"How dare you talk to me like that!"
Bant's single sentence lit Loki's fury on fire. The way Loki looked at Bant was like flames were burning in his eyes, and his body trembled uncontrollably from rage.
Having just learned he wasn't actually an Asgardian, Loki was at his most sensitive about his identity. Even the slightest "different" look from someone could make him suspicious.
And Bant had gone straight for the throat, right to his face.
Loki snapped on the spot.
But the four Asgardian warriors who arrived right behind Bant couldn't figure out why Loki's mentality had collapsed so hard.
To be fair, calling an Asgardian a Jotunheim native was definitely insulting, but did it really warrant this level of breakdown?
Sure enough, lies don't hurt people. The truth is the sharpest blade.
When two people trade insults, the first one to lose control is the one who actually got stabbed.
Bant didn't care about Loki's abuse at all. After all, his true self was an Earthling. But Loki was different. He really was a Frost Giant.
At this moment, Loki had already sentenced Bant to death.
"I don't care where you crawled out from, but today, all of you die!"
Loki was arrogant, but Bant wasn't angry.
He thought Loki was great. First, he delivered the Destroyer as a "greeting gift." Now he'd even brought the treasure that was the Casket of Ancient Winters.
What a wonderful comrade!
You could tell at a glance that Comrade Loki really wanted to make progress!
That's right. Bant had already decided the Casket of Ancient Winters in Loki's hand was his too.
Such a fine treasure. It practically screamed that it was custom-made for his Frost Giant. Comrade Loki had really gone to the trouble!
If Bant didn't accept it, wouldn't that be rejecting Loki's sincere kindness?
That would be so embarrassing!
Off to the side, Steve looked at the situation and slightly short-circuited. "Sorry, but who are you guys?"
He'd already noticed the Tiangong Association emblem on Bant, but he had no idea who the four newly arrived Asgardian warriors were.
These four looked like barbarians. Their clothes looked older than his dad by several hundred years. Standing next to them, Captain America felt so fresh-faced he might as well be a rookie pretty boy.
"Asgardians. They're here to help that big idiot," Bant explained on their behalf, then added, "Four-Armed Overlord has other tasks. I'm filling in. Just call me the Diamond War God."
Steve thought they were on the same side and was about to greet them, but the hot-tempered Fandral was the first to go after him.
"Mortal, put down Thor's hammer. That is not something you have the right to touch."
"Enough! You dare ignore me!"
Steve was about to say something, but Loki clearly had no interest in being treated like background noise. He roared in rage, pouring divine power into the Casket of Ancient Winters.
A stream of extreme cold burst from that small box. In an instant, a frigid wind swept across several kilometers, and snow and ice spread like a white curtain!
Crack!
In the blink of an eye, everything froze.
In a daze, Steve felt like he'd been thrown back into the frozen sea that kept him imprisoned for seventy years. The bone-piercing cold made his body tremble.
The four Asgardian warriors trembled too.
Their physiques allowed them to move freely on Jotunheim without being affected, but the cold released by the Casket of Ancient Winters was even colder than Jotunheim itself!
Almost instantly, a thin layer of frost covered their bodies.
At the same time, Loki's skin was affected by the Casket as well. He could no longer maintain his original appearance, and it turned blue.
"Loki, your skin!"
In the howling wind, Hogun shouted in shock, "You're a Frost Giant!"
They had just caused havoc on Jotunheim not long ago. How could they not recognize the Frost Giants' skin color?
But even in their dreams, they never would have imagined that Loki, who'd grown up alongside them since childhood, was actually a Frost Giant.
Loki offered no explanation. His gaze only became colder.
If he still had a trace of compassion for Odin and Thor, then for the other Asgardians, he didn't share that depth of feeling.
"Today, all of you will die!"
His skin had turned completely blue now. That terrifying cold current instantly dragged the scorching New Mexico desert down to an extreme low temperature!
Forget the Warriors Three. Even Steve, who held the power of Thor, felt his blood freeze in that moment, as if his body would shatter the second he moved.
"Freeze completely!"
He pushed the Casket of Ancient Winters to its absolute limit. A horrifying white storm erupted from the Casket as the origin point and expanded outward without end. In an instant, the entire world became a vast field of blinding white!
Loki threw his head back and laughed, as if he could already see Earth sealed into an endless ice age!
However, the very next moment, a jade-green hand tore through the freezing gale and grabbed the Casket of Ancient Winters directly!
"What?"
Loki lifted his head in horror and met Bant's golden pupils head-on.
"Sorry," Bant said calmly. "Temperature doesn't work on me."
When Loki pulled out the Casket, Bant had actually been thinking that this was the perfect time to turn into a flame-type form. But in front of others, especially Steve, he didn't plan to switch forms.
Now it seemed the Diamond War God was a pretty good choice too.
As a silicon-based lifeform, temperature, especially low temperature, had a negligible effect on the Diamond War God.
There wasn't even any blood in his body to freeze. And New Mexico didn't have enough moisture for Loki to create thick ice on the surface of his body.
So in Bant's eyes, this divine artifact that could drag Earth into a glacial world was basically harmless.
If the Casket kept releasing power for long enough, it might even spawn some ice and snow monsters. But now, Loki had barely unleashed it before Bant interrupted him.
"Loki, Loki. If you were coming, why bring a gift? Honestly."
Loki was still stunned, as if he hadn't processed what Bant meant. The next second, Bant yanked with one hand and ripped the Casket of Ancient Winters straight out of Loki's grasp.
"Hand it over!"
Loki: ???
Then he watched Bant manipulate his own molecular structure, hollowing out his chest area into a safe, and stuffing the Casket inside.
The Casket of Ancient Winters, acquired!
Loki was completely dumbfounded.
He never would have imagined a Midgardian could be this shameless and pull something like this.
He'd traveled all the way to Earth, intending to conquer Midgard, and somehow he'd ended up delivering equipment instead. How was he supposed to accept that?
Loki's mentality shattered completely.
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