Chapter 115: Dark Elf

Although the entangling combat between the Dark Elves and the Asgardians prevented the Protoss fleet from deploying weapons of mass destruction, the situation offered the Templar an ideal opportunity to embrace the glory of battle.

A volley of warp beams rapidly transferred a detachment of Templar directly onto the battlefield, where they joined the fray against the Dark Elves.

Naturally, the carrier fighter wings provided ample firepower support for the conflict. The Dark Elves' vessels were nowhere near as agile as the carrier-borne craft, let alone the fact that their armor was practically as flimsy as paper against the onslaught of the fighters' weaponry.

The rest of the fleet maintained a tight blockade around Asgard, ensuring that not a single Dark Elf ship could escape.

However, the cloaking technology of the Dark Elves possessed a unique ingenuity of its own. Even the probes of the Protoss Empire were unable to pinpoint the exact location of the Dark Elf mothership, prompting Vorazun to attempt to decipher this rather novel technology.

Having expended an immense amount of energy in their prior battle against the malevolent deity, Artanis, Selendis, and Vorazun were thoroughly exhausted and thus refrained from joining the ground combat.

While Artanis and Selendis went to confer with Asgard's leading authority, Vorazun chose to remain aboard the mothership to analyze the Dark Elves' stealth technology alongside the phase-smiths.

The cloaking technology of the Dark Elves stemmed from their innate heritage. Although neither the Protoss Empire nor Asgard had ever acknowledged the Dark Elves as the guardians of the Reality Stone, the birth of the Dark Elves was indeed tied to that Lord of Truth and Illusion, one of the six primordial entities, the entity known as Oblivion.

As the scions of the Lord of Truth and Illusion, the Dark Elves understood the Aether particles better than any other race in the cosmos. Unfortunately, they were also the very first race corrupted by the Dark God, Amon.

Long before Aiur awakened, the Dark God had already discovered the Dark Elf civilization. Capitalizing on the Dark Elves' profound sensitivity to the Void, the Dark God subtly corrupted their kind, instilling in them the belief that reality was entirely meaningless and that only by destroying reality could they return to the embrace of Oblivion.

Passed down from generation to generation, this belief naturally took root among the influenced Dark Elves. Malekith was a Dark Elf leader deeply poisoned by this ideology.

During his reign, the Dark Elves successfully forged an artifact using the Aether particles capable of plunging the entire universe into ultimate darkness. However, his actions were uncovered by Borr, the King of Asgard at the time. Asgard conquered the Dark Elves and sealed away the perilous Aether particles.

As for Malekith, following the defeat of the Dark Elves, he utilized cloaking technology to flee with the remainder of his people into the boundless cosmos, leaving no trace of their whereabouts.

Naturally, neither the Protoss Empire nor Asgard knew that the Aether particles they had once sealed away had fallen into the hands of the evil deity, leaving them utterly bewildered as to the true objective of the Dark Elves' current invasion.

Lost in thought along the way, Artanis was led by a palace attendant into the presence of Asgard's current ruler, Queen Frigga: "Respected Queen Mother, Artanis and Selendis, executors of the Protoss Empire, extend their greetings to you."

"No need for such formalities. Thank you so much for extending a helping hand in our hour of need, Artanis." Frigga walked up to Artanis, nodding in gratitude to the two arrivals: "The intelligence regarding the Dark Elves has been compiled. Please, come with me."

As a wise witch, Frigga naturally understood why Artanis and his companions were so eager to see her, and she had long since instructed her servants to bring all her compiled documents into the study.

As the three entered the study, Frigga guided them to seats by a table and spoke first: "We are equally perplexed by the sudden assault of the Dark Elves. There is still some time before the Convergence of the Nine Realms; logically speaking, they should not have awakened this early."

Expressing his thanks, Artanis accepted the documents from Frigga's hands and began to review them. As the Protoss ambassador to Asgard, he was naturally well-versed in the past history shared by Asgard and the Protoss Empire, which included the sealing of the Aether particles back in the day.

As the Reality Stone among the six Infinity Stones, the Aether particles could neither be destroyed nor banished. Consequently, how to properly store this hazardous ticking time bomb had become a dilemma for the All-Father Borr. Eventually, the scholars of both realms devised a plan with the highest probability of success.

That plan was to exploit the unique nature of the World Tree to carve out an independent space within it, sealing the Aether particles inside. This ensured that the Aether particles would continue to exist within the universe while remaining entirely beyond anyone's reach.

To forge this independent space, Borr had exhausted nearly all of his personal power to successfully construct it within Midgard, the mortal realm. Yet, this also laid the groundwork for his eventual fall in subsequent battles.

The only method capable of unlocking an entrance to this space was when the Nine Realms aligned in a single line, causing the World Tree to tremor and a fracture to briefly appear.

Thus, upon ascending to the throne, Odin closely monitored the spatial conditions of Midgard, occasionally casting down the Space Stone to stabilize Midgard's spatial laws.

What Odin did not know, however, was that the moment the Bifrost exploded, the entire World Tree suffered a violent concussion. Taking advantage of this, the malevolent deity Nyarlathotep slipped into the sealing grounds and acquired the Reality Stone.

Having obtained the Reality Stone, Nyarlathotep naturally awakened the Dark Elves slumbering in the deepest reaches of the cosmos. Upon securing the Reality Stone, Nyarlathotep also discovered the existence of these Dark Elves and personally constructed a stage for them.

As one of the three Evil Outer Gods, Nyarlathotep's most renowned trait was a penchant for theatrical spectacle. The entity took immense delight in witnessing mortals slaughtering one another amidst intricate webs of conspiracy and coincidence. It was said that whenever warfare broke out, it would draw the attention of this chaos-loving deity, and once piqued, the deity would bestow its favor, steering the conflict toward grander scales and heavier casualties.

Beyond chaos, war inevitably birthed death. Consequently, another deity among the three Evil Gods maintained a very close relationship with Nyarlathotep and was deeply inclined to heed the prayers of those favored by Nyarlathotep, generously granting them salvation.

Take the current Dark Elves, for example. After Nyarlathotep personally set the stage for them, that other deity had also set its sights on this long-corrupted race, silently completing its own blessing while continuously watching over this seemingly fascinating war.

As he perused the documents on the Dark Elves, Artanis furrowed his brow. He had spotted an unfamiliar yet strangely familiar name within Frigga's records.

"Respected Queen Mother, who is Hela?" Artanis pointed to the name in the text and handed the record over to Frigga, whose expression shifted abruptly upon hearing the name.