Stupid Odin

Loki's affair heightened Downs' vigilance to the maximum.

It could be said that with the Vanir gods almost relegated to history, Loki, the instigator of Ragnarok, was Downs' primary focus, bar none.

If Downs were a tyrannical and unwise God-King, knowing that Loki was the culprit, he would definitely eliminate Loki first to be done with it once and for all.

Downs didn't do this because he suspected Loki was merely an instigator, not the mastermind.

The most terrifying conjecture: Jötunheimr itself was the main cause!

The world couldn't resist the erosion brought by chaos, causing it to fall ill. Or perhaps the number of living beings in the world was too great, exceeding the limit it could bear, forcing it to use such an extreme method as [Ragnarok] to destroy the entire Aesir tribe.

The biggest proof of this was that before the [Ragnarok] event erupted, the entire world experienced a full three years of ice age. There was no sun in the sky, the earth was perpetually frozen, and there were no harvests.

Under such circumstances, the Aesir tribe was also powerless. When objective conditions deteriorated to this point, every mortal kingdom fell into collapse. They attacked each other, slaughtered enemy countries, and plundered resources.

When only one country remained, many terrifying inhuman events erupted under extreme hunger. Cannibalism was already a minor matter.

After the demons besieged Asgard and mostly perished together with the gods, only a few gods and mortals remained to rebuild the world.

If this Jötunheimr world was also such a cycle, then no matter what Downs did, it would be in vain.

This was the most terrifying!

Downs looked up at the center of the World Tree, where it continued to purify the chaotic aura day and night. After Downs added thousands of Order Stone Slabs there, it seemed the efficiency of the World Tree's purification of chaos had increased.

This made Downs feel slightly relieved.

Perhaps it was the world's reward to Downs.

Downs and a group of 'saline-alkali land' level goddesses failed to produce new gods, but after some retro efforts, they had new gains.

Downs took action against the female giants after a long absence.

He wooed the daughter of Thiazzi—Skadi, recognized as the most beautiful among the female giants.

Fate seemed to play a joke on her. In the epic, her father Thiazzi was killed by the Vanir gods for abducting and holding the Vanir goddess of youth, Idun.

At that time, the two major god tribes had already reached a peace agreement, so she had Odin step forward to settle accounts with the Vanir gods. As a result, Njord had to abandon Nerthus and briefly marry Skadi, later divorcing.

Skadi worshiped the strong, and did not reject Downs' invitation, resulting in a single encounter that conceived [Strength God] Magni.

This made Downs unable to hold back.

In the epic, Magni should have been Thor's first son.

Sure enough, the Jötunheimr world was so capricious; if it wanted you to give birth, you would be able to give birth.

During the same period, Downs occasionally transformed into human size and had [Agile] Hermod with the Valkyrie Brunhilde, who came from a mortal princess. This god was similar to the Greek mythology's god messenger Hermes; none of his attributes were strong, and he was born to run errands.

Just after Downs gave birth to the last fourth-generation god, Thor, who was married to Sif, finally gave birth to the first fifth-generation god—the God of Courage, Modi.

The year after Modi was born, Sif gave birth to [Strength Goddess] Thrud for Thor.

During the same period, Downs' son Baldr gave birth to Forseti, the God of Truth and Justice.

Regardless of why Downs hasn't established a queen consort to this day, Downs' speed of branching out and bearing fruit within the Aesir tribe has been well-received by the gods.

These god-level barbarians only recognize this: you are the strongest, you are the leader. You branch out and have descendants for generations? Oh! Praise you, your rule will last forever!

In contrast, during the same period, although Odin silently cultivated in the saline-alkali land, he just couldn't give birth.

If Odin hadn't given birth to a God of Revenge, Váli, and a God of Darkness, Höðr, he would definitely be looked down upon by the gods.

In the eyes of onlookers, God-King Downs won against his brother Odin by far too much.

This made Odin very aggrieved.

In addition, there's still that saying: the most dangerous existence during peacetime is Loki.

This guy was extremely bored and actually ran to Asgard to shave Sif's radiant golden hair while she was asleep.

Sif's most pride was her wavy golden hair.

This matter finally reached Downs.

Sitting on the God-King's throne in Valaskjálf, Downs looked at his crying daughter-in-law, then at Loki, whom Thor was holding high with one hand, and then at Odin, who had come to plead for mercy. Originally, Downs was in the mood to watch the fun.

He suddenly thought of something.

His incomparably majestic voice fell.

"Loki! Do you know your crime?!"

"I, I know I was wrong," Loki said, lowering his head and seemingly sincerely admitting his mistake.

Like most evildoers throughout history, he would admit his mistake, not because he felt he was wrong, but because he knew he would die if he didn't admit it.

Thor's fist, the size of a water tank, was pressing against his chin.

God-King Downs has always been known for his impartiality; falling into the hands of the God-King was better than being beaten to death in Thor's hands.

"Loki, committing a mistake requires accepting punishment."

The glib-tongued Loki quickly said, "I am willing to accept any punishment from Your Majesty."

"In addition to punishment, I also need you to make amends."

"This… I accept," Loki just wanted to get away quickly.

"Alright! The punishment is that you must also have your head shaved by Thor."

"Ah?!" Loki's face immediately turned bitter, and it was Thor's turn to laugh.

"Hahaha! Loki, you have this day too." With the laughter of the gods and giants as the background, Thor took out a dagger and, with an aura as if he was going to kill Loki, shaved Loki's beautiful hair clean.

Downs hadn't finished speaking: "And the amends are that you have to find a way to return to Sif a head of radiant golden hair exactly like the original."

Loki, as in the epic, took a batch of gold to find the dwarves and got Sif a golden wig that could grow.

Originally, this small story, similar to an easter egg, should have ended here.

No god knew that after leaving Valaskjálf, Downs came to the center of the World Tree alone.

Downs picked out ten strands from the handful of black hair in his hand and flung them far away, a gust of wind blowing these broken hairs towards the core of the World Tree.

Before the broken hairs were even halfway there, they began to mutate in front of Downs' eyes.

Snakes!

One after another, venomous snakes, only as thick as an adult human finger!

Taking advantage of the chaotic aura, they actually brazenly transformed into terrifying venomous snakes!

The results of this experiment caused Downs' face to completely darken.

"Should I say, as expected of Loki, who gave birth to the Serpent of Midgard, Jörmungandr? Indeed, when there is no danger, Loki is the greatest danger!"

With a wave of his hand, Downs destroyed all of Loki's hair, as well as those mutated little snakes.