The Fire Elemental sensed the colossal threat descending from the heavens and reacted with primal fury. It tilted its enormous head back, and from its cavernous mouth, it spewed a torrent of highly compressed, black-red magma. The corrupted stream shot skyward, a pillar of dark fire colliding with the divine judgment of the Rainbow Bridge.
The two cosmic forces met in a cataclysmic explosion of light and steam. Dormammu's dark power dissolved almost instantly against the pure, divine energy of the Bifrost. The ordinary magma within the blast was vaporized, transforming into a crimson mist that scattered in every direction. Undeterred, the elemental continued to draw upon the molten heart of the Earth, channeling raw magma into its body to fuel its desperate defense.
Inside the creature's turbulent core, the 1st generation Spider-Man was thrown about like a doll in a hurricane. He had no idea what was happening outside, but he could feel the violent, shuddering surges through the lava sea around him. His spider-sense screamed a single, frantic command: move, now!
Heeding his enhanced intuition, he clung tightly to a conduit wall just as a massive surge of magma rushed past him. The dark purple core pulsed erratically, its otherworldly light dimming as it injected dimensional power into the magma, transforming it from fiery red to a corrupted, blackish hue before funneling it into another upward channel.
A brief moment of tactical clarity cut through the chaos. That must be the way out, he realized. The mouth.
"I was just worrying about how to escape after using the black hole grenade," he muttered to himself. "Talk about perfect timing."
Tony's plan to blast an escape route with his unibeam was solid, but Peter knew the opening would be small and temporary. He wasn't about to gamble his life on threading that needle. This new path was a gift. He also noted that the core's light was fading with each defensive blast. The Rainbow Bridge was forcing it to burn through its finite supply of dark energy.
Outside, Strange observed the same phenomenon and a wave of relief washed over him. "It's working," he said, a grim smile on his face. "The Bifrost is consuming the dark power." If that corruption could be bled dry, their fight would become exponentially easier. He could potentially pull the entire creature into the Mirror Dimension, protecting Washington and containing the destructive foehn effect of its heat. More importantly, without the blessing of dark power, the core's defenses would weaken, making it vulnerable.
Tony's feed from the drone inside was distorted and blurry, the signal struggling against the intense interference. "Quick, Peter!" he urged. "Fire the grenade now and get out of there! Asgard is hitting this thing with everything they've got!"
"On it!" Spider-Man didn't hesitate. He aimed the drone, pressed the firing switch, and watched as the black hole grenade shot forward, embedding itself directly in the pulsating core.
"Now run! I'll cover you!" Tony roared.
Peter leaped into the upward passage without a second thought, swept away by the powerful current of magma. Two seconds later, the grenade detonated, silently carving a massive void into the elemental's heart. Simultaneously, Tony's fully charged unibeam lanced through the creature's chest, piercing the lava and inflicting devastating secondary damage to the core. But just as Peter had predicted, the elemental's regenerative power began closing the hole almost instantly, shrinking the aperture to a mere slit within moments.
Though severely damaged, the core still functioned. The spewing magma from the elemental's mouth faltered, its pressure dramatically reduced, but it continued. Within that black-red torrent, Peter felt the pressure on the symbiote suddenly intensify. The corrupted magma was starting to overwhelm its defenses; it couldn't hold out much longer.
He closed his eyes, shutting out the chaos and focusing everything on the hum of his spider-sense.
Ten seconds later, he was violently ejected from the elemental's mouth. His eyes snapped open, and he decisively fired a strand of black, symbiotic webbing into the open air. The webline drew a perfect arc through the superheated atmosphere, attaching firmly to a chunk of hardened lava on the elemental's shoulder. He pulled hard, trying to swing clear of the tens-of-meters-thick lava column.
The plan failed. The anchor point couldn't handle the strain and broke away from the main body. Peter's pupils contracted as the immense force of the eruption caught him, sweeping him helplessly upward toward the Bifrost's wrath.
At that critical moment, a streak of red and gold shot past. Tony grabbed the trailing spider silk.
"Hold on tight, web-slinger!"
Strange moved closer, his own mystical shield holding firm as he extended a hand, weaving a spell that reinforced the webline's tensile strength from a distance. Tony engaged his thrusters, the powerful Mark 52 armor straining as he pulled with all his mechanical might, finally wrenching Spider-Man free from the deadly current.
Heimdall, having monitored their every action, saw that the boy was clear. Without hesitation, he pushed the Bifrost's controls to their absolute limit.
The power of the Rainbow Bridge intensified tenfold. The Fire Elemental, its core crippled, was already losing the battle. Now, it was utterly overwhelmed. The black-red magma it spewed was forced back down its own throat. It raised its newly regenerated arms in a futile attempt to block the divine assault.
While the creature was completely occupied, Tony had Veronica deploy a spare suit of armor to fly the exhausted Spider-Man to safety. He then charged another unibeam. The hole in the elemental's core was already being patched by flowing magma, but before it could finish, Tony's beam struck again, blasting molten rock in all directions.
His remaining black hole grenades followed, streaking through the openings. They were slowed by the viscous magma, unable to reach the core directly. But Tony had a contingency. He detonated a specialized grenade—an improvised explosive he had created by temporarily overloading a backup Arc Reactor. The resulting blast wave scattered the black hole weapons, embedding them deep within the lava walls surrounding the core chamber. It wasn't a direct hit, but it didn't have to be.
The grenades created several large, new cavities inside the elemental's body, giving Tony what he needed: clear lines of sight.
"All units, fire at will!" he commanded.
The Iron Legion, positioned perfectly for this moment, unleashed their repulsor arrays in a coordinated volley. Tony added his own unibeam to the barrage. Green energy lances from Mysterio's constructs pierced deep into the elemental. Following their path, the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak snaked through the openings, wrapped around the sputtering, damaged core, and pulled.
Heimdall immediately shifted his target. The full, awesome power of the Rainbow Bridge focused from a celestial weapon into a divine scalpel, striking the exposed core.
The Fire Elemental, now barely two hundred meters tall, lost all connection to its heart. Its humanoid form could no longer hold, and with a final, silent shudder, it began to completely collapse.