Chapter 300: The King of Shadows

7th May 2013, Land of Shadows

(Loki Odinson POV)

Before Loki could question it, a small ball of light left the King's hand and flew towards the surprised God of Mischief. Immediately, power started coursing through him like never before. He felt stronger than he ever did, "what was that?"

"I have connected you to the cycle of Ragnarök. You can feed upon its energies as we do. Should you help us, the next cycle of Ragnarök will occur and you will ascend and become one of us for all of eternity."

Well, that changed things. This power inside of him was addicting, but Loki steeled his mind. It was not the time to wonder about such things, "I thank you…"

The King of Shadows spoke up, "I wonder, small god, why do you wish to betray your kin and join us?"

"Why I chose eternity over death? Seems like an obvious choice. But also, I wish to see Odin's eyes widen and break as he realizes that I have betrayed him once more. I wish him to understand the price of his failure as I destroy whatever hopes of freedom he has, as he has done to me."

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(? POV)

The King of the Shadows looked upon the young Asgardian in front of him. Well, he was a full Jotun in this cycle, something that was surprisingly rare in the long run. Most of the time, he's an Asgardian Jotun hybrid. There were a few times that he had even been Odin's own son, although, he and his subjects tried to avoid it since he's usually very unpredictable and grows concerningly powerful at those times.

It was curious how this cycle had stabilized to their classical storyline during this cycle, even if they didn't get involved much until Odin's ritual. The King of Asgard was barely more than a neutered sky father, where his waning power is almost being fully used to stop what had to be one of the strongest iterations of Hela yet. He supposed that it had something to do with being Odin's firstborn. His children tended to be abnormally powerful, which is why the Shadows had always focused on him. He really had the potential to cause some serious damage, almost as much as that cursed the last iteration of Thor.

Damn that man and his cursed ritual. How did Odin trick them this much was a mystery. It seems that even as he's getting weaker, his mind hasn't dulled. The man hid Thor's nature as a son of Gaia, an Elder Goddess of all things, from them, which allowed him to channel an immense amount of the Odinforce at once. How the King of Asgard managed to combine Gaia's essence during Thor's conception, he had no idea, but it was clever, and they had almost paid for it.

Who could have predicted what happened? Ragnarök was over, and it was time for Thor to pass on. He was always purposeless after the death of his people and often kills himself whenever he is the lone survivor. But who could have seen him channel whatever remained of the Odinforce into a single attack? He used the Bifrost and his runes to break into their realm and almost slayed them all, killing himself in the process. It took every single speck of energy left from the last Ragnarök cycle to shield against the attack. It had failed but they were severely weakened, and it took thousands of years to regain even a speck of power strong enough to bind Odin and recreate the cycle once more.

Truthfully, the King of the Shadows couldn't help but admire the last Thor. He was always full of surprises, and his perseverance was impressive, for a mortal that is. Because that was what he was, a mortal, at least to them. The nine realms were barely more than their playground, and their inhabitants their puppets.

Oh, how he wished that it wasn't the case. His actions had disgusted him at first, but over millions of years, he grew to accept them, apathetic to the suffering he brings. It was not honorable, and it was not good, but it was necessary, even if he did not enjoy it.

In another life, where he was still Balder Odinson, Asgard's God of Light. By the powers, how long has it been since he last thought of his first name? He was Asgard's darling prince, the bravest Asgardian to ever live, the most honorable, and what every prince should strive to be. And now look at him, enslaving the parallel version of his people and bringing nothing but death and sorrow. He hated himself, in a way, just like he mourns what happens to his subjects who have followed him in his mad quest. They were barely more than the Shadows that they currently inhabit. The years have not been kind to their sanity. They were not alive, not really, they did not experience joy, hatred, or aggression. They did not enjoy the pleasures of life and feel the sorrows of loss. They just existed and followed his commands, a far cry from the proud warriors they used to be.

Perhaps, even he himself was lost, dead in everything but his body. He still draws breath, but he feels nothing, he cares for nothing but his duty to his people.

Because Balder did not originate from this universe, the prime universe. No, he was from another branch close to it, but unfortunately, a Midgardian sorcerer played with the laws of the universe and caused an incursion. Reality had collapsed and his universe was destroyed. The realms would have soon followed If Odin hadn't sacrificed himself to delay the inevitable.

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Asgard was still subject to the Ragnarök cycle bargained by the first Asgardians long ago, but with no universe left to expand, the wheel was broken, and Death would have followed. It was an impossible position, and Balder managed to find a plan to recreate a central realm, made up of only one planet of humans that the cycle would continue on. But he needed the energy to maintain it.

