Thor escapes from the dungeon in Asgard and meets with his friends to battle the Serpent—but Odin catches them and banishes Thor to Earth to follow his own will, sending Mjolnir with him. Now Odin is questioning Loki and Volstagg as to how Thor was able to escape; the voluminous Volstagg claims full responsibility, which the dubious Odin accepts. As Volstagg returns the boy to the stables, he confesses that he has a certain fondness for Loki from when he was a boy the first time with Thor. Loki assures his protector that he plans no further schemes. When Volstagg leaves, Loki collects the Hel-Wolf, hidden at the base of the World Tree from Heimdall’s searching gaze and descends into Hel. There he summarizes the current state of affairs for his (and the reader’s) benefit: Mephisto has leased a small section of Hell to Hela, Norse Goddess of Death, to create Hel, a place to store the dead souls of Asgardians, keeping them safe from the predatory Disir. What Hela doesn’t know is that Loki traded his control of the Disir to Mephisto to allow Hela to have those lands. Confronting Garm, the giant dog which guards the Gates of Hel, Loki orders the Hel-Wolf to attack and dashes by in the chaos….
Meanwhile, Hela expresses her misgivings about allowing the Tongue of the Serpent into her realm to parley. The villain’s emissary offers one simple choice: join the Serpent or be destroyed. Later in her chambers, Hela’s handmaiden Leah advises her to ally with the Serpent, but Tyr assures her that he would be able to lead an army to defeat the invader and his forces. Hela dismisses them and Tyr returns to his quarters, where he finds Loki waiting for him. Murderous rage against the traitor takes over and Loki is barely able to gasp out that he is there to save Asgard. Tyr relents and agrees to hear him out. Returning to the Gates of Hel, Loki learns that Garm is only tasked with preventing the dead from leaving, making the earlier attack unnecessary. As the next part of his elaborate scheme, he visits Mephisto in Hell and tells him that Hela has allied with the Serpent and threatens the devil’s domain; Loki then returns to Hel and informs Hela that Mephisto is planning to invade her realm. This is to give Loki time to find a cause to bring Hela and Mephisto together—and he will find it from the Tongue of the Serpent….