Staring at the blood-soaked blade that had pierced straight through his chest, Loki froze in utter shock.
Then, slowly turning around with a look of complete disbelief, he saw the person Surtr had sworn was unhard and safely dealt with.
Ren Kuroda stood there perfectly fine, one hand gripping the longsword buried in Loki's body, flashing him a wide, gleaming grin full of white teeth.
"Well, Mr. Loki? What do you think of the prank? Satisfied?"
Seeing Ren standing there completely unscathed—and Surtr standing obediently behind him like so loyal lackey—Loki instantly understood what had happened.
"Fenrir…! You actually dared to betray ?!"
Compared to being stabbed in the back by Ren, what enraged Loki far more was Fenrir's betrayal.
With the divine blade driven through his chest, Loki could feel his power rapidly draining away.
As one of the chief gods of the Norse pantheon, even a fatal strike normally wouldn't kill him so easily.
But the sword Ren wielded—Divine Blessing—was a sacred weapon comparable to Surtr's Godslayer Fang. Even a god whose heart had been pierced by it could neither evade nor nullify death.
His life was slipping away.
But Loki refused to die like this.
If he was going down, then at the very least, he would drag that traitor down with him.
Coughing up blood, Loki thrust both hands forward.
At the sa instant, a glowing Norse rune appeared on Fenrir's forehead.
As the magic circle before Loki completed itself, chains forged from runic light shot out from its center, hurtling straight toward Fenrir's brow.
Fenrir instinctively sensed the danger and tried to dodge.
But the rune on his forehead acted like a lock-on marker, making escape impossible.
With a miserable howl, the chains sank into his skull—
—and began slowly dragging out his soul.
Fenrir and Jormungandr were both powerful monsters created by Loki himself.
And cautious as ever, Loki had tampered with their souls long ago.
No matter how powerful Fenrir's body was, no matter how sharp his claws and fangs might be, before Loki, his soul was still painfully fragile.
Even if he died, Loki would make this traitor accompany him to the grave.
It was a fine plan.
Unfortunately for him, he had forgotten one thing from beginning to end.
There was still soone else standing here.
Fenrir was Ren's underling now—
No.
His companion.
Ren had only just acquired a strong new subordinate. There was no way he was about to let Loki kill him so easily.
If his newly recruited lackey died imdiately, who the hell would ever dare acknowledge him as boss again?
With a sharp yank, Ren ripped Divine Blessing free from Loki's chest.
Then, reversing his grip, he slashed in one smooth motion directly at the runic chains.
After absorbing the blood of the Dragon God Ophis, Divine Blessing had already ascended to the very pinnacle of sacred weapons.
There was no chain in existence it could not sever.
The instant the chains snapped, Fenrir's struggling soul was pulled back into his body.
As for Loki, the backlash hit him full force.
Already mortally wounded, he spat out another heavy mouthful of blood.
Ren wasn't Loki.
Nor was he the sort of villain who stood around monologuing after winning just to show off.
To avoid any more last-minute nonsense, the mont the chains broke, Ren blurred forward in a flash and appeared directly before Loki.
His clawed hand shot out and seized Loki by the throat.
"Mr. Ren, please wait! Loki is one of the chief gods of our Norse pantheon. As for how he should be dealt with, please leave that to—"
Seeing Loki in Ren's grasp, the badly weakened Odin had just begun to speak—
when a sickening crack rang out.
Ren had already snapped Loki's neck.
The trickster god's body went limp, utterly lifeless.
Since Loki was a chief Norse deity and not particularly exceptional in combat ability—and therefore not even worth turning into a divine weapon—Ren magnanimously tossed the corpse in front of Odin out of what he considered humanitarian consideration.
Staring down at Loki's lifeless body, Odin's expression turned extrely ugly.
"He was already powerless to resist. Why did you have to kill him so thoroughly?
He was one of the chief gods of the Norse pantheon. If he dies here, it will throw the entire Norse divine system into chaos!"
Even though Loki had just tried to murder him, Odin had only intended to imprison him, not kill him outright.
To a pantheon, a chief god was an irreplaceable pillar.
Lose too many, and the divine system itself could collapse.
Ren raised an eyebrow.
"Huh? Give one good reason not to kill him.
He wanted dead, so he dies. It's that simple.
And don't get this twisted—I'm not one of your Norse gods.
Saving you lot was just sothing incidental while I handled my own business.
If your pantheon wants to show rcy to one of its own, that's your problem.
But anyone who lays a hand on —or my friends—
doesn't get a second chance.
I don't care who they are. If I can kill them, I will."
Hearing the absolute seriousness in Ren's voice, Odin could only sigh heavily in resignation.
What else could he do?
Pick up a weapon and avenge Loki?
Leaving aside the fact that he and Loki were nowhere near that close…
Even if he wanted to, he wasn't Ren's opponent.
Ren's way of doing things was clearly different from every other powerhouse in the world.
The leaders of other factions always weighed their decisions against their organization's interests, carefully calculating gains and losses.
Ren, on the other hand, possessed overwhelming power while acting almost entirely on impulse.
Touch him, and he'd hit back.
Simple as that.
Standing behind Ren, Fenrir was utterly awestruck.
This was Odin, the Allfather of the Norse gods.
If Odin hadn't arrived this ti without Gungnir, the Spear of Eternity, and without Thor's hamr—the weapons that perfectly countered beings like them—Loki would never have dared make his move.
And yet Ren?
He gave Odin absolutely no face at all.
Even before the king of gods, his attitude was plainly:
If you want to fight, then let's fight.
Sure, being soone else's subordinate was still being soone else's subordinate.
But when your master was this absurdly overpowered, your own confidence naturally soared.
And compared to Loki's soul-binding chains and countless restrictive curses, Ren had only made him sign a simple contract.
This spell, known as the Yokai King Contract, carried a degree of restraint, but it posed no threat to his life.
Its only real effect was that whenever Ren needed him, he could summon Fenrir anyti, anywhere.
Compared to serving Loki, Fenrir felt as though he had finally regained a long-lost freedom.
At this mont, he silently praised his earlier decision to surrender and recognize the bigger picture.
Loki had just died.
Ren had just gained himself a brand-new overpowered "husky."
And just as he was about to go check on Rias and the others—
the skies above Kyoto suddenly tore open like a curtain.
Gigantic spatial rifts split across the heavens one after another.
At the sa ti, from the place where Yasaka had been fighting earlier—
a shrill, agonized fox's cry echoed across all of Kyoto.
Reviews
All reviews (0)