Chapter 158: Nine Realms Conjunction

Right in front of them, Malekith landed with the Cursed Warrior and a group of Dark Elf minions.

Thor and Loki exchanged glances and followed the plan.

Next up was Loki's time to act out his "betrayal" in a staged performance.

To make it convincing, even Jane wasn't in on the plan. Before everyone present, Loki stabbed Thor.

Thor, honestly, truly cared for his foolishly clever brother Loki.

He literally took a knife for his brother—once during the battle at Stark Tower in New York, and now again.

No matter the reason, a stab is still a stab, and it really hurt.

Thor cried out in pain as he rolled down a steep slope. As he was calling for Mjolnir, Loki swiftly chopped off Thor's right arm…

Of course, this was all an illusion.

The brothers put on quite the performance, convincing Malekith and his lieutenant.

After all, when Algrim infiltrated Asgard’s prison, Loki was just a miserable prisoner locked inside.

"Loki truly is an enemy of Asgard!" Malekith was convinced.

The brothers successfully tricked Malekith into extracting the Aether from Jane. However, when Thor tried to destroy it with lightning, things went awry.

Though Thor’s lightning was powerful, it was far from enough to destroy an Infinity Stone—specifically, the Reality Stone.

Naturally, this led to retaliation from the Dark Elves.

In such a crucial moment, it was time to call for backup!

Jane, feeling dizzy from the extraction of the Reality Stone, activated the golden hairpin given to her by Atreus.

Just as Thor expected Atreus to turn the tide like last time, a sudden alarm echoed from the giant Dark Elf mothership, accompanied by flashing warning lights.

Malekith’s already half-burnt face turned entirely black, his eyes wide with fury. "You still have another trick up your sleeve!?"

Loki had the same question in mind.

Thor's goofy grin, sometimes more annoying than helpful, only deepened the frustration. "Just some insurance."

Getting tricked by a clever person makes you feel like you deserved it. But getting tricked by a fool? That kind of insult to one’s intelligence stings.

This time, Atreus’s attack was swift and unexpected.

In fact, he had arrived earlier.

The space coordinate system he gave to Jane was triggered once, but after that, it no longer needed activation. As long as its magic wasn’t depleted, it functioned like a wide-area cosmic transmitter, continuously sending a signal encrypted by the Godslayer system.

Since they had found the Dark Elves' stronghold, Atreus's priority was to seize their ship!

Kryptonian ships may have the ability to traverse space, but their design as landing craft limited their jump range, meaning they couldn't leave the solar system in a single leap.

Thus, Atreus set his sights on the Dark Elf mothership.

While Thor and Loki were busy acting out their scene, drawing away Malekith and his second-in-command, Atreus took the opportunity to launch a surprise attack on the mothership.

The Dark Elf soldiers reacted quickly—dozens of troops in eerie white masks raised their laser guns, the weapons humming in unison.

From the dark gangway, countless red laser beams shot toward the small raiding team.

However, these beams struck an invisible golden shield, reflecting off Wonder Woman’s shield and ricocheting back at the Dark Elves. At least a third of the Dark Elf troops were hit by their own shots, their bodies collapsing like broken dolls.

One Dark Elf soldier tried to throw a small black hole grenade, but a golden figure hurled a spear from over a hundred meters away, pinning his arm to the gangway, dragging him and everyone within a ten-meter radius into the mini black hole, shredding them to pieces.

The surprise attack left the Dark Elves in chaos. The front lines retreated while the rear soldiers tried to rush forward, causing a bottleneck of over a hundred soldiers at the entrance to the mothership’s hangar.

But this chaos didn’t last long, as Faora-Ul charged in.

Finally free from the "primitive" reproduction methods she disdained, Faora unleashed her full Kryptonian combat prowess.

Though the Amazons and Wonder Woman were powerful, they couldn’t fly.

But Faora could.

Like a missile, she plunged into the Dark Elf ranks.

Dressed in traditional black Kryptonian battle armor, she moved like a dark streak, her punches and kicks sending everything in her path flying.

To be fair, the Dark Elves were strong enough to have once waged war against Asgard. Their overall strength wasn’t bad.

In close combat, they were slightly weaker than Asgardian soldiers. Aside from the Cursed Warriors, their strength lay in ranged weapons.

But they were up against a Kryptonian, whose physical abilities far surpassed theirs.

Wherever Faora’s fists landed, bones shattered.

Had Atreus not repeatedly ordered Faora to hold back, the corpses of the Dark Elves would have smashed holes into the mothership.

Following Faora were Wonder Woman, Penthesilea, Black Canary, Catwoman, Katana, and Huntress.

In the blink of an eye, the team had completely breached the mothership.

The Dark Elf controllers attempted to lower protective barriers, separating the lower decks from the command center.

Unfortunately for them, without the Cursed Warrior, the walls were no match for Faora’s destructive power.

The 20-centimeter-thick alloy walls were pierced and torn apart like paper.

Swiftly, the team charged in, and another massacre began.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Malekith’s face was ashen as he and his men were blocked by a hulking bald man.

Thor’s expression was filled with smugness, but he still asked, "Why attack the Dark Elves' mothership first?"

Atreus pointed to the sky and growled, "Because if we don’t stop Malekith here, he’ll go to Earth and play with his Nine Realms Conjunction."

Thor looked up and was shocked to see several massive circular portals, each several kilometers in diameter, appearing in the sky. He recognized the scenery on the other side of the portals.

"The Nine Realms!" Thor’s voice sounded like a dream. "I see now. Malekith plans to use the Aether to corrupt the Nine Realms when they align, turning them all into realms of darkness."

(End of Chapter)