"Ugh…"
Now free from her restraints, Kagura felt a sharp pain surge through her chest.
A red warning flashed across the holographic UI in front of her.
[Core energy critically low. Aether seal failure detected.]
[Aether infiltration into automaton body confirmed.]
[Core energy levels dropping further.]
[Remaining core energy: 14%]
She lifted her hands and saw crimson fluid slowly slithering between her fingers.
It was the Aether, an immensely powerful weapon gradually wrapping around and corroding her mechanical body.
Aether, in essence, was the Reality Stone.
However, in this unstable "Aether" form, it didn't exhibit its reality-altering powers directly.
Instead, it behaved more like a parasitic weapon, draining life force and converting matter into dark matter.
Perhaps this was its version of "reality manipulation," twisted by its creators.
Aether activated through a living host and relentlessly consumed their life force in return.
This process was constant, unceasing, and irreversible.
Now that the seal was broken, the Aether had chosen Kagura as its host and it had already begun feasting on her.
Her life force, in this case, was her core energy.
"Tch… This is bad," she muttered, already feeling her strength being sapped at an alarming rate.
"Reverse the White Moon battle suit's power flow! Prioritize recharging my core energy!"
Without hesitation, she rerouted the remaining energy stored in her battle suit into her own body for an emergency boost.
[Core energy recharge confirmed.]
[Remaining core energy: 18%]
[Aether corruption ongoing.]
[Seal ineffective.]
"Hngh… This thing is seriously powerful!"
Kagura looked up just as the Cursed Warrior rose to his feet again, slowly advancing toward her.
She had to admit the monstrosity, once a dark elf who sacrificed everything to become a super-charged minotaur-like warrior, looked even more formidable than Captain America.
He might even hold his own against the Hulk.
'...Wait.'
'Couldn't Cap fight Hulk to a standstill too?'
'Come to think of it, isn't Cap pretty much always going fifty-fifty with everyone?'
"Seriously though, you're like an unkillable cockroach, aren't you?!" Kagura gripped her blade tighter.
"Well, every cloud has a silver lining. Sure, the Aether's draining my life, but it's also one hell of a weapon. Since I've accidentally become its host… I might as well use it!"
She closed her eyes and focused.
Kagura could feel the Aether flowing through her, alive and restless.
Long ago, the dark elf civilization fused the Reality Stone with the hopes of its wielder, creating a weapon known as the Aether.
This ancient force behaved like a sentient being, devouring her energy while responding to her will.
Technically, the Aether's rightful owner was the Dark Elf King, Malekith.
But maybe he was too far away to control it directly.
Or maybe he needed it within his own body to command it.
Whatever the reason, right now… Kagura had seized control of the Aether.
Which meant, it was time to turn the tables.
She raised her sword, now pulsing with crimson energy.
The red liquid coiled out from her palm and danced along the silver-white blade.
"Hah—!"
Blazing, overwhelming power surged into the weapon, coating it in a violent aura that radiated pure destruction.
The Crimson Blade… was drawn.
"Raaaagh!" The Cursed Warrior charged, crashing through the Asgardian warriors who tried in vain to stop him. He locked eyes on Kagura and roared.
In their earlier clash, he had sensed something strange within her.
His own ability to drain life force had worked, leeching at kagura core energy.
If he could make direct contact for long enough, he could drain her dry and kill her on the spot.
"So, you wanna grab me?" Kagura smirked. "Then come on… give it a try!"
She felt the energy peak.
Gripping the sword with both hands, she took a bold step forward and swung down in a powerful arc.
In that instant a flash of crimson comes out!
Red energy erupted from the blade, bursting forth like a beam of focused destruction.
"Hah—!"
The crimson slash raced forward, shaped like a high-powered, directional electromagnetic pulse.
But this was no ordinary EMP.
This was Aether-infused energy—far more potent than anything Kagura had fired before.
The Aether was, after all, a Reality Stone.
Each of the Infinity Stones held near-infinite power, and even though this one couldn't access its full reality-bending potential in its current unstable form.
The raw energy alone was enough to level worlds.
Looking back, the fact that Malekith used the Aether like a glorified throwing dart in the MCU…
'What a waste.'
This technique had no official name.
It wasn't even logged in Kagura's Conceptual Skill System, because its power didn't come from her core, it came from the living Aether within her.
But if she had to name it...
"Aether-style: Faux Getsuga Tenshō."
"Ugh!"
