Aether

The wind swept past, stirring up ash from the ground. The air carried the mingled stench of scorched metal and dust.

Thor leaned on his hammer, standing amid the dead silence. He looked at Chu Hang, his mind struggling to process what had happened.

Not long ago on Earth, this man had still needed his guidance on the fighting techniques of the gods. Now, in a way Thor could not comprehend at all, he had ended a war that Thor had fought with everything he had and still could not win.

That had not been a battle. It had been a cleanup. A calm, efficient, utterly emotionless erasure.

"You... got stronger again." Thor's voice was dry. After thinking for a long time, that was all he could say. He felt as though his pride, along with Asgard's millennia of glory, had been crushed to pieces in those few minutes.

"Not bad. Did a little working out." Chu Hang clapped his hands clean, then stepped forward and looked at Thor's left shoulder.

The armor and flesh there had fused together, forming a charred hole that still crackled with tiny electric sparks. The gods' natural healing was fighting the lingering dark energy in the wound, leaving the divine power throughout Thor's body running sluggishly.

"Don't move."

Chu Hang extended a finger and touched the wound.

A green glow surged forth, and time seemed to flow backward.

Thor felt the chaotic divine power rampaging through his body settle instantly. The flesh on his shoulder regenerated at a visible rate, while the blackened skin peeled away like dead skin. Even the melted metal plates of his armor seemed to be reshaped by an invisible hand, restoring themselves without so much as a scratch.

This was his

It took no more than three seconds.

Thor