“So let me understand this properly.” Eitri set down the hammer he’d been using and turned to face them fully. His face was lined with exhaustion and something that might have been grief. “Malekith has the Aether. He plans to use it during the Convergence to return the universe to darkness. And you three somehow ended up on my doorstep because a dimensional portal decided to spit you out here.”
“That about covers it,” Thor said. He was sitting on a stone bench near the forge, watching the dwarf king process everything they’d just told him. Jane was beside him, still weak but recovering, and Sif stood by the entrance keeping watch.
“The Convergence,” Eitri repeated slowly. He walked to a workbench covered in tools and diagrams, running his hand along the surface like he was searching for something. “I haven’t heard that term in millennia. Not since the last alignment.”
“You were alive during the last one?” Jane asked.
“I was young, but yes. The realms aligned, portals opened between worlds, and chaos reigned for three days before everything settled back into place.” Eitri found what he was looking for, a rolled piece of parchment covered in symbols that looked part mathematical and part magical. “The dwarves studied it extensively afterward. We wanted to understand the mechanics, the why and how of it all.”
“And did you?” Thor leaned forward.
“Some of it. The Convergence happens when all nine realms occupy the same cosmic space, overlapping in ways that shouldn’t be possible under normal physics.” Eitri spread the parchment on the workbench. “Think of the realms as notes in a song. Most of the time they’re played separately, creating their own melodies. But during the Convergence, they all sound at once. Harmony or discord, depending on your perspective.”
Jane stood and moved closer to examine the parchment despite her shaky legs. Her scientific mind was already working through the implications. “The gravitational forces alone would be catastrophic. Nine realms occupying the same space means nine separate gravity wells interacting in ways that violate every law of physics I know.”
“Not every law,” Eitri corrected gently. “Just the ones you’re familiar with. The realms exist in different dimensional frequencies normally. During the Convergence, those frequencies sync up. Gravity still applies, but the math becomes exponentially more complex.”
“How complex?”
Eitri smiled for the first time since they’d arrived. “I spent fifty years studying the equations and never fully understood them. You mortals and your short lifespans would barely scratch the surface.”
Jane’s expression turned stubborn. “Try me.”
For the next hour, Eitri and Jane talked while Thor and Sif listened with varying degrees of comprehension. The dwarf king pulled out more diagrams, more calculations, more theories developed by generations of dwarven scholars. Jane absorbed it all, asking questions that made Eitri’s eyes light up with the joy of finding someone who could actually follow his explanations.
“The key issue,” Eitri said eventually, “is that the Convergence creates dimensional weak points. Places where the barriers between realms become permeable. Objects and people can slip through these gaps, appearing in different worlds entirely.”
“Like what happened to us,” Sif said.
“Exactly. The portals are unpredictable in the early stages. Random. But as the Convergence reaches its peak, they stabilize. You can map them, predict them, even use them deliberately if you know what you’re doing.”
“Which Malekith does,” Thor said grimly.
“Undoubtedly. The Dark Elves existed long before Asgard rose to power. They would have witnessed multiple Convergences, studied them, learned to exploit them.” Eitri rolled up his parchments carefully. “With the Aether in his possession, Malekith can do more than just use the portals. He can manipulate them. Control them. Possibly even expand them beyond what nature intended.”
“To blanket all nine realms in darkness,” Jane said quietly.
“Yes. The Aether is reality incarnate. During the Convergence when all realms are aligned, using it would be like having a master key to the universe’s fundamental programming. He could rewrite the rules. Make darkness the default state instead of light.”
The implications settled over them like a weight. Thor had known Malekith was dangerous, but hearing Eitri explain the actual mechanics made it worse somehow. This wasn’t just a madman with a weapon. This was someone who understood cosmic forces on a level that terrified even the gods.
“How do we stop him?” Sif asked the question they were all thinking.
