In spite of the shout, Loki kept his eyes on Chadwick.
'I knew Dumbledore was trying to hurt Gehrman Sparrow…but involving an Angel and a True God?'
Suddenly Loki paused.
'No…that can't be true can it?'
'Would someone involve a True God and an Angel for the sole purpose of torturing a Demigod?'
'Since when did I get that arrogant to think so highly of myself?'
Loki's frown deepened as he replaced himself with an illusion and stepped into the Sefirah Castle to perform a Dream Divination.
'The true objective behind the reason for the conspiracy involving me, Gehrman Sparrow, Grindelwald, Dumbledore and the True Creator.'
Loki's vision shifted as he closed his eyes and sunk into a peaceful slumber landing on a rather simple scene, one that he'd seen before.
Dumbledore appeared angry in the scene as he scribbled down the latest prophecy regarding Gehrman Sparrow obtaining the Sequence 3 Beyonder Characteristics with the help of a True God.
The vision continued until the end, showing in detail how Dumbledore fanatically scribbled down the prophecy as if he was truly angry with Gehrman Sparrow and was burning their bridges.
But it shattered soon after.
'...'
'How is that the reason?'
'The Quill of Alzuhod caused so many high level people to cooperate with each other to trap a single Demigod?'
'That can't have been the case, could it?'
'While the True Creator might be mad and not have the sanity to reject its control, or if he even accepted it simply because I killed one of his demigods, what about Grindelwald?'
'Did the quill control him then?'
Loki shook his head almost immediately.
While he couldn't be a hundred per cent sure about it, Grindelwald almost certainly was keeping a million secrets from Dumbledore about the Fool pathway since no one else seemed to know about it.
And that would mean that while Dumbledore didn't even know who Grindelwald was, Grindelwald himself knew almost everything there was to know about Dumbledore, especially if he was from a previous epoch and had already lived as Herpo the Foul and rose to the status of an angel in the Fool pathway before Merlin met and studied under the founders.
So the only other option was that Grindelwald had let the quill control him.
'For what purpose?'
'Me?'
'I'm so valuable?'
Loki shook his head again.
'That can't be the case.'
'While I might be the only Error Pathway beyonder, a demigod can't be so important to Grindelwald. Especially enough to bring out a True God to torment me.'
'He clearly wants to do something else…and is likely using the help of the True Creator to cover his plans in some way so that he can lean on Dumbledore's quill to fake his reasoning.'
'So the Divination failed?' Loki questioned himself, slightly unsure.
'Does Grindelwald know that I'm the 'vessel' that Mr. Error will be 'reborn' in?'
'How?' Loki asked himself since this information was supposed to be hidden and limited to the founders alone from what he'd learnt from their books and diaries in the Room of Requirements.
'...divination shouldn't have been as effective even if Grindelwald was a True God since Salazar has authority over Concealment.'
'...'
'Did one of the founders betray me?'
Loki couldn't believe it.
With how much they'd written about Mr. Error in their books, Loki knew that they couldn't, that doing so would be so abhorrent to them that if any of the other three knew of this indiscretion they'd probably march the betrayer to their bonfire.
'...but I'm not Mr. Error, yet.'
So wouldn't Mr. Error know about this when he went to the past to 'correct' this mistake anyway?
Loki thought to himself as he remembered Rowena's proposal from a couple of months ago.
'Does Grindelwald have something to do with Mother Tree of Desire then?'
'Did Rowena sell me out so that she could save the Chained God while 'She' and Grindelwald worked together to kill me?'
'...'
Loki conjured his illusory topaz pendulum and performed a quick divination.
'Mother Tree of Desire is involved in the current threat to my life.'
Loki repeated the statement seven times with his eyes closed.
He opened them slowly but he didn't even need to look at the pendulum to know which direction it was spinning or by how much since his whole hand was shaking as the pendulum swung clockwise wildly.
Loki's pupils shrank down to pinpricks as he looked straight at what was happening.
A strange metallic tinge filled his mouth as he bit his cheek too hard in part disappointment and part anger.
