Grindelwald looked around with glee.
His fingers tapping his sides in a rhythmic tone as he walked with light steps along the hoard of aurora order members each marching towards the same place.
The MCCC's office.
With the same purpose.
To offer someone 'special' to the True Creator.
As if relishing in the gentle refreshing breeze of an early victory heightened by his mood, he took in a deep breath with his eyes closed. As the cold dry air seeped into his lungs he allowed the calming chill to seep into every bone before he exhaled with a bright smile and a glimmer in his eyes.
"Who would've thought…" Grindelwald whispered into the wind.
He still remembered the day he'd been forced to split his soul.
Oh! The shame! The absolute shame he'd felt that day.
Grindelwald could still feel the burning rage hidden or rather forcefully contained within his chest as he looked through the door at Loki.
'...you took a part of me 'Oh Great Mr. Error'…this time I'll return the favour.'
'I'll make sure you remember just how it feels to have your entire plans ruined at their epitome.'
Loki's totally normal spirit body, tinged with a slightly crimson tint to represent his nervousness or fear felt natural to Grindelwald.
He relished in it as if Mr. Error himself was worried and about to be struck by misfortune.
Grindelwald then looked at the Aurora order members around him.
He observed their spirit body threads that all seemed to be deeply involved with hatred for Loki, waiting eagerly to execute the orders of their Lord and then thought back to the moment long ago when he'd been forced to admit defeat in front of 'Him'.
A frown marred Grindelwald's otherwise handsome features as he thought about it and then repeated a vow he'd made several times to himself.
'Even if 'He' is no longer here….I'll find every last hope he can have of ever coming back…and then I'll make sure it vanishes right before his eyes each time 'He' tries.'
'Everything's already going according to plan…'
'Now I just need to make sure that the daughter of wisdom applies her 'wisdom' at the right moment so that I can drag this brat into 'Her' domain and make him beg me to save him…'
'Then I can plant the right trap for Mr. Error when 'He' descends into the boy under the pretext of saving these misguided sheep to prevent the calamitous descent of an outer god…'
'Ah~...perfection.'
With his eyes closed Grindelwald thought back to the vision he'd had not too long ago. One that had given him the confidence to pull off such a wild and risky plan.
'The daughter of Fate.'
Grindelwald opened his eyes and under the cover of psychological invisibility he pulled open the historical void and attempted to bring out something that was once in his close proximity.
Except-
'It failed…'
'...again.'
A sense of worry started to flicker in Grindelwald's heart as the cornerstone of his plan seemed to be betraying him at the last second, but he calmed down soon after.
His divination couldn't be wrong.
That he was sure off since he'd already taken several precautions to make sure that they couldn't be interfered with since he'd divined about it all in the presence of Cheek inside the Mirror Dimension, her domain, something she had total control over.
So unless she'd betrayed him herself, such a thing would never happen.
And Cheek would never betray him since Mr. Error was her sworn enemy. She was someone who hated 'The Great Mr. Error' even more than he did, for some reason lost to time, and so he trusted her hatred, her eagerness to rip 'Him' to shreds if 'He' was standing right in front of her.
To top it, Grindelwald had avoided polluting his fate with any thoughts about direct action against the boy. Instead he'd relegated Loki's location to another sworn enemy who seemed rather interested in getting rid of Loki for good.
Grindelwald trusted the saying, an enemy's enemy is my friend very much. At least in Mr. Error's case since there was hardly a single normal person he hadn't offended in history with how prudish he'd always been, it wasn't hard to make grand plans to fulfill his long standing dream of holding 'His' life hostage.
History had always been written according to 'His' whims and fancies. Victory and defeat decided by it.
And when he'd attempted to interfere with it, he was struck down. Pressed under 'His' thumb, made to bow, made to split his soul, made to suffer for an eternity.
But no more.
No one would pull on his strings of fate any longer.
'…Angel of History.' Grindelwald recalled his once famous title that had now been merged into the darkness, lost to the common populace, all because of one Mr. Error.
'Too bad I couldn't be present at your death…' Grindelwald clicked his tongue in annoyance but then smiled once again, 'But I'll make sure you feel just what I felt through your vessel during your rebirth.'
Grindelwald's eyes focused as he finished thinking about his plans and machinations, as he planned to regain his title once again and make the world tremble in fear of it.
He couldn't be wrong, he reassured himself.
After all, he was an angel himself, he had taken help from the Angel of Imagination, he had two True Gods on his side, both of whom wanted to rip Loki's guts out for whatever reason, and he was making use of an outer god.
How could a mere Demigod even tickle him at this stage?
