Chapter 279: Glorious Purpose
11th February 2013, Sayre Manor
(Loki Odinson POV)
That didn’t make any sense, “I have no divinity. Only Thor was granted a domain in the last thousand years.”
The woman smirked, “Is that so? I can feel your connection to the Odinforce, so you do have a domain, whatever that may be. Your father called you a God of Mischief. You should explore this further.”
Still confused Loki asked, “How do I do that, exactly?”
Before she could respond, the God of Mischief heard a thunderous boom, and watched as a gigantic beam of lightning gathered in the cloudy sky and fell into the forest far away. The Asgardian was blinded by the attack. He turned to the Morrigan for an explanation and found her looking at the forest with a slight smile, “He’s getting better.”
Wait what? That was a bolt of lightning, one of Thor’s main attacks. Was Thor the one who cast that? His brother had never showed this level of power before. It can’t be him, it just can’t.
He turned to his companion, hoping for her to deny his suspicions. She just shrugged, “What can I say? Your brother flourished under my tutelage.”
Before he could even formulate a reply in his mind, the Morrigan burst into laughter, “You should see your face…”
“Is this some sort of trick?”
It had to be. Thor had never even come close to having that much control over his abilities. Theoretically, he could have the raw power to do it, Thor was never the most precise man. Loki would admit that his brother surpassed him in raw power, without question, but the God of Mischief was almost unparalleled in his control. While Loki couldn’t cast illusions on a large scale, he could use his illusions for hours and maintain his enchantments for months. His illusions and invisibility spells were indistinguishable from reality.
Thor’s beam was almost entirely cylindrical, which was abnormal. Lightning was uncontrolled, wild, chaotic. To be able to shape it in such a way would require immense control over the element, something that definitely wasn’t Thor’s strong suit. He always preferred to cause as much collateral damage as possible, something that Loki tended to avoid, mostly because large scale damage was beyond him.
The Morrigan gave him a pitying look, “No, this isn’t a trick. Your brother is the one who used that attack. He’s trying to recreate one of my personal spells. He is getting closer to completing it. He only needs a little more control to complete it.”
More control, how much more control could this spell need? It’s not like the spell doesn’t already cause too much damage. Grumbling, the God of Mischief muttered, “Lucky bastard…”
The woman gave him a reproaching look, “You are severely overestimating your difference in powers. Thor outclasses you in raw power, but there is a price to this kind of power. Outside of the fact that he will always need to work on his control to efficiently use his power, Thor’s affinity overwhelms practically all kind of other magics he could learn. If it’s anything more than the basics, his inner storm will destabilize the spells. Thor beats you in power, but you do the same to him in versatility.”
Loki answered in a mocking tone, “Yes, my versatile illusions. What purpose would they serve against someone who can beat me to a pulp in less than a second.”
“You’re talking about the Mad Titan, then.”
The Prince of Asgard turned and looked at the woman in shock, “How do you know that?”
Loki had tried to do his best to repress what happened to him at the hands of that monster. He sounded so reasonable, so understanding, that’s the worst of it. He could torture you until you can barely think straight, he could break your mind again and again, and sound so regretful, like he didn’t enjoy doing it, like it was Loki’s fault that he was forcing him to do so.
He tried, he really tried to resist, to fight, but he was never the strong one, that was Thor. No, he was the smart one, the tricky one, and what can intelligence do against a man of Thanos’ power? Loki once tried to escape, used his most powerful illusions to run away. He was caught almost immediately. It hadn’t taken him any effort to do so, and the torture that he was subjected to for the next couple of weeks was the worst he had ever experienced.
The Morrigan gave him a sad smile, “I knew the second I saw you. Your mind was fighting the scepter’s compulsions, and I could see the scars of your torture. He really is a nasty piece of work, Thanos.”
Loki shivered at the name. It brought back horrible memories, “I tried, I really did.”
“I know you did. You did your best, Loki.”
The woman’s tone was warm and calming. For a fraction of a second, Loki wasn’t here with one of the most dangerous women in the nine realms. Instead, his mother stood there, calming him, comforting him. And in that moment, he let himself truly go. Tears pricked his eyes, and when the woman approached him, he let her hug him.
After a few minutes, Loki asked, “Does father know?”
“Yes, I told him when I first brought you here. It’s why your punishment wasn’t severe. He wanted to make sure that you were free of any influence of the Mind Stone before letting you go. That’s not even mentioning the political shitstorm that would be facing him in court if he just let you go without any consequences, and the fact that he feared that you would interfere with our plans concerning the mess in Asgard.”
Wait, what are they talking about, “What plans? What mess?”
The woman shook her head, “It’s a long story, one that I’ll tell you about later. Now, let’s change the subject to something brighter. You do not believe that your powers are enough.”
“Of course, I don’t. All my life, I’ve been ridiculed because of my lack of firepower. I can’t destroy armies, like Thor can, I can’t slay monsters without an effort. My skills with weaponry are above average at most.”
“You underestimate your power, Loki. You are the God of Mischief. Illusions can be very dangerous if you know how to use them. Watch me.”
Suddenly, a green fire appeared from the woman’s hand. Loki felt an odd sense of comfort towards it. It was curiously familiar in a way. The God of Mischief tried to work out what the fire was, until he gasped in realization, “This is me, my power, my domain. How are you doing this? You’re not supposed to have a connection to the Odinforce.”
“It’s a new skill of mine I’ve been trying to develop. I am mimicking your magic. It’s not really your domain, it’s a cheap replica, a reflection, so to speak. This is what I have scanned from your magic, and I want you to see what I can do with it. I won’t be using more power than you have right now.”
Loki nodded, and the Morrigan gave him a familiar smirk. It was the one he had whenever he pulled a prank on Thor when they were younger. Suddenly, she slammed her green fire hand on the ground, and Loki gasped at the scene. In front of him, created by his power, an entire replica of Asgard was being built. It was massive, far larger than anything Loki ever imagined creating. He tried to touch them, but they were oddly tangible. He could break through them if he really tried, but if he hadn’t seen the Morrigan cast the spell, he would have never guessed that he wasn’t home. The illusion was even strong enough for him to walk on. This was a feat beyond his imagination.
The Morrigan smirked at his gaping expression, “This is what you could make, what you could become, your glorious purpose, as they say. And this is just the beginning, the tip of the iceberg. You can do so much more. You have always underestimated yourself, Loki. But your father, in his odd way, still loved you and gave you a very powerful gift.”
Loki’s eyes were tearing up, “Then why did he never tell me about it?”
“He believes, as I do as well, that one should gain experiences to fully appreciate life. He was always obsessed with the concept of worthiness. And how can you prove yourself worthy of your power if you don’t even try to use it properly? This is your power, Loki, your untapped potential. It might look like Odin prefers your brother over you – and there might be some truth in that statement – but he also loves you in his own way.”
Loki watched flabbergasted as the woman released her spell and the illusion of Asgard slowly faded away. She continued, “Why don’t we go and see how your brother is doing?”
She waved her hand and a green portal appeared, swallowing them. The portal reminded Loki of his illusions for some reason, “Did you make that portal using my power.”
The woman snorted, “Does it matter if I did? It’s your power, after all. Just try to see if you can do it.”
Before Loki could reply, he heard a familiar male voice, “Lady Morrigan. Did you see it? Am I close yet?”
Loki hadn’t heard Thor’s voice ever since the invasion. His brother hadn’t once tried to visit his cell, and even if he denied it, Loki was hurt by his brother ignoring him. Thor sounded oddly excited, not that he wasn’t excited by weird shit before. No, Thor sounded so childish when spoke to the Morrigan, something that he hadn’t heard ever since Thor killed his first opponent.
Loki didn’t know if he was excited or afraid at the coming meeting. Perhaps it was both. He didn’t know what to do, what to say. Luckily, the dust from Thor’s attack hadn’t settled yet, and Thor didn’t know that Loki was there.