He closed his eyes, took a few deep breaths and then calmed down before performing a new divination.
'Rowena gave information about Mr. Error resurrecting using me as 'His' vessel to Grindelwald.'
He repeated the statement seven times and opened his eyes slowly.
The pendulum was still spinning clockwise, just not as wildly as before, in fact it was only a mild spin that seemed to indicate that Grindelwald had gleaned the information rather than be told about it directly.
'...'
So it was to be decided if Rowena had been directly involved in this or not.
Regardless of what the case was and what her reasoning was, Loki knew better than to try and fight against her right now.
He already had a True God, an Angel, a quill that could control his fate and apparently also an Outer God waiting for him.
Picking a fight with someone who was still in his camp, at least on the surface, would do no good.
'...but I won't let this go.' Loki concluded before returning to the MCCC's office.
Except, instead of returning to a peaceful office that was about to be broken into by the marionettes that Loki had created, the world staggered.
Loki's head flicked sharply towards the top floors of the Launch Facility.
He hadn't realised it earlier because he was inside the Sefirah Castle, but everyone who had vanished earlier had returned, including the Saint from the Aurora Order.
Nicholas and everyone else seemed to have entered a short confrontation with him, in which he was already being beaten by a rather ruthless Nicholas, but then they'd paused since Prenelle had also returned and something was..wrong with her.
Loki's eyes landed on Prenelle with a strange look.
Her body was rapidly deteriorating, fighting a foreign energy that kept trying to corrupt it from 'within'.
He'd recognised the energy without delay since he'd come in close contact with someone that embodied a lot of it some time before.
It was from 'Her', Mother Tree of Desire.
Except even as Loki stole it with nothing but a gaze it didn't stop the deterioration or slow down the energy from pouring in.
It seemed like he wasn't going to be able to directly help Perenelle in any way since the energy was only located inside her spirit body but it was pouring in from an entirely different dimension.
Loki cycled his sights through the Spirit World, the Astral World and even Perenelle's currently weakly guarded Body of Heart and Mind but he couldn't find the corruption's source, and paused for a moment before realising what was happening.
'A corruption directly from the cosmos?'
'No that isn't possible.'
'From the Historical Void?' Loki asked as he thought about Grindelwald.
With the source known, Loki was about to shut it off using his Mentor of Deceit Beyonder Characteristic, except before he could do so-
The world in his view split.
Loki saw the Error Pathway symbol radiate out of Prenelle's soul before it exploded. Shattered into a thousand fragments which shattered into a million more as they embedded themselves into the very fabric of space around them.
Loki's brain worked overtime as the world slowed down.
'Error pathway?'
'She used some sort of trap Mr. Error or the Founders gave her?'
'But a trap for an Outer God? What could it even do?...more so a trap for Mother Tree of Desire…someone who's so close to her Sefirot in the Abyss?'
Loki's mind sorted through all the different ways someone from the Error pathway could hurt an Outer God and came to a single conclusion.
'Errors.'
For a being who holds dominion over 'Reason' and 'Rationality' to chain their domain of Desires, irrationality would be a bane.
Hence even the simplest of Errors in rationality, at well placed structures if unexpected would easily lead to 'Her' failing to control 'Her' own symbols and being consumed by them instead.
Loki's thoughts didn't need time to be evaluated since the exploded fragments almost instantly started to latch onto the corrupt energy that was pouring into Perenelle from the Historical Void before merging into them completely and seamlessly, as if they'd never existed before, becoming a trojan horse.
However, it seemed that not everyone was satisfied by this outcome.
Loki's eyes flickered back towards Grindelwald whose spirituality suddenly spiked.
What was before a spirit body thread that led to no one was now connected to a man powerful enough to make Loki feel like an ant.
If Nicholas and Perenelle's spirituality was as vast as an ocean, Grindelwald's was as vast as the solar system.
It was as if a curtain had suddenly lifted from his body, leaving what was hidden behind in plainly view. Even then however, Loki could keenly feel that an even bigger and larger store of something was being held back.
