The water vapor fell as a fine drizzle, but the moment it encountered the extreme cold gathered by Laufey, it froze in midair. Tiny pellets of ice struck the ground and shattered with crisp cracks.
A deafening boom shook heaven and earth as a terrifying shock wave erupted from the point where Thor and Laufey had collided.
The next instant, a violent gale swept across Asgard.
The ruins scattered throughout the realm were lifted into the air by the wind before crashing back down. Covered by the freezing rain, they were quickly encased in ice.
The battle between the Asgardians and the Frost Giants also came to a halt. Every pair of eyes stared unblinkingly at the sky as they anxiously waited, hoping to see the outcome of the battle.
Brilliant light filled the heavens.
The Casket of Ancient Winters blazed with radiance, effortlessly breaking through the cage of lightning surrounding it.
"Bang!"
Several moments later, a burly figure plummeted from the sky.
The bright cape behind him had been completely torn apart and snapped in the wind like a rag. Most of his armor had shattered as well, exposing the battered body beneath it.
Thor fell uncontrollably from the sky. His gaze swept across the hopeful faces of the Asgardians below, and he closed his eyes in despair.
An overwhelming sense of helplessness surged through him.
He had already given everything he had.
Yet even then, Laufey remained like an insurmountable, immovable mountain. When the full power of Thor's lightning crashed into him, the attack had appeared overwhelmingly destructive, almost as if the power of the entire world had been poured into Laufey's body.
But only Thor knew the truth.
He had not even managed to break through Laufey's most basic defenses...
Now, he no longer had the strength to hold Mjolnir.
An endless emptiness spread from deep within his body. The hammer that had always felt light in his hand now seemed unbearably heavy.
"Thud!"
Thor's fingers went slack, and Mjolnir slipped from his grasp. The hammer fell from the sky and slammed into the ground, smashing through the thick ice and leaving behind an enormous web of cracks.
A moment later, Thor's body also came crashing down.
He struck the ruins like a lifeless heap, bounced once, and then slammed heavily into the ground again.
His powerful body slid several hundred meters across the smooth ice before crashing through an entire cluster of buildings. He was buried deep beneath the rubble and went completely still.
"..."
A deathly silence descended upon the Asgardians.
They tightened their grips on their weapons and seemed ready to raise them, but as helplessness filled their hearts, even the bravest warriors could no longer bring themselves to swing their blades.
This time, there truly was no hope left...
Thor had been like Asgard's final ray of dawn. His fall and defeat had taken the gods' last remnants of courage with him.
Clang...
No one knew whose weapon fell first.
In the silence, more weapons gradually struck the ground, one after another.
"Loki?"
Some still refused to give up. They turned their final hopeful gazes toward Loki, who had remained silent all this time.
Yet even when faced with hundreds of pleading eyes, Loki sat motionless with Gungnir in his hand. He did not speak or react, as though completely unaware of everything happening around him.
"Loki?"
Someone stepped forward and waved a hand in front of his eyes, but he still showed no response.
"It's an illusion!"
"Loki... He ran away by himself long ago?"
The discovery that Loki was nothing more than an illusion became the final blow, crushing the last traces of hope within the gods' hearts.
"Bang!"
Panic spread like a plague, and nothing but despair remained in their eyes.
At this point, what else could they possibly do?
Before Laufey's overwhelming might, what meaning did their struggles have?
And Laufey...
How could he possibly spare them?
"Asgard has warriors who die in battle, not warriors who surrender!"
"Thor has merely gone ahead of us to Valhalla! What do we have to fear?"
"Everyone, pick up your weapons! Stand! Do not kneel!"
Hope that ignited in the depths of despair was always a stirring sight.
Standing atop steps of ice in the sky, Laufey watched the Asgardians take up their weapons again even under these circumstances. He could not help curling his lips in disdain.
"Fools."
"But that is precisely why not a single member of your race can be allowed to survive."
His clash with Thor had barely cost Laufey any strength. Without joy or sorrow on his face, he looked down upon the entire battlefield.
Asgard's vast floating continent had now been completely sealed in ice. Bitter winds howled across the realm, and even Odin's palace had frozen solid.
Faced with such hopeless circumstances, the resistance of these ants appeared all the more feeble and pathetic.
"To demonstrate the generosity befitting the ruler of Jotunheim, I shall personally send you on your way."
The excited Frost Giants roared and surged toward the Asgardians, but Laufey casually raised a hand and stopped them.
He lifted the Casket of Ancient Winters high above his head.
The next instant, an overwhelming tide of cold descended from the heavens and came roaring toward the gods once more.
"It's over. It's over! This time, we really are finished!"
Far in the distance, Loki, who had already fled the battlefield, hunched his shoulders as he watched Laufey's power devour the gods little by little. Lifelike ice sculptures were rapidly taking shape across the battlefield.
Those trapped inside the ice would not survive for long.
Their fates were easy to predict. Either the frenzied Frost Giants would smash them into pieces, or they would freeze to death before long.
Loki remained silent.
Never before had he desired power as desperately as he did now, power strong enough to overturn everything.
Gungnir was the perfect example. If Odin were holding it now, Laufey would never dare behave with such impunity, no matter how much courage he was given.
But Loki was not Odin...
The moment Loki revealed himself, Laufey could crush him effortlessly. If that happened, even their final hope would be lost.
"Saving Mother comes first..."
Loki forced himself to turn away from the horrors unfolding on the battlefield and hurried toward the chamber where Odin lay in the Odinsleep.
The palace attendants and guards had already disappeared. Unless something unexpected had happened, they had most likely been frozen inside the ice by now.
The palace had long since lost its usual splendor. Instead, it felt cold and desolate.
Following the path from memory, Loki soon arrived before a wall.
"Loki?"
A deliberately lowered voice sounded from nearby.
The wall before Loki shimmered and changed. A magnificent door that appeared perfectly intact opened by the slightest crack, and a pair of slender arms quickly pulled him inside.
Frigga waved her hand, and the doorway vanished once more.
"Mother!"
Seeing Frigga, Queen of Asgard, standing before him with a deathly pale face and reddened eyes, Loki finally loosened his grip on Gungnir.
The spear fell to the floor with a clang.
"I'm sorry. I..."
(End of Chapter)
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