Elric couldn't help but sigh internally as he prepared to counter the attack.
Whatever entity was sealed inside this temple clearly wasn't in a very good mood after centuries of imprisonment. So he decided to act first—end this quickly before things got more complicated.
He began gathering chakra in his hand, feeling the familiar energy swirling and condensing. Let's just bomb this thing and see what happens later, he thought pragmatically.
After living Sokovia and all the chaos there, Elric had learned a very important lesson about dealing with supernatural threats:
A big boom could solve almost any problem you encountered.
It might not be the most elegant or efficient solution, but it was definitely the quickest way to handle things. And if the problem wasn't solved after the first explosion, that simply meant your boom wasn't big enough.
So when encountering something dangerous for the first time, his instinct was always the same—try to blast it into oblivion first, ask questions later.
But before he could release the gathered energy—
FWOOOOSH!
A rainbow light suddenly descended from above, piercing straight through the temple roof with the sound of tearing reality itself.
As quickly as it came, the light vanished, leaving behind only a single figure standing amid the ruins. He wore flowing green robes with golden armor plates over the top, a horned helmet crowning his head, and an expression of casual arrogance mixed with genuine curiosity.
The moment Loki materialized, his sharp eyes scanned the destroyed temple, taking in the scene with practiced ease. His gaze landed on Thor standing protectively in front of a mortal girl, and his disdain grew even more pronounced.
"I must say, brother," Loki drawled, his voice dripping with theatrical disappointment, "when you fall from grace, you certainly choose... remote places. Couldn't have landed somewhere with decent accommodations? Perhaps a palace? No, you pick a crumbling ruin in the middle of nowhere."
Eira instinctively stepped behind Thor, feeling the weight of Loki's predatory attention on her.
Thor's stance grew more rigid, his voice dropping to a warning tone. "Leave her out of this, Loki."
Loki raised both eyebrows in mock innocence. "Relax, dear brother. If I wished her dead, she would already be dead. I have no interest in harming your little mortal pet."
Thor didn't respond, but his silence and the tension in his shoulders spoke volumes.
Loki smirked at the reaction.
His eyes swept across the chamber once more, landing briefly on Elric before dismissing him entirely as just another unimportant mortal. Not worth his attention.
That's going to be a mistake, Elric thought, but said nothing. Let the arrogant god learn the hard way.
Loki began to pace slowly around Thor, his hands clasped behind his back like a teacher delivering a lecture to a disappointing student.
"I came to see how far you've fallen," he said, his voice dripping with false sympathy. "Father banished you. Mjolnir abandoned you. Even Heimdall—the all-seeing guardian—refuses to look your way. You've become invisible to Asgard itself."
Eira shot Thor a worried glance. Thor's face remained stoic, betraying nothing—but his fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
Loki leaned closer, his voice dropping to something almost gentle. Almost compassionate.
"And I felt it was my duty as your brother to deliver the news personally..."
He paused for dramatic effect.
"Odin is dead."
The words hung in the air like a death sentence.
Thor's heart stopped. The world seemed to tilt beneath his feet.
"What?" His voice broke, cracking with raw emotion. "No... you're lying. You must be lying."
"Believe what you wish," Loki sighed dramatically, turning away as if the conversation bored him. "Father died in his sleep. Peacefully, they say. Though his final words..." Loki glanced back over his shoulder. "His final words were of disappointment. In you."
Eira felt her stomach twist with horror and sympathy. She wanted to say something, anything, but what could she possibly say in the face of such devastating news?
Thor stepped backward as if physically struck by the words.
His father... dead?
The last words between them had been angry. Full of rage and disappointment on both sides. And now there would never be a chance to make things right, to prove himself worthy, to hear his father say he was proud of him one final time.
Loki watched the emotion cross Thor's face with a flicker of satisfaction dancing in his eyes.
The great Thor, brought low by words alone. How fitting.
Then the temple shook violently.
Loki's satisfied expression faltered.
Oh right, Elric thought, having momentarily forgotten about the giant popsicle trying to break free beneath them. We still have that problem.
RRRROOOOOAAAAAARRR!
A roar—shook the entire structure to its foundations.
Eira grabbed onto a nearby column to keep from falling. Dust and debris rained from the ceiling in thick clouds. More cracks spread across the walls like spiderwebs.
Loki stiffened, his eyes narrowing with genuine concern. "Ah. And here I thought the décor simply needed dusting. How wrong I was."
Thor immediately snapped out of his grief-stricken daze, his warrior instincts overriding his emotions. He rushed toward the rune chamber where the energy was most concentrated.
The runes blazed with brilliant blue light, pulsing with increasing intensity. Frost burst through the cracks in the floor, spreading like crystalline veins across the stone.
Loki followed, his earlier mockery replaced with genuine annoyance. "What in the Nine Realms is—"
Then he saw it.
The massive hand was breaking through the ground inside the temple floor with renewed vigor. A colossal, frost-covered arm pushed upward with impossible strength, forcing the earth and stone apart like they were made of paper.
