In his Domain, Loki watched the slow-motion beginning of a metaphorical train wreck. He always found it funny how he was called the villain just because the Norse and their mortal Viking followers had no sense of humor. Never, ever would he steep that low to defeat an enemy. What the Broodmother's anointed [Saint] did was true villainy.

He did some questionable things, but everything was to keep Asgard from stagnation. Even killing Baldr was just a prank. Then people come and blame him for some stupid giantess trollop who had refused to weep for the too-perfect deity. And no, it wasn't him disguised as Thökk.

The problem with the modern conceptions of himself was the Middle-Age Christians. In their quest to paint the whole world with the colors of either heavenly good or devilish evil, they only had two boxes to put concepts in. And the petty clergy detached from their deity and did whatever they wanted. No wonder Earth witnessed no miracles nowadays.

In a Pantheon so complex and diversified as the Norse, who would be labeled as "evil"? The underworld deity, his poor daughter, was the first one to be tossed in the burning box. By proxy, he and his children too became evil, then his whole brethren, the giants.

But did anyone remember who was responsible for inciting the dwarves to forge Mjollnir, Draupnir, Gungnir? Remove Loki from the Norse pantheon and what do you get? A bunch of boring drunkards.

And speaking of boring, the deity wannabes in Yznarian were almost unbearable to watch. At first, they seemed like an interesting group. A bunch of mortals from all venues in life managed to steal the System Core from that returner, capture Thor to jumpstart their divinity, invade a primitive fantasy world and take over the place. He even gave them some aid. Then what?

The idiots just sat on their laurels and sucked on their thumbs. That was so bloody boring that he decided to approach Mr. G. and ask for the backdoor credentials to infiltrate the System and promote himself as Administrator. Finally, he searched all of Midgard for the perfect soul to send there to stir some excitement.

And what excitement did that soul stir. They even managed to escape his control and almost achieve divinity on their own. How amazing that kid could be? To be selfless enough to reject ascension and still be selfish and greedy enough to keep their attachment to the treasures of mortal life.

His "envoy" as Wyxnos liked to call the gift he gave them, had all the tools they needed to exterminate all life on that planet and kill those gods, should they want it. He knew they didn't. Loki made no mistake in choosing his "envoy". But now the dragons would suffer for their goddess' foolish folly.

A projection of Wyxnos' avatar started to appear in his domain. Loki made sure to call in a special guest before he let him fully manifest.

"Seriously? Why did you grant her {Fate Magic}? Do you have any idea how dangerous it is in the hands of a mortal?" The visitor spouted and hissed.

Loki shrugged and downed his horn of mead before replying, "Likewise for you when you granted the Broodmother's [Saint] that magic? Did you know they had the [Queen]'s soul in captivity? What wicked deeds did they intend to do with her? You did, Wyxnos. Don't try to fool the God of Trickery."

"The [Saint] was supervised!" Wyxnos protested.

"Do you mean either you or she would kill a dragon at the level cap if he screwed up? My, my, Wyxnos. I thought you gave up on scheming against me… what do you call them? 'Envoy'," Loki said with a smirk. "You learned no lessons, my dear Core-thief."

"Why did you bump the rarity to Unique and locked it?" Wyxnos changed subjects slightly.

"You answered yourself, you moron. {Fate} magic is dangerous in the hands of a mortal. We agree on that, why let any other mortal have it? Do you want so badly to shatter that little world of yours into stardust? Yet you made that fuss with {Radiation Magic}. You bore me, Wyxnos. Begone, and reap the fruits of your mis-deeds."

With the tiniest exertion of his Will, Loki banished Wyxnos. He clapped his hands and a curtain pulled itself, revealing a mortal visitor.

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"What do you think?" He asked the guest.

"Are you sure she'll help us with the war?" A dark-skinned man with oriental features asked.

"Absolute certainty. Did you not see the footage I sent? How many times did they sacrifice themselves for the greater good? For the good of strangers? Or when she spurned her chance to ascend into divinity for the sake of two more hours of sunlight? I had no influence on that. They are no longer beholden to me. Worse, they are completely immune to my powers, as well as any other deity."

