As Malekith raises the Casket of Ancient Winters to unleash chaos across Earth, Roger Willis, whose blindness was only temporary thanks to the steel plate in his skull, takes aim and shoots the Dark Elf in the shoulder, disrupting his spell. Meanwhile, Thor, plunging toward a fiery pit, summons Mjolnir to him and flies to safety while his opponent Algrim the Strong plunges into the flames….
Subplots, grouped in one place: the Norns put Balder into the tapestry of fate where he sees all the threads of his life and their significance and he abandons his desire for death. Returned to the desert he picks up Agnar and rides back to Asgard. The Warriors Three assemble the defenses of Asgard.
Thor battles Malekith in his full armored form and easily defeats him. They rescue Melodi but it turns out to be an elf in disguise; Roger exposes the fake. Thor finds the real Melodi (who is really the real Lorelei) and smashes a hole though the cavern ceiling to let the sunlight in. But Malekith recovers and hurls Roger’s iron pistol, cracking open the Casket and releasing chaos up into the world. Seeing this, Surtur breaks though into Earth with his invasion force….
