Chapter 780: 769
Chapter 780: 769
Title: Traitor
"Oh, look," Nik looked towards the space where Disir crowded Loki. Now, the group of wraiths had parted to make way for Loki as she made to some signs, her voice unable to travel through space.
"She's doing gang signs," Poole started doing her own signs.
"She's saying that it's done. She controls Disir now," Leah sighed, her words making Poole embarrassed. After a moment's thought, the spatial lock supercharged with the space tone dissolved as Loki walked out with a big smile.
"I've attained their loyalty. Now, let's not tarry longer and make way to the Hall of Plague," Loki grinned.
"Not so quickly," Leah stood up, "It's already been established that you, Loki, are not to be given our trust so quickly. First, I would need to know the terms and conditions you set with Disir before we move onto the completion of the second condition."
Seeing the stern expression on Leah's young face, Loki couldn't help but praise, "Did Hela ever tell you how adorable you are?" She licked her lips and winked towards Nik, "And I'm sure it's not just me."
"Woah, hey, what?" Nik made a strange expression. Sure, he had fun with physically smaller girls and even those who would pass on as more childish but each of them had their charm... and age. Meanwhile, Leah looked like an elementary school girl in a green prom dress. How was it expected of him to have these kinds of thoughts for Leah?
"You don't?" Loki tilted her head in confusion.
Looking around and seeing the strange expression on everyone but Leah herself, Nik growled, "Hey, you don't see me invading elementary schools and kidnapping girls, do you?"
"I just figured at some point, you'll eventually snap," Morgan replied truthfully.
"Oh my god," Nik groaned. 'I have a daughter, for fuck's sake!' Nik wanted to slap Loki too. Just because she was interested in most of the things, like Vertigo is, it didn't mean that he had to share her perversion.
"Just prove whatever she's asking," Nik groaned and waved his hand.
"Fine. Who's the weakest one out of you?" Loki inquired with a smile as the Disir felt hesitant.
Then, they all simultaneously pointed at the overgrown Valkyrie with tusks pointing out of her lips.
"Fine. All of you, kill her," Loki shrugged and Leah's expression instantly crumbled.
"Wait"
Before she could say anything, the nearest of the Disir instantly bit on the overgrown teammate of hers but she was screaming herself. In fact, all the remaining ten members of the Disir tried to resist but they soon latched onto the large woman.
"You Fiend! We pledged ourselves to you! This was not the part of the deal!" One of them shouted, her lips blackened by the black blood of her companion as Loki snickered.
"Is that really so?"
Leah felt strange and she looked towards the red contract circle soon turning icy blue in color. The runes of the contract were now different.
"For as long as we live, we give our pitiful life to Queen Loki's bidding..." Leah mumbled the contents of the rune as Loki's eyes narrowed.
"You wanted to see the terms of the contract, right? There you go. It's pitiful how easily they fell for the disguised contract," Loki smiled coldly as the Disir was now reduced to ten members and Leah gnashed her teeth.
"These were supposed to be her majesty's helpers!" She glared at Loki, "You could have done this in a number of different ways!" She balled her fist, her anger shared by Disir but they simply couldn't speak any longer.
"That's why I called you adorable," Loki walked towards Leah, her figure seemingly growing larger and larger in Leah's eyes. A suffocating feeling gripped her heart as she could no longer match gazes with Loki.
"Only two kinds of people are qualified to raise conditions and demands from me. Those who I let, and those who can. Little Leah, you still aren't in any of these categories. Consider this a... hmm, a minor warning. Hela understands me well and she fits both the categories," Loki gently patted Leah's shoulder, making the young girl tremble.
"Now, how about you lead us to the Hall of Plague, and then we have a good discussion with Brun, hmm?" Loki inquired as Leah nodded after quite a few minutes of silence.
"This isn't over," She whispered coldly.
"We're gods. It's never over for us," Loki sneered.
