith was more than willing to wait!
But there was no way that Odin and Zane would simply stand by and let the Dark Elves escape. To Asgard, the Dark Elves were like a venomous snake hiding in the grass, ready to strike at any moment. Now that they had revealed themselves, letting them live would be unforgivable.
As for Zane, he was after that small fragment of the Reality Stone that Malekith had fused with his body. He could now clearly sense that the remaining piece of the Reality Stone was hidden aboard the Dark Elf mothership.
The fragment of the Reality Stone suppressed in the [King's Treasury] also seemed to sense something. It began to tremble and repeatedly crashed against the energy barrier set by the other four Infinity Stones, attempting to break free and complete itself.
The next moment, Zane and Lorna exchanged a glance, simultaneously releasing each other's hands. The smiles on their faces turned bloodthirsty!
As Zane watched half of the Dark Elves' mothership vanish into the void, he glanced at Lorna with a smile and subtly moved his thoughts. Suddenly, a massive ripple, taking up half the sky, appeared above Lorna's head.
The next moment, a mountain of metal, forged from various precious materials, came crashing down from a portal connected to the treasury, roaring as it plummeted toward Zane and Lorna like a descending Mount Tai.
Lorna smiled calmly, raised her right hand toward the sky, and her fingertips began to glow with a dark green aura. As her power activated, the massive metal mountain suddenly froze in mid-air. The abrupt transition from extreme motion to stillness created a gust of wind that blew everyone's hair back.
Everyone below stared in awe at Lorna, wondering how her slender body could support such a colossal mountain. The dark green aura from her fingertips quickly spread across her entire body, and her hair began to rise and dance in the air, defying gravity.
Under the influence of Lorna's magnetic power, the metal mountain transformed into countless streams of metallic fluid, hovering in mid-air like a river of liquid mercury. As the sunlight hit the metallic flow, it reflected dazzling, multicolored light, creating a breathtaking scene that captivated everyone's attention.
With unstoppable momentum, the metallic river, now under Lorna's control, surged toward the Dark Elves' mothership, which was barely visible on the horizon.
Inside the mothership, Malekith's expression changed drastically upon seeing this. He urgently ordered his crew to push the mothership to maximum speed, hoping to evade the incoming torrent of metal.
But it was too late. The liquid metal river instantly engulfed the mothership, and the fluid seemed to come alive, climbing onto the ship's hull and wrapping it tightly. From the river, dozens of metallic tendrils extended downward, anchoring themselves deep into the bedrock beneath the Bifrost, securing the mothership in place.
The green aura at Lorna's fingertips flickered and then vanished. Immediately, all the liquid metal solidified, creating a stunning spectacle in Asgard. The mothership was now entangled in a web of silvery-white metal patterns against its pitch-black hull, with dozens of giant metal pillars stretching down into the river, trapping the ship as securely as a fly caught in a spider's web.
Despite Malekith's frantic efforts to boost power or fire energy cannons at the restraining metal, there was no effect. The metal didn't warp or bend; even after countless energy blasts, its surface remained unmarred, without a single scorch mark.
These metals were alloys refined by Skynet after plundering countless civilizations, incorporating not only Vibranium but also Adamantium, a material as legendary as Vibranium, and even the core of a dying star. Without Skynet's knowledge of Asgardian magical technology, such a metal mountain couldn't have been created.
In essence, the metal mountain was just a large, incredibly tough block of material. But when combined with Lorna's powers, it became a weapon as formidable as the Reaper's Scythe.
Zane then turned to Odin and said, "Old man, leave them to me."
"This time, I'll deal with this threat to Asgard for free," Zane joked.
Odin rolled his eyes at Zane, clearly not buying it.
Like I'd believe that!
Although Odin didn't know that Zane was after the missing piece of the Reality Stone, he was well aware of Zane's tendency to never do anything without personal gain. Odin knew better than to believe Zane would help out of pure goodwill.
Still, the idea of not having to fight was appealing, given that every battle now only hastened his decline. So, without overthinking it, Odin simply nodded at Zane.
"Alright, I'll leave it to you."
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