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Chapter 572: Ragnarok
At the end of the Bifrost, Loki sat slumped on the ground, tightly clutching the Tesseract, half of his cape scorched black by the flames.
That last fall had hit him hard.
But he hadn't let go.
The glowing blue cube was pressed tightly against his chest, the light churning inside it roaring like a living beast.
He snapped his head up, staring at the sky-obscuring cloud of deathly black blades hovering over the palace, his expression freezing for half a beat.
He originally thought that charging back with the Tesseract would guarantee a spectacular, grand entrance.
Like his father looking at him with shocked eyes.
His mother shedding tears of profound relief.
And Thor, that idiot, staring at him with utter adoration.
But he got none of that.
Everyone was just sitting here waiting to die.
Hela saw him too.
More accurately, she saw the lethally tempting Tesseract clutched in his arms.
The tyrannical fury on her face paused for a moment, shifting into a sneer of absolute contempt.
"The Space Stone."
Hela took a step forward, the black-green veins of death spreading even more wildly beneath her feet like venomous snakes.
"Loki."
"Which rat hole did you steal that from?"
Loki's face looked exceedingly ugly.
He scrambled up from the ground in a pathetic heap, violently wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, and forced out his most punchable smile.
"Sister, going straight for the low blow the second we reunite."
"Our family dynamic truly is dreadful!"
Hearing this, Thor nearly spat out a mouthful of blood.
They were standing on the absolute brink of life and death.
And this bastard was still stubbornly running his mouth!
Odin stared intently at the Tesseract, a heavy, oppressive light gleaming in his single eye.
"Loki."
"Open a portal, right now!"
Loki clutched the cube tighter and shouted back without a hint of politeness. "Father, this thing isn't just some ordinary doorknob!"
"It's the Tesseract!"
"The absolute vessel for the Space Stone!"
"It's not going to just obediently open a door for the whole city just because you yell at it!"
Gungnir erupted with a blinding golden light in Odin's hand, slamming heavily into the ground.
Golden runic magic strained against the deathly aura Hela was relentlessly pushing forward.
His voice was as heavy as a mountain.
"Then use it like a doorknob!"
The corner of Loki's mouth twitched violently.
He absolutely hated it when Odin used that undeniable tone of voice.
Because every time Odin spoke like that, it meant there was absolutely zero room for negotiation.
Kaido didn't understand a damn thing about a Space Stone, and he had no interest in trying to.
His brain had only locked onto one simple fact: that glowing blue box could save people.
Dragging his half-crippled, massive body, Kaido charged over to Loki like a rampaging beast, grabbing him by the collar and lifting him completely off the ground.
"Cut the crap!"
"If you know how to use it, hurry up and open the damn door!"
Loki's feet dangled in the air, his face instantly turning a suffocating shade of blue.
"You scale-covered, barbaric freak!"
"Do you have any idea who you're grabbing right now!?"
Kaido bared his bloodstained teeth, smiling with extreme ferocity.
"Of course I do."
"A little liar full of dirty tricks!"
Loki was so furious he wanted to scream curses.
Thor lunged forward, grabbing Kaido's wrist in an iron grip.
"Let him go!"
Kaido turned his head, glaring furiously.
"If your brother keeps dragging his feet, everyone here is going to die!"
Thor didn't argue a single word.
He just turned and stared intently at Loki.
Without Mjolnir, Thor's shoulder was still bleeding profusely, and his hands were wrapped in a violent, highly unstable lightning.
Yet, looking at his broad back standing like a mountain in front of him, Loki felt a sudden, inexplicable tightness in his chest.
Loki hated this feeling.
He hated how Thor always stood at the very front, like an insurmountable wall.
He hated even more that, hiding behind this idiot, he actually felt a damn sense of safety.
"You don't even have your hammer, and you're still acting this reckless?"
Thor didn't even turn his head as he roared back.
"Shut up!"
"Just open the door!"
Loki looked down at the Tesseract.
The violent blue light danced wildly between his fingers.
He could clearly feel the world-destroying power contained within.
This was no ordinary magic.
This was the very law of space itself.
It was the ultimate key capable of crushing endless distances into nothing.
But forcing a portal open for the entire royal city—while caught in the crossfire of Hela's Death Magic, Odin's royal runes, and the frantic tremors of Asgard's leylines—was simply not something a normal person could pull off!
Loki took a deep breath of the blood-scented air.
Then, he despairingly realized he had no choice.
Because Hela had already made her move.
The sky-covering barrage of black blades poured down like torrential rain.
Not just one blade.
Not just a hundred.
It was a curtain of death vast enough to cover the entire airspace of the royal palace.
Every single blade carried the deepest death aura of Asgard's leylines, raining down viciously toward the evacuation channel, toward Odin, and toward the Tesseract in Loki's arms!
Kaido was the first to roar and charge out.
He didn't dodge.
He couldn't dodge.
His terrifying hybrid body slammed straight into the rain of deathly blades, unleashing his dark red Conqueror's Haki without any reservation.
The black and red shockwave swept across the palace plaza with destructive force.
A massive chunk of the black blades was shattered into mist in mid-air.
But even more blades pierced ruthlessly into Kaido's shoulders, chest, abdomen, and thighs.
Sququelch!
Scalding blood sprayed wildly from the gaps in his dragon scales.
Yet Kaido continued to push forward, acting like a complete and utter lunatic.
"Hey, little liar!"
"I don't have the patience to stall her forever!"
"Hurry it the hell up!"
Looking at the blood-soaked madman, Loki cursed viciously in his heart.
This monster from the pirate world has something seriously wrong with his brain!
But because this monster threw his life on the line, the number of black blades falling toward the channel was slashed by more than half.
Thor stood in front of Loki like a god of war.
The white-blue lightning danced violently across his arms, flickering erratically.
Having just awakened his true power as the God of Thunder, he had no idea how to precisely control it yet.
But he knew exactly how to block with his life.
He threw his hands up, unleashing a violent blast of lightning that completely pulverized several black blades aimed straight for Loki.
Another black blade struck from a deviously sharp angle.
Without hesitation, Thor used the flesh and blood of his own shoulder to take the hit.
The blade viciously pierced his armor, blood rushing down his thick arm.
Loki saw it clearly.
His pale lips trembled violently.
"Thor."
Thor didn't even look back.
"Open the door!"
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