Leah didn't speak anymore and began walking but Loki was surrounded by others. A few impressed gazes were thrown towards her but the ten wraiths silently floating behind the group made Janet pale.
"Hey, what's the big idea? Treat others how you want to be treated yourself! Now, they have a perfectly good reason to eat us!"
"Yeah..." Poole whispered softly. She knew that ghosts and spirits of the same nature could see her. Seeing that one of the ten wraiths had her eyes locked towards her and Spider made Poole extremely disturbed.
"It was impressive," Morgan added as she casually observed the wriaths, "But slavery contracts as such come at a great cost. To have complete authority over these ten, you must already be feeling quite stretched... that's why you killed the eleventh, right? To reduce the chances of these wraiths breaking free from your control."
Loki coughed, not replying but only smiling slyly.
"Who cares? Now, we only need to face the worst of the dead souls here in Hel and then we get to deal with a living being!" Loki chuckled.
"You misunderstand Queen's condition. The unrest in the hall of plague is not caused by the souls trapped within. The Helheim is being disturbed by external guests. Much like you," Leah remarked from the front.
Instead of taking the group into the fiery and much desired warm central palace of Hel, Leah picked an icy path banked with snowy hills on the side as multiple Hel-Spiders and Serpents could be seen away from the winding pathway. The beasts hissed and screeched at the Disir, as if they disrupted their natural order and did not belong here.
This was the effect of Bor's curse on the Disir. If it wasn't for Leah's or Nik's existence, the beasts would have tried to attack at the Disir for naught. After all, they were unaffected by physical substances.
'Lola, did you compute the time required to merge the dragon's structure together?'
'Yes, it will take 17 days,' Lola remarked idly.
'And... is it really not possible to gain anything from the spirit bone of the silver sword dragon?'
'No. As I said back then. I can run stimulation on how the merging of bone with your body will affect you. But none of these changes made any difference to your body structure which could have been extrapolated to define the structure of the silver sword dragon.'
Nik sighed deeply.
'At least, we're getting close to the creation of your body,' Nik smiled with a hint of pride.
Lola's body could be created quite easily now. He just had to manipulate flesh, create body, and use the mind stone to fix Lola's consciousness inside the said body. Since she would have a physical brain, her consciousness wouldn't run out of thinking capabilities soon enough. Even if it didn't, an isolated consciousness could easily survive for ten years without any unforeseen events.
But, after having Lola's permission on the matter, Nik wanted a hybrid body for her. A body built with nanoids and symbiote with the ability of flesh manipulation and such so that she could truly make the best use of her connection with the [Imperfect Chimera].
This is also the reason why Nik had decided to amp the research on nanoids and symbiotes based on the research of Wakanda by leaving it to Tony and Henry Pym.
The thought of creating copies of himself and completing the task himself did come into his mind, but the thought of delegation of tasks ultimately proved more enticing to Nik.
"What kind of external issues?" Loki inquired but seeing Leah outrightly ignoring her, she shrugged and looked towards Janet.
"And why are you afraid of being eaten?" Loki inquired with a malevolent grin.
"Nightmares!" Janet huffed
"Oh, why don't you describe them to me?" Loki smiled sincerely, 'And I'll let you see those nightmares again!' she cackled internally.
"Woah, we really can't cut them," Angela waved her sword which phased through a wraith, making her screech at Angela threateningly.
"Woah, calm down," Loki snapped her fingers, shutting the wraith up as she chuckled, "They can be easily hurt with enough energy. Physical substances are only one of the many ways of hurting someone else."
"As a sane individual," Jennifer grunted, "I won't be taking part in this conversation."
She truly regretted coming to the trip. But she couldn't possibly admit that and ask Nik to send her back. Not after knowing that she would be needed eventually and...
'Nik did make many comments of enjoying himself here... the less the number of girls around, the quicker my turn will come again and again... until I'm the only one left.'
She had absolute confidence in her endurance.
Soon, the icy path led the group to a tall Ice Tower that could be seen through the thinning mist.
The Hall of Plague!