It was very early in the morning when the next part of his life began. The sun had just risen, and the air was still cold. 100 men and women stood in ten rows with ten people in each row on a large open field. This arrangement made them form a neat little square formation of people.
They were all standing on an open grass field some distance from some buildings. All 100 of them were wearing white robes with the insignia of a four-pointed star on their chest. This identified them as fresh lambs in the Four Direction sect.
In front of them stood a man with black hair, black eyes, fair white skin, and blue robes. His robes also had the insignia of a four-pointed star on his chest. The color of his robes and the insignia identified him as an instructor and a rank 3 cultivator of the Four Directions Sect.
The man's eyes were unfocused, and he was looking at something unknown far into the distance as he said to them, "I am Muni. I will be the one to initiate you and turn you into tools fit for the Four Directions Sect."
His voice was calm and detached as he spoke. His tone, combined with the fact that he wasn't looking at them, made them feel as if he was talking to himself, not to them.
He said in that same detached voice, "But before we proceed with the awakening ceremony, I must ask you something very important. What are you willing to do to achieve your goals?"
After asking this question, his eyes became focused, and his attention shifted to them. He turned his head to the side and let his eyes wander as he glanced at all of them.
He spoke with an air of solemnity and had a look on his face that showed that he was dead serious as he said, "This is a very important question. You should ask yourself this question and answer it before you decide to go ahead with joining the Four Directions Sect."
"Many of you are here to earn your freedom, and some of you are here to grow stronger. But, just how serious are you about achieving your goals?"
"This is an important question because by the end of the year of training, at least half of you will be dead. Some of you will be killed by me just as the weak, sick, and crippled animals in a herd or farm are culled."
This statement caused the heart rate of many of the people in the formation to spike. Some of them didn't know the danger of the initiation process, so they were caught off guard when they heard that half of them would be killed by the man standing in front of them.
But some of them didn't feel anything strange about a survival rate of 50%. Loki was one of these people.
He already knew the danger, so he wasn't surprised by this information. Besides, the survival rate of his previous identity as a slave is even worse than 50%, so he didn't have any reason to panic.
Muni continued his speech with that same intense focus, saying, "I won't necessarily be the one to kill the weaklings. Some of you will be the ones to kill each other when you fight to survive. And sometimes, after one year of training, more than 70 of you will die, not just half of you. So anything is possible."
He raised a single finger as he said to them, "But one thing is certain, and that is that by the time I'm done with you, only the best of the best in body and mind will remain. So if you don't think you have what it takes and want to give up now, you still have the chance to. You should give up now because once you start the initiation, there will be no going back for you."
Silence was what he received as a response to his words. It seemed no one was willing to give up the chance to join the Four Directions Sect.
This made Muni chuckle and say, "People are oftentimes asked this question, or they even ask themselves the question. Many times, these people reply to the question saying they are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve their goal. But many of those people are lying."
His eyes wandered over them again as he said with a stern tone, "They themselves might not know that they are lying to themselves. They might think that their goal is truly their highest priority, so they are deceiving themselves by believing that they would truly prioritize it above all else."
"But no matter how dedicated to a goal one can be, most people just can't give their all to achieve that goal for many reasons. These reasons could be because of personal discomfort, laziness, pride, reputation, morality, or religious reasons."
"If you're deceiving yourself, you will pay the price soon enough. So answer that question now and step back if you're not willing to do all it takes to survive and excel."
He spoke at length, but at the end of his speech, not one person stepped back or retreated. It was the same response as last time, but instead of getting angry, he grinned at them with all of his teeth.
His teeth were displayed to them, so they were able to see that his teeth were too sharp and too many for a human to have. So his wide-faced grin made him look like a shark pretending to be a human.
As he grinned, he said, "It is a good thing that you didn't step back, or I would have killed you for wasting my time."
His words were spoken with a chilling light in his eyes and a careless disregard for life. This sight made them realize that Muni was not their friend. No matter what they thought about him before, they knew now without a doubt that he was capable of killing them at the drop of a hat.
Even the usually calm Loki felt a chill at the sight of Muni's visage. He even felt the urge to step back in fear because his instinct honed from years of navigating danger was telling him to create some distance between himself and Muni.
He wasn't the only one who decided to step back. He also wasn't the only one who was thin and scrawny. There were many people who were gaunt like him, but not all of them had an edge of desperation in their eyes and the way they moved their bodies.
