As they made their way back towards Ljosalfgard, Loki noticed the rainbow-colored light of the Bifrost beam down fairly close to him. However, he moved on, as time was of the essence, but he looked back as he hear a familiar voice calling out to him.
"Asgardian brother from another universe's mother, wait up!" Party Prince Thor twirled his hammer and flew in Loki's path! "Where are you going in such a big hurry?"
"Oh, hello again, party-loving brother. I must see Queen Featherwine of the Fay for a very serious case; I need to learn potent light magic in order to stop an ancient god of darkness from killing a lot of people, including another me and you from an alternate universe!"
"Oh, that sounds intense! Do you need any help? Do you... do you think I could learn magic from her with you? That would be so cool if I could do magic like you!"
Loki's pace slowed for a second. "Yes, of course you can! In fact, your lightning is already a form of elemental magic like light is, is it not?"
"Is it?" The blond, beardless Thor pondered the thought for a moment. "Yes, you're right, I just haven't thought about it that way. But... lightning comes naturally to me, so I don't know if learning other forms and all those magic sciences might be too hard for me... I'm not much of a textbook learner."
"Indeed, but you have the power and the talent for it, and I'm more than certain you have the willpower to learn. All you would require is the instruction, practice, and willingness to try new things, really. If you don't understand something, all you'd have to do is ask, and I'll explain in Thor terms: I do know you well enough." Loki smiled.
"Thanks, Bro. It's nice to have someone to hang out with too... ever since my universe's Loki's birthday party, he's been more serious and less chill! Like today, he's studying on Jotunheim king stuff, and lately he's been suggesting I do the same! The Loki I grew up with would never study of his own free will, let alone tell anyone else to: something's changed in him!"
"Well, you were poisoned, and it took the sacrifice of your future granddaughter to bring you back from the dead! And he came quite close to death as well... I think he's merely motivated to learn so he can protect you better, similar to what I'm doing to protect the Thor of New Asgard."
"Protect me?" Thor repeated.
Loki nodded. "He loves you; you know this."
"I know, but..." Thor stopped as they reached the palace, where the guards met them.
"Prince Thor, welcome back. So, where's the next party?"
"Actually, we are on serious business today." Thor answered. "We need to see the queen."
"Oh, the detective's back. Has there been another murder in Asgard?"
"Not yet, but there is a primordial being of darkness called Knull who threatens all light that exists, and if he isn't vanquished, he'll spread darkness across every planet in every realm in every universe! That is why I urgently request an audience with Queen Featherwine, in the hopes that she will teach me- or, us, light magic, Knull's greatest weakness!"
The guards discussed the matter with each other. "You may speak with the queen, but I can't guarantee that she'll teach you."
The duo thanked them and then told the queen what they had told the guards. "Knull... I have heard that name once, from the Dark Elves: some of their clans also worshipped him many millennia ago, before your late King Bor was even born! In that case, you should learn from my instructors who taught me when I was a child, while I take care of my own."
"Thank you, your majesty." The two left for the forest, where the teachers instructed a group of young elves at various stages of light magic, from creating small glowing orbs in their hands to borrowing energy from the stars.
"Hello." Loki greeted them. "Could you please teach us how to harness light energy?"
"You wish to learn Light Elf magic?"
"Yes!" Thor replied, helping Loki explain the situation to them too. "We have the queen's permission."
"Very well, we'll start right away."
Detective Loki and Party Thor created glowing orbs of light, learning under the Light Elf, Brilja.
"That's it, you've got the basics down! Now try aiming for one of these empty lanterns on the lower level." Her two students did as instructed; Loki quickly illuminated the lantern from the inside, but Thor's light magic burst around him, illuminating the entire area around him instead.
"Ahhh, my eyes!" Thor exclaimed, covering his face as his own magic blinded him!
"Excellent control, Loki!" Brilja complimented. "Thor, you have great stores of raw energy, but learning magic, especially this type of magic, requires focus and discipline."
"Boooring! Can't I just, like, store the energy in Mjolnir and have the hammer focus my magic for me, like what it does with my lightning?"
"I'm afraid not. Mjolnir is a great conductor for your lightning, but light requires a calm, clear mind to master, not a tool to guide it for you."
"It's as I told you earlier, Brother, you need to be willing to explore new methods of learning and summon the patience to persevere, no matter how hard it seems! You aren't a Thor to give up easily though, are you?"
"Tch, no way, Bro!"
"I suspected as much. Then let's keep at it until we have it down, shall we?"
"Yeah!"
