Fiery flames swallowed the entire place.
The moment the inferno was about to reach him, Garfield calmly raised a paw and snapped his fingers.
A pale-golden magic barrier bloomed outward. The fire slammed into it and stopped.
The shield didn't only block the flames, it also sealed Loki outside, locking him inside the blazing sea.
Inside the firestorm, Loki's invisible face instantly darkened.
"Orange cat." He snapped. "Open the door."
Garfield blinked, genuinely puzzled. "Door? Where exactly is that door?"
Loki: "..."
The flames closed in.
Garfield casually plucked a handful of grapes from the table and tossed them into his mouth. Fresh and sweet.
Kumatarō leaned closer, worry written all over his face. "Master… will that fawn be burned to death?"
"Yeah. What if he actually dies?" Kumajirō scratched his head.
"Don't worry." Garfield reclined deeper into his chair.
"He's the prince of Asgard. If he could die from something like this, he'd have perished in some forgotten corner of the universe long ago."
He waved a paw dismissively. "At worst, he'll be frightened."
And Garfield was correct.
As the second prince of Asgard and a member of the Frost Giant royal bloodline, Loki possessed formidable natural resistance to fire.
More importantly, he was a high-tier magician with immense mana reserves.
If something as mundane as flames could kill him, it would be the greatest joke in the cosmos.
After all, even ordinary Asgardian blacksmiths feared fire no more than a warm breeze.
The instant Loki realized he was sealed inside, he began chanting under his breath.
A light-blue magical shield flared to life around him, stabilizing instantly and resisting Izuna's Fire Release.
Thirty-five seconds passed.
Then a minute.
Then five.
Loki miscalculated one thing. This was not a fire meant to burn out in a minute or two.
For ten full minutes, the flames continued to roar… no sign of weakening.
Maintaining his shield inside the inferno, Loki frowned.
Tch. He's strong. Where did this vile orange cat even find someone like this?
More troubling still, Loki could feel it now. The two large men standing behind Garfield, both sporting cat-like whiskers, possessed combat strength that was anything but trivial.
These opponents were dangerous in a different way.
Izuna carefully regulated his chakra output, sustaining Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation without fluctuation.
Twenty full minutes.
He could feel Loki was still standing within the flames. Completely intact.
Should I continue?
After a brief pause, Izuna chose to stop. At the exact moment he prepared to withdraw~
Loki began chanting again. This time, the spell was ice.
The light-blue shield surrounding him deepened into a dark, crystalline blue. A surge of frost exploded outward, centered on Loki himself.
In an instant…
Flames froze, and the inferno drowned beneath frost. The firestorm collapsed violently.
The moment Izuna sensed his technique breaking, he vanished.
A heartbeat later, an ice spear tore through the spot where he had been standing.
The rooftop was pierced clean through.
Debris exploded outward, fragments scattering across the place, only to be harmlessly deflected by Garfield's golden shield.
The flames died.
Loki stepped forward from the dissipating frost.
Garfield glanced at him, squinting slightly. "…Why did you turn into a blue mouse?"
"…?!" Loki looked down at his hands.
They were pale blue. Frost Giant blue.
His eyes widened, and in the next instant, the color drained away, his skin returning to its normal human tone.
Loki stared at his hands, then at the frost still clinging to the ground around him.
Something was wrong.
I only released a frost halo, he thought grimly. With my level of control, there shouldn't have been backlash.
Unless…
My magic power is starting to go berserk.
This sensation had only occurred once before in Loki's life.
It was when he was a child when he first came into contact with magic. His power had spiraled out of control, flooding his body until it threatened to tear him apart.
In the end, it had been his mother, Frigga, who calmed him, and Odin himself who descended to forcibly suppress the runaway magic.
Did I lose control just now?
…Perhaps. Loki couldn't pinpoint the cause.
Garfield, however, knew exactly what was happening. Loki was on the verge of reverting to his Frost Giant form.
The orange cat who, by principle, never sought trouble, raised a paw and waved casually at him.
"Loki." Garfield asked mildly, "Do you mutate if you commit too many bad deeds?"
"…Hmph."
"I, Loki." He replied coldly, "Do not 'mutate.' This is merely magical backlash. You claim to be a mage, yet you're making a fuss over nothing."
Garfield scratched his chin, wearing a thoughtful expression.
"I see. I thought your body had finally mutated after lying and deceiving people for too long."
He nodded to himself. "But you're right. You're Asgardian royalty. Not one of those ordinary beings who rely on mutation just to survive."
Loki's expression darkened.
"I am a god." He snapped. "Not some ordinary creature. Do not lump me together with them."
Garfield's gaze sharpened. "That statement is wrong, Loki."
He leaned back slightly, his voice calm but unyielding. "What's wrong with ordinary people?"
"This universe exists because of them. The overwhelming majority of life across the cosmos are the 'ordinary' beings you look down on."
"They built civilization. They gave the universe color. They made life complicated, contradictory, and interesting."
Garfield's eyes locked onto Loki. "And what about you?"
"For thousands of years, you've hidden behind your brother and your father, stirring chaos from the shadows."
"How many disasters have you caused only to secure your position? How many lives have paid the price for your insecurity?"
For millennia, Loki had believed himself a god among gods.
Asgard ruled the Nine Realms. The royal family ruled Asgard. Among the so-called gods, the royal bloodline were gods in the truest sense.
Hela alone could slaughter the entire Asgardian army.
And Loki son of Laufey, Frost Giant king, possessed terrifying natural talent. Against ordinary Asgardian soldiers, he was an existence beyond comparison.
So arrogance had long since seeped into his bones.
He did not yet know the future.
He did not yet know the day he would be seized like a child and smashed into the ground by a green monster.
He still believed himself powerful.
"I am Loki Odinson." He declared arrogantly. "Prince of Asgard. Son of Odin. Guardian of the Nine Realms."
"My status was higher at birth than that of any mortal you speak of."
"I have stood beside my father since childhood, repelling invaders from countless realms. I have slain innumerable creatures across different dimensions."
"And you?"
"You are nothing more than a suddenly appearing orange cat. What right do you have to judge me?"
Garfield regarded him quietly. Pride was such a fragile thing.
The prouder the person, the easier they were to shatter, especially with truths that came from unexpected angles.
Garfield narrowed his eyes and pointed at Loki. "So tell me, dear Loki Odinson. Son of Odin. Guardian of Asgard."
"Do you know… that you will never be the true king of Asgard?"
The color drained from Loki's face.
His eyes reddened, blood-red, like Laufey's. A dagger formed in his hand.
He stared at Garfield with undisguised hatred.
"Explain yourself." Loki hissed. "If you cannot convince me… I will let you see blood tonight."
꧁𓊈𒆜༺⚜༻𒆜𓊉꧂
PhantomDream