Chapter 256: 256
“Loki?”
Fenris turned toward the voice and spotted Loki and his two companions hurrying over from the Bifrost.
The hurricane that had swept across Asgard had been frozen solid beneath layer after layer of ice. It stretched from the ground all the way to the equally frozen clouds, encompassing nearly the entire city.
The three of them struggled through the cracks in the ice. Only after walking for some time did the path before them finally open up.
However, the colossal ice formation towering between heaven and earth like a work of art was visibly on the verge of collapse. Chunks of ice occasionally broke loose and crashed down, as though the structure might buckle beneath the terrifying weight of the frozen clouds at any moment.
“This is seriously dangerous…”
Loki narrowly avoided an icicle plummeting from above before turning his gaze toward what had once been Asgard’s thriving city.
This heavenly realm, a paradise envied throughout the universe, had been almost completely destroyed by the catastrophe.
The final battle had finally ended. The surviving Asgardian warriors and Frost Giants tacitly stopped fighting, their scattered forces occupying clearly divided sections of the city’s ruins.
“Is that… Laufey pinned to the ground?”
“I think it is.”
An Asgardian poked his dirt-covered head out from the rubble, his voice trembling with uncertainty.
Yet as he stared at the battlefield, his eyes gradually brightened. Hope suddenly returned to his once-desperate gaze, and his voice carried a certainty he almost did not dare acknowledge.
“Does that mean… we won? We defeated those damned blue-skinned giants?”
“I think… Yes!”
“Thor’s friend defeated Laufey!”
“We won!”
The deathly silent battlefield abruptly came alive. A spark of vitality returned to the ruins as every gaze turned toward one corner of the battlefield.
There, Laufey, king of the Frost Giants and the true ruler of Jotunheim, was pinned firmly to the ground beneath one of Fenris’s claws.
Though Laufey stood nearly four meters tall, he seemed pitifully small beneath the claw of the sixty-meter behemoth. Its razor-sharp tips easily tore through his resilient skin, and blood poured from the wounds. Before long, a vast portion of the ice beneath him had been stained crimson.
“Fenris… won?”
Thor initially froze at the sight of Laufey’s wretched condition. His pupils contracted slightly, as though he could not believe his own eyes.
That was Laufey!
Laufey, wielding the Casket of Ancient Winters!
Laufey, who had almost no equal throughout the Nine Realms!
“He won…”
Thor instinctively braced himself against the ice beside him, failing to notice even when Mjolnir slipped from his hand and fell to the ground. His fingertips brushed the frozen surface, yet he did not feel the slightest cold.
His quiet murmur still sounded dazed, but Thor soon came back to his senses. The breath he had been holding for what felt like an eternity burst from his chest as an uncontrollable shout.
“Mother! Did you see that?”
“Fenris actually defeated Laufey!”
“Asgard is saved!”
Thor shook Frigga so excitedly that her vision began to blur.
“All right, all right! I know. Calm down, Thor.”
Despite her words, the smile on the queen’s face could not be concealed. The corners of her lips curved upward, and at last, unable to hold herself back, she laughed in relief.
The darkness weighing upon her heart had finally been swept away.
Had they truly survived this disaster without losing everything?
“Thank goodness…”
Although Frigga had already expected this outcome, seeing it unfold before her still felt like a dream.
“Loki?”
Loki stared at Laufey’s miserable state with eyes that practically glowed, completely oblivious to Frigga calling his name.
Laufey’s wretched condition looked almost identical to how Loki himself had appeared after being severely injured by Fenris.
Yet the situation had changed in the blink of an eye. Now Laufey was the one Fenris had beaten until he could do nothing but await his fate.
“Yes!”
“That feels good!”
“Laufey, when you took advantage of my injuries, I bet you never imagined you would end up like this!”
If he had not still been injured, Loki would have jumped into the air. Leaning on Gungnir, he ignored the pain wracking his body and strode toward Laufey ahead of everyone else.
“Spare me…”
Meanwhile, Laufey lay pinned beneath the enormous claw. Its deadly edge hovered against his body, filling him with such dread that he did not dare move.
He briefly assessed his condition. By his most conservative estimate, at least half the bones in his body had been completely shattered by that blow.
Several horrific wounds had also been torn across his body. As blood continued pouring from them, Laufey could clearly feel waves of weakness washing over him.
His injuries appeared severe, certainly enough to kill an ordinary person with ease, but under normal circumstances, they would not have been fatal to Laufey.
Now, however, they had become the final burden that broke him.
A gleaming claw rested less than an inch from his throat. The slightest movement from Fenris would end his life with ease.
Laufey struggled to raise his head. As the white light in Fenris’s eyes gradually faded, he forced a broken plea from his throat.
“Cough… Spare me…”
“There was never any deep hatred between us. We merely stood on opposing sides… Cough, cough…”
“Do not kill me. I am the ruler of Jotunheim. Whatever you want, I can give you…”
“Argh!”
Before Laufey could finish, the force pressing down on him suddenly increased, crushing the rest of his words back into his throat.
A rapid series of cracks rang out as his bones shattered, and his body immediately went limp.
Fenris lowered his head. Freezing breath washed across Laufey’s face as he watched the king writhe in agony, his expression unreadable.
Before this battle, there truly had been no deep hatred between Fenris and Laufey.
Fenris needed the Casket of Ancient Winters, and so did Laufey.
They simply stood on opposing sides. There was no right or wrong, only the timeless truth that the victor became king while the defeated lost everything.
As for letting Laufey go…
Throughout the battle, Laufey had come close to severely injuring Fenris several times.
Fenris, in turn, had single-handedly destroyed the opportunity Laufey had awaited for countless years. He had dragged the lofty king down from the heavens and trampled him into the dirt before everyone.
For an ambitious ruler like Laufey, if that did not qualify as irreconcilable hatred, then what possibly could?
In terms of raw strength, Fenris was still inferior to Laufey. He had only narrowly won by relying on the unique traits of the Ancient Snow Demon and the overwhelming power of a Titan.
Letting him go now would be easy, but allowing such a powerful and calculating enemy to roam free…
The moment the thought crossed his mind, Fenris’s eyes turned cold.
“Sorry.”
(End of Chapter)
“Zaelum”]