Loki observed the shadows that had been behaving 'strangely' and then looked into Ron's Body of Heart and Mind and smiled.
'Heh, how easy…'
He'd arranged for whispers concealed by the Grey Fog of the Sefirah Castle to murmur the True Creator's Honorific name in Ron's Sea of Subconscious.
It caused almost all the Beyonders hidden in the shadows around them to unconsciously lean towards Ron. Since he was currently the closest to the source of Degeneration and the Creator of All Things.
And once they were sufficiently distracted, Loki simply turned them into marionette's one by one.
Quietly suffocating them until they gave up.
The rest of the shadows that hadn't been able to hear the murmurs because they were either too strong or had some other Beyonder item making the seal on their listening stronger got the same treatment as the first Rose Bishop that Loki captured.
Loki dropped more worms of time, split them using the excess Beyonder Characteristics he had accumulated slowly over the last few months and sent them to 'surprise' his soon to be puppets.
Once sufficiently surprised, Loki simply turned them into marionette's too.
And before they reached Lieutenant Kelming Otter's office, Loki had control over ten Rose Bishops.
Five from the shadows.
And five more inside the Escort team.
'But still….this is rather complicated…controlling so many at once….well not like I need to personally attend to them anyway…so it's fine, for now.' Loki thought to himself as he sent the last worm of time he'd split up from his body to the Sefirah Castle to handle the new marionettes he'd gotten, as a part of his magic answering system.
'Could I make them my managers?'
'Is the Sefirah Castle's true form an office?'
"Why do all of you have stomach issues all of a sudden…" One of the escort team members who surprisingly didn't have any 'parasite' hidden within him spoke up with a confused expression.
Chadwick too found it strange how each member of the escort team would suddenly clench their stomachs as if something inside had unsettled their balance for a moment before becoming normal again.
'Did we eat something bad?'
Chadwick was about to reach the logical conclusion that perhaps they'd gotten a bad batch of food from the mess, but then his eyes fell on Loki.
'...biological weapon?'
"Oi…" Loki complained looking at Chadwick with a scowl. "You seriously think I'd have infected the filtration units? I'm still here for crying out loud, where did that brain you just had go to?"
Had the lower half of his face not been covered in a mask everyone would've noticed Chadwick's certain and unmistakable blush.
But what could he do?
Ever since Loki had stopped speaking earlier, he'd been feeling that things had somehow turned eerie, as if the world around them was shifting and Loki had become the centre for the shift.
It was subtle, but the way Loki carried himself, as if he was suddenly proud of himself made Chadwick feel unconfident.
Was he imagining things?
"Oh? Mr. Black? Did something good happen?" Ron asked, snapping out of his thoughts, still in character as he looked at Loki with slight confusion.
"Good? What good?" Loki asked.
"But well…why're you smiling so much then? It's creepy…"
"Ah~" Loki, embarrassed that he'd been caught excited, slowly pushed down the smile and returned to his normal resting face as he spoke slowly, "Nothing, I just remembered that back at base someone made a bet about having to scrub toilets if they lost."
Ron's eyes widened.
'No way!'
'Are things on our end going that slow!?'
'Have Hermione and Tonks already gone to the lower levels!?'
'Bloody hell! We need to pick up pace!!'
Ron nodded at Loki, thanking him for giving him the subtle hint so that he could pick up pace.
He turned towards the door of the office in front of them and knocked politely.
There was no response for a while before the man inside spoke harshly, "Come in."
Ron tensed slightly but shifted into spectator mode almost immediately, calming himself as he pushed open the door to observe his next psychological target.
Thankfully no pants were down this time, but-
A strange man.
That was Ron's initial assessment.
Lieutenant Kelming Otter was a strange man.
He was old. His face wrinkly.
He sported a simple chevron moustache that was trimmed and well maintained to be sharp and clear. Underneath it was a prominent frown while his eyes looked at them like they were beneath him.
It didn't seem normal for a person to have such a deep sense of pride about themselves.
'Could it be because his rank is high?' Ron asked himself but then shook his head internally, since he had read that there were still several ranks above the man. And in this Launch Facility alone three more people existed in ranks above him.
