With no one looking directly at him since the elevator had just started with a small jerk coupled with the slightly dim lighting in the elevator, Loki's startled expression went unnoticed by everyone.
A soft smile sprouted on Loki's face as he looked straight at the elevator doors that closed and sealed everyone inside the metal cage hung roughly thirty feet from the next floor.
The hum of the electric motors moving the elevator carried over inside, filling the metallic interiors with a constant buzzing hum that blended well into the subconscious.
With a calm gaze, Loki used his spirit vision to grasp just how many people had had 'lunch' and were moving around with full stomachs.
Apparently about a third of the staff right until the very depths that Loki could discern had eaten 'lunch' recently.
'...'
'But how did I so coincidentally miss everything till now?'
'Did Dumbledore's usage of the Quill of Alzuhod on Gehrman Sparrow affect me to this extent?'
'That can't be right?'
'If our identities truly carry such a similar fate that it allows one to influence the other so deeply, why wouldn't the lingering sense of 'misfortune' that would've struck anyone that acted against me and kept me safe till now not work anymore?'
Loki's mind flashed back through his memories to recheck if his conclusions were right and if he hadn't missed anything else which might explain his questions.
The first thing Loki remembered was that on the first level they'd teleported to, nearly every single staff member was well fed and had full stomachs.
That could mean one of two things, either everyone on that floor had had lunch together as Loki had initially assumed or something else had been put into their stomachs at some point before they arrived.
Another memory flashed into Loki's mind after that.
A picture of the dust on the shins of the member who'd received them, Karl.
Meaning he was kneeling recently before we arrived at the facility and forgot to brush the dust off. Which in turn meant that he was either not thinking very clearly or that he himself was praying to some entity before everyone else showed up.
Either case was dangerous given their current situation since it would mean that he was being controlled or had voluntarily defected.
The suspicion should've been glaring to Loki when Garcy's body took the dose of a whole vial of the Confusion Draught and didn't turn into a blubbering mess. In fact it took an extra powerful concoction of herbs to even wake him up from Ron's fully powered stupefy in the first place.
Loki had coincidentally assumed that there was nothing wrong with Belmont's reasoning that Ron's stupefy was overcharged and had struck Garcy hard.
How could a Beyonder, specifically of the spectator pathway, lose control to something as shocking as catching someone with their pants down in the first place!?
Loki had already known something was driving things in the background with Grindelwald and Dumbledore participating, each in their own ways. And yet he'd slipped up.
It was the first time Loki truly felt what being an Angel or a True God as a Beyonder actually meant.
All of a sudden something strange clicked into Loki's mind as he realised a crucial plot in all this.
'Why did everyone in the world, simple Sequence Four demigods, know that talking about Dumbledore allowed him to read your minds?'
'...as long as 'He' wanted to, 'He' could've erased those memories and suspicions without letting anyone learn a thing about them and being able to retaliate in any way.'
'There was literally no advantage in letting the world know about it and miss out on gaining some crucial information about some plot they might be planning against 'Him'.'
'...'
Then more things started coming back to Loki, as if this simple revelation had connected several other dots he'd previously conveniently ignored after coming to this world.
Starting from the latest when Dumbledore was involved in petty revenge and used the Quill of Alzuhod to direct the fate of Gehrman sparrow in a 'fit of anger'.
Or the times when Dumbledore randomly announced strange emotional points at the end of each year, given to him and Harry.
The strange story-like scenarios he pushed Harry through each year that Loki complained about for having bad writing.
His childish persona in the wizarding world.
All of it seemed rather strange for a person who had the pathway of a being from LOTM, Adam, who could stay calm in the face of merging with a fully maddened True Creator, who was a backup plan for a resurrection he had created several millennia ago, while also using the Chaos Sea while 'His' Amon casually repelled an outer god using the Blasphemy Slate in the background.
It was quite unbelievable.
'Was it just to maintain his humanity?'
'Maintaining humanity by playing good 'n evil with what was effectively a bunch of kids in their diapers?'
'...'
'Unless it was all a ruse from the beginning.'
'A ruse created by Merlin himself for some reason as a part of his strange 'rebirth' plan.'
'But that raises one rather important question…'
'What does 'He'...Merlin actually want?'
Loki's mind spun for answers.
'If it was to advance he could've simply done so a few thousand years ago when the founders were still around.'
