I stood on the bridge of my command ship. We were flying a huge fleet to Asgard, a way bigger one then the original Malekith did.
Half an hour ago Loki confirmed his arrival at the Palace shield core. I had sent with him six elite dark elves warriors. From what I gathered, he masked them and himself with his astral projections.
"My lord, we shall arrive in five minutes." A dark elf operator, standing to my right reported.
I noded with a small, cruel smile on my lips. "Very well, make sure to sent the landing craft into their structures, it should break through easily."
I turned to Algrim, who was standing on my left. "Do we have any confirmation about the aether?"
He saluted, clicking his heeled boots. "Yes, my lord. The human girl arrived to Asgard with Prince Thor an hour ago."
I smirked. "Make sure you remember what I said. No one is touching Odin or Thor. Lady Sif and the warriors three can be engaged only by elite units."
My second in command noded. "I shall make sure everyone remembers your instructions, my lord.
I looked upon Asgard. Such a proud nation, and yet they shall fall before my might. In the Mcu Malekith did a good enough job. I, with the power of two, and soon enough three, stones should have no big problems in taking this relm.
Meanwhile, Loki and his six elite guards stood before the Valaskjalf shield generator.
'Such selfishness' Mused Loki to himself. 'the shield covers only the royal Palace, and it does not let any civilians through after it has been activated.'
He and his six elite guards were pretending to guard the core, after silently getting rid of the actual guards. He did ask the elven overlord why couldn't he just use the space stone. Well, apparently Odin would notice it right away.
"We will be landing in five minutes. After we take the remainder of the city destroy the core at my command." The deep voice of Malekith boomed in his mind. He simply nodded, knowing that the dark elf would get the affirmation.
Honestly, Malekith was probably the best thing that happened to him in recent years. Way more welcoming then Thanos as well. Normally he would be all ready plotting the fall of his current lord, but...well, he wasn't suicidal. He knew there was no way for him to defeat Malekith. And his power was sure to keep growing.
The door opened. Wierd, he was sure he put an alarm spell in front of it. In walked six Einherjar. He sent a questioning look to their leader.
"The all father sent us to help defend the generator, a bad feeling, he called it." Making a face of realisation, he and his companions saluted and welcomed the new arrivals.
He sent a heads up to Malekith. Well, this ought to be interesting.
Bad feeling, eh Odin? Still, I don't remember something like this happening in the Canon. This can become a problem.
"Should we hold the invasion, my lord?" I turned to Algrim. Should we? No, of course not. But we will have to look out for that bad feeling of his.
"No, just make sure to be cautious, and whatever you do, don't underestimate the asgardians." I watched as we were hovering just outside asgards borders.
I brought three carriers instead of the one Malekith originally did. I would need them too, since we are trying to take the relm instead of just taking the reality stone.
" We await your command, my lord. " I nodded in answer.
"Lunch The fighters. Destroy the antiair turrets and their air forces. After that have the carriers land and send out our ground troops. We take the city. After that Loki will deactivate the shield, then we shall take the Palace. You know our targets. There are some prisoners underneath the Palace. Free and arm them, they will make a good Distraction. . "
A chorus of affirmations answered me through the mental bound I shared wit all my soldiers.
The fighters lunched with a swoosh. The carrier we were on noticeably lightened." This will be the fall of asgard...or the end of the dark elves. "
The sword-like aircrafts silently flew towards their targets. I made sure to order them to fly far away from Himinbjorg, since from what I remember Heimdall saw them just bearly.
We waited in a tense silence. Despite my attitude, I wasn't sure this invasion would be successful.
Our whole plan relied on loki. I didn't like that. Of course, I had some more men prepared to go through the secret passageways if there were any problems, but still.
Unlike in the film we didn't go loud yet. If the defence towers would be destroyed before the battle had even started it would be a huge advantage for us.
My ships were getting closer and closer to their marks. The silence on the bridge was stifling. And then finally...the towers, all in the same moment, were cut.
At the same time the little amount of aircraft the asgardians had patrolling the skies of asgard exploded in fiery balls of flaming death and destruction.
We all sighed a sigh of relief. We did it, at least the first part of it. "Land the carriers." I ordered the captains mentally.
I turned around and boarded the elevator in the center of the ship together with Algrim.
"Do you remember your objectives, my faithful companion?" I inquired fixing the collar of my coat.
"Yes." The simple answer came from the giant elf. He was in the process of checking the sharpness of his axe's blade.
"Good." There was no need for any more words in between us.
You see, my plan entailed taking the city while their forces cowered in the Palace. The shield was a double edged blade. They could hide there, yes. But on the other hand no soldier could cross it, leaving the outer city all but defenceless.
I flared the space and power stones in planted in my right hand's knuckles, the pointer and the middle one respectively. If this goes according to my plan I will have half of the stones.
Which to go after next? The soul stone is automatically out, since I care only for myself. I will leave it to be the last. The time stone? Uh...no, I will leave the scary bald lady. So the mind stone it is. If I am lucky I will get the Maximoff twins as a free bonus.
Finally, with a sound notifying us of our arrival at our desired floor, the elevator doors opened. We went down a ramp that slid out of the elevator floor.
Ah, asgard, the relm of warrior gods and goddesses. Well, that is what it was supposed to be. The smell of burning wood and corpses that arrived with a light wind would disillusion one of that notion immediately. I took a good look around. We stood on the bifrost bridge. In the distance one could hear the sound of my ships destroying what was left of the guards.
You see, with Odin pulling the majority of the einherjar to the Palace before we landed, the resistance was laughably easy to break through.
My soldiers disembarked from the carriers.
I breathed in deeply. Despite the odor of death one could still smell the faint scent of wine, meat and most noticeably, the sea.
Speaking of said water. The sea was in a middle of a storm. The waves beat against the shores violently. Every second a lightning would light up the clouded sky.
I glanced over my shoulder to my men. There were thousands of them. Each held a plasma rifle and a long knife. They stood in a rigid formation, like perfect killing machines.
I started to approach the humongous golden gate. Behind me a march of heeled boots could be heard. There were no outliers, every soldier took a step at the same time, creating a symphony of steps promising a future of death and slaughter. Have you ever seen the German wolfenstein march? Yea, it's pretty much it.
We arrived at the gate at last. I run my hand across it's carved surface. All manner of warriors stared back on me, they seemed to glare at me. Well, I was an intruder who came to take what lied behind the gate by force. Pressing the hand with the stones into the middle, I willed for them to rip the metal slab apart.
With a wine of ancient metal the gate ripped like a sheet of paper. Sparks fell as I exercised my will on the only thing keeping me from sacking asgard. And finally, with a mighty bang, the two metal doors fell onto the bifrost Bridge.
I turned to my men. "Today, we take our revenge on asgard and her people. We shall not show any mercy, for the enemy showed us none three thousand years one great planetary conqueror once said, Rape, Kill, Pillage!" With my unsheathed sword in hand I led the march.
Loki stood in the room holding the shield for the Palace. At some point the golden orb started spinning and glowing with a golden light.
At some point even more einherjar poured in, to guard the core. He informed Malekith about the fact. Yes, he and his elite soldiers could kill them all, but it would take time.
The ratio of his men and the guards was three to one. Well, this was going to be interesting.
When we reached the city proper what met us was about two dozen einherjar arranged in a half circle. They didn't attack yet so I guessed they wanted to talk. Oh well, to bad, for them that is.
Before any of them could speak I pointed my right hand at the center of the formation and willed the power stone to activate. With a mighty crack a purple lightning bolt struck one of them. The result? He was completely wiped from existence.
Seeing this his comrades charged and a battle ensued. Plasma bolts flew in every direction. Soldiers fell on both sides, but I could resurrect my soldiers with the reality stone while Odin couldn't. Asgardians fell with gaping, burning holes in their bodies. Dark elves, on the other hand, fell with spear wounds.
An einherjar with blue inlays stepped forward to engage me. It seams like he is some kind of an officer. I smiled. Violence time. He charged me spear first, making sure to shield himself.
In a blink of an eye I parried his attack to the left. He made a three hundred sixty turn and slashed at me with his weapon. Blocking the slash, I gripped his shield and poured some energy into it. Seeing his shield start to crack with purple energy he dropped it. The shield fell to the floor and turned to dust seconds later.
I went onto the offensive swinging my jaged sword overhead. He, of course, blocked it, holding his weapon with two hands. But slashing him this way wasn't what I intended to do.
Channeling the power stone the sword started glowing purple. With the Uru ore amplifying the power of the stone, the golden spear started to heat up. At the point of contact sparks started flying. The eyes of the einherjar started to widen. Eventually the spear was sawed in half.
With two quiet sounds of metal hitting pavement the two halves of the spear hit the floor. Before my oponent could react I swept my sword at him two times in a blink of an eye.
Blood started flowing from his chest, In an x-shaped slash. I sawed him into four pieces of meat. He collapsed to the ground in a heap of bloody meat chunks. An increasingly larger pool of blood was started growing where his remains fell.
I looked around. All the asgardians were dead. They lied there, like motionless dolls with red, deep gaping holes in their bodies.
Seeking out my second in command, I sheathed my sword. The large, dark skinned, elf made his way to me. "Take half of our men and go east. I shall take the rest, and march west. When we are done we will meet before the gate of Valaskjalf."
He nodded respectfully and took off in the direction I pointed to. Turning in the opposite direction I started marching with my men.
We made our way through the old norse city. A smell of burning corpses filled the air. There were some corpses lying underneath the rubble. Soldiers, civilians and children, the remeins of the buildings did not descriminate.
In truth I did not want to kill them all, but for the remains to follow my orders they would have to see the possible consequences of defying me. There would be no mercy for those that would seek to dethrone me.
And after asgard falls I will move on to the rest of the nine relms. With asgard, Svartalfheim and Nidavellir under my control I own one third of my courent goal. I will live earth for the last. The second most powerful target right after midgard would be Alfheim. The light elves will be my next victims.
At last, we found ourselves on a plaza. The wide gap in homes was a perfect place for a defence point. And indeed, a couple of einherjar stood in a formation, holding their shields and spears with trembling hands.
Close quarters slaughter was fun an all, but I really didn't feel like making it any longer then it had to be. Pointing my outstretched hand at them I let loose the power stone's energy.
Seconds later all that remained of them was only ash and the cracked metal elements of their armor.
This little purple gem was a really powerful piece of ancient magic, wasn't it? Honestly I didn't know which stone was the most powerful of the six. But, that is a question i will have to answer later, when I own all six of them.
We moved on to the meeting point, since this was the last place any einherjar left could be hiding at.
"Destroy the core." Loki made a small, malicious smile at the voice of the dark elf leader. 'Let the fun begin.'
His men all ready knew to attack now. They stood, arranged in a triangle formation before the stairs to the core, in pairs of two. One elf and one einherjar. There Were more of the enemy soldiers outside the doors. They, without a doubt, would charge in the moment they heard the sound of fighting.
He gripped his Scepter he disguised as a standard issue einherjar spear. In a blink of an eye he reared it back and pierced the soldier standing besides him right through his heart.
All the dark elves did the same, their 'comrades' falling to the ground, dead instantly. The armor the einherjar wore collided with the ground noisily. One of his men threw a black hole grenade at the shield core.
At that moment the men guarding the Door charged in, spear first. Well, the jig is up. And with a light green light the illusions on his men and him fell. 'Let the slaughter commence.'
With a shutter and a sound of a distant explosion, the shield started flickering. I smirked. 'Not so useless after all, huh Lee?'
Finally, the golden shield started turning off. From the top, a giant hole started ripping the only thing keeping us out to shreds.
