The golden light seeping from the edge of the crack was still rising upwards, like bubbles in rice soup that was halfway through cooking in a pot, bubbling and bubbling again.
Ye Mo immediately raised his hand and pushed his palm forward. "Stop."
Emma Frost stopped in her tracks, her brow furrowing slightly. "What's wrong?"
"Look at that light." Ye Mo squatted down, took out a detector from his backpack, and the waveform on the screen was jumping wildly. "The frequency matches, it's the last fragment. It didn't run away, it didn't explode, it's just here slowly leaking out—like a fart, silent but with a strong smell."
Thor walked over and slammed his hammer on the ground. "So what? Are we going to wait for it to run dry, or give it a hand?"
"Help." Ye Mo stuffed the detector back into his waist pouch and stretched his wrists. "If we let it scatter like this, who knows which stone might come to life and start reciting the ' Darkhold '."
He crouched by the crack, palms flat on the ground, his consciousness sinking into the seventh level of the Gene Spiral Tower. The warm, moist energy module was still there, like a power bank that had just run out of power, with only two bars left. He touched it gently, and a thin layer of light immediately appeared on his palm, not dazzling, but with a sticky feeling, like a magnet attracting iron filings.
"I'll draw it in." Thor took a half step back, lightly tapping the ground with Mjolnir. A tiny arc of electricity crawled along the rock strata into the crack. A few seconds later, a slight tremor came from below, and the golden light suddenly jolted and began to surge upwards.
Ye Mo held his breath, activating the full absorption field in his palm. Dark golden mist slowly rose from the ground, as if being lifted up by an invisible hand, one wisp, two wisps... finally converging into a fist-sized ball of light, hovering above his palm.
"It's stable." Emma Frost stared at the light, closed her eyes to sense it for a moment, "No hostile fluctuations, the mental field is smooth, it should be completely dormant."
"It's not 'should,' it's 'must.'" Ye Mo squinted. "The three of us don't have the energy for another round of group beatings and group massages."
He raised his other hand and took a vacuum metal canister from his tactical belt. The moment the canister opened, a slight hissing sound came from inside, and the Aether seemed to be sucked in, slowly drilling into the canister. The lid closed, and the latch clicked shut.
"All done." Ye Mo patted the jar, as if inspecting a package. "All fragments have been recovered. Malekith's dream of resurrection has been shattered today."
Emma Frost exhaled, her shoulders relaxing slightly. She looked up at the sky; the distorted clouds had dispersed, revealing a deep purple starry sky, with several satellite-shaped debris slowly streaking across the horizon.
"This place... is finally quiet," she said.
Thor didn't speak, but simply slung the hammer back over his shoulder and looked up at the distant horizon. The sun had already set, and the afterglow painted the wasteland a caramel color. The wind swirled dust through the ravines, lifting a corner of his cloak.
"The era of the Dark Elves is over," he said in a low voice, his tone flat, as if stating a fact he had known all along.
Ye Mo stood up, brushed the dust off his pants, and looked around. The traces of the previous battle were still there: collapsed stone pillars, scorched ground, and several Dark Elves corpses that hadn't been collected yet lying in a corner. But now, the black mist was gone, the energy field was stable, and even the air felt much fresher.
"Mission accomplished, trophy in hand, clear the set." He unzipped his backpack and stuffed the metal can inside. "They're probably starting to miss us on Earth—though they're mostly missing me."
Emma Frost glanced at him. "Who misses you? Tony? He'd love for you to disappear for a few more days so you don't steal his thunder."
"Hey, that's not quite right." Ye Mo casually adjusted his silver-rimmed glasses. "In his heart, I'm like a mentor, a friend, a soulmate."
"Then you two should form a band," Thor rolled his eyes. "You play guitar, he plays drums, and the song is called 'The Self-Redemption of a Straight Man.'"
The three of them stood on the wasteland and suddenly laughed.
It wasn't the maniacal laughter after a desperate counterattack, nor the exhausted, silly grin of someone who has survived a near-death experience; it was a pure, relaxed laugh. It was like handing in your last exam paper and walking out of the exam hall to find the sun shining brightly and the wind gentle.
After laughing, Ye Mo wiped his face and said, "Alright, stop with the revelations. The spaceship is still a long way off; I don't want to run into some 'underground civilization remnants' taking a stroll in the middle of the night."
"You're the one who's a remnant of the past." Emma Frost's smile faded, but a slight curve remained at the corners of her mouth. "Let's go, my GPS still works."
The three turned around and retraced their steps. They encountered nothing unusual along the way, not even a patrolling aircraft. The entire planet seemed to have been rebooted, with the system automatically repairing itself.
After walking for about twenty minutes, the outline of the spaceship came into view. It was a captured Dark Elves hunting ship, shaped like a flat black shuttle. The surface paint had been burned with several large holes by Thor's lightning energy, making it look like a sofa that had been scratched by a cat.
"It's not the best looking," Ye Mo patted the hull, "But at least it can fly and doesn't leak air, which is better than a shared bicycle."
Emma Frost boarded the ship first and went straight to the cockpit to check the trajectory parameters. Thor went around to the engine area, glanced at the fuel gauge, and nodded. "Enough. Enough to last until Earth orbit."