The Morrigan seemed used to Thor’s excited tone, “You’re doing very well, Thor. I have to say that I’m surprised that you came that far in such a short time.”
With a flick of her fingers, the witch cleared the dust in the air, and the crater repaired itself. The added visibility let Thor see his brother for the first time in a while, “Brother? What are you doing here?”
“It seems that our father has given me a mission.”
Thor looked angry for a moment, and he summoned Mjolnir from far away. Did he not use it to power the attack? “I have had enough of your lies brother. I will return you to your cell in Asgard.”
Thor threw Mjolnir at his brother, and Loki flinched, expecting the painful impact, which for some reason, didn’t come. Instead, the Morrigan had raised her arms and stopped the hammer in the air. That is supposed to be impossible. Nothing is supposed to stop Mjolnir from obeying Thor’s commands. Loki had tried in his youth, and the only time he had seen someone else control Mjolnir was his father, when he banished Thor to Midgard all those years ago. Well, it’s not like the Morrigan hadn’t surprised him before.
Thor was gaping at his teacher’s actions, “Why are you protecting him, Lady Morrigan?”
“Because he did not lie. Odin sent him to us, on a mission.”
“And what mission could that be?”
Loki, irritated, dryly responded, “He wished for me to give you this.”
The God of Mischief took out the Uru box which was filled with runes and held it in the palm of his hand. Suddenly the runes started glowing and the box started to float. It started to fold away like a complex puzzle until it opened up, revealing a white glowing light. It looked oddly like a star, but it didn’t burn. It didn’t even hurt his eyes. It was oddly comforting. The light just stayed there for a few seconds before suddenly flying towards Thor’s chest.
The moment the light touched Thor’s skin, the world turned white.
Alright, this is it, we're finally caught up to the current events of the story. This means that there will be no more mass uploads. I generally post four chapters a week, on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. I tend to be consistent (I have been for more than a year now) but I will let you know if I miss an upload day.
On the other hand, if you want to support me, check out my Patreon. I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 15 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.
Chapter 279: Glorious Purpose
11th February 2013, Sayre Manor
(Loki Odinson POV)
That didn’t make any sense, “I have no divinity. Only Thor was granted a domain in the last thousand years.”
The woman smirked, “Is that so? I can feel your connection to the Odinforce, so you do have a domain, whatever that may be. Your father called you a God of Mischief. You should explore this further.”
Still confused Loki asked, “How do I do that, exactly?”
Before she could respond, the God of Mischief heard a thunderous boom, and watched as a gigantic beam of lightning gathered in the cloudy sky and fell into the forest far away. The Asgardian was blinded by the attack. He turned to the Morrigan for an explanation and found her looking at the forest with a slight smile, “He’s getting better.”
Wait what? That was a bolt of lightning, one of Thor’s main attacks. Was Thor the one who cast that? His brother had never showed this level of power before. It can’t be him, it just can’t.
He turned to his companion, hoping for her to deny his suspicions. She just shrugged, “What can I say? Your brother flourished under my tutelage.”
Before he could even formulate a reply in his mind, the Morrigan burst into laughter, “You should see your face…”
“Is this some sort of trick?”
It had to be. Thor had never even come close to having that much control over his abilities. Theoretically, he could have the raw power to do it, Thor was never the most precise man. Loki would admit that his brother surpassed him in raw power, without question, but the God of Mischief was almost unparalleled in his control. While Loki couldn’t cast illusions on a large scale, he could use his illusions for hours and maintain his enchantments for months. His illusions and invisibility spells were indistinguishable from reality.
Thor’s beam was almost entirely cylindrical, which was abnormal. Lightning was uncontrolled, wild, chaotic. To be able to shape it in such a way would require immense control over the element, something that definitely wasn’t Thor’s strong suit. He always preferred to cause as much collateral damage as possible, something that Loki tended to avoid, mostly because large scale damage was beyond him.
The Morrigan gave him a pitying look, “No, this isn’t a trick. Your brother is the one who used that attack. He’s trying to recreate one of my personal spells. He is getting closer to completing it. He only needs a little more control to complete it.”