Loki didn't know what it was that was being hidden from his sight so stringently, but he didn't have the time to explore.
Almost as soon as Loki saw Grindelwald reveal himself, Grindelwald lifted his hands, outstretched them towards Perenelle as a simple card appeared in his left hand.
A Card of Blasphemy, Loki realised.
The Fool Card to be precise.
'!'
'How does he have that!?'
He then made the motion of dragging something out of the card and throwing it at the Error pathway symbol shining brightly within Perenelle.
It didn't take a moment for whatever Grindelwald had done to take effect as Loki immediately realised what had happened by studying the runes in the ability Grindelwald had just used.
'He grafted the domain of Foolishness from the Blasphemy Card onto the trap?'
Loki didn't know how a Card of Blasphemy could produce a true domain, something that only a uniqueness could contain, but Grindelwald had performed something akin to a Miracle!
The Error pathway symbol within Perenelle mutated, sprouting the symbol of Fool pathway onto it as if it had suddenly been fooled into forgetting its own form.
And its effect was instantaneous.
The Error pathway fragments that had been almost impulsively merging with the spiritual corruption pouring out of the Historical Void into Perenelle started to slow down.
However, things didn't just end there.
The corrupt spiritual energy within Perenelle suddenly surged violently as if it had been waiting for exactly this moment.
In the moment laid bare before Loki's eyes the corrupt spiritual energy had temporarily 'accommodated' the Error fragments within itself by using the very errors they used to disguise themselves in the corruption and flipping their rationality to truly believe that they were part of the whole.
Mother Tree of Desire had suddenly gained a temporary hold over the Error domain, for a few moments.
And before anyone could figure out what had happened. The world shifted.
Loki's senses tingled dangerously as he extended his own hands to steal the thoughts of the corrupt energy trying to ravage Perenelle to prevent it from acting on its next thoughts, but the fool pathway's symbol suddenly grew brighter at this key moment.
Loki felt his mind turn sluggish for a second as the world sped up around him.
The simple link that had connected between him and the error symbol had somehow been exploited as Loki found himself losing his mental capacities.
And in the blink of an eye he was transported to the Abyss.
Except, Loki's backup kicked in and-
'Theft successful.'
…
Grindelwald looked around himself.
The Aurora Order fanatics were all here, surrounding a small group of rather wary looking individuals.
Nicholas Flamel, Perenelle Flamel, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, a metamorphmagus, a vampire and above all-
-Loki.
The boy whom he hoped to see begging for his life-, correction, the lives of everyone in front of him, today.
Things had proceeded smoothly so far.
Perenelle's trap had been a little more aggressive than he'd remembered it being from the Fourth Epoch when Mr. Error had used it, but it seemed like Mother Tree of Desire had adapted to it as well and learnt from her previous experience.
So simply causing a small amount of confusion within the temporary worms of time created and released by the symbol itself was enough to let 'Her' manipulate them and affect their rationality to make them do things they would've otherwise not attempted.
For example, bringing all those that they wished to save into the Abyss.
A place that no one could go in or out of very easily.
A domain belonging thoroughly to 'Her'.
In fact, Grindelwald could feel 'Her' presence right above them. Gazing at them through the cosmos, using the corrupted body of the Primordial Demon inside the Abyss to keep them in her sights.
"What do you think about it?" Grindelwald asked softly, he knew exactly why 'She' was still waiting and not acting to immediately kill them inside 'Her' domain, so he trusted his fate as he turned to look at Loki who had regained his earlier lost rationality.
Loki stayed silent.
His eyes wandered around the area before landing on Grindelwald's now occupied hands.
In it was a simple stuffed cloth doll.
It had buttoned eyes, a green skirt, and luscious golden blonde hair.
It was a doll of a pretty cute little girl.
Grindelwald noticed Loki's gaze and smiled.
"Oh. So you've seen my trump card already." Grindelwald said with a mischievous undertone.
He pointed at the doll in his hands and was about to say something but Ron mumbled loud enough for everyone to hear, 'Isn't he a little too old to be playing with dolls meant for little girls??'
