"Ha!"
Thor descended from the sky in a pillar of lightning.
The impact shattered the pavement, and thunder rolled across Manhattan as arcs of electricity tore through a wide swath of Chitauri. Dozens fell before they even understood what had hit them.
Without turning around, Evenson said, "Finally decided to come down? I was beginning to think you planned to guard the portal all day."
Until Evenson had joined the battle, Thor had been stationed atop Stark Tower, bottling up the flow of reinforcements pouring through the portal. With the warlock absent, someone had needed to provide large-scale area attacks.
Thor rested Mjolnir on one shoulder.
"I heard you’re preparing a spell powerful enough to change the battle."
Evenson’s lips curled into a faint smile.
"I am."
A flicker of pride entered his voice.
"This one will turn the tide."
Just then, a massive Chitauri Leviathan twisted through the smoke-filled sky, diving straight toward them.
Even creatures bred only for war seemed capable of recognizing priority targets.
Thor tightened his grip on Mjolnir, preparing to intercept it.
Evenson was faster.
He whispered an incantation.
"Boundless... eternal... the force that rends all things."
Ulthalesh pointed skyward.
The Shield Orb circling overhead immediately shot toward the Leviathan.
The colossal beast opened its jaws.
And swallowed it.
Evenson raised an eyebrow.
"That was... ambitious."
A heartbeat later, the Leviathan convulsed violently.
Its enormous body twisted through the air in grotesque spasms.
The pure Shadow energy inside the orb spread through every organ, every strand of flesh, every cell. Matter itself began dissolving.
Within seconds, the mighty war beast melted into a rain of black sludge that splattered across abandoned streets below.
Thor blinked.
"I didn’t realize you possessed power like that."
Evenson lowered his gaze.
"My power..."
He spoke so quietly Thor almost missed it.
"...This is how it was always meant to be."
"What?"
Thor frowned.
Evenson seemed to snap out of a trance.
"It’s nothing."
He planted Ulthalesh before him and wrapped both hands around its haft.
"I’m starting."
He slowly knelt.
His black wings folded inward, enclosing him like a cocoon.
"The end of every soul..."
"...is the darkness that devours all."
His voice deepened.
"Now..."
He surged to his feet, raising Ulthalesh high overhead.
"...Disappear!"
Darkness of a Thousand Souls.
It was originally one of Kil’jaeden the Deceiver’s signature techniques.
A devastating wave of soul energy capable of shattering spirits outright.
Evenson couldn’t truly replicate the original.
But he understood its principles.
His plan was simple.
Detonate the countless souls stored within Ulthalesh and unleash the resulting spiritual shockwave.
Against Kil’jaeden himself, the imitation would have been laughably weak.
Against the Chitauri?
Creatures whose souls were already fractured and incomplete...
It would be more than enough.
Power surged into the crimson blade.
Ulthalesh vibrated with anticipation.
Evenson could almost hear thousands of enemies dying before the spell had even been released.
Then another voice echoed inside his mind.
A very irritated female voice.
"Absolutely not."
"Those perfectly good souls are staying where they are."
"I’m saving them."
"Do you know how hard it is to build up a collection?"
"I agreed to lend you some power."
"I never agreed to empty my vault."
"If you want to throw around a spell on that scale..."
"Go collect your own souls."
Silence.
Evenson mentally stared into the abyss.
The abyss stared back.
"...Seriously?"
Apparently the dreadlord bound within Ulthalesh had decided to go on strike.
There wasn’t much he could do about it.
The artifact wasn’t truly his.
It belonged to her.
Trying to rob the weapon that was lending him power in the first place sounded like an excellent way to become the next soul inside it.
Evenson slowly opened his eyes.
Every nearby Avenger was staring at him.
Confused.
Concerned.
You delivered the speech.
You struck the pose.
Where was the earth-shattering spell?
The silence became increasingly awkward.
No.
I am not explaining that my evil talking scythe just refused to cooperate.
Fortunately, panic sharpened his creativity.
He slammed Ulthalesh into the ground.
The impact shook the street.
Then he shouted in Eredun.
"Manach sheek-thrish!"
Six blazing spheres of fel fire erupted around him.
They streaked across the battlefield like living predators, relentlessly pursuing nearby Chitauri.
Anything they touched ignited instantly.
The flames didn’t burn out after claiming a single victim.
They simply chose another target.
Then another.
And another.
As though determined to reduce the entire invading army to cinders.
The Avengers exchanged glances.
"...Right."
"So the big spell wasn’t finished yet."
That made sense.
Far more sense than the truth.
Evenson quietly exhaled in relief.
Crisis averted.
Now...
He needed to gather the power for the real thing.
"What is he doing?"
The Ancient One narrowed her eyes.
Most observers saw only another spell being prepared.
She saw something entirely different.
Centered on Evenson, an invisible vortex had formed.
Every Chitauri soul released across the battlefield was spiraling toward him.
"Using souls as spell components..."
Her expression remained calm.
"Very much the work of a black warlock."
To many, tampering with souls represented the darkest of taboos.
Taking a life was one thing.
Manipulating what remained afterward was another entirely.
The Masters of the Mystic Arts held a more pragmatic view.
Body and soul were simply different aspects of the same existence.
After all, astral projection was fundamental to their training.
Their enemies frequently fought in spirit form as well.
Destroying a soul, while grim, was hardly an unfamiliar concept.
Green.
Red.
Yellow.
As Soul Harvest continued, more and more soul fragments condensed into glowing orbs.
They revolved around Evenson in widening circles.
Different colors.
Different qualities.
By the end, he looked less like a warlock and more like a walking traffic signal wrapped in darkness.
Evenson opened his eyes once more.
Please.
No surprises this time.
The colored soul orbs streamed toward his raised right hand.
One by one they merged together.
Until only a single blazing sphere of brilliant orange energy remained.
He held it overhead.
Its radiance was almost painful to behold.
"Every creature dies eventually."
His gaze settled on the Chitauri horde.
"But these alien bastards..."
"...just need a little help."
He clenched his fist.
"Hand of Death!"
The orange sphere exploded into a blinding bolt.
Death itself seemed to race across the battlefield.
Within an eight-kilometer radius of Evenson...
Every Chitauri life-form was struck simultaneously.
Infantry charging through the streets.
Skiffs darting through the sky.
Even the towering Leviathans circling above Manhattan.
They all died.
Instantly.
One moment, the battlefield had been drowning beneath an endless alien tide.
The next...
Silence.
The invasion had not ended.
But for the first time since the portal had opened...
The defenders of Earth had seized the initiative.
The tide had finally turned.
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