"What do you want?" Laufey asked, his gaze fixed heavily on Luna.
"The method to control Ymir's Heart," Luna replied, matching his directness without a second of hesitation.
"Are you joking?" Laufey frowned, a cold sense of foreboding settling in his chest. "Why would you possibly need the control method for my people's greatest treasure?"
"Do I look like I make boring jokes? I told you earlier that I was going to return the Casket of Ancient Winters to you," Luna said, batting her eyelashes with feigned innocence.
"So you are here merely to provoke me." Laufey's crimson eyes turned entirely glacial.
It was clear to him that these two intruders never had any intention of returning the artifact.
Now, they were arrogant enough to demand its secrets.
Even when Odin himself had stolen the Casket centuries ago, Laufey had never surrendered the knowledge of how to truly wield it.
Fighting an Omega-level mutant and a demigod was not Laufey's preference.
Such a clash would be catastrophic, and his people would inevitably suffer the brunt of the collateral damage.
If the two simply wanted to leave, the Frost Giants wouldn't have been able to stop them anyway.
But that didn't mean Laufey was genuinely terrified of a mere demigod.
This was Jotunheim, his absolute domain.
"Don't worry, I never said I wanted it for free," Luna said cheerfully.
She reached into a dimensional pocket hidden within the folds of her dress and began rooting around.
"Save your breath. For my people, there is absolutely nothing in this universe that can compare to the relic of our ancestors. Today, no matter the cost, Ymir's Heart remains here." Laufey let out a cold snort and slammed his massive fist against the armrest of the Frost Throne.
Instantly, the entire subterranean ice palace shook with violent intensity.
Had Ethan stepped outside, he would have realized it wasn't just the cavern shaking—it was the entire continental ice sheet.
Massive fissures tore across the tundra, revealing pairs of glowing, blood-red eyes awakening in the abyssal depths below.
On the horizon, the five colossal icebergs trembled as if ancient titans were rousing from a long slumber.
Laufey was the King of the Frost Giants and the supreme lord of the ice elements.
To fight him in Jotunheim was to wage war against the planet itself.
"Fascinating," Luna said, entirely unbothered by the apocalyptic display. She smiled with absolute confidence. "So you mean to tell me that even if I offer you the Tree of Life, we still have nothing to discuss?"
"What did you just say?"
The terrifying, oppressive aura radiating from Laufey vanished instantly.
The violent quaking of the ice sheet ceased in a fraction of a second, leaving a dead, suffocating silence in its wake.
Inside the frozen palace, Laufey stared fixedly at Luna.
When he finally spoke again, his deep voice carried a faint, undeniable tremor.
"You have a Tree of Life? That is... impossible."
"It is only a prototype," Luna clarified, finally pulling an object from her dimensional pocket. "But it shouldn't be an issue for your people to cultivate a true Tree of Life using this as a foundation."
She held up a thick, arm-length branch.
The wood was a vibrant, crystalline green that resembled flawless emerald, radiating a shockingly potent aura of pure vitality.
Ethan recognized it immediately; it was a cutting Luna had taken when she liberated the experimental Tree of Life from Hydra's hidden facility on Earth.
Laufey slowly rose from the Frost Throne.
He descended the icy steps, walking toward Luna as if caught in a trance.
His crimson eyes never once wavered from the glowing branch in her hands.
"That is it... I can feel my father's essence."
The voice that slipped from Laufey's mouth was no longer a deep, rumbling growl. It was the soft, trembling voice of a grieving woman.
Both Luna and Ethan blinked in genuine surprise.
The surrounding Frost Giant guards immediately lowered their heads, visibly moved by the raw emotion echoing in their monarch's tone.
Laufey seemed to realize the slip.
He cleared his throat sharply, and when he spoke again, the deep, abrasive masculine tone had returned. "Come with me."
Under Laufey's guidance, Ethan and Luna left the subterranean palace.
They mounted a massive Frost Beast and rode out across the tundra, heading directly toward the colossal iceberg shaped like a severed head.
Laufey ordered his guards to stay behind.
For the duration of the journey, the Frost King didn't say a single word.
However, Ethan's sharp senses picked up a distinct shift in the giant's demeanor.
The domineering, aloof aura of the ruthless monarch had completely dissipated, leaving behind an overwhelming sense of profound, lingering grief.
It didn't take long to reach the base of the mountain.
It was undeniably the petrified remnants of Ymir's head.
Laufey stared up at the macabre monument with sorrowful eyes before silently leading them into a massive cavern that once served as the progenitor's mouth.
As they walked deeper into the cavern, Laufey's physical form began to undergo a drastic transformation.
The scarred, rough blue skin smoothed out, adopting an ethereal, flawless pallor.
His hulking, muscular frame rapidly shrank, compressing into a tall, slender, and distinctly feminine silhouette.
Ethereal frost gathered around her, condensing into an intricate ice crown and a flowing gown of woven snow.
