Chapter 738

"You’re that powerful now?"

Once the battle was over and the dust had settled, Thor approached Sif with Jane Foster supported at his side.

He had watched the entire fight unfold.

By Asgardian standards, interfering in another warrior’s duel was deeply dishonorable. It was also an insult to the warrior one claimed to be helping, implying that they couldn’t handle their own fight.

Thor had been ready to intervene if Sif’s life was genuinely in danger. Whatever his attachment to honor, he would never allow a friend to die merely to preserve some rigid code of conduct. To him, honor was something a man wore, but his companions were as essential as his own limbs.

That attitude was one reason so many warriors would gladly follow him into battle.

Fortunately, he hadn’t needed to make that choice.

Sif hadn’t come close to losing. If anything, the Cursed Warrior had spent the entire fight desperately trying to keep up with her.

Thor was astonished. He knew Sif’s abilities well, and while she’d always been a formidable warrior, she’d never possessed anything approaching the power she’d just displayed.

And then there was that transformation.

The wings. The enormous increase in size. The magic.

He had a suspicion about what had caused it.

"Evenson’s potions," Sif confirmed.

She explained carefully, "His unusual concoctions, combined with the ritual he performed and the poison used by the Dark Elves, seem to produce a series of subtle changes in female Asgardians. Even Evenson himself probably didn’t anticipate the full extent of the effects."

Her explanation wasn’t entirely wrong, but it wasn’t the whole truth, either.

The reality was considerably simpler. None of those ingredients needed to be combined. A sufficiently concentrated dose of fel blood would have been enough.

However, this was the official explanation Frigga had provided, and Sif had no reason to contradict the queen. Besides, she didn’t actually know whether the explanation was accurate.

"I see." Thor nodded, accepting her words without question.

It made sense to him. Evenson had helped them develop a cure and save their lives, but Thor had never imagined the man would be generous enough to hand out tremendous new powers as a bonus.

Apparently, Evenson hadn’t known what would happen, either.

"Speaking of which..." Sif glanced around. "Where’s Evenson? I thought he came with you."

She tried to make the question sound casual, but she was genuinely concerned.

Evenson had become a friend, and Frigga had given her an explicit instruction before their departure: keep him safe.

Thor blinked.

Then he scratched his head, his expression slowly shifting from confusion to dawning realization.

"You know, I’ve had the feeling something was missing this whole time. Now I know what it was. Evenson’s gone!"

Sif stared at him.

"Gone? You..."

She stopped herself before saying what she really thought.

There had been four people in their group. One had vanished along the way, and Thor hadn’t even noticed until she brought it up.

How was that possible?

"Wait, I remember now." Thor thought for a moment. "Something went wrong when we were traveling through the passage. Evenson didn’t make it through with us."

He frowned, considering the possibilities.

"He might still be in Asgard. The passage was up on a cliff, and he’d never piloted a spaceship before. Maybe he crashed into the mountains."

Sif gave him a dubious look.

"Or he went back to Earth."

Thor turned toward her.

"Before the Dark Elves invaded, he was already planning to leave. The Golden Palace was sealed, so he couldn’t get out. Then he helped you escape, which means he’s now involved in all of this. Knowing Evenson, do you really think he’d stick around in Asgard when he has the chance to leave?"

Thor considered Evenson’s character.

"That’s a fair point."

He had barely finished speaking when a sudden gust swept across the landscape.

Thor looked up.

In the distance, an enormous black vortex was forming in the sky, its swirling mass spreading across the horizon.

"A sandstorm!" he exclaimed.

He immediately pulled his cloak around Jane, shielding her from the rising wind.

"We can’t stay here. We need to find shelter, then figure out how to get off this world."

"Wait, Thor."

He had just turned to leave when Sif called after him.

Thor looked back, puzzled.

Sif hesitated, a faint blush creeping across her cheeks.

"Could you come and help me walk? I can barely move right now."