Loki froze in place, his usual composure cracking.
"...Well. That's not ideal."
Eira clung to Thor's arm desperately. "It's coming through! The seal is breaking completely!"
Thor's voice turned cold and hard. "Borgir. The Sleeping King has awakened."
Loki blinked rapidly, processing the name. "Borgir? The actual Borgir?
"The very same," Thor confirmed grimly.
Eira gasped, her face pale. "He'll destroy the temple! He'll destroy the entire town!"
Thor stepped forward, positioning himself to confront the emerging giant despite being completely powerless. His mortal body was all he had, but he would use it.
But Loki grabbed his arm forcefully, spinning him around. "Have you lost what little remains of your mind?! You have no divine strength! No weapons! No armor! You'll die in seconds!"
Thor shook him off roughly. "I won't stand by and let him endanger this girl or her people! If I die, then I die—but I die with honor!"
Loki looked from Thor—burning with righteous determination—to Eira—terrified but brave—to the runes glowing with apocalyptic intensity as the seal finally failed.
For a brief moment, genuine conflict crossed Loki's face.
His brother was an idiot. A noble, self-sacrificing, impossibly stubborn idiot who would get himself killed for mortals he barely knew.
Then Loki groaned loudly, throwing his hands up in exasperation.
"Oh, fine," he said with theatrical resignation. "I didn't come all this way to be crushed by some ancient relic."
With a flourish of his hands, he summoned two glowing green daggers from thin air, spinning them expertly.
"Let it not be said that Loki Laufeyson lacks... family loyalty."
Thor almost laughed despite the dire situation.
Almost.
The temple gave way all at once.
Wooden beams that had stood for centuries snapped with thunderous cracks. Ancient carvings that depicted forgotten gods shattered into dust. Stone walls that had weathered countless storms crumbled like sand. Runes that had glowed faithfully for generations flared one final time—burning with blinding intensity—before splintering apart under the sheer overwhelming force of Borgir's rising body.
The Sleeping King was fully awakening.
Thor threw himself over Eira, covering her body with his own as debris rained down from above.
Loki reacted instantly, his hands weaving intricate patterns as he summoned a dome of shimmering green magic above all three of them. The barrier formed just as a crushing rain of stone and wooden fragments crashed down, deflecting the deadly projectiles.
The world became a chaotic blur of splintering wood, choking dust that filled lungs and eyes, and the absolutely deafening roar of an awakened titan that shook their bones.
When the rumbling finally stopped—though debris continued to patter down like hail—the three of them were crouched amid the ruins. Loki's magic barrier barely held back the immense weight of collapsed timbers and shattered stone pressing down from above.
Loki huffed, maintaining the spell with visible effort. "Well. The architecture of this realm truly leaves something to be desired. Couldn't they build with materials that don't immediately surrender to gravity?"
Thor ignored the sarcasm, focused entirely on making sure Eira was unharmed. "Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm—I'm fine," she managed, though she was shaking.
The banter between Thor and Loki was entertaining in its own way, but Elric knew that if that giant fully emerged from its prison, things would become significantly more troublesome.
Time to act.
Sensing movement, all three of them—Thor, Eira, and Loki—turned to look at Elric.
"Mortal," Loki began dismissively, about to order him to flee or hide or do whatever useless thing mortals did in crisis situations.
But when Elric's cold eyes landed on him—Loki shut up immediately.
Those were not the eyes of a mortal.
"Who is that mortal?" Loki whispered urgently to Thor, genuine uncertainty in his voice for the first time.
"He is a mighty warrior of Midgard," Thor replied quietly, though even he wasn't entirely sure what Elric was capable of.
Looking at the massive arm that was still trying to pull the rest of Borgir's body through the shattered temple floor, Elric began to gather a large amount of chakra in his right hand.
The more the two brothers watched, the more astonished they became.
Energy was visibly swirling around Elric's palm—raw power condensing and compressing into an increasingly dense sphere.
In the blink of an eye, the sphere of energy swelled to human size—a massive ball of swirling blue and white power that crackled with barely contained force. It looked like a miniature star, or perhaps a bomb ready to detonate.
Without wasting a single moment, Elric went directly at the altar where Borgir was emerging.
He was hoping it would explode on impact, like a normal person.
But something beyond his imagination happened.
The moment the energy sphere made contact with the altar's runic circle, Elric felt a sudden, irresistible pull—like reality itself was grabbing him and yanking him away.
Before he could even react or resist, the world twisted.
Space folded.
And suddenly, he was already in a completely different place.
Back at the temple, Loki stared in shock at where the mortal had been standing just a moment ago.
In Elric's place now stood the fully manifested form of Jötun Borgir—the Frost Giant himself.
The giant stood fifteen feet tall, his blue skin covered in ancient ice-forged armor, frost radiating from his body in visible waves. His eyes burned with centuries of accumulated hatred as he took in his surroundings, finally free after an eternity of imprisonment.
Loki couldn't help but mutter in disbelief, "Your magic trick is quite good, mortal. But can you change back now?"
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