Salazar Slytherin was dead.
Looking at the corpse he had thrown to the ground, Loki curled his lip.
After killing his enemy with his own hands, he did not feel the satisfaction of finally taking revenge.
Over the past thousand years, he had often imagined meeting those four again and how he would react after defeating them.
But now that it had actually happened, he found himself experiencing emotions that had never been part of those fantasies.
It was complicated and difficult to put into words. Perhaps it was a mixture of anger and disappointment.
After thinking about it carefully, Loki realised the root of the problem.
Salazar Slytherin had already been severely injured when they met, yet even in that condition, he had still managed to inflict considerable damage on Loki.
The fact that he had failed to properly take advantage of such an easy opportunity left Loki feeling as disgusted as if he had found a fly in his meal.
'Why couldn't you just behave yourself!'
As though venting his frustration, he kicked the charred remains on the ground several times.
A few minutes later, Loki finally finished releasing his pent-up anger and regained control of his emotions.
No matter what, he had won in the end!
After a thousand years, he had finally begun taking revenge on the wizards on behalf of the gods.
Slytherin had finally paid the blood debt he owed from long ago.
And the fact that Loki had successfully intercepted and killed Salazar Slytherin inside Hogwarts tonight also meant something else.
His other three wizard companions were most likely already dead.
There was no need to mention Gryffindor. Of the four, he was the most thoroughly dead.
No one knew the whereabouts of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, but judging by how isolated and helpless Slytherin had been, those two had clearly died as well.
Or perhaps they were in such terrible condition that they were completely incapable of helping their old friend.
Slytherin had probably suffered such severe injuries because he had been cleaning up the mess left behind by those old companions of his.
During their fight, Loki had asked Salazar how he had ended up in such a state. Salazar had refused to answer, but Loki could make his own deductions.
That competition venue was probably something Ravenclaw and the others had left behind.
After so many years without proper maintenance, it had likely reached the verge of losing control.
Salazar had paid an enormous price to bring it back under control.
After piecing together a conclusion from the information he already possessed, Loki felt refreshed.
Wizards might be powerful, but in the end, they could not resist the erosion of time.
In that regard, the gods were far superior to them.
And there had also been that strange vibration in his blood during the battle...
As Loki reviewed the fight in his mind, he realised that the methods Slytherin had used were exactly the same as those employed by the mysterious person who had beaten Voldemort during the Quidditch World Cup final.
That meant the wizard who had repeatedly interfered with his plans had been Slytherin all along.
And now he was dead.
There was no longer anyone capable of stopping Loki's plan.
As for Dumbledore, Loki had never taken him seriously.
Dumbledore did not even possess the qualifications to fight him directly.
He could simply be left to Voldemort.
Even Loki, who had experienced countless great events, could not help feeling excited at this moment, like a prank was finally about to succeed.
He looked once more at Slytherin's remains on the ground.
After searching them briefly, he discovered that Slytherin had carried nothing with him.
It seemed he had anticipated his own death.
"Hmph. You think that means you can escape?"
Loki sneered.
"The bodies of you wizards are valuable treasures too!"
He bent down and cut off Slytherin's head.
"When you used my idiot brother's body to make alchemical tools, I doubt you ever imagined this day would come!"
Loki burst into hysterical laughter.
He put Salazar's head away, deactivated the treasure that isolated the surrounding space, and returned to Hogwarts.
From beginning to end, no one had interfered with his actions.
The vast Hogwarts was brightly lit, its common rooms filled with laughter and celebration, yet somehow it felt as though there were no one there at all.
Loki had only taken two steps down from the Astronomy Tower when he suddenly stopped.
He narrowed his eyes, quickly returned to the rooftop, and instantly locked onto a small snake hidden in the shadows.
The moment he saw it, Loki sneered.
As expected of Slytherin.
Even on the verge of death, he had still tried to send information outside.
Unfortunately for him, Loki had been one step ahead.
More importantly, even if Dumbledore learned this information, he still would not be Loki's match.
Loki could crush him with ease!
He brought his foot down and crushed the little snake into paste.
Faint, broken words such as "Dumbledore" and "careful" seemed to drift through the air, but the night wind swept through and scattered them completely.
Inside Helga's office, Helga and Rowena sat facing each other.
Suddenly, both raised their heads at the same time, vaguely sensing something.
"Salazar is dead."
"Yes..."
Even though they had already expected it, neither could help feeling a wave of emotion.
...
'This place is...'
Rhys narrowed his eyes and examined the scenery before him.
'King's Cross Station?'
Once he clearly recognised where he was, Rhys became confused.
Hadn't he just been fighting the remnants of the Norse gods?
How had he ended up here in the very next instant?
Was this some scheme of Loki's?
Rhys knew that certain spells could instantly transport a person elsewhere, but Hogwarts was protected by powerful magic.
Was Loki really not worried about alerting Dumbledore?
Then again, Dumbledore also possessed a fire domain, which Loki countered...
Wait.
Rhys suddenly realised something.
He found the final moment preserved in his memory.
So he was already dead.
This place was the in-between that every wizard reached after death.
The domain of Death.
Although he had anticipated this, and had even deliberately arranged for this death himself, Rhys still could not help feeling a trace of disappointment.
Perhaps somewhere in the deepest part of his heart, in a subconscious place even he had not noticed, he had still believed that he might have a chance to turn the tables and kill Loki instead.
After that brief disappointment, Rhys quickly recovered.
Because he understood that he had now stepped into a realm none of them had ever explored before.
This time, he truly was far ahead of his three old friends.
Provided, of course, that this experiment, which could only be performed once, succeeded.
He looked around.
The place was identical to King's Cross Station as he remembered it.
The only difference was that the platforms were completely empty, while the tracks in the distance disappeared into white mist.
____
12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI