After hearing Gene's words, Malekith's expression turned sinister. No one had ever dared speak to him like that before. He raised both arms, and crimson Aether particles erupted from his body like a torrent, forming into razor-sharp spikes that launched straight toward Gene.

This was energy capable of piercing anything—infused with the power of the Reality Stone. It gave the spikes unmatched penetrative force and a terrifying energy resonance.

Gene's V-shaped visor flickered briefly. Golden light gathered at the base of his palm, and from his hand extended a gleaming golden blade, as if it had always been a part of him.

The Sword of the Vishanti.

Gene stepped forward with his left leg, holding the sword in his right hand. The golden energy blade clashed head-on with the crimson Aether spikes. With a crackling discharge, both forces shattered—Aether fragments dissipating, and golden energy dispersing into sparks.

Malekith frowned. This bizarre Midgardian was clearly no ordinary opponent.

The move he had just unleashed was one he himself wasn't confident in blocking. Even the warriors of Asgard, known for their magic and might, would likely have been killed instantly. Yet, this man had neutralized it effortlessly.

But thinking about it again—it made sense. If the man before him didn't possess overwhelming power, he wouldn't have dealt with the Kursed Warrior so easily. After all, that beast could go toe-to-toe with Thor himself.

With that realization, Malekith took a deep breath. His eyes turned pitch black, and another surge of dark crimson energy blasted from his body, rushing toward Gene in a massive wave.

Gene calmly watched the tidal wave of Aether approaching. A faint azure light began to form around the exterior of his armor. Though delicate in appearance, the energy radiating from the glow was cold and overwhelming. When the crimson Aether wave struck him, it forced him to slide back a few meters. His metal boots carved deep trenches into the ground.

But that was all.

Malekith's face twitched slightly.

Gene's visor flashed again. "Now... it's my turn."

His metal boots slammed into the ground, and the strength of his mechanized body surged to life. A brilliant blue light lit up in his palm, and a concentrated energy beam shot toward Malekith.

Malekith narrowly dodged the beam with agility. But as he landed, his sharp eyes caught sight of several golden lightning bolts—glowing like divine arrows—closing in on him from all directions, trapping him.

Saboteur's Thunder—an advanced spell.

Even before Gene fired his palm cannon, his neural network had already analyzed every possible evasive maneuver Malekith might attempt. That particular landing point was the most likely, so Gene had planned ahead and unleashed his next strike accordingly.

BOOM!

A deafening explosion hurled Malekith seven or eight meters away. Thanks to the protective layer of Aether around him, he wasn't killed on the spot—but even so, he rose to his feet disheveled and furious, his face twisted in rage.

He glared at the Midgardian before him. For the first time, the thought consumed him:

"This man must die."

The strength Gene displayed was too overwhelming. Had he not had the Aether shielding him, Malekith would already be dead. This human was now a major threat to his plan of consuming the Nine Realms.

Malekith rose. Crimson energy wrapped around him like a suit of armor. He charged forward at blinding speed, the Aether fusing with his body and enhancing his physical abilities to unnatural levels. In the blink of an eye, he was right in front of Gene, swinging a fist with thunderous force. A thick beam of concentrated Aether followed the strike, aimed directly at Gene's face.

Gene responded by conjuring a glowing magic disc—mystical runes swirling across its surface. When Malekith's beam struck it, the two forces canceled each other out.

Then Gene's golden sword slashed at Malekith's wrist from an angle no normal human would anticipate. But the moment the blade made contact, a powerful resistance pushed back—the Aether forming a thin crimson film that shielded its master.

Malekith sneered coldly. Shielded by the Aether, he launched into a frenzied assault. Crimson light surged from every punch and kick. The sheer force distorted the air around them, as the fabric of space itself cracked under the might of the Aether's power.

After dozens of furious exchanges, the battlefield was engulfed in a dark crimson domain—the Aether Field.

This was the domain of the Aether. Within it, no living being except its host could survive. But today... an exception had emerged.

Gene was not the Aether's host. Yet he stood alive and defiant within the domain.

Whether it was the overwhelming power of the Aether or something else entirely, the sky above suddenly ripped open.

A massive rift revealed a familiar human city—London—with the unmistakable silhouette of Big Ben looming in the distance.

The rift expanded, revealing more of the Nine Realms: Asgard, Jotunheim… The sky lit up with fragments of each world, appearing one after another.

And then came the real chaos.

Human cars were seen driving through the Asgardian realm. Frost Giants wandered mindlessly into Earth.

The laws of physics and dimensions collided, throwing the world into utter disarray.

The alignment of the Nine Realms had begun.

The Convergence... was underway.

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T/N:

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