"What?"
Peter turned his head and saw Loki wearing that trademark arrogant grin, eyes full of confidence.
Unable to hold back his curiosity any longer, Peter asked, "Mr. Loki, what are you talking about? I don't get it."
Loki shrugged casually and asked back, relaxed: "I'll ask you — in that broadcast, who was my enemy?"
Peter answered instinctively: "The Time Variance Authority."
"That's right."
The smile at Loki's lips deepened with meaning.
"Now… does the TVA have any other enemies?"
Peter nodded. "Yeah — the other Loki… wait, could it be—"
As the realization flashed across Peter's face, Tony and Strange also made sounds of sudden understanding.
"I see!"
"So that's it."
"Hahaha… exactly."
Watching their expressions, Loki beamed with pride. "As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
"And besides, that guy and I — we're both Loki!
"The plan the 'future me' talked about must be to join forces with that fugitive Loki to fight the TVA.
"Otherwise, why would I have been drawing the TVA's attention in that scene, dragging things out so much — wasn't it precisely to hold them up and stop them from chasing that other Loki?"
Strange, curious, asked, "If that's the case, why did 'you' keep talking to Mobius about the Time Keepers?"
"Hmph…" Loki chuckled. "Those questions were bait."
"I wanted that fellow to believe my scheme was about getting close to the Time Keepers — and judging from how Mobius acted at the end of the broadcast, he absolutely bought it!
"When I saw the Loki in the footage constantly whispering similar lines into Mobius' ear, I knew right away.
"That's a classic con technique: plant the opposite thought in your opponent's head so they never suspect your true aim.
At this point, Loki finally threw back his head and laughed heartily:
"Hahaha… did you see Mobius' expression? He fully believed the assumptions he made — yet he never realized… it was all exactly what I wanted him to believe!"
"Gulp."
Peter Parker swallowed hard, his mind a tangled mess, taking a long while to sort through it.
Tony and Strange exchanged a glance, both able to read the shock in the other's eyes.
In the previous live stream, Loki had been utterly powerless in front of Thanos, unable to even fight back, so their impression of the God of Mischief had not been high.
But now they realized that Loki's true stage was not a battlefield of brute force, but one filled with schemes, cunning, and deception!
"That Mobius thought he had you figured out, but he never realized that he fell for your trick from the very start," Strange said, letting out a soft sigh, his gaze at Loki heavy with gravity.
"And in your view, if your future self really does team up with that other Loki, what will you two do next? Launch a counterattack on the TVA?"
Loki shrugged, a sly, almost wicked smile returning to his face.
"Of course. These bastards captured me and subjected me to all that humiliation. If I don't make them pay, then what kind of God of Mischief would I be?"
Watching Loki's confident demeanor, the little girl Wanda, hiding off to the side, felt her heart start racing.
By some instinctive sense, she quietly realized that if she wanted revenge against Tony Stark, this self-proclaimed God of Mischief… might just be able to help.
…
[The footage continues.]
Mobius gave Loki one final chance to review all the dossiers of every Variant, to see if he could find any clues from Loki's perspective.
But Loki was not satisfied. Instead, he found a way to access the dossiers concerning his own life.
Opening the files, Loki quickly discovered one titled Asgard Destruction Incident.
"Ragnarok, Level 7 Doomsday."
Seeing these words, Loki's expression instantly turned serious.
Meanwhile, in Asgard, staring at the massive screen, Odin's one eye narrowed sharply.
It was… Ragnarok!
So this was how Asgard was meant to be destroyed!
~~----------------------
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