"Alright, alright, wait, wait!" Loki had no choice. Nobody was listening to him. Among a group of Lokis, no one was going to indulge him—because they were all Lokis. Why should anyone pamper him?
He hurried to catch up and asked, "Why are you wearing horns? And why are you obeying that kid?"
Apparently, he had forgotten that his own armor also had two giant horns. In terms of fashion sense, they were all equally ridiculous.
After all, they were all Lokis. Aside from the Black Loki, even the alligator wore a horned crown.
"You'd better show that child some respect! This is his kingdom," Old Loki said seriously.
"Fine then. So what was your Nexus Event, Your Majesty?" Loki stopped walking, hands on his hips as he questioned Kid Loki.
Kid Loki simply turned around and replied:
"I killed Thor."
That single sentence shocked all the Avengers watching outside the screen.
Especially Thor.
He had never imagined that Loki would actually kill him.
Sure, the two brothers had fought and schemed against each other countless times over the years. On the Sacred Timeline, Loki had even stabbed Thor before.
But in Thor's eyes, Loki was still just a troublesome little brother.
And more importantly, Loki shouldn't have been capable of killing him.
Their difference in strength wasn't something acquired later in life—it was innate.
One was the mighty God of Thunder, famed throughout Asgard.
The other was a frost giant runt abandoned in a ruined temple because he was too weak.
Their starting points were worlds apart.
Yet clearly, on some alternate timeline, Loki had succeeded in killing Thor.
Whether it was an accident or deliberate didn't matter.
History had diverged there.
"I get it now," Tony Stark suddenly said after catching the key detail from the conversation. "I finally understand what a Nexus Event actually is."
"A Nexus Event is a deviation that exceeds the intended Sacred Timeline," Tony explained.
"Take this Kid Loki for example. He probably killed Thor, which caused the timeline to branch and attracted the TVA's attention. That's why he got pruned and sent here."
"And that's what a Nexus Event is."
Tony pointed toward Black Loki.
"Maybe this guy's Nexus Event was simply being black, which didn't fit the Sacred Timeline's settings."
"Though honestly, I'm still curious why there's a Black Loki in the first place… but then again, if there can be an alligator Loki and even a frog Thor, maybe a Black Loki isn't that strange."
Tony rubbed his chin.
At last, he understood.
A Nexus Event was the incident that caused someone to deviate from their destined timeline.
Every choice could create a new branch.
Infinite people making infinite choices resulted in infinite possibilities.
That was all a Nexus Event really was.
Using Earth terms, it was similar to what the Ancient One once called an "absolute point in time."
For example, a death fated to happen no matter what.
If someone changed that fate, perhaps that would create a Nexus Event.
Still, the fact that Kid Loki had killed Thor was utterly insane.
Everyone could already tell that all Lokis shared one hidden trait:
A toxic obsession with their brother.
Likewise, Thor's hidden setting was clearly being a hardcore brother-con.
Now Kid Loki had skipped the "love-hate relationship" part entirely and just murdered his brother, completely derailing countless future events.
And judging from Kid Loki's age, Thor must have been young too.
It was a genuine tragedy.
Of course, according to the TVA's methods, that timeline had likely already been reset.
Other than Kid Loki himself, nobody in that universe would ever know Thor had once been killed by Loki.
"I didn't expect Loki to be this cute as a kid," Natasha said while shaking her head. "He became completely unlikable when he grew up."
"Exactly," Diana agreed. "He became evil and annoying."
Agent Hill silently agreed as well.
As women, they were all feeling their maternal instincts triggered a bit by Kid Loki's appearance.
Meanwhile, in the video, the Lokis followed Kid Loki to an underground bunker.
After opening the hatch, they climbed down one after another.
Then the Avengers suddenly widened their eyes at what they saw inside.
Mjolnir was lying there.
And nearby was a glass jar containing a tiny frog dressed in Thor's armor, desperately jumping around while screaming.
Thor's expression outside the screen instantly became complicated.
He had just been internally mocking Loki moments earlier.
Then reality slapped him in the face.
There really was a Frog Thor.
Once everyone entered the bunker, Old Loki finally asked:
"By the way, why are you so desperate to return to the TVA?"
"Did you leave your glorious purpose behind there?" Black Loki teased.
Loki stayed silent for a long moment before finally replying:
"Something like that."
He looked toward a throne in the underground chamber.
After all the Lokis sat down, Black Loki casually said:
"After I conquered Captain America and Iron Man, I received my reward…"
"All six Infinity Stones."
The entire underground chamber fell silent.
And outside the screen, the Avengers were completely stunned.
What kind of insane timeline was this?
What did he mean by conquering Captain America and Iron Man?
Did that mean the Avengers actually lost?
Lost to Loki?
And obviously, this referred to the Battle of New York.
In other words, their victory in that battle had truly been incredibly lucky.
There really were timelines where Loki won.
And that was a terrifying possibility.
At that moment, some of them even began to feel that maybe the TVA wasn't entirely a bad thing.
At least it corrected disastrous timelines when things went horribly wrong.
"Plot armor," Natasha suddenly said.
"I finally understand what Lin Feng meant."
"He keeps talking about 'main character plot armor' in his diary."
"He mentioned people like Steve, Tony, Thor, Peter Parker, even Diana—all possessing protagonist-level luck."
"I used to wonder what that meant."
"Now I get it."
"People with plot armor are simply those who belong to the Sacred Timeline."
"No matter what they do, they succeed until they reach their destined ending."
"Even something as ridiculous as carrying a nuclear missile through a portal to destroy an alien mothership somehow succeeds."
Tony's eyelid twitched violently.
He had the distinct feeling Natasha was specifically targeting him.
Actually, there was no "feeling" about it.
She absolutely was.
After all, he was literally the guy who carried the nuke into space.
"And the key to ensuring this so-called plot armor works," Natasha continued, "is resetting and pruning every incorrect timeline."
"So even if we lose the Battle of New York to Loki, the TVA will erase that timeline."
"They'll prune the Loki who obtained all six Infinity Stones."
"Wow," Hawkeye said sarcastically, "then I guess I should thank the TVA for scripting our lives and making sure we never deviate even a little."
No one knew how to respond.
On one hand, the idea of someone dictating their entire lives was hard to accept.
On the other hand, the TVA clearly wasn't completely useless either.
At critical moments, they maintained order.
"So there's no such thing as protagonists," Bruce Banner said thoughtfully.
"Anyone who makes the wrong choice gets pruned."
"And eventually, we would too."
Then his expression suddenly changed.
"Wait… Lin Feng kept saying we had to rely on Loki."
"He mentioned multiple times that the TVA problem would somehow be solved by Loki."
"But how?"
"Our timeline has already diverged so drastically that the TVA should absolutely prune it."
"At first Lin Feng seemed worried about that."
"But later he said Loki would handle it."
"Could this Loki actually end up doing something that changes the TVA itself?"
-----------------------
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