Dark Elves Annihilated

A massive cloud of dust rose into the air. Thor watched as a huge figure stood up amid the dust, grabbed the Cursed Warrior, and flung him away.

Bang! Bang! Bang! The Cursed Warrior flew like a cannonball, smashing through the massive stone obstacles scattered around him.

The impact made the hall tremble, shaking down so much dust that it was hard to keep one’s eyes open.

But once the dust cleared, Banner’s unmistakable broad green back appeared before Thor.

"Thor, are you alright?"

Banner turned around, looked at Thor’s bloodied mouth and bruised, swollen face, and asked.

"I’m fine, but you sure took your time getting here."

Hearing the concerned question, Thor looked at Banner and smiled in relief.

"Sorry. We thought you could handle it."

"So we spent some time killing Malekith."

"It was only when Tony noticed you still hadn’t come over after so long that he figured you must have run into trouble."

"So he sent me to check on you."

Banner looked embarrassed as he earnestly explained.

"You said Malekith is dead?"

"Is Jane alright?"

Thor’s eyes widened in disbelief when he heard that Malekith was dead.

"We had to get the Aether out of Ms. Jane Foster’s body, so killing Malekith took us a little longer."

"She’s fine now."

"I’ll tell you the details later. First, I’ll help you kill this Cursed Warrior."

Banner spoke after hearing Thor’s question.

"His body is incredibly tough. Be careful."

Thor heard Banner’s confident words. He wanted to help, but he knew that, injured as he was, staying out of Banner’s way would be the greatest help he could offer. So he merely shared the information.

"Just watch."

"When it comes to physical strength, I’ve never been afraid of anyone."

Banner flashed two rows of white teeth.

Then Banner charged directly at the Cursed Warrior, who was slowly getting to his feet, and threw a punch.

Seeing that the Hulk had returned, the Cursed Warrior threw a counterpunch.

When their massive fists collided, a terrifying shockwave visibly erupted between them.

The broken stones around them were swept into the air, and a circular crater instantly formed beneath their feet.

Thor’s eyes widened at the physical power Banner unleashed. He had not expected Banner to be this strong.

"I’ve been waiting a long time for an opponent like you."

Banner saw that the Cursed Warrior had taken his punch head-on without being sent flying, retreating less than half a meter at most. An excited smile appeared on his face.

As soon as he finished speaking, Banner swung his left arm like a heavy hammer in a sweeping strike.

The Cursed Warrior immediately blocked it, but when he caught Banner’s blow and felt a force even more terrifying than his own, his pupils contracted.

The dreadful force battered the Cursed Warrior’s body, making even the bones inside him tremble.

The Cursed Warrior’s feet could no longer hold their ground. Just as he was about to be sent flying, Banner stomped directly on his foot.

The strength of a kick was often greater than that of a punch. Hulk had always fought on instinct, usually throwing punches without using his legs.

Even fighting only with his hands and fists, Hulk had already been strong enough to drive many people into despair, but that was far from all of Hulk’s power.

Now that Banner could perfectly control Hulk’s strength, he naturally would not fight like before, using only his hands and never his legs.

That stomp made the Divine Palace shake violently, and the Cursed Warrior’s foot was crushed to pieces.

Banner’s strength had now reached a level few could match. Even Tony had to use his hidden trump cards.

Only then could he gain some advantage over Banner and defeat him temporarily.

But that did not mean Banner was weak. Against other enemies, the Hulk Banner transformed into would be a monstrous existence that was difficult to deal with.

The Cursed Warrior’s left foot shattered. The piercing pain made him grunt, and he realized he had encountered an opponent whose body was just as extraordinary as his own.

But with his foot injured, the only way he could survive was to kill the Hulk in front of him. Otherwise, he would have neither the strength nor the chance to escape.

"I’ll kill you!"

The Cursed Warrior let out a roar and took the initiative to attack.

But when that punch landed on Banner’s face, it merely turned Banner’s head slightly to one side.

Banner spat out two teeth and grinned.