The white lambs stepped away from him as if he were the plague. But Muni didn't seem to care about their reactions. His eyes examined them again, but this time, he was looking at them with the gaze of a predator.
For the first time since they met him, Muni smiled and said to them, "On behalf of the Four Directions Sect, I welcome you."
After saying this, he pointed to himself and said, "I went through this process, and so will all of you. I survived and grew strong enough to get the opportunity to initiate you. If you're lucky enough to survive this process and grow stronger, you might also have the opportunity to initiate a new group of people, too."
Then he turned towards the building in the distance and said, "That is all for now. Now we go to awaken, you lot of white lambs. If you're lucky, you will awaken a talent. If not, you can only rely on your hard work."
With that said, he led them to the building in the distance. This building was called the Awakening room. It is a one-of-a-kind facility that can enable people to become capable of cultivating.
The Awakening room is a very rare facility in the blessed heaven realm. Only sects possess them, and as far as Loki knows, there are only five orthodox sects in the entire world. That means there are only about five places in the whole world where anyone can safely acquire the power to cultivate and gain the authorization to cultivate after awakening.
From what he has noticed, the control of the opportunity to cultivate is perhaps the main reason why the five sects get to control and enslave the whole world. After all, without strength, no one will be able to resist the power of sects pressing down on them from above.
What's worse is that sects don't just take anyone. They have strict requirements for background, conduct, or talent, or all of the above.
Only the Four Directions Sect is willing to take just about anyone with the potential to cultivate. As long as one has a potential of 10%, the minimum requirement to cultivate, the Four Directions Sect will take them.
This willingness to accept anyone is why he chose to come to the Four Directions Sect and why no one chose to give up despite Muni's impassioned speech. That and the fact that the Four Direction sect is the closest sect to his area is why he is here today.
It is unlikely that he would have made it in one piece to the sects further away, but if the Four Directions Sect had been any farther, it was most likely that his slave master would have caught up to him and killed him for trying to gain his freedom.
Fortunately, he was able to make it and is now about to begin his cultivation journey. However, the danger from his slave master has not disappeared yet. His slave master is still hell-bent on killing him for his insolence.
As he glanced at the other people in his group of initiates, he saw anticipation and excitement on their faces. Some of the emotions he saw on their faces mirrored the emotions he was feeling. But he also saw Slav's face, which immediately damned all of his emotions.
Slav made eye contact with him and swiped his hand like a blade across his neck as a gesture to Loki. He didn't speak, but the look of hatred in his eyes and the gesture he made were enough for his message to be understood by Loki.
As if that wasn't enough, Slav mouthed to him, "You're dead."
His voice was silent, but this still made Loki's heart, which had been beating in excitement earlier, begin beating in fear. Slav's face alone made memories of other slaves being beheaded or being brutally whipped into bloody rags flash through his mind. He was truly afraid of Slav and the Rein Family.
Slav is one of the sons of his slave master. After he ran away from home and came here, his slave master was unable to do anything to him. So his slave master sent his last son after him.
Slav was still too young to participate in the initiation of the Four Directions Sect. He is only 14 years old, but he still chose to participate so early for one reason and one reason alone. Even if he were blind, it is clear to Loki what that reason is.
But despite knowing all of these, Loki didn't cower.
He gritted his teeth in anger and said to himself, "At most, I'll fight to the death with you. As long as there is the slightest chance, I will keep fighting. I won't surrender and live as a slave to anyone ever again."
Not that he has another choice in the matter at this point in time. After everything he has done, there is no chance of surrender. So he can only fight.
His slave master won't take him back and let everything be bygones. He either has to become powerful and worthy of freedom, or he will be killed.
This is the third reason why he didn't choose to back down despite the maximum 50% rate of survival of the initiation process. After all, a 50% chance of survival is always better than a 100% of death as a slave.
At the very least, joining the Four Directions Sect will give him the chance to choose how he will die if he is to die. This is a privilege he never had as a slave whose life and death were at the whims of his master.
It is true that his heart is beating wildly because of fear and because he senses danger to his life. It is also true that this has put him in a fight or flight mode. It is even more true that this has happened to him many times in the past, and he had mostly chosen to flee. But this time, he has chosen to fight.
He is determined to fight. What matters is how he will fight and what tools he will use to fight.
This is why he thought to himself with some anticipation, "I hope I will awaken a strong talent."
He is sure that not only will he awaken as a cultivator, but he will also awaken a talent. This is because he could sense the void in his chest yearning to be filled and liberated.
The void in his chest is the tell-tale sign that he has a potential of at least 50%. So he can surely awaken a talent.
He might have been a slave for most of his second life, but he was a slave with high self-esteem and an unwillingness to remain a slave forever, so he tried to learn as much as possible in order to gain his freedom.
In his search for knowledge, he learned that everyone has the potential to cultivate. This potential can be as low as 1%, or it can be as high as 90%.
He read that everyone's existence has a limited size that can be quantified as a total of 100 points for humans. Of these 100 points, some of them will be physical might, intelligence, vitality, spirit, or the void of potential.
Potential is called a void because it is the empty part of one's existence that can allow one's existence to change and improve. So the more the emptiness in one's existence, the more suitable their existence will be for cultivation.
Those with a potential of 50% and above have an emptiness that is 50% of their existence. This large, empty hole in their existence makes them yearn for growth. It makes them feel unfulfilled and lacking.
The void makes it difficult for mediocrity to satisfy them. Only by cultivating can the hole be filled, and will their existence find its purpose.
This feeling of emptiness and the constant yearning for a greater purpose, aside from pride and high self-esteem, are another set of reasons why he made up his mind not to continue living as a slave. It was why he risked his life to escape from his slave master and why he came to join the Four Directions Sect.
Even if he didn't have the yearning, there was no way he would be content living as a slave after knowing that he was made for great things and could awaken a talent after becoming a cultivator. He couldn't bear to waste his life away like that.
A 50% potential is good, but even a 10% potential would have been good enough for him. He would have taken anything that he could get to achieve his goal of ultimate freedom.
What matters to him now is complete and total freedom. He wants freedom from his master, freedom from the sects, freedom from the gods that rule the sects, freedom from sickness, and freedom from death. And he is willing to do anything to get it.
He had this thought on his mind as he marched into the awakening room with the others. During the process of awakening, his fist was clenched, and his heart was full of hope for the future. But no matter what the outcome of the awakening is, he has made up his mind to die rather than to become a slave.
The awakening ceremony didn't take long to complete at all. This was a good thing because his heart was in his throat the whole time, and he was in danger of failing because of his anxiety.
All of them in the group were locked in a room with a high concentration of a special energy. That special energy broke the barrier blocking them from cultivating and opened an energy well in the existence where the void used to be.
The energy well was a transparent ball that appeared to be made of glass. It sat just beneath their navel and was full of a transparent liquid similar in appearance to water.
All of them had been tested before to have at least 10% cultivation potential, so everyone successfully became a cultivator. But a few of them were lucky enough to awaken a special talent.
No one knew who was especially talented and had awakened a special talent. This was because the initial test could only determine if someone could become a cultivator or not. The test didn't measure their exact potential, so everyone remained ignorant of each other's circumstances for now.
This ignorant state didn't last long, though. This was because some of them couldn't control their newly awakened talents or were too excited and couldn't hold back from using them.
One guy's eyes sharpened with a deadly light after he awakened. They didn't see anything different about him, but those close to him could sense a sharp aura around him.
It was as if he were pointing a sword at them. The people he was looking at felt as if a sword had been pressed to their necks, while the people he wasn't looking at felt as if he had drawn a sword and pointed it at them.
Some people didn't know why this was going on, but Loki knew that this was a sign that the guy had awakened a special talent. He had also awakened a talent, so he shouldn't be jealous. But the nature of his talent made him pay more attention to this man and everyone else who was showing signs of awakening a talent.
The talent that he awakened is a Metac that looks like a white wolf but with a black python as its tail. The white wolf and black python appear to be independent beings joined together because they possess different abilities.
The Metac within him felt like a long-lost organ to him. It felt intimate and was easy to control and understand. He only needed a thought to activate it, as it was like an arm that he didn't know he had a long time ago.
From the little he knew about Metacs, he expected that a Metac would possess a single ability or two abilities that were related to each other, but his possessed two different abilities. This is already a sign that the Metac is special. But any doubt that he had about this claim disappeared when he understood the abilities of his Metac.
The white wolf within him has two abilities. The first one is Power Identification, while the second one is Tracking.
