NOVEL NEXT Chapter 515: Ragnarök 7
But Adam had planned for this. As Loki fell, his four appendages flailing desperately for purchase, Adam launched himself upward with the last of his strength. His plasma blades, recharged by the energy release, blazed brighter than they had since the battle began. He brought them together in a perfect cross-pattern, driving them deep into the center of Loki's grotesquely expanded chest.
The effect was immediate and catastrophic. Loki's chaotic form began to convulse and contract, the stolen power that had twisted him into this monstrous shape suddenly turning against itself. His serpentine appendages withered and burned away like paper in flame. His towering height collapsed as his spine compressed back to normal proportions. The shifting faces settled into his familiar features, now twisted with pain and the bitter knowledge of defeat.
Both gods crashed to the unstable crystal floor in a tangle of limbs and spilled ichor. Adam rolled away, gasping for breath, while Loki lay motionless save for the rise and fall of his chest. The trickster god's green eyes, no longer burning with chaotic fire, looked up at the crystal ceiling with a mixture of hatred and profound regret.
"I should have brought Ragnarök to the realms," he whispered, his voice now merely the sound of a dying god rather than the roar of unleashed chaos. Each word came with visible effort, golden blood frothing at his lips. "I should have ended this known world, burned it all to ash and started anew. The fire giant waits in his prison, dreaming of the day he will paint the sky with flame. The wolf... my son..." His voice broke. "My son lies dead by your hand, and I... I fade to nothing."
Loki's eyes found Adam's, and for a moment, the ancient hatred flickered with something almost like respect. "Who will bring the cleansing flame now? Who will tear down the walls of this stagnant paradise? You have stolen my destiny, usurped the twilight that was mine by right. The cycle will remain unbroken, the wheel will continue to turn, and the gods will rule forever in their crystal towers."
His breathing became more labored, each breath a visible struggle. "You think you have won, but you have only ensured that victory belongs to another. The All-Father watches, and he smiles, for you have done his work better than any servant ever could."
With those final words, Loki's eyes closed, and the Liesmith, the Bound God, the herald of endings, spoke no more. His body began to crumble, not into dust, but into flickering shadows that dissipated like smoke in the wind. Within moments, nothing remained of the god who had sought to bring about the end of all things save a dark stain on the crystal floor.
The silence that followed was deeper than death, heavier than the weight of collapsed stars. Adam knelt beside the spot where Loki had died, his own wounds still bleeding freely, his strength ebbing with each labored breath. His plasma blades flickered and dimmed, their power nearly spent from the monumental effort of defeating chaos incarnate.
It was then that Odin chose to reveal himself fully. The All-Father dismounted from Sleipnir with the measured grace of absolute authority, his eight-legged steed pawing impatiently at the cracked crystal floor. Gungnir rested loosely in his weathered hand, but the spear's runes pulsed with barely contained power, ready to unleash devastation at a moment's notice. His single eye blazed with triumph as he approached the wounded Adam, each step echoing with the finality of judgment.
"Magnificent," Odin said, his voice carrying the satisfaction of a plan executed to perfection. "Simply magnificent. You have done exactly what I needed you to do, exactly what I manipulated you into doing." He gestured with his free hand at the dark stain where Loki had fallen, then at the space where Fenrir's corpse still lay cooling. "Surtr sealed away in his prison of molten stone, unable to bring the flames of ending. Fenrir dead, his prophesied jaws forever closed against my throat. And now Loki, the architect of Ragnarök itself, reduced to nothing more than shadows and bitter regret."
The All-Father's weathered features twisted into something that might have been a smile, if smiles could hold such cold malice. His raven, Huginn, settled on his shoulders, its black eyes reflecting the same cruel satisfaction as its master's. "The prophecy of Ragnarök will never come to pass. The cycle of order and chaos, the eternal dance of creation and destruction that has governed all existence since the first dawn—broken forever. The world will enter a resplendent age of eternal order, eternal peace, eternal stagnation under my rule."
Odin raised Gungnir, its runes blazing with accumulated power that made the air itself thrum with potential violence. The spear had tasted the blood of gods and mortals alike, had never missed its target, had never failed to kill what it was thrown at. "All thanks to your struggle, Adam. All thanks to your righteous fury, your noble foolishness. You believed you were fighting for justice, for balance, for the right of mortals to determine their own fate. But you were nothing more than my weapon, my unwitting champion in the war against change itself."
Thunder rolled across the shattered crystal floor as divine power gathered around the All-Father's form. His single eye burned like a blue star, while his missing eye—the one Adam now possessed—seemed to pulse in recognition of its original owner's presence. "And now, having served your purpose, you will die. I will destroy everything you have built, everyone you have loved. Your paradise will burn, your followers will kneel, and your legacy will be nothing more than a footnote in the eternal story of my victory."
The spear's point gleamed with deadly intent as Odin leveled it at Adam's heart. Around them, the great hall bore witness to the final moments of the battle that would determine the fate of all existence. "This is order's victory, Adam. This is the triumph of wisdom over chaos, of control over freedom, of the eternal status quo over the dangerous dream of change. Welcome to forever."