Strictly speaking, Sylvie was quite beautiful.
Though she also bore the name Loki, her true name was Sylvie. Her hair was a dark golden shade, and she wore a small-horned crown—far less ostentatious than Loki's. At the moment, she was still wrapped tightly in her cloak, one hand clenched against her palm, barely daring to breathe.
But once Lorien exposed her, Sylvie finally let out a quiet sigh of relief.
Before she could speak, Gwen and Wanda exchanged a glance and turned toward her.
"Who are you? How did you get here?"
The fact that Sylvie had appeared without either of them noticing unsettled them both.
Their abilities weren't weak. Wanda was a sorceress, sensitive to any ripple in space; if someone had teleported here without her noticing, it was humiliating. Gwen, a warrior, should have instantly sensed any anomaly nearby—but Sylvie had managed to get this close completely undetected. That was troubling.
Was she stronger than them? Somewhere above their level, yet still beneath Lorien?
Faced with their suspicion, Sylvie hesitated, then chose to show sincerity.
"My name is Sylvie. I'm a Lady Loki from a parallel universe's variant timeline."
"The reason I can hide myself so well is because of this piece of equipment."
As she spoke, Sylvie tugged at her cloak.
In that instant, Wanda and Gwen felt her presence clearly. They could even gauge her approximate strength.
And it turned out—she wasn't particularly strong. She didn't even reach Sky Father level. The only reason she had hidden so effectively was that cloak.
"No wonder you're wrapped up so tightly," Gwen remarked, eyeing the cloak. "I thought you were just cold."
Wanda, however, was intrigued. She stepped forward, examined it, and asked,
"May I take a look?"
Truthfully, Sylvie didn't want to hand it over.
That cloak was vital to her. Her countless escapes from the Time Variance Authority—including slipping away right under their noses—had depended on it. Without its perfect concealment, she would have been captured long ago.
But then her gaze shifted toward Lorien, who was watching silently from the side. She knew that in this universe, if anyone could help her destroy the TVA, it was him.
So after a moment's thought, Sylvie passed the cloak to Wanda.
"Here."
Wanda accepted it, running her hand across the material before probing it with her magic.
"A fine magical artifact. It could even be called a divine relic."
She gave her assessment, then returned the cloak to Sylvie.
Seeing Wanda hand it back without hesitation, Sylvie's impression of them improved. If it had been anyone else, they wouldn't have resisted the urge to steal it outright.
Taking the cloak back, Sylvie hesitated only briefly before once again draping it around her shoulders.
"?" Gwen frowned in confusion. "You're really cold?"
"No." Sylvie shook her head. "The Time Variance Authority has the ability to scan anomaly nodes in the timeline."
"If I don't wear this cloak, their agents would detect me during scans. That's how I was captured when I was a child."
Wanda asked, "Were the other Loki taken the same way?"
"Yes." Sylvie nodded.
"What happens to those who get captured?" Gwen pressed.
"It's horrible." Sylvie's lips tightened. "We're anomaly nodes in the timeline. Our continued existence causes irreversible damage to the flow of time.
"So those who are caught are thrown into the Time Prison. Most call it the Void. It's a terrifying place."
Wanda gestured lightly. "How terrifying?"
"I don't know all the details. Most of what I know was pieced together from what I managed to gather." Sylvie shook her head, then continued.
"They say a terrifying void creature dwells there."
"To stop us from continuing to disrupt the timeline, we're dumped into that wasteland. Then, at regular intervals, the creature sweeps through and devours everything."
"And once you're devoured, your entire existence is erased. Nothing you ever did leaves a trace."
To make her point clear, Sylvie gave an example.
"Anything you created, anything you wrote, painted, or left behind—gone."
"After you're consumed, every trace of your existence vanishes into nothing."
Simply put, it was like having a duplicate icon appear on your computer. You drag it to the recycle bin, then empty it. Or worse, uninstall it entirely.
Naturally, no Loki would want to be "uninstalled." Who wants to be alive one moment and erased the next?
Hearing this, Gwen tilted her head curiously.
"So no matter what you did or didn't do, if you're discovered, they'll wipe you out?"
"Yes." Sylvie's voice tightened with pain.
"Because our existence alters the flow of the universe's timeline, we have to be purged."
"I was snatched from Asgard when I was little. Ever since, I've been on the run… I don't even know how many years now."
Her eyes darkened. "I dream of destroying the Time Variance Authority. No matter the cost."
At the mention of Asgard, Hela, who had barely been paying attention, snapped to focus.
She turned sharply toward Sylvie. "Where in Asgard were you taken? Didn't that old bastard Odin protect you? What about your brother? The other gods?"
Taken from Asgard. That alone made Hela seethe. What the hell was the point of that old bastard Odin then?
Sylvie studied her, a strange sense of familiarity rising.
"It all happened too quickly."
"A ripple opened in space, and two people jumped out and dragged me away."
"I was just a child, only a few years old, playing in a park in Asgard—then I was gone in an instant."
"They probably didn't even have time to react."
Hela curled her lip. "For someone to slip into Asgard without a sound… no matter how you look at it, that old bastard Odin is useless."
Hearing Odin insulted again, Sylvie tilted her head, puzzled. But she wasn't offended.
After all, she had been taken away as a child and never returned. She had no bond with Odin. And just as Hela said—she had been taken so easily. Not once afterward had Odin lifted a finger to try to save her.
So in truth, Sylvie did harbor resentment.
And strangely, she felt a faint sense of kinship with Hela, which only deepened her confusion.
"You really seem to dislike Odin. Hate him, even?"
Hela crossed her arms, snorting coldly. She wouldn't even speak his name. Just thinking about him soured her mood.
And she hadn't even gotten her revenge yet. That old bastard had gone and killed himself first.
Wanda, noticing Hela's silence, smiled and explained in her place.
"Do you know her name, Sylvie?"
Sylvie shook her head.
"Then do you know Loki has a sister? In name only, but she was imprisoned by Odin for a very, very long time."
This time, Sylvie paused, then nodded.
She knew.
In all her years on the run, she'd learned many things about Loki. One of them was that he had a sister—Hela Odinson.
Then…
"Wait!" Sylvie suddenly realized.
She looked at Hela, arms crossed, then glanced at the others in disbelief.
"She's Hela?"
"Mhm~" Wanda hummed through her nose, mimicking Lorien.
Gwen nodded, confirming it.
Sylvie stared at Lorien, then back at Hela.
"Sister?"
"No." Hela cut her off sharply, arms crossed over her chest. "I'm not your sister. Only in name. In truth, we have no bond."
Sylvie's face fell with disappointment. She couldn't even remember the last time she'd seen family. Even someone she'd only heard of, never met.
"But across the multiverse, Loki always has a sister. By definition, that's our relationship."
Hela shook her head.
"If you want to put it that way, then there's another Loki in the Avengers right now."
"And Thor even shares my blood. But we're only connected in name."
Sylvie knew she was right.
With a trace of regret, she nodded.
"…Alright then."