"Ragnarok is here!" Lady Frigg exclaimed as an army of black monsters slipped into Asgard, through Ragnarok Loki's hidden passageway. They bonded with and took over the bodies of the strongest-looking Asgardians within reach, forcing them to fight their own comrades, innocent bystanders, and even their own families! Every living person without a Symbiote was a target!
The Asgardians were unprepared for this type of battle, as when they mortally wounded their possessed brethren, the dark parasites simply switched to a different host, and none of them knew their weaknesses!
While his team fought, Grievance sought out his ex-host, Ragnarok Loki, and freed him from his captors once more.
"Stir up some chaos for us, Loki!"
"Will do, Grievance!" He smirked as he joined the battle, calling his children, Hel and Fenris, to join him! "I would invite your brother Jörmungandr to play, but he's just dying for a fateful playdate with his old chum, Thor!" He turned to Odin, riding Sleipnir toward his palace. "And then there was one."
As they moved into the palace to attack Frigg, Odin intervened, using the sonic gun his own Symbiote snatched to even the odds! "Asgardians, their weaknesses are fire and high-frequency sounds; light the torches and the furnaces, and aim for the aliens!"
Grievance scowled at them. "Malice... let's drag that traitorous douchebag out here and bring him to the creator!"
A wave of Symbiotes joined Grievance in their attempt to separate Odin and Malice, their combined strength beginning to overwhelm the Allfather's defense!
"Sleipnir, you serve that old hypocrite no longer!" Ragnarok Loki called out. "Come to Mama!" The 8-legged horse obeyed, leaving Odin without a fast escape.
Odin continued to blast his opponents away with sound while Malice fought them off with his own brute strength! Soon enough, the great wolf Fenris caught up to them and crushed the sonic gun in his fangs! Without their defense against the Klyntar army, he and Malice were covered in their enemies, the dark creatures engulfing them until they were nearly drowning in a sea of darkness! They were interrupted as a flash of lightning lit up that darkness, followed by not one, but two goddesses of thunder descending upon the horde and scattering them!
"Great Uncle Loki, we have heard the situation, and that you have chosen to side with the children of Knull." Elisiv addressed Earth 688's Loki. "Yield, join us against the forces of darkness, and you may survive this."
"I know you not, thunder goddesses, but I do know what I want: Asgard must fall! Ragarok is upon us, and no amount of thunder and threats can stop it!"
"The fun way it is, then!" Atli replied.
"You are descendants of my son Thor, I take it?" Odin asked them.
"We are, Great Grandfather."
"Then fight alongside me, for the fate of Asgard!"
The symbiotic aliens soon moved in on them, attempting to bond with them, but Elisiv and Atli easily knocked them away with the force of their respective mace and axe! A few of them changed their targets back to the weaker Asgardians, so the ladies hurled their weapons at them while kicking the oncoming monsters away from them!
Seeing an opening while his brothers distracted the granddaughters of Thor, Grievance left his current host and latched onto Atli, she zapped yet the blob off before it could bond with her!
"Creator, we need more dragons in Asgard!" Grievance communicated, his link to the hive mind restored. "We've got more crazy electric gingers here, lighting up the place!"
"I see, two of Thor's three granddaughters. And the detective that's keeping my youngest child hostage?"
"I don't see him."
"Well if you do see him, inform me immediately, and keep him occupied until I arrive; that troublesome Thor interrupted me before I could reintegrate your variant into the hive, but next time, they won't escape! The dragons are on their way, child."
"Thank youuu!"
True to his word, the dragons came by swarm, surrounding Elisiv and Atli as they fought them off with their weapons and more lightning. Elisiv sighed in annoyance while Atli simply grinned at the challenge, her lust for battle serving her well so far!
"Come and meet your doom then, monsters! The more the merrier... for us!"
"Atli, we're not here for your merriment." Elisiv pointed at the Symbiotes and Ragnarok Loki. "We're here to save this universe and this realm from them... and him!" Then she gave a slight smile. "But remember, we have backup as well."
Two more bolts of lightning flashed down from the sky as an orange alien with a horselike face fought the Symbiotes with his own version of the battle axe, Stormbreaker, one on side of the battlefield, and a black-clad young woman with snow-white hair blasted them on the other side!
"Meet some old friends of the family: Beta Ray Bill from our universe and Storm from Earth 5975X!"
"Come on, how many thunder people are there!?" Grievance whined. "Well, there's still wayyy more of us! Let's give those dumb Assgardians Hel!"
