Chapter 5003

Loki stood beside the roots of the World Tree. This place was somewhat different from the World Tree roots in his own universe.

The power of the World Tree in the central universe was extremely strong, not only constantly replenished by the power of the demon god Loki had brought, but also receiving a large wave of compensation that could make up for the debts of Ragnarök, having fully restored its peak strength, with the power near the World Tree roots so dense it seemed to have condensed into substance.

The power of this World Tree, however, was much more dispersed, appearing somewhat weak. Loki did not know how they had managed to make the World Tree grow so large overnight, but this certainly did not come without a cost, and he wanted to find out exactly what the hidden danger was.

Loki lightly raised his hand, intending to touch the World Tree's roots, but was suddenly interrupted by a roar:

"Loki!! What are you doing?!!!!"

Loki turned his head and saw Thor's furious face. Before he could come to his senses, Thor had already thrown a punch at him. Loki was stunned, instinctively raising his arm to block, but was still sent flying. Fortunately, he immediately wrapped himself in a magical shield, so when he hit the World Tree roots behind him, he was unharmed.

Still, he looked somewhat disheveled. Loki climbed up from the ground, leaned against the root, and shook out his hand. He looked at Thor and said:

"What are you doing? Are you crazy?"

"You're the one who's crazy, Loki!!! You actually want to mess with the World Tree?!!!" Thor charged over like an angry bull, "You know I share a symbiotic bond with the World Tree—do you want to kill me?!!!!"

Loki had been somewhat puzzled, but upon recalling what this universe's Loki had done, he suddenly understood Thor. After all, if it were truly this universe's Loki who had come, just touching it like that would at least have poisoned the World Tree half to death, making no difference from killing Thor.

Loki silently cursed his own carelessness. He had previously played the Loki of other universes—either helping them develop Asgard or assisting Thor—overall causing no trouble, with good outcomes, so he had become complacent. Who knew this universe's Loki would be so... twisted?

Just as Loki was about to say something, Thor grabbed his wrist. Thor's grip was comparable to that of an adult black dragon, making Loki gasp in pain.

"What are you doing! Let go of me!" Loki couldn't take it anymore; he raised his other hand, and a magical blast shot out, knocking Thor back.

Thor was stunned: "Where did you get such strong magical power?! You really do want to kill the World Tree!!!"

Loki couldn't explain clearly to this madman; being entangled by this lunatic was his bad luck. He raised his hand, intending to open a portal. But he realized that this Thor could instantly track him to any of the Nine Realms, so fleeing was pointless—if this issue wasn't resolved, Thor would haunt him like a ghost.

Yet explaining was also difficult, as he didn't know how to explain. From Thor's perspective, this indeed looked like the released Loki reverting to his old ways, trying to solve the problem at its root by poisoning the World Tree to eliminate Thor. This universe's Loki had done similar things before, making the argument very convincing.

"Exactly. I just want to kill you." Loki bluntly admitted. Now, no mind reader, no matter how skilled, could expose him—he truly wanted to kill this dog-thing.

However, his admission made sense: as long as Thor truly felt threatened, he would definitely lock Loki away, allowing Loki to sneak out and then find another lunatic to swap places with.

To make himself look more like a killer, Loki took a deep breath: "I have never truly killed you once—even the Destroyer incident only left you heavily injured—but you killed me once, which is unfair. So yes, I want to kill you."

Afraid Thor might suddenly lash out and hurt someone, Loki kept staring into his eyes, but as he looked, he began to zone out. This Thor shared the same face as his brother, aside from the beard, with eyes identical, and Loki found he could not muster many more harsh words.

"You're getting more and more arrogant, Loki." Thor still glared at him angrily, "Caught red-handed by me, and you don't even run?!"

Loki rolled his eyes inwardly—he did want to run, but wasn't that impossible?

But he clearly hadn't realized that this universe's Loki might be even more unhinged than he thought, or rather, the central universe's Loki was still too orderly—Odin's teachings had made him understand that avoiding mistakes was useless, and making excuses was even worse, so he would seem to joke while offering absurd reasons, or simply be bluntly justified, but would never genuinely flee out of emotion.

This universe's Loki, however, was different—his tricks of making excuses and shifting blame came in sets. So Thor had waited a long time for Loki's defense, heard nothing, and grew even angrier.

"It seems I've left you speechless." Thor said, "Then if I kill you once more, will you feel even more unfairly treated?"

Loki's eyes widened—he had never calculated that Thor would say this. He looked at Thor with genuine emotion and said:

"You want to kill me? When you're of sound mind?"

"It's you who first wanted to kill me!" Thor roared, "I've become the master of the Nine Realms, you're jealous to the point of near madness—just like before, this world displeases you, so you want to destroy it. I won't let you succeed—I'll kill you first!"

"You..." Seeing Thor say such things with that face, Loki felt as if a bucket of ice water had been poured from head to toe, a wave of fear nearly overwhelming him.

"I'm not your brother!" Loki finally could no longer endure the pressure, blurting out the truth—he couldn't face a Thor who wanted to kill him, not even in his worst nightmares.

He took a deep breath, using his remaining rationality to say: "I am not this universe's Loki. I swapped places with him—you've got the wrong person!"

"That's not a bad excuse." Thor had obviously lost his rationality, thinking this was just another of Loki's excuses, "Who told you about the interuniversal visitors? Never mind, that doesn't matter—but you think you can fool me with this and escape? You're dreaming!"

"You madman!" Loki no longer held back—he swung his left hand, the Mind Appearing in his grasp, dazzling magical rays blasting Thor back. But in an instant, the entire world pressed down on him, and Loki could not breathe.

Thor had become the true god of the Nine Realms; here, everything was under his control, and moreover, this was the core position of the World Tree, where his power was strongest.

He should have ascended earlier. Loki gritted his teeth—now he had to run, even if he didn't want to, or he'd truly capsize!

With a "swish," the portal opened, and Loki directly teleported to the headquarters of the Revival Alliance—this was the place he had carefully chosen.

Loki hadn't completely lost his reason either—he knew that if he teleported now to face his true brother, it would absolutely be a god-king war, and the central universe's Thor could blow eighteen holes in this bastard in one second, with Sif needing to give him two swords.

But the problem was they couldn't fight in a hotel full of multiversal guests—never mind the risk of collateral damage, if it were filmed and sparked public outrage, the Revival Alliance's plan would fail, and Asgard's reputation in the multiverse would be ruined.

No matter how you put it, they were here to attend a wedding, with heavenly reasons, yet couldn't just run far away to brawl at someone else's wedding—after that, who would dare invite Asgardians?

So Thor was first ruled out by Loki—even if he were near death, calling him wouldn't be too late. Of course, Loki had also considered Shiler, but considering this Thor was like a big fool, possibly never having heard of Shiler's fame, and not fearing him, so Shiler was also ruled out.

Loki thought: better to go straight to the Revival Alliance—with so many superheroes, could they not stop a Thor? Thor should at least hesitate to act in front of so many people, right? As long as he calmed down first, the rest could be explained slowly.

Seeing Loki suddenly appear in the office, Carter was startled, and what he said next made Carter's head buzz.

"Thor wants to kill me!" Loki's fear at this moment was not an act—"Help me!"

"Crack!"

A bolt of lightning struck the sky above the Revival Alliance headquarters, directly blasting the roof of the main building into charred black. Thor descended from the sky, holding Mjölnir, electricity constantly flashing in his eyes.

Captain America and the other superheroes immediately rushed out, shouting:

"Thor, what are you doing?!"

"Hand over Loki! Give him to me!!!"

Captain America blinked, "How could Loki..."

Then his earpiece transmitted Carter's voice: "Loki has teleported to our office, he says Thor wants to kill him. This is obviously another lie—I'll send him down right away..."

"No!" Captain America immediately said, "Thor doesn't look rational—don't let him come down..."

"Why should we get involved in their brotherly feud?" Carter's voice conveyed confusion, "Or do you just want to fight Thor here?"

"No, Carter." Captain America said, "I don't want to cause any trouble at this critical moment, but I suspect Thor might really kill Loki—I can't let him do that!"

"You don't think Loki is a victim, do you? Think about what he's done to us, to this universe..."

"He's indeed not entirely a victim, and it's even possible the current situation is his own doing, but I can't let Thor kill him." Captain America's tone hardened, "This benefits no one."

"You think whatever you decide must be beneficial, Captain America." Carter took a deep breath, trying to stay rational, "But is it really? Do we really need to keep provoking Thor? How will you ensure he doesn't lose his mind and destroy Forward York City?"

"I'll stop him." Captain America said.

After speaking, he hung up the communicator. He walked up to Thor and said: "Calm down—you can't kill your brother here."

"He just tried to kill me!!!" Thor bellowed, "Give him to me! Otherwise I'll just go in and find him myself!!!"

Captain America still wanted to say something, when a green light flashed—Loki appeared beside him, right in front of Thor.

"I'm right here," he said. "Come on, kill me."

Thor lunged forward, grabbed Loki by the throat, and slammed him against the wall with such force that it nearly snapped his neck in an instant—Loki's face flushed crimson, his eyes bloodshot from the pressure, his mouth opening and closing:

"You will... prove... you... are unworthy..."

Captain America rushed forward at top speed, seized Thor's arm and yanked it back: "Are you crazy, Thor?! You can't kill him here—let go now!!!"

Who would have thought—another Loki burst out the next second.

"Stop!!!"

But it was already too late.

?? Starting from Qidian, they began clearing out AI-generated works—once detected, they get removed from the rankings. Because so many books were taken down, our own ranking actually rose instead—hahaha.