"The Dark Elf King Malekith is about to awaken, and the Aether is already on Earth. Lucci may be in danger!"
Odin says gravely to Thor.
"What? Lucci is in danger?"
Thor instantly grows anxious. Mjolnir and Stormbreaker appear in his hands.
"Father! Let me go! Let me take the Spirit Warriors and aid Lucci! I won't let those fiends harm him!"
"No!"
Odin refuses without hesitation.
"You are to stay here and protect Asgard!"
"Why?"
Thor protests.
"Father, I am a prince of Asgard! I want to defend the Nine Realms, just like Lucci!"
"You do not understand the terror of Malekith! He is not Surtur or Laufey!"
Odin's words are stern.
"Malekith is pure darkness and destruction incarnate! His cunning and might are far beyond your imagination.
If you go now, you will not help Lucci, but become a burden!"
Odin's words pour over Thor like a basin of cold water, forcefully quelling his objections. Light flashes in Odin's hand—the eternal spear Gungnir, symbol of Asgard's highest authority, appears! Clad in golden battle armor, wielding Gungnir, the supreme divine power of the All-Father blazes in his solitary eye—ready to fight once more!
"Hear me! This is my command!"
Odin's tone brooks no doubt.
"You are to stay here! Guard our home! I will return after I go!"
Ignoring Thor's dejected face, Odin turns and leads the assembled Asgardian elite toward the Bifrost.
"Lucci, my child... Please be safe...
Wait for me—I'll be there soon!"
…
London, England.
A vast, long-abandoned factory district. Once the city's pride, now rusted steel skeletons and ruined workshops stand in the cold drizzle, whispering of past glory.
But within the dying, silent ruins, anxious shouts echo.
"Jane! Jane! Where are you? Please answer!"
A bespectacled man in a jacket, Dr. Erik Selvig, and his intern Darcy Lewis, are searching desperately.
Only minutes ago, their teammate, astrophysicist Jane Foster, vanished into thin air while exploring the area's strange gravitational anomaly.
"Doctor, what do we do? Jane won't get hurt, will she?"
Darcy's near tears.
"Should we call the police?"
"Call the police? And say what? That our friend was eaten by an invisible door?"
Dr. Selvig ruffles his hair in distress.
"They'll think we're crazy!"
While the two are at their wit's end—
Buzz—
A flash of light and shadow appears before them. A handsome, black-haired, dark-eyed man materializes.
"Ah!"
Darcy startles, stepping back.
But as they recognize the newcomer, shock turns to disbelief and relief.
"Is... is it you?"
Dr. Selvig's eyes widen with excitement.
"From New Mexico... Prince Lucci—no, my God!"
"Prince Lucci!"
Darcy shouts.
"Why are you here?"
Of course, they remember him! In that small New Mexico town, this man blew up the Destroyer with a single finger and saved everyone. His godlike power left an indelible impression.
Lucci's gaze sweeps over their anxious faces, then settles on the ever-distorting air behind them.
"I'm here because of this anomaly. And for Jane."
Hearing this, the two rush over like drowning people grasping a lifeline.
"Prince Lucci! Do you know where Jane is? That's wonderful!"
Darcy points to the anomaly and quickly explains what happened.
"She vanished right there! Our phones don't work! We really don't know what to do!"
"Don't worry,"
Lucci reassures them.
"She'll be fine."
Of course, he knows where Jane Foster went. The anomaly is actually a node where the cosmic barrier is weak. Jane was drawn into a subspace containing the sealed Aether, pulled in by a powerful transdimensional force—the Aether sensed her.
In other words, the impending "Convergence" is awakening, and the Aether needs a host to emerge.
…
Meanwhile.
In a strange, indescribable space…
Jane Foster looks around in confusion. It's like a vast cavern made of gray stone, with no sky or ground, just endless gray void and gigantic stone pillars floating weightlessly.
"Where am I... I was just in the factory..."
She mutters, her heart gripped by confusion and fear. She tries to call out to Darcy and Dr. Selvig, but her voice is swallowed by an unseen force.
In despair, she suddenly notices, deep within this gray space, a flicker of vibrant red—a crimson liquid, writhing and swirling, trapped in a crack in the rock, pulsing with deadly allure.
Curiosity overcomes fear. Jane Foster's scientific curiosity compels her to step closer to the ominous red.
She reaches out and cautiously touches the substance.
The instant her finger makes contact—
BOOM—
The Aether, the crimson liquid sealed for five thousand years, erupts like a wild beast loosed from its cage. It instantly transforms into a red streamer, pouring desperately into Jane Foster's body!
"Ah—!"
Jane screams in pain. She feels cold, violent energy surging through her, spreading instantly through her limbs, her eyes reflecting a terrifying red!
…
Back in the abandoned London factory.
The moment Jane is possessed by the Aether, Lucci instantly senses the chaotic, negative energy erupting from the anomaly. The next moment, using spatial power and his Sight, Lucci peers through the dimensional wall to see Jane's condition: the Aether's crimson energy is parasitizing her life force, merging with every cell, turning her into a puppet and vessel.