Eitri was quiet for a long moment. “I don’t know if you can. Not conventionally. The Aether is one of the six Infinity Stones. They were forged at the dawn of creation, each one containing an aspect of existence itself. Reality, space, time, power, mind, and soul. They cannot be destroyed, only contained or redirected.”
“So we contain it,” Thor said. “We find Malekith, we take the Aether from him, and we lock it away where it can never be used again.”
“And how exactly do you plan to take it from someone who can alter reality with a thought?”
“We improvise.”
Eitri actually laughed at that, a short bark of genuine amusement. “You sound like your father did in his youth. Before he became the All-Father and started thinking every problem needed a calculated solution.”
“My father is currently hunting me for treason,” Thor said flatly. “I don’t much care what he would think of my methods right now.”
“Fair enough.” Eitri moved back to his forge, where something metal was cooling in a trough of water. “If you’re serious about stopping Malekith, you’ll need every advantage you can get. Which means you need to get back to Earth before the Convergence reaches its peak.”
“How long do we have?”
“A day at most. The alignment is already beginning. I can feel it in the way the forge responds. The metal is harder to work, the heat less predictable. The realms are starting to overlap.”
“Can you help us get back?” Jane asked. “To Earth, I mean. We need to be there. That’s where the epicenter will be.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because that’s where I was when the Aether found me. Reality chose Earth as its focal point for a reason.” Jane’s voice was stronger now, her scientific instincts taking over despite her exhaustion. “The Convergence will be strongest there. All nine realms will touch at one specific location, and that location is somewhere on Earth.”
Eitri studied her for a moment. “You’re right. And yes, I can help you return. The forge here maintains a connection to all nine realms. It has to, or we couldn’t work with materials from different worlds. But opening a portal large enough to send you through will drain what’s left of Nidavellir’s power reserves.”
“You’d be trapped here,” Sif said.
“I’m already trapped here. Have been for years.” Eitri’s expression turned bitter. “The dwarves are gone. Wiped out by invaders who wanted our secrets. I survived only because I was in the deep forge when they came. Everything else is gone. My people, my kingdom, everything.”
Thor felt a surge of guilt. “I didn’t know. Father never told us.”
“Because your father didn’t know. By the time word could have reached Asgard, it was already over.” Eitri pulled the metal from the water trough. It was a rod about two feet long, glowing faintly even after cooling. “This realm is dying. The forges are going cold one by one. In another century, there will be nothing left but frozen rock and dead dreams.”
“Then come with us,” Jane said impulsively. “Come to Earth. Help us stop Malekith, and then stay. We could use someone with your knowledge.”
“A dwarf on Midgard? I would be the stuff of fairy tales.”
“You’d be the stuff of scientific breakthroughs. Eitri, the things you know about dimensional physics and material science, we’re centuries behind you. Maybe millennia. You could advance human technology by generations.”
Eitri looked at her with something that might have been hope. “You would want that? Even knowing what it could cost your world to have that knowledge?”
“Knowledge isn’t dangerous,” Jane said firmly. “How people use it can be, but the knowledge itself is neutral. And right now, we need all the knowledge we can get.”
The dwarf king considered her words, then nodded slowly. “Very well. I will help you return to Earth, and I will come with you. But know this, if we survive the coming battle, I will hold you to your offer. I won’t go back to an empty realm just to wait for death.”
“Deal,” Jane said immediately.
Eitri smiled and turned to his forge. “Then let’s get to work. Thor, I need you to channel lightning again. Sif, there are power crystals in that chest by the wall. Bring me all of them. And Jane, you’re going to help me calculate the dimensional coordinates. If we’re off by even a fraction, you’ll end up scattered across three different realms.”
They worked through what Thor guessed were hours, though time was difficult to track in Nidavellir’s perpetual orange twilight. Eitri directed them with the confidence of someone who had spent millennia mastering his craft. He had Thor position himself at specific points around the forge chamber, using Mjolnir to create a lattice of electrical energy. Sif arranged the power crystals in patterns that looked meaningless to Thor but apparently made perfect sense to Eitri.
