Ron slammed into the ground.
Barely kneeling even as Perenelle rushed to pull down a golden roof of protection over them all.
The air that came in contact with the roof sizzled like water in frying oil. Sputtering as the temperature rose further when Nicholas dragged his hands back in an exaggerated arc like a conductor to rip space itself!
The space crunched hastily, its new sudden boundaries fractured and irregular as they vaguely resembled something that seemed to be supposed to be a spherical dome.
The transformation didn't stop there. Nicholas flicked his finger and the spherical dome squeezed its own occupants without letting them collapse as everything inside the space shrunk at an alarming pace.
And in front of Grindelwald's partly shocked but mostly anger filled gaze, the shining dome shrunk into a marble before shooting at the doll, flying at it with the pace of a bullet.
But Grindelwald acted instantly.
First, he grabbed the doll with both his left hand, and then jabbed an eerie bone white wand he pulled out of the historical void with his right.
The very next second, everyone inside the marble sized dome of sunlight noticed the sizzles get louder.
The scalding hot temperatures jumped up by several more degrees as an unknown force began to destabilise the boundary.
Perenelle rushed up to do her part, forgoing her terrible state that was left after her plan to trap Mother Tree of Desire had backfired, she dropped a hand on her eyes as an eerie bright white light shone out from underneath them, giving the impression that her eyes had turned into balls of light themselves.
The light escaping was so bright that it could be compared to the dome itself, but instead of the warmth and protective feeling the dome gave, the light from Perenelle's eyes gave out a rather strange, alien and macabre analytical feeling.
As if Perenelle as she was, could read through the very fabric of the universe.
It was a strange Beyonder spell Perenelle had invented to be able to see the essence of actions and the causes that had led up to it.
As such, Perenelle saw it very clearly.
Given the urgent nature of their need to protect themselves from all sides, Nicholass had taken a few 'liberties' and relied on his intuition to skip a few calculations to speed up the formation of the dome out of the holy light of purification that Perenelle had created.
Under normal circumstances, such intuitions, coming from an experienced Alchemist, especially an Angel of the Paragon Pathway would've been invariably correct.
Except at this moment, their fates had been rewritten.
The intuitions that Nicholas had relied on had been turned into tunnels to teleport anyone on the outside straight to the inside.
And before another moment could pass, Perenelle shouted with a frown as the light in her eyes faded, "All the shortcuts you took are failing!!"
Nicholas's eyes narrowed hearing this, as he turned to the now positively gigantic doll just beyond the barrier, and mumbled with great distaste, "Why am I even fighting 'Her'!?"
"And what else do you want to do? Die!?" Perenelle cackled before spreading her fingers as the light from her eyes seemed to have been moved into her hands, causing small miniature beams of light to form on her fingertips, sticking to her nails like fake ones, shining brightly as if ready to be unleashed.
However the spell wasn't for offense.
Normally, in a fight on her level or even between herself and True Gods, Perenelle would've simply planned to tank anything that the enemy would've done during the time she needed to prepare a bigger spell so that she could blow them apart and escape.
After all, in such silly cases, corruption wasn't the end.
Provided they could live, they could always figure out a way to cleanse themselves.
But the current situation was different.
Their enemy was Mother Tree of Desire and if they were corrupted in even the slightest of amounts, it was likely that none would live to tell the tale after that unless another Great Old One got involved, and she didn't want to bet on that, regardless of Mr. Error having revealed himself.
"This will take quite a bit from me…" Perenelle whispered as she prepared to close her fist to launch the spell to fix all of Nicholas's errors by patching them up temporarily with more light from the Sun Goddess.
But Hermione chimed in right then with a surprising revelation.
"I…I know a spell!"
It caused everyone to turn to her, not just Nicholas and Perenelle, but the Doll and Mother Tree of Desire herself.
A mere Sequence 7 knew a spell to prevent an Outer God's corruption?
And while the others didn't really know that their opponent was an outer god, it was still baffling to them that a Sequence 7 could even delay someone that two Angels were struggling with.
Ron however screamed, "Bloody hell!!! Don't say it out loud!!!! Just do it!!!".
