Wind swept across the battlefield, lifting gray ash into the air. The scent of scorched metal and dust lingered.
Thor stood in the silence, leaning on Mjolnir.
He looked at Levi, and for once, the God of Thunder found his thoughts lagging behind reality.
Not long ago, on Earth, this man had still needed pointers on Asgardian combat technique.
Now?
What Thor had just witnessed was not battle.
It was sanitation.
Calm. Efficient. Emotionless erasure.
"You… have grown stronger," Thor said at last, his voice dry. It was the only sentence he could assemble. For a fleeting moment, he felt as though his pride—and the millennia of Asgard's glory behind it—had been crushed in those few minutes.
"Not bad. Did some training." Levi dusted off his hands.
He stepped closer and examined Thor's left shoulder.
Armor and flesh had fused together into a charred cavity. Dark energy residue crackled faintly within it, disrupting Thor's divine power and hindering his regeneration.
"Don't move."
Levi pressed a finger to the wound.
Green light shimmered.
Time reversed.
Thor felt the chaotic divine energy within him settle instantly. Flesh regenerated at visible speed. The burnt skin sloughed off. The molten armor reformed as if shaped by invisible hands, flawless once more.
Three seconds.
Thor rolled his shoulder.
No pain. Full strength.
"What… was that?" he asked, unable to hide his bewilderment. Even Asgard's Soul Forge did not restore this cleanly.
"Minor trick," Levi replied. "The Aether. Still inside Jane?"
At her name, Thor's expression darkened.
"Yes." He tightened his grip on Mjolnir. "It's poisoning her. Our healers are powerless. They say the Aether is… reshaping her. Turning her into a new vessel."
A sentient manifestation of the Reality Stone, Levi thought.
That complicated things.
It wasn't mere energy. It was concept. Law. The authority to knead reality like clay.
"Take me to her," Levi said.
"We're in Svartalfheim," Thor replied. "The Rainbow Bridge is destroyed. We need a ship—"
Levi placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Unnecessary."
The world shattered.
Thor felt himself torn into particles and brutally reassembled. It was infinitely worse than Bifrost travel.
When his vision cleared, golden radiance flooded his eyes.
They stood in the throne hall of Asgard.
Guards raised their spears instantly.
"Stand down," Odin commanded.
The Allfather sat upon the throne, weariness etched into his face. Beside him, Queen Frigga lay upon a luminous healing bed, pale and weak, attended by handmaidens.
Odin's single eye fixed on Levi.
"Last time we met, your power was restrained," Odin said quietly. "Now it spills over. What have you done?"
"Learned a few things," Levi replied evenly. His gaze swept over the battle scars in the hall. "You've had a rough day."
"Father!" Thor knelt. "Mother—"
"She lives," Odin said. "Malekith?"
"He fled. But his army…" Thor glanced at Levi. "Is no more."
Odin understood immediately.
"I want to see Jane Foster," Levi said. "The Aether interests me."
Odin studied him for a long moment.
Then he gestured to Thor.
"Take him."
---
The medical chamber pulsed with unstable energy.
Jane lay upon a specialized bed, unconscious. Beneath her skin, dark red liquid flowed like living serpents.
Occasionally, tendrils of energy escaped her body, crystallizing briefly into strange geometric forms before dissolving. Reality flickered subtly around her.
Levi stood over her, hand hovering above her forehead.
He closed his eyes.
He activated every analytical faculty he possessed.
Space Law. Force Law. Temporal perception.
He observed how the Aether bent constants, rewrote structures, altered probability distributions.
Conclusion:
Jane's molecular and genetic architecture was being rewritten from the ground up. A higher-dimensional authority—Reality itself—was synchronizing with her.
She and the Aether were entangled at a conceptual level.
If he forcefully copied it now, his Superpower Copier would directly interface with the foundational law of "Reality."
The backlash would cause conceptual collapse.
Jane Foster would be erased—past, present, future. As though she had never existed.
Levi opened his eyes, frowning.
Troublesome.
"Well?" Thor asked, dread creeping into his voice.
"Complicated," Levi said bluntly. "It's claimed her as its body. Extracting it safely would require dismantling her at the atomic level—and perfectly reassembling her."
Thor's hands trembled.
"There is no other way?"
"There is." Levi turned toward the golden palace beyond the window. "But it requires time. And Odin's cooperation."
---
Back in the throne hall.
"You've seen," Odin said.
"Yes. A volatile artifact. You cannot safely remove it."
"But you want it."
"Correct. I collect stones."
"Two Infinity Stones cannot remain in Asgard," Odin said sharply. The Tesseract was already here.
"I'm not asking you to keep it."
Levi raised a single finger.
"A deal. I eliminate Malekith permanently. In return, once we extract the Aether safely, I study it for one month. Then I return it. You may hide it wherever you wish—or give it to some oversized-headed collector."
Odin's eye bore into him.
It was a gamble.
Levi's growth rate was alarming. Handing him access to the Reality Stone could create something uncontrollable.
But Asgard was weakened. The Bifrost destroyed. Frigga wounded. Odin himself diminished. Against Malekith wielding the Aether, their margin was thin.
Levi was a weapon they desperately needed.
"You claim you can defeat Malekith," Odin said at last. "On what basis?"
Levi answered calmly:
"I defeated a dimensional avatar of Dormammu."
Odin's pupil contracted.
Dormammu.
A being whose projection alone stood at Skyfather-tier.
Thor blinked.
"Who's Dormammu?" he asked. "A relative of slime creatures?"
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