The curtain of golden light fell at last. I took a few steps towards the grand golden doors of Valaskjalf. Running my hand across the golden metal, I inspected the lock. It was enchanted with a magic resistance, so no opening it by spells. There were far to many pins to use lock picks. Well, brute force it is then.
Channeling the power stone's power I focused on ripping the doors apart. Purple arcs of energy glanced across the golden surface. A creek could be heard. Giant cracks climbed from the point my hand was meeting the obstacle. And with a loud crack, the only thing keeping the asgardians inside alive was turned to scrap metal.
With a sound akin to breaking glass, the sharp bits of golden metal flew inside the Palace at breakneck speeds. Have you ever heard a piece of meat being sliced with a knife? Well, picture that, add the sound of metal whining against metal, and you will have the sound we heard.
Stepping over the bits of the broken gate we saw something straight from world war one. Bodies lied in piles of meaty bits and shredded armor. Most corpses were missing at least one limb. And over all this hang a bloody mist.
We marched foreword, without even looking. Then something grabbed my cloak. I stopped, and together with me, so did my soldiers. I looked down. An einherjar was clinging desperately to my cloak. Well, at least half of one. He was cut cleanly in half, his intestine was dragged behind him leaving a bloody trail. His bloody eyes shined with intense hatred.
'Insolent pest'
I pointed a single finger to his face. And then I pulled. A terrifying scream accompanied by a sickening squelch filled the silent hall. I ripped his eyeballs out, slowly. After they were out, I continued, grey tendrils of brain matter slipped out of his empty eye sockets and nostrils. I fed him a little bit of the power stone's energy, enough to keep him alive and aware of his pain.
When I pulled out everything there was to pull out, I allowed him to die. After I pulled back the purple energy the eyes and brain matter fell to the ground with a juicy squelch.
With a straight face I turned to my previous direction and kept walking, my legions following in my wake. Now to find the girl with the reality stone.
With a rattle of metal, the last einherjar guarding the prison fell to the floor, his head bearly dangling from his neck.
The prisoners stepped away from the golden shields keeping them inside. Or rather, as it was now, the shields were keeping what was outside precisely that way. Outside.
Small giggles could be heard from the figures outside. Clad in black leather coats with blue and read checked lining, they had golden masks with disturbingly wide grins crooked noses and spiked ears. Their red hair was put into a broom looking spiked mess. In one hand they were wielding golden swords, in the other plasma pistols.
One of them stepped forward. This one instead of a sword and gun combo had a sword and a dagger. In a blink of an eye he slashed said sword across the golden shield. It light up, flickered and finally, died.
All the different cells were opened by the rest of those things.
The apparent leader spoke up in a high pitched, yet filled with sadistic malice, tone. "Up those stairs to the left is the armory, to the right is the exit." Saing so, he showed them said stairs. "You can either go, arm yourselfs and fight the asgardians, or flee." He continued. "But don't try to attack anyone other than the einherjar, if you do, you can be certain that death will find you." After he was done, him and his men left. In their wake the only thing left was silence.
The Harlequins continued on, killing any einherjar in their path. They finally entered a Palace garden.
Inside, around twenty einherjar stood, all of them had blue accents on their armor. And amongst them stood a singular woman. Black locks spilled down her back. Her armor had a silver shine to it. Said armor was present only in key areas, providing protection, yet allowing for speed. Her brown eyes pierced the elves with a rage filled stare.
The elven elit soldiers stopped. The two groups stared at each other. Finally, lady Sif stepped out. Pointing at the enemy leader with her drawn sword. Unseen by everyone, the troupe master gave a amused smile.
With no one else moving, the leaders prepared to duel. One with sword and shield, the other with two daggers he pulled out of...somewhere.
Seconds ticked by with sounds of battle in the distance. Loosing her patience, Sif attacked first with an overhead swing of her sword. With a grace full twirl her enemy avoided taking any damage. Not waiting to be stabbed, the asgardian woman attempted a bash with her shield.
What met her was one of the harlequin's daggers piercing her shield right in the middle. With a cry of pain Sif let go of the shield. From her now free hand blood started to drip. It appeared that the dagger went right into the handle. Her opponent only tilted his head in amusement.