Two Captains and a Major.
It couldn't have been that.
Especially when the eyes of the Major looked down at them like they were mere humans.
To some extent it almost felt like Draco and his friends when they looked down on the other wizards at Hogwarts, especially at 'Mudbloods'.
'Could this Lieutenant be a wizard himself?'
Ron thought for a second but struck the idea out of his mind since that was impossible, any half decent beyonder with good spirit vision could detect that.
And since Loki hadn't said anything about it, yet, Ron chose not to entertain that idea.
'Then perhaps he's an unknown Beyonder of some kind?' Ron asked himself.
'Perhaps Beyonders like Wizards have the dark kind? And have different schools like Hogwarts and Durmstrang…'
'So a dark Beyonder contacted him and turned him into one too?'
Ron tensed.
'What sequence is he then?'
'Wait!'
'Are there any other Beyonders in this Launch Facility? Around us!? Who have already infiltrated this place? And are watching our every move!?'
Just as things were getting a little out of hand Ron calmed himself once again as he thought through things carefully.
'Unless they have strong anti-divination measures, divination should've gotten them found out.' he concluded, but still clenched his fists, since the other unsaid part remained.
If the Lieutenant had strong anti divination capabilities and was a Beyonder still, that meant that they were dealing with someone formidable.
All this happened in mere moments and Ron was back to acting as calm as a spectator, observing the man for any strange signs, pondering what his next course of action should be.
After making up his mind, Ron turned towards Loki and gave him the signal to speak while adopting a prideful attitude himself, disguising himself to be an arrogant Staff Sergeant who would only talk through Loki.
Now Loki wasn't well versed enough with Ron to communicate with him using his eyes, so after he read Ron's thoughts he complied.
Internally however Loki was a little surprised that Ron had figured all that out in spite of what might be Dumbledore manipulating everything behind the scenes.
'Or was it because Dumbledore manipulated him to be able to figure it out, that he did?'
Putting aside those thoughts, Loki saluted with a perfect and stiff posture.
"Afternoon sir! Technical Sergeant Black reporting. We are here to proceed as planned with the advanced ORI Intelligence Injection scenario."
Kelming Otter looked at Loki for a few seconds.
His gaze never left Loki's as he studied the boy's eyes with contempt and annoyance.
And just when things were starting to get awkward for everyone else in the room, he stated plainly but with authority.
"Rejected."
Loki's eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
But he quickly looked deeply into the Lieutenant's eyes and spoke with added charm.
"Sir Lieutenant, but the credentials are all here. Everything is verified. May I know on what grounds the ORI is being rejected?"
Kelming's eyes gleamed with power, as if he were enjoying the show he was stirring up, his lips curled into a smirk that held for a few seconds before he spoke.
"Technical Sergeant, do you need any other reason than because I said so? I am responsible for keeping the deterrents of our country safe and sound. Locked up from preventing malicious misuse. If I think you are here in a malicious capacity, I have all the grounds to refuse."
"But if you still want a reason, an ORI has many more members in the team, and I find it hard to believe that the two of you are responsible for it in any way shape or form."
"And what are you going to do anyway? What will a mere Technical Sergeant do?"
A thinly veiled tense silence filled the room.
Chadwick and his team found themselves agreeing with Kelming's point of view, but they found it rather strange.
'Why's the Lieutenant like this today?'
He was generally more approachable, more friendly.
While he might not have been buddies with everyone at the facility, he usually never outright refused anything without strict reason while following all the necessary protocols.
His arrogant tone, his posture, his method of speaking, it was all so strange.
Even if the Kelmings wanted to reject Loki and the others he'd have told them to wait until he contacted Wing Command as per protocol, not be so provocative so as to stir up any drama as he was currently doing.
Loki gave one last glance at the Lieutenant and spoke calmly, "Alright. We shall return, but this will go on your record Lieutenant, both for breaking protocol by not deferring the decision to the Wing Command and for blocking an ORI."
