23: A Dangerous Mind

[Chapter 23: A Dangerous Mind]

As they were on their knees, with ragged breaths, and sticking bodies, Loki's voice echoes through the field. He was tired, but he still sounded a bit worried(?). His eyes showed an anxious glint, while he scratched his hand from distress; his body showed a hunched posture.

"We need to go! Or we're all dead!"

—(A few moments before that)—

A strained gaze of tiredness grew on Loki's face. His body was full of sweat, his muscles ached, and he could feel his heart and soul beating wildly. The five-horned monster had finally fallen from the world of the living.

Blood tainted its skin, and the weapons stuck in its flesh. A red and greenish liquid gushed out of its wounds, mixing with Asgardian's corpses, creating a sad river, slowly ebbing with a tranquil sound toward dead trunks, and painting a bloody horizon.

The vibrant and fresh green grass that previously grew on the forest ground was nowhere to be seen, now leaving in its place a ravaged soil with upturned dirt. The dark wet dirt, which should have been paradise looking, was now tainted with red stains, and bits of flesh all over the soil, as if seeds trying to grow into big trees.

Ghastly ashes came with gentle gusts of winds, piercing the shielding fog, and blocking the hopefully bright future. With the wind, the cold scent of death mixed with the disgusting eldritchness overwhelmed his senses.

Echoing in the gloomy forest were faint cries, whimpers, and the chattering teeth of families being shattered once more.

Unbeknownst to himself, a lonely tear left Loki's eye and wetted his face. With hoarse breaths, because of his enormous use of magic, one of his knees fell to the ground, with his hands stabilizing himself. He felt strengthless.

He closed his eyes, the heaviness of tiredness weighing him down like gravity. It was dark, but slowly particles started dancing, their light shining with a myriad of colors, like a Christmas tree. He felt like the surrounding area, which he focused on, had become strange. As if tainted. The quality of the air itself had changed, with an almost otherworldly uniqueness.

Loki let himself be drowned by the overwhelming feeling. He could feel himself losing control of his body, as if floating in space. It was dark, like death itself, but held a glisten of weirdness. His gently, fluttering energy mixed with the infinite madness of ineffable energy.

But suddenly, as he could feel himself losing the will to understand, he opened his eyes, a loud and hoarse gasp escaping his mouth. His instinct had just saved him. He felt like the energy in the air was trying to corrupt the world itself, as if showing another side of someone in the mirror.

"What was that?" he murmured, intrigued, but he squinted his eyes and concentrated himself on his tasks beforehand. He could not get distracted, and he knew that this energy was above himself. Everyone has limits and trying to look above them would do him no good.

After a second of silence, he raised his leg and advanced toward the corpse of his comrades, and one by one closed their eyes before he and the others saved what was left of their bodies. They couldn't get their bodies, but they left them with a few minor spells to later pick them up.

The group stood solemnly; their eyes fixed on the gray sky above. As one, they lifted their voices in a mournful chant. "Odin, I bid you take your place in the halls of Valhalla, where the brave shall live forever. Nor shall we mourn but rejoice, for those that have died the glorious death."

As this was done and they had paid respect to their fallen comrades, Loki's hand rested on the lifeless monster's body, and a flash of rage flickered in his eyes before vanishing. The creature's mind had evaporated, leaving it completely dead. As Loki murmured something, his vision changed, revealing minuscule details he hadn't seen before. With his keen perception, he took in every nuance of the scene, analyzing and assessing it thoroughly. Though the monster lay defeated at his feet, Loki's mind was far from at ease.

Surveying the grisly aftermath, his gaze fell upon a nearly unscathed corpse. But as he approached, he noticed something peculiar. One of the monsters was still clinging to life, barely hanging on. Though it was immobile, its mind remained intact, flickering with a faint spark of consciousness. With a surge of curiosity, he drew closer, his keen senses picking up on the creature's labored breathing. Despite its weakened state, there was a dangerous glint in its eye, mindless ferocity, something that made it a formidable foe.

A hint of hope blossomed in Loki's heart. Maybe. Just maybe, he would be able to figure out some things about those monsters. He forcefully opened its eyes before looking straight at them and tore through its minim mind walls.

He did not care for any damage he could do to its mind, It was like the Hulk pushing a building.

And at this moment he uttered "shit!".

Loki's voice echoes through the field. He was tired, but he still sounded a bit worried(?). His eyes showed an anxious glint, while he scratched his hand from distress; his body showed a hunched posture.

"We need to go! Or we're all dead!" The monsters were not as mindless as he thought. No, most of them were, but the abomination that had fallen onto this world was not. It was the heart, brain, and mind of a gigantic hive mind that spread throughout those eldritch beasts.

It knew about them rescuing the magenta-skinned beings, and it knew about them separating. It knew about the spaceship! And it had begun to attack them!

The problem was that the abomination's energy was disrupting the runic ones of Loki's spaceship, making it unable to leave the planet. It was as if they were trapped, and the ones being hunted.