Red Hawk

Chapter Ten: Ragnarok

While Kai and Ezna were traveling to Risolden, Loki had taken his own mission to Ferodia. It was a rather large city built at the edge of a peninsula. Ferodia was a rather humid city, something Loki wasn't used to. If it weren't for his ice magic, he would have surely overheated. But the people here, they seemed completely unaffected by the heat and humidity. Some of them even wearing heavy clothing as if they were cold. His client met him at a café near the station, she turned out to be the mayor.

The two of them were enjoying some iced tea as she explained the situation, "Just south of the city is a small island, sacred land to our ancestors. But lately outsiders have been found been using a temple there as their base."

"So you want me to run them out of the temple?" Loki asked, taking a refreshing sip of his tea.

She shook her head, "I want you to execute them, every last one of them."

Loki nearly choked on his tea, "I'm sorry, but guilds aren't supposed to take missions like this. Murder missions are prohibited." Taking out a copy of the request form, Loki looked it over once more. It only requested help with taking care of bandits. "I can't in good conscious do this for you." Dropping a few coins on the table, Loki started to leave the café. The mayor snapped her fingers, people getting up to stop Loki. "You don't want to do this," Loki warned her, a shallow bitterness in every word.

"You leave me with little choice," the mayor snapped once more. Upon hearing this, a dozen people rushed towards Loki. All of them stopped in their tracks as an icy wind spiraled around him. Ice began to form around their legs, freezing them in place. Even the mayor found herself trapped by the ice.

"I'll run them out of your temple," scoffed Loki, "but I won't kill them for you. If you need them killed, stain your own hands."

It took a little over an hour to find a ship, and another to sail to the island he was asked to go to. Rather small, the island was overrun with plantlife and no signs of civilization. There was however, a pyramid shaped temple that rose above the canopy. Loki headed towards the temple, unsure of what to expect. If there were people on this island, they had left no signs of existing. There were no broken branches, no signs of anyone tampering with the forest, and not even a single animal in sight.

Even a ghost town felt more alive than this island. Even the breeze seemed to have died once he reached the island. Almost as if this part of the world was completely cut off from the rest. Due to the heavy canopy, a darkness filled the underbrush. No light broke through, encasing the entire.He continued towards the center of the island. All he needed to do was find his way to the temple, something that would be hard to miss.

The air suddenly grew eerily cold, a cold that no location like this should ever experience. When his breath began to linger within a cloud of smoke, Loki started to question what was happening even more. He looked towards his hand, beads of sweat continued to form. Even though it felt like he was about to freeze over, he was still sweating. Something was very off about this island.

Loki's thoughts turned towards the temple All the answers, you must hold them. It wasn't much longer before he reached the base of the temple, his eyes gradually rising up the thousands of steps. He welcomed the climb, knowing it would bring him out of the dark.

An hour of walking, and he found himself only halfway finished. But he was now standing above the trees, allowing him to look out towards the sea. Except, there was no sea. In fact, the forest now found itself within a land of ice and snow. "What?!" he exclaimed at the top of his lungs. Somehow, the island had moved from the sea and into the tundra. Almost immediately after his outburst, the environment shifted once more. The island now floating in a river of magma. Loki began to run the rest of the climb, needing to figure out what was happening before something went completely wrong.