Hermod was Odin's son and the messenger of the gods, skilled in flight and the swiftest of all. Upon hearing Odin's order, he acknowledged it and instantly vanished from the underground cave.
"Narfi, Vali…"
Hearing Odin's words, Loki suddenly seemed to realize something and his face showed shock and fury. He abruptly clawed at the ground with both hands, desperately trying to break free from the thunder god's foot, while yelling at Odin before him.
"Odin! If you simply want to bind me to a rock, why do you need to do this?!!"
He screamed at the top of his lungs, but immediately, the thunder god behind him snorted coldly and increased the pressure of his foot, forcing the caught off guard Loki's head into the shallow mud, the filth in the marsh smearing the face of this former god. His head buried in the foul water, he could only struggle feebly and cough incessantly, unable to speak.
The once handsome face and hair were now covered in dark mud and dirty water.
The dignity of being a god had long been trampled into the mud, crushed to nothing.
But compared to what was about to happen next, this humiliation was the least of Loki's concerns. He just strived to raise his head and gasp for air, looking at Odin before him, speaking in a hoarse voice,
"Odin, tell me, why are you doing this…"
At this moment, Hermod the messenger of the gods had also returned, his two arms holding two struggling boys. Seeing Loki under the thunder god's foot, the two children cried out desperately,
"Daddy!"
Loki had lived a wild and unrestrained life, but in truth had only had three wives. The giantess Glut bore him two daughters, Eisa (Embers) and Einmyria (Ashes). These two children were quite reserved and unassuming, sharing their father - the fire god Loki's duties as deities of fire.
The giantess Angrboda bore him the monstrous wolf Fenrir, the great serpent Jormungandr, and the death goddess Hel. These three children were the great enemies of the gods and the reason for the dispute between Loki and Odin.
Sigyn was his third wife, bearing Loki two sons, Narfi and Vali, who were Loki's youngest children and had not yet truly grown up.
Loki, trampled in the filthy water, looked at his two children before him, his lips trembling, unable to speak.
Countless future scenes flashed before him, already revealing to him Odin's decision…
"Odin!!!"
He struggled with all his might, his anguished wails like those of a wounded beast.
Odin looked at the wretched Loki struggling in the mud before him, his expression as impassive as ever.
He waved his finger at the two children Hermod had thrown to the ground. The boy named Vali began to tremble, his body gradually growing coarse black fur. His teeth grew long and sharp, his eyes filling with pain, his once human hands replaced by vicious claws.
He had been transformed into a wolf.
And once he became a wolf, the beast's eyes glowing red with feral savagery, it pounced on its unsuspecting brother and began ravenously tearing at his flesh.
"Ahhh…"
In the underground cave, the howls and snarls of the wolf and the agonized screams of the boy under attack echoed unceasingly.
Watching this scene of fratricide before him, Loki opened his mouth wide, trying to make a sound, but found himself unable to utter anything.
"…"
He gaped, infinite sorrow surging within him, but he simply couldn't release it. He could only lie prone on the ground, making a few inarticulate guttural sounds, helplessly watching the scene before him, tears seeming to fall from the corners of his eyes.
"Loki, when you incited my child to kill his brother Balder, did you ever imagine this scene?"
Beside him, Odin's calm voice rang out.
Loki turned his head in a daze. At this moment, his mind was a complete blank, long forgetting what Odin before him was saying. Only a deep, seething rage and hatred surged in his heart.
His body lying prone on the ground began to tremble as he looked up at Odin towering over him. His serpentine, vertical pupils carried a bitter hatred as he clenched his teeth tightly, squeezing out a name from between his teeth.
"Odin…"
Looking at Loki before him, Odin quietly said,
"Do you still not understand… Loki, from the moment you goaded Hodr to kill Balder, we became mortal enemies… with no turning back."
With that, he inexplicably fell silent for a moment, then murmured,
"Perhaps… it was even earlier. Maybe from the moment we swore our oath to each other, before this world was born, we were already fated for today's falling out… Perhaps, we should never have become brothers in the first place."
"We are blood brothers, I will not drink alone the mead they serve us both."
The vow from the past echoed in Loki's mind, as clear as if it were yesterday, but now it seemed like a cruel irony.
He opened his mouth wide and inexplicably began to laugh.
"Hehe… Hahahaha…"
The shrill, unhinged laughter carried a deep self-mockery and scorn. He laughed and cried at the same time until finally, the laughter abruptly ceased.
He lowered his head deeply, not letting anyone see his face. After a long while, he slowly said,
"Odin…"
His voice was incredibly calm, calm to the point of being… nearly glacial.
Odin bent down, silently looking at his former blood brother. Loki laboriously raised his head to look up at Odin before him, their foreheads almost touching, their godly gazes clashing.
One eye was calm and silent, the other filled with unspeakable darkness and resentment.
"Heh…"
Loki gasped for breath, his pitch-black and frigid eyes staring at his "brother" before him. He snarled with clenched jaws,
"Odin… You will pay for this!"
Looking at Loki's dark gaze, Odin remained silent, as he always had.
He stood up, not looking back at Loki behind him, but calmly said to the gods beside him,
"Ordinary chains cannot bind Loki. His magic is very profound, I am well aware of this. So, I will tear open his child's belly and use his child's entrails as chains, placing a curse on him with the blood and flesh of his kin, so he cannot escape."
Lying in the filthy water, Loki just laughed coldly, indifferently looking at the gods before him with those dark and frigid eyes, making the gods he glared at shudder with unease.
"I don't want to see his face again… It makes me uncomfortable."
Skadi, the goddess of winter, couldn't help but frown as she looked at Loki.
"You can go catch a venomous snake and use its venom to erode Loki's face, so you never have to look at his face again."
The goddess Gefjun said to Skadi…
No matter what the gods said to each other, Loki didn't say a word, only laughing coldly at them.
…
A long time later, the gods had all left.
Just as in many legends, the righteous gods vanquished the evil god and imprisoned him.
In the dark, gloomy underground cave, only Loki was tied to the rock with ropes. He hung his head, his face not visible. Above his head was a venomous snake caught by Skadi, the winter goddess. The snake's highly toxic venom dripped onto Loki's face, slowly corroding his divine visage.
Just as Loki had once mockingly said,
"Your words sound nice, but being kind isn't necessarily genuine."
Skadi's mouth was full of honeyed words, but when it came to action, she definitely wouldn't give a second thought to the sweet nothings she had once whispered to Loki.
After a long time, a resentful and shrill voice rang out from the underground cave once more, echoing in this subterranean world where he would be imprisoned for who knows how many more years.
"Odin… You will pay for this!!!"