'But he didn't.'
'Was it because of that corruption on his arm when I saw him in the vision regarding the chatterbox?'
'Or was it because he realised that if he would try to become a True God back then he'd be pitched up against Helga who might have been trying to become God Almighty?'
Loki frowned mentally.
'For him to be corrupted after becoming a King of Angels…he'd have to have done something serious to offend Mother Tree of Desire or Mother Goddess of Depravity.'
'But…would someone who was trained directly by the founders, my own students, someone who was capable of making a plan that lasted a millennia as he climbed back to the position of a King of Angels be so careless?'
'....hmm. Perhaps some plan conspired against or with the Outer Gods backfired?'
'....that would also kind of explain the second question, it would have been easily possible for a person from the Visionary pathway to hide their intentions so he could've hidden his ideas from the founders to just wait for their weakest moments to let them become corrupted and die before he took over.'
'He'd only need to shatter the corrupted characteristics and let them reform before consuming them.'
'The founders could've foreseen this, or perhaps I warned them which was why they never allowed him to take part in the magically sanity maintaining scheme for True Gods as he escaped certain death at the hands of an Outer God.'
'Perhaps that's why the founders were 'asleep' because they were corrupted by either of the two Outer Gods and needed to fight off their corruption? In some way that I can't see right now?'
'But an argument could be made from a different angle too…'
'Perhaps Merlin was conspired against just like the Hogwarts Founders and taken advantage of at his weakest just so someone else could achieve something instead? After all, there's no guarantee that he was corrupted in the same battle as the Founders. Especially since Nicholas is only a little more than half a millennia old and he'd apprenticed under Merlin himself.'
'...there's still Herpo in the picture after all…'
'So the question remains what grand moment was it that allowed the greatest legends of the Wizarding and the Beyonder world to become corrupted by an Outer God.'
A flick switched in Loki's head.
'Merlin and Morgana…'
No self respecting wizard in the British Wizarding Aisles wouldn't know a thing or two about their privates.
Along with them the legendary tales of King Arthur around whom these legendary names revolved around had remained a common and popular source of pride for even the non wizarding counterparts of the world.
Their names had lingered on the tongues of the people for a long time, unnaturally long when most other names from those periods like that of Herpo the Foul or even other infamous arguably more important figures in history had mostly faded away.
So there was no question about the fact that these names had stayed much longer than they should've naturally.
It was clear that someone had kept them around. Written about them, made sure to invest their time and energy to keep these names alive.
Loki remembered clearly how he'd checked the Churches when he'd first arrived in this world. Wondering if they had anything to do with Beyonders.
But when he found out that this world didn't really have any 'popular' gods like in LOTM, he'd given up that line of thought, relegating to such Gods that contested for popularity as some third rate duplicates like the True Creator.
Slowly as he was introduced to Magic and then to the more popular founders of Hogwarts who'd shaped this magic and then to their crystals, Loki quickly became more fascinated about how they'd kept their sanity as Gods without the support of people.
He'd slowly sidelined the idea of any others staying around through this method from his mind.
'If Merlin truly is keeping himself sane through some methodical combination of his own powers as a Visionary and being on the tip of the tongues of the common people then whose side is he truly on if he's not interested in becoming a true god?'
'...would my disciples have ever let someone that could betray 'Them' grow stronger? Strong enough to become a King of Angels?'
At this point if Loki wanted to act, he could only gamble on his actions.
Should he trust the trap Dumbledore's laying for him and walk into it with confidence that whoever's waiting for him inside it is the one that's going to lose?
'No.'
'That would be stupid. Both as a Beyonder and as myself.'
Loki's mind stilled for a moment as he considered his opportunities for actions.
And after a while he came to a short thought.
'Firstly, I need an encyclopedia on Merlin.'
Where would he find that in a missile silo?
He didn't need to look far since one with a magical amount of information had walked into this place along with him.
'Mione.'
'But since I can't get to her immediately, I can wait for when we meet each other again to talk to her about it or simply send her a request while posing as Mr. World or some other blessed of Mr. Error from the Tarot club.'
'...'
'In the meantime, I need to parasitise this trap.'
Loki reactivated his spirit vision to scan the entire Launch Facility within his range.
He quickly marked all the targets that had either full stomachs or signs of similar physical exertion.
