Embers and Assembly

The sea breeze of Malibu, California, carried a salty tang as it brushed across the terrace of the Stark villa. The echoes of Xiao Han's words—"Clean up the battlefield"—still seemed to ring in Tony's ears when the communication cut off.

Tony hovered above New York's smoke-filled skies, his expression beneath the helmet impossibly complex. Humiliation, unwillingness, but more than anything, the urgency of surviving a desperate situation. He abruptly changed direction, his engines blasting brilliant blue flames as he charged toward the giant Leviathan still wreaking havoc.

"You all hear that?!" Tony's voice exploded through the Avengers' encrypted channel, carrying a ruthless, all-or-nothing edge. "Reinforcements are on the way! Hold the line now! Don't let this oversized lizard take another step forward!"

Steve Rogers had just crawled out of the rubble after being blasted away by the Leviathan's energy cannon, his Vibranium Shield humming. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his gaze as sharp as ever. "Copy! Barton, suppress the firepower on its head! Natasha, what's your status?"

"Breaking through the outer defenses! Loki's grunts are everywhere!" Natasha's voice was mixed with the shriek of aircraft engines and the thunderous blasts of energy weapons.

She piloted a stolen Chitauri craft, weaving through the dense barrage like a butterfly among flowers as she charged toward the core of the deep-blue beam atop Stark Tower. But the guards Loki had deployed were exceptionally stubborn.

"HULK!!!" A deafening roar erupted several blocks away, accompanied by the thunderous collapse of buildings! The green berserker was like an out-of-control bulldozer, smashing half of a Chitauri-occupied shopping mall to the ground!

Rubble and twisted metal rained down like a storm, burying the alien infantry below. Hulk stood atop the ruins, pounding his thick chest with both fists and roaring in provocation, drawing more than half of the nearby Chitauri craft's fire toward himself.

"Banner... hold on..." Bruce Banner's weak voice came through the channel, laced with pain and struggle. "He's... too angry... the city's burning..." Clearly, Hulk's rampage was not entirely under control. Banner's consciousness was fighting to suppress him.

"Let him smash! The harder he smashes, the better! Take the pressure off Natasha!" Tony roared. At the same time, the Mark VII armor unleashed its full firepower, repulsor blasts and micro-missiles pouring down like rain upon the giant Leviathan's injured joints and exploding into clusters of flame!

Thor descended from even higher in the sky like a bolt of golden lightning! Mjolnir, carrying overwhelming force, smashed viciously into the beast's head armor, already cracked apart by lightning!

CLANG—!!!

Like a great bell tolling! The terrifying shockwave from the impact shattered sheets of glass curtain walls across nearby buildings!

The beast let out an agonized shriek of utmost misery. Its enormous head jerked sharply sideways, and the energy beam gathering in its mouth instantly spun out of control, sweeping diagonally across the sky and slicing an unfinished skyscraper in half at the waist! Its steel skeleton collapsed with a piercing groan of twisting metal, kicking up dust that filled the sky!

Thor hovered before the beast's head, his crimson cape snapping in the wind. Fury burned in his blue eyes, along with a trace of gravity difficult to detect. He lowered his gaze to the face of Mjolnir in his hand—the clear dent of a fistprint remained glaring beneath the battle's glow.

That inhuman power from Midgard was like a cold thorn driven deep into the pride of an Asgardian prince. But at this moment, the responsibility of protecting this fragile world outweighed personal pride and humiliation.

"For Asgard! And for Midgard!" Thor's roar rang out like a declaration. He raised his hammer again and summoned the heavenly thunder! A thick bolt of lightning ripped through the smoke-choked sky and poured savagely into the beast's gaping mouth, opened wide in agony!

BOOM—!!!

The internal explosion sent the giant Leviathan's massive body convulsing violently. Like a giant serpent whose spine had been pulled out, it let out a dying wail as its enormous body began to tilt and fall out of control!

"Clear out! It's coming down!" Steve shouted fiercely from the street, directing the panicked crowd away from the impact zone!

A colossal shadow swallowed several city blocks! Cries of despair rose up!

At that very instant!

A blurred figure, moving faster than the eye could follow, appeared beneath the giant Leviathan's massive body as if teleporting!

It was Xiao Han!

He was still wearing that gray hoodie, his hands tucked into his pockets as he stood casually beneath the steel behemoth about to topple down! His tiny figure formed an absurd yet breathtaking contrast with the sky-blocking shadow!

"Move! Are you insane?!" Tony's alarmed cry exploded through the channel!

