Loki smirked as he rolled his shoulders, his green magic swirling around his fingers. "Oh, dearest sister," he said with his signature smile, stepping forward. "I'd love to stay and chat, but I'm afraid I have an empire to take over."

  He tilted her head slightly. Her eyes were glowing with a green hue and she looked amused by Loki's usual id-back attitude even in that situation. "And yet here you are, standing between me and your inevitable, agonizing death."

  Loki chuckled. "You know me, always the optimist."

  There was a moment of silence...

  Then the Bck Order moved.

  Corvus Give struck first, lunging at He with insane speed. His golden give gleamed as he aimed for her throat. But before it could nd, He caught it with ease.

  "Really?" she sighed.

  With a flick of her wrist, she shattered the legendary give into dust. Corvus barely had time to register the loss of his weapon before He's hand shot forward, impaling straight through his ribcage.

  The glow in his eyes dimmed instantly.

  "Oops," He said mockingly.

  She twisted her hand and ripped out his heart. Blood spttered across the dark metal floors of Sanctuary II. Corvus staggered, his mouth opening in shock before he crumpled to the ground, lifeless.

  "One down," He smirked, tossing the heart aside.

  "YOU BITCH!" Proxima Midnight roared.

  She hurled her spear. He caught it midair and, without hesitation, snapped it in half like a twig. Proxima's eyes widened in horror.

  He moved faster than sight. In an instant, she was in front of Proxima, gripping the woman's skull with a vice-like grip.

  "You talk too much," She whispered.

  Then she crushed Proxima's head with one hand. Bone and brain matter spttered against the walls. The lifeless corpse slumped to the floor.

  "Two down."

  Loki took a slow step back, eyes flicking between his sister and the remaining two members of the Bck Order. "Well," he muttered. "This is going about as well as expected."

  Bck Dwarf, the monstrous brute of the group, let out a furious bellow and charged He like an unstoppable force. His warhammer swung in a devastating arc, powerful enough to shatter entire buildings.

  He merely sighed.

  At the st second, she sidestepped, her form blurring unnaturally. Bck Dwarf's hammer crashed into the floor, splintering the reinforced metal beneath them. Before he could recover, He casually reached out...

  ...and shoved her fingers through his eye sockets.

  Bck Dwarf let out a hideous, gurgling scream. He twisted her fingers inside his skull, her expression bored. Then, with a sharp yank, she ripped his head clean off his shoulders.

  "Three down."

  The massive corpse colpsed with a loud THUD, the head still clutched in He's grasp. She tossed it aside carelessly, her emerald eyes flicking to the st member of the Bck Order.

  Cull Obsidian, the st remaining warrior, hesitated. His massive fists clenched, his breathing ragged. His instincts screamed at him to flee.

  He grinned.

  "Run."

  Cull Obsidian turned.

  He never made it.

  He raised her hand and dozens of necrotic bck bdes shot from the ground, impaling Cull from every direction. His massive body twitched as dark magic drained the life from his flesh. His roar of agony was short-lived before his body withered into a dried husk, crumbling to dust.

  "Four down."

  The Bck Order was no more.

  He flicked her hand, dispelling the lingering blood from her armor. She turned back to Loki, who was still standing there, staring at her with a mixture of amusement and mild concern.

  "Well," Loki muttered. "That was dramatic."

  He smirked, conjuring a bck dagger and twirling it between her fingers. "Now," she purred, stepping toward him, "let's talk about your little betrayal, brother."

  Loki swallowed.

  "Shall we negotiate?"

  He just grinned.

  "Why not? Do yourself a favor and kill yourself and save a world of pain."

  Loki chuckled, the sound smooth and zy, but his sharp green eyes never left He's. He took a slow step back, twirling a dagger between his fingers. "Oh, sister dear, you wound me."

  He stalked forward, her armored boots clicking against the dark metal of the Sanctuary II. "Not yet," she said, her voice a velvet purr. "But I will."

  Loki's smirk twitched. "Ah. You do hold a grudge."

  He flicked her wrist, and a dozen bck bdes materialized in the air, hovering around her like hungry wolves. "You betrayed me," she said, each word ced with venom. "You tampered with the Bifrost. You threw me into the void, leaving me to die. And now, here we are." She tilted her head, amusement gleaming in her emerald gaze. "Oh, I do believe this is what mortals call… karma."