Under Ethan and Luna's stunned gazes, the massive, bare-chested brute had flawlessly shifted into a regal, imposing queen.
"I'll be damned," Luna murmured, her eyes widening in disbelief. "The Norse myths actually got one right. Laufey, you really are a woman."
"Biological sex means very little to my kind," Laufey replied, turning to face them. Her true voice was soft, laced with a bitter, freezing resentment. "We are semi-elemental beings. A Frost Giant's form is dictated entirely by their psychological state, rather than physical biology."
She gestured vaguely to herself. "The brutish form I use to rule belonged to my late husband, Farbauti. Frost Giants respect absolute strength above all else. My true appearance is seen as too frail to inspire the necessary loyalty, so I maintain Farbauti's visage to hold the throne."
"What happened to your husband?" Luna asked, genuine curiosity breaking through her usual detachment.
"He died," Laufey stated flatly.
"Just like my father, Ymir. He died at the hands of Odin." Her tone was soaked in venomous hatred, but beneath the anger, Ethan detected a complicated, almost tragic undercurrent that only made the political history of the Nine Realms seem far more twisted than the history books let on.
"You despise Odin, then?" Ethan asked calmly.
"I despise him with every fiber of my being," Laufey spat, her eyes losing focus as she drifted into painful memories. "I think about how to kill him every waking second. Odin once swore he would never forgive my father, because both Odin's father and grandfather fell in battle against Ymir. In turn, I will never forgive the murderer who butchered my father and my husband."
Laufey's jaw tightened. "It was for that exact reason I led my people in a desperate invasion of Asgard. I fully believed it would end with either his death or mine. But in the end, instead of executing me when he had the chance... he discovered the existence of that cursed child. He took him from me by force."
Ethan blinked, a wave of realization washing over him. "Wait. This 'cursed child' you're talking about... you don't mean Loki, do you?" He stared at the Frost Queen, pieces of the cosmic puzzle rapidly clicking together. "Are you telling me Loki is—"
Before Ethan could finish the sentence, Laufey shot him a gaze so intensely murderous that it felt like physical ice forming in his throat.
Ethan wisely decided to keep the rest of his speculation to himself.
Internally, however, Ethan's mind was racing.
Confirming Loki's true parentage suddenly explained a massive amount of historical inconsistency.
Odin had built his empire as a ruthless, blood-soaked conqueror who subjugated the Nine Realms with an iron fist.
So why, when the Frost Giants actively rebelled and invaded Earth, did Odin suddenly adopt a policy of relative mercy?
He had merely driven the Frost Giants back to Jotunheim and confiscated the Casket of Ancient Winters—an artifact he didn't even know how to properly use.
It defied all logic. During that legendary war, Laufey had literally carved out one of Odin's eyes.
The All-Father had been in his absolute prime; slaughtering Laufey and installing a loyal puppet king on the Frost Throne would have been a trivial matter for him.
Instead, Odin marched into Jotunheim, stole Laufey's infant child, and then actively raised the boy alongside Thor as a legitimate prince of Asgard.
He had gone to extraordinary lengths to protect Loki, hiding his heritage and treating him incredibly well.
Even when Loki proved to be rebellious, treacherous, and constantly chaotic—even when Thor himself had nearly given up on his brother—Odin's punishments rarely amounted to more than a comfortable prison cell.
Thor had merely traveled to Jotunheim to provoke a fight, and Odin had been so furious he stripped his golden child of his divine power and banished him to Earth.
Loki's crimes had been vastly more severe, yet his reprimands were infinitely softer. The only logical explanation was that the All-Father harbored an ocean of guilt regarding his youngest son.
Furthermore, Loki was a master sorcerer. For him to live over a thousand years without ever realizing his true biology meant the disguise wasn't a simple localized illusion.
It wasn't until Loki physically touched the Casket of Ancient Winters that his Frost Giant traits finally surfaced.
If Odin had merely cast a cloaking spell, a mage of Loki's caliber would have dismantled it centuries ago.
The real truth had to be biological.
Odin had likely infused Loki with his own Asgardian magic, actively suppressing the Frost Giant genome at a cellular level.
It provided flawless cover until Loki came into direct contact with his people's ultimate sacred relic, which violently overrode Odin's suppression.
Factoring in the generations of bloodshed between Odin's lineage and Ymir's, the death of Laufey's husband, the kidnapping of her son, and the resulting twisted brotherhood between Thor and Loki... Ethan couldn't help but marvel at the sheer, convoluted tragedy of Asgardian royal politics.
It was a messy, generational blood-feud masquerading as a noble history.
He suddenly felt a profound wave of sympathy for Queen Frigga. He wasn't sure if she had known the absolute truth of Loki's origins or simply chosen to remain willfully ignorant.
Regardless, she had taken in the stolen child of a bitter enemy and raised him with nothing but unconditional maternal love, never once treating him as an outsider.