The Dark world part 2

What are those things?!" Thor asked, swinging his hammer against what looked like a spider-shaped shadow monster. "There is no end to them!"

By his sides, Volstagg and Fandral were battling the hordes of shadow spiders just as he was, unleashing their weapons against the huge beasts nonstop. Problem was, no matter how many they killed, more would follow.

They had fallen into a nest when the tunnels fell apart, by the look of things, and the only good thing he had to say about their situation was that the huge spider, the one that made the mountain collapse, wasn't there.

"We need to leave!" Fandral said, slashing one of the monsters. "Now!"

"Can you see a way out?" Volstagg asked, punching an enemy away. "Because all I can see are spiders!"

Thor needed to take them out of there. They couldn't fight forever and, worst of all, he didn't know if Jane was safe. What if she had fallen into a place like this?

"Enough! I will show these monsters not to challenge Asgard!" Thor said, bringing Mjölnir up; electricity began to clack around his hammer. "I am the mighty Thor and I-Ahhh–"

Whatever was going to say was interrupted by a red, fiery portal opening right under them, removing the ground under their feet; suddenly, they were falling. They didn't fall for long, which was good, but it also took from them the chance to try to land with a little more refinement; landing on their backs and heads wasn't heroic at all.

"Graceful as ever, brother," he heard Loki's voice say, full of mirth. "Like a fat, round and dumb bilgesnipe. Or, you know, like Volstagg!"

"Curse you, Loki!" Fandral exclaimed, getting up fast and fixing his hair as he looked up, assuring that no spider had fallen with them. "Is this your doing?"

"I used the energy his Asgardian father imbued him with to pinpoint your location," a sage, rough voice said, "but the portal is my doing. My apologies for the fall, but I suppose it is small price to pay to get away from those spiders."

A Dark Elf was in the room with them, right in the middle of Kal and Loki. What was happening?

"What–"

"Shhh! I am trying to pinpoint the girl with the Aether, be quiet for a moment," the elf interrupted.

Then, like he did with them, he opened a second portal; Sif and Jane were standing just behind it, looking at them wide eyed.

"Jane!" Thor exclaimed, forgetting all about the Dark Elf for a second.

"Thor!" Jane exclaimed back, jumping towards him.

"Wow, glad to know you missed me," Sif muttered, rolling her eyes as she crossed the portal, eyeing the Dark Elf carefully.

"Of course we missed you!" Thor laughed, pulling her into a hug too, only to be promptly slapped against the head.

"Idiot, you almost caused a second cave-in, what were you thinking?!" Sif exclaimed.

"We were being attacked!"

"Actually, we were attacked after that," Volstagg admitted. Thor glared at him and Sif slapped him again.

Thor rolled his eyes and, with Jane firmly held at his side, he turned towards his brother, Kal and the very old Dark Elf between them; the strangely non-hostile Dark Elf between them.

"Who are you?" Thor asked.

"My name does not mean anything to anyone anymore," the Dark Elf answered. "The important thing is that I can help you."

"How?" Sif promptly asked. "And more importantly, why?"

"I know how to remove the Aether from a living host. And the reason I will do it is because I do not believe in Malekith's vision of our future."

"You are willing to doom your entire people because you disagree with Malekith?" Thor asked, skeptic.

"I am willing to look for another way to save my people, one that does not involve dooming the entire universe. The Dark Elves are better than that," he answered, looking seriously at Thor. "In return, I only ask that you remember that not all of us are like Malekith, when you return to Asgard."

"What do you mean?" Thor asked, frowning.

"Bor's war did not end with Malekith's defeat," Loki answered. "The Aether was taken, Malekith and his armies defeated, but that was not enough." His brother stared him with a grin. "There is a reason we all believed there were no Dark Elves left in the universe, brother."

Thor looked from Loki to the old Dark Elf, waiting for him to correct his brother, but his silence said all. He looked down, ashamed.

"You have my word," he vowed.

The Dark Elf smiled and turned to Jane, gazing at her with his almost blind eyes. "Then I will help. But I think the decision really belongs to you, does it not? You are the Aether's host."

Jane held her stare for a moment and then looked at Thor; she seemed lost.

"I-I don't know," she said, her voice very low.

"Is it dangerous?" Kal asked.

"It is," the Dark Elf answered, sincere. "The Aether is volatile and is ever seeking a living host. It will not want to be trapped in this Chamber. But I am certain I can take it off you without too much danger."

Once again, Jane looked at Thor, searching for an answer, but Thor himself was filled with doubts. In the end, however, they did not have a choice. They could leave it inside Jane until she died or have someone remove it; and he trusted this old Dark Elf a lot more than he trusted Malekith.

"It is going to be alright, Jane," Thor said, kissing the top of her head. "I will be with you the whole time. But we have to do this."

She didn't seem less afraid, but she looked decided; nodding, she kissed Thor one last time and looked at the Dark Elf.

"I'm ready."

Jane was terrified. She was afraid ever since that thing got into her, she was afraid when they entered the Dark World, but right now she was terrified beyond anything she ever experienced in her life. She could feel the Aether inside her, clutching not only her body, but what she could only define as her spirit, if such a thing was even real. It was a part of her right now and she knew, more than anyone, just how much it would fight to stay.

The old Dark Elf took her to the center of the room and walked back a few meters, holding the Aether Chamber in his hand. Everyone else was lined up at a distance, watching with barely concealed apprehension, Thor most of all; despite everything going on, she couldn't help but to feel loved when she saw his eyes.

"Remain calm and try to will the Aether out," the sorcerer said, putting the Aether Chamber on the ground, between them, and raising his staff with both hands.

Jane had no idea how to do that, but before she could ask she was lifted from the ground, slowly, her arms opening. And then there was only red. The Aether began to flow through her, leaving her essence, as if a living being was being removed from her body. But she was not seeing that anymore, all she could see was the Aether, flying, fighting the removal. And in that moment, she could see the entire universe.

She was seeing Reality itself.

Jane didn't know how long she gazed over all creation, it could've been a second or a thousand years, but eventually the universe disappeared from her vision and she could see the temple again. The Aether was flying like a menacing red cloud in the sorcerer's direction, slowly, unwillingly, but bit by bit it was leaving her.

The Aether divided itself into several red tendrils, beginning to fall towards the Chamber. It approached it, painfully slowly, fighting every inch of the way against the sorcerer's command; the old Dark Elf had his eyes closed, his concentration absolute, as the Aether approached, ready to be trapped.

And then, without warning, the red tendrils of the Aether lunged forward, completely ignoring the Chamber and piercing the old Dark Elf like spears. His eyes opened quickly, surprised, as blood flowed out of his mouth.

Out of nowhere, a red sword-shaped ship appeared in the temple.

To say they were all shocked was an understatement. None of them could even react, too stunned with the turn of events. They could only watch as the ship appeared out of thin air, Malekith standing on the opened door with his arms raised, as the ship floated in place.

"To think you, from all people, would betray us… I am disappointed," Malekith said, eyes fixed on the old Dark Elf.

The old sorcerer coughed, weakly, but met Malekith's eyes.

"You were the one who betrayed our race," he answered, gurgling blood.

"I am making sure the Dark Elves have a future!" Malekith countered.

"What you have in mind is no future at all," the old Dark Elf said, lowly.

"You are weak, just like Alflyse was," Malekith snarled. "And I will not allow you to taint our race anymore."

Saying that, he called the Aether to him. The tendrils retreated from the old Dark Elf, making him yell and fall as his blood was spilled, and the Aether began to change direction, going towards the ship; towards Malekith.

That was what finally snapped Thor into motion. Roaring, he lifted Mjölnir and prepared to throw it against Malekith; only to be stopped by Loki.

