Manhattan.
Steve Rogers was the first to reach him.
He closed the distance in a blink and slammed a point-blank shield bash into Kurse's raised forearms.
BANG!
The guard shattered under the sheer force, his stance deforming.
Before Kurse could counterattack, a man in a torn suit crashed straight into his chest—
Tony Stark.
No armor.
No tricks.
Just a brutally simple headbutt, driven straight into Kurse's face.
THUD!
A dull, meaty impact.
Kurse staggered backward—his massive body actually retreating two full steps from the blow.
Then—
A silver flash.
Pietro Maximoff's hypersonic kick slammed directly into Kurse's knee joint.
CRACK!
Kurse dropped to one knee.
"HULK—SMASH!!"
Hulk leapt skyward, fists clasped together like a colossal warhammer—and brought them down on Kurse's spine.
BOOOOOOM!
Kurse was smashed face-first into the ground, the pavement collapsing into a crater.
And then came the follow-up—
Firestar — Angelica's searing flames.
Speedball's kinetic detonations.
And—
"THOUSAND-YEAR KILL!!"
Screaming like a lunatic, Deadpool—also known as Wade Wilson—snatched up his broken blade and stabbed it with surgical enthusiasm into Kurse's most vulnerable region.
"AAAAAAAGH—!!!"
Even a being without pain receptors let out a soul-ripping scream.
This wasn't a fight anymore.
It was an execution.
Earth's most enthusiastic welcome for an alien invader.
------
On the other side of the planet.
Tokyo. Shibuya.
This battlefield was quieter—
But far deadlier.
Antony's movements were so fast they looked like dropped frames in reality itself.
Around Malekith, the dark-red Aether churned violently, forming an omnidirectional defensive barrier.
But under Antony's thousands-of-strikes-per-second assault, that once-invincible liquid armor began to lag.
"Too slow."
Antony's cold voice detonated beside Malekith's ear.
He caught it—
The 0.01-second gap, when the Aether shifted to repair the left flank.
SCHLK!
Antony's right hand turned into a blade and pierced straight through Malekith's chest.
"Got you."
His fingers clenched.
POP.
The black, beating heart was crushed into pulp in his palm.
Malekith froze.
Then—
HUM—
From the gaping hole in his chest, crimson tendrils erupted, weaving together—
A brand-new heart formed instantly.
"Ha… ha…"
Malekith's pale face twisted into a savage sneer.
"Useless… mortal…"
He flung an Aether storm outward, forcing Antony back.
"I am the lord of darkness. Eternal. You cannot kill me."
Antony hovered in midair, flicking black blood from his fingers.
His expression only grew colder.
"Can't be killed?"
His eyes sharpened—X-ray vision engaged.
Now he could see it clearly.
Every time Malekith was injured, the Aether went berserk—ripping raw life energy out of Malekith's cells to fuel regeneration.
An equal exchange.
Understanding clicked.
Antony recalled the records he'd read in Odin's vault.
The Aether—
a weapon derived from the Reality Stone by the Dark Elves.
It granted immortality—
By burning the host's life as fuel.
Each repair drained the mitochondria of every cell, forcibly converting life into energy.
Dark Elves were durable, long-lived.
They could endure that consumption.
For a while.
"I see."
Antony smiled.
A cruel, satisfied smile.
"So that's how it works."
"What did you say?" Malekith frowned.
"I said," Antony replied casually, glancing up,
"you've got a pretty big health bar, old man."
He looked toward the southwest of Tokyo.
Toward a snow-capped, dormant volcano.
Mount Fuji.
"Punching you to death would take too long."
"So I'll find you a sauna."
"Let you sweat a little."
A brutal, efficient plan snapped into place.
"What are you planning?!" Malekith demanded, instinct screaming danger.
"Taking you for a bath."
BOOM—!
Antony moved.
He shattered through the Aether barrier again at extreme speed, appearing behind Malekith and locking both his arms and neck in an iron grip.
A full-body chokehold.
"LET ME GO!!"
Malekith panicked.
Aether spikes erupted, stabbing wildly at Antony's body—
—but couldn't pierce his uniform.
BOOM—LIFTOFF!!!
…..
Mount Fuji.
"IN YOU GO!!!"
Antony swung Malekith down and smashed him into the snow-covered crater.
RRRRRRRRRRROOOOM—!!!!!!
The volcano—dormant for three hundred years—was forcibly awakened.
That impact punched straight through the Earth's crust, opening a magma conduit.
A pillar of fire, ash, and molten rock erupted skyward.
Antony hovered high above the crater, watching the boiling inferno below.
He didn't stop.
He could feel it.
Malekith was still struggling.
"Not hot enough?"
Antony's eyes flared.
"Then let's turn it up."
ZZZZZZZZ—!!!!
Twin beams of high-energy heat vision speared downward—
—straight into the churning magma.
-----
Inside the crater.
Malekith was in hell.
Molten rock—the planet's own blood—crushed in from all sides, radiating unimaginable heat and pressure.
"AAAAAA—!!!"
The Aether went berserk, desperately shielding him, repairing tissue annihilated by thermal radiation.
"My life… my life…!"
He could feel it clearly now.
His life force was vanishing at a horrifying rate.
The Aether was burning him alive from the inside to keep going.
"No… I can't die here…"
Malekith tried to break free.
But above him—
That savage figure sealed the exit like a lid.
Every attempt to rise was hammered back down by even greater force.
One minute.
Two minutes.
…
His struggles weakened.
Finally—
When the last shred of life was drained—
The Aether recognized the truth.
The host was dead.
It stopped repairing the ruined body.
Ffff—
Malekith dissolved into ash within the magma.
Only the dark-red fluid remained.
The Aether, free of its host, floated serenely in the lava—untouched by the heat, glowing with eerie crimson light.
"Done."
High above, Antony exhaled slowly.
"Alright."
"Time to collect the loot."
He dove straight into the smoke and fire, hovering above the molten surface.
Antony extended his right hand.
"Come here."
The Aether hesitated—
Then drifted toward him, as if it had found a new vessel.
--------------
T/N:
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