Chapter 6

[1-6]

Jormungand

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Thor opened his eyes, smelling a scent of grass. A breeze gently ruffled his golden hair and a thrust was singing. He pushed himself up from the ground and looked around. He recognized the place at once; of course he should; He had been here thousands of times.

It was early summer day and he stood in Vigrid plains.

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"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes!"

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Thor heard familiar two voices from behind him. Two boys, one had golden hair and complexion tanned by the sun, holding a wooden sword and the other had black hair and pale white face, gripping a thick book which looked like the golden hair boy certainly hated.

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"Father forbids anyone to access ordnance research agency except workers." said young Loki.

"Oh, come one, Loki. We are just looking around without anyone knowing." said young Thor.

"Going to dump all troubles on me again?" snapped Loki.

"That was an accident. Believe me." said Thor. "And stop being coy! Actually you are much better at trick than me. Or do you want me to tell that it was you who put a snake into father's wine-barrel?"

"Thor! We have dealt that you pretended you did that and instead I did your homework." said Loki furiously.

"Of course, we did, because I'd never thought father would punish me so heavily. And you lied to me!" turned Thor. "You said you didn't do such that serious mischief. I had to clean up three hundreds of mead barrels alone!" said Thor, sputtering.

Loki gazed at him without a word.

"So what? Will you come with me or will I go alone?" asked Thor.

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Surrounding changed and they were somewhere in Asgard palace. Torches hung on a golden wall were casting warm light.

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"Look at that!" Thor pointed giant axe leaned on the wall. Next to it incomplete weapons lay down on the floor carelessly.

"Thor! Be quiet!" said Loki.

But Loki couldn't keep watching him. Magic instrument captivated his mind completely. Iron which was sprouted, powder bursting with red light and maroon liquid that Loki couldn't suppose where it was used for.

One clinical test distracted Loki. He saw a wounded solider standing in a glass room. A researcher gave him a golden stone and left the room. When the soldier clasped it, golden dusty light cover his body and healed him wound in an instant. Loki gapes at that sight.

"Loki." Thor's hiss voice called Loki.

"What?" Loki answered halfheartedly, his gaze still fixing at the soldier.

"Loki." Thor called him again.

"Why!" Loki looked around irritatingly.

Thor was struggling with silver chain twining his arms like a bine. But the more he wriggled the more it tied him around.

"Help!" said Thor urgently.

Loki gripped the chain and tried to pull it out. Then the chain began to catch his arm too. Loki took off his hands with startle.

"I can't!" said Loki.

Now the chain almost wrapped Thor entirely and choked him. Loki heaved the axe leaning on the wall and hacked down.

"No, no, no no!" Thor saw the axe flashed reflecting the torch and screamed.

CLANG

The chain broke to fragments and scattered.

"Who is that?" A sharp voice yelled. Tramping footsteps were getting nearer. Loki and Thor looked at each other.

"Run!" Thor shouted.

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"I would not do so sentimentalize if I were you." said a sneering voice to Thor. He wheeled around with startle. There was Loki standing slantly.

"You must think it's awful, when you know it is a hallucination by poisonous gas of Jormungand." said Loki.

"Hallucination?" asked Thor but Loki was not listening. He already strode ahead and grew his way far away from Thor. Thor followed after him without a thought as he did when he was a boy. Of course the way Loki heads wasn't always right but usually it was, then Thor would follow him when he has no idea what to do.

The Asgard palace vanished and they were walking in the coniferous forest. The snow was piled up till Thor's ankle and crunched beneath him with every step.

Innumerable stars was pouring their starlight on snow-capped mountains and above his head an aurora, glowing with turquoise, hung down in the night sky like silk.

It was beautiful scene that anyone would stand still and watch raptly. But Loki did not care a fig for it. He roved as he was searching for something.

"I'm freezing to death." said grumbling young Thor's voice to Loki's left.

"Well, I think I'm fine." said young Loki, having his nose in a map.

"How much father is it?"

"Almost there."

"You said so ten minutes ago! Tell me. We are lost, aren't we?"

"We- we should have arrived by this time." said young Loki puzzlingly. He was flipping the map in vain as though if he did that so, their destination might appear. Young Thor tapped against his arm and pointed their front; a group of Asgard warriors were coming near them. A broad smile spread over their face.

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SPLAT.

A snowball hit Loki's head. Loki looked around.

"You are real!" said Thor still doubtfully.

"Of course I'm real!" said Loki testily, cleaning the snow off his hair.

"But how?" asked Thor. "How can I speak with you? And how can you see my vision? As you said if it is my own hallucination by poison, you can't be real."

Loki gathered his brows as though he was considering whether he should answer or not. At last he opened his lips.

"Magic is eventually made of convenience and efficiency. It's my guess…that if someone had common memories with other, the poison shows the same illusion not to waste its power."

"You mean because we are brother."

"We were." snapped Loki, putting his words right.

"Loki, this is not just an illusion. This is my memory." said Thor. "About the happiest moment! Do you think I couldn't know your mind even it spread out all around us? You miss these days. Why are you trying to deny yourself?"

Loki's face suddenly turned stern.

"No! This is the most ridiculous and disgusting memory in my life that should not have to be done." Loki yelled furiously. "All of these things are useless!"

Abruptly Thor's figure became thin, vanishing into the air.

Surrounding changed again; now Loki could see trees thick with green leaves. The water was lapping around his feet.

Before he cloud recognized he stood on the surface of a lack in the middle, he submerged into the water as though the bottom sudden fell out.