"Heh~ do whatever you want to. I'll wait." Kelmings said, folding his hands and leaning back into his chair while looking down on everyone.
Loki gave one last nod before turning around and walking out the room with Ron and Belmont.
The escort team walked out with them since they weren't going to let Loki lose on the facility.
But Loki wasn't bothered, instead he turned first towards Belmont.
"You noticed it too?"
Belmont gulped greedily and nodded, "Yes. His vitality…it's beyond what should be possible for an….ordinary human."
Ron too clenched his fists and nodded, "His personality just doesn't add up. People in high places in important places tend to have a more amiable personality to make sure they can get along well with everyone else and can solve conflicts without letting the situation devolve into madness. Like…" Ron ended while sending Chadwick a soft glance.
Loki nodded.
"Well then it was as I suspected all along…"
The rest of the escort team was left puzzled, vitality? ordinary human? There were extraordinary humans? How could someone sense another person's 'vitality'?
"What do we do now?" Belmont asked, ignoring the strange gazes of the Escort team as they walked back to the elevator.
"Huh? Oh, don't worry about that. I put a strong but delayed confundus charm on him. It should be activating at any moment now…" Loki said with a small joyful smirk.
'Heh~ Looking down on me?' Loki thought, his eyes gleaming with mischief as he'd already cast his die.
But Loki's words had sent the entire escort team on edge.
'Activating now?'
'Does he mean a bomb!?'
Several hands rushed to their weapons but Chadwick held them back and spoke calmly first, "Explain."
Loki just shrugged his shoulders, "Your boss has been compromised. While we aren't really Missile Technicians and Maintenance Overseers, we are professional hypnotists, a special branch only sent in cases where we feel like someone in key sites has been compromised."
"What bull-" one member started but Chadwick was faster.
"So that's why I suddenly felt I could trust you and your harmless demeanor when you asked me about seeing anything unusual previously?"
Loki nodded, "Yeah. I wanted to see if you were someone we could trust. I just relaxed my posture and my body and made it seem like I was just another kid being innocent. It's as much of an art as it is a science though, since there was a lot of personality sprinkled in to it."
Loki was telling the truth, but only partially.
He'd used his charm on Chadwick to figure out if the members of the Aurora Order had played him by hiding a person in their stomachs while also merging someone with their bodies since there were people in shadows following them.
But turns out he didn't have to worry, the charm worked just fine on Chadwick even though he used so little of it earlier.
So Chadwick was a normal human. Well, mostly, aside from the lingering corruption from the Sefirah now present in his Sea of subconscious for the time being.
Everything was normal. At least unless the members of the Aurora Order weren't one upping his one upping them one upping him.
Feeling the sincerity in Loki's words Chadwick slowly nodded.
He could see that Loki wasn't being entirely honest, but if such things truly were involved, then it'd mean that Loki couldn't divulge classified information.
And the Lieutenant's stern attitude still made him feel like something was off. It made him believe Loki a lot more.
But he wasn't ready to trust just yet. And so he put up a test.
"...alright. I believe you. What do we do next?"
"Next? Nothing." Loki said, "I already put a delayed hypnosis effect on him. He'll be calling us back to his office, anytime now…"
A sudden silence rang out for the next few seconds.
And then it stretched into around half a minute making Loki feel embarrassed that everyone was staring at him.
"Well what? I'm not a seer or something. I jus-"
The radio on Chadwick's belt crackled before a voice they were familiar with returned from it.
"Lieutenant Kelming here. Sergeant Chadwick, you are hereby ordered to return to my office with your currently active escort team and guests at once."
A new silence spread through the corridor, everyone stared at Loki incredulously, including Belmont and Ron who were looking at him like he'd grown a new head.
'He was serious about having cast that confundus charm!?'
'How!? He never even pulled out his wand!'
Belmont was even more surprised.
According to his instincts that person was at the very least a very strong fully digested Sequence 6 Beyonder if not a Sequence 5.
For Loki to have used magic to confuse such an enemy was not just unheard of, it was practically impossible.
If magic could control Beyonders so easily, why wouldn't they just use Auror's to fight off Beyonder problems!?
