Just as they gained the advantage on the ground, Captain Marvel joined the aerial battle, and the conflict became decidedly one-sided.
Although the Dark Elves' warships were formidable, Captain Marvel's power clearly outmatched them. Collisions between her and the vessels typically ended with the warships exploding.
Soon, several Dark Elf warships were destroyed. Seeing the deteriorating situation, the only two remaining vessels immediately activated their stealth technology. In an instant, the skies over New York fell eerily quiet.
Captain Marvel hovered in the air, attempting to locate the cloaked warships, but with countless drones, Air Force fighter jets, and Iron Legion units saturating the airspace, she couldn't detect them by instinct alone.
On the ground, Malekith was knocked down by Natasha's hammer. She prepared to pin him down as Thor had once done to Loki with Mjolnir.
Unexpectedly, an invisible warship rushed toward her. Though Natasha couldn't see the enemy, she sensed the disturbance in the air and quickly leaped aside, using an aerial maneuver to avoid the warship's blade-like approach.
The vessel passed by, collecting the fallen Malekith. Simultaneously, near Algrim's position, another warship attacked Thor and the sorcerers, successfully disrupting Strange and Christine's combined spell.
The moment Algrim landed, he immediately produced his last black hole grenade and hurled it at Strange—the magic-user he despised—before being extracted by the second warship.
Strange observed the black hole grenade approaching and rapidly conjured a portal. The grenade passed through and reappeared on the ground in front of him. It detonated, carving a massive crater in the pavement.
The two warships converged and accelerated toward the disabled mothership. Thor steadied Christine, who had nearly been knocked away, and set her safely on the ground. After ensuring she was secure, he immediately pursued the warships.
Captain Marvel also noticed their movement and followed close behind.
Meanwhile, Wanda was finally relieved of her duty supporting the damaged building. The Iron Legion units sent by Tony had taken over the structural reinforcement. Freed from this responsibility, she took flight toward the mothership.
Inside the vessel, Tony had subdued several remaining Dark Elves and was studying how to control the ship's systems. Malekith and his forces had already learned of the mothership's breach.
With few options remaining, they activated the mothership's self-destruct sequence, intending to devastate New York before returning to search for the Aether particles.
Malekith understood that the Aether could not be destroyed—at least, no method known to him could destroy an Infinity Stone—so he wasn't concerned about its permanent loss.
Tony, who was examining the ship's control interface, suddenly heard an unusual alert: "What's that sound?"
"Holy crap! Tony, I don't like the look of this! You need to get out of there, now!" Rhodes observed the mothership beginning to glow red again, his expression darkening as the light pulsed ominously.
The pattern was distinctly different from the previous steady illumination, which reminded Rhodes of something alarming. Tony grimaced and flew out to join Rhodes, both watching the increasingly unstable vessel.
Wanda also noticed this development and turned to call to Strange on the ground: "Stephen! I need your help!"
"On my way!" Strange responded without hesitation. His Cloak of Levitation carried him skyward. When he reached Wanda's side, he asked, "What's the plan?"
"We'll use the Mirror Dimension to contain it, then create a portal to send it far from New York!" Wanda explained.
Strange nodded in agreement. Regardless of what the Dark Elves had planned, isolating the mothership in the Mirror Dimension was the safest immediate action.
Strange took the lead, opening the Mirror Dimension and enveloping the entire mothership, removing it from normal space. Wanda then channeled her full power to create a portal while Strange guided the Mirror Dimension—containing the mothership—through it.
Malekith stared in disbelief as the mothership vanished completely, unable to comprehend how these Earth defenders had managed to transport the entire vessel away in seconds.
There was no time to process this development—Captain Marvel and Thor had located the cloaked warships and were in pursuit.
Captain Marvel tracked the warship's wake, determined the vessel's precise location through the air disturbance, and delivered a powerful punch. The energy blast successfully struck Malekith's warship.
The craft immediately began smoking and losing altitude. Seeing this, Algrim immediately changed course in his own vessel. Malekith was their king, and Algrim would not abandon him.
Captain Marvel and Thor landed near the crashed warship, followed closely by Tony and Rhodes descending from above: "We recommend you surrender immediately! Otherwise, we will be forced to take aggressive action!"
The warship's hatch slowly opened, and Malekith emerged from within. Meanwhile, Algrim directed his vessel toward the Avengers. Tony, alerted by JARVIS's detection of the approaching air disturbance, evaded sideways.
After dodging, he fired a fully charged multi-energy beam that struck the rear of the approaching warship. The damaged vessel involuntarily decloaked as Thor and Captain Marvel launched a coordinated attack against it.
Algrim leaped from the warship before it exploded, landing heavily in a half-crouch on the ground.
Malekith glanced toward Algrim's position as the Dark Elves surrounding him raised their weapons, signaling their refusal to surrender.
Tony tilted his head and immediately initiated an attack on the invaders without hesitation. Rhodes expended his remaining ammunition in the assault.
Together, they quickly eliminated the Dark Elves surrounding Malekith, leaving only Algrim to protect his king as they retreated.
"Still refusing to surrender? All your forces have been defeated," Tony addressed Algrim and Malekith, whose mask had been partially damaged in the previous confrontation with Thor.
"I am the king of the Dark Elves! I would rather die in battle than surrender!" Malekith glared at Tony with hatred.
Thor narrowed his eyes, finally confirming these were indeed the legendary Dark Elves, not Thanos's forces as they had initially assumed.
This revelation surprised him. He couldn't understand why the Dark Elves, supposedly extinct according to historical records, would suddenly attack Earth with such a specific objective.
Malekith retrieved a black hole grenade from behind his back, activated it, and hurled it toward the assembled heroes. Pietro, who happened to be nearby, witnessed this.
In a blur of speed, he intercepted the grenade and threw it back. Simultaneously, Thor and the others took evasive action. When they recovered, they saw the grenade had returned directly to Malekith.
The device detonated, instantly drawing both Malekith and Algrim into its gravitational field before they could react. Seconds later, they vanished completely from existence.
"Damn it, I wanted to question them about their motives!" Tony shook his head in frustration.
Pietro spread his hands in an innocent gesture—he had simply seen a threat and acted to protect everyone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Support me at p@treon.com/goldengaruda and check out more chapter of this or more early access chapter of my other fanfic translation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~