"Yes, my faithful horde, keep those pesky thunderers busy for me." Knull thought as he came upon Earth 199999's New Asgard, Norway. "Once I am reunited with All-Black, I will wipe those foolish grins from their whole wretched family's faces as I make an example of them."
To his surprise, he was struck midair with the combined blast of lightning from Stormbreaker and Mjolnir, though he was on-guard enough to put up a defense around himself this time.
"You, creator of All-Black, slayer of Celestials." King Thor warned. "That was your one warning to go back to the abyss you crept out of and leave my family in peace, or we will kill you."
"Another thunderer..." Knull commented.
"Another two thunderers!" Jane Foster corrected, Mjolnir in hand.
"Plus the warlock!" A golden man self-proclaimed as he charged Knull with his own cosmic energy! "Adam Warlock, of the Guardians of the Galaxy!"
Knull caught him mid-charge, squinting. "Just another light to extinguish."
Thor and Jane blasted him with more lightning, adding to Adam's attack, when from behind, a short, dark-haired teenage girl in red and blue climbed a series of steps made of solid light energy. Unfortunately, her attempt to sneak up on Knull was foiled as he turned his head the whole way around.
"And what do you think you can do against me, little one?"
"Sorry, no spoilers, just wait and see!" Ms. Marvel formed solid light energy around her hand, and in a flash of ultraviolet light, she disappeared! In her place was a blonde woman in a similar-colored suit, bathed in a bright yellow aura, who punched the King in Black with her light powers!
"You're probably wondering how we switched places like that." Captain Marvel bantered. "Well, it's none of your business, but I will tell you it saves a heck of a lot of travel time for me!"
Together, the combined might of the four heroes' attacks knocked the dark god off of his Grendel, sending him crashing to the ground. He didn't stay down long, looking to each of his new foes. "These lightlings have been preparing themselves to meet me. I suppose it's time to burst their bubbles and get a bit serious!" Knull summoned all the dragons in his vicinity to keep the quadruplet busy while he spread his darkness around the Earth, just as he did on Earth 688!
"No you don't!" Thor and Jane summoned down lightning while they could still see the clouds, which struck the growing barrier of darkness! The spread of the dark shroud slowed, but the duo couldn't keep up the strikes and fend off their alien assailants forever, and Earth 199999's sky was ultimately blocked off from them.
"Have no fear, Jane." Thor eased his lover, sensing her anxiety. "A Thor's true powers come from within, not from up above. The darkness will always cower before us."
Jane nodded. "You can still give a heck of an inspirational speech! Alright, then let's give this creep a light show to cower from!"
In the heart of New Asgard, King Loki stood at the ready, his army prepared to defend their home and their king. "Einherjar, be at the ready! We must not let those creatures of darkness enter our home or harm any more of our people!" The townsfolk anxiously gazed upward as darkness obscured their view of the sky, some beginning to panic! "Citizens of New Asgard, it matters not where you hail from; we are Asgardians, my people under my protection!" King Loki continued. "We have survived countless onslaughts, from the Frost Giant Laufey to the Mad Titan Thanos, and like myself, Asgardians always survive! I will ensure my people survive this, and I won't leave you again!" The Einherjar roared, their Asgardian blood boiling! The citizens watched from their sanctuary, used to their home and their lives being in danger, but still wary of trusting their king completely. King Loki then added silently. "Now is my chance to prove myself a worthy king and a worthy leader, and a true Asgardian! I will not abandon them again!"
Back on Earth 688, at Dan and Anne's residence, Dylan embraced his parents. "He's covered the whole planet in darkness! He's gonna come back and kill everybody! Eddie, I'm scared!"
"I know, buddy, don't worry! We'll protect you!"
"How? If you couldn't beat him with Venom, what can you do without him?"
"We'll find a way." Anne assured him. "We always do."
"Your mother is an expert at fighting ugly, and this Knull guy..." Eddie gave a sarcastic whistle. "He's butt ugly!"
"Yup, right on both accounts."
"What about my powers?" Dylan wondered. "Venom said I destroyed that dragon... do you think I could help?"
"Dylan, you- you've gotta stay here, kid." Eddie told him. "If any Symbiotes come through that door, you stay behind us, and you use those powers if you have no other choice... I mean, you don't even know how to control them!"
"Maybe I can learn! I'm part Symbiote, right? Then... Knull is gonna come for me eventually. And I- I don't want him to take me from you too! I don't want him to take me!"
"He won't, Son."
"We won't let him."
But it wasn't long before the enemy Symbiotes reached their house, their target almost within their grasp!