As all the heroes of the world watch in horror and despair and Odin waits in patience to see whether he need destroy Midgard, Thor, in fulfillment of prophecy, challenges the Serpent, knowing that the villain’s downfall will mean his own death. The Serpent transforms himself into a giant dragon to battle Thor….
But what of Loki? In the library of the Serpent’s Dark Asgard, Tyr and the Disir are holding off the enemy’s forces while Loki uses the shadow of Surtur’s sword Twilight as a pen to write in a book, using Leah’s blood as ink. The book is the Serpent’s own biography, and Loki is altering it….
Once, when he was yet a boy, he who would become the Serpent was riding in the glades when he was seized by giants. They threw him into a deep chasm and left him to die, as a sign of their contempt for the mighty gods of Asgard. But the boy did not die; instead he marshaled his strength until nightfall qwhen he emerged for the pit and slew every giant but one as they slept. The survivor woke to horror—and the message, "Gods do not live in the sky. We live on the Earth. And you do so at our pleasure." And so the fear was born. Thus it is written in the chronicle. But Loki adds how the Serpent was nursed back to health in Asgard by a sweet girl with green eyes and when he was recovered he could not find her. Thoughts of her softened the memory of his suffering in the pit….
And so, as the Serpent in his monstrous form seeks to strike down the God of Thunder, he suddenly remembers the green-eyed girl—and feels fear….
His task finished, Loki and the others escape via a path torn for them by the rampaging Destroyer. In the engine room of Dark Asgard, Loki summons Surtur, freeing him from his imprisonment and offers him Dark Asgard as a substitute for the regular one. As the demon delights in destruction, Loki and company dash through a portal opened by Leah and emerge in a wasteland—where they witness Thor and the Serpent falling together from the sky. The mighty God of Thunder dies in Odin’s arms. Loki tells Leah that it was all to give Thor a chance at victory by weakening the all-powerful Serpent—although it meant his death and the freeing of the great enemy Surtur. Yet he weeps as he was responsible for the death of his brother. Ikol, the magpie containing the spirit of the old Loki, departs and muses on the irony that he was able to destroy Thor when he was helping him, and hopes his younger self will suffer for a long time….