Realm of the Dishonored Dead
In S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, Loki sat quietly with Thor. When he asked what was happening, Thor demanded his silence until Agent Phil Coulson entered the room. Confused, as Loki was under the impression he’d killed Coulson, Loki soon found he was being interrogated for something entirely unrelated to his second invasion of New York: The theft of the Infinity Gauntlet.
Loki insisted it wasn’t him, and was baffled when shown the footage of Falcon making off with it, stating they had their culprit. But Coulson and Thor remained unconvinced, citing his past trickeries of shapeshifting and mind control. Loki attempted desperately to plead his case, but Thor was unconvinced, and took Loki to Asgard for further interrogation.
Inside of Bifrost, Thor gave Loki one last chance to come clean and reveal the location of the Gauntlet. Loki again reiterated he didn’t have it, but was wounded by Thor shouting he could not believe his brother after years of lies and deception. Taking drastic measures to loosen Loki’s tongue, Thor used his regent powers as King of Asgard to banish Loki to Niffelheim, the Realm of the Dishonored Dead, convinced their sister would make Loki more compliant.
Despite his pleading, Loki was zapped to Niffelheim, where he came face to face with Hela, the Goddess of Death. The silver-tongued trickster immediately began to implore that Hela send him home, as this was merely a mistake, but the Queen refused, and declared that Loki either complete a list of chores in her realm, or be added to her collection of souls, alive or not. Loki, reluctantly, agreed.
The next few hours of Loki’s life were miserable and beneath him. He’d fallen into a pit of souls while attempting to quell it with essence of Troll’s breath. He’d been mauled by the Fenris Wolf in an effort to feed the hound its dinner. He was in the midst of scrubbing ooze from the walls when he heard a faint cry for help, rounding the corner to find Valkyrie chained to the wall.
She convinced him to free her, and revealed she knew of a way off of Niffelheim, stating she’d used it to escape when Hela slew the rest of the Valkyries way back when. She led Loki to a breach between realms, and escaped at Loki’s insistence she go first. A decision he’d regret, as Hela had found him and sealed the breach. Loki again lied his way out of the situation, convincing Hela was going to report it to her, and had no reason to try and escape when he had been promised safe passage upon the completion of her chores. It was then than an Olympian, Ares, God of War, arrived.
Ares openly challenged Hela for control of her realm, desiring to torment the souls of the warriors he felled in battle. Accepting his challenge, Hela declared Loki her champion, and told the God of Mischief that if he didn’t fight, and win, for her, he’d be trapped in Niffelheim forever. Loki, fretting his new predicament, remembered the Norn Stone he’d acquired at A.I.M. Using it in hopes of an escape, he instead summoned a rather confused Sylvie to his side.
Grateful to see her, he implored she help him defeat Ares, but Sylvie was none too happy, as she had been pulled from striking the final blow against He Who Remains, only moments having passed for her outside of time. After promising they’d find him again, Loki convinced Sylvie to do the one thing that would ensure he’d win against the God of War: Enchant Ares and order him to lose the fight.
Sylvie made her way to Ares, and put the god under her sway, until morning, when the challenge began. Loki and Ares faced off on the battlefield, and with a mere poke of his blade, Loki sent Ares crashing to the ground. He stood victorious, much to the surprise of Hela, who agreed finally to send him home.
Upon a cliff overseeing her pit of souls, Loki waited patiently as Hela pondered. She then informed the god she’d reconsidered, as a royal born Jotun, raised Asgardian who fell the God of War in one hit was much too valuable a soul to forfeit. Coupled with the fact that she knew of Loki freeing Valkyrie, she had him dead to rights. That’s when the trickster schemed once more. Using the Norn Stone to summon Sylvie, he sold her out, letting Hela know she was a variant of him, and the one who swayed Ares to lose the fight. Insisting she’d more than take the place of him, and Valkyrie, Hela accepted the trade. Sylvie pleaded, but Loki callously gave Hela the go ahead, as she kicked Sylvie into her pit of souls. Using her own bridge between realms, Frostgrinder, Hela finally sent Loki back to Asgard. But it was during his return, that Falcon used the power of the Infinity Gauntlet to snap his fingers, and tamper with Loki’s return trip.
When Loki finally appeared on Asgard, he used the Norn Stone once again to summon Sylvie, revealing it had been his plan all along, and he never intended to sell her out to Hela. Sylvie, however, was furious, demanding to know why it took Loki five years to summon her. Confused, the pair were then greeted by the worn and beaten trio of Heimdall, Sif, and Valkyrie, who revealed that indeed five years had passed, Asgard had fallen, and Thor had abandoned them. Sylvie and Loki were devastated, inquiring as to which foe could accomplish such a feat. Heimdall revealed to Loki that as acting King as Asgard, it now fell to him to face this villain, a Midgardian now going by the name Maestro, commanding the throne of Asgard and even the fire demon Surtur himself. But Loki once knew this Maestro by another name: The Hulk.
