And before Loki, Mimir gazed at him. In the eyes of this old giant who could perceive all possibilities, the Loki before him distorted and shifted amidst myriad future visions. No, not only the future, but even the past seemed to waver along with Loki's words.
To be fair, the old giant could see all of the past, future, and present, and nothing within or without the universe could escape his sight. His words could indeed be called fate. However, in the entire universe, there was only one kind of thing that this old giant could not see through…
Anything related to that being he dared not speak of, he could hardly foresee, because his wisdom was derived from the Well of Wisdom, and the Well of Wisdom was nothing more than the feeble leakage of power from the master of whispers.
His eyes narrowed slightly, and his originally serene demeanor exuded a deep chill.
"How much do you truly know?"
The aged voice was cold and indifferent, no longer as calm as before, even carrying a tone of lofty rebuke.
"How much? Everything you think I might know, I know. And everything you think I don't know, I also know."
Loki's eyes looked at the old giant before him, laughing wantonly.
"Old one, that brother you told me about said that the coming of Ragnarok was due to the birth of this world. Where there is life, there is death. His words were not wrong, but… you concealed one thing. What is the true, earliest origin?"
"The birth of the world was due to the death of Ymir, and the death of Ymir was due to his initial birth. And the birth of Ymir can be traced back to the most ancient chasm in the universe. Then… what can the chasm be traced back to? And before the birth of this universe? What was the cause…"
His pupils slowly dilated, gradually turning savage.
"You think I realized something was amiss… it was precisely when Ymir died. Because it was too strange. I actually saw two fleeting figures in a daze at that time, and I even thought I had seen wrong."
"Until I secretly followed behind Odin out of suspicion, drank a mouthful of water from the Well of Wisdom, and even directly delved into the deepest part of the Well of Wisdom, saw those innumerable one-eyed phantoms, and felt the endless hidden knowledge, I finally understood… that was Odin and Fenrir chasing each other all the way to that most primordial origin in Ragnarok!"
"In other words, if there was no Ragnarok, Odin and Fenrir would not have fought and chased each other in the river of time all the way to that most ancient origin, and there would be no birth of this universe, no birth of Ymir, no birth of this world, and certainly no Loki and Odin, naturally there would be no Ragnarok either…"
"Heh heh… Mimir, I really have to admire your ingenuity. You actually thought of forming the space-time of the entire universe into a closed loop, without beginning or end. You twisted the originally linear time into a loop, and Ragnarok is the sacrificial ceremony used to appease that great being slumbering at the end of time, to avoid it finally awakening from its eternal slumber. So, whenever this grand sacrifice of Ragnarok ends, it is when the entire universe traces back to the beginning. All the dead return to the earth, and you and Ymir also fall asleep, waiting for another awakening countless years later, to escape that being you fear."
"The end of the universe, Ragnarok, is also the starting point of the universe's birth… All causality is thus connected, so trying to touch any link would cause the interlocking chains of karmic fate to trace all the way back. No matter how great your abilities, you cannot break free from it. Therefore, even though Odin possesses the nearly omnipotent runes, it is still futile, because the runes can do almost anything, but the one thing they cannot do is make Odin deny himself."
"What an ingenious scheme, what a grand ploy."
And at the end, Loki's voice became even more mocking, and at the same time, carried a deep sense of anger, a sense of being toyed with and played for a fool.
Before him, Mimir was silent, and then he slowly said,
"Loki, since you have understood all this, you should understand our helplessness…"
"Just because that monster is sleeping at the end of time, and if time keeps flowing forward, the entire universe will fall into that monster's maw, so you became afraid?"
But Loki only sneered, interrupting his words.
The old giant frowned slightly, then he tried to say in a conciliatory tone,
"Loki, you should understand that the fate of being devoured by that being is far more than just simple death."
"Think about it, Loki. For us, there is no true death, just lying back in the depths of the earth, falling into slumber. But to be devoured by that being slumbering at the end of time, it is far more than just death."
"And then continue to repeat this preposterous cycle again and again?"
But in the face of the old giant's goodwill, Loki only mocked again.
The old giant's face darkened. He said, stressing each word,
"Loki, I greatly admire your wisdom, to actually break free after these countless cycles and realize something was wrong. But what can you do? Fate has long been determined. Ragnarok is inevitable, your inevitable death, Odin's inevitable death. Even if there are occasional fluctuations, just like what you have done, what difference does it make? Ragnarok is inevitable, because the world must be born, otherwise there would be no existence of you, and no existence of Ragnarok itself… Do you think in these countless cycles, how many things have I witnessed? Do you think you can break free from this self-perpetuating cycle of cause and effect in space-time?"
And at the same time, the small Well of Wisdom suddenly began to tremble, accompanied by a rumble that resounded through the universe, the world outside the Well of Wisdom shook with it.
"Boom…"
Glancing at the sky, the slight anxiety on the old giant's face dissipated, and he became relaxed again. He continued,
"That invincible giant - Ymir has awakened. All the survivors and the dead will be buried by him into the earth. This time, he will not deliberately let himself be killed by you three brothers again. Besides, there is only you left of you three brothers."
But looking at the old giant before him, the corners of Loki's mouth only curved into a mocking smile.
"Old one, you think you have grasped all wisdom, but what you have grasped is nothing more than the wisdom that common sense can understand. The wisdom you cannot understand is far more wondrous than you can imagine."
"Old fellow, do you know why you cannot see the existence of this heart? I was merely using the runes to lay down a false trail. You saw through the runes, but you could not see this heart at all. Do you know why…"
The old giant looked at the human heart in Loki's palm, his pupils growing cold.
On this human heart, he vaguely saw something different, as if… as if it was…
"Thump… Thump…"
The heart before him beat quietly, but a deep fear gradually rose in the old giant's eyes, and there was only one source that could make him feel fear…
"You only know that I merely pulled in a human soul from beyond the realm, but you don't know that when that human soul mixed with the spirit of animals, it actually formed a peculiar reaction, a feeling extremely similar to that monster at the end of space-time."
Loki's wild laughter gradually became even more wanton in the old giant's ears, but compared to Loki's wantonness, the old giant's heart was filled with deep dread.
A newborn monster.
"Loki, have you gone mad… Do you know how much effort we have spent to cycle this universe again and again? You actually want to destroy this eternally undying universe?!!"
The old giant's voice carried deep fury, and at the same time, the figures of the three Norns also appeared beside him. At this moment, these three beautiful goddesses showed no trace of their usual tranquility, but instead were armed for battle, wielding weapons, and watching Loki before them vigilantly.
An old giant, three Norns, and the awakened giant Ymir. Facing a physically weak king of gods, the outcome seemed self-evident.
However, the Loki before them was surprisingly composed. He looked at the old giant before him, then said softly,
"Mimir, to just endlessly cycle like this, to desperately cling to life, does it truly have any meaning anymore… Meng!!!"
At the end of his voice, he suddenly raised his voice.
Meng?
Before this old giant could even figure it out, in an instant, he was enveloped in a deep darkness, and then a pain in his body…
Before Loki, that immense being composed of bones like mountains, that long body, the skull that vaguely resembled a serpent's head, was directly swallowing those four things that were as tiny as specks of dust compared to it.