The golden twilight of Asgard was now far behind them.
For Luke, the chaos they had left in the palace might as well have been happening in another universe, because, well, in a sense, it was.
The soft hum of the helicarrier's engines surrounded them as their boots touched its metal deck.
But before he could fully enjoy the return home, the system's chime rang crisply in his mind.
[Ding~ Odin was disrespectful to the host, so his palace has undergone a negative mutation and decided to disintegrate automatically!]
Luke blinked, caught between surprise and an odd sense of déjà vu.
Wait… didn't that palace already collapse once before?
A small grin tugged at his lips.
"Well," he murmured under his breath, "guess the Nine Realms' most stubborn king is going to have a bad week, again."
While he knew the damage wasn't likely to kill anyone, Asgardians were tough like that, there was something deeply, almost comically humiliating about having your grand, newly rebuilt palace crumble again.
…
Asgard
Dust fell in sheets from the vaulted ceilings, mingling with the golden light as the palace groaned like an ancient ship in a storm.
The kursed warrior's blackened armor caught the dim light as he lunged, shrugging off wounds that would have felled a mortal ten times over.
Thor's strikes with Stormbreaker tore open rents in the monster's flesh, only for the wounds to smolder and close again within heartbeats. Odin's Gungnir flared with golden runes, each thrust piercing to the bone, but even together, they could not drop their foe quickly.
And the quaking floor beneath them made every swing harder. Masonry split and thundered down. The ring of metal on armor was drowned again and again by the deep, sickening boom of walls giving way.
Odin's mind flicked briefly to Hela, if she were here, this would already be over. His eye narrowed at Thor.
"Hold him steady!" Odin barked, voice echoing over the chaos.
"I'm trying!" Thor snarled back, bringing Stormbreaker down with a roar.
Finally, with a bellow that shook the hall, Thor put every last scrap of strength into a single swing. The axe bit deep into the kursed warrior's neck, cleaving clean through. The head rolled with a heavy thud, and the body slumped.
While the battle was finally over, the palace unfortunately was also over.
Odin turned slowly in place, surveying what little was left.
Walls were torn open to the sky. Roof beams sagged like broken ribs. Only the deep stone prison underfoot remained untouched, everything above it was rubble.
His fingers tightened on Gungnir. He wanted to weep, but kings did not cry.
"Mobilize the builders," he said at last, jaw tight. "Double the thickness of the walls this time."
…
Two days later
The palace grounds rang with the constant rhythm of hammers and the rumble of cart wheels hauling fresh stone. Odin's cloak trailed dust as he moved between foremen, inspecting the work. His body was here, but his mind kept flicking elsewhere, because Jane Foster's condition had worsened.
The Aether's crimson tendrils had been feeding on her life force for too long. For an Asgardian or even an elf, it would be tolerable. But Jane was mortal, her life a candle burning fast in the wind.
Frigga had tried what healing magic she could, but the Aether resisted every spell. Thor, after pressing his father relentlessly, finally got an answer he dreaded: only the dark elves could draw it out.
It was a risk, but to Thor, the path was clear, find Malekith, let him take the Aether, and then kill him.
The plan had a fatal flaw, of course, but Thor's heart was not in the business of flaws. All he needed was Loki's knowledge of Asgard's secret ways, and the certainty that he wouldn't run to tattle to their father.
…
Earth - Helicarrier Deck
While Odin commanded stonecutters and Thor plotted a reckless rescue, Luke stood on the helicarrier's sun-drenched deck. Before him was an empty swimming pool, its pale tiles glaring in the light.
Behind him, Wanda and Sharon waited in loose cover-ups, bikinis peeking through, curiosity and mischief in their eyes.
"You sure this will work?" Sharon asked, arching an eyebrow.
Luke only closed his eyes, focusing.
The system's voice chimed again:
[Ding~ The space in front of the host felt your urgent need to fill the pool with water and mutated, connecting to the waterfall on the edge of Asgard.]
A shimmering hole irised open in the air, ringed with liquid light. From it, a white torrent of water exploded outward, thundering into the pool below. The water was crystalline, so pure it seemed to glow faintly, carrying with it the soft hum of Asgard's magic.
A single sip could lengthen a mortal's life. And Luke was using thousands of gallons to make a giant hot tub, talk about extravagance.
Within minutes, the pool brimmed. The deck's heating elements hummed to life, promising a warm bath soon enough.
"Perfect," Luke said, stripping off his shirt and diving in with a splash.
The water's buoyancy was strange, greater than Earth's, and he floated effortlessly, staring up at the sky.
Wanda slid in beside him, closing her eyes. She thought of the life she'd once imagined would expect her after leaving the orphanage: a gang in New York, maybe a brief rise before a violent end. That future had shattered the day she'd met Luke. He had seemed ordinary then, almost forgettable. But as the years passed, she'd realized how much he hid.
Although he always blamed everything weird on their store, she already knew the truth, though she let him pretend otherwise. His clumsy little lies were almost cute.
A few feet away, Sharon drifted closer, watching him out of the corner of her eye. He was still quite thin, but his muscles had been perfectly sculpted by the Extremis, and the sunlight traced every line. Her thoughts slipped into dangerous territory, and heat bloomed in her cheeks.
Maybe I should make the first move, she thought. Before someone else does. After all, she's his assistant and it's her job to assist him in every possible way, she reasoned.
…
Kamar-Taj - Mirror Dimension.
The Ancient One sat cross-legged on a shimmering pane of nothing, surrounded by fractal reflections of the outside world. The green rune of Gul'dan still hid within her body, unseen yet felt. It clung like a shadow under her skin, immune to every spell she knew.
Her isolation had been long and absolute; she hadn't left the mirror dimension since the New York battle. Even meals were passed through carefully, her disciples warned not to touch her.
A flicker of movement in the mirrored horizon drew her attention, a signal from the London Sanctum.
Her stomach sank. After years of quiet, another alien incursion had arrived. The Nine Realms were aligning, and the sky above Greenwich was already darkening under the shadow of a massive ship.
The dark elves had come to Earth.
…