Ye Mo was the last to go up, and he closed the hatch behind him. He walked to the main control panel, swiped his fingers across the start panel a few times, and the engine emitted a deep roar, causing the entire ship to tremble slightly.
"Takeoff procedures are loading." He sat down, leaned back in his chair, and stretched. "Estimated flight time is thirty-six hours, with no service areas along the way. Raise your hand if you brought your own instant noodles."
"You brought it?" Emma Frost turned to look at him.
"No." Ye Mo grinned, "But my system notification said that a 'mysterious supply event' will be triggered on the return trip."
"Your system is being blamed again?"
"Inertia-based operation, skilled worker."
Thor walked over from the rear cabin, carrying a communicator. "I've contacted Asgard and told them not to send any pursuers. If Odin finds out I've acted on my own again, he'll probably lock me up in the ancestral dungeon."
"You're thousands of years old, why are you afraid of an old man disciplining you?" Ye Mo teased as he entered the flight path coordinates.
"He's a good shot," Thor shrugged. "And my mom's on his side."
Emma Frost sat in the passenger seat, staring at the navigation screen. "The route is clean, there are no interference signals, and the space jump portal is stable. We can jump directly back to the outer Solar System."
"Then let's stop talking nonsense." Ye Mo pressed the confirm button, "Let's go."
The roar of the engines suddenly intensified, and the spaceship slowly ascended. Through the porthole, the ground could be seen receding further and further away, the wasteland turning into mottled patches of color, finally shrinking into a dark purple disc, silently suspended against the backdrop of space.
"Finally," Ye Mo leaned back in his seat, closed his eyes, "I can finally get a good night's sleep."
No one answered.
Emma Frost was still staring at the flight path chart, occasionally adjusting the parameters with her fingers. Thor sat in the rear cabin lounge area, with a hammer on his lap, fiddling with the communicator. The vibrations from the engine came through the seat like a slow heartbeat.
Ye Mo opened his eyes a crack and looked at the two of them.
Emma Frost's shoulder had fully recovered; the bandages had been removed, leaving only a light-colored scar. Thor's arm was no longer twitching, and his grip on the hammer was very steady. His own right leg's Steel Bone joint was also back to normal, and it no longer creaked when he walked.
They are all alive.
Everything is complete.
They can still insult each other.
That's fine.
He closed his eyes again, but his mind was far from clear. The system was eerily quiet, not even a "mission complete" notification. But he knew that this battle was truly over. Malekith had fallen, the Aether had been retrieved, and the Dark Planet had returned to peace—no explosions, no reversals, no last-second sneak attacks, and just like that... it was over.
This doesn't seem like something they've experienced.
But perhaps, this is the ending that should have been the best.
Not every ending has to be bloody, and not every victory has to come at a price. Sometimes, the enemy falls, the world is quiet, you sit in your spaceship, and watch your home planet grow bigger and bigger—that's enough.
"Hey," Emma Frost suddenly spoke up.
"Um?"
"When you were healing us just now, did that ability... have a name now?"
"Not yet." Ye Mo opened his eyes. "The system is too lazy to get up, and I'm too lazy to get up either. Let's call it the ' Health Recovery Package,' buy one get two free, plus a bonus ' Mind Stone PPT'."
"Could you please not show me footage from when I was a child next time?" Thor frowned. "I almost burst out laughing when I saw you kneeling in the rain."
"That's not me," Ye Mo immediately denied. "That was visual material automatically matched by the system; it has nothing to do with me."
"Oh." Thor gave a meaningful "oh," "So, what are you afraid of, overtime or rent?"
"That's all," Ye Mo sighed. "Transmigrators don't get medical insurance, and they have to pay for all their social insurance and housing fund contributions themselves."
Emma Frost chuckled softly and turned back to look at the screen.
The spaceship flew smoothly, the jump portal opened, and the starry sky ahead distorted into a blue band of light. The journey of thirty-six hours was neither long nor short.
That's enough for them to catch their breath.
That's enough for the other side of Earth to prepare to welcome three troublemakers returning from outer space.
Ye Mo lowered his seat a little, and his eyelids started to droop again.
Just as he was about to fall asleep, Emma Frost suddenly said, "Thank you... for earlier."
He didn't open his eyes, only snorted, "Thank me for what? Healing my injuries? Or saving the day?"
"Thank you for everything," she said softly, "And... you didn't abandon me."
Ye Mo remained silent for a few seconds before finally opening his eyes and glancing at her.
"You're the same," he said. "You didn't run away when I was about to die, that shows you're loyal."
Emma Frost didn't turn around, but her shoulders twitched slightly, as if she were smiling.
Thor muttered from behind, "You two can hug now, don't say sorry after I turn around."
"Get lost." Ye Mo threw an empty water bottle at him.
The bottle hit the bulkhead, bounced, and fell into the ventilation duct.
The spaceship continued its journey, traversing the silent universe.
Outside the porthole, the outline of the Earth was already faintly visible, like a blue-white glass bead veiled in a thin gauze.
Ye Mo closed his eyes again.
This time, he really fell asleep.
The spaceship's navigation lights flashed, as if counting the steps homeward.