It took centuries until he perfected his method where he would use the energy provided by other versions of Ragnarök to power his mad plan. And yes, it was a mad plan, but it was a plan, and that was better than anything they had come up with so far. It was hope and it was better than anything they could have come up with. Many had joined his mad plan, agreeing to give up their reincarnation in favor of staying in a realm continuously working on preserving their cycle until the end of time itself.

It worked perfectly at first, but a specific cycle, one that involved a war against Heaven, ended up being far longer than anticipated. For the first time, Balder interfered to end the cycle early. Heaven lost, but Asgard was in ruins and Ragnarök soon followed.

It had disgusted Balder. He had caused the deaths of millions because of his greed. He lived with his guilt, vowing not to commit such a cruel act again until the same almost happened a few cycles later. Baldur again interfered, and then once more, and slowly it became a habit. He needed the energy, for his universe's cycle to continue, for his Asgard to grow and flourish, and for his family to live on.

In the end, they settled on a similar storyline, so to speak. Where Odin mistreats Loki, who ends up betraying Asgard and paving his way to Ragnarök. It was perfect, elegant. It was not too long as the energy gathered to their universe would wane, but not too short as to consider Asgardians to be nothing more than unwilling sacrifices.

They were allowed to live for a good few thousand years until their inevitable death. It was good, it was logical, and everyone won. Of course, over time, he started to feel detached from the Asgardians. He had continuously absorbed some of the energy from the cycle while sending it to his universe.

He ascended into something more than an Asgardian, and slowly his guilt turned to apathy, and the Asgardians turned to playthings. He did not particularly care about them anymore, they were just energy to be consumed. His people were gods now, true gods with real power, not like the little godlings that the Asgardians were. They were the Gods of the Gods. Their previous names were unsuitable for their greatness. These were the names of godlings, not the beings that they became.

Thus, Balder slowly morphed away and the King of the Shadows was born. He enslaved another version of his father without even thinking about it. He chained him up with prophecies and fates. He used his Seers, the infamous Norns, who had helped his plan immensely, to bind him even further. It was out of precaution; Odin had once discovered their role in the cycle and tried to kill them, the fool. He was too dangerous to leave alone.

Thor was the same, but Mjolnir complicated matters. Somehow, the infamous hammer was more than just a regular weapon of Uru that Thor would channel his divinity through. Balder's version of Thor never had this hammer. It was powerful, too powerful. He even did his best to stop Thor from ever getting his hand on it by manipulating the creation of an Uru version of the weapon to be given to the Prince of Asgard during his youth. But the hammer was still powerful enough to shield his mind and make it harder for the Norns to see his future.

The King of the Shadows was proven right to be cautious of that cursed hammer. Combined with Gaia's essence, Thor's control over his father's runes and Odinforce, he was able to strike an almost mortal blow to them.

A few of his subjects actually died from the assault. Most notably, The Shadow formerly known as Heimdall perished in the attack, and his loss was felt deeply. He was the best scryer amongst them and was vital in their information gathering while planning. He was also able to interfere subtly with the mortal Heimdall to prevent him from seeing certain unsavory things that would have been essential to their plan.

The Rune King Thor had caused irreparable damage to their cause, and he thought the worst to be over, and yet it clearly wasn't.

Loki Laufeyson had come into their realm, unseen and unopposed. He used the Convergence to do it. Loki was by far one of the most troublesome godlings. Wherever he went, he brought chaos with him. To him, Chaos was a ladder. Of course, sometimes that was beneficial, but only in small doses.

But if the King of the Shadows knew something, it was that Loki had always hungered for power. In every iteration, every Loki that ever existed, he will betray anyone for a speck of power and he could use it here.

If what the Prince of Lies was telling him was true, and that Thor's plan was still in motion, then things were troublesome indeed. Not just for him, but for the people he fought to save in his home universe.

The signs were there. A few years ago, a cosmic event occurred that locked down the entire universe, including their connection to their home universe. The Norns were now blind and the future uncertain for the first time in millions of years. And yet, Ragnarök needed to occur after the lockdown was over, for the energy to be sent through the connection they forged between their home universe, a connection that was currently blocked by whatever happened.

It was possible that Loki was being truthful with this. Rune King Thor had become more powerful than any Asgardian before him and that might have included the influence to put such a plan into motion. As much as the King hoped that he could break Loki's mind, as he had done many times before, he couldn't risk Thor's supposed plan from coming to fruition. He could accept Loki ascending into becoming one of them if it meant that his people would survive.

And should an accident happen to Loki before his ascension, and he perished before he could truly become one of them? Then it would be an unfortunate circumstance that no one could predict. Everything will stabilize and return to what it should be, in no time.

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