Chapter 3139: Chapter 2288: Jin Cheng's Late Autumn (41)_1
Shiller stood up from the chair, and as he did, the alarm in Loki's heart began to ring louder and louder.
Shiller stood in front of Loki, looking down on her. Loki instinctively leaned back, so much so that she had to prop herself up with her hands on the bed to maintain her balance.
"I'm glad that you are conscious of the relationship between you and your brother."
As soon as Shiller spoke, Loki understood that every fiber of his being exuded an intention to manipulate others — a psychologist would never make such a biased statement.
The more professional they are, the less they judge. They simply analyze rationally, remind cautiously, without discussing themselves or evaluating others. Once they do, it means they have begun to lose their professionalism and push everything in a more self-serving direction.
Loki looked up into a pair of desolate grey eyes.
"I'm also pleased that you agree with my approach."
"I don't think I've expressed my agreement."
"Then why say so?" Loki ignored the alarms in her head and began to boldly provoke, "Are you trying to make me think that your opinion is important?"
"I must remind you of something," said Shiller. "What you are doing is akin to throwing an exceedingly unstable time bomb into my banquet, capable of destroying everything at any moment."
"No easier than you would destroy everything."
Shiller narrowed his eyes.
Memories flickered through Loki's mind. He lay on the ground, seeing Shiller in a suit flick behind Talya through the reflection in his own flowing blood, and in an instant, Shiller had knocked her down.
Talya was lifted by Shiller and placed in the cell next to Loki's. He said nothing, stepping over the stream-like blood with his leather shoes, only giving Loki a glance before leaving.
It wasn't long before Loki felt the breathing in the adjacent cell stabilizing, and the faint sound of clothes rubbing against the tile floor reached his ears through the bones.
Loki looked down at the wound he was pressing; it was still bleeding, but much better. He struggled to sit up, and it was clear that the person opposite had heard the movement.
"Are you okay?" a slightly hoarse female voice came through.
"Don't talk." Loki's English bore a distinct Old Asgardian accent, an English with a Norwegian accent that sounded more primitive than modern English, its stresses further to the front, sounding flatter and heavier.
The other person fell silent for a moment.
"Shiller?" Talya released another word.
Loki didn't respond, but he gave a slight nod, trusting that the other person could simulate his movement in their mind through the subtle sounds. Talya indeed could because the silence here was profound.
"How is your wound?" Talya asked again.
Loki sighed with annoyance.
Soon he heard Talya leaning against the wall on his side, "Listen, if you possess wisdom and can communicate, you'd know that I'm just a regular human, wanting to leave here only with your help."
"So tell me, what can be done to improve your wound?"
"Silence." Loki said.
They fell silent at that, but it didn't last long. Talya clearly grew restless, saying, "Do you plan to just wait here? Wait for him to deal with you?"
Loki remained silent, not responding. Every breath Talya took, she could feel the excessively cold air pouring into her lungs from her upper respiratory tract, chilling her heart to numbness.
"Stay away from me." Loki then said.
Talya didn't move, so Loki sighed again in irritation.
Talya chuckled, lowering her voice, "Interesting boy, where do you come from?"
"...Asgard."
Talya raised her eyebrows slightly, then said, "If I remember correctly, that's heaven in Nordic mythology."
"One of the Nine Major Kingdoms." An obviously annoyed voice corrected. "There's no heaven, only the World Tree and Valhalla."
"What's your name?"
Again, there was a pause, but Talya wasn't about to give up. "Unfortunately for me, I've learned from a friend that the master of the manor who captured you has some peculiar little hobbies."
"If he wanted you dead, he would have killed you by now. If he wanted you alive, he should have staunched the bleeding of your wound. But keeping you here may as well be to let you bleed out, to present a unique delicacy at his banquet."
The silent air was thick with shock; Talya could almost smell the emotion.
"He wants to eat me?"
"It's not out of the question," Talya feigned a worried sigh. "You understand the lengths a banquet enthusiast might go to shock his guests with a delicious dish."
The other person fell silent again.
Talya found this interesting because although she couldn't see the person on the other side, she could sense his emotions through the changes in the air temperature. She couldn't help but ask, "What race are you? Part of the Nordic God Clan?"
"There is no Nordic God Clan," the voice sounded even angrier as he said, "The Aesir and the Frost Giants."
"Sounds like you're the latter," she said.
The other person continued to remain silent.
