DOTM: Chapter 361/362

Chapter 361: Fair Prices and No Deception

The dense rain of energy bullets didn't cause much damage. It wasn't because the bullets were weak, but because there were more Dark Elves than expected, and they weren't foolish enough to just stand there and take the hits.

However, the attack did disrupt the Dark Elves' formation, allowing the Asgardian soldiers to charge in and immediately gain the upper hand.

Then... the battle devolved into chaos.

"So-called advanced civilization... is this what their combat looks like? A chaotic brawl?"

They charged in formation at first, but it all turned into a mess. The battlefield was a chaotic tangle, making it impossible to distinguish enemies from allies. All one could do was strike down anyone who attacked them.

"Perhaps. After all, those powerhouses from Asgard possess overwhelmingly destructive strength. At this level, formations and tactics lose their meaning. The outcome of the battle depends purely on power, so it's not surprising they're used to fighting in chaotic melees."

Tony could only grumble helplessly about the situation as he maneuvered agilely above the battlefield. With the Iron Man suit's mobility, he could freely move around, launch sudden strikes on enemies he didn't like the look of, then quickly retreat before he was surrounded.

The weapons in the Dark Elves' hands weren't just for show; they unleashed concentrated fire toward the Iron Man suit zipping through the air.

If this were the original version of Iron Man from the movie, he wouldn't have had many options against this kind of attack. He would've had to land quickly and blend into the crowd to avoid becoming the focus of their fire.

But the current Iron Man was different. His suit was no longer purely technological. The Arc Reactor had undergone numerous modifications, greatly enhancing both its endurance and output. Combined with magic stones and mystical knowledge, Tony had learned how to better utilize that powerful, pure energy.

Putting everything else aside, just the defensive energy layer on the exterior of the Iron Man suit was enough to withstand the concentrated firepower of the Dark Elves.

"Oh, my dear darlings, let me show you what real firepower looks like!"

As Tony's voice, amplified by loudspeakers, echoed across the battlefield, the mobile logistics station that had been hovering in the distance finally revealed its purpose.

Several components detached from the station and flew toward Tony, attaching directly to the exterior of his suit.

The originally sleek Iron Man suit suddenly bulked up significantly. These heavy external components were all kinds of weapons Stark had developed and modified during his downtime.

Missiles, incendiary bombs, and continuous autocannon fire rained down, directly clearing out large numbers of Dark Elves who had been standing in the back focusing on ranged attacks.

Watching Tony's performance, Ethan knew he didn't need to worry about him. This Iron Man suit was no longer the one he used to know. With just the energy shield, the Dark Elves couldn't do anything to Tony. As for the black hole grenades that could potentially threaten him... they'd have to actually manage to land one near Tony, who was constantly flying around in the sky.

As for the other companions, since they had accepted Loki's payment, Logan and the others weren't going to just sit in the back and wait for the battle to end. They were genuinely contributing to the fight.

There was no need to mention Logan—his fighting style was as direct and brutal as ever. Wearing a combat suit and extending his adamantium claws, Logan charged straight into the Dark Elves. Almost none of them could stop him.

He ignored all attacks, walking forward relentlessly. When the Dark Elves saw this and fired at him frantically, thinking he was crazy, he would suddenly lunge forward and stab them to death while they were still in shock: "How is this guy not dead?"

Selene's fighting style was even more "Dark Elf" than the Dark Elves themselves. She was like a shadow—unseen, untouchable—appearing suddenly to kill a target before vanishing again.

The ongoing battle had damaged much of the surrounding lighting, plunging large areas of the battlefield into darkness. This environment should have given the Dark Elves a significant advantage, but they never expected someone even more adept at fighting in the dark to join the fray.

Not a single Dark Elf died clearly under Selene's hands—they didn't even know how they died. With her style, if Malekith hadn't been standing in a relatively well-lit area, he probably would have been stabbed to death by her in the very first moment.

Ethan wasn't surprised by the combat strength of these two. Even Laura, who displayed strength on par with Logan's, wasn't unexpected.

What truly surprised Ethan was Auriel.

The little guy he had casually named, who looked exactly like a kitten, jumped from Laura's head onto her arm when she extended it toward the enemy. Then it dashed along her slender arm and leaped into the air.

At the highest point of its jump, a strange beastly roar erupted from Auriel's rapidly growing body. As it descended, it transformed into a massive creature nearly three meters long.

From the outside, it looked like a large leopard or tiger. Its once soft fur had become sleek, oily, and emitted a faint reddish glow.

With one paw, it flattened a Dark Elf into a meat patty. As it roared, two orbs of fire appeared around it, quickly launching at nearby Dark Elves and detonating with violent explosions.

"This guy can actually fight?"

That was the only thing that truly surprised Ethan. He had always assumed Auriel hadn't grown up yet. It turned out the little guy had combat capabilities all along, but had just been acting cute to get free food and drinks, never revealing its strength.

If Laura didn't have some druidic talent that allowed her to communicate with animals and fully understand them, this little guy probably would have kept hiding its power. Why fight to the death when acting cute got you all the snacks you wanted?

Although Ethan didn't question it, he was quite certain that was exactly what Auriel had been thinking.

"I didn't expect there really would be six powerhouses."

Loki hadn't expected to actually get a good deal. Watching the battle steadily tip in their favor, he even had the luxury to stand beside Ethan and chat.

At first, he had been concerned the Dark Elves' strength would cause heavy casualties among the Asgardian soldiers. That wouldn't reflect well on him as their commander. So after the battle started, he personally charged into the front lines, cutting down many Dark Elves.

With his terrifying frost power and the strong support of Tony and the others, the forces Malekith had brought quickly suffered massive losses. Now, only the final group of enemies remained.

As the battle continued and the number of enemies decreased, Selene no longer stayed hidden in the shadows. She would appear behind the Dark Elves to strike. Even if she didn't have time to retreat and got surrounded, her strength allowed her to handle the situation calmly. If things looked bad, she would immediately release a flash of Holy Light to blind them temporarily, then take the opportunity to retreat.

Her fighting style was driving Malekith insane. He had no time to deal with Loki, which was why Loki could casually stand there chatting with Ethan.

"Your companions are performing so well. Aren't you going to do something too?"

"If I accidentally destroy this entire stretch of coastline, Asgard had better not come looking for compensation."

"Go ahead. Maybe I'll build a water park here or something."

Since Loki didn't object, Ethan didn't hold back. Ever since obtaining the Tesseract, he hadn't truly used its power in combat.

The Tesseract wasn't just a source of nearly infinite energy. The Space Stone hidden inside didn't just allow him to teleport freely across the universe.

It was also an extremely powerful force in its own right. Now that he had the chance to use the power of the Space Stone in actual combat, Ethan didn't want to waste it.

As the Tesseract appeared, radiating blue light in his left hand, Ethan extended his right hand to control the power within it.

The energy of an Infinity Stone is incomparably powerful. Even in cube form, it wasn't something just anyone could wield through brute strength alone.

If it were the old Ethan, he wouldn't have been able to use it at all.

But now, after mastering the Tesseract, he wielded strength that even Loki was amazed by.

With just a gentle wave of his hand, the space in front of him was completely sealed. Although Malekith sensed something was wrong and tried to flee, even if he returned to his ship now, he still couldn't escape this enclosed area.

The moment Ethan agreed to help, Malekith's escape route had already been cut off.

As Ethan slowly walked forward holding the Tesseract, the Dark Elves concentrated their fire on him once again.

Unlike before, where he deflected the attacks with magic, Ethan didn't bother this time. The dense energy bullets passed through him as if he were an illusion.

"Cheap trick."

Malekith assumed the approaching Ethan was just a decoy illusion meant to draw fire, so he turned away, uninterested. He was now focused on finding a way to escape.

But just as that thought crossed his mind, the "illusion" suddenly reached out and grabbed Malekith by the neck, lifting him off the ground.

"This is impossible!"

No illusion, no matter how realistic, could grab someone. What's more, the Dark Elves' firing hadn't stopped, and there was no opening for Ethan to have switched in physically.

So how could this illusion touch him?

Malekith, now caught by the throat, didn't even have time to ask the question. In the next instant, he and all the Dark Elves found themselves in outer space.

"Perfect time to test this move on you."

(To be continued.)

Chapter 362: The Function of the Reality Stone

Regarding Malekith, Ethan had no intention of communicating with him at all.

Setting aside the man's ambitions and disregarding his capabilities, there was a more fundamental issue: due to their differing life forms and almost completely opposite environmental requirements, any possibility of coexistence was impossible. As such, the two sides were mortal enemies, with only one able to survive.

This wasn't a matter of justice versus evil. It was purely an issue of survival and stance.

So what was there to talk about? No matter what was said, it would ultimately end with one side killing the other… or being killed.

Since he had already taken action, there was no need to hold back. Ethan used the power of the Tesseract to create a space that existed between reality and illusion.

This space resembled outer space. The only downside was the surrounding "planets," which looked like background props made with cheap special effects. All of them glowed blue, appearing monotonous and obviously fake.

"Although I've been researching this move for a long time, this is the first time I'm actually using it… As expected, relying solely on the Tesseract can't perfectly replicate this technique."

Even though the "cheap special effects" planets looked a bit tacky, Ethan didn't mind. With a single thought, those planets exploded simultaneously. The terrifying shockwaves generated by their explosions were all directed by Ethan's control toward Malekith and the Dark Elves.

Despite their appearance, the planets were composed of the Tesseract's nearly limitless energy. The power unleashed by these explosions was even greater than Ethan had expected.

Just as the shockwave slammed into the Dark Elves, the "outer space" created by the Tesseract began to collapse.

Even with only a portion of the energy leaking out, the resulting blast carved a massive crater into the coastline where Ethan had been standing. The area between Ethan and the Dark Elf mothership was precisely where Malekith and his forces had been positioned.

Even the mothership, which had already been severely damaged and was shaped like a tall, narrow tower, trembled violently from the impact, as if it were on the verge of collapse.

As for the Asgardians behind Ethan, they felt only a slight tremor and were not harmed. Moreover, Loki had timely deployed an energy shield to block what little remained of the shockwave, protecting his troops.

Everyone had clearly seen what had happened. Although Ethan had created a relatively independent space, it hadn't been separated from the real world. For those who weren't pulled into the space, it looked like watching a projection with decent sound and visuals. So after the Dark Elves vanished, no one questioned where they had gone.

Everyone had seen with their own eyes how, in the explosion of those countless "cheap special effects planets," the Dark Elves were obliterated by the terrifying energy impact.

"In a sense, they didn't even leave dust behind."

Although Ethan's simulated move didn't reach the original version's level of vaporizing enemies down to the last atom, the destructive power was not far off.

What truly fell short of expectations was the level of energy control. The original move could freely direct the energy from the planetary explosions to hit multiple targets, or focus all the terrifying force onto a single enemy, or even concentrate it onto a single point.

In simple terms, it could perform both area-of-effect and high-precision single-target attacks.

This showed that the essence of the move wasn't just about raw destructive power, but precise energy control. Ethan had once thought his control was good enough, but found that when handling such an enormous energy source, there were still some minor deviations. After all, this was his first time using such a vast amount of energy.

If not for the lack of control, the impact directed at the Dark Elves wouldn't have dispersed as much. The outer space he created wouldn't have collapsed prematurely, and no energy would have leaked out to damage the coastline.

Looking at the large crater before him, Ethan could only pat Loki on the shoulder. "You can start designing that water park we talked about."

By now, the battle with the Dark Elves had entered its final stage. Only a few of their fighters were still fleeing through the skies, and their destruction was only a matter of time. Asgard's skiff fleet was pursuing them, having received orders not to let a single one escape.

There were also some straggling Dark Elf troops who had fled into the forest, but the task of hunting them down wasn't something Ethan needed to worry about.

He had accepted Loki's request and only took action in direct combat. Now that he had fulfilled his part, his job was done.

There was no need to haggle over the reward. Although Loki enjoyed trickery, his pride as both a god and a prince meant he disdained such petty tricks.

Ethan only needed to return and rest. Loki would naturally take care of the reward later.

Tony had also stopped flying around and returned to the ground.

This battle had allowed him to thoroughly test his new suit. While its performance was outstanding, it also exposed several flaws.

"As expected, you only find the problems with equipment after real combat."

Finding flaws meant there was room for improvement. Overall, Tony was quite satisfied with this trip to Asgard.

Based on the information he had received earlier, these Dark Elves had planned to plunge all Nine Realms into darkness, which meant Earth had been one of their targets as well.

This battle could therefore be seen as defending Earth. So, Tony felt no psychological burden over killing so many Dark Elves.

Logan and Selene had primarily dealt with foot soldiers, but the fight allowed them to test their full combat abilities. They both felt that their hard work over the past days hadn't been in vain.

These Dark Elf foot soldiers were stronger than elite human soldiers. With their weapons, one of them could take down an entire elite combat team.

If it had been during her days as a Death Dealer, encountering these enemies would have left Selene no option but to flee. But now, killing them was no more difficult than killing chickens. Her progress was astounding.

Logan didn't feel the same way. As someone who had lived through many brutal wars, he had a much more composed attitude toward becoming stronger.

Only Laura was visibly excited. This was the first time she had fully unleashed her combat potential. Still young and full of adrenaline, she hadn't yet calmed down.

If Logan hadn't held her back, she probably would've already chased some unfortunate Dark Elf deep into the forest by now.

As for Auriel...

Watching the majestic three-meter-long big cat licking its paws and then acting cute, begging for magic stones to eat, Ethan couldn't help but feel he had given it the wrong name. Should he rename it Sadaharu? After thinking it over, he decided against it—after all, it still looked more like a cat.

Upon returning to Thor's residence, everyone needed to clean up. Thor's bathroom was large enough, but neither Tony nor Logan had any habit of showering with others.

Tony had worn his Iron Man suit the entire time, and most of the battle had been fought using long-range firepower. So even if he didn't shower, it wouldn't be a big deal.

Logan was different. He had charged into battle more fiercely than anyone. His blood and that of the enemy were splattered all over him. Even though he politely offered to let Selene and Laura go first, Thor still led him to another bathroom to clean himself up.

"Is the Kursed Warrior taken care of?"

"Though it took some effort, I still defeated him."

By the time Ethan returned, Thor had already gotten back to be with Jane. He had wanted to go support his brother after finishing off the Cursed Warrior, but his father informed him that the battle was already over and Loki was leading the clean-up.

He didn't enjoy chasing down retreating enemies, so he skipped the rest and returned to stay with Jane while waiting for Ethan and the others to come back.

He was still thinking of asking Ethan to help remove the Aether from Jane.

Actually, even if Thor hadn't brought it up, Ethan was already thinking about it.

At first, he hadn't been interested in the Reality Stone, feeling it had no use for him. Besides, Jane wasn't in immediate danger. Even if things became urgent, Ethan had ways to suppress it. So even if they waited until after defeating the Dark Elves to handle it, it wouldn't be too late.

But now, things had changed. After using the Space Stone's power in combat, Ethan suddenly realized the Reality Stone might be very important for him.

Take, for example, the move he had just used. The planets he simulated using spatial energy looked like cheap props, completely fake at first glance.

Even though their fake appearance didn't affect the actual destructive power—since the explosion's strength depended on the energy's intensity and not on visual realism—this experience reminded him of something.

He hoped to one day condense his own magic power into a real planet. But did he truly understand what a planet was? Did he understand the world around him deeply enough? Though he had studied a lot, turning that knowledge into true personal understanding was no easy task.

Without some special method, he might only be able to gradually learn and master it through time. But the Space Stone had given him a hint.

The Reality Stone might allow him to understand everything in "reality" much faster.

(To be continued.)