"Ugh—ptooey, ptooey, ptooey!"
"Cough, cough!"
Sif, Fandral and the other two tumbled to the ground in a heap, so dizzy they didn't even have the strength to stand.
"Where… where are we?" asked Volstagg, who looked like a wine barrel.
"Heavenly Palace? Jotunheim?" Hogun pressed a hand to his forehead; only after a moment did he remember. "Ah, right—we're in Midgard!"
"We have to find Thor and make him go back and stop Loki's nonsense!"
The Asgardian Four came back to their senses, only to fall into fresh confusion—
"What happened to us?"
"Did the Bifrost Bridge malfunction?"
"Sif, did you botch the sequence when you controlled the Bifrost?" Fandral struggled to his feet.
They'd been falling for nearly twenty days straight; luckily they were Asgardians, their bodies far beyond mortal limits, or they'd have starved long ago.
Even so, their stamina was almost gone.
Sif denied it at once. "No way—I watched my brother operate it loads of times!"
Her brother was Heimdall, gatekeeper of Asgard.
Of course, why a white woman's big brother is black isn't a question worth digging into.
Just then a Portal opened and Fang Yuan stepped out.
All four flinched at the sight of those sparking rings—they already had PTSD from the thing.
Then they realized: the mastermind behind it all was Fang Yuan!
Gritting their teeth, Sif and the others forced themselves up, ready to fight.
But their wary faces turned to joy when a figure walked out behind Fang Yuan—
"Thor!"
Sif's group rushed over, still so weak that the portly Volstagg even tripped.
"Sif!"
"Volstagg!"
"Fandral!"
"Hogun!"
Thor beamed, arms wide. "Haha, my friends!"
Seeing how drained they looked, he grew puzzled. "What's happened? Has Asgard gone to war? Or have you all been banished too?"
"Neither," Sif said, glaring daggers at Fang Yuan. "We arrived over half a month ago, but his spell trapped us until now."
"Huh? Fang?"
Thor looked surprised, then quickly said, "Fang is my sworn brother—this has to be a misunderstanding!"
Sif and the others were dumbstruck.
The accused hadn't even spoken, yet Thor was already defending him?
Fang Yuan chuckled inwardly—such was the power of [Super-Hero Maker]; Thor's trust in him was maxed out.
"A-hem."
Fang Yuan cleared his throat and offered an explanation.
"I'd just confronted Loki; he threatened to conquer Earth. When I sensed you arriving, I thought you were invaders he'd sent." He spun the tale with a straight face.
Yet Sif's party bought it—they caught the keyword.
"Loki?"
"Damn it, he's been here!"
"No wonder—we were dragged down by him!"
Even sharp-witted Fandral accepted the excuse; that said everything about Loki's reputation among them.
Only Thor was still in the dark. "What's wrong with Loki?"
"You don't know?" Sif hurried to explain. "Loki is now king of Asgard."
Thor nodded. "I know—after Father died, Asgard had to be left in Loki's care."
"What?"
The quartet realized Thor had—once again—been duped by Loki and quickly set the record straight.
"No, Thor, your father isn't dead…"
Then they recounted everything Loki had done.
They hadn't known about his secret schemes, like colluding with the Frost Giants, but the moment they described Asgard's current state Thor realized Loki was up to something big.
Something huge!
"I must return to Asgard!" Thor decided on the spot. "If Loki truly intends some terrible deed, I'll stop him!"
Loki heard every word of it.
Wielding Odin's Eternal Spear, he could tap part of the All-Father's authority—most of which he used to spy on his brother.
"Damn it—I've done my best; why won't you accept me as king?" Loki snarled, clutching the Eternal Spear.
Unlike the original plot, Loki hadn't tried to lure Frost Giant King Laufey in, planning to have him assassinate Odin only to betray and kill Laufey himself.
And the reason? Fang Yuan, of course.
At their first meeting Fang Yuan had exposed his plan, making Loki extra cautious.
If he killed Laufey and Fang Yuan simply revealed the truth, all his schemes would collapse.
Better, then, to keep Laufey alive—as Fang Yuan had suggested.
Not that Loki was giving himself an escape route; he merely wanted to see if Laufey had other uses.
For the past fortnight Loki had been "governing with diligence" in Asgard.