Faced with the crimson wave of energy, the Cursed Warrior raised his arm to shield himself, but it was useless he couldn't withstand the sheer force unleashed by the Aether.
He staggered backward under the weight of Kagura's strike.
His jet-black, durable armor was shredded by the crimson surge as if it were paper.
Black blood sprayed into the air like a bouquet of deathly roses, and the bull-shaped horned crest atop his head was cleaved cleanly in half.
'BOOM!'
Asgard's dungeon took another direct hit, and the remaining intact sections were obliterated by the Aether's destructive force.
At this rate, Odin would definitely need to build a whole new prison just to hold his troublemakers.
[Core Energy Remaining: 4%]
"Thor, zap me!"
Staring at her rapidly draining energy levels, Kagura shouted her emergency plan without hesitation.
"…Huh?"
"Huh your head! Zap me, quick! If you don't, I'm seriously gonna die! QAQ!"
"Well, don't blame me for what happens, this was your idea!"
Seeing the panic in her eyes, Thor didn't waste another second.
He summoned his thunder, channeling it into Mjolnir, and released a lightning bolt straight at her.
"Nggh—!"
The electric surge hit her like a tidal wave.
Blinding arcs of lightning filled her vision, and along with the sharp sting came an overwhelming sense of satisfaction, like devouring a feast after days of hunger.
'Mmm. Not bad.'
Somewhere along the line, Kagura had gotten way too used to jumpstarting herself with Thor's lightning.
[Core Energy Remaining: 74%]
[Aether detected]
[Ownership verified]
[Initiating seal….]
[Core Energy stabilized]
[Seal complete.]
"Phew…"
Her legs gave out, and she dropped to her knees.
"That was way too close…"
"Kagura! Look out!"
Thor's voice boomed in her ears just as she turned toward him.
"Huh?"
She barely had time to look up before watching Thor get swatted through the air again with a big SMACK.
…Do you like getting yeeted that much?
"You bull-headed freak! How are you still not dead?!"
She scowled. "That last strike was literally powered by an Infinity Stone!"
"RAAARGH! GLORY TO THE DARK ELVES! GLORY TO MALEKITH!"
The Cursed Warrior roared, flinging Thor aside and charging at Kagura once more, murder in his eyes.
"Tch!"
Clicking her tongue, the silver-haired girl sprang to her feet and took up a battle stance again.
She launched forward with blade in hand.
"That's enough already!!"
'RUAAAA—!'
One side: an unstoppable warrior of darkness.
The other: a stunning silver-haired girl, her blade crackling with arcs of lightning.
The two collided again in the shattered remains of Asgard's dungeon, releasing another shockwave of overwhelming power.
"Are you two trying to demolish the entire prison?!"
From a distance, one of the exhausted Asgardian guards couldn't help but mutter a complaint…
'WHOOM—!'
Suddenly, the air inside the dungeon rippled violently.
The unstable power of the Reality Stone had begun to distort the fabric of space.
One energy burst after another compounded the chaos, tearing open another rift in time and space.
The rare celestial alignment, the Convergence once again activated a disturbance in the Nine Realms' dimensional pathways.
It was like setting off an explosion on thin ice and the veil between worlds ruptured, momentarily linking Asgard to a distant realm.
That realm… was none other than Earth.
In the next instant, as Thor blinked and tried to recover, he found the space around him eerily silent.
Nothing remained.
Only faint ripples of residual energy lingered in the air.
"What…? Kagura? Where'd you go?!"
"Heimdall! My sister's gone! Help me find her!"
———————————————————————
Earth – New York City – Central Park
'CLANG—!'
A vibranium blade spun through the air, slicing cleanly across dozens of meters before embedding itself in the asphalt of a nearby road.
Near the park fountain, the Cursed Warrior rose to his feet again.
His heavily wounded body began healing at an unnatural speed, like a nightmare that refused to die.
He flexed his arms with a creaking crack crack and began marching toward a silver-haired girl lying in the distance.
"AETHER… BELONGS TO THE DARK ELVES… THE UNIVERSE… BELONGS TO THE DARK ELVES… GLORY TO MALEKITH!"
"Ugh…"
Kagura groaned as she opened her eyes, her head still spinning from the impact.
She slowly pushed herself up.
"Huh? Wasn't I just in Asgard's dungeon? Why does this place look like… Earth?"
"Welcome back, Master."
Just then, a familiar voice chimed in her ear, Cortana.