Jane sat at the workbench with the dwarf king, going through calculations that covered three separate parchments and involved more variables than Thor had ever seen in his life. She was in her element now, the weakness from the Aether’s removal forgotten as her mind tackled the problem at hand. She looked to be in her element, and it reassured Thor to no end.
“The tricky part,” Eitri explained as he worked, “is that Earth is in a different dimensional frequency than Nidavellir. To bridge that gap, we need to essentially create a tunnel through multiple layers of reality. Each layer requires a different energy signature to pierce.”
“Like drilling through different types of rock,” Jane said.
“Exactly. Some layers are soft, easily penetrated. Others are hard and require more force. The portal needs to adapt as it goes, changing its properties to match what it encounters.”
“How do you program that kind of adaptability into a magical portal?” Jane asked curiously.
“Very carefully.” Eitri inscribed runes onto the metal rod he’d forged earlier. “These symbols act as instructions. They tell the portal how to respond to resistance, how to adjust its frequency, how to maintain cohesion even when passing through violent dimensional turbulence.”
“It’s like writing software,” Jane breathed. “Magical software.”
“If you say so. I’m not familiar with that term.”
They continued working, refining the calculations and adjusting the crystal patterns. Thor maintained his position, feeling the lightning flow through him in steady pulses. His wound from Loki’s blade was almost completely healed now, though it still ached when he moved certain ways.
Thinking about Loki made his chest tighten. His brother was out there somewhere, lost in dimensional space with Sylvie. They might be dead. They might be dying. And there was nothing Thor could do about it right now except focus on the task at hand and hope they were survivors like they’d always been before.
“Ready,” Eitri announced finally. He had positioned the metal rod in the center of the chamber, surrounded by the power crystals. The runes along its length glowed with soft blue light. “Thor, I need everything you’ve got. Channel all your lightning into the rod. Don’t hold back.”
Thor nodded and raised Mjolnir. The hammer responded instantly, crackling with power that had been building throughout their preparations. He brought it down and lightning exploded from him in a torrent.
The rod absorbed it all, glowing brighter and brighter until it was painful to look at directly. The power crystals shattered one by one, their energy adding to the surge. The air itself seemed to split, reality tearing open like fabric under too much stress.
A portal formed. Not elegant like the Bifrost, but raw and violent. It looked like someone had taken a knife to the universe and just kept cutting. Through the opening, Thor could see green trees and blue sky. Earth.
“Go!” Eitri shouted over the roar of dimensional forces. “It won’t hold long!”
Sif grabbed Jane and ran for the portal. Thor followed, turning back only once to make sure Eitri was coming too. The dwarf king had grabbed an enchanted pack filled with all the tools that had remained in Nidavellir and was sprinting after them despite his short legs.
They plunged through the portal one after the other, Sif and Jane leading the way.
The transition was violent but mercifully brief. Thor felt reality compress and expand around him, felt his atoms being disassembled and reassembled in rapid succession. Then they were falling through open air, the portal closing behind them with a sound like thunder.
Brightness exploded around them as they hit grass. Real grass, soft and green and growing in soil that didn’t glow orange. Thor lay there for a moment, breathing in air that smelled like plants and rain instead of metal and forge heat. It was the most beautiful thing he’d experienced in days.
“Everyone alive?” Sif asked from somewhere to his left.
“Alive,” Jane confirmed. She was already sitting up, looking around with wide eyes. “We made it. We actually made it.”
Eitri groaned as he pushed himself to his feet. “That was significantly more unpleasant than I anticipated.”
Thor stood and surveyed their surroundings. They were in a park of some kind, with walking paths and benches and trees that provided shade from the afternoon sun. In the distance, he could see buildings. Human buildings, which meant they were in a city.
“London,” Jane said, recognizing landmarks Thor didn’t. “We’re in London. Greenwich, I think. Near the observatory.”
“You’re certain?”
“Pretty certain, yeah. I did my graduate work here. Spent a lot of time in this park.” Jane was scanning the sky now, her expression growing concerned. “And I think I know why the portal brought us here specifically.”
“Why?”
She pointed upward. Thor looked and felt his stomach drop.
The sky was wrong.
It looked normal at first glance, just clouds and blue expanse. But if you looked carefully, you could see distortions. Areas where the clouds seemed to fold in on themselves, where the blue wasn’t quite the right shade, where reality itself looked thin. And through those thin spots, you could catch glimpses of other places. Red skies that could only be Muspelheim. Dark voids that suggested the space between stars. Green forests that looked nothing like Earth’s vegetation.
“The Convergence,” Thor said quietly.
“It’s already beginning,” Jane confirmed. “All nine realms are starting to overlap. This location, right here, is the epicenter. The point where all of them will touch.”
“Which means Malekith will come here.”
“Eventually, yes. Once the alignment is complete, he’ll use the Aether here. Where the barriers between realms are thinnest and his power will be strongest.”
Eitri was staring at the sky with an expression that mixed awe and horror. “I’ve seen many things in my long life, but this is something else entirely. The realms shouldn’t be able to touch like this. Not naturally.”
“Is it going to get worse?” Sif asked.
“Much worse,” the dwarf king said. “This is just the beginning. As the Convergence progresses, the portals will become more stable and more numerous. You’ll be able to walk from Earth to Asgard to Jotunheim without even trying. And the gravitational effects will be catastrophic.”
“What kind of effects?” Jane was already pulling out her scanner, though Thor had no idea how she expected it to work after everything they’d been through.
“Buildings will collapse. Oceans will rise and fall unpredictably. The air itself might become unstable as different atmospheres mix.” Eitri’s voice was grim. “And that’s assuming no one does anything to make it worse. With Malekith using the Aether during the peak, the damage could be exponentially greater.”
Jane’s scanner had miraculously survived and was showing some kind of data. “I’m getting readings that make no sense. Gravitational anomalies all over the city. Magnetic field disruptions. Even the local quantum foam is destabilizing.”
“In terms we can understand, please,” Thor requested.
“Reality is breaking down. The normal rules of physics are being overridden by the Convergence. If we don’t stop Malekith, this won’t be limited to just London or even just Earth. All nine realms will tear themselves apart.”
They stood in silence, absorbing the magnitude of what they were facing. Thor had fought in countless battles, faced enemies that would give most warriors nightmares. But this was different. This wasn’t about defeating an opponent. This was about preventing the unraveling of existence itself.
“We need to find the others,” Sif said. “Kal-El and Diana. Assuming they survived.”
“They survived,” Thor said with more confidence than he felt. “They’re too stubborn to die.”
“And too powerful,” Jane added. She was typing on her phone now, pulling up maps and data feeds. “If they made it back to Earth, they’ll come here. This is the only place that makes sense.”
“How long until the Convergence peaks?” Thor asked Eitri.
“Difficult to say exactly. The alignment is already well advanced. I would estimate twelve to eighteen hours before the realms achieve complete overlap.”
“Then we have twelve hours to prepare.” Thor looked at each of them in turn. “Jane, you work on figuring out how to minimize the damage from the gravitational effects. Eitri, help her. Your knowledge of dimensional mechanics will be invaluable. Sif, you and I will scout the area and figure out the best defensive positions.”
“Defensive positions for what?” Sif asked.
“For when Malekith arrives and we have to stop him from destroying everything.”
They split up, Jane and Eitri heading toward the observatory where Jane said there would be equipment she could use. Thor and Sif began walking the perimeter of the park, noting sight lines and choke points and places where an enemy could approach unseen.
“This is going to be bad,” Sif said after they’d been walking for several minutes.
“Yes.”
“We’re outnumbered, outgunned, and facing an enemy who can literally rewrite reality.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re still planning to fight him.”
Thor stopped walking and turned to face her. “What else would I do? Run? Hide? Let Malekith win because the odds are against us?”