Since killing Laufey to win hearts wasn't going to work, he would simply show the Asgardians his talent for governance and prove that he, Loki, was far more capable than Thor.
But Loki ran into a major setback.
Though he'd done his best to coordinate the kingdom's affairs—both civil and political—handling everything in perfect order and displaying governance skills infinitely superior to Thor's, the Asgardians clearly still favored Thor!
To show he wasn't out to purge Thor's supporters, Loki generously refrained from stripping Heimdall of his post as Gatekeeper.
And because Loki abandoned the plot to let Laufey into Asgard, Heimdall stayed his hand, never drawing arms against Loki as fate had once decreed.
"Asgard reveres might," Heimdall said succinctly.
Loki felt utterly wronged—after all his effort, he still couldn't measure up to Thor swinging his hammer around a couple of times?
Yet Loki had no intention of giving up. He was king now, and no one would drag him off the throne!
Kill Thor?
That would indeed remove a threat, but Loki didn't actually want to go that far.
He loved stabbing Thor—always from behind—but he'd never planned to truly kill him.
From the start, all Loki wanted was to be regarded as an equal.
Stabbing Thor was simply to show that even the God of Thunder could be hurt by him—that he was formidable too.
Pity everyone only saw his trickster side.
As for the rest, Loki simply didn't care.
Take the Asgardian Four: Sif and the others were Thor's companions, yet they'd always treated Loki poorly.
Of course, Loki himself bore much of the blame.
So Loki quickly conceived a new plan.
"Yes—Asgard reveres might," he remarked, then grinned at Heimdall. "Which is why you need a wise king to rule!"
A casket of icy aura suddenly appeared in Loki's hand, releasing endless cold that flash-froze the unprepared Heimdall.
Thor had only one route back to Asgard: the Bifrost Bridge.
Naturally, Loki intended to seal that path ahead of him.
Then he could proceed to the next phase.
"Next, Loki will send the Destroyer to eliminate the man threatening his throne, right?"
On Earth, Fang Yuan was running his own calculations.
"I'll lure the Destroyer to the edge of a major city and have the Ancient One make a perfect debut in front of the whole World," he mused gleefully.
What?
Thor still can't return to Asgard?
Relax—Odin's got it covered.
He deliberately kept Loki from killing Laufey to buy time; had Loki really slain the Frost Giant king, he might have secured his claim to the throne.
Eliminating their eternal foe—the Frost Giants—was something even Thor had never achieved.
But altered plots always push characters toward different choices; this time Loki was clearly thinking further ahead.
The Frost Giant realm—Jotunheim.
The so-called Nine Realms are simply nine different Planets.
Loki met Jotunheim's Planet Chief, Laufey.
His biological father.
"So the one who earlier smuggled our people into Asgard to wreck Thor's coronation was you."
Laufey found it highly amusing.
"For power? Interesting."
Laufey hadn't realized Loki was his son.
"As long as I secure the throne of Asgard, I'll return Jotunheim's sacred relic—the casket of ancient winters!" Loki declared.
"A fine bargain. What do you want us to do?" Laufey wouldn't refuse. "Kill Odin?"
"No."
Loki shook his head and used magic to project Fang Yuan's image.
"I want you to go to Midgard and kill this man!"
Laufey was puzzled: to secure his kingship, Loki targeted neither Odin nor Thor, but an unrelated Earthling?
"Who is he?"
"Fang Yuan—an Earth Mage," Loki said bitterly. "He knows our connection; if he tells anyone, our deal collapses!"
Laufey's face darkened at once. The casket of ancient winters, the Frost Giants' sacred relic, had been seized by Odin over a thousand years ago; he would let nothing stand in the way of its return.
"Good. I'll lead a Frost Giant host to Midgard and reclaim the World that should have been ruled by Jotunheim a millennium ago!" Laufey confirmed.
"Thor is there too—beware if they join forces!" Loki "helpfully" warned.
Laufey was unconcerned. "I blinded Odin in one eye; his son will fare no better!"
"Let us hope so!"
Loki smiled.
But the thoughts he kept to himself were another matter.
"Once the Frost Giants kill Fang Yuan, I'll lead Asgard's armies to wipe them out—eliminating the threat and earning great merit in one stroke!"
"The situation remains firmly in my grasp—hahaha!
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