In the silence, Sif spoke first, her tone cold:
"I knew that liar couldn't be trusted."
"No."
Thor shook his head, his voice low:
"There must be some hidden reason. Loki has already had a change of heart; otherwise, he wouldn't have chosen to..."
"You can fool us, but don't fool yourself."
Sif retorted mercilessly. Clearly, Loki's previous act of deceiving everyone while taking advantage of the Odin Sleep had yet to be forgiven by Sif.
Seeing that Sif, who had grown up playing with him, held this attitude, Thor couldn't help but fall silent.
Deep down, he didn't want this invasion to be related to Loki, but after all, he had committed acts of treason in the past.
Before the atmosphere between the two dropped to freezing, Peter interjected:
"Alright, there's no point in arguing about this now; we need to see the truth for ourselves."
"At the very least, looking at the current situation, things in Asgard aren't too bad yet. We can just clean up this riffraff and be done with it."
Thor took a deep breath and nodded.
"You're right."
"Heimdall, what is the current status of the Asgard palace?"
"The palace is still under our control, but one-third of the outer city has fallen. His Majesty Odin is still in the Odin Sleep and cannot be awakened. Queen Frigga is leading the palace guard to defend the inner city line."
Hearing Frigga's name, Peter gave a start, immediately recalling that in the plot of Thor 2, this was when Frigga met her fate.
"Go to the palace first!" Peter said, and without another word, he grabbed Thor and headed straight for the palace.
Their speed was so fast that they completely turned into a streak of light, leaving Heimdall and Sif looking at each other in bewilderment.
"What's going on with him? Why does he seem even more nervous than Your Highness Thor?"
"I don't know." Sif gripped the Excalibur in her hand tightly. A blinding light suddenly erupted from the sword, and with a wave of her hand, a massive golden sword aura flew out, instantly cleaving a Dark Elves warship in two,
"But Peter's intuition has never been wrong."
Heimdall looked at the Excalibur in Sif's hand, which seemed even more formidable than his own giant golden sword. He opened his mouth, but in the end, he swallowed back his doubts and teasing remarks about Peter.
...
At the same time that Peter was taking Thor to the palace, inside the palace, Frigga was leading a few remaining guards in a desperate defense of Odin's bedchamber.
Standing opposite her were four people.
The King of the Dark Elves, Malekith; the Cursed Warrior, Algrim; Ebony Maw, one of the Black Order under Thanos; and...
Loki!
To be precise, it was Loki controlled by the Mind Stone.
"Your Highness, you might as well give up the resistance sooner."
A gloomy smile hung on Malekith's pale face. He paced slowly, nonchalantly examining the dilapidated palace hall.
"Five thousand years. I have waited five thousand years!"
He extended his hand, and a dark red glow flowed in his palm—that was the unique color of the Aether Particle.
"Back then, your husband, that self-righteous one-eyed old man, thought he could rest easy after sealing me away?"
"He was wrong."
"Although the Nine Realms alignment hasn't arrived yet, so what? With the help of this new ally..."
Malekith glanced at Ebony Maw.
The latter returned a polite and restrained smile.
"The Aether Particle has returned to its true Master's hands."
"At that time, the entire Nine Realms will plunge back into eternal darkness!"
Frigga held her longsword horizontally in front of her, her expression calm. She didn't respond to his words; her beautiful eyes were fixed straight on her child—Loki.
"Loki!"
Frigga's voice cut through the noisy battlefield and landed directly in the ears of the silent black-haired young man standing at the very back.
"My child, look at what you are doing! Are you going to help outsiders destroy your own home?"
Loki's figure stiffened slightly.
A layer of unnatural blue light shimmered in his pupils—the mark of the Mind Stone's control.
But even so, Frigga's voice stirred a ripple in his heart.
"Mother..."
Loki's lips moved slightly, uttering two barely audible words.
The blue light flickered, seemingly showing a brief loosening.
Seeing this, Frigga's heart trembled, and she immediately raised her voice:
"Do you remember the promise you made when you were a child?"
"You said that when you grew up, you would protect Asgard together with Thor."
"Is this what you call protection? Or is it that... you still refuse to forgive your father?!"
Loki's blue pupils constricted violently.
The layer of blue light covering his pupils trembled violently, nearly shattering.
His hand loosened its grip on the dagger involuntarily.
"Interesting."
Ebony Maw spoke indifferently from the back.
The next second, he raised the Mind Stone in his right hand, and the tip of the gem shot out a beam of eerie blue light, precisely striking the back of Loki's head.
Loki's whole body jolted violently.
The brief loosening vanished instantly.
The blue light reclaimed his eyes, and it was even more intense than before.
Seeing this, Frigga's heart nearly broke.
"You despicable..."
"Your Highness," Ebony Maw interrupted her, "I advise you to save your strength. The control of the Mind Stone cannot be broken by some tender, sentimental appeal."
"Besides..."
Before he could finish, the Cursed Warrior had already rushed in front of Frigga, bringing his fist down with terrifying power.
Frigga dodged to the side, her longsword carving a spark along the opponent's arm.
As the Queen of Asgard, she was far more than just a mascot or a fragile magic user.
But unfortunately, the Cursed Warrior's skin was simply too hard; this strike didn't even cut through his epidermis.
Malekith took advantage of this opening and silently circled around to Frigga's side and back.
A short blade had appeared in his palm at some point.
Frigga sensed the threat from behind, but she had no time to spare.
Just as she was wondering if she would have to trade injury for injury,
Boom!
A golden flying slash, over a hundred meters long, descended from the sky, accurately slamming in front of Malekith and blasting him away.
At the same time, a bolt of lightning struck in from outside the shattered dome of the hall, slamming hard into the Cursed Warrior's chest and knocking the behemoth back more than ten steps.
"Mother!"
Thor's figure dropped from the hole in the dome, landing steadily in front of Frigga with a flip, mjolnir humming in his hand.
Just as Frigga was about to say something, she noticed a young man following behind Thor.
The young man landed in an extremely casual manner, his hands in his pockets, floating down from mid-air just like that.
Who else could this be but Peter?
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