"No! If you do this, you will kill the mortal!"

Thor looked quickly at Jane, still floating, as the Aether was pulled from her to Malekith. With the sorcerer down, Malekith was their only option to take it out of her. So, with electricity clacking around his hammer, he waited, seeing his friends preparing to battle too, just waiting for the right moment.

The Dark Elves had no such problem.

Troops of Dark Elves jumped from the ship, led by that beastly abomination that had hurt his mother, the Kursed. At the same time, several smaller ships disengaged from the bigger one, flying in their direction.

And without the need for any order, all of them attacked.

Thor spun Mjölnir and flew against Kurse, screaming in rage; Kal took off so fast that he almost disappeared, flying directly against one of the ships; Loki, Sif, Fandral and Volstagg met the Dark Elves soldiers head on.

With Mjölnir in front of him, Thor prepared himself for the collision against Kurse, already relishing at the thought of breaking that thing's bones; he should've known it would not be that easy. The hammer collided against Kurse, but the Dark Elf's weapon of mass destruction simply swatted him to the side, backslapping the hammer, and Thor, with such strength that he was sent flying to the side.

He crashed painfully against the temple's floor, breaking the stone and rolling for several meters, but as soon as he was able he firmed his feet and got up, already swinging Mjölnir against his enemy; only to have his arm grabbed easily by Kurse. The horned, scaled monster looked into his eyes for a moment, then headbutted him as strongly as Kal did in the tournament.

He really needed to get used to wearing a helmet.

Loki was grinning like a madman when he conjured his daggers, spinning and jumping to avoid the hail of energy shots coming against them. By his side, Sif was also dodging them, deflecting the occasional shot back with her small shield and sword, just like Fandral; Volstagg was, mostly, hiding behind his huge war axe and armor, too big and slow to avoid the shots, but too strong to be bothered by them very much, not when his armor was taking the brunt of it.

And in seconds, they were between the Dark Elves.

He would never, ever, admit it, but Loki missed this. His companions were all idiots, beneath him in social standing and intelligence, but he couldn't help but to miss their adventures together and nothing spoke of adventure like being in the middle of an enemy troop, slashing and cutting and killing. Loki was practically dancing amongst them, dodging their weapons, his daggers precise and lethal.

But Loki could do better than that.

Concentrating for barely a second, Loki allowed his magic to flow and suddenly a green glow took all of them, Asgardians and Dark Elves included; they all stopped for a moment, looking around, not knowing what was happening. Because now there were no Asgardians or Dark Elves there, only several dozen Loki's.

Nobody moved for a brief instant; then all of them began to attack each other, not knowing who was with them and who was an enemy. With some time to think it would be obvious that the real Loki and the rest of the Asgardians would not be firing the weapons covered by the illusions, since they had only melee weapons, but in the chaos of battle they didn't think; they only died.

Of course, he overestimated his companions as well, if the "heavy stepped" Loki attacking him with an invisible war axe had something to do with that.

"It's me, imbecile!" he yelled, dodging the illusion covered axe.

"Oh, sorry about that," Volstagg apologized, his own face staring at him dumbly.

Loki just snarled, going back to the fight, sparing a moment to glance at Malekith and the mortal, still connected by the red cloud of the Aether. It wouldn't take long for that to end and then they would have to kill Malekith as quickly as possible. Without a host, they could trap the Aether in the Chamber and be done with it.

Even as confident as Loki was in his own abilities, however, he knew that facing the wielder of an Infinity Stone would be anything but easy.

Clark dodged the shots from the fast ships, unleashing his heat vision against one of them, cutting off part of its hull. The ship fell quickly, crashing against the ground, but he wasn't even looking anymore, already chasing another ship while two more pursued him.

This was new, Clark thought as he dashed forward, grabbing the ship he was chasing with his bare hands and tossing it down; he never imagined he would be actually fighting spaceships before. Well, he had dropped Zod's ship back on Earth, his ship now, but this felt different somehow.