Talya felt she now understood a bit of Pamela's perspective. Although she wasn't particularly well-versed in Norse mythology, she wasn't ignorant to that extent either. Odin's stories were quite well known in Western culture. Even without a detailed study, she had at least picked up a thing or two through cultural osmosis.
Especially the setting of the World Tree and the Nine Major Kingdoms stood unique in all mythological systems. They were more interesting than Zeus's lot, as the races within the God Clan were divided into many species and they would wage years of conflicts amongst themselves, which was much more intriguing than the petty issues atop Mount Olympus.
So when Talya heard the name Asgard, she had roughly guessed which race the person belonged to. Her statement was simply meant to provoke him.
Now she knew where the laughter in Pamela's tone came from when she whispered in Talya's ear about how her angry expression looked good while she was being dragged away by the vine.
Humans all possess such primitive malice, obtaining a subtle pleasure when they abuse and manipulate the spirits and emotions of others. Toying with their own kind lets them taste the flavor of power, which is the most profound and severe addiction in this world.
Parents control their children, teachers control their students, superiors control subordinates. If there truly was a Lasso of Truth in this world, then no one could honestly claim they never derived any pleasure from the process that satisfied a desire to dominate.
Talya licked her lips and said, "Don't be angry, I'm not very familiar with this. If you refuse to tell me your name, how should I address you?"
The air temperature plummeted rapidly until Talya began to struggle to breathe, then slowly rose again, even dissolving the mist that floated above the ground.
"Loki," he uttered a name in a heavy voice.
Talya raised her eyebrows in surprise. It turned out to be a well-known figure from mythology, apparently not in his complete mythological form, but rather as a youth.
Talya remembered that Loki was known as the god of lies and tricks. So the question was, how did he end up captured here by Shiller?
Talya didn't think Loki could deceive Shiller, which meant it was most likely that he tried to deceive, failed, and angered Shiller, who was now planning to turn him into a dish.
But if Shiller had so easily seen through and punctured Loki's scheme, then why would he be enraged?
Or perhaps Shiller had been deceived in some part or at some point and then realized the trick, capturing Loki afterwards.
Could he have managed to deceive Shiller?
Talya felt a deep curiosity.
Hearing the changes in Talya's breathing frequency from across the room, Loki let out a breath. In the shadows where Talya could not see, he slowly revealed a smile.
"Do you wish to anger me?" Shiller looked down at Loki, his expression hidden in shadow, yet not appearing dark or angry. Instead, there was an eerie calm that made the atmosphere in the bedroom even heavier.
Loki pursed his lips and said, "I've heard that the Shiller who usually moves about the cosmos has a rather bad temper."
"Emotional manipulation?"
"More because you're vengeful," Loki pulled back his hands and crossed them in front of himself, adding, "If I tell you that I plan to throw a major bomb into an important gala, knowing full well the significance of the event, you would be very angry."
"But you didn't expect that you wouldn't meet him," Shiller said.
"I don't quite understand the differences between you," Loki admitted candidly. "With so little information, it's hard to extract more from Natasha, I can only plan according to what I know. You can't see this as a flaw."
"I do not," Shiller replied.
Loki lowered his head, thinking, "Although what happens between me and another world's Thor might concern him, pulling his attention back somewhat, these are ultimately trivial matters of the heart."
"But if I accidentally offend you, that would become a major universe-wide concern. Even though it's another persona, I must handle it with care, and even if Thor doesn't want to pay attention, Nick and others would have the same expectation of him."
"Clearly, you don't just wish to balance the scales."
"If I can achieve more, why not?" Loki looked up directly into Shiller's eyes, a light twinkling within them. They shone like gemstones, illuminating her beautiful face with a brilliance in the dimly lit bedroom.
"I rarely take initiative in seeking revenge on anyone; to be precise, I hardly ever do," Shiller shook his head, then looked at Loki with a curious tone, "So, what's your plan now?"
"I want to make sure this series of plans doesn't actually bring about grave consequences, so even though I might say this to you, that foolish second-generation individual has actually been locked away by me in a space fragment. He won't really come here," Loki explained.
"After all, with so many superheroes here, if he rashly barged in, it would trigger another war, with ordinary people suffering terribly and buildings reduced to rubble..."
Suddenly, Shiller's expression became vacant for a moment, and then his eyes refocused. He looked into Loki's eyes and said, "Let him come."
"...What?"
"Let him come, and I'll teach you how to get what you want."
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone