Fenris, seeing something flying towards it, let out a howl and reflexively snapped its jaws shut, catching it. Just as Loki was bracing himself to be bitten in half, the beast surprisingly carried Loki in its mouth, trotting over to Saiki Kusuo and placing Loki in front of him, wagging its tail.
Thor: "..."
Loki: "..."
Saiki Kusuo: "..."
Hela: "...Idiot, what are you doing!"
Reprimanded, Fenris realized it had acted on instinct. To avoid punishment from Hela, it quickly tried to redeem itself by baring its teeth at Saiki Kusuo.
Saiki, silent for half a second, made Loki float in mid-air. Before Loki could react, Saiki flung him forcefully away.
Fenris, almost reflexively, chased after Loki.
Thor's mouth twitched, and he couldn't help but say, "Although Loki is sometimes full of mischief, he's still my brother. Show him some respect."
Saiki was unmoved by his warning, merely pointing to Fenris, who was trotting back towards them again. "Will respecting him make this beast behave and stop destroying Asgard?"
Thor raised an eyebrow, watching the seemingly tamed Fenris, who was now pawing at Loki like a toy, rolling him around on the ground.
His nose twitched, and he wiped away a sympathetic tear for Loki, turning his head away.
"Loki, you've suffered enough," Thor said, then lifted his hammer and charged towards Hela, ready for a fight.
Hela had taken quite a beating from the Black Order. If they hadn't underestimated her so much, she might have died at their hands. Back in Asgard, she'd regained her peak strength, more than capable of handling Thor and the Hulk.
"Damn beast, if you don't want to be torn to pieces, let me go!"
"You bastard, you and that pink-haired punk are dead! Just wait until you fall into my hands, I'll make you wish you were dead!"
(Don't you think your words contradict each other, little princess of Asgard?)
Saiki approached the two of them. Seeming to find it embarrassing, Hela didn't give Fenris any further commands, and the beast gleefully played with Loki, following its instincts.
"Alright, we have things to do. Make Loki get up."
Saiki spoke, stopping Fenris. The beast, thinking Saiki wanted to play with it, dropped Loki, who it had been carrying in its mouth.
Fenris was about the size of a ten-story building. Loki, falling from a height of dozens of meters, groaned, nearly breaking all his bones.
He finally caught his breath and struggled to his feet. Before he could even think about getting revenge, Saiki stood before him.
Remembering the scene of being played with by Fenris, Loki shivered. Although his words were still harsh, he'd lost some of his bravado.
"What do you want!"
Saiki didn't beat around the bush and said directly, "I want the Space Stone."
Loki: "!!"
Seemingly surprised that Saiki knew about the existence of the Infinity Stones, his eyes darted around, and he said guiltily, "I don't know what you're talking about!"
Seeing Loki's dishonesty, Saiki didn't waste any more words and directly called Fenris over.
Fenris seemed dissatisfied that Saiki had stopped it from playing with Loki. It bared its teeth and growled at Saiki a couple of times, but when Saiki coldly asked, "Do you want to be a toy like Loki?" it immediately deflated and obeyed.
A beast's instincts are incredibly sharp. Fenris's instincts told it that the ordinary-looking teenager in front of it was even more powerful than its master.
Seeing Fenris obedient, Saiki nodded in satisfaction, then commanded Fenris, "Alright, this guy is all yours. Play with him however you want, until he tells the truth."
Loki: "...You! Ugh!"
Loki wanted to curse, but Fenris slapped him to the ground with a paw, leaving him covered in dirt and looking utterly pathetic. And to make matters worse, Saiki was adding fuel to the fire.
"Oh, so this is the prince of Asgard? Defeated so easily by a beast, how embarrassing. I wonder what the civilians of Asgard would think if they saw this."
Loki, skilled at manipulating people and sowing discord, was nothing more than a weakling in Saiki's eyes, his weakness exposed and unable to resist.
Thor was still fighting, unable to help him. Loki reluctantly compromised, taking Saiki to the place where the gem was kept.
Saiki actually knew from the beginning that Loki had two gems. One was the Mind Stone, and the other was the Space Stone.
The Mind Stone was placed in SHIELD, and the other was taken back to Asgard by Loki.
Saiki thought this was the best decision. One gem had already thrown Earth into chaos; if there were two, Earth might be destroyed.
Unfortunately, SHIELD fell apart, and he was forced to take one. As for this one, if it weren't for Thanos coming, and to prevent him from obtaining it, he wouldn't have come to Asgard to get involved in this mess.
Loki spent the entire journey thinking about how to retaliate against Saiki. His imagination was even wilder than Peter's and Banner's combined. If Saiki hadn't been worried about him pulling a trick along the way, he would have blocked him out completely.
To Loki's dismay, by the time they reached the secret chamber holding the Space Stone, he still hadn't come up with a good way to counterattack.
Loki opened the door to the chamber, pointing to the Tesseract glowing in the center.
The gem inside the Tesseract was emitting an aura that Saiki found strangely repulsive, a feeling he'd also experienced with the Mind Stone.
Saiki sighed and picked up the Tesseract, extracting the Space Stone.
Just like the Mind Stone before, as Saiki held it in his hand, the gem transformed into a beam of white light and flowed into his body.
It didn't bring about the same immediate changes as the Mind Stone, but it was the most practical. Saiki tested his powers and came to this conclusion.
His teleportation seemed to have fewer restrictions. Even if he hadn't seen a place, as long as he knew the location, he could teleport there. Of course, if he hadn't seen what it looked like, the teleportation would be to a random spot within that location. The cooldown for teleportation was reduced to one minute, making it much more convenient to buy soy sauce for his mother or to get home when it rained without an umbrella.
If it were anyone else, possessing superpowers and even acquiring two Infinity Stones in succession, they'd probably be ecstatic, fantasizing about conquering the world or becoming a revered hero.
But Saiki was thinking, This will greatly shorten the time it takes to go to the supermarket after school for that discounted coffee jelly and get back home. How convenient. And, Do the gems have any effect of destroying each other? Also, I heard there are six gems. If you collect them all, can you summon a dragon like in Dragon Ball and make me no longer have superpowers?
His unambitious thoughts would leave countless people exasperated.
Loki, who had been paying close attention to his every move, seized the opportunity, trying to activate a mechanism to trap Saiki there. But just as his hand touched the button, Fenris slammed him into the wall with a paw.
Loki: Why does everyone like to slam me into walls!
Logically, the enormous Fenris shouldn't be able to enter the secret chamber. Why was this beast not only inside but also shrunk to the size of only two people?
"Fenris, huh?" Saiki turned his head. As he walked towards Loki, he also created a replica and placed it in the original spot. This was something he had asked Kusuke to make after learning of Thanos's goal. Kusuke had patted his chest and guaranteed a 99% similarity to the real thing, ensuring that Thanos wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
"I saw that it really likes you, and it wouldn't leave you alone, so I shrunk it down and let it follow us in."
Are you sure it likes me and doesn't want to kill me?
Loki watched Fenris wagging its tail at Saiki in a fawning manner. It had shrunk in size, but its strength hadn't diminished. The tail swishing back and forth made the chamber shake as if it were about to collapse.
"Alright, let's go. We need to deal with Hela."
Loki glanced at the Tesseract in the center of the chamber, not understanding why Saiki had forced him to come here.
Saiki hadn't let him see his little trick, so Loki didn't know that the Space Stone was now a fake.
Outside the chamber, the battle between Hela, Thor, and the Hulk continued. Hela still maintained a calm and collected demeanor, but as the Hulk grew angrier, his strength increased. Working together with Thor, she hadn't gained any significant advantage.
However, Thor looked rather worse for wear, clutching his hammer and panting heavily.
Hela also seemed quite surprised that Thor had repaired Mjolnir. But destroying the hammer would essentially cripple two-thirds of Thor's fighting ability, allowing her to end the battle quickly.
Therefore, when Thor attacked, Hela reached out, intending to grab Mjolnir. However, Thor, wary, pulled back his hand before she could touch it. But this exposed his weakness to her.
Seizing the opportunity, Hela grabbed his neck, lifting him up. With a disdainful sneer, she thrust the weapon in her other hand towards his heart.
"ROAR!" The Hulk roared and rejoined the fray. After being dealt with by Saiki a few times, his consciousness seemed to have cleared up a bit. He wasn't as ferocious as before, solely focused on destruction and devastation.
He knew Thor was an ally, so when Hela was about to kill Thor, he intervened.
His strength was immense, making it difficult even for Hela to parry. Forced to release Thor, Hela grabbed her weapons with both hands to block the Hulk's fist. The enormous impact nearly brought Hela to her knees.
This was an unforgivable disgrace for Hela. She flipped and kicked the Hulk. The Hulk, losing his balance, staggered back a few steps. Thor then seized the opportunity to attack his back.
Hela, well-prepared, said dismissively, "Overestimating yourself," and swiftly dodged, seizing Mjolnir in the process.
"Oh no!"
In an instant, Hela once again crushed Mjolnir with one hand, and with her other hand, she thrust towards Thor's face while he was in shock.
Fortunately, Thor reacted quickly, rolling on the ground to dodge. He stood up, holding only the remaining handle, and waved to Saiki, shouting.
"Hey, my buddy's broken again! Can you fix it for me?"
One sentence exposed him to Hela.
Saiki sighed, thinking about how to get Fenris to slam this guy into the wall too, to keep Loki company.
"I'm not Doraemon, I can't restore it for you so many times in one day."