Sif tried to charge the elf, only for her sword to be caught by two daggers and expertly ripped away from her hand. The asgardian woman reached behind her back, withdrawing a one handed axe with her only good hand.
The Harlequin, seemingly bored switched to attack. He threw two daggers at her, and charged right after them. Sif managed to block one of the projectiles, but was hit by the other one. The knife implanted itself into her left shoulder. She grunted in pain, and fell to one knee, her vision becoming blurry from the constant blood loss.
Her opponent barreled into her, knee first, breaking her nose with a sickening crack, and sent her to the ground. She didn't even have a chance to react before a hand grabbed her hair and pulled, a cold feeling of a dagger at her neck made her forget about struggling. A sudden hit to the back of her head sent her into the land of dreams.
The troupe master looked up to his men. The moment he did his ears cought a sound of a discharging blaster. What was left of the elite einherjar forces was now laing on the ground, dead.
Now to find the girl with the stone, and meet up with Malekith.
Holding an einherjar by his throat, I run arcs of purple energy across his brain. This would have been much easier with the mind stone but oh well. My interigation consisted of asking questions and looking for brain activity. As of now I have been dragging this poor fool for a long time. I was looking for Jane, well the reality stone that is, not Jane herself. At every intersection I had to ask for separate questions and look for the reaction. Ugh, I have to get the mind stone next.
But, finally I, Algrim and two more of my soldiers stood in front of a golden door. I sent the rest of my forces to take control of the rest of the Palace. "Is she in there? " The soldier 'confirmed' my guess. Finally.
I let go of him, watching him turn to purple tinted Ash. He served his purpose.
I pushed the door open. Inside a king sized bed sat on a pedestal in the middle of the room. All around the room were all kinds of closets and such. The first thing I looked at was the bed, and when I did I almost laughed.
The mighty Odin, king of asgard, lied there sleeping. Oh what irony, what evil fortune. A smirk grazed my lips. That would explain why the bifrost was working, I had the space stone after all, without which they couldn't fix it. So my guess is that odin sacrificed a lot of his power to reconstruct it.
You know, this is somewhat anticlimactic. I was ready to battle him yet he lies there defenceless. And next to him? Next to him sits his wife, holding his hand and looking down onto his face. On the other side of the bed sits my target, the vessel for the reality stone.
The sound of creeking doors alarms them to my arrival. Frigga quickly stands up from the bed, grabbing a sword that was hanging on her waist. Pointing her weapon at me and algrim she starts to speak.
"Stand down, creature, and you might yet live to see another day." She advances in my direction, covering my view of Jane. I, just like her, move forward not really showing I am taking her seriously. In the films she managed to wound Malekith, well, she won't get the jump at me.
" I have lived for far to long to be defeated by a mere goddess." I reply, showing none of the caution I was actually using.
"Who are you?" The scripted dialogue continues.
"I am Malekith, king of the dark elves. I have come to take what is rightfully mine. " I say while looking at the other woman in the room.
Jane cowers in fear. Normally she would try to flee, but with Algrim and two more of my soldiers stationed at the door that's not an option.
I turned to her and started moving. Frigga chose this moment to strike at me. Just like in the film, she sent her sword in an upper cut at my face.
'Insolent woman'
A cling of metal resounded in the room. Before she could react, I sent the handle of my sword into her stomach, while at the same time making her sword fly off to the side. She keeled over in pain a few drops of blood leaving her lips together with a string of coughs.
I left her on the floor to be collected by my faithful companion. Just like in the original timeline, he held her up by the back of her neck.
I stared at my target. Or, well, at the illusion of her. The spell was masterfully crafted, if not for all the time I spent with loki I wouldn't be able to see through it's falsehood. The little things mattered. Like the fact that the illusion wasn't moving the air molecules around it when it moved or 'breathed'.