“No,” Sif said. A smile played at the corners of her mouth. “I just wanted to hear you say it. Wanted to make sure you were still the same Thor who charged into battle against frost giants despite being outnumbered ten to one.”
“I was younger and stupider then.”
“You’re still pretty stupid now. Just in different ways.” She reached out and took his hand, squeezing it gently. “But I wouldn’t have you any other way.”
They exchanged a loving kiss before they continued their patrol, marking defensive positions and planning contingencies. The portals in the sky were growing more frequent now, more visible. Thor watched as a section of Svartalfheim’s dark landscape appeared overhead, close enough that he could make out individual rocks before it faded back into Earth’s blue sky.
The park was starting to attract attention from humans. People pointed at the sky, taking pictures with their phones and talking in voices that ranged from excited to frightened. Thor wanted to warn them to leave, to get as far from this place as possible before the real chaos began. But what good would it do? They couldn’t evacuate an entire city in twelve hours.
“Do you think Loki and Sylvie are alive?” Sif asked quietly.
The question caught Thor off guard. “I don’t know. I hope so.”
“They saved you. At the end, they could have left you to die and secured their escape. But they didn’t.”
“I know.”
“Does that change how you see them?”
Thor considered the question carefully. “They’re still criminals who’ve done terrible things. But they’re also my family. They loved our mother. And when it mattered most, they chose to help rather than hurt. That has to count for something.”
“Even if they don’t survive to see the consequences?”
“Especially then.”
They finished their patrol and returned to find Jane and Eitri had set up what looked like a makeshift laboratory in the observatory’s main chamber. Equations covered every available surface, and Jane was in the middle of assembling something that looked like a cross between a metal detector and a satellite dish.
“What is that?” Thor asked.
“Gravitational field stabilizer,” Jane said without looking up from her work. “Or at least it will be once I finish building it. The idea is to create localized pockets of stable gravity. Won’t stop the Convergence, but it should prevent buildings from collapsing and people from being crushed by sudden gravity shifts.”
“How many can you build?”
“With the materials I have? Maybe six. We’ll need to position them strategically around the epicenter. Create overlapping fields that cover as much area as possible.”
Eitri was working on something separate, using tools from his pack to modify pieces of Jane’s equipment. “The design is sound, but the power source is inadequate. These devices would drain conventional batteries in minutes.”
“So what do we use instead?”
“This.” Eitri held up a small crystal that glowed with internal light. “Power crystals from Nidavellir. Each one contains enough energy to run your devices for days. I brought several with me.”
Jane’s eyes lit up. “That’s perfect. With those, I can build something even more sophisticated. Not just stabilizers but actual dampeners. Devices that can actively counteract the gravitational anomalies.”
“How sophisticated?”
“Sophisticated enough that maybe we prevent all nine realms from tearing themselves apart when Malekith starts using the Aether.”
They worked through the afternoon and into the evening, assembling the devices while Thor and Sif continued to fortify their position. The portals were appearing more frequently now, and twice Thor had to physically prevent curious humans from walking through them.
As the sun began to set, Thor felt it. A familiar presence arriving with the kind of energy that made his hair stand on end even from a distance.
“They’re here,” he said, relief palpable in his voice.
Moments later, two figures landed in the park. Clark’s cape billowed in the evening breeze, and Diana’s armor gleamed in the failing light. They looked tired, battered, but whole.
Thor felt relief flood through him. “You made it.”
“So did you,” Clark said. He was scanning their surroundings, taking in the observatory and the equipment Jane had assembled. “What’s the situation?”
“Convergence is accelerating. We have maybe eight hours before the realms achieve complete alignment. After that, Malekith will arrive to use the Aether.”
Diana moved closer to examine the sky. “The portals are increasing in frequency.”
“Yes. Jane’s building devices to stabilize gravity. Eitri is helping her.”
“Eitri?” Clark’s eyebrows rose.
“The dwarf king. He’s here from Nidavellir. Long story.”