Under him, Thor was fighting that Dark Elf monster in a flurry of hammer blows and punches, beating each other fiercely. And the others… Well, Clark couldn't really tell what was happening, since all he could see was the nightmarish vision of dozens of Loki's, but he assumed they were doing alright. The sight of Loki being beat up in several different ways was amusing, at least.

Jane was still floating in place, the Aether being drained from her, but he could tell it would not take long for Malekith to finish it; as soon as that thought crossed his mind, Jane fell back to the floor, the last remnants of the Infinity Stone out of her.

Clark smiled and raised his speed, colliding against the ships pursuing him and dropping them from the air, his eyes going from Jane to Malekith. The Dark Elf was absorbing the Aether into his own body, the red cloud entering his mouth and eyes until it disappeared; when his eyes opened, they were pitch black.

It was time.

He exploded forward, flying so fast that the shockwaves he produced were enough to drop the approaching ships, his fist raised in front of him. But instead of crashing against Malekith, as he intended, Clark collided against a red wall formed by the Aether. He had a quick flashback of fighting the World Engine with its Liquid Geo back on Earth, as the Aether closed around him, trapping him like a giant hand.

"I thought I killed you, abomination," Malekith sneered, still unmoving, holding Clark in place. "If you are alive… Alflyse?"

"She is the reason I am alive," Clark answered, trying to break free, feeling his strength leaving him.

"She was as weak as that old fool."

"She was ten times the Dark Elf you are," Clark answered, his eyes glowing red.

Malekith had a fraction of a second to toss him away, before Clark unleashed his heat vision against him. The energy beams missed Malekith by inches, carving his ship, but Clark was already flying away, too fast and too stunned by the Aether to be able to control his landing.

He clashed directly against Thor, both of them tumbling over the ground in a mess of limbs and groans. They looked at each other for a second, still on the floor.

"Trade opponents?" Clark asked, seeing Kurse approaching.

"Trade opponents!" Thor agreed, jumping up and preparing to fly against Malekith.

Kurse moved to intercept, but Clark was already up too, ignoring the bruises and pain as he flew against him. He collided against him, shocked at the how solid that monster was; it was like crashing head on against Nam-Ek. Instead of dropping him, Kurse managed to stand his ground, digging his feet in the floor and holding Clark down. If he hadn't been hit by the Aether like an idiot…

Roaring, Kurse pushed him and Clark felt dizzy when the Dark Elf's fist clashed against his jaw and then his stomach. His muscles were not as strong as before and the blows hurt, but that didn't stop Clark from punching back, his own fist exploding against Kurse's face; to his surprise, despite the incredible sound, it didn't do much.

That wasn't good at all.

Clark barely had time to prepare himself for the barrage of punches unleashed by Kurse, each of them feeling like a meteor against his body. He was feeling like a boxer against the ropes, each blow sending him back a few inches, too strong and too fast for him to react properly without energy, because clearly there was no yellow sun in the Dark World's underground to recharge him.

But there was a sorcerer trained by Frigga.

He didn't see what happened, there was just a very bright glow and suddenly any weakness he was feeling before vanished, replaced by pure power.

"You helped Mother, Kryptonian," Loki said, from behind him. "Now we are even."

Kurse glanced at Loki and roared, lifting his arm and unleashing the strongest punch he could against Clark's face; this time, his cheek didn't tremble against Kurse's fist. Clark stared at him, the black fist still touching his face, then grinned.

"My turn," he said.

Clark moved so fast that Kurse had no time to even blink before his fist clashed against his windpipe; it was well protected behind that hard skin, but no one could escape unscathed against a blow like that. Kurse coughed, suddenly gasping for air, before Clark attacked his temples, stomach, knee, groin and chin, moving so quickly that he became a blur in the air.

Kurse was tossed back, dizzy and hurt, but Clark was not nearly done with him; his eyes burned and a pair of red beams came out of them, impacting his chest with the force of a thousand suns.