Keeping far off from surface, sunlight filtering in through, Loki sank like lead. The water crammed his lung and there was nothing he could see. Only senseless darkness.

A murmuring noise was coming from the deep water and it became louder and louder.

"-giant….. Frost Giant….."

"…I will hunt the monsters down and…"

"…Always be honest yourself…"

"..True warrior has his own belief and brave…."

Abruptly a nasty voice gnawed through numerous voices like a poison.

"You know… you never can escape from me."

The horrible voice resonated in his head and thumped as thought it was crushing his inner bone. But there's nothing he could do. He was only staring the darkness in lethargic and helpless.

Loki felt someone seized his arm.

"Loki! Loki!"

The darkness removed in a flash. Loki backed to the Taiga.

Thor was shaking him by the shoulder and looking at him with worried expression. Loki was white as he was badly sick.

"Are you alright?" asked Thor anxiously.

"It starts." Loki croaked.

"Start what?"

"The memory. It starts to split." said Loki in confuse. "We have to find the mouth before it."

"There is no mouth, Loki. Jormungard is a ring shaped space. Like snake swallowing its tail." said Thor.

"THEN TAKE OUT DAME TAIL FROM ITS MOUTH!" Loki bellowed. He seemed to so panic.

Thor gazed him without a word to give him a breath.

"Explain." said Thor sedately. "Explain to me that I can understand. Then I can help you."

Loki closed his eyes with slight force and opened. When he mouthed his voice was much calm.

"Jormungand poisons people by its noxious air and shows an illusion based on their own memory. At the first time when it is in low people saw their happiest moments but gas becomes denser and more they get poisoned they see their worst moments. Longing to go back and be mad."

"So from the fork of our memories getting different we are going to see separate vision." said Thor.

Loki nodded.

"To have an escape form this space, at least it needs two people who can work at the same time. But when we begin to see different illusions we can't. That is why only twin warrior could survive from here."

"We will." said Thor.

Loki didn't answer.

"So what should I do?" asked Thor.

Loki gazed into the distance, lost in thought. Bluish green aurora was reflecting upon his green eyes and shinning.

"Find a lake. The mouth might be down there."

"Does it work?" asked Thor suspiciously. He was holding long translucent rope and a huge bull's head, which was about one meter was tied in its end.

"I hope so." said Loki. "Or you should dive even you don't know how deep it is."

"Alright." said Thor reluctantly and advanced a ferry toward the center of the lack. The boat rippled the quiet surface of the lack.

As the boat stopped, Thor threw the bull's head like dropping an anchor. The blood dropping from it spread out into the water. The rope kept to be unreal. Five minutes later the rope left off. Now, he was waiting.

On the lack side, Loki was going through every bush. When he found the place where grass lay down he stopped.

Under the water, the bull's hand fell upon a giant black rock. The rock shook slightly and sharp yellow eyes opened with a jolt.

The surface rolled and became to surge. Thor clenched the half of Mjolnir and seized the rope tightly with the other hand.

Suddenly a tremendous serpent appeared from the underwater, stretched its mouth and pounced at Thor. Thor lifted his arm and stroke downward with all his might.

All the lack and land rumpled when the serpent which was hammered right on its head; thought it didn't have any scratch on it.

The serpent sprang up more violently and set upon Thor, blowing off poison gas.

When the serpent came to the surface, an old woodblock rose too. On it numerous symbols and characters were carved and it made nine different sizes of snakes. All those snakes were shaped like swallowing its tails.

"Oh shoot. Simple?" Loki swore under his breath.

He glanced at Thor and turned the innermost ring and it rattled, moving smoothly.

Thor was striving against enormous serpent's head. He was bleeding at his hand which side holding the rope. However he bound the rope around his hand more tightly not to slip it off. The serpent struggled fiercely and kept trying to turn its head to the direction where Loki stood.

The noxious air got heavy and it stuffed their throat and lungs. Loki was wheeling nine rings like solving extraordinarily complex cube.

"…Three times right handed…. fifth fangs inward…." Loki murmured, trying to concentrate.

His view suddenly became blurred and whispering began to echo in his head again. His figure slipped and he pushed leaf shape symbol of fifth ring to the heart. With a loud creaking noise, fifth snake opened its mouth and the ring severed.

"Loki!" Thor shouted.

He saw the surface boiling; a tail thickness of log suddenly rose up through the water and fell upon Loki. At the same time he saw yellow teeth as tall as human being darting at him.

If you called it a noble spirit of sacrifice or something, it might be little bit exaggerated and embarrassed thing. Thor was a man who acts before he think and the reason he flung Mjolnir toward Loki was because he found his danger ahead of his own.

Loki looked up. But he had no time to dodge it. Instead he saw a ponderous hammer, flying swiftly, hit the tail and changed the course of it.

Loki felt a sensation of nothingness in his heart. Beyond the mashed tail, he saw a long fang pierced Thor's chest.

Thor didn't pull out of the fang rather he clenched it and fixed it down to restrain the serpent's head.

"Hurry!" Thor bellowed through the crevice between teeth.

Loki looked down and whirled the rings several times to right and left. With a snap of sound the rest of eight snakes on the woodblock uncoiled.

A bright light surrounded the edged of lack and soared into the sky like column then, it swallowed everything around it.

Loki was standing in snowstorm again. Forlorn and silent snowfield spread out before him. He heard a thud of sound behind him.

Loki dashed to Thor; his face was wan, pupils dilated with unfocused eyes. And his breath was faint like a phantom.

Loki felt his heart was thudding madly with fear. His eyes turned crimson red and his skin blued.

Thor's body grew to be frozen up.