Before her transformation, Sif would never have said something like that so readily. But after Frigga’s purification ritual, it was as though a door inside her had swung open, revealing an unfamiliar side of herself.

Thor, meanwhile, didn’t seem to notice anything unusual.

Still supporting Jane with one arm, he stepped over and wrapped his other arm around Sif.

"What’s wrong? Are you injured?"

Sif immediately leaned into him, transferring most of her weight to his body. One arm slipped around his waist, and she rested her head against his chest.

"The form I used during the battle consumed an enormous amount of energy."

"Oh."

Thor sounded slightly bewildered. He couldn’t remember Sif ever behaving quite like this before.

"But that makes sense," he added after a moment. "Even I would have struggled against that Cursed Warrior. You defeated him, and you made it look easy. A power like that must come at a price."

"It wasn’t easy."

Sif lifted her head to look at him.

"He was stronger than me, both physically and in terms of raw power. I only appeared to have the upper hand because I could fly and he couldn’t. He had no reliable way to attack me in the air. If I’d been forced to fight him on the ground at close range, I might have lost."

Thor nodded thoughtfully.

So being able to fly makes that much difference?

He glanced at the wings that had vanished from Sif’s back.

Then he began pondering a more personal question.

Does that mean I can fly, too?

It was an interesting question. He wasn’t entirely sure he knew the answer.

Before long, the three of them found a cave and hurried inside to escape the sandstorm.

Thor’s luck proved remarkable once again.

The cave wasn’t merely a shelter. It was another hidden passage, one that led directly back to Earth.

Jane also discovered something else inside: her car keys and phone.

To determine exactly where the passage emerged, she called the man she’d been dating, who had recently found himself relegated to the decidedly unglamorous position of backup boyfriend.

Thor watched her make the call with mixed feelings.

Sif, for reasons she couldn’t quite explain, found the situation rather amusing.

Once they had confirmed the passage’s location, the three crossed over to Earth.

They emerged in the same warehouse they’d left earlier, where Jane’s car was still parked. Miraculously, it hadn’t been towed.

They wasted no time getting inside and driving to Darcy’s place.

There, they found Dr. Erik Selvig, whom Darcy had managed to retrieve from the psychiatric hospital.

Judging by the fact that he wasn’t wearing any trousers, however, one could argue that the hospital might have been the more appropriate place for him.

Selvig greeted the newcomers with overwhelming enthusiasm.

He hugged Jane first, then turned toward Thor and opened his arms, apparently intending to embrace him as well.

But halfway through the gesture, he suddenly remembered something.

"Your brother isn’t with you, is he?"

The question was understandable. Loki’s previous treatment of Selvig had left him with some fairly serious emotional scars.

At the mention of his brother, Thor’s expression fell.

"Loki..." His voice grew heavy. "He’s dead."

"Thank goodness!"

Selvig nearly jumped for joy.

Then he noticed Thor’s frozen expression.

His face immediately transformed into a picture of solemn sympathy.

"I mean... my condolences. My deepest condolences."

He nodded gravely, trying to look as though he hadn’t just celebrated the death of Thor’s brother.

The silence that followed was deeply uncomfortable.

Thor eventually put the moment behind him and explained the situation.

Asgard was in danger. More than that, the entire universe was facing a catastrophe.

Malekith intended to unleash the Aether, and Thor needed their help determining where he would do it.

He hoped they could work together to identify the Dark Elf’s destination before it was too late.

"Greenwich," Darcy said.

Thor hadn’t even finished explaining the situation when she named the location.

Everyone in the room turned to stare at her.

Their expressions were remarkably similar: a mixture of disbelief and the unspoken question of how on Earth she’d figured that out.

Darcy shifted uncomfortably beneath their collective gaze.

"What? It was a guess."

She paused, then added, "S.H.I.E.L.D. and the British military started evacuating civilians from Greenwich several days ago. They’ve been telling everyone it’s for a joint military exercise."

The room fell silent.

Darcy shrugged.

"Seemed suspicious to me."

And just like that, they had their answer.