A/N: Stand proud. You all are strong bullies đ
---
The Barren Lands exploded with a blur.
One moment Hinata Sakaguchi stood at the front of the formation, sword drawn, eyes locked on the maroon-suited demon ahead.
The nextâ
Loki was gone.
Hinata's eyes widened.
Too late.
A hand caught her by the face.
And thenâ
BOOOOM.
The earth vanished beneath her.
Loki slammed her head-first into the ground with enough force to crater the wasteland in an instant. Dust and shattered stone erupted upward in a violent ring as the shockwave tore across the battlefield.
For half a secondâ
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
Then Loki stood in the center of the crater, one hand still pressed lightly atop Hinata's head as if he had merely nudged her down for being rude.
He looked up.
And smiled.
"Ah."
His voice was almost cheerful.
"So this is the mighty Commander of the Saints?"
He tilted his head.
"How disappointing."
The Saints moved as one.
"Commander!"
Leonard was first.
He surged forward, blade drawn, Arnaud at his side. Bacchus and Garde split wide to flank, while Litus and Fritz moved in from the rear. Glenda, Grigori, and Saare immediately began shifting for pressure angles, each already reading the field and adjusting.
It was good teamwork.
Fast and disciplined.
The sort of formation built through years of fighting side by side.
Loki laughed.
"Good!"
He removed his hand from Hinata's head and stepped back just as Leonard's blade cut down through the air.
SHINGâ!
It missed.
Loki was already behind him.
Leonard's eyes widened.
Loki placed a hand against his back.
"Gravity Collapse."
The air caved in.
KRAAAAACK.
Leonard was driven straight into the ground so hard the earth beneath him folded inward. Before Arnaud could even reach them, Loki spun, his heel slamming into the side of Arnaud's ribs.
THUD, BOOM.
Arnaud flew across the battlefield and smashed through a jagged stone ridge.
Bacchus roared and came in next, fist wrapped in holy energy.
Loki met him with a grin.
"Much better."
Bacchus swung.
Loki ducked under it.
Bacchus swung again.
Loki weaved.
A third strike.
A fourth.
Then Loki stepped inside his guard and drove two fingers into Bacchus' chest.
"Down."
Gravity spiked.
Bacchus crashed face-first into the earth with a wet, brutal impact.
BOOOOM.
Dust swallowed him.
Confidence vanished from the formation in an instant.
This wasn't combat.
This was slaughter.
Garde and Fritz hit him together from opposite sides.
Garde's blade came low.
Fritz's spear high.
Loki clapped once.
CLAP.
The space around him distorted.
Both weapons bent off course as a localized gravity field twisted their trajectories. Garde's strike carved harmlessly into the dirt. Fritz's spear was dragged downward so violently it nearly ripped from his grip.
Loki seized that opening and drove an elbow into Fritz's jaw.
KRAK.
Then he backhanded Garde across the face with enough force to spin him off his feet.
Both men dropped.
Litus and Glenda came next.
Glenda's spellwork exploded across the field in arcs of light while Litus moved under the cover, fast and low, blade angled for a killing cut.
Loki raised one hand.
Several black motes of energy gathered.
Then split.
Then took shape.
Clones.
Five of them.
Each one wearing his face.
The battlefield shifted instantly.
Two met Glenda's barrage head-on, cutting through the magic with mocking ease. One intercepted Litus. Another rushed Saare. The fifth simply stood still and waved.
The real Loki remained where he was, laughing softly.
"There we are."
"Now it feels fair."
Litus struck first.
His blade cut through one clone's neck.
The body dissolved immediately into shadow.
His eyes widened.
A second clone appeared at his side and drove a knee into his stomach.
THUD.
A third hit him in the back before he even bent forward.
Litus coughed blood and dropped to one knee.
Meanwhile, Glenda destroyed two more clones with a precise burst of holy lightâ
Only to realize too late that the real Loki had already appeared in front of her.
He leaned down slightly, looking directly into her eyes.
"You're one of the smart ones."
Glenda's body moved on instinct, hand already lifting another spell.
Loki flicked her forehead.
TOK.
The resulting shockwave blasted her backward across the wasteland.
She hit the ground and skidded until she crashed into Grigori, taking them both out of the fight for the moment.
Saare clicked his tongue, launched himself forward, and cut through another clone in one clean slash.
He didn't stop moving.
Didn't hesitate.
Good instincts.
Loki noticed.
And smiled wider.
"Ah."
"So you've grown stronger since the last time we met."
Saare swung again.
This time the real Loki caught the blade between two fingers.
Saare's eyes widened.
Loki looked at the sword curiously.
Then at Saare.
Then he laughed.
"You came here with this?"
He twisted.
The blade snapped in half.
KRIK.
Saare immediately abandoned it and drove a fist at Loki's throat.
That at least made Loki's grin sharpen.
He caught Saare's fist.
