Black smoke curled up from Asgard's ground city. Wails filled every corner, and the place resembled ruins. The pungent stench of scorching and gunpowder rushed straight into the nose—a cruel scene of war.
High above Asgard, Odin held Gungnir. Merely seeing the devastation and hearing the screams of the Asgardians made fury surge within him. His stern, wrathful face glared hatefully at He-El.
"Odin, let's work together and deal with him first!"
Though Odin's rage had risen to his throat, he still suppressed it. On Malekith's burned face, teeth hung with charred bits of flesh kept clacking together as he coldly coaxed him.
Even now, Malekith still felt lingering fear.
Getting blasted by one of He-El's arm cannons could be dismissed as a sudden ambush.
But within the stagnant layer, he had already hidden himself with Aether. He had been prepared to consume his own life in advance to accelerate the opening of the Convergence. He had concealed his true body so thoroughly that he had considered it foolproof, yet He-El had still found him.
If Odin had not arrived in time and aimed Gungnir at He-El's back, intending to skewer him and forcing He-El to evade, Malekith might truly have died at He-El's hands.
Of course, Odin had intended to pierce both He-El and him at once. But in that instant, He-El had no chance to react, while Malekith had already responded. In the end, he used Aether to knock Gungnir away and narrowly survived, frightened out of his wits.
Nearly every attack He-El made was a killing blow. He kept closing in with the simplest, most efficient attacks—attacks Malekith could not understand—to kill him and seize the Aether within his body as quickly as possible.
If not for Aether, Malekith was absolutely certain that He-El would have killed