The Beginning Of End

nt by each word he uttered, ”Apocalypse. He offered me the apocalypse. ” I stared at him blankly and at the same time studied his reaction. And indeed, his smug face changed into one of slight confusion and a bit of fear. So, I continued, ”There, you wanted to know. There isn any grand scheme, some pact, its just the fact that we
e all going to die. Prophecy delivered by Odin himself. ”

”What does that even have to do with you? ”

”Well, Im involved and so is Loki. And we
e going to start it eventually. Don know, don know why, I just know. ”

Mammon returned to his serious self and it looked like he was trying to process what I was saying. It was unbelievable though. I kept this a secret for so long and now in less than a day, I already told two demons about it. It really is impossible to keep something a secret forever. Even lesser chances of that if you were me.

”And you didn think of telling THAT to anyone?! ” He exclaimed in a lecturing tone.

”I did, I just didn want to. I guess it felt like if I said that to anyone itd make it more real. For now Im focused on delaying it… somehow. ”

”Which is why you
e here? Trying to learn more about your archenemy? ”

”Yeah, basically. ” I nodded and shrugged. He fell silent for a bit, musing on the notion.

”Well, Ill keep your secret for now because Im curious how you
e going to embarrass yourself in the future. ” He said, oddly cheerfully. He was way more chaotic than I initially imagined. All demons had a chaotic side to them more or less, Mammon was just the only one whose chaotic traits seemed almost eerie.

”Hilarious. ” I said sarcastically before I just turned away from him once more and started heading towards the section.

”Good luck! ” He yelled out and I knew he didn mean it, not one bit.

After the long walk across the vast library which seemed like a whole eternity, I had finally come across a small bookshelf. On top of it, there stood a board made of wood which said Norse Mythology . I was searching through the books, pulling out a few of them before I had finally found what I was looking for. A whole book just on Loki. Truth to be told, the book itself wasn large so at least I didn have to spend days on research. Thankfully there was a small table near the window next to the bookshelf accompanied by two armchairs on each side. I quickly took a seat and opened the book with the first image being that of Loki – in all his glory. For some reason it made me shiver, probably in disgust. Then, I flipped the page and started reading trying not to let any word or syllable pass my attention.

An hour had passed and I was starting to get impatient as it felt like this research was going nowhere. It was mostly talking about his impact on Norse worlds and his relations with other gods there. There was even a full family tree of all his children which had genuinely surprised me. You don come across someone going down on a horse every day. That had also made me shiver in disgust. I was also shocked that there were so many things I didn know about him. Beforehand, all I knew was his name and that he was the trickster and that was it. So, I hoped all this information would come in handy someday. At once, my heart started pounding in my chest and my eyes gleamed in excitement as I came across one very interesting paragraph. Considering that Loki was always more of a nuisance than help to other gods, it had been written that he was bound in a cave to three rocks with iron chains. I couldn help but start to smile as I realized that there could be a way to prevent this.

As soon as I finished reading the paragraph, I stood up and rushed through the library whose vastness did not bother me anymore. When I reached the front of the library, Mammon was still there in the same position that I had first seen him in. He lifted his gaze from the book when he saw me, this time the gaze not showing any annoyance.

”You seem rather cheerful. Found anything useful? ” I stopped in my tracks as I was about to open the door. Then I just turned my head towards him and retorted,

”Wouldn you like to know? ” I saw him sneer for a moment before I just opened the door and left. What I almost found amusing about him was the fact that he seemed almost unfazed by the whole possibility of him dying. I wondered if it was way more interesting to him to watch me fail than to actually try to survive. As I was going through the halls, I hoped nobody would stop me again and say something ominous as it was apparently the theme of the day. All I needed was to get to Beelzebub and tell him the news without somebody having an interest in conversation with me.

I assumed Beelzebub was in the kitchen making his muffins as he had said earlier. I got down to the first floor of the building and made my way through the dining room. The dining room was mostly empty as demons didn have a need to eat. The few possible reasons why one would find a demon eating were either because they liked the taste of food or they needed something from the food. The food itself sometimes was used for giving you temporary abilities that you didn have before. There could be plenty of reasons why one would want to boost themselves like that however a lot of them used it as an aphrodisiac. We were demons after all.

