Chapter 189: Feast
"Thor said the Dark Elves' world is about twice the size of Earth. Searching for them here could take forever. Better to let them come to me instead," Blake muttered as he glanced at the desolate, lifeless terrain shrouded in darkness. He quickly lost any interest in wandering around.
With a thought, a small fragment of the Aether emerged from his arm, hovering and swirling gently around his palm in mid-air.
This was the limit of Blake's control over the Reality Stone for now, but even this was enough. The Dark Elves had spent thousands of years studying the Reality Stone. The faintest trace of its energy was sufficient to catch Malekith's attention.
Blake didn't wait long. Within ten minutes, several long, sword-shaped spacecraft appeared on the horizon, cutting through the air and arriving before him in an instant.
"Intruder! Whoever you are, surrender the Aether. It is the sacred relic of the Dark Elves," a deep, liquid-like voice boomed from the lead ship, echoing across the barren land.
Blake had no intention of standing idly in such a bleak wasteland. With a wave of his hand, he accessed his personal space storage.
In an instant, he pulled out a steaming copper hotpot and set it on a neatly arranged square table designed for four. The table was laden with slices of lamb, tofu skins, duck intestines, various vegetables, seafood, and a sesame-based dipping sauce mixed with an assortment of spices. It was an authentic Chinese-style hotpot feast.
Beside the table sat an intricately arranged fruit platter with at least seven or eight types of fruit, all meticulously sliced and presented.
Blake's storage space, like those in countless online novels, had no concept of time. He had no idea how many fresh ingredients, exotic fruits, and prepared dishes he had stored there, ready to be eaten at a moment's notice. The copper hotpot was no exception; he had stored it while the water was boiling, and he had at least a thousand similar setups stashed away.
So, by the time the Dark Elf ships loomed overhead and issued their demands, Blake had already polished off two plates of lamb. At that moment, he was shoving a chopstick-full of chrysanthemum greens into his mouth, grimacing slightly at the heat.
Slurping up the last of the stalks with satisfaction, Blake finally stretched lazily and casually cleaned his ear with a finger.
"Not sure if it's your voice or your speaker system that's broken, but if you've got something to say, come down and say it face to face!" he said nonchalantly.
Blake beckoned to the lead ship with his finger, and the Aether hovering around his hand mimicked the gesture before sinking back into his skin and vanishing.
This seemingly simple act caused Malekith, aboard the lead ship, to narrow his black pupils to pinpoints.
He could manipulate the Aether too, even draw it into his body temporarily. But to fully suppress its presence within his body?
Based on Malekith's extensive knowledge, only two possibilities existed:
The first was complete mastery of the Aether, which he deemed impossible. The Reality Stone couldn't be entirely subdued unless one's absolute strength surpassed the stone's, and Malekith firmly believed no being in the universe could achieve that.
The second possibility, similar to the first, involved using a power that transcended the stone to forcibly suppress it.
What Malekith could never have imagined was that Blake not only possessed the Aether but also the Space Stone, which was gradually merging with the Reality Stone inside him.
It wasn't Malekith's fault for his lack of foresight. In all the legends and histories of the universe's civilizations, no creature had ever simultaneously possessed two Infinity Stones, let alone contained them within their body.
"Damn it! You must be using some kind of magic. I'll warn you one last time—hand over the Aether immediately!" Malekith shouted, drawing his own conclusions. To him, Blake's abilities were the result of some unknown spell.
As he issued his ultimatum, the sword-shaped ships began to glow faintly with a dark red hue on the side facing Blake. It was clear that some sort of energy weapon was charging up.
Blake was thoroughly enjoying his meal, paying no mind to Malekith's threats. With his right hand, he used his chopsticks to pick up a slice of tripe, dunking it into the bubbling hotpot. As he rhythmically dipped it up and down, he counted aloud to himself:
"1, 2, 3…"
Fully committed to the art of cooking tripe with the classic seven-up-eight-down method, his left hand absentmindedly responded to Malekith by casually raising a middle finger in the direction of the ships.
Whether the Dark Elves understood the gesture or not was none of his concern.
In truth, this hand signal was practically a universal intergalactic gesture, as evidenced by Star-Lord's use of it in *Guardians of the Galaxy* during his time in the Kyln.
Malekith was instantly infuriated. Not only had this intruder trespassed on their territory, but he had the audacity to blatantly ignore his warnings and continue eating with an air of complete indifference.
To Malekith, this level of disrespect was intolerable. Even Odin, the All-Father of Asgard, had treated him as a foe of equal standing.
"Fire!"
His deep, enraged voice echoed through the ship. All four sword-shaped ships, including Malekith's own, shifted into formation, surrounding Blake from four directions.
"Let's hope you've had your fill before you die, you arrogant, insufferable magician!"
From each ship, a concentrated, dark red energy beam—half a meter in diameter—blazed through the air, firing at Blake from the front, back, left, and right in perfect unison.
Malekith's lips curled into a smirk as he prepared his habitual gesture to summon the Aether. Raising his right hand above his shoulder, he tilted his palm slightly back, ready to absorb the remnants of his foe.
The four beams converged on Blake's location, triggering a massive explosion. Dust and debris filled the air, blanketing the battlefield in a thick cloud of smoke.
Malekith's smile widened as he clenched his right hand into a fist, confident in his victory.
Yet, to his shock, there was no response—none of the familiar sensations of controlling the Aether.
"This… This is impossible…"
His eyes bulged as the dust began to settle. What he saw left him speechless.
At the center of the blast zone, a faint blue energy shield shimmered, unscathed. The shield had completely enveloped Blake and his dining table.
The surrounding ground had been scorched and gouged nearly half a meter deep, leaving the area around Blake like an untouched island amidst devastation.
Not a single thing inside the shield had been disturbed—not even the glass of amber-colored liquor on the table, which remained perfectly still, its liquid unmoving.
Blake casually picked up the glass, downed it in one gulp, and set it back on the table.
In the face of Malekith's stunned, disbelieving gaze, Blake opened his mouth and let out a loud, satisfied burp.
"Burp!~~~"
*******************************************
You can get access to early chapters on patr*on.
If you like my work and you want to support me then you can become my patron on patre*n.
My patr*on account is S_Pandey_0170