The Power Identification Ability can help him determine who is prey and who is predator. As for the Tracking ability, it can help him mark a prey and make sure that he can easily find the prey regardless of the distance between them.
He used the Power Identification Ability on the man with the sword aura in order to test its capabilities and see if the man was a predator that should be left alone or a prey that should be hounded and cornered.
Race: Human
Energy Quantity: 54
Energy Density: 1.
Energy Rank: 1.
Body: 0.5.
Soul: 0.6
Metac: Sword Heart
The ability provided him with a vague picture of the state of the man that he had to decipher in order to understand. Eventually, he was able to deconstruct the vague information into concrete data, which he arranged into a more pleasing form for his mind.
What he saw through the Power Identification Ability made him understand why the man was producing a dangerous sword aura. The sensitive eyes and nose of the white wolf in his energy well were telling him that the man possessed a Metac that increases his affinity with swords.
The information from the ability was also able to let him know that the man's potential for cultivation is 54%. After all, the only energy he can access within him right now has to be the energy that occupies the empty space in his existence.
These two pieces of information constituted the direct and inferred information from the Power Identification Ability. So his curiosity about the man was thoroughly satiated.
He turned his attention towards the other people in the Awakening room. They ranged in shapes, sizes, and sexes. They also ranged in age from 14, like Slav, up to 33 for others. But one thing that they all had in common was that their energy level and energy rank were at level 1.
As Loki examined everyone around him, he felt a soft stirring in his chest. This sort of stirring usually manifested as yearning for purpose and restlessness, but now it manifested as hunger.
He had found his purpose and his path to greatness, so he didn't need to look for a purpose anymore. But now that his path has been found, it demands to be fulfilled. This was why he felt a hunger within him.
The sight of so many prey stirred the second part of his Metac into action. The black python's danged tongue flickered within him with eagerness and anticipation. This anticipation spiked when he saw Slav's power.
Race: Human
Energy Quantity: 95
Energy Density: 1.
Energy Rank: 1.
Body: 0.4
Soul: 0.9
Metac: Rewind (Divine)
Not only was Slav extremely talented, possessing 90 units of energy within him while he only had 77 units of energy, but Slav had also awakened an extremely powerful talent.
Loki was so surprised by what he was seeing that the white wolf of his Metac snorted its nose many times in order to make sure that he hadn't seen wrongly.
After confirming the ability of the Rewind Metac many times, Loki made up his mind to kill and eat Slav. The hunger within him wasn't just because of his Metac anymore. He now wants to eat Slav at all costs because of the great power that he can acquire.
At this point, it is no longer about revenge. What matters now is that Slav possesses something that he wants. If anyone else had been the one in possession of the Rewind Metac, he would have made a move against them.
The fact that he hated Slav enough to want to eat him alive was just a bonus. So he didn't hesitate to begin to hunt Slav.
To kick off the hunt, he used the Tracking mark on Slav. This is a must because his second set of abilities won't take effect if he doesn't mark a target as prey.
After marking Slav as his prey, he chose to calm down and wait for an opportunity to get close to him. It was very difficult for him to restrain himself as he truly wanted to eat Slav as soon as possible.
He wanted to attack Slav now. But there were too many people around that could interfere with his hunt, so he decided to wait for a while.
As logic and desire battled for supremacy in his mind, Slav turned to him and caught him looking. Loki didn't back down from the stare like he usually did as a slave, but his defiance didn't move Slav at all.
Slav stared him down, sneered at him, and gestured again to show what he intended to do with his neck. He didn't care at all that Loki had suddenly become confident because he had gained something from his awakening that granted him supreme confidence.
The two of them glared at each other like that for a while. But they eventually looked away to do other things.
After the awakening event, all of them were made to assemble on the field again. Muni stood in front of them and began addressing them.
He said to them with a smile on his face, "Congratulations on your awakening. Today, you've become the initiates of my glorious Four Directions Sect."
He was smiling, but no one was fooled by the smile on his face into thinking that he was genuinely happy for them. If anything, they were looking at him as if he were a great enemy and were wondering if the elimination process had begun and if they were in danger of dying soon.
As if he could hear their thoughts, he said, "Don't worry. Your competition for survival won't begin until tomorrow. Tomorrow is also when your training will start. I just want to tell you some things that you should know before the training begins."