That was when the faint memory of Loki having stood out against Voldemort burned brighter.
He'd assumed that Loki was just holding out, barely, while Voldemort wasn't even using full force and only used magic until Laura arrived.
But if Loki was giving the death eaters and their lord actual trouble by simply using magic…that was a different story all together.
A student at Hogwarts who hasn't even given his OWLs yet fighting on par with Demigods of their respective pathways using only magic while also fighting Voldemort!?
Suddenly to him Loki's prowess in magic seemed no less than Merlin himself.
A strange thought cropped up then, slurp '...I wonder what his blood tastes like…'
Loki in the meanwhile began to compile all the new information he'd learnt from his little Shepherd.
Yes the Lieutenant had been 'parasitised' by a Shepherd.
And to stop Loki from going any deeper and reconvening with his 'comrades' to make things difficult for themselves, the Shepherd had 'cleverly' stopped Loki and his team here, hoping to make them stay in the holding area where he could be surrounded and forced to surrender after they had taken Ron, Belmont, Hermione, Tonks and the others Hostage.
And if they couldn't get him to surrender?
Well they had no qualms fighting in a Launch Control Facility.
At worst the Ministry would send a few reinforcements once they learnt about it, but they doubted anything would happen before they were finished with Loki and left.
'They really think so little of me don't they.'
'Sending only a few Shepherds to ambush and take me down when I've already killed a Demigod on their end by plainly overpowering him?'
'Does Grindelwald really think I'm so weak?'
Loki's thoughts paused at that question for a few seconds as he frowned mentally.
'No…if he's collaborating with Baldermort, he should've known just how strong I am and how risky it is to fight me, especially with that 'spell that can destroy someone's body of heart and mind' if empowered enough and not defended against well enough.'
'He should've been better prepared…'
'Is there something more to this that I'm not seeing?'
Loki's movements externally didn't slow.
And his mind not only kept pace but ended up speeding slowly as he thought of the various plans and possibilities he would come up against someone like himself.
'....I'd just ask Salazar or Rowena to smite them to death.'
'But if that's out of the question…'
'…then I'll send in a few demigods together or perhaps even a Saint this time?'
'Hmm…interesting.'
Loki felt a sense of tension rising in his chest at the thought of having to go against a Saint of the Hanged Man pathway since it was going to be more like fighting a one man army if the Saint was well prepared, which he would be.
But Loki knew the Error pathway well.
And he knew the limits of his abilities well.
If there was someone else that could contend with the 'army' of the Hanged Man pathway it was Loki with his marionette army all controlled by his worms of time.
'But even if I have them all controlled, they can't fight as well as they could normally or even if I controlled them since the intelligence of each individual worm controlling their marionette spirit body thread is not very great.'
'But I'll have to make do…' Loki thought for a second and then paused as a strange idea crept up into his mind.
'Or…I can develop another contingency…'
Loki's eyes narrowed as he calculated the feasibility of the idea when his eyes landed on the people around him.
'...I can't let everyone else get caught up in the crossfire if things come to the worst outcome.'
And so, Loki started with the instinctive and complete plan that had built up in his mind from its core and foundation to its explosive release.
'First, let's set up an escape path for everyone that I don't want involved in all this.'
'The administrative staff, the guards, and all the other Unspeakables can go, they'll only hold me back in this battle.'
'...although I'd like some help, I doubt there's no one to stop anyone from reaching here.'
'And for backup reinforcements in case things take a sharp turn with an actual Angel or two showing up, I'll make sure I send a message to Mione, Dominic and Professor Snape through Mr. Error about 'Loki' specifically being in danger.'
'Of course I won't expose my connection to Mr. Error, I'll just portray it as an overactive child who is sacrificing himself to fight against evil cultists that want to use this opportunity to destabilise the world order by setting off a nuke.'
'Mr. World will act like he was impressed by 'Loki's' actions and ask them to make sure that I make it out alive before things get worse since he knows they care about his well being and the Lord is merciful.'