More control, how much more control could this spell need? It’s not like the spell doesn’t already cause too much damage. Grumbling, the God of Mischief muttered, “Lucky bastard…”
The woman gave him a reproaching look, “You are severely overestimating your difference in powers. Thor outclasses you in raw power, but there is a price to this kind of power. Outside of the fact that he will always need to work on his control to efficiently use his power, Thor’s affinity overwhelms practically all kind of other magics he could learn. If it’s anything more than the basics, his inner storm will destabilize the spells. Thor beats you in power, but you do the same to him in versatility.”
Loki answered in a mocking tone, “Yes, my versatile illusions. What purpose would they serve against someone who can beat me to a pulp in less than a second.”
“You’re talking about the Mad Titan, then.”
The Prince of Asgard turned and looked at the woman in shock, “How do you know that?”
Loki had tried to do his best to repress what happened to him at the hands of that monster. He sounded so reasonable, so understanding, that’s the worst of it. He could torture you until you can barely think straight, he could break your mind again and again, and sound so regretful, like he didn’t enjoy doing it, like it was Loki’s fault that he was forcing him to do so.
He tried, he really tried to resist, to fight, but he was never the strong one, that was Thor. No, he was the smart one, the tricky one, and what can intelligence do against a man of Thanos’ power? Loki once tried to escape, used his most powerful illusions to run away. He was caught almost immediately. It hadn’t taken him any effort to do so, and the torture that he was subjected to for the next couple of weeks was the worst he had ever experienced.
The Morrigan gave him a sad smile, “I knew the second I saw you. Your mind was fighting the scepter’s compulsions, and I could see the scars of your torture. He really is a nasty piece of work, Thanos.”
Loki shivered at the name. It brought back horrible memories, “I tried, I really did.”
“I know you did. You did your best, Loki.”
The woman’s tone was warm and calming. For a fraction of a second, Loki wasn’t here with one of the most dangerous women in the nine realms. Instead, his mother stood there, calming him, comforting him. And in that moment, he let himself truly go. Tears pricked his eyes, and when the woman approached him, he let her hug him.
After a few minutes, Loki asked, “Does father know?”
“Yes, I told him when I first brought you here. It’s why your punishment wasn’t severe. He wanted to make sure that you were free of any influence of the Mind Stone before letting you go. That’s not even mentioning the political shitstorm that would be facing him in court if he just let you go without any consequences, and the fact that he feared that you would interfere with our plans concerning the mess in Asgard.”
Wait, what are they talking about, “What plans? What mess?”
The woman shook her head, “It’s a long story, one that I’ll tell you about later. Now, let’s change the subject to something brighter. You do not believe that your powers are enough.”
“Of course, I don’t. All my life, I’ve been ridiculed because of my lack of firepower. I can’t destroy armies, like Thor can, I can’t slay monsters without an effort. My skills with weaponry are above average at most.”
“You underestimate your power, Loki. You are the God of Mischief. Illusions can be very dangerous if you know how to use them. Watch me.”
Suddenly, a green fire appeared from the woman’s hand. Loki felt an odd sense of comfort towards it. It was curiously familiar in a way. The God of Mischief tried to work out what the fire was, until he gasped in realization, “This is me, my power, my domain. How are you doing this? You’re not supposed to have a connection to the Odinforce.”
“It’s a new skill of mine I’ve been trying to develop. I am mimicking your magic. It’s not really your domain, it’s a cheap replica, a reflection, so to speak. This is what I have scanned from your magic, and I want you to see what I can do with it. I won’t be using more power than you have right now.”
Loki nodded, and the Morrigan gave him a familiar smirk. It was the one he had whenever he pulled a prank on Thor when they were younger. Suddenly, she slammed her green fire hand on the ground, and Loki gasped at the scene. In front of him, created by his power, an entire replica of Asgard was being built. It was massive, far larger than anything Loki ever imagined creating. He tried to touch them, but they were oddly tangible. He could break through them if he really tried, but if he hadn’t seen the Morrigan cast the spell, he would have never guessed that he wasn’t home. The illusion was even strong enough for him to walk on. This was a feat beyond his imagination.
