"I'll hold it off. Run!"
The Seraph seemed enraged. Beams erupted from its thousand eyes, sweeping across the landscape and slicing the distant mountains into fragments.
Loki struggled within the barrage, yet still did not forget to tell Odin to flee.
Odin stood there dumbfounded, unsure whether he was still trapped in an illusion.
Yet the sight before him was so familiar.
It was like that battle against the mountain giant Thjazi centuries ago. Surrounded by the Vanir, he had been trapped—until this man had suddenly appeared, killed Thjazi, and saved him.
Loki.
His savior, his brother, Asgard's disaster, the god of mischief, the god of lies—
He had been the one to offer up the Ring of the Nibelung.
And much evidence proved that he had been the mastermind behind Ragnarok.
It had also been him who had told Odin about the use of Rhinegold.
That very information had led him into this deadly predicament.
And yet—he had appeared again.
Why?
What exactly did he want?
If he was truly trustworthy, how could he have brought about so many disasters?
But if this was a conspiracy, all he had to do was watch from afar, and Odin would surely die.
"Odin! What are you standing around for?! Run! Do you want to die here?!"
Loki roared, but that moment of distraction allowed a beam to strike him, instantly blasting a massive hole through his abdomen.
His body jolted, and dozens more beams immediately condensed into a single barrage and shot toward him.
But at that moment, a spear pierced the Seraph's back with a wet crack, knocking its body sideways. All those beams missed their target and vaporized an entire distant mountain.
Odin caught the returning Gungnir and came to Loki's side. "How are you?"
"I'm not dead yet.