Thor rushed to Jane's side and carefully helped her up.
Lock remained where he stood, still channeling the formula Malekith had given him, trying to draw the Aether into his grasp.
And then he heard it — Malekith's sudden, manic laughter.
"Hahahahahaha! It's time!"
Above them, the skies of Svartalfheim split open. Eight vast rifts yawned into existence, each several kilometers wide, revealing scenes from other worlds.
Lock's sharp eyes caught one such opening that looked directly onto Earth — a city, unmistakably Western, its streets filled with startled pedestrians who screamed as they spotted the unnatural tears in the sky.
This was what Odin had warned of: the Convergence — the perfect alignment of the Nine Realms.
At this moment, not only could the Nine Realms be crossed with ease, but their gravity, temperature, and light were all beginning to influence one another.
Lock suddenly felt the pull on his hands tighten — the Aether slipped from his control and surged toward Malekith.
His expression darkened. So, the formula was incomplete. He never intended to give up control.
The Aether hovered between them, quivering as if alive. Thor reacted on instinct, summoning Mjolnir and striking the Aether with a lightning bolt.
With a deafening BOOM, the Aether detonated. A shockwave of dark-red energy blasted outward, filling the sky with dust.
Lock immediately raised a shimmering barrier of divine energy, shielding them from the blast.
It wasn't strong enough to hurt him or Thor — but Jane, still mortal, would never have survived it unprotected.
"Did we destroy it?" Thor asked, hopeful.
Lock shook his head. "No. The Aether is an Infinity Stone — only another Infinity Stone can destroy it. Take Jane and get her out of here."
Thor nodded grimly, scooped Jane into his arms, and flew toward one of the Convergence portals. In a single stride, they crossed realms and appeared in the Earth city beyond, as if stepping through an open door.
Lock's eyes hardened. Now unrestrained, he pressed his palms down toward the ground.
Dozens of colossal, glowing fist seals rained down from the sky.
The very earth of Svartalfheim split open under the impact, the planet itself shuddering.
Like a judgment from the heavens, the blows tore across the land. Entire mountain ranges collapsed, valleys vaporized — even a few portals spilled destruction into other realms, leveling an entire mountain range in Midgard.
The light-blue energy of the Infinite Divine Fists swept across every corner of Svartalfheim, leaving nothing but silence in its wake.
The dark elves were gone.
All of them.
Malekith watched his people's annihilation, his face twisted into something between grief and madness. Then, instead of despair, he smiled — a terrible, broken smile.
"Since you've destroyed my home," he roared, "then I will drag all Nine Realms to the grave with me!"
He spread his arms wide, and the shattered remnants of the Aether rose from the ground. But they were no longer a liquid — they had crystallized into blood-red shards.
The shards spun faster and faster until they became a tornado, with Malekith at its center.
The swirling storm ground his flesh and armor away layer by layer until his entire body disintegrated — yet his laughter did not stop.
Malekith had merged himself completely with the Aether.
The tornado turned deeper red, until it glowed like fresh blood.
"Hahahahaha! People of the Nine Realms! Come — perish with me!"
Lock's eyes narrowed. Malekith had abandoned his body and fully fused with the Reality Stone.
"Then it depends," Lock said coldly, "on whether you have the strength to make it happen."
He struck with an Infinite Divine Fist.
The blow — which could crush a starship — passed straight through the tornado, as if striking empty air.
For the first time, Lock's most devastating attack had failed.
He struck again. And again. The result was the same.
Malekith did not stay to fight. Instead, the tornado twisted along a strange path and surged through the nearest portal.
Lock ascended into the air and followed.
The instant he crossed the threshold, everything changed — gravity, light, and sound — and he found himself back on Earth.
A plaza stretched out before him, marked by a long steel strip set into the ground. At one end stood a sculpture engraved with the words: "Greenwich – Prime Meridian."
So this was Greenwich.
The Prime Meridian — the starting point for global time and longitude. A place of extraordinary significance.
And the very same place where the "sacred timeline" had originally led Thor to confront Malekith.
Lock frowned. Despite all his efforts to reshape events, time still seemed to flow back toward its original course.
If he hadn't personally intervened to save her, Frigga would likely still have died — exactly as in the original timeline.
Malekith's tornado now loomed over Greenwich, grinding the nearby observatory buildings into dust and growing taller by the second.
Within moments, the vortex had reached hundreds of meters high, its pull strong enough to drag the clouds down from the sky.
Panicked civilians screamed and fled in every direction.
S.H.I.E.L.D. alarms blared across Europe. Military units were scrambled.
But Iron Man and the other Avengers were still across the Atlantic. They would never make it in time.
Malekith's laughter echoed like thunder from within the blood-red storm.
"Hahahahaha! Earthlings! You cannot stop me! I will remake the universe as it was in the beginning — a paradise of darkness for my people!"
The tornado swelled larger and larger.
The eight portals in the sky drifted toward one another.
Soon they would align perfectly — forming a glowing infinity symbol (∞) across the heavens.
When that happened, the gravitational and energy resonance of the Nine Realms would amplify exponentially.
With the Reality Stone's power, Malekith could spread his darkness across every world — perhaps even the entire universe.
Lock's jaw tightened. In the original timeline, Malekith had not merged with the Aether. Thor had been able to knock him into another realm, where he was crushed by a passing ship.
But now? Malekith and the Aether were one.
And even the Infinite Divine Fist could not stop him.
Lock's mind raced. There was no answer in any memory he possessed.
The tornado stretched kilometers into the sky now, the storm spreading to cover the entire United Kingdom.
The oceans surged, generating massive waves that battered the Atlantic coastline.
Typhoon-scale winds devastated port cities.
And still, the portals drifted closer, nearly forming one perfect circle.
Malekith's laughter shook the clouds. "HAHAHAHA! YOU CANNOT STOP THE NIGHT!"
Lock stood on the Prime Meridian, fists clenched.
"What would Thor do?" he asked himself.
If the Sacred Timeline was correct, Thor had a way to defeat him.
But Thor wasn't here.
He had taken Jane to safety — because he trusted Lock.
And that meant only one thing:
This time, Lock had to find the solution himself.
---
A/N: Advanced Chapters Have Been Uploaded On My Patreon
Support: patreon.com/Narrator_San