'Given that about a third of the staff, about thirty people have 'things' inside their stomachs, it begs the question if their other two thirds, about ninety people, are even more deeply 'parasitised' or if they're truly free.'
'In case they're free, I can't just leave them be since that would go against my humanity.'
'But I have an easy way to figure all that out.'
'...time to digest my Parasite potion.'
Loki coughed out loud. Bringing his hand to his mouth for a second before he dropped it.
The guards around paid close attention but they 'instinctively' averted their eyes when Loki let a small worm drop to the floor from his hand.
Not even Ron or Belmont paid any attention to it.
Not even when the worm slowly inched towards Chadwick and slowly climbed his tactical uniform, inching its way towards his chest.
As soon as it reached there, the worm stopped moving.
It simply rested on a kangaroo pouch on Chadwick's tactical chest gear.
That was when Loki began to work his magic.
'Let's see how you can keep your spirit threads hidden from me when I give you a little 'surprise'.'
Just as the elevator jerked to a stop, Loki pushed a thought into Chadwick's Sea of Subconscious.
Would it be harmful to him? Or even put him at risk?
No since it was the realm of the subconscious Chadwick would know nothing about it other than maybe have a few 'coincidences' with the Beyonder world for a short while.
But for a person continuously listening to the outer world?
It would be like a flash bang going out right in front of their eyes.
The only pathway that could hide inside other people's stomachs was the Hanged Man pathway. Specifically from Sequence 6 Rose Bishop Beyonder of the pathway gained the ability to hide inside people's stomachs and even merge with their hosts bodies entirely.
Leaving the host body in the earlier case would cause the host to become significantly weak for a while, while leaving after merging completely would most definitely kill them.
But Loki would've easily noticed that if it were so simple.
A mere Sequence 6 hiding from a Demigod of the Error pathway in such a simple manner?
When Loki could see the spirit threads of individual people?
But this reason was also why Loki had thoroughly been taken advantage of.
'Someone' had hidden the spirit body threads of the Beyonders hiding in wait inside normal people's stomachs.
With only a single other known Beyonder of the Lord of the Mysteries Pathways, it was clearly Grindelwald.
But Grindelwald was not here right now.
How did Loki know if Grindelwald was here or not?
Well it would've been hard to miss what was likely another King of Angels lurking around the same place, but what gave Loki further confidence was that had Grindelwald moved himself, he would've brought along an army of Marionettes, not depend on someone else to do the job for him.
So there was something else at play here.
Something deeper.
As for how Loki 'guessed' that Grindelwald was a King of Angels? Well if Merlin, someone known to be 'abandoned by the founders' could become one, another person could too.
Especially if that person had a close relationship with him before as Loki suspected he did.
Plus, Loki wanted to be cautious.
It was better to overestimate his enemy so that he'd be more than well prepared for when the time came.
'So the only other solution is that Grindelwald handed over some Mystical items that helped in hiding their spirit body threads from my sight.'
'A clever idea.'
'Too bad it won't work anymore.' Loki thought as Chadwick suddenly clenched his stomach for a second, feeling like something had moved in it.
"Urghh.." Chadwick groaned, causing everyone to stare at him with confusion.
Chadwick too felt surprised by the groan but quickly patted his stomach and adjusted his belt as he spoke out loud, 'The belt was just digging a little, nothing's wrong.'
The rest of the escort team sighed softly as one of them stepped ahead to open the gates of the lift, allowing Loki and Ron to step out as Belmont followed.
"Where do we escort you to first, Sergeant?" Chadwick asked, looking at Ron who quickly composed himself as he remembered the plan he'd made.
"To First Lieutenant Kelming Otter's office please."
Chadwick nodded, feeling a little weird about his stomach but continued his duties to escort Loki and Ron nonetheless.
What no one noticed however was that Loki had already parasitised the parasite in Chadwick's stomach.
How had Loki stayed in his own body as he parasitised the parasite?
Loki simply didn't parasitise it directly.
Instead after scaring the mere Sequence 6 with a few facts like the True Creator it worshiped was a mere fragment, a backup plan for the resurrection of the Ancient Sun God, mixed in with a few other little gossips were enough to get him to the edge of losing 'emotional' control.
Whether the 'gossip' was true or not Loki didn't bother since he'd already induced an error within the emotions of the parasite.
And that 'error' in emotions was enough for Loki to latch onto the parasite's Body of Heart and Mind, amplifying the instability even further, until the parasite lost control over the artifact that was controlling and hiding his spirit threads.
Once the spirit body threads became visible, Loki simply turned the parasite into his personal marionette.
Of course, all this would've taken time and if the Sequence 6 wanted, he could've fought back and at least killed Chadwick with him as he was turned into a puppet himself.
But Loki didn't give him the chance.
From the beginning the odds were stacked again him when Loki sent out a simple little worm from his Mythical Creature to actually parasitise the parasite.
That slowed down his already slow reaction time from the process of turning into a marionette.
The plan not just broke the 'parasite's' defences but it shattered through them without regard.
And that made the whole process exceptionally easy.
Easy enough that it happened in the blink of an eye, or rather in this case in the jerk of the elevator coming to a stop, and Loki simply cancelled the total parasitisation once he'd been turned into a marionette to remain in his body.
'Now let's see what's in that silly little mind of yours.' Loki thought with a leering smile blossoming in his face, his worm sinking into the Body of Heart and Mind of the puppet, acting as his vessel to explore the plans that had been put in place for his eventual demise.
'Hmm…'
'Nearly forty Sequence 6 Rose Bishops. Thirty hiding inside their hosts without trouble. The ten other Rose Bishops are hiding in the shadows. Keeping track of us as we move around the facility.'
'Five have been tracking our group personally. Me specifically.'
'I see.'
Loki ignored them for now and continued digging.
'Oh…there's also three Sequence 5 Shepherds elsewhere?'
'That's a little interesting…'
'But isn't it underselling my importance and danger a little too much?' Loki frowned mentally until he thought of something else.
'Maybe he's just too low level to know the entire plan.'
'Yeah that makes more sense.'
'I guess I'll be digesting a little more of my potion today then…' Loki giggled creepily in his mind.
If he'd done it outside Ron would've instantly labeled him a Dark Lord and cursed him to death, the mission be damned.
But not wanting to do the same work again and again, Loki opted to wait for a better opportunity to turn everyone around him into marionettes at once.
In the meantime, Loki dug through the mind of his dear 'open book' a little more as they continued walking through the brightly lit underground tunnels of the silos.
"It's pretty cool here, nothing like the tunnels of Gringotts." Ron mumbled.
"Huh? That's because of the air conditioning." Loki replied calmly and continued, "But to be honest, if it were up to me, I'd never add ACs in a place like this, what if there was a biological weapon unleashed in the filtration ducts after the unit 'malfunctions'? Truly, the government has lost its mind trusting such fools."
The question wasn't directed towards Ron, it was directed towards Chadwick and the rest of the escort team.
He'd noticed something earlier and was…putting on a little test to see if his thoughts were right.
And Ron wouldn't have been able to answer it anyway since the word 'biological weapon' only conjured up images of dark wizards and things like Hermione scolding him one day about how if Werewolves truly spread simply by scratching or biting people there'd be an epidemic of werewolves and that they would be called 'Biological Weapons' instead.
'Wait…now that I think about it, if Mr. Belmont is a Vampire Beyonder, then a werewolf could be a Beyonder too!!??' Ron thought to himself surprised at the discovery that might or might not have to do with Loki distracting him by planting a suggestion.
Someone else in the escort team was about to speak up and retort when Chadwick raised his hand to stop them and then turned towards Loki with a frown.
"We aren't that dumb." But he didn't say anything else, causing Loki to smile as he spoke again.
"You're trained well."
The escort team was about to launch into a frenzy of insults once again thinking Loki was comparing him to a dog but Chadwick's next words stopped them.
"It'll take a little more than that to break our conditioning. Those little people skills are heavily outdated. We're taught not to answer such questions."
The escort team immediately zipped their mouths as they realized Loki was playing them all along.
Some even wondered if the test had already begun and that they were being marked to be reported.
Especially when a few caught Belmont quickly scribbling something in his notes.
"Tell me Mr. Chadwick, have you seen or heard anything unusual around the area recently?"
Chadwick simply looked at Loki and turned his head away, not wanting to answer, but something about Loki's harmless charm when he asked the question made him trust the boy.
So he answered curtly.
"No."
Loki nodded, not asking anything else as the rest of the way to the Lieutenant's office was spent in silence, each busy with their own thoughts.
Ron thought about how various other people with special characteristics he'd met could possibly be Beyonders too, like Fleur.
He'd even started wondering if Magical Creatures were just normal animals that had been experimented on to make them magical creatures since advancement potions required their parts as ingredients.
He even began wondering how the mystery of Magic could possibly be related to the secrets of Beyonders.
A simple kick from Loki had sent him spiralling down an endless rabbit hole.
The escort team members were similarly distracted, wondering if Loki was the real boss conducting the test rather than Ron who seemed to be lost.
While Chadwick was confused why Loki had given up antagonising them.
Nevertheless, none noticed the growing intensity with which the shadows started to lean towards Ron, not enough to seem out of place, but just enough so that they could lean a little closer to him, as if they were trying to hear the faintest of whispers, none except Loki and Belmont noticed.
Belmont sent a confused glance Loki's way but he just tapped his wand, indicating that it was all part of his magic so Belmont just shrugged.
He did remember reading somewhere in the files he was given that Loki had been seen using magic to control shadows during the Triwizard Tournament and also in his battle against Voldemort.
Belmont was definitely confused about why Loki was actually using Shadows and manipulating them ever so slightly occasionally but he didn't break his role as the Observer for now since it hadn't compromised their mission negatively or in any way really.
Ron's thoughts however, started to slowly spiral out of control.
'Hmm…if Professor Dumbledore is the greatest magician of all time…then does that mean that he knows the secret connection between the magical and the abnormally magical worlds?'
'Then if I'm off the spectator pathway! I too have a chance at becoming just as powerful as him!?'
'Ha~!! I knew it was the right decision to become a Beyonder back then!'
'When we return from this mission, I'll ask the Headmaster to teach me more about it! I'm sure he'll agree since I'm not very strong right now because I haven't finished acting as a spectator to digest my potion.'
'I must grow stronger so that I can support Harry when I return!'
'....else I'll be stuck with Loki…'
'...Hermione seems to like hanging around Loki…what if next time she peeks into my mind I show her the times I saw him patting Luna's head!'
'Hehehehe~~~!!!'
Why would members of the Hanged Man pathway be interested in such dribble?
Because it was all a part of Loki's plan.
…
'I wish to pray to the lord!'
'I wish to speak the Lord's name so that he can bless me on this grand mission to take down a heretic and spread the name of the only true god!'
Lor… …Created …yth…,
…o Reigns Be… …rtai… …ows,
...Degenerate Na… …hings
The mind of the fanatic believer paused.
'Did I forget to stop listening after my last prayer?'
He almost let go of the device that had been bestowed upon him by Lord Templar, the strongest Saint of the Aurora Order.
But he held on since the True Lord, even higher than Lord Templar had whispered to him personally, that he must never let go of this device.
What it did? He didn't really know.
But if his Lord had told him that it was important, then it was more important than his own life to him.
As such, he held on.
Making sure to bind the little thing in a few more shadows as he continued to praise his lord, forgetting about what he'd just heard after making sure he had stopped listening before continuing to talk to his lord.
'Oh! Lord! Forgive me for I have sinned! I almost forgot the warning you'd just given me! I must repen-'
A little while passed before he paused…since it happened again…
…Lord …Crea… Every…
….who Reigns …...Curtain of …ws,
…erate …of …Living Things
The words were clearer this time.
And they were clear enough that he felt himself drawn in by instinct.
He hadn't been able to tell earlier but these words…
…weren't they the ones he used himself everyday to pray to his lord?
'This feeling~!'
'Ah~!'
'Someone is taking the name of our Lord~!'
'They're calling him~!'
And so he leaned in, moving closer to the source of these intense whispers that had broken through his ability to filter such things out.
It was by this time that the fanatic had forgotten to hold close the item his Lord had blessed him with.
And then things turned sluggish, too sluggish, all at once, as if he'd been plunged into an ocean, both body and mind, like his 'joints' had rusted and he'd fallen into severe disrepair.
…
A/N : New Chapter of my Naruto fic participating in Fanfic Fiesta is out. "Naruto : My Horror World." (9K words) Please check it out and let me know what you think about it.
My new medicine has me knocked out for the first half of the day, so updates might be a little slower until I adjust to it.