Inside the armory.
Korg was still complaining that Bant had been too impulsive. He picked up a sword and said, "You shouldn't challenge the Red Wind Queen. She's not as brutal as the previous champions, but she's undefeated, and every match she goes all out."
As he spoke, he glanced at Bant, then sighed and shook his head, as if mourning Bant's skinny frame.
Too weak.
In Korg's eyes, Bant's body wouldn't even make it to the Red Wind Queen before he got torn apart by other opponents.
A champion challenge wasn't some ordinary exhibition match.
"Can't I challenge the Red Wind Queen directly?" Bant asked.
He remembered that after Thor arrived on Sakaar, he was able to fight Hulk directly.
"You could before," Korg said. "But the Red Wind Queen doesn't like fighting weak opponents, so the Red King changed the rules on purpose. If you want to challenge the Red Wind Queen, you have to prove you're qualified first."
"Hm…" Bant let out a vague grunt through his nose. He picked up a hammer that weighed several times more than his own body. It was still smeared with the fur and dried blood of some unknown creature.
"Oh, these soldiers won't even clean the weapons. Who knows if the blood on this thing carries diseases!" Korg complained.
But Bant didn't care.
He didn't need weapons.
He set the hammer down and asked, "Are the Red Wind Queen and the Red King a couple?"
The two titles sounded so similar that it was hard not to think that way.
But Korg shook his head. "How could they be?"
At that moment, another gladiator cut in. "The Red Wind Queen has that title because she claims to be the queen of the Red Wind Empire. It has nothing to do with the Red King."
"Red Wind Empire?" Bant repeated the name, feeling it was familiar. But he couldn't recall any information about a Red Wind Empire from the Marvel universe.
He had heard of the Skrull Empire and the Kree Empire, though.
"Isn't your friend picking a weapon?" Korg asked, gesturing toward Loki, who sat in the distance with his head buried in his knees.
Even though Bant had declared he would challenge the Red Wind Queen, the next one going into the ring wasn't Bant.
It was Loki.
Odin's son had angered the Red King. As punishment, he was the "product" to be displayed in a low-tier match.
And right now, Loki, crushed by the cruelty of fate, had no fighting spirit at all. He looked numb. If this kept up, he might actually die here.
"He's a sorcerer…" Bant wasn't sure, so he added, "Probably."
"Let's hope he pulls himself together," Margus sighed. "The Red King won't let anyone who offends him live. I'm guessing his opponent next match won't be any of us. It'll be a troll."
Seeing Bant's confusion, Xaloi explained, "Trolls are huge monsters unique to Sakaar. They eat anything. They're insanely violent. If he doesn't snap out of it, he'll probably be monster feed tomorrow."
Bant looked over at Loki.
To be honest, Bant didn't think the Red King had the guts to kill Loki, but he also worried the Red King might be a reckless hothead who really would do it.
To avoid Loki dying at the Red King's hands and getting Sakaar erased by an enraged Odin, Bant felt he needed to talk some sense into Loki.
Besides, some of Loki's abilities would be very useful for Bant's plan to conquer this planet.
Of course, ordinary comfort didn't work on Asgardians.
Bant went straight for mockery. "So this is all Odin's son can do?"
Loki didn't react.
Bant simply sat down beside him and continued, "You know what? Right now you look like a homeless dog. Where did that arrogant attitude you had on Earth go?"
Loki still said nothing.
Seeing that, Bant had to turn it up. He patted off his pants, stood up, and said, "Fine. No wonder Odin won't let you inherit his position. Compared to Thor, you're not even close."
At that, Loki finally moved. He turned his head and glared at Bant with a mix of grievance and fury, then snapped, "Odin gave the throne to Thor only because Thor is his son, and I'm not!"
Even after falling this far, Loki still didn't want to admit he was inferior to Thor.
Ridiculous. That idiot with muscles for brains, what could he do besides swing a hammer? Without that hammer, he wasn't even a god.
But Bant didn't see it that way.
In its early years, Asgard waged war across the cosmos, making countless races bleed. It brought Asgard tremendous prestige and benefit, but it also drew endless hatred.
If there wasn't a powerful God-King seated in Asgard, the Nine Realms would instantly fall into chaos. Giants and Dark Elves would sound the horns of war at once.
"If you became God-King, Asgard would be conquered quickly by gathered enemies. Every Asgardian warrior would be slaughtered. Every citizen of Asgard would be enslaved…"
Bant reached out and tugged the blood-soaked chain on Loki's body. Pain immediately made Loki grit his teeth.
"Just like you," Bant said, letting go of the chain, then continuing, "Your friends… forget it, you don't have friends. But what about your mother? The noble and immortal All-Mother. What would happen to her?"
The question stabbed straight into Loki's soul.
To Loki, everyone in Asgard was like a stern father. Man or woman, none of them showed warmth.
Except Frigga.
Loki's heart suddenly clenched. He imagined what would happen if he truly let Frost Giants enter Asgard, with no one to stop them.
But Bant cut him off again, colder than before. "Good thing you won't get the chance. Because tomorrow you'll die, on this garbage planet, dying like trash."
"I won't die!" Loki ground out through clenched teeth.
"Really?" Bant asked softly. "So you're going to stay like this, rotting here forever? Don't forget you're Odin's son."
Then Bant bent down and whispered into Loki's ear, "Loki, don't you want to become a truly qualified king?"
"A king?" Loki froze.
"That's right. For you, and for all of us!"
"Heimdall's eyes can see the Nine Realms. Odin's ravens let him observe the universe. Do you think he might be watching you from Asgard right now?" Bant asked.
"Are you going to sink here, or are you going to make him see that you are the one truly qualified to be king?"
In an instant, a fierce desire ignited in Loki's heart.
Truthfully, he didn't even want to be king that badly. He just wanted to prove he was qualified. He just wanted to prove he wasn't worse than Thor.
"What do you want me to do?"
/-\
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