The Monster That Destroyed Asgard

Time rewound to even earlier. After the failed attempt to surround and kill Thor, Loki returned to his own body. He did not seem upset, merely staring around in boredom.

After a while, he heard footsteps. At first, he thought Thor had come to visit, so he stood up and turned his back. A while later, he turned around and looked at the person before him, because it was not Thor.

It was Odin.

Odin stood before Loki in his armor and helmet, Gungnir in hand. With only a little thought, Loki knew Odin had not come to execute him, and he could not help laughing. "What is it? Is the great All-Father setting out on an expedition?"

"Ragnarok... When I sacrificed my right eye to Milton and wished to see the future of the people of Asgard, I saw Ragnarok, my child."

"Everyone knows about that, old man."

"What they do not know is that I did not see Ragnarok itself. I saw a group of people. They had no color and no sound, yet they could speak to me. They showed me everything about Ragnarok—Baldur being killed by mistletoe, Fimbulwinter arriving, the armies of the Nine Realms attacking Asgard, everyone dying, and then Asgard being destroyed."

"A group of... gods showed you the future?"

"They showed me the past, son. They showed me Asgard's endless cycles over hundreds of millions of years. Ragnarok is not a prophecy. It is merely their game. They sit there, watching us die over and over again. They seem to... feed on it."

Loki's expression changed. He walked up to Odin in disbelief. "You never told me any of this."

"What good would telling you do? Should I tell the people of Asgard that they are nothing but a meal? Or tell you