The Morrigan smirked at his gaping expression, “This is what you could make, what you could become, your glorious purpose, as they say. And this is just the beginning, the tip of the iceberg. You can do so much more. You have always underestimated yourself, Loki. But your father, in his odd way, still loved you and gave you a very powerful gift.”
Loki’s eyes were tearing up, “Then why did he never tell me about it?”
“He believes, as I do as well, that one should gain experiences to fully appreciate life. He was always obsessed with the concept of worthiness. And how can you prove yourself worthy of your power if you don’t even try to use it properly? This is your power, Loki, your untapped potential. It might look like Odin prefers your brother over you – and there might be some truth in that statement – but he also loves you in his own way.”
Loki watched flabbergasted as the woman released her spell and the illusion of Asgard slowly faded away. She continued, “Why don’t we go and see how your brother is doing?”
She waved her hand and a green portal appeared, swallowing them. The portal reminded Loki of his illusions for some reason, “Did you make that portal using my power.”
The woman snorted, “Does it matter if I did? It’s your power, after all. Just try to see if you can do it.”
Before Loki could reply, he heard a familiar male voice, “Lady Morrigan. Did you see it? Am I close yet?”
Loki hadn’t heard Thor’s voice ever since the invasion. His brother hadn’t once tried to visit his cell, and even if he denied it, Loki was hurt by his brother ignoring him. Thor sounded oddly excited, not that he wasn’t excited by weird shit before. No, Thor sounded so childish when spoke to the Morrigan, something that he hadn’t heard ever since Thor killed his first opponent.
Loki didn’t know if he was excited or afraid at the coming meeting. Perhaps it was both. He didn’t know what to do, what to say. Luckily, the dust from Thor’s attack hadn’t settled yet, and Thor didn’t know that Loki was there.
The Morrigan seemed used to Thor’s excited tone, “You’re doing very well, Thor. I have to say that I’m surprised that you came that far in such a short time.”
With a flick of her fingers, the witch cleared the dust in the air, and the crater repaired itself. The added visibility let Thor see his brother for the first time in a while, “Brother? What are you doing here?”
“It seems that our father has given me a mission.”
Thor looked angry for a moment, and he summoned Mjolnir from far away. Did he not use it to power the attack? “I have had enough of your lies brother. I will return you to your cell in Asgard.”
Thor threw Mjolnir at his brother, and Loki flinched, expecting the painful impact, which for some reason, didn’t come. Instead, the Morrigan had raised her arms and stopped the hammer in the air. That is supposed to be impossible. Nothing is supposed to stop Mjolnir from obeying Thor’s commands. Loki had tried in his youth, and the only time he had seen someone else control Mjolnir was his father, when he banished Thor to Midgard all those years ago. Well, it’s not like the Morrigan hadn’t surprised him before.
Thor was gaping at his teacher’s actions, “Why are you protecting him, Lady Morrigan?”
“Because he did not lie. Odin sent him to us, on a mission.”
“And what mission could that be?”
Loki, irritated, dryly responded, “He wished for me to give you this.”
The God of Mischief took out the Uru box which was filled with runes and held it in the palm of his hand. Suddenly the runes started glowing and the box started to float. It started to fold away like a complex puzzle until it opened up, revealing a white glowing light. It looked oddly like a star, but it didn’t burn. It didn’t even hurt his eyes. It was oddly comforting. The light just stayed there for a few seconds before suddenly flying towards Thor’s chest.
The moment the light touched Thor’s skin, the world turned white.
Alright, this is it, we're finally caught up to the current events of the story. This means that there will be no more mass uploads. I generally post four chapters a week, on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. I tend to be consistent (I have been for more than a year now) but I will let you know if I miss an upload day.
On the other hand, if you want to support me, check out my Patreon. I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 15 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.
