Bab 275: Eagle
After speaking, he carried the gravely injured and dying Heimdall and transformed into a bolt of lightning, returning to the palace.
If they waited any longer, Heimdall's corpse would likely be cold by then.
At the same time, it seemed that all the Asgardian troops had received some sort of command.
They uniformly ceased their fire and swiftly piloted their ships back the way they had come.
Suddenly, the only ones left on the Rainbow Bridge were Zane, Lorna, and the main ship of the Dark Elves, which was now immobilized.
"That old man sure is tough," Zane muttered to himself, his mouth twitching slightly as he observed the scene.
In the next moment, the Reaper's Scythe suddenly appeared in his right hand.
Then, with the large scythe in hand, Zane began to step through the air, walking towards the Dark Elves' main ship.
Inside the ship, Malekith, realizing that his escape plan had failed, had a look of madness in his eyes.
"All forces, attack! Even if we die, we must take a piece out of Asgard!" Malekith shouted through gritted teeth, his fists clenched.
Immediately, all the remaining Dark Elves began piloting their small ships, separating from the main vessel.
They all flew towards the sky, preparing for a suicidal assault on Asgard.
Zane, seeing this, remained unfazed, merely casting a glance at them.
The Reaper's Scythe in his hand instantly turned into a blur.
In an instant, countless gray slashes scattered like a heavenly rain of blades.
Every small ship that left the main vessel seemed to fly directly into the slashes.
Each one was split in two, exploding into countless fragments.
In just a few seconds, the entire Dark Elf race had been reduced to a single survivor, Malekith.
Malekith, hiding in the main ship, broke into a cold sweat as he watched Zane slowly approaching.
He had no courage to face him in battle. If he had possessed such courage to embrace death for a chance at life, he wouldn't have hidden away thousands of years ago.
At this moment, Zane turned and gave Lorna a knowing look.
Lorna immediately understood and nodded.
She then used her powers to remove the silvery-white alloy from the surface of the main ship.
This was to avoid disrupting Zane's next move.
Once the silvery-white alloy was fully removed, Zane grinned maliciously.
His senses instantly locked onto the sole lifeform inside the main ship, and he swung the Reaper's Scythe down forcefully.
As the scythe fell, a slash that seemed to pierce through the heavens and earth appeared out of nowhere.
Carrying the aura of decay, it sliced through the main ship and the body of Malekith, the last Dark Elf, as if passing through air.
Then, it shot straight into the boundless darkness of space.
In the next moment, a massive explosion accompanied by towering flames filled half the sky.
The infamous Malekith, who nearly plunged the Nine Realms into darkness in the original story, was killed before he even had a chance to appear.
Zane, meanwhile, smiled as he pulled out the Reality Stone, which was missing a corner, from the treasure vault.
The moment the Reality Stone appeared in Zane's hand, a thread of blood-red fluid suddenly shot out from the intense flames, heading straight for the stone.
Seeing this, Zane decisively removed the energy shield protecting the surface of the Reality Stone.
Instantly, the thread of fluid merged with the Reality Stone, forming a small crystal that completed the missing corner of the stone.
Finally, after a millennium, the Reality Stone was whole once more!
And just as the Reality Stone was restored, the system notification sounded, just as it always did!
[Ding, a powerful energy source has been detected. Would you like to merge it into the [Magic Furnace]?]
"Hold on a moment," Zane said to the system as he resealed the Reality Stone in his hand.
After speaking, he teleported back to the palace with Lorna, greeted Odin, and informed him that the Dark Elves had been completely wiped out.
It dawned on Zane that he had already destroyed three races in the Marvel universe: the Kree, the Chitauri, and now the Dark Elves.
Even the Frost Giants, who narrowly escaped his wrath, were reduced to just a few thousand individuals, unlikely to recover for thousands of years.
Zane then asked Odin for a training room to prepare for merging the fifth Infinity Stone.
Unseen by Zane, Odin watched his departing figure with an extraordinarily complex expression in his eyes.
There was reluctance, longing, and concern, but ultimately, it all condensed into a resolve and a fierce battle spirit.
He turned to his wife, Queen Frigga, and tightly grasped her hand with his aged fingers.
"Go without worry, Asgard still has me," the queen said with tears in her eyes as she kissed Odin's cheek, just as she had done at their wedding thousands of years ago.
Having spent millennia by Odin's side, Queen Frigga immediately understood what this man intended when she saw the look in his eyes.
An aging eagle's beak becomes curved and brittle.
Its talons lose their sharpness.
The feathers of its wings grow thick and heavy, no longer able to carry it in flight.
At this point, the eagle has two choices: return to its nest and wait quietly for death.
Or it can choose rebirth through pain, flying to an unreachable mountaintop.
There, it endures hunger and agony, repeatedly striking its beak against the rocks until it falls off.
When a new beak grows, the eagle must resolutely pluck out its worn talons one by one, allowing new, sharp ones to grow in their place.
After this, the eagle must painstakingly pluck the thick, heavy feathers from its wings so that new ones can grow.
When this excruciating process is over, the eagle can soar the skies once more, but with a life span reduced. It won't live as long as those that choose to wait for death in their nest.
Yet many of the sky's conquerors choose this path of death, just like Odin does now.
As Zane said five years ago, Odin, the Allfather, was always meant to be a roaring beast in this world!
He refused to grow old and quietly walk into the realm of death.
As the King of the Nine Realms, his funeral would be a spectacle that the world would honor and remember!
While Odin made up his mind, Zane was in Asgard's training room, silently observing the Reality Stone suspended in the air, now bound and restrained.
Countless beautiful red glimmers flowed over the surface of the stone like water.
People often say that certain ideas are real, and with this stone, those ideas can be made genuinely, undeniably real.
The Reality Stone might be the most powerful of all, yet it is also the most challenging to use.
With it, anyone can realize their dreams.
All the laws of science and nature are meaningless before it, as it can alter them at will.
The Reality Stone doesn't just create illusions indistinguishable from reality; it can transform them into actual reality, should the user desire it.
Hence, it is named Reality.
"System, begin the merge," Zane said calmly.
*************************************
You can get access to early chapters on patr*on
If you like my work and you want to support me then you can become my patron on patre*n.
My patr*on account is Lord_Immortal_0170
Or you feel like tipping me for my hardwork you can do so on Ko*fi
ko-fi.com/lord_immortal_0170
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone