The humiliation of the previous night and the anger over Baldr's death, after a night of fermentation, finally burned into a blazing fire of revenge in the hearts of the Ásgarðr gods.
The next day, before dawn had fully dispelled the mist of the Golden Palace, the gods, led by Thor, could no longer contain themselves.
They menacingly confronted Loki, who wore a slightly expectant expression.
Unexpectedly, Loki did not try to flee or resist.
He looked at the surrounding gods, a mocking and knowing smile on his face, and even took the initiative to extend his hands, posing in a gesture of capture.
"What? The great Æsir have finally remembered to punish me, the 'guilty one'?"
Loki said frivolously, as if what he was about to experience was not a trial, but an interesting game.
The gods bound him with anger.
Thor shouted sharply: "Go and seize his wife Sigyn and his two little whelps, Váli and Narfí! Use the traitor's bloodline to bind the traitor!"
However, the gods sent to the city quickly returned: Loki's residence had long been empty, and his wife and two sons had vanished from the world.
Loki laughed sarcastically: "Hahaha! Foolish! Did you think I wouldn't be prepared? Too late! Back at the 'celebratory' feast for the queen's conception, when I asked my children to approach the 'candlelight', they were already beyond your control!"
He proudly recounted this overlooked detail.
"It was Hermes! That cunning messenger had already fulfilled his promise and led them out of Ásgarðr to a safe place you'll never find! My worries? Long gone!"
The gods were shocked and angered, then realized they had already fallen into the trap set by Loki.
They took the toughest yak rope and tried to bind Loki tightly.
However, the moment the rope touched Loki's body, something strange happened.
Loki's skin seemed to turn into flowing liquid; the rope couldn't get a hold and easily slipped off.
Even more shockingly, the surface of his body radiated astonishing heat, and as soon as the rope approached, it immediately scorched and snapped!
They replaced it with sturdy iron chains, believing metal could withstand the high temperature.
But as soon as the iron chain wrapped around Loki's arm, it reddened and softened at a visible speed, finally snapping like melted wax, dripping to the ground with a 'hissing' sound.
Loki stood in the middle, unharmed, with an almost mad mockery on his face.
An invisible wave of heat began to rise around him, the air swirling around him, and his voice was accompanied by the crackling of flames:
"Fools! Have you forgotten who I am?" He spread his arms, as if embracing an invisible flame.
"I am Loki! The god of fire! Formless, leaping, the very existence of fire itself! You want to capture me with these mundane things? You try to catch fire? What a grand joke!"
His words revealed the key.
In mythology, Loki ultimately watches as his son Narfí is turned into a wolf and tears apart his other son, Váli.
Váli's entrails were exposed to the air, and the gods bound Loki with this material.
And the reason Váli's entrails could bind Loki was not only because the rope contained powerful magic, but also because he was the father.
The bonds and obligations stemming from bloodline, the inseparable family affection, became the only vessel binding this 'formless fire', and the anchor point that allowed him to be 'fixed'.
Now, the gods could not find his family.
They had lost the only material that could bind him.
Having lost this crucial 'anchor', Loki's formless and elusive nature as the god of 'fire' was fully revealed.
Any physical restraint was useless against true flame.
Fire can be extinguished and guided, but how can it truly be 'caught' with a rope or chain?
The gods looked at each other, stared at Loki laughing in the center, and experienced an unprecedented sense of powerlessness.
They had the anger and the strength, but they could not impose severe punishment on this criminal who had caused countless tragedies.
Could they kill him?
Obviously not; Loki's blood oath with Odin was still in effect, and none of the gods could harm Loki.
Moreover, simple death might not be the harshest punishment for Loki, especially now that the shadow of Ragnarök was already so thick.
Loki looked at the helpless expressions of the gods, and his laughter grew louder.
He had managed to taunt all the gods and place himself in a position where he could not be sanctioned.
But he had also completely severed the last traces of friendship with Ásgarðr and placed himself in irreconcilable opposition.
To restrain the formless, slippery, and fire-like Loki, the gods realized that ordinary methods were ineffective.
They needed a bond that transcended the laws of physics and contained incredible magic.
Naturally, they thought of the most outstanding craftsmen in the Nine Realms—the dwarves.
However, due to the long-term contempt, exploitation, and deceit by the Æsir, most dwarves were wary or even reluctant to help Ásgarðr, and refused this dangerous commission.
But the God-King Odin knew the power of greed.
He offered an exorbitant price that no craftsman could refuse—under such immense temptation, some dwarves, driven by greed, finally undertook this seemingly impossible task.
These dwarves believed that to bind a formless being like Loki, materials that defied common sense had to be used.
They embarked on a long and peculiar gathering journey, traveling to every corner of the Nine Realms in search of raw materials that existed only in legends and riddles.
In the end, they collected six incredible things needed to create Gleipnir:
The first was the sound of a cat's footsteps.
The second was a woman's beard.
The third was the root of a mountain.
The fourth was the sinew of a bear.
The fifth was the breath of a fish.
The sixth and last was the spittle of a bird.
You say you've never seen any of these? Of course you haven't. The dwarves used them in creating Gleipnir.
These six things were not entities, but materials embodying six 'concepts' or 'phenomena'.
In their forges and workshops, the dwarves used their almost miraculous forging skills to smelt and weave these impossible things together.
Instead of creating a rope, they were weaving the concept of 'binding'.
In the end, Gleipnir appeared before the gods as a thin, smooth, silky gray ribbon, so soft it seemed it would break at a touch.
But within it lay the silence of a cat's footsteps, the paradox of a woman's beard, the stability of mountain roots, the strength of bear sinews, the elusiveness of fish breath, and the binding of bird spittle—all these contradictory concepts perfectly intertwined, forming a creation impossible to break free from.
This little strap would become the shackles with which the gods hoped to bind Loki.
Even when he was tightly bound by the power of paradoxes and laws, Loki never showed fear or remorse.
He was dragged by the gods and imprisoned in a dark cave.
Rough stones were set into his cage, and icy chains coiled around Gleipnir.
However, the humiliation of captivity did not silence Loki; it only fueled his deeper malice.
He lay on the cold stone platform, laughing without stopping, full of mockery and curses.
This laughter was no longer just sound; it contained Loki's twisted divine power, transforming into powerful vibrations, penetrating the rocks and shaking the earth.
Ásgarðr, once a glorious divine realm, began to be disturbed by the endless 'earthquakes'.
The crystal lamps of the Golden Palace swayed slightly, the beams and pillars of the temples let out suppressed groans, and even the roots of the World Tree Yggdrasil seemed to feel this ominous tremor.
Loki's resentment turned into a lingering mist and a constant physical threat haunting Ásgarðr.
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