Chapter 278: So — Care to Hand Over Your Treasures?
Loki frowned down at the crowd below, utterly frozen in place, apparently thoroughly cowed.
"I said, kneel!" His voice rang out through the still air, flat and imperious.
His gaze carried open contempt, as though he were looking down on nothing more than a swarm of insignificant ants.
The moment he spoke, Loki's figure vanished from where he stood — replaced by dozens of duplicates, which swept out to surround the crowd in an instant.
These ordinary people had never seen anything like it. Terror spread across their faces, and they stood frozen, utterly at a loss.
Caught between losing their lives and losing their dignity, they hesitated.
Then the first one dropped to one knee — and the rest followed, one after another, like dominoes falling in sequence.
Knee after knee struck the ground with a dull, heavy thud, as if the whole crowd were surrendering to Loki all at once.
Loki watched the scene unfold with visible satisfaction, a smug smile curling at the corner of his mouth.
He spread his arms wide, as if embracing his own victory.
"Wasn't that simple?" he sneered, contempt dripping from every word. "Isn't this exactly how you were always meant to live?"
Behind him, Kaito Kumon pulled a face, watching Loki's edgelord posturing with open distaste.
He honestly couldn't understand why Loki kept getting off on bullying the weak like this — as far as Kaito was concerned, that was exactly the kind of thing weak people did. Did getting chewed out by Thanos and his crew a minute ago put him in the mood to go feel powerful in front of some random mortals?
Wasting time here is a lot less useful than going and finding this "Ethan Cross" guy.
Loki seemed to genuinely relish being surrounded by all that human fear. He strolled along, delivering his own little speech, his tone growing more and more impassioned, as if narrating his own greatness and glory.
Every word dripped with mockery and disdain for humanity — as far as he was concerned, these ordinary people amounted to nothing at all.
Just as he was really getting into his speech, he suddenly turned his head — and the smile froze on his face instantly.
Because there, in the distance, stood two people who hadn't knelt at all. They stood exactly where they were, unmoving — and one of them, a man, was watching him with an expression halfway between a smile and a smirk. Worse still, Loki actually recognized this man.
Ethan Cross.
A man Loki both hated and feared in equal measure.
Ethan was, in fact, the only person Loki knew on all of Earth — and he hadn't expected to run into him quite this fast. Watching Ethan stand there looking so completely at ease only made the fury already boiling in Loki's chest harder to contain.
He thought of everything he'd been forced to give up because of this man — fleeing Asgard, running from place to place ever since — while Ethan got to live out his days on Earth in perfect comfort. The unfairness of it burned through him.
"Hello, Loki. Been a while." Ethan's voice broke through Loki's brooding. He'd noticed, naturally, that Loki had spotted him.
"When did you get here, you bastard!" Loki demanded, hostility and irritation thick in every word.
"Somewhere around 'isn't this exactly how you were always meant to live,'" Ethan replied evenly, entirely unbothered by Loki's tone.
As it happened, Ethan had been out on his date with Wanda when his Observation Haki picked up on Loki's presence nearby, and he'd decided to swing by and take a look. He hadn't bothered with a portal — just walked over on foot.
When he'd arrived and found Loki mid-speech in front of a crowd of civilians, he hadn't interrupted. Instead he'd simply stood off to the side and watched.
He found the whole performance rather entertaining — like watching a pyramid-scheme cult leader work a crowd.
"Honestly, you'd crush it in multi-level marketing. Why settle for king? Kings don't have half the earning potential of a good MLM," Ethan remarked, watching the crowd of civilians still spellbound by Loki's rhetoric.
The moment he said it, Loki's expression darkened further. He felt the remark land somewhere deep and raw.
"So — couldn't manage to become King of Asgard, so you came here to crown yourself instead?" Ethan continued, clearly enjoying every second of watching Loki's composure crack.
"You damned bastard — this is all because of you! If it weren't for you, I never would have fallen this far! Why did you even have to go and back that fool Thor!" Loki finally snapped, his voice thick with fury and resentment, teeth clenched.
Hearing this, Kaito — who'd been hanging back quietly observing — couldn't resist drifting closer.
He'd looked half-asleep with boredom a moment ago, but the second he heard the name "Ethan," he perked right up.
He looked Ethan over the way a man eyes a treasure chest, as if trying to spot whatever it was that made him special.
"So you're Ethan Cross, huh?" Kaito asked, curiosity plain on his face.
"That's right. Kaito Kumon — nice to finally meet you." Ethan had already clocked Kaito's presence a moment earlier and didn't seem the least bit surprised by it.
Figured as much — if Tsukasa showed up, there was no way Kaito wasn't going to turn up eventually too, Ethan mused privately, sizing up the man reputed to be the strongest sub-Rider in the whole Kamen Rider lineup, even as Kaito was sizing him up right back.
"Oh? You know who I am? Guess that means you've already met Tsukasa," Kaito said. His first assumption, on hearing someone identify him by name on sight, was that Ethan must already know Tsukasa — since nobody else on this world had any reason to know who he was.
Tsukasa and this guy really are close, huh — makes sense, given Tsukasa's basically married to this, Ethan thought to himself, then immediately regretted the thought. That stocking-obsessed weirdo's probably nothing more than the side piece compared to Kaito. One of them had joined the Illuminati; the other had straight-up left Earth to go gallivanting around the cosmos with Loki of all people. Perfect match, honestly, the two of them.
Beside them, Loki — who'd been fuming a moment earlier — watched Ethan and Kaito chatting away like old acquaintances and suddenly felt thoroughly played. "You're working with Ethan?!" he demanded of Kaito, suspicion sharp in his voice.
"Whoa, whoa, no, no — this is actually our first time meeting too. Right, Ethan?" Kaito said, entirely unbothered by the murderous look Loki was giving him.
Ethan just smiled and said nothing.
Loki eyed the two of them, his expression darkening further. He already couldn't beat Ethan alone — and if Kaito joined in too, two against one left him with no chance at all. Best to make an exit, and fast.
Loki had already started thinking about retreat.
But there was no hiding a move like that from either Ethan or Kaito.
"No rush to leave just yet," Kaito said. "I really am not working with Ethan here — quite the opposite, actually. I'm very interested in Mr. Ethan's strength — and everything he's got tucked away." He raised the gun in his hand, leveling it at Ethan.
"So — care to hand over your treasures?"
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Inkshaper
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you