Seeing that the Hulk had taken his punch and suffered only a minor injury, the Cursed Warrior found it unbelievable.

But Banner was not the kind of person to take a hit without returning one, so he clapped both hands against the Cursed Warrior’s head.

Sometimes palms were more useful than fists, especially when attacking the head, a part that would always be relatively vulnerable.

This clap sent a terrifying impact directly into the Cursed Warrior’s brain.

His brain shook violently, and multiple blurry afterimages appeared before his eyes.

Seeing the Cursed Warrior’s body start to sway, Banner grabbed his leg.

Then, like wielding a giant hammer, he repeatedly slammed the Cursed Warrior wildly into the ground. Every impact carved out a deep crater.

The scene was horrifying, like a gigantic monster had gone berserk and was destroying everything around him.

As for the Cursed Warrior, who was being swung around like a weapon, his body could not endure it. He kept vomiting blood, and his consciousness steadily blurred.

In just over ten seconds, Banner had brutally smashed the Cursed Warrior to death as though he were a weapon. The massive body sank into the ground and fell silent.

Banner’s frenzied smashing also caused the Divine Palace, which had already been left precarious by the battle, to begin collapsing.

"…"

Seeing signs that the Divine Palace was collapsing, Banner finally realized that he seemed to have messed up and froze in place.

"What are you standing there for? The Divine Palace is about to collapse! Run!"

Thor watched Banner beat the Cursed Warrior to death by swinging him around. Even as he marveled at Banner’s terrifying physical strength, he noticed the Divine Palace was about to collapse. Seeing Banner standing still as though lost in thought, he shouted.

Hearing that, Banner grabbed the Cursed Warrior’s corpse and ran outside.

Then, before Thor and Banner’s eyes, the Divine Palace of Asgard, which had stood for countless years, slowly collapsed.

"Sorry, I think I messed up."

Banner looked at the fallen Divine Palace. Back in his normal form, his face was full of guilt. He had come to help, yet he had destroyed Asgard’s Divine Palace instead.

Hulk’s strength was simply too great. If Banner was not careful, it was very easy for him to cause damage to the surroundings.

"It’s fine. You didn’t mess up. Killing the Cursed Warrior was a huge help."

"Tony was right. With Asgard invaded by the Dark Elves, casualties and destruction were inevitable."

"What matters is whether we managed to stop Malekith’s plan."

"Thanks to you, we won this battle completely."

Seeing Banner’s guilty expression, Thor reached out and patted him on the shoulder. Though there was regret in his eyes, he still smiled and comforted him.

The Divine Palace had existed ever since Thor was born, so it had a history of at least fifteen hundred years.

Now, because of Malekith’s invasion, the battle it caused had brought about its collapse. Anyone would have felt reluctant to see it go.

But Thor also understood that as long as Asgard’s people were safe, the palace where the king lived could be rebuilt one day.

Now that Malekith was dead, and the Cursed Warrior, Malekith’s greatest reliance, was dead as well.

Then this invasion led by Malekith and the Dark Elves would end with their total annihilation.

Hearing Thor’s consolation, Banner felt much better.

He truly wanted to help, but Hulk’s strength was too great. If he wanted to be genuinely helpful, he still needed to put more thought into controlling it.

"Come on, let’s go find Tony and see how things are."

"As for rebuilding the Divine Palace and everything else, Asgard will take care of it."

Seeing much of the guilt fade from Banner’s eyes, Thor spoke with a smile.

Banner nodded and immediately headed toward Thor’s hall.

When Banner and Thor returned to his residence, they saw Tony playing with a beautiful red gemstone that looked like red agate.

"Tony, where did the Aether go?"

Banner looked around, noticed that the Aether was gone, and asked anxiously.

"This is the Aether."

Tony held the red gemstone between his thumb and index finger as he spoke.

"Wasn’t the Aether an irregular and unstable form of energy?"

Banner stared at the ruby in Tony’s hand and asked curiously.

"I don’t know the specifics, but after Malekith died—"

"The Aether inside his body gathered into this ruby."