He'd be surprised if Loki even recognised him with how smooth things were going so far.
But that was a given with how long this plan was in the making…
'How many centuries have passed again?'
Yet, he felt his hand tremble slightly.
"FOR THE LORD!!!" someone suddenly chanted from within the group of already maddened and frenzied Aurora Order Beyonders causing the floodgates to be opened as everyone raised their hands and joined in as the chorus.
"DOWN WITH THE HERETIC!!! FOR THE LORD!!!"
A smile graced Grindelwald's face.
Of course he couldn't be wrong. Look at all these fanatics who were willing to sacrifice themselves.
Worst came to pass, he could just let them handle the fallout while he made an escape with the True Gods once things truly turned horrible.
…
Prenelle looked at the giant roots of the tree in front of her spread all throughout the Abyss.
By now she'd done nearly everything she could think of to attract 'Her' attention. But she was just not fast enough.
Each time she'd attract 'Her' attention this world would reset itself.
Was it to prevent Grindelwald from getting corrupted?
Prenelle didn't think so. If such a simple act could let Grindelwald become corrupted, he wouldn't even have let 'Her' gaze linger around in this place he'd constructed at all.
No, it seemed to be intentional.
It seemed as if Grindelwald was watching her and knew exactly how she planned on corrupting him using 'Her' and made sure to pull the plug at the absolute last moment so that she would always fail to put him in harm's way.
Prenelle looked around herself once more.
'Is there truly no way to cheat the system?'
With her hands on her hips, Prenelle began to slowly unwind the knowledge she'd gathered from her previous attempts, turning them into wisdom for her to reweight the web of memories in her mind.
'Are there truly no errors in this plan of Grindelwald's?'
Prenelle frowned at the thought.
Could such a thing really be possible?
It made her think of all the times Nicholas praised Loki's designs of being so error free. Could Grindelwald be someone like him?
But Prenelle knew better.
Her wisdom knew best that even if Loki's designs weren't error free, he himself wasn't. In fact the young boy was a giant bundle of them.
He could fool the staff at Hogwarts into believing that he was of the Mystery Pryer pathway while having nothing to show for it.
He was a young boy supposed to be from the Sleepless pathway, yet he acted completely unlike them since he practically loved sleeping unless he was extremely focused on some project of his.
To top it all off, Prenelle had also noticed, as did Nicholas, that Loki was favoured by Fate.
Things often seemed to go his way in the end, yet the boy wasn't from the Monster pathway or even a devout believer in the Goddess of Fate.
If anything, Loki found any mention of her slightly annoying, reacting with the same expression of someone being shown 'marriage prospects' and forced to choose one by their parents.
Those were still only matters regarding the Beyonder world.
In the humanist world, where Loki often portrayed himself cold and aloof, as if a person without a shred of care in his heart for anyone else, he was surprisingly soft.
Even going so far as asking them to try and reconcile with Fleur when she'd been abandoned by her goddess at the end of last year regardless of whether it put his standing with them in a terrible position or not.
And that was not including the times Prenelle had noticed Loki staring at the two way mirror always in his pockets during the night.
At first she believed it was something to do with 'young love'. But she was indeed terribly surprised to learn that Loki had a younger sister.
Someone Loki had never shared anything about with her or anyone else, regardless of how close they were.
For a while Prenelle even assumed Loki had a daughter in secret which was why he never spoke about her to anyone else. But after repeated divinations told her that she was wrong she finally gave up and accepted that Loki had a little younger sister.
Granted she'd never brought it up herself with Loki in hopes that he would bring it up first, but Prenelle was slowly running out of patience. She sighed with affection as she remembered the glimpse that she'd caught of Loki's sister in her divination.
She and Nicholas had never had a child to avoid having to part with them one day because of how dangerous the Beyonder world was.
But it had left them yearning to form deeper connections with the little ones.
It was also partly why they had kept their summer camp running for as long as they had, since it allowed them to constantly see the little balls of joy and relive their simpler youth through them.
It kept them sane emotionally, plus it was a part of the ritualistic magic of every modern Beyonder that they received as a blessing from the True God of their Pathway to help them keep their sanity since a Beyonder would go mad after they touched Sequence 4 without that.
Simply being a part of daily life with a large number of children was enough to maintain their sanity.
Spending time with adults to retain your sanity was also possible, but it required a much deeper sense of involvement that was usually impossible for most Beyonders without being seen as an Evil Dark Wizard Cult by the Ministry.
It was why schools like Hogwarts were a popular spot for several Sequence 4 Beyonders that were not from the Sacred Twenty Eight, who usually simply traded in their long life spans for their sanity.
