"Ugh—!"
Malekith clutched his wound and dropped to one knee. The Aether surged wildly, repairing his injuries at a frantic pace. The gaping wound in his abdomen was the size of a bowl—an injury that would have meant instant death for any ordinary being. Only the Dark Elves' monstrous physique, combined with the even more terrifying power of the Aether, had preserved his life.
The Aether possessed the ability to rewrite reality. In a single instant, it reconstructed Malekith's wound—but the price was his vitality.
Malekith could clearly feel his life force being drained at a疯狂 pace by the Aether, yet he did not care in the slightest. As long as he could conquer the Nine Realms, what did it matter if he sacrificed all his life force to the Aether?
He glanced up at the sky. The passages were now fully open. With a thought, Malekith manipulated the Aether to create a portal.
Karl immediately realized his intent. He blinked beside Malekith without hesitation and passed through the portal together with him.
In the blink of an eye, they appeared in the Dark Elf realm once more. The moment Malekith saw Karl, he swung his blade at him. Karl raised his sword to meet the strike.
Suddenly, another spatial fluctuation rippled outward. Both figures vanished again—and when they reappeared, they were already high above Greenwich.
Karl stabilized himself midair and slashed toward Malekith. Malekith answered with a strike of his own. At the instant their blades collided, their bodies vanished once more.
Boom!
They slammed onto solid ground. Howling winds and raging blizzards surrounded them, an endless expanse of ice stretching beneath their feet.
They were now in Jotunheim.
Buzz—
The Ultimate Weapon burned a blazing crimson. Karl reversed his grip and plunged the sword tip into the ice beneath him. In an instant, cracks spread like a spiderweb, racing outward at terrifying speed. The ice beneath their feet collapsed entirely.
Malekith lost his footing, his body tilting dangerously.
That was the opening Karl had been waiting for.
He appeared beside Malekith in a flash. The flaming blade traced a brilliant arc—and severed Malekith's sword arm in a single strike.
Malekith screamed as the Aether erupted once more, wrapping around the severed limb. Before anything else could happen, both figures vanished again.
This time, they emerged amid a sea of fire.
They stood atop a massive rock floating in molten lava. Malekith's arm had already been restored by the Aether, but once again, his life force had been further depleted.
Not far away, a colossal fire giant sat upon a throne, watching the battle with keen interest.
"Not of Asgard… a Midgardian?" the giant murmured to himself.
Before anything more could occur, Karl and Malekith vanished yet again.
They returned to the plaza at Greenwich.
At this moment, the massive rings in the sky—each representing one of the Nine Realms—began to align, slowly forming a single straight line. This alignment signified that Earth was now directly connected to all Nine Realms.
Malekith looked up at the sight. Ignoring Karl entirely, he turned and walked toward his sword-shaped ship.
As he spread his arms, vast quantities of Aether poured from his body, spiraling upward like a colossal vortex and enveloping the entire ship.
The remaining Aether began to infiltrate the other realms, forming a kind of guiding bridge that pointed the way forward.
The black sword-shaped vessel now looked as though it had been forged from blood itself, its hull completely shrouded in Aether. It resembled a ravenous primordial beast, ready to swallow the Nine Realms whole.
Malekith turned back one last time and opened his arms. The ship responded like a living organism, slowly absorbing him into its interior. Then it rose from the ground and surged toward the Elven Realm.
"Karl, stop him! He's heading for the Elven Realm—no one there can stand against him!" Thor shouted.
After blasting aside nearby Dark Elves with lightning, Thor flew over in haste. By now, half of the sword-shaped ship had already entered the Elven Realm.
Among the Nine Realms, the Elven Realm was the most devoted to peace. The elves revered harmony with nature. They had no armies, no weapons, and no concept of war. Even Odin, when he once arrived there, chose not to conquer it by force, instead being moved by its tranquility and serenity.
Karl looked up at the departing ship. He wanted to give chase—but he was human. Who knew whether the Elven Realm even had oxygen? Moreover, traversing the passage required leaving Earth's atmosphere, something he simply could not do.
His cloak could ignore environmental conditions—but his body could not.
Thor began spinning Mjolnir. He had already guessed Karl's concern. This was one of the reasons humans were considered the most fragile race by the Asgardians: they could not survive in an oxygenless environment.
Suddenly, Karl thought of a possibility—a way to completely ignore the lack of oxygen.
To become a summoned beast.
In the games of his previous life, those who manifested as summoned creatures were able to fight freely in the vacuum of space, completely unaffected by the absence of oxygen.
"System, come out. If I transform into a summoned beast, can I operate in outer space?" Karl asked silently.
[Ding—Answering host: Summoned beasts can survive in any environment. The host will not be affected.]
"I got it. You may withdraw."
Having obtained the answer he wanted, Karl dismissed the system without ceremony.
"In that case… this becomes much simpler."
He murmured to himself, then turned toward Thor.
"Thor, Malekith is mine. Leave the remaining Dark Elves here to you."
Thor froze, gripping Mjolnir as it stopped spinning.
"What? You can chase him?"
"Yes."
Karl nodded.
In the next instant, scorching flames erupted around his body. Fire poured from his eyes as vast magical power exploded outward. An overwhelming pressure swept across the entire plaza, a suffocating force that made everyone present feel their hearts seize.
Loki stared at Karl in horror, instinctively taking a step back as if to flee—before remembering that Karl was currently his ally. With that thought, he forced himself to stay put.
Thor immediately retreated from Karl's side. He knew exactly what was coming. He had experienced this once before during the Battle of New York—the same bone-chilling sense of dread.
"SKREEEEE—!!"
A piercing cry echoed across all of Greenwich.
Everyone instinctively turned toward the source of the scream.
A wave of searing heat exploded outward. The fire tornado surrounding Karl burst apart violently. All moisture in the air evaporated in an instant. The entire Greenwich University area became arid beyond belief. Lush green grass withered and turned yellow in seconds, and several areas even burst into spontaneous flames.
From within the firestorm, a pair of enormous wings emerged. Each beat sent scorching flames surging outward. Rainbow-hued tail feathers shimmered like radiant clouds, while orange-red fire condensed into exquisitely beautiful plumes.
"SKREEEEE—!"
A pillar of fire shot straight into the sky. With a powerful sweep of its wings, the fire tornado vanished completely.
From the flames was born a colossal being—vast as a mountain, yet breathtakingly beautiful, like a spirit of living fire.
An undying phoenix had descended.
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