The instant the spear appeared, the chaos in Loki's mind was swept clean beneath the glow of golden divine power.
He took a deep look at Fenris not far away. After committing that face to memory, he raised Gungnir high without hesitation.
"Boom!"
A brilliant golden light flared from the spear's tip. Powerful divine force shot straight into the sky, and a surging shockwave erupted outward with Loki at its center.
As though answering his summons, a powerful mass of energy began gathering overhead in the next moment. The clouds rotated, taking on the shape of a funnel as they enveloped Loki within.
After a shrill whistle, the Bifrost, shimmering with rainbow light, abruptly descended from the distant heavens.
Through the rainbow torrent, Loki looked toward Fenris. His bloodstained lips curved, and he silently mouthed something.
"Wait for it."
Fenris had only barely managed to withstand the outburst of the Casket of Ancient Winters in Loki's hands. After forcibly overloading his human body to use atomic breath, every inch of his skin was now radiating terrifying heat, and his throat felt as if it were about to melt.
The atomic furnace slowly calmed. Fenris had only just recovered with difficulty when he met Loki's mocking gaze. He clearly saw Loki's silent sneer.
"You can't save her."
In the next instant, the power of the Bifrost surged. Loki's figure gradually blurred in Fenris's eyes, about to carry him back to Asgard.
At the very end, Loki even waved at Fenris and gave him a gentlemanly smile.
"Fenris! Don't!"
Although Fenris had blocked ninety percent of the impact just now, the remaining force was still not to be underestimated. Emma was lying weakly on the ground nearby, her entire body slowly reverting from diamond form.
She clearly saw Loki's silent provocation. When she realized Fenris had fallen silent, a bad feeling flashed through her mind. Forcing herself upright, she looked toward him.
"If you follow him, you'll die!"
"Huff—"
His peripheral vision swept past the vacant look in Wanda's eyes. Fenris gently exhaled a breath of residual heat, slowly clenched his left hand, then silently loosened it under Emma's worried gaze.
"Calm down, Fenris. We'll find a way together."
Seeing this, Emma finally breathed a sigh of relief, only to suddenly notice that Fenris's right hand had, at some unknown point, moved to the small of his back.
Her eyelid twitched. Her heart dropped hard.
"Fenris?!"
"Too late!"
Fenris clenched his teeth, his face savage, both eyes transforming into furious round pupils. Silver light flashed between the fingers of his right hand, and the small battle-axe in his palm rapidly enlarged.
"Hah!"
Under Emma's horrified gaze, Fenris's right arm swelled with a thunderous surge. The originally smooth lines of muscle abruptly bulged into abnormally massive knots of flesh.
The opportunity would vanish in an instant. The enormous battle-axe, expanded to more than three meters long, was gripped in a pair of massive hands. Fenris twisted at the waist, turned, let out a fierce shout, and hurled the axe in his hand with brutal force.
"Rumble!"
The battle-axe tore through the air, carrying overwhelming power that split the atmosphere into a cone-shaped shockwave visible to the naked eye.
Amid thunderous roars, it instantly broke the sound barrier and transformed into a blinding silver streak, flying toward Loki before he could fully ascend.
"Not good!"
The violent wind dragged along by the battle-axe slammed into Loki's face. Fenris's speed was too fast. One second, he had still been panting heavily, veins bulging across his forehead. The next, Loki saw that terrifying giant axe, twice as large as himself, crashing toward him head-on.
The cold gleam on the axe blade shone sharply before his eyes. If that thing struck him...
The lingering smugness and disdain on Loki's face suddenly froze.
In shock, his pupils contracted violently. Caught off guard, he only had time to raise Gungnir vertically in front of his chest, intending to use the spear's resilient shaft to block the blow.
A fierce gust struck. Just as Loki's eyelids were blown so hard he could no longer keep them open, a thunderous roar rang out. The Bifrost activated instantly, carrying him rapidly upward and lifting him away from the ground.
"Boom!"
The enormous battle-axe flew past Loki by the barest margin. The sharp wind blade it dragged behind swept across his skin, easily piercing the defenses of his divine body and carving out a great spray of blood.
A faint sting came from his body. As that terrifying pressure receded, Loki felt both relieved and shaken to the core.
However, just as his legs went weak and he breathed out in relief, thinking he had escaped disaster, the terrifying howl of wind suddenly came from beneath his feet again.
"What?"
Loki's entire body shuddered. He looked down in disbelief, only to see that the giant axe had actually returned. Silver light traced a beautiful arc through the air before charging straight toward him once again.
"What the hell is that thing?"
Loki's eyes flew wide as he watched the axe below grow larger and larger. It felt as though his heart had leapt into his throat.
Fortunately, the Bifrost was moving faster and faster. Even though the giant axe's speed surged repeatedly, even leaving its own sound far behind, the distance between them was ultimately pulled open beyond control.
The dangerous exchange took place in a mere instant. Those nearby could only hear sonic booms exploding one after another and see a massive streak of silver light flash by. They had no idea that in less than the blink of an eye, Loki had narrowly escaped death twice.
On the ground, seeing the battle-axe's remaining momentum gradually fade while Loki was also about to surge into the clouds and vanish, an intense blue light lit in Fenris's eyes at a speed visible to the naked eye.
His body, which had only just cooled down, once again erupted with a scorching shockwave.
"Bzz—"
Rolling heat gathered and instantly condensed into a blue-white pillar of blazing light that burst from Fenris's throat.
His body temperature soared again. Brilliant white light filled his vision, but Fenris did not look at Loki. Instead, his gaze locked firmly onto the giant axe still climbing rapidly through the sky.
The searing atomic breath arrived after the fact yet reached first. It shot from Fenris's mouth straight into the heavens, tore through the thin cloud layer, and struck the silver streak formed by the battle-axe with perfect precision.
Across the broad face of the axe, the magnificent patterns seemed to come alive under the injection of the atomic torrent, glowing with a deep blue light.
After all, this was not his complete form. After several full-force bursts, the atomic breath released from his human form had already lost its initial density. The edges of the light pillar had grown loose and mist-like.
Even so, as the energy gathered, dark blue light flowed along the cold axe blade, and low hums rose from every direction.
Finally, when the energy reached a critical point, the gorgeous yet rugged battle-axe suddenly swung, and a brilliant arc of axe light emerged from thin air.
The battle-axe's speed had already surpassed several times the speed of sound. Yet the ghostly axe light, gleaming with an ice-cold radiance that made one shudder, vanished from the air the instant it was unleashed, howling as it chased after the rainbow-colored tailstream.
"I finally got away..."
The speed of the Bifrost was beyond question, but Loki had never imagined that in the span of just a few breaths, he would hover on the edge of life and death several times in succession.
That powerful Midgardian. That monster-like powerhouse of Midgard. And that unknown, powerful artifact of his...
Watching the earth gradually recede beneath his feet, Loki saw the distant horizon take on an elegant curve as his altitude rose.
The terrifying giant axe had finally been left far behind by the Bifrost. Loki patted his chest and at last let out a breath of relief.
"Whoosh—"
Just as Loki finally relaxed, in the next instant, a scorching energy fluctuation that made his hair stand on end suddenly came from below, not far away.
"What?"
His heart abruptly sank, and the smile on his face froze at once.
(End of Chapter)
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