Loki's skill with illusions was beyond question. Especially after living through an apocalyptic scene like Ragnarök, his understanding of the cosmic had reached a new level, and that was very important for a spellcaster.
Warriors often relied on the strength of youth, but for spellcasters, experience and worldly knowledge were often more important than the number of spells they had mastered.
Some people could only use a tiny magical flame to light a cigarette, while others could use the exact same flame to illuminate an entire planet. That was the difference. Magic was, after all, a technique for using energy to alter reality through thought.
After Ragnarök, the Aesir had nearly perished, and Yggdrasil had entered a new cycle as well.
But it had merely been reborn; it had not kicked the bucket. Its authority as an ancient god remained, and according to its agreement with Deathstroke, the tree would no longer use the Aesir as firewood.
Deathstroke could even find ways to avoid the Multiversity caused by the changing of the Firmaments, so a minor cycle in Yggdrasil's system was nothing by comparison.
Since there would be no next cycle and no next Ragnarök, Loki had been able to feel that Yggdrasil had given the few survivors more attention and preferential treatment lately. It seemed like some sort of compensation.
In the past, he had been nearly incapable of borrowing power from Yggdrasil, but things were different now. He could borrow at least a little, which was a tremendous leap from nothing to something.
The main point was that he did not need to pay much of a price. Perhaps the price had already been paid through other means, like the zombie corpses Deathstroke kept sending people to toss into the tree pit?
People planted trees for timber or