I slammed the door open and Beelzebub jumped and turned around pulling out a blade at me.He was wearing a cooking apron near an oven so holding a blade at the same time was kind of comical I instantly stopped myself and put up my hands in a defensive stance.

”Whoa there! ” Beelzebub put down the blade and put it inside the pocket on the front of the apron once he saw it was just me.

”Sorry, I never know what to expect from demons here. ” He said absently.

”Yeah, fair. ” I nodded and exhaled in relief that I wasn stabbed just now. I put down my hands and then rushed over towards him. The look of excitement returned on my face as I was standing a few feet in front of him.

”I have come bearing some interesting news, ” I said, grinning. Beelzebub stared at me with a clear puzzlement on his face.

”Its only been a few hours, what could have possibly happened? ” ”

”Well… quite a bit actually. There is good and bad news. ” I didn give him a choice to pick one as I just continued, ”The bad news is Mammon knows about Loki and me. ” As soon as I said that, there was a look of shock on his face then I quickly proceeded, ”No, I did not tell him… He knew from day 1 when Loki came into my room, trying to kill me and all. ”

”I mean, its good, right? At least he didn tell anyone… yet. ”

”For now yeah… He is more curious about watching me fail to take Loki down. ”

”What a pompous bastard. ” Beelzebub noted with a tone of disbelief in his voice.

”Yeah, you
e telling me. ” I rolled my eyes. ”But then there is good news! I have found a way to put a stop to the apocalypse! At least for quite a while. ”

”Already?! ” Beelzebub exclaimed in a surprise. And then his expression quickly changed into a scowl, ”Don tell me you have decided to do something incredibly stupid. ”

”Well… Apparently, there is a way to trap Loki. In that way, he won be running about and I won be forced to kill him. In fact, I think the gods will be welcoming us to trap him as they are not his biggest fans. ”

Beelzebub let out a deep sigh and rubbed his temples. Without a word, he took off his apron and placed it on the counter behind him.

”You know… being your friend is sometimes really hard because there are so many times I want to hit you in the face. ” He said almost inaudibly but I knew that it meant he was just trying to contain his actual anger.

”Whats wrong with the plan? ”

”I mean… for example, we could die. ”

”We can always teleport ourselves out of any difficult situation. ”

”Yeah, maybe, if you
e lucky enough. ”

I exhaled sharply and kept my gaze fixed on Beelzebub waiting for him to agree to help me on this. Indeed, he was staring back at me with the same intensity. I could see that he was trying to weigh pros and cons in his head and that cons have been greater than the pros. He leaned on the counter behind him and looked down at the floor.

”Fine… Ill help you. ” I started grinning mischievously almost immediately upon his words. ”Im going to trust you, as much as it pains me to do so, that you do have a plan. ”