I look back to frigga. My face morphs into a mix of amusement and disdain. "What weakling do you take me for, Witch? Were you honestly under some pathetic delusion that you would be able to trick me? I am, and have seen far better sorcerers than you." She was struggling now. Pitifully trying to get away from Algrim. She was snarling at me with her teeth bared, but I saw the fear within the depths of her eyes. She was completely and utterly terrified by my display of magical knowledge.
I am quite sure that through the long life she had, she never met a better mage than she was. Well, besides her husband, of course. But honestly. Her misguided attempt to try and trick me left me in a far more...unforgiving mood. I zoomed over to her, with my cloak bellowing in my wake. As I approach, she started to struggle even harder than before. Frigga peppered Algrim's hands with bites, scratches and hits but all that was to no avail. All she managed to accomplish was making her teath hurt, breaking her nails and enraging me even further. I am one of the most powerful beings in existence, how does this mere mortal dare oppose me?
I put my pointer finger upon her temple and will the power stone to invade her body. When the power stone encompasses her entire body, I unleash unimaginable pain upon her. She holds out for a few seconds, merely spasming, but eventually a tortured scream rips itself from her throat. I am Malekith, the soon to be most powerful being in this sorry universe , and I will not be slighted by someone so far down the food chain it's not even funny.
After a few seconds I let up, my anger partially gone from my system. In the film Malekith would be asking her where the reality stone was, but I didn't need to do such a thing. I already knew where the stone was after all. I turn my attention to the newly arrived Harlequin troopmaster. He walked through the door dragging Jane foster with him, holding a dagger to her throat. Fortunately, neither of them saw me lose control, that truly was uncalled for.
"You." I say as I lift my finger in the direction of the one holding what was rightfully mine. "You have taken something that belongs to me. And now finally after such a long time, I will take that which is my birthright."
Jane herself was in clear distress. Her frightened eyes were snapping from me to Frigga and to Algrim. She was shaking. It's been awhile since I felt this degree of fear from someone. It was…intoxicating. Knowing that you terrified someone so much…her terrified face was making me crave a more sadistic kind of release. But, there's no time for that now. Gaining power now, having fun with the woman before me later.
I turned to her fully . After removing my second hand from the position it was resting at, I started to call for the reality stone. Sensing a way more powerful and willing vessel in its vicinity, the fragment of Infinity started to leave Jane's body. Crimson mist, akin in colour to blood started pouring from every possible exit out of the woman's body. Jane herself was lifted into the air, a strangled gasp living her throat .
And then the Aether connected with my body. Oh, the feeling was glorious . The power of the reality stone combined with the hapiness of the other two stones residing in my body at the feeling of one of their brothering joining them. It all almost overwhelmed me. But, after struggling for a second, I was finally able to reassert control over my body and mind.
I gave a menacing chuckle, as the former vessel fell to the ground, unconscious . Three down. Three more to go. At this rate I am going to be the omnipotent God of this whole universe in the near future . And I haven't even set my foot on earth, not counting the short excursion for the tesseract.
I glanced at the Allfather. In the end, you were right. bringing the aether here was a very dangerous thing to do . It brought the fall of Asgard after all. I wanted to do nothing else but end the life of Odin, Boarson. But, at the last moment, I managed to stop myself. Killing him here would set Hela down on Asgard. And as of now I wasn't in full control here. Would I be able to defeat her? Well yes, quite undoubtedly so. But I didn't want to risk any of my enemies getting away in the chaos. So, I reached for the power of all my three Infinity stones, and put a hand upon Odin's forehead . I immediately found the link that was holding her back in helheim. This would have been much easier with the aid of the mind stone. But it didn't mean I wouldn't be able to do a similar thing with those I had at my disposal.
I severed it from his magical core and at the same moment, I entangled it into mine. The sudden draw on my magic was immediately noticeable. But what made me regret that action was Odin's eyes snapping wide open.
Well...Fuck.
With the benefit of hindsight it was quite obvious that what was keeping him in that deep slumber, was the strain keeping Hela away from here. But as they say, hindsight is always 20/20 .
...Fuck...