Then his other hand rose.
Black light gathered.
And from itâ
A katana formed.
A long, clean and beautiful katana.
Saare had just enough time to register the shape before Loki drew it in one smooth motion.
SHIIIIING.
The flat of the blade struck Saare across the chest.
The impact sent him flying like he had been hit by a siege weapon.
He bounced once.
Twice.
Then rolled to a stop, blood spilling from his mouth.
Grigori and Leonard tried to reestablish formation.
Hinata was still dragging herself up from the crater, blood running down the side of her face. Her eyes were clear, but only barely. She had regained enough awareness to see what was happening.
What had happened.
The entire front line had been erased in seconds.
'Too fast.'
That was the first thought.
'Far too fast.'
Then a second.
'This is what a real Primordial looks like.'
Loki turned the katana lazily in one hand.
The clones vanished.
He no longer needed them.
"You answered my challenge."
He looked around at the battered Saints.
"And this was your answer?"
His voice rose slightly.
"I expected fury."
"I expected desperation."
"I expected faith."
He took a step forward.
The ground bent under his feet from the weight of his magic.
"What I gotâŠ"
A second step.
"âŠwas mediocrity."
Hinata finally forced herself fully upright.
Her sword came back up.
Her stance was imperfect.
Blood ran down her temple.
But she raised it anyway.
Loki noticed her and laughed.
"There she is."
"The little commander rises again."
Hinata vanished.
This time she moved first.
Her sword flashed toward his throat.
Loki met it with the katana.
SHING.
The sound rang out like a bell.
Hinata twisted immediately, pivoted, and attacked again from a new angle. This one aimed lower. Loki turned, blocked, and struck back in the same motion.
Hinata barely caught that one.
Then another.
And another.
Their blades flashed across the wasteland in a violent exchange of silver and black.
For one brief momentâ
The Saints saw it.
Their commander keeping up.
Holding her own.
Fighting the monster directly.
Hope flickered.
Then Loki smiled.
And the exchange ended.
He stepped inside her guard.
Too fast.
His free hand caught her wrist.
The katana pressed against her shoulder.
Thenâ
"Fall."
Gravity detonated downward.
Hinata's knees hit first.
BOOOM.
The ground collapsed beneath her again, forcing her into the crater as blood sprayed from her mouth.
The hope died instantly.
Loki stepped over the edge of the crater and looked down at her.
His eyes gleamed.
"If you had challenged me six months from nowâŠ"
He tilted his head.
"âŠperhaps this would have been amusing."
Then he turned away from her.
That hurt more than the blow.
That dismissal.
That certainty.
He no longer even saw her as worth finishing.
Bacchus dragged himself up and roared, charging again with blood running down his face.
Garde followed.
Fritz too.
Pure instinct.
Pure refusal.
Loki sighed.
Then he laughed again.
"Yes."
"There it is."
He moved.
And this time the Saints barely saw anything at all.
A blur.
A crack.
A line of black force.
Gravity pulsing in perfect rhythm with every step.
Bacchus was folded over by a strike to the gut.
Garde's legs were swept from under him by a low kick that shattered the rock beneath them.
Fritz's shoulder exploded with pain as the flat of the katana hammered into him.
One after another.
No mercy.
No resistance worth naming.
Glenda tried to cast one more long-range spell.
Loki turned, extended one hand, and increased the weight around her body so violently she was driven to the ground mid-chant.
Grigori moved to shield her.
Loki rewarded that loyalty with a punch to the sternum that sent him crashing unconscious across the dirt.
Litus tried to rise again.
A clone appeared behind him and kicked him back down.
Saare coughed blood and forced himself to one knee.
Loki looked at him, almost approving.
Then struck him down again.
At the end of itâ
Silence.
Broken only by wind.
And breathing.
The Ten Great Saints lay across the wasteland in varying degrees of defeat.
Bruised.
Broken.
Bleeding.
Loki stood in the middle of them.
Not a scratch on him.
The katana in his hand dissolved into shadow.
He looked upward.
Then around.
Then spread his arms slowly.
"Look well."
His voice carried across the plain like a dark sermon.
"This is the difference."
"Between men and monsters, between conviction and power, between saints and the God of Demons."
No one answered him.
Hinata lay half-upright in the ruined earth, sword still clutched in one trembling hand.
Her vision was blurred.
Her whole body screamed.
And yetâ
She could still see him.
Standing there.
'A monster.'
No.
That word felt too small now.
Too ordinary.
What they had come here to challenge was not simply a Primordial Demon.
It was something else.
Something that wore demonhood like a crown.
Something that laughed in the face of teamwork, courage, and resolve.
Something that had humiliated all ten of them without ever needing to truly struggle.
Loki lowered his arms and smiled down at them all.
"Now then."
His voice softened.
Mockingly gentle.
"Would anyone like to stand up again?"
---
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