They brought the newcomers up to speed quickly, explaining everything that had happened since the dimensional portals had separated them. Clark listened with the kind of focused intensity that suggested he was already formulating plans. Diana asked pointed questions about the Convergence mechanics and Malekith’s expected capabilities.
“I might be able to help with the devices,” Clark said once they’d finished explaining. “The Fortress of Solitude’s database contains information about dimensional mechanics. Not exactly the same as what you’re dealing with, but close enough that I could probably enhance Jane’s designs.”
“Every bit helps,” Thor said.
They entered the observatory together. Jane looked up from her work and immediately brightened when she saw Clark and Diana.
“Thank God you’re here. I need someone who actually understands advanced physics instead of just magical handwaving.”
“I heard that,” Eitri called from across the room.
“You were meant to,” Jane shot back. She gestured Clark over to her workbench. “Look at this. I’m trying to create a cascading damper field that can adapt to changing gravitational inputs, but the feedback loops are unstable.”
Clark studied the equations she’d written. “What if you added a buffer stage here? Let the cascade develop through multiple iterations before the final output. Might smooth out the instabilities.”
“That could work.” Jane grabbed a stylus and started modifying her calculations. “You’d need to increase the power input proportionally though.”
“The crystals from Nidavellir should handle that.”
They dove into technical discussion that left Thor feeling lost within the first minute. He exchanged a glance with Diana, who looked equally confused, and they retreated to give the scientists space to work.
“How was Jotunheim?” Sif asked Diana once they were outside again.
“Cold. Hostile. Full of frost giants who wanted to kill us.” Diana’s expression turned thoughtful. “But Clark found a convergence point that let us escape. His Kryptonian knowledge came in useful.”
“And after?”
Diana’s cheeks colored slightly. “We needed to confirm we were both alive and well.”
Sif’s eyebrows rose but she didn’t comment. Thor noticed the exchange but chose not to pursue it. Whatever had happened between them was their business.
The evening wore on. Jane and Clark worked tirelessly on the damper devices, with Eitri providing materials and magical expertise when needed. Diana helped Thor and Sif expand their defensive preparations, using her combat experience to identify weaknesses in their plans.
By midnight, they had six completed devices. They looked like metal tripods with crystal cores, covered in a mixture of circuitry and runic inscriptions. Jane insisted on testing one before they deployed them all.
“Powering up,” she announced. She pressed a series of buttons on the control panel she’d rigged, and the crystal core began to glow. Energy rippled outward in concentric waves, invisible but tangible. Thor could feel it pressing against his skin like a gentle tide.
“Readings are stable,” Clark confirmed, checking his scanner. “Gravitational field is normalizing within a thirty meter radius.”
“Perfect.” Jane powered down the device. “We’ll need to position these around the epicenter. Create overlapping coverage. It won’t stop the Convergence, but it should prevent the worst of the collateral damage.”
They spent the next hour placing the devices. Two went in the park itself. Two more on nearby buildings. The last two were positioned at the northern and southern edges of what Jane identified as the impact zone.
Once everything was in place, they returned to the observatory. Dawn was approaching, painting the sky in shades of pink and gold that clashed with the alien colors bleeding through from other realms.
“How long now?” Thor asked.
Jane checked her instruments. “Four hours. Maybe less. The alignment is accelerating faster than I expected.”
“Then we wait.”
“I hate waiting,” Sif muttered.
“We all do,” Diana agreed. “But sometimes it’s necessary.”
They settled into an uneasy vigil. Clark used his enhanced senses to monitor the city, reporting back on any changes. Diana meditated, her sword across her lap. Sif sharpened her blade, the rhythmic scraping sound oddly calming. Eitri examined his tools, checking and rechecking their condition.
Thor stood at the observatory window, watching the sky transform. The portals were constant now, reality flickering like a candle flame in the wind. He could see glimpses of all nine realms overlapping, landscapes and skies and entire worlds occupying the same space without touching.
It was beautiful and terrifying in equal measure.
Jane came to stand beside him. “Penny for your thoughts?”