Any Sequence 4 favoured by their True God and taught the ritualistic magic to stay sane through emotional connections could teach magic to little kids and maintain their sanity while doing so.
And so Prenelle convinced herself.
She had to meet Loki's little copy to maintain her sanity.
She opened her eyes with a zealous glare that made her look like a grandma holding a plate of cookies for her 'underfed' grandchildren to the extent that it had probably just made the roots in front of her flinch for a second.
Being sufficiently motivated, Prenelle activated her final trump card.
Something she'd prepared for the slightest chance of being in a confrontation with Mother Tree of Desire once again.
And while this wasn't enough to hurt her in any way, however minor, it was enough to trap her in place, for a few seconds or up to a minute.
It was valuable time she could use to escape.
But right now she wanted to use this trapped will to corrupt Grindelwald instead.
It wasn't a plan that would succeed totally if Grindelwald caught onto what she was about to do too quickly, but she hoped she could have help from Nicholas who was probably already out of his trial to help push Grindelwald into this prison of her making.
From within her undetectable extension charm pouch, Prenelle pulled out a simple card.
It was a Card of Blasphemy.
For the White Tower Pathway.
Or at least it looked like the one Prenelle had been shown by her True Goddess when she'd asked her for guidance on ways to fight off Mother Tree of Desire if she happened to ever cross paths with her again.
The card had a trap prepared specially by 'Her' as Perenelle was promised that no matter who she used this card against, whether an Angel or a True God themself, it would give her exactly a minute to run away from there.
And if it was the Mother Tree of Desire instead, the trap would hold on for a few seconds, provided 'She' was not extremely angry at her.
All of this only possible because the bait the card contained was a corrupted vestige of Mother Goddess of Depravity herself. Stolen from a severed part of her body during the last great war between the True Gods and the Outer Gods at the start of the Fourth Epoch.
The card looked like a simple thin playing card normally, that had a tower whose top was on fire, like a torch, burning to light the way for the future, except the light was crimson and the tower was covered in thick tree roots and dead vines.
Prenelle looked at it with a slightly uncertain expression, as if wondering if she should use the card so openly.
Then a thought struck her-
'Loki!'
'I came to help him! Now I'm stuck and I have to save myself!'
'Hmpf! If I don't get that brat who sold out to the Blacks to compensate after all this is over I'll beat him up!'
…
Far off in the cosmos.
An authoritatively powerful woman with a deceivingly gentle impression merged with a tree upon whom countless bloodied roses bloomed, frowned in annoyance and mild frustration.
'Who's repeatedly trying to get my attention?'
'Why can't I get their location beyond the fact that they seem to be inside that accursed planet?'
'Has 'He' revived once again?'
'...no. Not so soon.'
''She' said she's already planned a gift for 'His' rebirth.'
'Maybe 'She' got too busy dealing with the Orthodox deities while attacking the barrier right now?'
The blonde woman chuckled at her own joke which put her in a slightly better mood as she looked back down at the foolish God she'd been trying to corrupt for the last few centuries, a gift she'd planted at the end of the war of what was called the Fourth Epoch.
A part of her will was encased within the Chained God so that she could take over the planet from the inside.
She'd already done this once before through the Abyss but 'He' had sacrificed Death to entomb her in its domain so that neither she nor anyone could ever leave or enter the place once again.
And so she now planned on making another seedling sprout at the right moment so that she could take back what was rightfully hers from within.
But she was starting to get seriously annoyed by this other sudden intrusion of her focus.
It wasn't the intrusion itself that was annoying her.
She could ignore someone trying something out once or twice and then coming to their senses before dropping the matter altogether. But within moments the small sense of constant need for her attention started to spiral into repeated bangs.
As if someone was throwing a stone at her head from across the universe to gain her attention, then pulling back the stone when she looked only to throw it back once again when she stopped looking.
It was frustrating to say the least.
She was about to ignore it again with anger flaring as she did when-
'On Father's sleep! If I ever get the opportunity to-'
'-huh?' Chills suddenly ran up her spine as she realised she felt something familiar from the direction of this 'thing' repeatedly taking up her focus.
'A Card of Blasphemy?'
And then she frowned.
Not because she'd figured out that it was a fake or that there was even a trap within it.
But the fact that the style of the trap was something she'd seen before caused her to feel disgust and anger.
Suddenly however, a smirk showed up on her otherwise delicate face.
'A person related to 'Him' is trying to invite me to a banquet?'
'Let's hope they've prepared an adequate menu then…'
…
Loki looked at Chadwick and spoke softly.
"So will you do it or not?"
Chadwick gulped softly, looked at the MCCC who had already suited up fully, indicating he was on Loki's side with the plan, and then nodded with firm eyes, "Alright, I'll do it. But if I do…"
"Don't worry, I'll make sure to be on time." Loki finished.
With that said, Chadwick took the lead to cover the office door along with the MCCC who was behind his desk, pointing a simple M9 while keeping an eye on the thick metallic doors that contained the control room which held the launch codes and panel.
Chadwick looked at the MCCC and then sighed lightly as he spoke while looking at Loki, "He's pretty calm for his age, isn't he? I remember I was shivering in my boots back in the day under my MCT when he chucked us into an infiltration sim."
The MCCC turned to look at Chadwick but then frowned slightly as if trying to remember something strange.
"But weren't you promoted to a Sergeant here because of your work in the Soviet?"
Chadwick looked back at the MCCC and then appeared confused for a second too. "Huh?"
There wasn't time to react to it however since a sudden shout seeped in from the corridor outside.
"DOWN WITH THE HERETIC!!! FOR THE LORD!!!"
…
Loki looked at Chadwick with a rather strange expression as he suddenly realised something after he'd made his illusion of the MCCC respond to his banter, something that had been bugging him until now.
Marionettes didn't give Loki all their memories at once if he didn't explore their body of heart and minds, but they did send him back memories as long as they encountered someone or something familiar directly.
It wasn't perfect recall, but at least better than simple memory fragments that he could skim off the top of their mind without a deep dive.
Except-
'Now that I think about it…'
'Why haven't I seen Chadwick in the memories of any of the marionette Aurora Order members?'
'Has he never been seen by them?'
Loki's frown deepened.
He didn't think so.
Chadwick was part of the patrol team and as such, apart from his own team members most other officers at the Launch Facility should've at least known his face and name if not known him personally.
But Chadwick was invisible.
He had never turned up in the memories of any of the Aurora Order members even though he'd been recognised by the various other officers at this facility.
Loki couldn't even blame it on the fact that the Aurora order members hadn't had the opportunity to see Chadwick since they had arrived too late or that they were on different floors.
Even though all the Aurora Order members had been portkeyed into the place with the help of the single Muggle-Wizard relations handler who had unknowingly become a host for one of them carrying the portkey, they'd all had travelled inside the facility while hidden inside the shadows of the various patrol teams, jumping out and turning others into their hosts when they arrived deep enough.
Loki immediately checked Chadwick's spirit body thread to see if he was part of an elaborate trap, but it was completely normal. The man wasn't being controlled by anyone else and neither was he being unknowingly directed through ritualistic means.
'The Quill of Alzuhood?' Loki questioned, thinking about Megose becoming the mother of the spawn of the descent vessel of the True Creator through contrived coincidences.
'But could the Quill of Alzuhood hide things from the spirit body threads too?'
Loki was a little confused.
Firstly he was still a Sequence 4 that could be manipulated by the Quill of Alzuhood itself, secondly the Quill of Alzuhood was the uniqueness of the Visionary Pathway, which meant that it could very well fool him into believing things that did not exist.
After all, he still hadn't 'killed off' Gehrman Sparrow and its influence on him was undeniable.
Then there was the fact that the Demigods from earlier hadn't seriously bothered killing Chadwick previously.
While it could be attributed to the fact that Chadwick wasn't their target, could a normal person truly survive while standing amidst a full-fledged battle of demigods?
Loki felt that he was overlooking something.
While he had indeed helped Chadwick not die. Chadwick shouldn't have been unharmed, right?
Loki's head rang alarm bells as his counterparts in the Sefirah Castle conducted an urgent divination.
"Chadwick is dangerous to me."
They repeated the statement or a variation of it seven times to cast a broader net over the spirit world before slipping into a state of trance.
The results were immediate.
All pendulums spun counter clockwise.
'All except one….' Loki frowned.
Loki focused his thoughts back to what the singular worm of time which had gained a positive answer had asked and became dumbfounded.
'Chadwick is part of a grand plan orchestrated by the Quill of Alzuhood to put Gehrman Sparrow in harm's way.'
Loki repeated the statement seven times more, trying to let it sink into his subconscious to digest what he was seeing, but before he could, before he could even fully digest the fact that he'd overlooked something seemingly important about the situation at hand, he heard a loud shout created by one of his own worms of time that was working on a schedule he'd set earlier to carry out his plan.
"DOWN WITH THE HERETIC!!! FOR THE LORD!!!"