"Everyone, surround and eliminate that white dragon!"
Malekith issued the order. He didn't care about Feny's life or death like Algrim did; even if Feny died, he was confident he could retrieve the Aether from his body.
Because of Malekith's command, Feny quickly noticed that something was wrong.
After all, the ships that were originally attacking Asgard's energy shield had suddenly swarmed toward him. Unless someone was blind, anyone could see that things were abnormal.
Right after, Feny saw Thor flying over, wielding Mjolnir. He realized that the Dark Elves must have found out the Aether was with him, which explained their actions.
Watching the Dark Elf ships forcing their way through the attacks of the Asgardian soldiers just to surround him, Feny sneered. Although his strength had dropped slightly under the influence of the Aether, he wasn't someone who could be dealt with so easily.
While commanding the Blue-Eyes White Dragon to dodge the incoming attacks, he ordered it to use its ultimate skill.
"Burst Stream of Destruction!"
A blinding white light of death erupted from the mouth of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. After piercing through several Dark Elf ships, its power remained undiminished as it blasted into a distant hilltop.
Feny wasn't idle either. Standing firmly on the back of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, he chanted his Explosion Magic to counterattack.
The crimson magic circle blazed. With the Blue-Eyes White Dragon dodging and protecting him, he only needed to focus on chanting his magic, aiming at the positions where the ships were flying, and firing.
After this continued for a while, the Asgardian soldiers finally arrived to support him. The Dark Elves, who had wanted to surround Feny, instead found themselves in a position where they were about to be pincered from both sides.
Unable to take down Feny after so long, the Dark Elves began to grow anxious. Watching more and more Asgardian soldiers join the battlefield, one of the pilots anxiously said to Malekith, "The Asgardians have rushed over. If we keep fighting, we might not be able to leave!"
Malekith's expression was incredibly ugly. Although he was furious, he didn't lose his mind. They were the last hope of the Dark Elf race; they absolutely could not all die here.
Staring at the Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Feny on the screen, he finally gave the order with great reluctance: "Retreat for now!"
"Yes!"
The order was quickly passed down. The attack and defense of the Dark Elf ships might not be the strongest, but their flight speed and cloaking capabilities were absolute top-tier.
Seeing that the Dark Elves intended to flee, Feny actually grew a bit anxious. He had been planning to completely wipe out the Dark Elves; if they escaped this time, it wouldn't be easy to deal with them next time.
However, he was ultimately just one person with one dragon, while there were at least twenty ships around him, and Asgard's encirclement had not yet fully formed.
In the end, Feny could only sigh, feeling deeply disappointed by Asgard's army. If the reinforcements had come just a bit earlier, the Dark Elves would never have been able to escape so easily.
Looking at the ships scattering and fleeing in all directions, he didn't bother to give chase. Rather than relying on luck to find which ship Malekith was in, it was better to think about how to lure them out and wipe them out in one fell swoop next time.
As for the Asgardian soldiers, although they wanted to pursue, their speed couldn't catch up. Especially after the Dark Elves cloaked their ships, they had no means of tracking them.
The battle ended just like that. Aside from some damaged buildings, Asgard didn't suffer many casualties among its soldiers, and the citizens had taken refuge in a timely manner due to receiving advance notice.
As for the Dark Elves, their casualties were quite heavy, but aside from the wreckage of the destroyed ships, not a single survivor was found.
...
Inside Asgard's council hall.
Odin listened to Fandral's explanation with a solemn expression, then turned his gaze toward Feny, whose face looked perfectly normal, and said in a deep voice, "They came for you!"
"Yes!"
Feny nodded without denying it. In his heart, he thought that if he hadn't stayed at the Bifrost and discovered Algrim ahead of time, Asgard would probably be suffering heavy losses right now, just like in the original plot.
Then again, if he hadn't stayed in Asgard, the Dark Elves wouldn't have come here either.
"Father, didn't you say the Dark Elves were extinct?"
Right at this moment, Thor stepped forward and questioned. Just yesterday, Odin had told him that the Dark Elves were all dead, yet today the enemy had flown their ships right to their doorstep.
Odin glanced at Thor, not knowing how to answer. Although he knew a portion of the Dark Elves hadn't died, he hadn't expected them to be so arrogant as to directly attack his home.
Feny was also thinking about the battle just now. The only thing that comforted him about this battle was that Frigga didn't die like she did in the original plot.
When the fighting started outside, she was in the palace's medical facility trying to find a solution. After learning about the situation, she quickly returned to the palace to oversee various matters.
However, precisely because Frigga didn't die, Odin didn't hate Malekith as intensely as in the original plot, nor was he prepared to seek revenge at all costs.
Still, staying indifferent after such a provocation wasn't in Odin's character either. He looked at the general beside him and asked in a heavy voice, "Have you found their location?"
The general didn't dare to look Odin in the eye and replied in a low voice, "Our search systems cannot detect their ships, and even Heimdall cannot see them."
Hearing this, Odin frowned deeply.
Feny stepped forward at this moment and said, "Their target is me. Perhaps I can lure them out!"
"You mean using the Aether!?"
Thor reacted immediately and said with an excited look, "Right! Perhaps they have a way to help you remove that thing from your body, and we can destroy it together when the time comes!"
Feny rolled his eyes. Setting aside whether the Reality Stone could even be destroyed, even if it could, he wouldn't bear to do it.
After going through so much trouble and even risking his life, wasn't it all just to use the Reality Stone to enhance his strength? He would have to be insane to think about destroying it.
Fortunately, before he could speak, Odin rejected the idea with a stern expression, "No. If we fail, this weapon will fall into their hands. That is far too dangerous."
Seeing Thor about to argue with Odin, Feny took a step forward and spoke ahead of him, "Then we just won't take it out!"
"What I mean is, I will act as bait and set up an ambush. Once they appear, we will destroy them directly. As for the Aether, I can keep it inside my body and deal with it slowly later."
Hearing Feny's words, Odin took a deep look at him. He neither agreed nor directly refused, but instead waved his hand to dismiss the subordinates around them.
Soon, only Odin, Thor, and Feny were left in the hall.
Looking at Feny before him, Odin suddenly asked, "You knew they would come all along, didn't you?"
Leaving Feny in Asgard, Odin clearly hadn't just ignored him. In the intelligence he had gathered earlier, after Feny arrived in Asgard, he had spent almost all his time at the Bifrost, which obviously didn't match his previous personality.
Furthermore, the Dark Elf brought back by Fandral and Volstagg was only discovered because of Feny. Considering that Feny was previously found in Svartalfheim, all of this could obviously not be explained as a mere coincidence.
Feny's heart tightened slightly, but he didn't deny it. Instead, he used the same reason he gave Heimdall before, explaining, "I just sensed a kind of danger and suspected it had summoned something. I didn't know for sure if they would come!"
Feny's answer subtly shifted the concepts, so he spoke with perfect confidence. Because before this, he truly didn't know if the Aether had awakened the Dark Elves.