Grindelwald's open mouth remained hanging, he was about to forgo the interruption and continue speaking but Hermione interrupted, 'Dolls aren't only for girls Ron. Even boys can play with them.'
Ron showed a slight frown of disgust before frowning at his own thoughts and pausing as he remembered the times he'd played with Ginny when he was bored.
He remembered having quite a bit of fun with them actually.
'Why am I even thinking about this?'
'...'
But suddenly when he saw Hermione's smug 'winning' smirk, he felt like he'd swallowed a sour punch regardless of their current situation.
He'd lost twice.
Hermione had made him think good about dolls. And she'd forced a thought into him, a spectator, using Legilimency.
Grindelwald ignored everyone and continued speaking, assuming that their intelligence had been affected by merely being in the presence of the Fool pathway symbol.
But he was interrupted once again, this time by Tonks.
"Girls aren't dolls!" Tonks said with an annoyed expression as she pinched Ron who screamed wordlessly, "I know! I know! I wasn't thinking that!"
Tonks looked in between Hermione and Ron suspiciously before sticking her tongue out slightly, "Eh I thought."
Hermione looked at tonks in confusion before her eyes suddenly went round and wide as her cheeks turned a deep shade of crimson.
"Tonks!!!" Hermione punched Tonks shoulder with a dull thud indicating just how much force was behind it.
"Hey Hey" Tonks laughed, taking the punch lightly as she pat Hermione's head with a smile.
Loki didn't understand what was happening. But he'd just read Nicholas's mind and acted accordingly.
He stole all their voices and looked back at Grindelwald.
Shocked about having lost their voices so suddenly, they looked at Loki with surprise. Hermione more than anyone else since she recognised the 'spell' that Loki had just used.
"You may continue…oh you don't need my permission…but you may…" Loki said snarkily causing Grindelwald to frown.
His fingers twitched as Loki wondered if he was going to try turning them into marionettes but that didn't happen. Instead, Grindelwald spoke with a domineering presence that felt suffocating for those not at least Demigods.
"Haven't you wondered why 'She' hasn't attacked us yet?" Grindelwald asked, his finger pointing at the dark sky of the Abyss.
Hermione, Ron, Tonks and Belmont all looked straight above but they didn't spot a thing.
Loki, Nicholas, and Perenelle kept their eyes on Grindelwald since they'd already known that Mother Tree of Desire was above them. Her gaze a stringent lock on their positions as it traced their every move.
But for some reason, 'She' had not attacked yet.
Only Loki felt he sort of understood what was happening.
He looked back at the doll that looked a little familiar to him. And while its face looked familiar too, that wasn't what he was talking about.
It was the sort of familiarity Loki felt from his spirituality.
However Loki didn't risk turning on his spirit vision again to confirm.
Not in this place where doing so would mean instant death. And if he was right, apart from the Lady hanging over the Abyss, the doll was of the same status.
Its radiating oppressive spirituality felt nearly identical to the one that had stolen his heart, the Sefirah Castle, from him a few weeks ago.
Loki used one of the members of the Aurora Order he'd parasitised to 'listen' to the doll.
The effect was immediate.
Its head exploded in a spectacular display of flesh and blood.
However before the explosion could do much in the way of staining anyone around it in grey matter, everything about the explosion slowed down.
The fine mist of blood slowed down, the shower of fresh bone fragments and flesh slowed before they stopped altogether and started to reverse.
Loki saw the doll's eyes glow an eerie green white before the marionette regained its pristine head.
Everyone looked at the sudden series of events with surprise.
But not everyone comprehended it.
While most knew that it occurred because of the doll in Grindelwald's hands few understood how or even why.
The Saint from Aurora Order immediately stepped over and checked the Rose Bishop that had just exploded and found him to be completely normal.
The lad was even keen on simply kneeling on the floor and whispering praises to the lord as anyone would do in such a situation.
He then turned towards Grindelwald since he didn't understand what had happened, as did Hermione, Ron, Tonks and Belmont.
Loki only mumbled in the silence.
"So 'She' is here too."