To make matters worse, he sees a fatal disease lurking in Jane's body—cancer. Stimulated by the Aether's alien energy, the cancer cells act as catalysts, multiplying and spreading at a geometric rate, devouring her life at terrifying speed.
"As expected, the Aether has possessed her..."
Lucci's eyes remain calm.
It's just an Aether possession—nothing more than a peculiar energy being to him. Solving it is easy.
He extends his hand, a shining Path Flame Sword appearing in his palm.
"Prince Lucci, what are you doing?"
Dr. Selvig and Darcy are bewildered by the sudden appearance of the sword.
Lucci does not explain. He simply draws the Path Flame Sword across the anomaly.
No dramatic momentum, no blinding light—just as a tailor cuts cloth with scissors, the space before him splits open!
A vast, bottomless spatial rift suddenly appears, revealing the subspace where the Aether was sealed!
Within, Jane Foster, suffering from the Aether's possession and wracked with pain and terror, is instantly locked onto.
"Come back."
Lucci reaches in, and a powerful force pulls Jane through the gap, instantly bringing her back before everyone!
Jane, writhing in pain, her eyes stained crimson and red streamers running beneath her skin, trembles violently in agony.
When she sees Lucci standing before her, sword in hand like a god, a desperate hope blooms in her terror-filled eyes.
"Lu.. Lucci!"
Almost unconsciously, she throws herself into his arms, clinging to him like a last lifeline.
Her body is cold and shaking; her voice is a sob.
"I... I feel... like I'm dying! There's something... something inside me..."
"Don't be afraid."
Lucci gently pats her back, warm energy instantly suppressing the Aether's rampage and the cancer's spread, easing her pain.
"With me here, you won't die."
His words are soft yet filled with an unshakeable sense of security.
Leaning into Lucci's warm embrace, feeling his healing power soothe body and soul, Jane's wildly beating heart finally calms.
As she settles, Lucci cradles her shoulders, then extends his other hand to cover her lower abdomen.
In an instant, a different power activates in his palm—the Law of Life, filled with the breath of creation and healing! At the same time, Lucci employs the Laws of Reality he previously understood from the Mind Stone.
A gentle yet commanding force flows from Lucci's palm into Jane's abdomen. It passes through her organs like the finest scalpel, locking directly onto the Aether inside her, trying to take root.
"Come... out!"
His fingers tremble slightly.
Zzzt—
A red glow fills Jane's abdomen! The primordial energy of "Reality" manifests as an invisible hand, grabbing the Aether and dragging it out!
The Aether struggles, trying to integrate deeper with its host, fighting the external extraction—but before Lucci's combined Laws of Life and Reality, its resistance is futile!
Soon, under the terrified gaze of Jane and her teammates, a writhing, morphing, pulsating crimson orb the size of a fist is forcibly ripped from Jane's body by Lucci!
It hangs suspended in his palm, twisting and exuding a sinister aura.
Even after the Aether is removed, Lucci's healing power continues—pure life energy flows through Jane's body, purifying the rampant cancer cells like sunlight melting snow. In just a few breaths, Jane feels peace and vitality she's never known. Her cheeks flush with life—her cancer is cured!
"What... what is that?"
Jane, leaning on Lucci's arm, stares in fear at the sinister red liquid in his palm.
Darcy and Dr. Selvig are even more stunned—their understanding of physics utterly overturned.
"The Aether,"
Lucci explains,
"One of the six singularities at the dawn of the universe—the source of Reality. It's a weapon that can twist the laws of physics at will, turning imagination into reality."
A weapon? Distorting reality? Turning imagination real? These words explode in their minds like bombs—a top scientist, Jane knows how terrifying the concept of "warping physical laws" truly is.
It means causality can be reversed, energy disregarded, and the universe's stable foundation becomes as fragile as sand before this power!
"So... such a thing exists in this world?"
Dr. Selvig mutters, feeling his worldview repeatedly shattered.
"The universe is far vaster than you imagine."
Lucci nods, ignoring their shock. His attention is wholly on the Aether in his palm.
As he concentrates, the liquid Aether violently compresses and condenses, its chaotic energy forcibly stabilized. Soon, the crimson liquid transforms with a burst of dazzling light into a translucent gem, as if containing a universe within.
The Reality Stone.
Lucci holds the beautiful gem, studying it. His comprehension soars to new heights.
Buzz—
An invisible, mysterious ripple emanates from the gem. For a moment, Lucci feels as if he glimpses the deepest mysteries of the cosmos! He senses the terrifying power to warp reality, create from nothing, reverse the world, and turn imagination into fact!
Within his perception, an absolute "field" forms around the Reality Stone. Within this field, the so-called laws of mass conservation, energy conservation, causality... none are absolute! So long as the wielder wills it, stone can become bread, water can burn, the dead can rise, the living can vanish!
This is... the authority of "Creation"!
Countless esoteric runes and chains of law flash through Lucci's mind, rapidly analyzed and reorganized. At an astonishing rate, he is thoroughly analyzing and mastering this Infinity Stone that represents the authority of "Reality"!