”Of course! ”

~~~

A while later, Beelzebub and I were hiding behind many trees of the forest in the clearing where Loki and I had our unfortunate interaction. And the clearing that I used to call my haven. Beelzebub had mentioned a few times that the trickster god was never going to show. I kept reassuring him that he indeed would. We just had to be patient.

I was holding large, heavy and long chains as I had taken the inspiration from the Norse gods in the book I had read. I had to agree, it was a great way to deal with something without usurping too much. However, I had hoped that his ”companions ” wouldn miss him too much. The sun had started going down already, painting the sky with wonderful colors that you could only see on a painting. I was so fixated on the beauty of the sky that I almost didn see the expected visitor on the clearing a few feet away. His red hair looked like it was shining and gleaming due to the setting sun and in a way, resembled the current sky. Loki had his hands in the pocket and was staring into the opposite side of the forest, his back turned to us.

I shook my head rapidly trying to chase away the virtually blasphemous thoughts. Beelzebub nudged me to start moving already. Suddenly there was a sense of pity taking over me, and I couldn move to do what I had planned. After reading so much on his history, I almost started feeling sorry for him. In my eyes, he was just someone who was ultimately misunderstood.

”What are you waiting for?! ” Beelzebub hissed silently and nudged me once again. My thoughts were instantly interrupted and I felt like I was brought back to reality. I swallowed a lump in my throat and looked intently at the trickster on the field. I murmured ”sorry ” to Beelzebub and he looked at me in confusion. In truth, I was also confused, having no idea what had just come over me.

Finally, I closed my eyes and started conjuring the ability that would make my presence almost unnoticeable. I crept slowly through the woods and the bushes before me, praying that Loki wouldn suddenly turn around and see me. Although I did not know who I was praying to. The Devil certainly was not listening, the god even less. I sneaked behind him and just when I was about to be right behind him, I stepped on some sort of branch and it cracked. I froze in place and carefully looked at Loki whom I saw turning himself to look behind him. However, before he could see behind him, I instantly pulled the chains up and wrapped them around his body. He yelped in place as I tightened the chain and put the lock on it. Both the chain and the lock were made so that only I could take them off or destroy them. If anything, hell had good torture equipment.

”Was wondering when youd show up. ” Loki grunted, I even heard a silent laugh coming from him. I was actually surprised at the lack of resistance from his end. I didn dare question it however so I just yanked the part of the chain that was dangling and started pulling him which made Loki fall flat on his back. ”You really think that trapping me will somehow make the apocalypse go away?! ” He snarled at me, now his anger becoming more visible. Still, I didn respond to him, I simply continued pulling him across the ground, hearing occasional yelps and grunts erupting from him.

Once I was close to where Beelzebub was standing, he took the chain from my hands. Due to Beelzebub bearing much more strength than me, with one swift motion he pulled Loki up together with the chain against the upper part of a tree next to us. In the meantime, Loki once again mumbled something about me having some interesting company. I grabbed the other end of the chain that was dangling then I helped my friend wrap it around both the Norse trickster and the tree. Once Loki was nice and propped up against the tree without a space to budge, Beelzebub and I stood in front of him and gazed at our entrapment masterpiece.

The red-haired god was looking down at us with contempt. He tried to shapeshift himself into a raven but it had only led to the chain heating and sizzling against him, wrapping itself tighter around him. He clenched his teeth and then threw us a glare.

”Youve been reading up on me, haven you? ” He hissed.

”You could say so… ” I shrugged and then turned my attention towards Beelzebub. ”You
e free to go if you wish to. I will handle him from this point on. ” I watched the demon of gluttony study Loki carefully like he was about to have him for a meal next.

”Got to say Im surprised that this actually has worked out so far. ” He smiled, averting his gaze from Loki to look at me.

”Lets not be hasty, theres still time for me to ** up. ”

Beelzebub laughed because he knew that it was oh so true. I did hope I wouldn mess this up though. It was my one chance at peace. Then, he bid his farewell, opened a portal and stepped out, leaving only Loki and me in the woods.

”I was genuinely hoping youd come to your senses but alas… ” Loki commented. There was a hint of sincerity in his tone.

”What are you talking about? ” I asked, frowning.

”That all of this is pointless. You
e just wasting your time tying me here in the middle of nowhere. ”

”Maybe to you it is pointless. I, for one, want to be around for a while longer. And I can leave hell knowing youll just pop out of nowhere and ruin my day. ”

Loki tilted his head to the side. ”You
e really going to stay here and watch me struggle? ” he asked.

I nodded. ”I am, ”

Loki sighed. ”Suit yourself, ” he said. He then proceeded to try and summon his magic again, but it was just out of reach. I could see him getting angrier and clenching his jaw. No one was going to find him out here either considering the chains had been warded specifically against Norse gods. Loki was shooting daggers with his glare at me while I simply sent him a smile, turned around and started walking away. At once, I heard behind me a flinging noise of a relatively large object. I quickly turned around, seeing a large hammer flying towards me, making me instantly put up my hand and return it to its sender. Across the woods in the distance I saw a large man with long, blonde wavy hair and a long beard. He was wearing a metal plated tunic with layers of quilted wool and a long cape made of some animal hide. He was large and muscular in every sense of the word, it looked like he could poke me once with his finger and send me flying across the field. I widened my eyes as I realized who had come to visit… It was Thor.