—It had begun.
He wasn't without feelings of resentment.
Loki's anti-Odin activities all this time had been not so much out of his own will, but rather something done for his collaborators and the black magicians.
For Loki himself, if his feelings toward Odin were love-hate, then they were love-hate; they were not perfect hostility.
But to his collaborators and the black magicians, wasn't Odin an absolute enemy? Loki had merely come up with suitable measures and set them into action for their sake.
And in fact, Loki's skills were not lacking among magicians.
It wasn't that Loki was inadequate, but that Odin was too outstanding.
When he faced the middle manager's bitter reaction, Loki had thought the man was acting that way only because he hadn't seen the barrier with his own eyes.
But the moment he met Samir's smile that was not a smile, all such trivial thoughts vanished completely.
Only Samir could mock Loki. Could look down on him.
Such thoughts arose naturally.
Samir was the only black magician capable of surpassing Odin.
He had previously wondered if Yasin might also be a magician surpassing Odin, but even he had fallen to Odin.
The conclusion of the Incheon incident had truly been shocking. After that, Loki couldn't even dream of daring to confront Odin directly.
"I am ashamed."
Loki bowed his head to Samir on the screen.
With the feeling that everything was ruined now, darkness rolled in like storm clouds.
But Samir's following words were, unexpectedly, words that opened a path for Loki.
[Anyway, since you say you'll do it, I'll tell you. You don't even need to destroy the barrier. Isn't the subspace given by the Magic Tower in that house? You just need to use spatial magic to open a path inside. And can't you remotely control the goblins inside the subspace?]
Though Samir was kindly explaining the method, unfortunately, that method which he spoke of as if it were very simple was not simple for Loki.
"Sir Samir, I'm sorry, but my spatial magic skills are only enough to create transfer portals. Moreover, remote control is not my specialty either."
Unable to help it, Loki answered honestly and felt his body trembling again.
If he was cast out even by the Magic Tower, Loki would have nowhere left to go.
Odin had raided the biohackers and revealed everything Loki had been doing, making him a person of interest to the Administration.
Then, as if their collaborators and Vanaheim had decided to abandon Loki, they were already pretending not to know him. They were trying to cut their losses.
In fact, Loki had already been on the run in America after his associations with black magicians were caught by the authorities. That was why he had fled to Korea.
But now that he was being pursued by the Korean Administration as well, he had ended up with nowhere to go and no place to stand.
In the end, the only place Loki could rely on was the Magic Tower. That was why he had gone to the Magic Tower and proposed kidnapping Odin's apprentice magician.
He had tried to prove his worth through that.
Kidnapping the boy while Odin was at the broadcasting station. He had thought it a simple plan, but who knew it would get so twisted.
[Pathetic. I cannot bear to watch.]
At the words that flowed from Samir's mouth, Loki felt a chill down his spine. It sounded like he would end him then and there.
It felt as if a death sentence had been handed down on the spot.
But Samir was once again opening a path for him.
[There is no time, so I will do it myself this time. I will open the path, so go through it. And if remote control doesn't work, go in yourself and command the goblins.]
"Thank you. Sir Samir, truly thank you!"
Soon, Samir used spatial magic remotely to open a path leading into the subspace, and Loki was able to enter the subspace through that path and infiltrate Odin's room.
He had thought everything would be fine if he just got inside. But from there, things were again not easy.
When he stealthily opened a portal inside the subspace, it had still been fine.
Because aftereffects of the vibration magic and gravity magic Loki had executed earlier remained, the people in the room were only focusing on that direction.
An unexpected Druid was with the boy, but he was able to control the goblins and ambush the two from behind.
But a counterattack immediately came.
The apprentice magician shook off the goblins clinging to his back with wind magic. It was an impressive display of reflexes, and fairly stable magic.
Loki quickly raised ashen energy and tried to execute a magic snare.
But then the Druid suddenly erupted with life force and annihilated the ashen energy.
He couldn't help but be startled.
"Rush them! Don't dodge no matter what!"
Fortunately, Loki controlled the goblins again without delay. The goblins had merely fallen from the wind and were not greatly injured or dead.
Moreover, Gil did not use lethal magic like fire magic. It didn't seem to be due to lack of magical ability, and somehow he seemed to be doing so because he didn't want the goblins to get hurt or die.
Whether it was compassion or something else, that was of great help.
Using the goblins as shields, Loki was finally able to bind the two with a magic snare.
"Undo this! Undo it right now! Do you think you'll get away with this? We're Odin's teammates!"
The boy merely glared at Loki quietly, while the Druid's side kicked up a noisy fuss.
In the end, he had to stuff magic gags in both their mouths.
Now there was really no time.
Loki hurriedly took the two inside the subspace and opened a transfer portal within it.
Before leaving, he didn't forget to erase his magical traces and destroy the subspace.
Odin would arrive soon and would track him.
It would have been nice if he could take the hostages straight to the Magic Tower, but Loki's abilities could not open a transfer portal all the way there.