  Loki sighed dramatically, tapping a finger against his chin. "Alright, fine. In my defense, it was rather entertaining."

  He's smirk sharpened.

  The bck bdes shot forward like lightning.

  Loki blurred.

  The air shimmered, and his body dissolved into green mist just as the bdes ripped through where he had been standing. He narrowed her eyes, already sensing the magic at py.

  Behind her, Loki reappeared in a swirl of emerald light, his twin daggers fshing as he struck.

  CLANG!

  He spun, blocking his strike with a conjured obsidian bde. Sparks flew as their weapons cshed, their faces inches apart. Loki grinned, eyes glinting with mischief. "Miss me?"

  He's response was immediate.

  She headbutted him.

  CRACK!

  Loki staggered back with a curse, clutching his nose as blood dripped between his fingers. "Bloody Hel, that hurt!"

  He smirked. "Oh, I haven't even started."

  She lunged.

  Loki twisted, barely avoiding the deadly arc of her bde. He ducked under her next swing, rolling backward as a barrage of bck spikes erupted from the ground. His fingers fshed, sending a wave of green energy outward, shattering them before they could impale him.

  He was already moving. She was fast. Inhumanly fast. Her form blurred as she closed the distance, her foot smming into Loki's chest with brutal force.

  THOOM!

  Loki was unched across the battlefield, skidding across the ptform before smming into the hull of the Sanctuary II. He groaned, rubbing his ribs. "I really hate fighting family."

  He tilted her head. "You don't even like family."

  Loki grinned, wiping the blood from his lips. "Fair point."

  Then, in an instant, a dozen copies of Loki appeared around her, circling like ghosts. Each one was identical, their movements synchronized as they spun their daggers. "But I do love an audience," they all said in unison.

  He sighed. "Illusions."

  She threw her bde.

  The first Loki vanished in a puff of green mist.

  She pivoted, sshing through another... gone.

  The third, the fourth, the fifth... each illusion shattered as she struck. But there were too many. They danced around her, their ughter echoing in the metal corridors of the ship.

  "Do keep up, dear sister," one Loki taunted.

  He exhaled through her nose.

  Then she closed her eyes.

  The moment stretched.

  The shadows around her twisted.

  And then...

  A pulse of pure death exploded outward.

  A tidal wave of necrotic energy swept through the battlefield, disintegrating every illusion in an instant. The air crackled with residual magic as the space around her cleared.

  And Loki, the real Loki, was forced to appear.

  He reappeared behind her, dagger raised...

  He caught his wrist without looking.

  His eyes widened.

  Then she broke his arm.

  CRACK!

  Loki let out a strangled gasp, staggering back as pain shot up his limb. His dagger cttered to the floor. He turned to face him, slowly, deliberately.

  "Tricks won't save you," she murmured.

  "No. But what about the Destroyer?" Loki vanished and instantly the ship exploded.

  Fmes erupted from the wreckage of Sanctuary II, metal splitting apart as the ship began to fall. Chitauri warships scattered, struggling to evade the debris as gravity took hold.

  He stood amid the chaos, looking at the spot Loki was standing a moment ago. Well, he was gone.

  "That slippery little bastard."

  A groan snapped her attention downward.

  Thor.

  Her idiotic little brother y sprawled on the broken deck, battered and barely conscious. His once-mighty form was a wreck—blood dripped from his temple, his breath ragged. Without Mjolnir, without his usual bravado, he looked… vulnerable.

  He scoffed, pcing her hands on her hips. "Pathetic."

  She should've left him. Let him die with the ship. It would've been poetic. The so-called God of Thunder perishing in his own arrogance.

  But something in her hesitated.

  She clenched her jaw.

  Odin may have cast her aside, but she wasn't him.

  He clicked her tongue in annoyance. "You are lucky I'm in a good mood."

  With a flick of her wrist, dark tendrils coiled around Thor's broken body. Before the fmes could swallow them, she vanished in a swirl of shadowy energy.

  And just like that...

  Sanctuary II crashed.

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