A gleam showed in Grindelwald's eyes as he smiled.
His fingers twisted one of the doll's eyes to set them right before he spoke again, "And she can only be here, where this doll is."
"You want me to choose?" Loki asked softly as he looked at Grindelwald whose smile only widened.
"Yes. Of course. I'm glad I don't have to spell out the question for you, but choices must be made."
…
Loki looked at Grindelwald.
The previous fearsome Angel with spirituality as vast as the solar system itself was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, in its place was a simple Sequence 3 Beyonder from what Loki could tell.
Grindelwald's spirit body threads had been disguised too. They appeared so ordinary that he found it confusing.
Who was he pretending for?
If he was already a Sequence 1 Attendant of Mysteries, an Angel and had the Fool pathway Blasphemy Card, why had he not just revealed himself and turned everyone here into his marionettes?
Even if right now Grindelwald was afraid of the Goddess of Fate he was holding in between his hands, would there have been a reason for him to simply not turn Loki into his marionette the second he had seen him or even walked into his range which was definitely inter continental?
Loki didn't think so.
So the only other option was that Grindelwald had done something to temporarily advance his sequence. Or could only use his Sequence 1 abilities temporarily.
'Why?'
Loki had no answer to that question, for now, but the gears in his mind were already spinning for possible solutions to this now open puzzle.
Loki's gaze was on Grindelwald for only a moment before it landed back on the doll in his hands.
Loki could for some reason feel smugness radiating off of the doll even through its domineering effect, as if it were holding an 'I told you so.' expression, irrespective of if its mouth was sewn into a smile.
Through his connection to his marionette earlier, Loki had seen distinctly the doll had used an ability that manipulated its fate to reset its state of corruption and destined death that it had doomed itself too upon 'listening' to the secrets of a Great Old One.
Loki then looked up at Mother Tree of Desire.
If he was right, 'She' was waiting for the doll in Grindelwald's hands to make a move.
Was the doll powerful enough to undo everything that had happened in the Abyss?
Loki didn't think so since it had happened too long ago from now to make any meaningful change to it unless it had been frozen in time in some other way.
But the mere fact that the person within the doll was a Great Old One, someone on the same level if not more than 'Herself' who had lost 'Her' Sefirot, had given 'Her' a pause.
Loki then looked at Grindelwald once again.
He seemed to have some control over the doll in his hands.
Loki didn't know how a full powered Great Old One could be controlled by a mere Sequence 1 Angel or a doll for that matter, but he did understand its implications regardless of if his ideas about the Key of Light were wrong.
Grindelwald could take away the protection of anyone he wished right now.
And that included Nicholas, Perenelle, Hermione, Ron, Belmont and Tonks.
Loki looked at them and sighed but before he could turn back and answer Perenelle spoke up rather rashly after having recovered her voice somehow since Loki's theft of it couldn't last long as she was two sequences above her and an Angel.
"I'll pummel you to death if you choose u-"
Loki didn't let her finish, his hands stretched as he stole all sound coming from around her or anyone in the aforementioned group for that matter.
But Loki didn't pay attention to them anymore, instead he turned to Grindelwald, smiled and continued.
"I'm sorry, I don't understand, could you tell me your question?"
Grindelwald's eyebrows raised in slight surprise.
"Buying time? To think of a solution?" he nodded, "How capable. But I must let you see how futile it is since none can come here to help you. And so I will entertain you by being explicit."
Loki smiled, his eyes crinkling into crescents as he did, looking very happy.
"You must choose between them and…yourself." Grindelwald said softly. "If you choose yourself, they'll pay the price, if you choose them, you'll have to bear the burden."
His eyes narrowed with a sharp hatred as he said those words as if he was reminded of something terrible but he didn't let it show in his actions.
His body remained calm and his hands remained on the doll.
However Grindelwald's actions didn't stop there.
Hermione suddenly collapsed to the floor.
In the short moment he finished speaking, Grindelwald had excluded her from the protection of the doll.
Hermione was knocked out cold for simply being in the presence of a Great Old One and getting corrupted before she was saved by bringing her back into the protection of the doll.