Xiao Han did not even raise his head to look at the beast bearing down upon him like Mount Tai. He merely bent his knees slightly and lowered his body, then... threw a simple straight punch upward at the Leviathan's mountain-like abdomen!

There was no glow of energy! No windup! Only the violent, visible distortion of the air as his fist broke through it, a sonic barrier accompanied by rings of wildly expanding milky-white sonic-boom clouds!

THOOM—!!!!!!!!!!!

A terrifyingly muffled boom that made all of Manhattan Island tremble!

Time seemed to freeze at that moment.

Xiao Han's fist struck squarely against the giant Leviathan's abdomen, covered in thick alloy armor!

Centered on the point of impact, the supposedly indestructible alien alloy armor visibly... caved inward in an instant like a cookie struck by an invisible sledgehammer! A huge, distinct fistprint appeared, accompanied by dense spiderweb cracks that spread dozens of meters in an instant!

Then!

An indescribable, unstoppable destructive force erupted like a volcano that had lain dormant for ten thousand years! It surged through Xiao Han's fist and slammed viciously into the Leviathan's enormous body!

CRACK! RUMBLE—!!!

The teeth-grating sounds of metal breaking and structures collapsing came without end!

The giant Leviathan, weighing tens of thousands of tons and plunging downward, was as though hoisted upward by an invisible cosmic hand, then hurled violently backward!

Its enormous body paused strangely in midair for an instant, then... flew backward faster than it had fallen, like a colossal cannonball fired toward the direction it had come from—the enormous space wormhole!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The Chitauri craft along its path were like mosquitoes scattered by a gale, instantly smashed into burning fragments that filled the sky! As it flew backward, the huge Leviathan's body twisted and warped as though kneaded by an invisible giant force, its internal bones and structures shattering inch by inch beneath the transmission of that terrifying power!

At last, burning and wailing, it crashed deep into the dark, spinning wormhole like an out-of-control flaming meteor!

The wormhole's light flickered and warped violently! It contracted fiercely as if suffering from indigestion! Dull explosions and the piercing sound of tearing metal came from within the passage!

One punch!

Just one punch!

The devastating giant Leviathan had been punched back into the wormhole! It might even have destroyed something on the other side of the passage!

The entire battlefield fell into deathly silence.

Only the crackling of flames, the dull impacts of falling building debris, and... countless stunned gazes remained, focused on the figure beneath the wormhole as he slowly withdrew his fist, as if he had merely dusted off some dirt.

Tony's faceplate opened, his jaw nearly dropping off. He had watched with his own eyes as the beast that he and Thor had struggled to withstand together was sent flying with one punch like a torn sandbag! This was no longer strength. This was... a miracle! No, something even more unreasonable than a miracle!

Thor hovered in the air, his grip on Mjolnir unconsciously tightening. The fistprint on its face seemed to burn against his palm. His golden pupils contracted violently.

His gaze at Xiao Han was filled with unprecedented shock and... a trace of awe he himself refused to admit. This was... the power that had knocked him unconscious into a cliff with one punch? So effortlessly?

Steve stood amid the ruins, supporting himself with his shield planted against the ground. As he looked at that figure, his steadfast eyes were full of disbelief. This power... exceeded the limits of human understanding!

Natasha's aircraft hovered in midair as she forgot to operate it. She looked at the calm figure below, then remembered the absolute crushing power amid the ruins of Calcutta. A cold chill seized her once more.

Hulk stopped tearing down buildings and stood atop the rubble, his lava-like eyes fixed on Xiao Han. A low growl filled with vigilance and wariness rumbled from his throat. A beast's instincts sensed more clearly than anyone else the terrifying threat within that small body, enough to crush everything!

Loki stood at the edge of Stark Tower's rooftop, the light of the Mind Scepter flickering uncertainly in his hand. The wicked smile on his face had vanished completely, leaving only extreme pallor and terror!

He looked at the chaos still raging deep within the wormhole, then at the figure below who seemed like a demon god descended upon the world. His body began to tremble uncontrollably! His final support, that alien army, was... nothing more than a joke before this monster!

Xiao Han shook his wrist as if he had merely batted away a slightly heavier ball. He raised his head, his gaze sweeping over the wormhole in the sky, left somewhat "convulsing" by his punch, then over the battlefield below, a complete wreck sunk in eerie silence. Finally, his eyes settled on Loki's terrified face atop Stark Tower.

His voice was calm and unruffled, yet it carried clearly to every corner of the battlefield:

"Bug, the field's been cleared."

"The stage..."

He paused, his gaze locking onto Loki.

"...needs to come down."