Elbaf, Underworld.
The wind and snow were like blades, carving through this eternally frozen wasteland that the Giants regarded as forbidden ground.
Coniferous forests hundreds of meters tall wore thick armor of Ice, letting out mournful wails amid the howling gale.
Farther away, gray-white mountain ranges stretched to the end of sight like the backs of sleeping beasts.
"Dogahahaha! Don't disappoint me, little human!"
A deafening laugh tore through the wind and snow, its sound waves kicking up rings of snowy mist. Loki raised his warhammer high, and as he laughed wildly, the hammerhead carried a suffocatingly fierce gale as it smashed ruthlessly toward the tiny figure below.
Before the hammer even arrived, the wind pressure had already forcibly flattened the snow within dozens of meters below, exposing black frozen earth as hard as iron and stone.
Boom!
At the point where the warhammer landed, the snowfield within several thousand meters collapsed downward as if trampled by a giant god. A visible ring-shaped shockwave exploded outward, clearing away the snow and exposing the dark frozen ground below, where fine cracks spread like a spiderweb.
The gigantic ferocious beasts that survived off the Underworld's unique environment within several miles let out terrified whimpers and fled for their lives on instinct, smashing through clusters of Ice pillars.
Yet amid the swirling snow and dust, there was no sign of the target.
Loki's snake-like pupils contracted sharply as he unleashed his Observation Haki to its fullest, searching for that vanished figure.
"Decent power, but you're a little slow."
The voice came from beside him.
Loki looked up to see Dawn somehow already in midair, positioned precisely within the opening exposed in his chest and abdomen after his warhammer strike. Dawn's demonic blade, flowing with Armament Haki, carved a deadly arc through the pale