He couldn't ask Samir for help again either. Samir would be busy carrying out the promised terrorist attack.
Even the help just now was something he was immensely grateful for.
So the place he had no choice but to choose was an abandoned building in the Yongsan restricted zone.
'What should I do now? I'll need to travel by car to get to the Magic Tower, won't I?'
Loki approached the window and looked around the restricted zone. There was no way a car would be in this deserted place.
And he couldn't take a taxi with hostages either.
To get to the Magic Tower, he needed to go out and steal a suitable car first.
Transfer portals were all well and good, but the downside was that once you moved using one, you ended up far from your car. It was like climbing a mountain and coming down via a different path.
"You lot, watch the hostages."
Loki commanded the goblins and stepped outside the abandoned building.
He couldn't have the goblins steal a car, so Loki had to go himself.
Still, relief flooded over him at the thought that he had overcome the difficult crisis.
Having succeeded in the kidnapping, he believed the Magic Tower and Samir would now accept him.
Thinking again, he was proud of himself for coming up with the kidnapping idea. And though he had received some help, he was pleased that he had ultimately succeeded.
Gil and the Druid, taken as hostages, would become Odin's great weakness.
Odin would definitely be unable to properly respond to the Magic Tower's terror while searching for the two of them.
Loki didn't know that the erasure of magical traces and the destruction of the subspace he had performed upon leaving Odin's house had not been perfect.
He was also overlooking the fact that Odin possessed such outstanding spatial magic skills that he could grasp the circumstances of the incident from even the smallest trace and even restore space.
* * *
I activated spatial magic on the grey portal.
Now, turning back the axis of time with spatial magic was no longer that difficult.
Since it was a magic I had already performed, weaving the circuits was familiar, and the activation went smoothly.
Like that, I restored the destroyed grey portal and subspace to their original state, went inside, and carefully examined the traces of ashen energy.
Only then could I know who the kidnapper was. It was Loki.
"Loki! You bastard, in the end...!"
A cold anger like ice surged. It was nothing surprising.
That someone who was once a friend had now become a complete enemy might have evoked other emotions, but that was likely Odin's burden.
I merely felt nothing but cold anger.
There was no time to delay over things like emotions. I had to track him quickly.
As the subspace was restored, the traces of magic used inside it were also restored. I could tell where and how they had fled.
As expected, they had opened a transfer portal inside and escaped through it. I just needed to copy the transfer portal as it was and follow.
The moment I finished copying and was about to leave, a feeling of real space shaking violently beyond the open grey portal pressed in.
I hesitated briefly, but in the end I went outside the subspace to look.
'It has begun.'
I felt the whole world shaking.
But it wasn't like an earthquake. The ground beneath my feet wasn't actually vibrating; it felt like space itself was vibrating.
It was a vibration that spread throughout my entire body in minute detail, as if someone had grabbed the fundamental wave making up this world and was shaking it.
But perhaps it wasn't actually shaking. It might have been merely that kind of feeling.
The vibration soon ceased. Then this time, wind blew.
The wind was a wind actually blowing in real space.
Looking quickly out the window, reddish-brown dust filled the night sky. I didn't know where the wind had started, but it felt like it was approaching quickly.
But in fact, the dust was scattering in all directions and occupying space.
'Dust? A sandstorm? What is it... What are they trying to do?'
There was no doubt that the terror promised by the Magic Tower had begun.
For a moment I felt conflicted again. I had to hurry and track Loki's traces to rescue Cheon Dam-bi and Gil, but right then the terror had begun.
Should I move immediately to stop the terror, or find my teammates first?
Moreover, Ren was waiting alone out there.
This time too, the conflict was not long.
First, fortunately, Ren had come up to the rooftop. Ren had transformed into a crow at some point, and wasn't alone. The two crows that had left the house had flown back with Ren.
[Odin! Loki kidnapped the two of them!]
[It's begun! The Magic Tower's terror has started!]
The crows looked around the room noisily and sent telepathic messages. They were all things I already knew.
"Where did you all go?"
Not that I particularly wanted to hear an answer, but I said a word to the crows and immediately turned to Ren.
"Ren, you came at a good time. It's safe here."
"What happened? Did Gil and Dam-bi disappear?"
Ren, returned to her original form, looked around the ruined room and asked in a worried voice.
"They were kidnapped. But I'll go find them right now, so don't worry. More importantly, the Magic Tower's terror has begun, so be careful. Don't move from here and wait. I'll be back soon."
"Yes. There's something like a sandstorm blowing outside. What do you think is going to happen?"
"I'll go and come back quickly, so don't worry too much."
I hurriedly reinforced the house's barrier first. It hadn't been breached, so it was a matter of minor repairs.
Then I went back inside the grey portal.
It wouldn't take long. I could deal with someone like Loki in one go and return.
Entering the subspace, I opened the copied transfer portal and strode beyond it.