That made a mark.

The Dark Elf abomination roared in pain as his steel-like skin was melted from his chest, whole parts of it falling from his body like a broken armor, exposing the tender flesh beneath it. Kurse fell to his knees, eyes darting around madly because of the pain; they were done.

"It's over," Clark said, seeing the beast almost passing out.

It was what he thought, at least, before a sword was buried in Kurse's back, impaling him from one side to the other.

"Now it's over," Loki grinned.

One of these days, Clark promised, he would do to Loki what Dr. Banner had done to him in the Avengers Tower.

The inside of the temple was a battle of lightning against Aether, blue against red, as Thor flew around the ship trying to attack Malekith. The smaller ships fell all around him, brought down by the powerful storm and the winds, but Malekith himself was unharmed, while he commanded the Aether to chase him in the air.

"Your time is up, Asgardian," Malekith announced, still at the entrance of his own ship since the fight began. "The Convergence will soon be upon us and I have the Aether. The tyranny of the light is over."

"In your dreams, Malekith!" Thor screamed back. "I will stop you, like my grandfather did."

"I am still here. Your grandfather failed, like you will."

Saying that, he raised his arms and brought them down; the Aether seemed to form a gigantic wave in the air, sweeping everything in its path, including Thor. The Infinity Stone hit him like a tsunami, tossing him down on the ground violently.

"Asgard will perish alongside all my enemies," Malekith said, as Thor got up.

The Dark Elf brought his hands together, willing the Aether to gather between them in the form a sphere; the sphere didn't grow, no matter how much of the red cloud entered in it. Thor had a very bad feeling about this.

"But you will perish now, Asgardian."

And he lifted the sphere at the middle of the temple. For a second, nothing happened; then, almost exploding, the sphere expanded, forming a tornado so massive that it reached the top of the temple. And it was getting larger by the second. The whole place was trembling, the wind howling, and the ceiling began to collapse; soon, it would take the entire temple.

"Farewell, Asgardian," Malekith said, getting back in his ship.

Thor yelled in rage, tossing his hammer against it, hoping to destroy it alongside Malekith, but in the blink of an eye the ship disappeared, Mjölnir passing through nothing.

"Thor!" Sif yelled, lifting an exhausted Jane on her arms. "We need to leave!"

He glanced at the place Malekith's ship had been for a last time, before running to them.

"Nice voyage to Hel, monster!" Loki taunted, passing through Kurse as he walked towards Clark, grabbing one black hole grenade belt from a fallen Dark Elf; the huge Aether tornado was growing fast at the other side of the room. "Remember, in the very short time of life you have left, that you are dying because of what you did to Frigga."

Clark was barely paying attention to the provocation, too busy eyeing the growing tornado, but suddenly Kurse lunged forward, moving too quickly for someone supposedly close to death. He reached Loki in a second, grabbing him by the shoulders, the tip of the sword that impaled him now pointed at Loki's chest; then he pulled him.

It was like time had stopped. Clark was moving so fast that everything around him stood still; he could see dust stopped in the air, Loki and Kurse completely immobile, even the Aether tornado fixed in place. And then he was between Loki and Kurse, his hands pushing them apart with all his strength.

Loki was sent flying to the other side of the room and Kurse, sword still inside him, was tossed right in the middle of the Aether tornado; or he would have been, had the tornado not tore him apart just as it touched him.

"We need to get out of here," Loki stated, disheveled, getting up just in time to see Kurse's demise. He slapped a stunned Clark's shoulder. "He was dead anyway, let's go!"

The tornado was growing fast, consuming the temple. It was beginning to crumble and Clark doubted they could get out before it collapsed. Sif, carrying Jane, Thor, Fandral and Volstagg appeared running.

"We are not outrunning that thing!" Fandral exclaimed. "Open a portal, Loki!"

"I already tried, believe me!" Loki retorted and Clark had no doubt that he would have left them if he succeeded. "That Aether tornado is causing chaos on the dimensional energy around!"

"Approach me," a weak voice called them; a familiar weak voice.

All of them turned to see the old Dark Elf sorcerer, still fallen in a pool of his own blood, trying to get up. Clark ran to him, ready to help him, but he waved him off.

"It is too late for me, but not for you," he coughed, raising his hand. "You must stop Malekith, for all our sakes."

Saying this, he began to trace a circle in the air, the familiar fiery magic opening a portal; a portal leading straight to the ship they used to get there.

"This is the closest from the exit I can take you," he said, coughing blood." Leave me and go, if you want any chance at stopping Malekith. Just, let me rest…"

He closed his eyes and fell.

"Kal! We have to go!" yelled Thor, grabbing the Aether Chamber and pulling him through the portal.

Loki was already inside the ship, turning it on as Sif boarded it with Jane on her arms. Fandral and Volstagg jumped inside and then Thor and Clark as well. The entire underground was shaking, huge pieces of rocks falling nonstop. He had no idea what would happen, but he really didn't want to stay and find out.

"Go, Loki!" Thor yelled and Loki took off, flying as fast as he could.

The earthquakes seemed to grow stronger, making even the underground sea under them shake. At every moment, Loki had to bring the ship left and right to dodge from falling debris. The situation was getting progressively worse, as that Aether tornado grew stronger.

And then Loki turned the ship back.

"What are you doing?!" yelled Sif.

"It will take too long to exit through the same place we entered!" Loki screamed in response. "I know another way!"

Saying this, he brought the ship up. Clark couldn't see through the darkness to know where they were going, but he did remember very clearly what kind of creatures seemed to inhabit the top of the underground caves.

"And you just remembered this path now?!" Fandral asked.

"No, I knew it was there," Loki answered. "I just didn't want to risk flying thought a nest of light-eating spiders."

Yes, Clark was right; it brought him no pleasure.

The ship was flying incredibly fast, almost completely vertical, and the closer they got to the top, the more they had to move to dodge the huge falling rocks. Loki, to his credit, was flying perfectly.

"I see something!" Clark said, suddenly. "An entrance."

Loki grimaced. "That's the place. Get ready."

Soon, they all understood why he said that. The tunnel was big, easily fitting their ship, but it was full of webbing. Everywhere, crossing all the extremities of the entrance with little space between them, there were nets of webbing. And where there was web…

"Careful!" Volstagg yelled, swinging his axe just as a spider tried to jump them.

Soon, a whole swarm of spiders was attacking them. They ran through webs, fast, lunging at the ship without any sense of self-preservation whatsoever.

"They are trying to eat the light generated by the engines!" Loki yelled, maneuvering the ship. "Give them something to chase!"

Good idea. Clark walked to the side of the ship and unleashed his heat vision down, against the webbing; it caught on fire easily, spreading fast. The light allowed him to see better and what he saw brought a cold to his stomach: a never-ending swarm of black spiders running inside the tunnel. At least now they were heading to the flames, instead of the ship.

"I hate spiders," Clark whispered, knowing he would never forget that sight.

"They hate us too!" Thor laughed.

At least he was laughing; or he was, before the ship inexplicably stopped.

"Oh, no!" Fandral exclaimed, seeing the reason why they had stopped.

Thin pieces of web had gathered around the ship's hull, not enough to stop them at first, but eventually taking its toll. Just like a fly glued to a spider's web.

"Make yourselves useful and cut us free!" Loki ordered, desperately, as more and more debris fell. They needed to move before the spiders noticed their situation.

Everybody jumped to work, cutting and tearing the webbing as fast as they could, trying to set the ship free. The engine was roaring loudly, as Loki accelerated, and the ship was advancing inch by inch, stretching the web more and more.