“I’m thinking about how small we are. How impossibly small compared to all this.” He gestured at the sky. “Nine realms, billions of lives, cosmic forces beyond our comprehension. And we’re trying to stop someone who can control it all.”
“Yeah. It’s pretty intimidating when you put it that way.”
“How do you do it? Keep going when the odds are impossible?”
Jane was quiet for a moment. “I don’t think about the odds. I think about the work. One equation at a time. One problem at a time. If I let myself think about the enormity of it all, I’d freeze up. So I just focus on what I can control and trust that it’ll be enough.”
“And if it’s not?”
“Then at least I tried my best. That has to count for something.”
Thor found himself smiling. “You’re braver than most warriors I know.”
“Or dumber. There’s a fine line.”
The sky began to change. Not gradually, but all at once. The portals stopped flickering and became stable, solid openings to other realms. Thor could see Asgard’s golden spires hanging in the air to the east. Jotunheim’s frozen wastes appeared to the north. Muspelheim’s fire mountains blazed to the south.
All nine realms, visible at once, overlapping in impossible ways.
“It’s happening,” Jane breathed.
The others joined them at the window. They stood in silence, watching as the Convergence reached its peak. The air itself seemed to vibrate with power, reality stretched thin between nine different worlds.
“There,” Diana said suddenly. She was pointing at the sky directly overhead.
A ship was descending. Not through a portal, but through the overlapping space itself. It was massive, black as void, and Thor recognized it immediately.
“Malekith,” he said darkly.
The Dark Elf ship settled onto the park below, landing struts crushing grass and benches. The ramp extended, and figures began to emerge. Dark Elf soldiers in their distinctive armor, moving in precise formations. And at their center, Malekith himself.
He had changed since Svartalfheim. The Aether’s power had transformed him into something beyond merely dangerous. His form flickered between solid and shadow, reality bending around him in visible waves. Red energy crackled along his skin, the same color as the Reality Stone he’d absorbed.
“He looks different,” Clark observed.
“He’s merged with the Aether completely,” Eitri said, his voice tight with concern. “He’s not just wielding it anymore. He is it. Or it’s him. The distinction hardly matters at this point.”
Malekith raised one hand, and the world began to change.
The grass beneath his feet turned to ash. The benches dissolved into dust that hung suspended in air that had stopped following normal rules. Color bled from reality itself, replaced by creeping darkness that spread outward from where he stood.
“The devices,” Jane said urgently. “Activate them now.”
Clark hit the switch on the master control, and the six damper devices powered up simultaneously. Their crystal cores blazed with light, projecting stabilizing fields that clashed with Malekith’s reality warping. Where the two forces met, the air sparked and crackled like lightning.
Malekith paused, turning his gaze toward the observatory. Even from this distance, Thor could see the surprise on his face.
“He didn’t expect resistance,” Diana said.
“Good,” Thor replied. He summoned Mjolnir to his hand. “Let’s give him more surprises then.”
They descended from the observatory together, moving to confront Malekith before he could advance further into the city. The Dark Elf leader watched their approach with an expression that mixed amusement and annoyance.
“Asgardians,” he said, his voice resonating with Aether enhanced power. “And others. You survived Svartalfheim. Impressive.”
“We’re full of surprises,” Thor called back.
“Apparently.” Malekith gestured at the damper devices. “These contraptions of yours are clever. They’re actually managing to counteract the Aether’s influence, at least partially. But they won’t be enough.”
“We’ll see about that.”
Reality fractured around them as Malekith attacked. The ground beneath their feet tried to become water, then fire, then nothing at all. The air crystallized into razor sharp shards. Gravity inverted, trying to fling them into the sky.
But the damper fields held. Jane’s devices pushed back against the chaos, creating pockets of stable reality where the normal rules of physics still applied. It wasn’t perfect. The edges of the fields flickered and wavered under the assault. But it was enough to keep them from being instantly overwhelmed.
“Now!” Thor shouted.
And they charged.
To be continued...