Mephisto and Hela meet on the Hell/Hel border and the demonic one denies planning to invade her realm, as Loki had told them….
As part of his scheme, young Loki enters Fortress Hela with a warning for the Goddess of Death but only her handmaiden Leah is there. Loki tries to charm her into calling her mistress but the girl responds by kicking Loki in the groin. She then looks into Ikol’s eyes and discovers that the Disir are under Mephisto’s control and she rushes out to inform Hela. Loki, having been left alone as was his objective, meets with the Tongue of the Serpent; he banters with the villain’s monstrous emissary as a distraction until Tyr creeps in and slays him after he turns over the details of the Serpent’s plans for Hel….
Back at the border, Leah arrives and tells her mistress that Mephisto controls the Disir, which sends Hela into a rage against the Demon Lord. As the tense situation grows even tenser, Loki arrives to reveal that the Serpent is planning to arrange an uprising in Hel. This matter compels the two lords of the dead to consider joining forces at Loki’s suggestion to repel the common enemy….
Loki thereupon rides the Hel-Wolf to the arranged meeting-place—the backyard of a vacant home in Newark, New Jersey. A secret alliance is forged: Mephisto will support Hela by sending seven of the Disir to protect her realm against any uprising; Hela will remain neutral in the coming war, retiring to her fortress and she will loan Loki the aid of Tyr and Leah; Mephisto will also send the remaining three Disir with Loki to forward his grand scheme. After Mephisto and Hela depart, Loki tells his new followers what he learned about the Serpent at the base of the World Tree: the tale of how, when he was but a young god in Asgard, the Serpent was captured by giants who hurled him into a pit to die; the godling did not die, however, but survived and slew all the giants in their sleep, leaving a sole survivor to spread the warning that he is to be feared mightily…. Loki’s lesson is that such an opponent could not be defeated save by cleverness. For his plan he now has the personages and now needs a couple of tools, one from Asgard and the other from Limbo. But only the soulless dead can reach Limbo, the Hel-Wolf points out—so Loki has the Hel-Wolf slain by the Disir, and accompanies the monster down to the dark realm….