The area surrounding Alessia had turned into a marshland soaked up with the blood left behind by the dead Elves. The ground was no longer green as everyone remembered but a shade of crimson red that would shake even a god's resolve.
Despite the horrific-looking battlefield, not a single corpse was visible there. As if the earth opened up and swallowed all of them.
"What happened here?"
That was the first question Arnold asked as soon as he walked into Alessia. The city wasn't in a complete ruin but a bog chunk of it had been destroyed. Not to mention all the crap Ogur threw at the elves like a cannonball.
"A battle, What else do you think?" Hercules said with a smug look on his face, which was promptly wiped out the moment Arnold slapped him on the back of his head, "Oi! Don't mortals know there is the small brain-"
"You don't have one." Arnold cut him off immediately, "Only mortal have brains, the ones the gods had decayed long ago."
The expression on Hercules' face said it all. The rest of them were confused whether they should laugh or not because Arnold had said those words with a straight face. He usually smiled whenever he trolled someone, but not anymore.
Heimdall and Talos, on the other hand, did not hesitate for a second and burst out laughing. But it seemed to be the wrong time to do so.
"A battle... I did not think my summons were so incompetent they could not even defend the city properly." Arnold threw a verbal jab at them, "I have given you everything I possibly can to make you people strong. We are supposed to overthrow and kill the gods and yet you can't even defend a city against mortals?"
Well... Arnold was wrong about one thing. The elves did not destroy the quarter of the city on their own. Ogur helped them too... albeit unintentionally.
It was safe to say that the Elves only destroyed 10% of the city with the bombings and the rest 15% was destroyed by Ogur himself. And that was enough for Arnold to scold the heck out of him, but he didn't. Talos had predicted something like this would happen and thus came up with an idea that should have been enough to please their master.
For this plan to work, he needed Yan's help and It was all thanks to Yan, the situation wasn't too bad. There was a reason why there was no corpse present on the battlefield. Yan had resurrected the fallen Elves, increasing Arnold's army by the addition of a million more soldiers.
Thus pleasing Arnold a bit. and getting rid of his anger on them. These elves, on top of the summons, were enough to make anything think properly before launching a surprise attack on them again.
At the moment, these undead elves were standing on the other side of Alessia. Thus Arnold had not seen them. But as soon as he felt the presence of the undead around him, his raging head calmed down.
"At least you did something right." Arnold shook his head, "My apologies for lashing out before. I was not thinking clearly..."
"No need to apologise, master. We understand that we should have done a better job defending the city in your absence." Natasha was the first one to start licking Arnold's ass, "However, if you ever need any type of relief, do not hesitate to ask me."
"I'll keep that in mind Natasha. The next time I will get an urge to smash someone's head into pulp, I will definitely find you." Arnold emotionlessly mumbled.
"..."
"That aside, we need to do something about these pestering elves." Grock popped up the thing all of them were waiting for.
However, no one opened up their mouth and waited for Arnold to say something.
"Well, it does not look like they are going to leave us alone in peace." Arnold sighed and turned his gaze towards the dawning horizon, "So, instead of waiting for them to come for us, let's take the battle to them as a last effort to draw their goddess out. If she doesn't come out after that, then... I will destroy this planet and be done with it."
***
Back in Asgard, Loki was busy enacting his shady plans.
"It was a mistake to bring me back to Asgard, father," Loki mumbled to himself, "A mistake you will pay for dearly."
He had turned himself into one of the healers, to roam around the city of gods while the guards were busy guarding an illusion of him. He wasn't the god of trickers just for the sake of it. Odin was afraid that he would do something like this, thus he ordered Loki to be imprisoned.
Unfortunately, Odin had severely underestimated Loki's ability. It did not take him longer than a few seconds to get through the guards just like that and in Heimdall's absence, there was no one else in Asgard who could look through his disguise. Not even the All-father.
'Let's go and wake up my dearest brother, shall we?'
Loki walked towards the Sanatorium where Thor was being kept after he was forced to sleep. However, getting into the sanatorium was not going to be as easy as getting out of the prison cell. Thanks to all the guards Odin had placed around the chamber.
'It wouldn't surprise me if the old fool placed a couple of gods there as well. I just hope no one bothers me on my way-'
"You there!" A voice echoed behind him.
'Just my serpent tongue...' Loki forced a smile on his face as he turned around, "Yes sir, so you need something from me?"
Loki, who was in the form of a woman tried his best to seduce the guard. But his charm did not take any effect on the man.
"Go and get me some water." The soldier said before shooing Loki away, "And do not make me wait."
"Yes, sir.. I'll get to it immediately."