"And its energy became incredibly stable."

Tony tossed the ruby in his hand directly toward Banner as he spoke.

Banner immediately caught it, then examined it carefully. He could see that the energy contained within the gem was flowing in an orderly manner.

"Since it didn’t disperse, can we still find a way to study it?"

"Didn’t Malekith say that controlling the Aether required sorcery? How are we supposed to do it when we don’t know sorcery?"

After examining it carefully, Banner spoke.

"I already had Jarvis analyze it."

"Unstable Aether does indeed require a special kind of energy to activate it—the sorcery Malekith mentioned."

"But with the Aether this stable, controlling and studying it won’t be difficult."

Tony was not worried at all as he answered.

Hearing this, Banner was relieved.

"The problem is that this gem formed from condensed Aether is also an Asgardian treasure."

"So we need to return it to Thor first, and then borrow it from you."

Seeing Banner relax, Tony looked at Thor and spoke.

Thor had previously needed to take back the Tesseract to repair the Bifrost, so Tony, who had originally intended to borrow it for research, had not been able to do so.

Now that the Aether had condensed into this red gemstone, Tony naturally wanted to borrow it from Thor for research.

Both Banner and Tony had witnessed the wonders of the Aether. If they could manipulate that energy even slightly, they could undoubtedly develop super technology that no one else could replicate.

Thor had remained silent because, as soon as he returned to his hall, he had immediately exchanged greetings with Jane.

"Since you helped Asgard so greatly, I should agree to lend it to you immediately."

"After all, we’re friends."

"But I’m not yet the king of Asgard. My Father is."

"Strictly speaking, the Aether is a treasure left behind from my grandfather Bor’s generation, so it must be handled more carefully."

"So I have to ask my Father for his opinion before I can give you an answer."

Now that Tony and Banner had brought him into the matter, Thor released Jane from his embrace, looked at Tony, and spoke.

Of course, he knew that Banner and Tony greatly wanted to research the Aether. It represented a power beyond ordinary imagination.

But he could not decide on his own how the Aether should be handled.

"That’s all I needed to hear."

"Banner, give the gem back to Thor for now."

A smile appeared on Tony’s face when he heard Thor’s words.

Although Banner wanted to start researching it immediately, it possessed a certain ability to make wishes come true.

That meant many technologies they had never dared imagine, or environments that had previously been restricted, might be created directly through the Aether, removing countless obstacles from their research.

But it was an Asgardian treasure, and he could not simply take it by force, so Banner handed it back to Thor.

"You helped Asgard greatly. I’ll give you an answer as soon as I can."

Thor took the gemstone and spoke seriously to Tony and Banner.

"You don’t need to put so much pressure on yourself. Whether it works out or not won’t affect our friendship."

"We do want to study it, but we also know the Aether is no ordinary treasure."

"And our original reason for helping Asgard this time wasn’t the Aether."

"More than anything, we hoped to help Asgard through this crisis and, indirectly, help Earth as well."

Seeing Thor’s serious expression, Tony spoke.

"Alright, thank you."

Thor smiled upon hearing Tony’s words.

At the same time, with the deaths of the Cursed Warrior and Malekith, the Dark Elves were leaderless and had received no order to retreat.

Under the encirclement and suppression led by Loki and Sif alongside the soldiers, the Dark Elves were completely wiped out, bringing the battle to an end.

At that moment, God King Odin saw the collapsed Divine Palace and the war gradually calming down. Only after he felt Kassadin’s gaze withdraw did he finally feel truly relieved.

It seemed that Kassadin had watched over Asgard this time mainly to see whether Tony Stark could resolve the situation.

Odin wanted to personally go and offer his regards to Tony Stark, who had come to help, but the war had only just ended.

Asgard had suffered many casualties, and comforting the people of Asgard was the more pressing matter.

So Odin could only send a message to Thor, telling him to properly host Tony Stark and Bruce Banner.

At the very least, he had to keep them there to attend the postwar victory banquet.

The second update, four thousand words delivered.