Finally back to Asgard after his imprisonment, Thor sought his brother to give his thanks. Let none say the God of Oaks and defender of Midgard can't display gratitude. He found his brother lounging in his chambers.

"Loki!" Thor boastful voice rang. "I came to say thanks. I'll no longer hold a grudge for making my wife bald... again."

The God of Change and Mischief glanced sideways at his brother, appearing bored. "You're welcome, brother. I was just doing the All-Father's bidding."

"As you should," Thor nodded sagely. "But one thing bothers me. You chose the most strange agent, brother. I understand the shapeshifter, but why a cat?"

"A cat? I have no idea what you are talking about, dear brother," Loki laughed. "I picked a random man from Midgard that had suitable compatibility and sent him to help you."

"A man? The person that rescued me was clearly female," Thor mimicked groping breasts. "Although too scrawny for my tastes."

"Yeah. That I can explain. I cursed him to become female," Loki's tone betrayed how bored he was to explain every little detail to his doltish brother.

"Why would you do such a heinous act to a man?" Thor asked, indignant. For the Asgardian culture, manhood was the pinnacle of existence. Females existed mostly for serving, whoring, and entertaining the eyes. With a few rare exceptions like the Goddesses and Valkyries.

"Easy. While I was tasked with rescuing you, I wouldn't spend any of my energy in this endeavor. So I cursed the mortal until I had enough points to send him for free with the blessings he needed to complete his task. Or her task, now," He cackled. "Turning him into a female, as you well know, is a major curse. At least in this retrograde place," He added in a whisper.

"And when will you retrieve your agent, to bring him into the halls of Valhalla? He surely displayed bravery in combat."

"Never?" Loki scoffed. "Let him wreak havoc in that place as punishment for that upstart pantheon that dared ambush and imprisoned you. I have arrangements in place that will either force them to evolve or destroy them altogether. As an agent of the God of Change, he'll create legends with each deed. Those legends will resonate in that pathetic world, and break the foundations of their pantheon."

Loki was overdoing it again, Thor reckoned. Most of his schemes would be very successful if he acted in moderation. But it wouldn't be Him to warn his mischievous brother of the dangers of messing too much with Fate. The last time Loki went overboard, he birthed the All-Father's horse. Now that Thor thought about it, maybe Loki understood what it meant to be female.

With a shrug, Thor walked away. He rewarded the agent, he expressed his gratitude to Loki. His boon to his brother was to forfeit the beating he deserved for messing with Lady Sif's hair again.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

----------------------------------------

Wyxnos, God of Logic, worked painstakingly for centuries to recompile the Anomaly's Status page from the logs dating all the way back to its injection into the world's System. He set safeguards in place, isolating their world from the multiverse. No other transmigrators would come.

He understood the concern of some members of the pantheon. {Loki's Champion}, as the System hidden title assigned to the Anomaly was growing too powerful. Strong enough to face a deity and not be crushed immediately. If this rate of growth continued, the Pantheon would need to either invite them into becoming a deity, crushing the entity altogether with a combined effort, or risk losing control.

For some, himself included, the last was the worst possibility. That one day the Anomaly would grow too strong to challenge and defeat them.

They already lost one. Bundeus didn't come out of his foolish duel unscathed. Weakened by the time dilation - maybe it was Wyxnos' fault for revealing too much information to the Anomaly - he lost his domains. Galbarar absorbed the Sun to end the Age of Eclipse sooner, while Queltphion absorbed War and passed Death to Rabhorktaar. Now only the God of Humans, Bundeus was limited in power and potential.

One outlier was how well Bundeus accepted his predicament. There was a big chance he hadn't quite abandoned his quarry with the Anomaly.

"System, register {Loki's Champion} as forbidden from engaging in activities from the divine category," Wyxnos ordered. No more duels for divinity for one. Since the Anomaly was a siphon of divine power, the System interpreted wrongly that he had some divinity. The backdoor that fed Loki the stolen power didn't register in the System.

> ACKNOWLEDGED. {Loki's Champion} will no longer be eligible for activities in the divine category, unless they ascend.

He sighed. He would love to ask the Anomaly to cancel the curse that sent power to Loki. But he knew there was no chance whatsoever of they agreeing to remove the perk that granted immunity to divine power. If they removed that curse but not the perk, the Anomaly would have nowhere to send or spend the Divine energy and would eventually ascend, as the System predicted. If they removed the perk, the Anomaly would cease to exist the next moment.

Even though Wyxnos' calculations believed that the best path was of cooperation given the circumstances, that didn't stop him from seeing the benefits of removing the Anomaly from the System and restoring normalcy.

At the end of the day, a mortal soul was just a mortal soul. Fated to die. That one's demise was grossly overdue, the God of Logic coldly analyzed.

Wyxnos recalculated all the scenarios. Given that removing the {Divinity Absorption} perk was illogical, the "Nash Equilibrium" of all scenarios pointed to cooperation as the most stable option. He felt a wave of nostalgia. He'd passed some time on Earth, even graduated from Harvard. He was banned from visiting after they'd kidnapped Thor to jumpstart their own System world.

He knew the Aesir would send someone to retrieve their Heir, but he never thought it would be Loki the one to send someone. No wonder his fellow Gods were so skittish. They feared retaliation.

Wyxnos looked at the mess that was the Anomaly's Skills. Maybe he could streamline some of them. One easy change was the Profession System. The vast majority of the people never invested in Professional Skills, merely using the two entries as a cheap source of Skill Points. That had to change.

He got an idea, and after running some simulations past the System, he implemented it.