Those time travelers that year

"Not bad, not bad!" Loki clapped his hands and exclaimed, "Ambitious and intelligent. We may not be able to be friends, but we are both qualified to cooperate with each other."

"Then can you tell me? Why were your illusions so real that night?!" Charles asked. "If I'm not mistaken, it wasn't an ordinary illusion spell! I can also create illusions, but I could never make them so real, and I couldn't create a thousand people from one person."

“If you want to know, you can, I can tell you, wizard.” Loki leaned back in his chair. “Then what can I get in return? There’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world. If you want to know the secret of the illusion, then you’ll have to pay a heavy price.”

"A price!?" Charles said with a smile. "Even if I had something to offer now... could you possibly get it? Your current situation is probably not good at all, is it? At least not as bad as it was in Asgard—"

"—It's going to get even worse!"

199. [Power]

Is Loki's situation bad? Absolutely, it's terrible! In fact, it's worse than being in Asgard. In Asgard, both Thor and their mother would have gone to great lengths to protect him, and Odin would at most have imprisoned him to appease the other Asgardian gods. However, this period could be short or long, ranging from a hundred to a thousand years—a negligible amount of time for gods with such long lifespans.

However, in the final conflict in Asgard, Thor, whose mindset had changed, in order to prevent Loki from unleashing the full power of the Rainbow Bridge and tearing Jotunheim to shreds, ruthlessly smashed the Rainbow Bridge in half with Mjolnir. The broken Rainbow Bridge was severely damaged, and at least until it was repaired, Asgard could no longer be easily traversed as before.

At that very moment, a disheartened Loki deliberately fell into the Ginnunga Abyss, intending to be buried forever in the endless darkness. But then, an unexpected event occurred. The dark realm of the Ginnunga Abyss, which even Asgard could not easily cross or enter without the aid of the Bifrost, was suddenly forcibly torn open, and, as fate would have it, the opening happened right beside him as he fell in.

When Loki came to his senses, he realized that being imprisoned in Asgard would have been better than his current situation. A tyrant who had only existed in legends, who reigned supreme on the other side of the cosmos, had appeared before him.

At this point, he was forced to make a choice: either obey like a dog, or be crushed into space debris floating in the universe.

Neither becoming a dog nor turning into space debris is what Loki wants to see. But faced with the stark reality, Loki can only lower his head and submit to the cosmic overlord and tyrant like a grandson, and he has to carry out a plan that he doesn't understand, an invasion plan full of flaws in the eyes of this deceitful god who specializes in scheming.

However, reality leaves no choice!

So, in the end, Loki had no choice but to agree to be used as cannon fodder. At least, until the goal was achieved, he was a qualified cannon fodder for that person. However, Loki didn't want to sell himself out for that foolish plan. In any case, those Chiretas were idiots, and Loki didn't think they could defeat the Asgardian army. Although the repair of the Rainbow Bridge would take some time, causing the Asgardian army to be unable to quickly reach the Nine Kingdoms for a period of time.

It's easy to imagine what kind of trouble the other nations will cause while the Rainbow Bridge is damaged. Taking advantage of this opportunity to attack Midgar could indeed be successful, provided nothing unexpected happens in Midgar.

Loki now felt that Midgard was truly full of surprises. Putting aside the wizard in front of him, from the memories of this mortal possessed by a part of his soul, Loki could clearly understand just how much had happened in this mortal world over the past hundred years.

Superheroes, supervillains, mutants, products of bio-experiments. This world is racing headlong in a direction even Loki, the god of deception, couldn't have predicted. Unless one is absolutely certain that this world isn't ruled by demons from Hell of Evil—no, even demons from Hell of Evil wouldn't be so obsessed with blowing up the planet they live on.

Neither side is a thankless task, and what Loki really wants now is how to get rid of the mess he's in. That's one of the reasons he activated the escape route he left behind in Midgard.

“Okay! I admit, my situation is pretty bad right now.” Loki shrugged and spread his hands, saying, “If nothing unexpected happens, I’ll soon be ‘leading’ a bunch of space pirates to Midgar for a stupid alien invasion…”

Being a traitor isn't easy, especially one who's just making baseless accusations. Loki isn't some green-skinned cripple from version 7.0, so he doesn't think leading people to one of the Nine Realms for an invasion would be any better. Without a doubt, his idiot brother will come running to him to make his presence known, and what unexpected factors might emerge from this planet he can no longer understand?!

"So, you want to escape this situation where you have no control over your own destiny?" Glancing at Loki's demeanor, while not entirely convinced, Ciel didn't believe the God of Deception was as brain-dead as portrayed in the movies. Bringing aliens to Earth, did he really think they'd let him rule the planet? What a joke! The Chirettas were nothing but a bunch of space pirates; could you really expect pirates to study politics?

No, it's more likely that the Chiretas made a mess of Earth. Leaving aside whether anyone resisted, given the Chiretas' methods, it would be strange if Earth's civilization didn't end up in ruins. What good would it do to rule over a desolate wasteland? Loki isn't stupid!

“That’s right!” Loki answered decisively. “I don’t want to go to an unfamiliar planet to die for a reason I don’t know.”

"Even if I could rule this planet, so what? What would those pirates leave behind? No, they would only leave me a wasteland. Would I have to scavenge for trash?"

"So, what are you planning to do, Loki!"

"If you want to know the secret of [Power], then you'll need to help me this time!"

"【Authority】?" Charles frowned, as if he had grasped something, but he couldn't quite grasp the key insight.

"Hehehe, yes, that's right!" Loki chuckled softly. "It's the [authority] that's the biggest difference between you and the gods. No matter how strong you are, enough to rival or even surpass the gods, if you don't know how to use the [authority], you are not a god."

"Just like the illusions I use, can you tell which one is real and which one is fake? Or are they all fake?!"

“No! I can’t tell!” With that, Charles shook his head and then ignited the twilight-colored flames in his eyes. “Originally, I didn’t think much of it, but when I came to Midgard, I went through a deep sleep. The power I gained after waking up should be able to distinguish between the real and the fake in mere illusions.”

"Whether it's atomic structure or changes in space, they should have been completely transparent to me. However, your illusions truly deceived me, Loki. It wasn't until the very end, when I wiped out your army of illusions with Hellfire, that I realized that from beginning to end, I had only been fighting your illusions."

200. A Different Loki (Part 1)

“I can tell you now that the army of illusions that fought you…” Loki snorted and continued, “was an illusion, one of my [Authorities].

"【Illusion】!? It really does live up to its name!" Charles asked. "This is your 【Authority】..."

“One of them,” Loki corrected. “Illusions are just one of my powers. You can probably guess what the others are. I’m not the kind of god who excels at fighting. If it had been my brother, who values ​​muscles more than brains, or Tyr, the god of war, that night, you wouldn’t have won so easily!”

“Indeed, I don’t want to test the power of Mjolnir myself,” Ciel said. “Then, Thor’s authority must include lightning or thunder, which is why he truly deserves the title of God of Thunder. Although, it’s mostly the power of that hammer, right?”

“That’s right, our King of the Gods of Asgard is particularly biased!” Loki said in a very complicated tone. “My authority comes from my mother’s teachings and my own exploration, but Thor was destined from birth to inherit the weapon Mjolnir and the position of ‘Thor.’ Hehehehehe…”

Seeing Loki burst into maniacal laughter, the Ciel wasn't surprised at all. Anyone could feel the pain and humiliation Loki was experiencing after hearing his story. Before, he might have simply thought Odin was favoring Thor, the eldest son. But now, Loki couldn't distinguish whether it was favoritism or deliberate intent. Or rather, how much of his life on Asgard over the past thousand years had been genuine and how much was false? The deeper the love, the deeper the hate. Undoubtedly, after spending thousands of years on Asgard, Loki considered himself a part of Asgard, a fact evident in his ruthless killing of his own biological father, Laufey.

He even wanted to destroy Jotunheim directly. Not to mention that he couldn't see what the destruction of Jotunheim would bring, as a god of conspiracy and deception, Loki could fully imagine that if he really destroyed Jotunheim with the Bifrost, then a new round of war would be ushered in by the Nine Realms.

Surtur, the king of the fire giants, would never let this opportunity slip by. The Nine Realms would be engulfed in war, burning from Asgard all the way to every corner of the World Tree. Elves, dwarves, Aesir, Vanir, and giants alike would be swept up in the flames of war, with no one able to escape. This was the prophecy of Ragnarok, a war that had been passed down through Asgard.

Even so, Loki was willing to continue the plan. If Jotunheim was destroyed, the ice giants would become a thing of the past. The giant races of the entire Nine Realms would suffer losses, and even if Ragnarok did break out, Asgard would be able to face Surtr more easily without the enemy of Jotunheim.

But suppressing the war is simple: if Loki were to step forward and acknowledge his hidden identity, the war would be quelled. In other words, if he were to sacrifice himself, the prophecy and destiny would be nothing but a cruel joke.

Of course, Shire didn't know Loki's true intentions, but as someone also skilled in soul magic, he could clearly sense the sorrow in Loki's laughter. Therefore, he didn't offer any words of comfort. After all, in some ways, he and Loki were indeed the same kind of people. Both were self-centered, fighting for their own interests; the only difference was that the scope of their interests was something only they themselves knew.

Soon, as he was laughing, Loki suddenly coughed. Although he concealed it through illusion, the person he was possessing was an elderly man. Illusion can change appearances, but it cannot change essence.

"Alright, that's enough of our casual conversation," Loki said. "So, what's your decision, Wizard?"

"Are you sure? I don't think I can handle the guy who forced you into this farce." Of course, Ciel couldn't handle him, nor did he want to face Thanos, who had already started using his cheat codes. Thanos without cheat codes was on a completely different level from Thanos with cheat codes. In some lore, Thanos without cheat codes was sub-Celestial level; with them, he surpassed Celestial level entirely. And now, Thanos undoubtedly possessed some Infinity Stones. It could be said that even Odin at his peak would be helpless against the current Thanos.

“You can’t handle it; Odin will probably have to deal with it himself!” Loki said bluntly. “Anyway, I don’t think we can bring that down with just one scheme. In fact, even the soul that’s currently on Earth, possessing this poor wretch, has had its connection to its original body severed by me. I’m just afraid that he’ll figure something out!”

"So you just want to escape!?" Ciel stared in astonishment at the situation, which was clearly completely different from the movies. In the films, during the Battle of New York, Loki was portrayed as a naive clown naively wanting to rule the Earth. However, in the real world, Loki wasn't as foolish as in the movies, completely lacking the demeanor of a god of deception. Although, unsurprisingly, he would still outmaneuver the Avengers, what was the situation with the Avengers in the movies?

Tony, with his sharp tongue; the Hulk, who practically loses his mind when angry; two cunning agents, one of whom stumbled at the beginning; Thor, whose muscles outpace his brains… The only normal captain is overwhelmed by team conflicts and ignored by everyone. Only after the portal opens and the Chitauri invade do the problematic members finally come to their senses, accept the captain's leadership, and struggle to resist the Chitauri. In the end, thanks to the combined plot armor of countless protagonists, the war, which seemed to be a foregone conclusion, is completely reversed.

In the final scene of Thor 2, he finally shows some signs of scheming and plotting.

But the person standing before Ciel now shows none of the characteristics seen in the movies.

"Don't you want to rule the Earth anymore?" Charles suddenly asked curiously.

"Why would I come here to rule this murky place?!" Loki sneered. "Do you really think I know nothing? Do you think mutants, who are born with extraordinary powers, are so easy to come by? What's more, the powers they possess are incredibly diverse, some of them even capable of threatening me. Do you think such a so-called X-gene would appear in a normal planetary ecosystem?"

“No way!?” Charles shook his head and said, “The human factor is too obvious. It’s just that the vast majority of people in Midgard are foolish enough to think that this is what they call God’s blessing, the choice of fate.”

"Fortunately, there are intelligent people among these mutated hybrids," Loki continued. "That intelligent person who is dedicated to integrating mutants into Midgard society may be limited by his perspective and cannot fully see everything... but he definitely realized something was wrong. So he wanted to fill the gap that had been created. However, his foolish, self-righteous, and clever old friend has been a liability all along. And now, that liability doesn't even know that he has become a bargaining chip for that intelligent person to maintain the balance."

201. A Different Loki (Part 2)

This unexpected and wondrous journey into the Marvel universe truly broadened Shire's horizons. At the very least, he learned the direction to take, and also realized that reality is always reality. The God of Deception before him was no complete outsider like himself; he could see the whole picture from a glimpse, truly deserving of the title of God of Conspiracy and Deception.

In Marvel, mutants are a genuine money pit, a massive money pit. Not everyone is like Apocalypse Chen, capable of fully utilizing mutants, helping them develop their full power, and surpassing them. After all, he was a monster who could chat and laugh with the 0AA. In this world without Apocalypse Chen, the name Apocalypse is always associated with some old relic, and the kind of useless person who never explores his own power. Or rather, most mutants are just brutes with a kind of savage energy.

Perhaps the only one who seriously studies abilities is Professor X. His ability to seal away the Dark Phoenix, preventing her from escaping her mental prison, and his subsequent possession of another body after death, prove that the film version of Professor X isn't just a fool relying on brute force. Unfortunately for Professor X, in this world, he was so deeply misled by Nazi ideology that he truly became a fool.

However, Loki is no fool now, so he sees things very clearly, and even Ciel, who was on the side of the plot from the beginning, was taken aback.

How do you know all this?

"Damn it!" Loki pointed to his head and said, "This Midgard has a respectable social status, but he doesn't know how to use those relationships at all."

"So, you've been deliberately influencing his thinking all along, uncovering the secrets of this planet?!"

“That’s right, but you’re wrong about one thing,” Loki said. “I did this intentionally. Even if this mortal is indeed very intelligent, he is limited by his knowledge and vision, so he can’t see far. So at this time, I gave him some new knowledge. Some completely new knowledge. Of course, in his mind, he thought it was just a so-called flash of inspiration.”

“You did this on purpose to fish for him, didn’t you!” Charles said in a low voice. “Besides, this mortal has been in contact with your brother, so I don’t think there’s anyone more suitable than him.”

“Talking to smart people really saves a lot of time!” Loki exclaimed. “That’s right, I did it on purpose. Otherwise, with so many scientists in this world, that sneaky organization called S.H.I.E.L.D. wouldn’t have taken the bait so easily.”

“Let’s stay outside for now!” Charles cast his gaze into the darkness outside the glass window. “Just wait, and I’ll take ‘you’ wherever you want to be. Now, tell me! I need the knowledge of [Authority]. What should I offer in exchange?!”

Da da da da...

Loki tapped the table lightly with his fingers, and after a short while, he spoke, "When that time comes, I will open a portal on the other side and come to Midgard. Similarly, I will bring over what that person gave me. It is something he needed to put on Earth, and also something to monitor me."

"Then I'll have to work myself to death, playing an alien invasion war with a bunch of idiots... I'll have to open a tunnel and bring those moron pirates over."

"Only then will that tyrant take his eyes off me. The things used to monitor me will be completely free, because they were meant to be placed in this world anyway."

"And at that time, I need you to take it away with your own hands, preferably by standing on the side of justice, defeating me and capturing me..."

"Does this make any sense?" Charles asked doubtfully. "Even if I don't intervene, you can still get caught if you want to let them get away with it."

“Yes! That’s right!” Loki said. “But who knows how many people will die in the city I’ve chosen by then? And you must have a good idea of ​​what kind of people the rulers of the Midgard kingdom are these days!”

"Yes, they really are a bunch of idiots."

“So when that time comes, those idiots will definitely not miss a chance to wipe out the supervillains and Superboys all at once,” Loki said dismissively. “I think at that time, the weapon called the nuclear bomb will come down without hesitation, and in the process, send the Superboys and innocent Midgar people here to their deaths.”

"But the power of nuclear bombs is not enough to shake the might of the universe. In my opinion, once they find that one nuclear bomb has no effect, they will definitely continue to use them one after another. At that time, tens or even hundreds of thousands of Midgard people will die."

"When victory comes, they will need a scapegoat to cover up their actions, and who is better than me, the one who started the war? At that time, with millions dead and wounded, my brothers will not come to my rescue to be sent back to Asgard for imprisonment, but will simply smash my head with a hammer."

clap clap clap...

Ciel stood up and applauded enthusiastically at the God of Deception before him—a genuine expression of respect. If he hadn't known the plot of Avengers beforehand, Ciel wouldn't have been so surprised. It was precisely because he knew how the story would unfold that Ciel now truly felt the God of Deception before him deserved respect.

The development of the Women's Federation is exactly as he planned. Except for not guessing that Tony risked everything to send the nuclear bomb into the portal, he had basically thought of everything. It's like a stage play that he personally planned and performed.

"Thank you for the compliment!" Loki returned the gesture, raising his glass to a full glass once more.

"So, what exactly do you want me to do?" Charles asked.

“At the very last moment, snatch it from my hands. I’ll tamper with it and use that to close the portal,” Loki said. “That way, not many people will die, and our Thor will have enough confidence to vouch for me.”

"The mortals of Midgar, if there are any intelligent ones left at this point, know that by then, that dangerous toy is not one they can afford to play with. Who knows, it might happen again next time."

"So they'll definitely take the trouble with them when Thor escorts me back to Asgard. Plus, with my current status as the Asgardian prince, which hasn't been stripped of it yet, I'll basically get the freedom I want..."

“And there’s the matter of returning to Asgard, right?” Shire interjected. “Then, okay, the deal is done!”

202. Mutual distrust

"Aren't you going to lie to me?" Loki asked the Ciel with interest.

“No! I can tell whether the knowledge of the gods you speak of is true or false,” Ciel replied, looking at Loki. “I can also see whether it will be useful to me or whether there will be any side effects.”

“While I won’t completely believe it, there will at least be some truth to it, and I only need that part of it. You’re a smart man, Loki, so you definitely won’t play too many tricks on this.”

“That’s right, it’s easy talking to smart people,” Loki said. “In fact, this is only part of the deal. There’ll be a second part after you capture me!”

"oh!?"

"You crave power, don't you? I can see that. And coincidentally, I know of something hidden here, somewhere on some island in Midgard," Loki said ominously. "It's definitely a treasure beyond your wildest imagination. It's just a matter of whether you're interested!"

"That..." A thought flashed through his mind, and Ciel realized what it was. He glanced at Loki and said meaningfully, "We'll talk about it later!"

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