Tania lay frozen inside the massive stalagmite of ice Loki had created to trap her. Her movement was locked in time, still wearing the same fierce expression she had when she charged at the wicked Norse god.

  Rodrigo and Epona tried to attack him, but Loki vanished before their eyes. Suddenly, they realized they were trapped inside a web—something like a gigantic spider’s snare. The more they struggled, the more the strands cut into them.

  “Three down,” Loki said as he walked toward Ana and Athena.

  “Ana, I think you’re the one who can defeat him,” Athena said, still sitting calmly on the ground.

  “Tania got careless—and since she’s a Sun in combat, ice is partially her weakness.”

  Ana looked at Rodrigo and Epona tangled in the web, then at Tania frozen in ice. Her face twisted in disgust.

  “Only a dog without dignity licks the hand of the master who intends to sacrifice it!” Ana shouted at Loki as he approached slowly.

  The god of lies drew a magical circle in the air bearing the rune ?, then slipped his left hand into the glowing orb as if into a portal. When he withdrew it, he held a staff made of mistletoe, adorned with green leaves and ending in a sharp point like an inverted spear.

  “This wood killed the god Baldr. It’s a weapon crafted specifically to kill gods,” Loki said, showing the staff to Ana.

  “Even with your great power, you’ll never defeat me as long as I wield it.”

  Ana gripped her legendary sword, Dyrnwyn, with both hands, let out a battle cry, and lunged to slice off Loki’s neck—

  but the god’s body vanished at the last instant.

  A net snapped shut around the goddess, but instead of struggling, Ana whispered:

  “Taibhse banríon (Ghost Queen).”

  Her body dissolved into a massive flock of ravens that tore through the net and escaped.

  The ravens scattered, searching for Loki—until one of them spotted a tiny fly. The raven dove, caught it in its beak, and the insect instantly morphed back into Loki. All the ravens swarmed him, attacking, but he repelled them with his mistletoe staff.

  The ravens regrouped and reformed Ana’s body.

  “So you fight using transformations… and then run away like a coward?” Ana said as her sword materialized again.

  “I have no reason to fight you hand-to-hand. It’s not my style,” Loki replied, twirling the staff threateningly. Then, he vanished once more.

  “That trick won’t work on me again,” Ana muttered as the feathers of her black wings turned into hundreds of razor-sharp blades.

  She hurled them in every direction, carefully avoiding Rodrigo and Epona.

  But to her surprise, none of them hit Loki.

  “Tch… I missed,” she growled—

  and suddenly, Loki teleported right in front of her and drove his staff into her abdomen.

  Ana swung to decapitate him, but he disappeared before her blade could reach him.

  Clutching her wounded stomach, she scanned desperately for the trickster god.

  “It’s useless, Morrigan,” Loki mocked from somewhere unseen.

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  “You’ll never find me.”

  “I have to focus… locate his voice…” Ana thought.

  Loki appeared behind her and stabbed her left shoulder. Ana screamed in pain.

  “Hahaha! You can’t do anything, queen of crows!” Loki taunted as he vanished again.

  “My voice… it came from the east,” Ana reasoned.

  But the pattern repeated. Loki appeared, stabbed her leg, vanished—

  appeared again, stabbed her chest, vanished.

  “East—precisely 93.8° from my position… distance, 58.3 meters…” Ana calculated.

  She formed a dagger of dark matter and hurled it at full speed.

  The dagger struck something midair—and revealed Loki’s hiding spot, slicing his neck.

  “You can’t hide from me, Loki! Even if you were thousands of light-years away, I’d still find you!” Ana roared.

  But Loki only smirked—and vanished.

  When Ana looked closely, the dagger had pierced nothing but a pebble.

  “I can swap my body with anything I see around me,” Loki said mockingly.

  “And if I need to, I can turn into a bacterium—or a microbe—just to avoid your attacks.”

  He appeared behind her again and impaled her through the back and chest in one strike. Ana countered with her wing-blades, but Loki was gone before she even swung.

  “Damn… that one hurt,” Ana thought as she collapsed to the ground, her body burning with pain. Loki laughed somewhere unseen.

  Her ichor slowly began to heal her wound. Ana forced her eyes shut again, concentrating.

  “Are you going to try attacking me again, Morrigan? It’s pointless!” Loki jeered.

  But when Loki teleported behind her, Ana anticipated him—swinging her sword and severing his right arm.

  “Impossible!” Loki screamed as he teleported away.

  Ana closed her eyes again, breathing deeply. This time, Loki tried an aerial surprise attack, teleporting above her—

  but Ana thrust her sword upward, impaling the god of lies through the chest.

  “Grrr… this can’t be happening!” Loki snarled as he disappeared once more.

  “When you teleport, you make a tiny spiritual sound—and it takes you a millionth of a nanosecond to materialize. I can predict exactly where you’ll appear,” Ana declared.

  Loki teleported in front of her, and she slashed—

  but it was an illusion.

  He appeared behind her, she turned and struck—

  another illusion.

  Then Loki materialized far away and chanted:

  “Hrímtursar k?sia (Spear of the Ice Giants).”

  A spear of ice shot toward Ana before she could identify the real Loki. It struck her chest, dropping her to her knees in agonizing pain.

  Ana retaliated with a flying slash, but Loki dissolved again—another illusion.

  His voice echoed through the air:

  “My illusions are perfect. They can generate fake sound and divine energy to fool my opponents,” he bragged.

  “You may predict my teleports—but you’ll never overcome these illusions, Morrigan.”

  “My ichor… it’s running out,” Ana thought, horrified as the ice spear refused to heal.

  She ripped the spear from her chest, screaming—

  only to find hundreds of Lokis surrounding her.

  “This technique is called Sjónhverfing fj?lkyngi (Magic of illusion),” Loki said.

  “I can create millions of clones with weight, mass, even divine energy—perfect replicas meant to break my enemies.”

  All the Lokis raised their hands and shouted in unison:

  “Hrímtursar k?sia (Spear of the Ice Giants)!”

  Thousands of ice spears launched at Ana. She slashed every real one she could—

  but in her confusion, a hidden spear pierced her from the side.

  Teeth clenched, she tore it out—

  and another spear impaled her.

  Then another.

  And another.

  Loki repeated the attack viciously until fifteen ice spears had skewered Ana’s body. She vomited blood, her eyes dimming.

  “Ana—dammit—DON’T YOU DARE GIVE UP!” Athena shouted as the dark-haired goddess collapsed.

  “And with that… four down,” Loki said with cold satisfaction.