Chapter 5 The Second Key
On the other hand, Loki was battling Hymir, and he could find no other way, Hymir was strong, and he wanted a glorious victory, a cruel one.
Loki's face turned blue as he fought, his eyes turned red and he returned to Jotun form. With a blast of ice power he made Hymir dropped his knife, and sliced his neck with his own weapon.
'Bastard, you shall be reminded that I hate you too,' Loki said as he threw the body of Hymir on the icy ground. He was dead, lifeless. He took a glance at the body and turned to the floating key.
'Secrets,' that deep voice, again, echoed in his brain, 'you revealed your secrets, child.'
Loki looked at his hands, yes, he was in Jotun form, and he accepted that.
He grabbed the purple key called 'secrets' and put it in his keychain collection, five keys, three more to hold.
'Very well,' he thought, and he left the hall, returning to Asgardian form.
When he stepped out of the hall he was surprised by what he saw, the girl was standing there right in front of him, between so many corpses, then he looked at the huge ice bars and the dead body lying between, immediately realising the sword.
'What for?' he asked her.
She shook her head and changed the subject, 'you took the key?'
He nodded.
'where will we go next?'
As they left they encountered the most beautiful sunset in Jotunheim, the sun barely shone there, and there was only sunset every few months, Loki looked at the dawn, then at the girl beside her, pinpricks of sweat were lying on her rosy cheek as her skin breathed, her hair was charcoal black and her fishtail braid was a little messy, he said to her, breathing heavily as she revealed herself to casual clothing, 'we are going to Niflheim.'
She nodded and they returned to their spaceship, and headed off for Niflheim.
On the ship, they were still sitting side by side, without their armour.
Loki was flying the ship, while Angrboda was drawing with a paper and a pencil that came out of nowhere.
She stared at the god beside her, while the every tiny of his pores appeared on her paper as her pencil moved, the sound of the pencil rubbing on the paper echoed across the spaceship, he asked, 'tired?'
She took a glance at him and replied, 'exhausted.'
He nodded, and she gave him her sketch.
'Done.' She said.
It was a sketch of him flying his ship.
He turned over to the girl who left her seat, 'thanks' he said.
Her art was as good as he knew before.
'I know you desperately want to know who I am,' suddenly Angrboda said to him, 'always so perceptive about everyone but yourself.'
She went back to her seat, 'do it again, what you have done to Valkyrie.'
'No,' to her surprise Loki answered, 'if I do that, it will always trigger the worst of all memories, I'd rather listen.'
Angrboda smiled.
'And most of all,' Loki continued, 'we've just arrived.'
Angrboda looked at the spaceship's monitor, where the view of Niflheim was shown in front of her, but she could barely see anything but mist.
As the spaceship landed, Loki said to her, 'the key hidden on Niflheim is at the north which the civilization called a sacred place. So first of all, we have to get the permission to enter there.'
'How?' Angrboda asked, looking at the new ally she had just met, and being one hundred per cent sure he would have some tricks to handle it.
They left the spaceship, and in between the thick mist, they can only see brown of the land and a small plaza. They headed for that plaza, and there was the leader of the people there. It was obvious, as the leader was the one standing in the middle, surrounded by a large group of people, they were having a meeting, somehow.
When they reached the plaza, they can finally see the face of the leader clearly, he had red skin and black eyes and he hadn't got any hair, he was in a dark brown armour, and all the people were in a deep frown and seemed to be worried about something.
'If I may interject,' Loki went forward and spoke directly to the leader, 'I am Loki of Asgard, and…'
'Loki? Asgard?' the leader's eyes blasted with anger as soon as he heard the word Asgard, then he shouted at him, 'the Asgardian promised to protect the nine realms, but now half of our people vanished! Our queen Hela went off to Asgard and got killed there, how does that count, huh?'
The leader's tempering manner eventually irritated Loki, but before he lost his patience he said to him, 'please calm down, your highness, and let me finish my sentence. I fully understand that the nine realms are now in a great danger, so as Asgard. The Asgardians, of course, would fulfil our responsibilities of protecting the nine realms. And in order to achieve this, we would need a great treasure from the north of Niflheim, so may I ask for your permission…'
Once again, before Loki could finish, he was interrupted by the raging leader, 'Oh Asgardians, oh! How great would it be to enter the north of Niflheim! I do not believe you are fools! Even me myself, have never entered that area! So how dare you, Asgardians, to kill our queen and then turn to our treasure!'
Angrboda stared at the man in front of her, negotiating with the tempering king, she'd rather punch her enemies in their faces and fight, she knew she could never bargain as well as he did, and she knew he could be an excellent king. She was definitely not that calm and resistible type. When she heard what the leader said, she immediately muttered in objection, 'well, technically, Surtur killed Hela, not the Asgardians…'
'Young women,' the leader turned to her, 'you will pay your prize for your words. Guards, attack!' he shouted, and an armoured army came from their left-hand side, so they immediately changed to armours magically and ran, while a knife appeared on Loki's hand and darts appeared on Angrboda's.