"You will be trained in the four main arts of cultivation. These are energy refining or cultivation, Dao heart refining, and Metac studies, and the skillful utilization of Metac. These four will also be the major criteria that will determine your elimination."
"But you might also be trained in physical fighting and body forging, mental fighting and mind refinement, curse offensive and defensive techniques, and many more. When you're done with this training, you will have completed the initiation program and become worthy members of the Four Directions Sect."
At this point, he stopped smiling and became solemn. His voice was calm yet full of deadly intent as he said, "The initiation and training will last one year or 52 weeks. During these 52 weeks, an evaluation will be carried out every week or every month. Some of you will be rewarded for excellent performance, while some of you will be eliminated for performing poorly."
"That means at least one of you will die every week or four of you every month. Think about that as you go to your lodgings. Let it motivate you and let it drive you to achieve greatness."
After saying this, he paused to give them time to think.
A few seconds later, he said, "Don't think that the Four Directions Sect is small for only having this many initiates. You 100 are not the only ones currently undergoing the initiation program. There are many other groups who have begun the program recently or long before you. In total, there are at least ten thousand initiates like you in the program."
"Some sects look down on the Four Directions Sect for accepting every riff raff with enough potential to cultivate. But the initiation program will separate the wheat from the chaff and give those of you who are truly worthy a chance to rise to the top, even if your talent is lacking."
He looked at everyone and chuckled as he said, "I know some of you awakened a talent. But don't let that make you smug and let down your guard."
He pointed to himself and said, "I only had a potential of 45%, so I didn't awaken a talent when I awakened. Yet, here I am."
"Many more talented people didn't survive the initiation or died ahead of me after the program. This is because I am both lucky and hardworking."
"Talent is not everything. Luck and hard work are important, too. In fact, potential can be improved later on. So, a high potential will only grant an early advantage right now. It is what you do with this advantage of talent that matters."
"Since luck can't be changed, you should focus on hard work. Trust me, if you're hardworking and diligent enough, you will be able to make your own luck. That is all."
With that, Muni led them to their accommodations. Along the way, Loki had wanted to use the Power Identification Ability on Muni, but he didn't want to risk anything that could jeopardize his hunt for Slav, so he didn't try it.
He doesn't know what cultivators are truly capable of. The little he has heard of cultivators is terrifying, so he decided not to risk drawing the ire of Muni and instead focused solely on Slav.
This was also why he didn't rush to pick a room after they reached their place of accommodations. His eyes were on Slav and Slav alone.
His behavior was noticed by Muni. So Muni warned them again about how fighting and creating disturbance were forbidden in the accommodations.
Loki only half listened to him, but he made sure to nod in total agreement. This rule has saved him from Slav's wrath, but at this point, he couldn't care about it anymore.
His mind was made up on hunting Slav. His white wolf was even crowching within him while the black python was hissing with expectations.
He was truly full of expectations and didn't care about the consequences of breaking the rules because he knew that once he got the Rewind Metac, the consequences of breaking the rules wouldn't matter to him.
With his mind made up, he followed Slav up to their room. He didn't do a job of hiding, so Slav knew that he was following. But Slav didn't care.
After they reached a small house that Slav liked, Slav turned to him and said, "Why are you following me? Did you awaken a talent that gave you the guts to approach me now?"
Then he sneered at Loki and said in disdain, "You are a slave."
He patted his chest and said, "You are my slave. No matter what talent you awaken, you will always remain a slave."
Loki didn't refute the claims that Slav made. What he did was to bow his head and say, "You're right. I came here to apologize."
His words made Slav laugh. Slav was so amused that he couldn't withhold his laughter and had to hold his belly just to restrain himself.
He was so amused by the situation because he thought Loki was foolish to believe that apologizing would save his life. After everything that had happened, there was no way that Loki would be spared.
After all, if Loki is spared, other slaves will get strange ideas of freedom and think that they, too, can escape servitude. Such a precedent couldn't be allowed to exist.
Loki's death is a very important matter to his Rein Family, or his father wouldn't have risked his life by sending him to initiate so young. So Loki must die.
But he didn't say any of these to Loki. Instead of coming clean, he decided to take advantage of the situation by saying, "Crawl over here, bow down, and kiss my feet. Then I may plead with my father to spare your worthless life."
He wanted to humiliate Loki one more time before he shattered Loki's hope. Loki knew this, but he didn't mind. He quickly crawled over to Slav to kiss his feet.
