"Laufey, you'll pay for this!"
Frigga had never been much of a fighter. Her earlier struggle, combined with Laufey's devastating blows, had nearly exhausted the last of her strength.
She watched as the spear descended, its razor-sharp point moments away from piercing her body, yet not a trace of fear appeared on her face.
"Goodbye..."
With the time she had bought, Loki should have reached safety by now...
Loki was a clever child. He would surely escape unharmed, and he would take Odin with him...
Her only regret was Thor.
Countless thoughts raced through Frigga's mind. In the end, however, she calmly closed her eyes and waited for the spear to fall.
"Clang!"
A crisp impact rang out before Frigga, scattering shards of ice around her.
A gentle force suddenly enveloped her and pushed her away.
Frigga's eyes flew open, and brilliant golden light filled her vision.
Loki had returned without her noticing. His robes were torn to shreds, and wounds covered his entire body.
Gritting his teeth, he raised Gungnir overhead. Veins bulged across his forehead as he narrowly blocked Laufey's descending spear.
"Tch."
Laufey clicked his tongue softly and furrowed his brow, clearly growing impatient. His thrust became a downward slash, and the force behind his weapon increased dramatically.
"Go!"
Loki clenched his teeth. As Laufey's immense strength bore down on him, his once-straight back slowly began to bend. Both hands trembled violently around Gungnir, as though he might collapse at any moment.
"Go!"
"Thud!"
Loki's left knee slammed heavily into the ground. The desperate struggle nearly drained him dry, and his deathly pale complexion was horrifying to behold.
"Loki!"
Frigga desperately tried to rise, but unbearable agony tore through every part of her body.
She watched Loki struggle beneath the pressure, his bones cracking one after another. Digging her fingers into the ice, she desperately tried to crawl toward him.
Yet after struggling for several moments and leaving vivid trails of blood across the ground, she had not even managed to move a single yard.
"Crack!"
Loki's thigh finally gave way beneath the pressure, snapping with a sickening sound.
Already at the end of his strength, he instantly lost his balance. Gungnir tilted in his hands and plunged uncontrollably into the ice, while Loki himself crashed heavily to the ground.
"A clever man, was it?"
Laufey sneered. After casually tossing aside his ice spear, he kicked Loki viciously in the chest.
"Pfft!"
Crimson blood sprayed from Loki's mouth. A dense series of cracking sounds erupted from his chest as he was hurled high into the air like a tattered rag before crashing back to the ground.
"My child! My child!"
Frigga's mind went completely blank. She desperately tried to crawl toward Loki.
"Don't be afraid... Mother..."
Blood clouded Loki's vision. Following the sound of Frigga's voice, he struggled to raise his head.
"I already hid Father... No one will ever find him..."
"Don't be afraid..."
His voice gradually weakened, and his head slowly sank.
He did not know how much time passed before he finally felt himself being gathered into a warm embrace.
Frigga lay on the ice, cradling Loki's mangled body in her arms as tears blurred her vision.
"I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid..."
Step.
Laufey slowly approached. As he looked at the wretched mother and son, an unreadable emotion flickered in his eyes.
"Laufey, Loki is your son!"
Frigga suddenly raised her head and stared up into Laufey's inscrutable crimson eyes, her teeth clenched tightly.
"Years ago, Odin carried him out of your palace. He is not Asgardian. He is the rightful ruler of Jotunheim!"
"Can you truly bring yourself to kill your own flesh and blood?"
"Why wouldn't I?"
Laufey chuckled coldly, looking at the struggling Frigga as though she were telling him a joke.
"He is merely a child."
"You..."
Laufey's merciless answer plunged Frigga into an icy abyss.
Her head abruptly dropped. As if accepting her fate, she finally stopped struggling.
"So be it..."
"Perhaps this is for the best... He is my child. My child..."
She spoke softly and laboriously raised a hand, gently brushing it through Loki's disheveled black hair. The turmoil in her eyes suddenly faded, leaving them as tranquil as still water.
A faint smile appeared on Frigga's lips.
She saw Loki and Thor as children once more.
Even then, Loki had been exceptionally mischievous. He loved transforming into all kinds of frightening animals to scare Thor.
In the middle of the night, he would turn into a grass snake and slip beneath Thor's blankets, frightening Thor so badly that he would run crying into her room.
He had even transformed Thor into a frog once, nearly getting him beaten half to death by Sif, who had no idea who he really was...
Frigga suddenly began to laugh.
"Everyone should be sleeping,
For night has now arrived.
Now, little bumblebee,
It is time for you to sleep.
All the little children are in bed,
With their mothers and their fathers..."
Her gentle voice softly sang the ancient lullaby.
Beautiful divine light blossomed from the mother's body and wrapped tightly around Loki. It felt just like those sleepless nights when he was a child, when he would drive Thor away and imperiously squeeze himself between his mother and father.
A tear seemed to slip from the corner of Loki's eye. He slowly released a long breath, and his body finally relaxed completely.
"This is nice..." he murmured.
"This is nice," Laufey echoed.
He had never heard the lullaby Frigga was singing.
Yet at the beginning of his long life, before all the cruelty, violence, and tyranny that followed, there had also been a cold yet comforting embrace that held him close and sang a lullaby now buried beneath the dust of his deepest memories.
"Goodbye."
The Casket of Ancient Winters appeared in Laufey's hand.
As though savoring the moment, the exquisite artifact awakened with unusual slowness.
At last, its blue radiance gradually brightened.
It was as if Laufey held a dazzling pearl in his hand, illuminating the world around him.
Cold began to gather, and the warmth of Frigga's lullaby was slowly drowned beneath bone-piercing frost.
"Crack!"
A crisp shattering sound came from the distant horizon. It was particularly distinct amid the absolute silence, like a switch being thrown to release power that had accumulated to its limit.
The next instant, the power of the Casket of Ancient Winters erupted.
A raging torrent of cold burst from Laufey's hand like floodwater released through an open dam.
The extreme temperature instantly froze the moisture in the surrounding air. Under Laufey's control, it formed razor-sharp icicles several feet long, all of which hurtled toward Frigga and Loki at once.
Frigga held Loki in her arms. She no longer felt any fear and merely waited in silence for the end.
As the deadly cold swept toward them, she tightened her embrace around her grown child one final time.
Then the wind began to blow.
It was warm.
Such scorching heat had no place within the frozen hell Laufey had created with his own hands. Yet at that moment, it undeniably swept toward them from the distance.
Frigga opened her eyes.
Against the darkened horizon, a brilliant blue sun suddenly rose, illuminating Asgard's long-silent night sky.
(End of Chapter)
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