That was no exaggeration. Asgard's guard warriors had practically watched them appear and then disappear. Never mind intercepting them—they hadn't even seen them for ten seconds!
Han Yu and the others hadn't spent long in flight. The entire trip from Asgard's great hall to their destination had taken less than twenty seconds.
The Green Lantern Ring's maximum speed could surpass the speed of light, and Han Yu had only used a tenth of that speed.
Asgard was a supercity situated on a planet. Unlike ordinary planets, where people lived within the planet, Asgard had been built directly on top of it.
The planet served as an energy source beneath the city of Asgard, which had a population of only a few thousand. The exit was in a mountain range southeast of Asgard, the largest mountain range in Asgard.
On one side of the range was a fissure that looked insignificant compared to the enormous mountain. It was about ten meters long and wide enough for five or six adults to enter side by side.
Four streaks of light shot into the cave. A glow similar to the light of a Bifrost transport flashed through the darkness, and in an instant, the four vanished inside.
The cave had only just lit up before it went dark again. Now and then, a few drops of water fell from the stalactites overhead into a small puddle on the ground. Han Yu and the others' arrival seemed to have brought no bustle to the cave, which remained perfectly quiet.
After the group vanished and left Asgard, two figures appeared silently at the cave entrance. One was a richly dressed noblewoman; the other was a white-haired old man with a solemn expression.
Gazing into the silent cave, the old man let out a low sigh. The noblewoman beside him noticed his sorrow and gently patted his back.
"The children have all grown up. It's time they relied on themselves out there, rather than the title of 'prince of Asgard.' It's time to let them shoulder the responsibility of looking after Asgard."
The old man's deep voice echoed throughout the cave.
"Han Yu, I'm entrusting Thor to you. I'm entrusting Asgard to all of you. I should step down from the throne and get a proper rest, too."
A dazzling light flashed before their eyes. The change in brightness brought on by crossing space made the four instinctively close their eyes. When they opened them again, the magnificent daylight of Asgard was gone, replaced by a world of nothing but blood-red twilight.
"Is this the Dark World?"
The group flew slowly overhead. Looking down, Han Yu saw many tall buildings, but they had all been reduced to broken walls and ruins. It was clear that this planet had once been a glorious city, but they had chosen the wrong path.
They had tried to seize other worlds with the Reality Stone, drawing Asgard's wrath upon themselves. In the end, only Malekith and his followers were left. If they had held themselves back and not used such a direct method...
The Dark Elves, with the Reality Stone in their possession, would probably still have been a force no weaker than Asgard.
"What do we do next?"
After landing, Loki looked at Han Yu. They had come storming into the enemy's home with such fanfare; it would be ridiculous if they had no plan.
Han Yu rubbed his chin and pondered for a moment. "Fight. That's all there is to it."
"Perhaps I shouldn't have agreed to come."
Loki's face suddenly darkened. They really didn't have a plan. Wasn't that way of fighting a little too wild...?
Even so, it piqued Loki's interest. Han Yu didn't seem like a mindless person. Ever since they had met, he had always worn a squinting smile, smiling no matter what anyone said to him.
Someone like that was truly terrifying. That was why, upon arriving here, the first person he asked was Han Yu, not Thor.
"With Han Yu here, we really don't need any fancy tricks. We're sure to win!"
Thor spoke with considerable bravado. He had seen Han Yu reduce the enormous island of Sokovia to ashes and gather them together. Han Yu had even turned down divine power on Odin's level and could lift Thor's hammer.
Although the two hadn't known each other for long, Thor trusted Han Yu completely in this regard. That was also why he had felt confident enough to come straight to Asgard without thinking too much.
Hearing Han Yu's words, Thor was pleased as well, believing that the matter could be resolved easily. None of them, however, saw the wicked smile curling slightly at the corners of Han Yu's mouth, as if he were planning something.
Once they had decided, they found a spot with less dust and wind, sat down, and quietly waited for Malekith to arrive.
About half an hour later, an enormous cross-shaped spaceship flew in from outer space and slowly descended over the ruins of the dark planet.
Compared to the spaceship, Han Yu and the others looked so tiny that the already somber, blood-red world became even more oppressive.
"Malekith is here. Get ready!"
Thor's powerful frame jolted as he gazed at the slowly descending spaceship. He had already gripped his hammer tightly, ready for battle at any moment.
The spaceship stopped, and a group of people stepped out and walked toward them.
At their head was an alien with a long white braid. Their facial features were much the same as those of Earthlings, but their skin color was very different.
Although they called themselves Dark Elves, their skin looked as though it had been coated in a thick layer of foundation. They also had no eyebrows, giving them a somewhat strange appearance.
"Is that Malekith? He looks pretty ordinary."
Han Yu thought to himself that he couldn't even be bothered to fight someone like that. He had originally thought that, in this altered timeline, Malekith would grow "three heads and six arms," but in the end, he looked just as he had before.
Like Asgardians, they were high-tech aliens. Their main methods of combat still relied on strengthening their bodies and using laser guns. They didn't seem particularly special, but they had killed many Asgardian Warriors that way.
After stopping at a safe distance, Malekith looked around for a while. Seeing that there were only four of them, he said evenly, "Is this some kind of plan? I killed that old fellow Odin's wife, and he only sent the four of you here? Two of you are even Earthlings?"
From Malekith's perspective, Thor and Loki were the only ones on Han Yu's side who could fight, while Han Yu and Jane were dead weight.
At the mention of their mother, Thor and Loki's faces darkened at the same time. The hatred of having their mother murdered was irreconcilable; all either of them wanted now was to tear their enemy to pieces.
"Attack!"
The two exchanged a glance, and Thor flew out first, swinging his hammer. Dazzling lightning flared across it as he charged straight into the crowd of Dark Elves, taking out one little darling with each swing.
Suddenly, a tremendous force came from his side. Thor didn't have time to block and was sent flying by the blow. He looked up to see a Dark Elf completely unlike the foot soldiers charging toward him.
"That's the Dark Elf who killed my mother!"
Seeing him approach, Thor recognized who he was, and a trace of ruthlessness flashed through his eyes. The reason the Dark Elf had grown so large was that he had a fragment of the Aether inside him.
Although it held less than one ten-thousandth of its power, it had brought a world of change to his body and even given him the ability to absorb others' life force to heal himself.
Thor had seen more than a dozen Asgardian Warriors in Asgard who had lost their life force and become withered corpses. Presumably, that had been his handiwork.
"Loki, you betrayed me again?"