It was very easy for him to crawl over, and his movements were smooth during the process because this was something he had done many times in the past.
In the past, he had crawled and groveled like a worm to avoid being whipped or to beg for food in order to avoid starving to death. Now that he was doing it to grow stronger, he was even more eager to crawl and scrape like an animal before his master.
But just as his crawling was smooth, so was his sudden lunge at Slav. He rose up in one smooth motion and plunged a sharp wooden dagger into Slav's throat.
This, too, is something he has done many times before. At first, it started with fighting other slaves for the scraps of food that their master threw at them.
At that time, they fought like rabid dogs for food. But it was just a fight for survival. No one actually wanted to kill each other.
But later on, their master paired them to fight with weapons for the entertainment of guests. At that time, the slaves fought to kill each other. So he is very familiar with wielding weapons and killing people.
Slav had seen what Loki could do, but he was caught off guard by the attack because he never considered that Loki would attack his masters and because fighting was forbidden in this area. So he did nothing as his carotid artery was severed.
But even though he was dying, he was not alarmed or anxious at all. He calmed down after his initial surprise and said, "Good. I didn't expect you to be capable of this. I didn't think you would be willing to give up your life to kill me. But despite your courage, you still fail."
"I will be back. And this is all because you are a slave and will forever remain my slave. I will lord over you for all of eternity. Next time, I will make you have an experience that is worse than death."
Loki didn't listen to him. He continued to stab with his wooden dagger. And when the wooden dagger snapped after it struck bone, Loki resorted to punching Slav's face in a bid to smash his face in and quicken his death.
At this point, he had forgotten what he came for. All he had on his mind was to kill Slav.
This was something that he went to bed thinking about many times. It was an achievement he usually had in good dreams. So now that he could achieve it in real life, he became lost in it.
A few seconds later, Slav died under his violent ministrations. He knew exactly when Slav died because he felt it. He felt it deep within him in his energy well, where his awakened meta resided.
Fenrir howled deeply within him. It was a silent howl, but it was full of happiness and joy because of the successful hunt.
Fenrir's happiness was actually Loki's happiness. He was so happy that he teared up and began to cry.
He had many reasons to be happy. There is the fact that he had just won a great victory against an oppressor. There was also the fact that for the first time since he was reborn in this world, he felt a taste of freedom.
His joy was so immense that it clouded his emotions and almost blinded him to the changes that his Metac was undergoing. But his Metac was a part of his existence, so something this monumental couldn't be hidden from him.
After Slav died, the mark that Loki had planted on him rushed into his energy well and snapped shut around the Rewind Metac within him.
The mark was a small black snake, while the Rewind Metac was a transparent crystal butterfly. The black snake engulfed the Rewind Metac and prevented it from activating after Slav's death. So Arthur was able to retrieve it.
This is the function of the second portion of his Metac. This second portion revolves around the black python and will only work when a hunt is successful and the target is dead.
The abilities of the black snake are Seal and Devour. Seal transforms the tracking mark on a dead target, while Devour can be used to devour the target that has been sealed.
Loki touched Slav and activated devour now. As he did, the black snake rushed out of Slav's energy well into his hand. Along the way, the black snake took the Rewind Metac.
The small black snake entered his energy well through his body and fused with the white wolf. The fusion of Fenrir and the Rewind Metac made the white wolf grow a transparent crystal wing on its back. After the fusion, Loki immediately felt that Fenrir had gained the Rewind ability.
Just as this happened, Muni appeared beside him. Muni's face was full of disdain as he said, "What a disgrace. What an embarrassment."
He sneered and said, "You let your emotions cloud your mind into doing such a stupid thing. If you're not ashamed of yourself, I am ashamed for you. Was it worth it to give up your life for him when you could have bided your time and grown strong enough to fight for your freedom?"
Then he shook his head and said, "No matter. This is the end for you, so nothing else matters to you. But at least, this will serve to teach others a lesson to never let their emotions control them and to never break the rules of the sect."
After saying this, he waved his hand at Loki.
There was a blue crescent mark on the hand that he waved. That mark glowed briefly as he waved it at Loki. This was a sign of the activation of a Metac.
A blue and curved water blade jumped out of the mark on his hand and slashed at Loki. The water blade decapitated him cleanly and even went on to cut Slav, who was beneath him, in two. Loki died just like that.