"He will only truly step onto the path of a king when he awakens from his false sense of honor."
"Why did he stir up trouble in Jotunheim? He's worried. He's worried that the incident at the ceremony will degrade his image in the hearts of the Asgardians. He's worried that the Asgardians will no longer admire him, and he fears that this unexpected situation may prevent him from leading them."
"But the Father of All Gods never needed any image, face, or ceremony to rule others. His authority has never been questioned."
"We all understand this. In fact, besides Thor himself, many observers can see that he has his priorities all wrong. This may have something to do with the education his father gave him. Odin concocted a sense of honor and deceived his son with it."
"You plan to make him realize this, to awaken him from this false sense of honor. So you played a hard-ball game?"
"But there are things I don't understand." Strange looked at Loki and asked, "How did you achieve all this?"
"This is actually the easiest part. Sif and those three fools distrust me. You might even say they dislike me very much. Heimdall appears to be neutral, but I know he suspects me too."
"I deliberately acted suspiciously under their watch, running back and forth between a few warehouses."
"Sif and I grew up together. To be fair, I know that they are simple-minded and rarely think about complicated things. Surprisingly, they don't see me as a threat and probably think I'm up to some mischief."
"But their families are different. Sif's two brothers are both deputy captains of the fleet, and among the other three, two have elders in their family who are close servants to Odin's throne, and one is the deputy commander of the palace guard... "
"They've always kept a close eye on me because their worst fear is me posing any threat to Thor's position. Because everyone knows that once I get to the top, they won't have any battles to fight, and Asgard will embark on a completely different path."
"These Aesir have violence and war ingrained in them, they would never accept such an outcome. Therefore, they make sure to imbue their children with this idea, to always keep an eye on me, not to let me pose any threat to Thor."
"Thor is their desired king, not me."
"Originally, this was an established fact, but lately, the Father of All Gods' attitude has been somewhat subtle..."
"Indeed, he banished Thor to Earth and then granted you a proper god office, making you the first among your peers."
"I can imagine how they pondered and speculated about the Father of All Gods' intentions, and just when they wanted to test the waters, the Father of All Gods fell into a slumber."
"Just at this moment, I was going around various warehouses, acting all secretive as if wanting to harm Thor through deceit and cunning. They must have been like headless flies, banding together to figure out what I was up to, whether I really posed a threat to Thor."
"So, I drew most of their attention, including the attention of Heimdall, who guards the Rainbow Bridge."
"Heimdall, aside from the Father of All Gods, is the only one in Asgard with the authority to activate the Rainbow Bridge. Even Queen Frigga and the Commander in Chief of the Royal Guard do not have this right."
"So you took the Destroyer to Earth and posed as if you wanted to kill Thor and his companions, attracting a Rainbow Bridge attack. But aren't you afraid the Rainbow Bridge could actually kill you?"
"That's why I said there was an element of gambling involved." Loki's eyes flashed with a hint of insanity, but his tone was very calm. At this moment, he seemed even more like the God of Mischief known throughout the cosmos.
"I know a little about Heimdall. He's one of the more conservative Asgardians. In other words, while he supports Thor, he only harbours suspicions about me, but he's not vehemently against me."
"In simple terms, he doesn't hate me, he just thinks I'm not fit to be Asgard's heir. While I was running errands across the cosmos, I frequently used the Rainbow Bridge and he didn't say anything about it."
"So I'm sure, even if he attacked me remotely with the Rainbow Bridge, he would control its power, he wouldn't really try to kill me, just to stop me from harming Thor,"
"But you performed a 'Death of Loki' in front of Thor."
"Exactly, I owe that to him." Loki lowered his head looking at Venom inside him who was busy and couldn't respond at the moment, Loki spoke up, "Earlier, when the symbiont found me, it said it wanted to devour its kin, and its kin carried the most refined power of Nal."
"After adapting to my body, he started his plan, but he found out things weren't as easy. The symbiont named Riot was clinging onto Nal's power and resisting, and Venom didn't have any good methods to eliminate him."
"If they collided directly, the end result might be a mutual defeat, Riot would exhaust all the power Nal gave him, and Venom would gain nothing."
"I see." Strange sighed, "So you two are in cahoots?"
"This is a mutual advantage. Venom placed Riot in my body, and when the Rainbow Bridge attacked me, it absorbed most of the damage, thus weakening Riot's strength while blocking the damage for me."
"So how did you end up like this?"
"The Rainbow Bridge is Asgard's most powerful weapon, even at its lowest level, it's enough to injure me seriously, but this effect wasn't explosive enough, it wouldn't necessarily touch Thor, so I had to perform a real death scene for him."
"So, when the Rainbow Bridge attacked me, I let Venom attack Riot at the same time. The two symbionts fought inside me, I don't know if you understand their combat process..."
"I do, in just a second, they could start a group conflict in every cell of yours, the effect was like igniting a huge atomic bomb in every single cell..."
"Exactly, the confrontation between Venom and Riot destroyed almost all of my body and gave Thor a true death scene."
"You should have more purposes, like your divine power and godly position?"
"Yes, according to my previous investigation..." Loki sighed, "I found that I might not be very suitable for the role of the Fire God."
"Asgard's godly position system is a very fascinating matter. Once chosen, it absolutely cannot be changed. An Asgardian with a proper god office can hardly ever change it, except for one possibility, that is, death or being infinitely close to death."
"In that moment, Venom sealed my consciousness, then melted my body, thus deceiving the World Tree into thinking I was dead, so my divine power and godly position were extracted from my body."
"When my consciousness returned, I voluntarily infused the power and godly position into Thor's body, and I can start anew, replacing it with a more suitable office."
"So, both of you can get three portions of divine power and godly positions, how did the World Tree give birth to such a genius like you?" Shiller also said, laughing.
Strange, however, sighed somewhat sadly, "The people of Asgard weave a web of lies with praises and boasts for Thor, but you, the God of Mischief, die to expose this lie..."
"And so..." The three exchanged a glance and a smile appeared on their faces.
"...wonder how big Thor's psychological trauma is now."