"Almost there," Loki whispered, looking down. "Oh, dear…"

Clark saw the reason for Loki's exclamation soon enough, in the form of an incredibly dense mass of pure darkness under them; a darkness that they had already seen before.

"That big bastard is here!" Thor yelled. "Cut the web! Cut the web!"

Everybody was working doubly faster, the blades hitting the webbing nonstop, but it was clear they would not get loose before that huge beast got to them; they needed a boost. Without saying anything, Clark jumped from the ship, flying under it, ignoring the desperate yells from his friends.

And he began to push up, lifting the ship over his shoulders.

The web was strong and it resisted for a moment, but soon enough he heard a snapping sound and the ship was boosted up. Clark continued pushing, ignoring the fact that they were loose, because new strands of webbing were hitting the ship at each second and because that huge monster was still in pursue, climbing the tunnel fast.

Their velocity began to drop again and Clark redoubled his efforts, hoping to tear the webbing, but it was more than that. One of the spiders raining like a storm over their ship had just bit one of the engines, damaging it; he slapped it away, but the damage was done. Thor was swinging Mjölnir as fast as he could, the hammer spinning like a hurricane, tossing the spiders everywhere, away from the ship. Sif, Fandral and Volstagg were doing their best to cut the webs, but their weapons were proving to be inefficient at their task, gluing themselves to the webbing more often than they could cut them.

And the giant spider was getting closer.

Clark saw Loki looking down for a second, then looking up. The ship was not moving at the necessary speed with all the webbing and the destroyed engine, the spiders continued to fall and soon enough that extremely big monster would catch them. Could they fight it? Probably. But could they do it leaving their ship intact, in time to escape before the tunnel collapsed? That was harder to know.

He saw the decision forming in Loki's eyes.

"Thor, keep flying up as fast as you can," Loki said, conjuring his daggers. "I will buy us time."

"What?! What are you saying, Loki?" Thor asked, still swinging Mjölnir to keep the spiders from overwhelming them.

"I am saying that for once in my life, I will do something heroic," Loki announced, walking to the edge of the ship. "Tell Mother, when she wakes up, that I love her. And that I am sorry."

"No, no, no, no, Loki, no!" Thor yelled, trying to turn to grab him, but without being able to stop fighting the falling spiders. "Don't you dare!"

"I am sorry, brother. For everything."

And with a last look, Loki jumped.

Clark saw him falling, dodging the webs, his daggers firmly held in his hands; until he landed just on top of the gigantic spider, sinking his blades into its eyes. The monster roared in pain, beginning to bounce on the tunnel's walls in despair, but Loki didn't let go. He stabbed it, over and over again, dark blood spilling everywhere. The spiders falling from over them began to attack Loki, grabbing him with their legs, biting him; he screamed in agony, but didn't stop stabbing the big one.

And then, Loki's shout echoing in the tunnel, he grabbed the black hole grenades he stole from the Dark Elves from his belt, activated them and tossed all into the spider's mouth.

There was a second of silence; then a muffled explosion and a scream of anguish, as the grenades detonated inside the spider, swallowing its insides and tossing them to the other side of the galaxy. The giant spider stopped to move, suddenly, dropping its weight completely over the webs. Loki killed the little spiders over him with his dagger and looked up, smiling, blood covering his entire body.

The web sustaining them suddenly snapped.

"NOOOOO!" Thor yelled, as Loki and the spider fell, disappearing into the dark pit.

They couldn't do anything. Clark couldn't release the ship with its damaged engine and Thor couldn't stop fighting the falling spiders; Loki was gone. There was a sudden blue glow and an electric discharge clacked thought the tunnel, dropping hundreds of spiders, as Thor howled in pain.

The web holding them was finally cut.

Clark pushed the ship up as fast as he could, while Thor used Mjölnir to shield the ship from the falling spiders. This time, the webbing was not capable of stopping them, running thinner as they got closer to the surface; the spiders, too, began to disappear. And after a few minutes, they were flying without being bothered.

No one celebrated.