The removal of the acursed Seidr-dampening muzzle would have been a relief, if Odin hadn't ripped away from him the powers he had been gifted upon adoption. The absence of a sacred energy so pure and powerful leaves Loki's body empty yet full of echoes of what life used to march through his veins. A sorcerer no longer.

Because that's simply too dangerous.

Unfortunately, Odin did not revoke his longevity, his omnipotence. Loki eyes the glimmering hammer in Thor's hand and knows if he were mortal, one blow would forever silence him in an instant. Death will not come so painlessly today, however.

Loki refuses to even glance at the thunder god until everything is drained in a blinding white light, and when the lightning dies, his eyes are cutting like daggers on the other's face. He can see that overwhelming weight of sorrow and dread in the man's face, and even wonders if somehow Thor is capable of being manipulated into backing down from this.

No, that is wishful thinking. Thor is an obedient dog, to the point of near spinelessness in the face of the Allfather. "Couldn't even give me an honourable death, brother?" Loki spits the final word like a snake, and he isn't even entirely sure Thor can hear him over the crackling hiss of the rain hitting every surface around them. "I always imagined for myself a glorious demise, or at least losing in a fair fight."