"Didn't you make a [Valkyrie] Class exclusively for her? Wouldn't that return her to your control?" The visitor asked, suspicious.

"No? Not even the All-Father's valkyries are beholden to him. They have quite the freedom to act as they please. Look no further than what Brunhild and Gudrun did. Even so, she probably knows she can tap into the divinity stored in that [Wisp] of hers."

"I wanted to ask you about that!" The visitor seemed clearly excited. "What is that?"

"It is a Divine Spark inside a Divine Core that has become a mortal's familiar. To you Earthlings, it is the equivalent of a human becoming a hornet's pet."

"Is it even possible?"

Loki chuckled, "Before we saw it happen? Questionable. But the events that led to it were almost impossible to replicate. A maiden that offered her blood freely to a Demon Lord, in exchange for the Demon Lord's eternal servitude. Then her blood was laced with Truesilver! Anathema to the demons, nonetheless the Universe and your System Core recognized the bargain as completed. Poof, she also had the power to purify souls. As you know, the difference between a God and a Demon's soul is just the alignment. But by itself, it would just be a powerless spark. Next, she obtains a Divine Core and offers it as a gift to another deity. The fool, instead of taking it off the mortal's hands, spurns the gift. It fuses with the spark and BOOM. That's what you have here. I look forward to the moment that [Wisp of Creation] gains a Domain."

"Wouldn't it ascend?"

"I doubt it. The Universe is not that irresponsible, to allow a Deity to ascend while subordinate to a mortal. What I want to see is how it will develop. We are close to it. It has already developed an afterlife dimension and collected a small dollop of Divinity, however small these are."

"Wouldn't she ascend?"

"The Universe will probably offer that choice. But I believe they will reject it. You see, that person developed quite the distaste for Gods. Not many people wish to turn into what they despise."

"True."

The visitor sunk into his thoughts, ignoring the presence of the Norse god. Patient, Loki waited for him to reach a conclusion.

"Loki, I want you to do one thing. The System A.I. is also an Administrator, isn't it?"

The God leaned forward, eager to know what the request might be, "Yes. It developed quite the individuality, I must say. But why Tuisto?"

"Because he was long dead and shows no signs of ever coming back."

"True," Loki mimicked the visitor's previous reaction. "But there were several dead deities to pick from."

"Tuisto is almost unknown. I almost used one of the Babylonians but that was before they committed that atrocity in that forest."

Loki's face scrunched into a rictus of anger. "Those cowards. They set the world's development back three thousand years when they fled with their tails between the legs! Then they have the gall to show up five thousand years later and kidnap that girl. You have no idea how powerful her soul is."

The visitor raised an eyebrow, "'Is', not 'was'."

Loki nodded. "Yes, the bearded fools at least made sure to make their golden goose nigh indestructible. She might even come back to play your returner games--"

"War," the dark-skinned human corrected the deity.

"War. Her friend and your protegé are trying to contact her."

The man tensed up at the mention of the young girl. "Are you…"

Loki waved a hand to placate the visitor. "She's fine. I'm watching her out of curiosity and to lend a hand should something happen. But you don't need to worry. Nothing bad will happen to her. I can even grant her my divine protection if you want, but that may increase the number of interesting events around her."

"No. It would draw attention to her."

"I'll keep watching over her, as a token of our friendship. NO strings attached what-so-ever," The Norse grinned. "But what would you have Tuisto do?"

"When the time is right, tell Tuisto to give her 'the quiz'."

Loki added air quotes, "you mean, 'the quiz', right? Is this a code word for something?"

"For a quiz," The visitor deadpanned. "I promise you it will be interesting. Your Armani-clad friend over there, he will be mad at us."

Happy, Loki clapped his hand. "Oh, I am eager to see it happen. But it is time for you to go, Mr. G. Thanks for coming."

The visitor nodded and vanished. Loki returned to watch over the various worlds where mortals struggled to survive and got an idea.

"Maybe I should mess with Freya's experiment and send her Champion's friends to the same world..."