'And when everyone asks me how I managed to save myself for so long against a literal Saint from the Aurora Order, I'll just tell them a man that looked like Gehrman Sparrow saved me. And I was able to recognise him from the bounty posters I saw during the divination business in the third year.'
'....hehehe~ maybe I can even give Gehrman Sparrow a tragic role of sacrifice during the fight to protect Loki only for him to be reborn later at a key moment to cement the title of this era, Rebirth.'
'But why should I hide…'
Loki thought about it seriously for a few seconds as they walked back to the Lieutenant's office.
'The Aurora Order definitely doesn't know my true identity just yet or the True Creator would've done anything to stop them from killing me and might've tried to make a deal with me instead of killing me off since I could help him gain a one up on Dumbledore as long as he gets to the Chaos Sea first.'
'They likely only want to kill me for killing a Demigod from their pathway and weakening their growing influence on the Black Market.'
'That leaves Grindelwald.'
'He could be doing any number of things based on whose side he truly is on in this war.'
'Does he want to advance to the Lord of the Mysteries and become a Great Old One?'
'Then it makes sense for him to try and kill me.'
'But what would the consequences of actually killing me be?'
'The Hogwarts Founders Gods and the other gods helped by my system of magic might fight back, but as long as they don't think that Mr. Error is truly gone; they likely won't bother helping a simple vessel for 'His' reincarnation like Evernight never helped Klein too much.'
'On top of it all, I doubt Grindelwald will face them all alone.'
'Is that why he's supporting Voldemort?'
'To help balance the scales by keeping the True Gods busy with Outer Gods so that he can deal with me directly himself?'
'Would Lady Luck's scale of misfortune not work against the up and coming King of Yellow and Black Who Wields Good Luck?'
'He's visited me personally before….but never attacked, either because he couldn't or because it wasn't the right time for him to do so...'
'If Grindelwald's taken such a large step to get rid of me now…perhaps he's already got countermeasures against 'Her' in place?'
'What sort of countermeasures would even work against a God of the Wheel of Fortune pathway…? Against someone who seems to have partial access to the Sefirah…?at least as long as it is within reach.'
A Beyonder of the Fool's pathway was terrifying at the higher levels.
From pulling out historical figures and making them fight for you like candies and performing miracles like getting rid of divinity from an entire area for a few seconds to weaken True Gods directly was just the start of their powers.
But most of all, if a Fool pathway Beyonder was competent, they'd be sneaky, waiting for the right and the best moment for the best outcome, irrespective of what happened to their dignity.
'Will 'He' arrive here after everything is done then?' Loki frowned.
'After the Saint from Aurora Order has exhausted me? Or when he deals a fatal blow on me? Or at some other key moment during our fight?'
Loki's frown only deepened as he deduced such an intention.
'He might use the corruption in Elane to blackmail me, but…that won't do a thing.'
'…I wonder what Grindelwald is truly planning.'
'For a simple High Seqeunce Beyonder to be involved in conspiracies involving Gods of several pathways and even 'Her'...'
'Hmm…'
'What did I do to Grindelwald to make 'Him' want to kill me this bad?'
Loki drew up a blank on any mystical books in the library of Gods in the Room of Requirements containing anything about him fighting or even annoying Herpo the foul.
'Perhaps only Minoe has the answers to these questions for now.'
'Either way…'
'I should find a way to parasitise Grindelwald's followers so that I can keep an eye on him since 'He's' never lowered his guard around me till now.'
'Does Gindelwald even have any real followers that know of 'His' machinations? Or are they all just manipulated fools who still think it's all about Muggles vs Wizards.'
Loki didn't really know but he knew one thing, 'As long as I advance to Sequence 3 and gain the powers of the neighbouring pathways, I'm pretty sure I can body him as long as I have enough Avatars and with well timed uses of all the items I have till now…'
'Especially since he very likely doesn't have the Uniqueness of the Fool pathway still, since it is likely what keeps the Department of Mysteries hidden.'
'Grindelwald…'
'He seems so much like an enigma…'
'I guess that is what three hundred years of isolation from civilization does to a greedy person, they don't know how to be human anymore.'