In truth, this was supposed to be the normal reaction and not how Loki's marionette had reacted so calmly earlier. He only realised this belatedly since he was so used to dealing with corruption that he'd forgotten its burden on the body.
But there was no need to bring up things no one noticed anyway so Loki looked at Grindelwald and, unlike everyone's expectations of sheer violence and anger, smiled like everything was under control.
He then nodded slowly before speaking, "I understand. But why do you think that no one can come here to save me?"
Grindelwald laughed.
"Here? To save you? Who? Who's brave enough to listen to 'Her' sweet whispers for a mere Sequence 4 Demigod?" Grindelwald said with a crazed smile.
Loki smiled again, irrespective of everyone whose voices he'd stolen earlier looking shocked to learn that Loki was a Demigod.
"True. Not a lot of people have the ability to help me right now…"
"So you do understand." Grindelwald said. His smile widening into a cheshire grin as he nodded softly while extending his hand.
Loki looked at Grindelwald's outstretched hand beckoning him to the other side and chuckled softly.
"You're a pretty weak angel, Grindelwald…" Loki said.
Grindelwald's outstretched hand froze in place as his face frowned with anger.
But Loki didn't stop there, no he continued, "If I'm to make a guess, was it because you split your soul? Did 'He' make you split it? In some situation like this? What did you even split it for? I don't think anyone who knew how to split their soul in such a brash way would have 'loved ones'...was it the Uniqueness in the Department of Mysteries and yourself that you had to choose between?"
By the end Grindelwald's pale face turned red.
The veins on his temples throbbed as his outstretched hand balled up into an angry fist.
However, Loki didn't stop there.
"You tried advancing to the status of a True God while someone else was aiming to be a Great Old One to stop the Outer Gods from attacking and collapsing the barrier? How selfis-"
"Enough!" Grindelwald shouted with an almost brutally violent anger. "Selfish!? How is it selfish for me to grow stronger before someone else when they chose not to advance because it wasn't the best time according to Fate?"
Grindelwald's heterochromatic eyes asked Loki with a fierce glare.
But Loki continued, he shook his head and spoke in an even deeper tone of disappointment, "Those are just the ramblings of a washed up Angel that lost in a completely fair battle he picked on his own."
Grindelwald was about to say something but Loki interrupted and continued as if he'd read the man's mind.
"Even if you didn't die and are alive today beyond 'Him' who is dead, isn't that only because you were spared because of the situation of the Fourth Epoch?"
The words left Grindelwald with a small shock as Loki continued, "Weren't you spared because most other Gods were dead? And you could 'fill in the numbers'?"
Grindelwald's face scrunched up with disgust but Loki continued to drive the nail into Grindelwald's head with a soothing and convincing tone.
"Aren't you just a glorified slave that has lost its master? If you lost so thoroughly then? Why do you think you'll fare any better this time?"
The words seemed to have brought some sense back into Grindelwald as he spoke sharply-
"I have fate in my hands..." squeezing the head of the doll he was holding.
Loki could feel an aura of anger radiate from the doll at that but he wasn't sure if he was the only one feeling it since no one else had reacted.
Even so, Loki simply smiled as he spoke rather mysteriously.
"But what are you going to do with that? After all, a doll's just a doll is it not?? How is it going to save you from… 'Him'?"
"Huh?" Grindelwald asked, his senses suddenly tingling as a horrific sense of danger and premonition of horror crept up his spine.
Suddenly, all the Aurora Order members in the area pulled out a monocle, conjured out of thin air as they placed it on their eyes.
Including the Sequence 3 Saint.
"...no…" Grindelwald whispered, horrified.
Loki felt the doll looked surprised too and so he responded with his own 'smug'.
---
A/N : Thank you for reading! The book just finished on patreon so thank you for all you support so far! The patreon supporters have supported me through rough times and I thank them greatly for that. While you readers, who support me with comments everyday also give me a lot of love and motivation to keep writing the book, so thank you! I hope you all keep supporting me like this! Thanks a lot! Look forward to my next books!