"...I shouldn't have said that?" Hermione whispered with a blush as she felt something gaze at her mind from the sky above before she gently tucked away the soul container into her robe's mode innermost pocket and then looked at the dome crunched up like a paper ball.
She extended her hands towards the scalding surface that felt surprisingly comfortable to the touch before muttering a simple spell.
"Protego."
"PROTEG-" Ron was about to scream about how the spell would never help in this situation but a sudden kick to the head from Tonks knocked him out.
"...what?" Tonks asked as Belmont looked at her with a deadpan expression, making her feel indignant and want to retort something, but Nicholas interrupted with an exclamation-
"...marvelous!" he smiled.
"Who taught you this little girl?" Perenelle asked with a smile too as Hermione's simple spell merged with the dome and suddenly caused it to glow brighter as all the kinks were smoothened out.
"Professor McGonagall did." Hermione explained. "She said that ritualistic magic has the greatest potential for those of the Mystery Pryer pathway. This is a spell that she invented."
Perenelle suddenly frowned as if remembering an uncouth past, but then seeing Hermione's already focused face, she kept her thoughts to herself, regardless of the obvious little thoughts she could see running around the girl's body of heart and mind.
In reality, Hermione was constipated because this was a method she'd figured out herself after Mr. Error had explained to them that the Magic of the world was powered by the True Gods of various pathways.
So when she realised that Nicholas and Perenelle had performed some sort of ritual to contact the Sun Goddess and use a spell from that domain by mixing it with their own abilities, Hermione used a simple spell from Mr. Error's Gospel.
The Theft Spell.
Hermione stole two things, the first thing she stole were the errors within the wrinkles of the space that formed the dome around them. She could sense the wrinkles with her own senses as a member of the Door pathway.
And since she could sense it, she could use the spell to steal it.
Secondly, Hermione stole a few memories in 'secret'.
While the Outer God was part of her worries, she was also worried about her connection with Mr. Error being revealed so openly a few moments ago.
So she stole Ron's memories first since he was already 'asleep'.
As for Tonks and Belmont? Well she knew Tonks wouldn't snitch on her and would possibly even help take care of Belmont for her since she'd just stolen his memories regarding the incident too and substituted her in the conversation with Perenelle.
And given Mr. And Mrs. Flamel seemed to know Mr. Error she just hoped they wouldn't act against her or reveal her information to anyone else.
Not that she would even be able to do anything to them in the first place given their strength.
Seeing Hermione so diligently handling the small stuff that would buy them time, Nicholas and Perenelle focused on the larger things.
Perenelle's open palm closed slowly as the beams of light at their tips were reabsorbed into her body.
She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath before letting it all out as she brought her left hand in front of her chest.
Had it not been a magical world, anyone looking would've been surprised that a sudden book 'manifested' in Perenelle's hands.
It glowed the same eerie white as before except this time accompanying it was a strong sense of oppression.
Tonks' and Belmont's breaths turned shallow, their gazes turning blurry as the world in front of them seemed to explode with a sense of uncertainty.
For a second Tonks thought she'd hallucinated seeing Hermione dead, but at a second glance, Hermione was indeed dead.
And the only reason Tonks strayed away from a total mental collapse was because firstly her intuition told her that this wasn't real, at least not yet, and secondly because she could see herself on the floor, dead beside Hermione, even though she was clearly still alive.
Belmont was similar, but he felt a little confused-
'Ron's the only one who'll survive even if we all die..?'
'....maybe 'They' think he's worthless?'
Belmont could've pondered more but before his thoughts could wander, he gripped them because 'One must not look at a God.' and by extension never decipher their intentions.
His eyes dragged back towards Perenelle who opened her lips and spoke.
Except no sound came.
Her hair slipped out of its braids and bands, waving in the wind caused by the scalding dome as she gazed at the book in her hand coldly.
Her body suddenly emitted the wild feeling of divinity as her words finally landed after the seemingly unknowable delay, turning into sound as if the world had only just realised or caught up to what had happened.
"Impose."
Even with Perenelle done, the Flamel couple's hands hadn't entirely been revealed yet, it was now Nicholas's turn.
Nicholas opened his mouth slightly wide and then moved his hand to it.
With a sickening crunch that would've reminded Ron of a spider being crushed Nicholas snapped off his molar.
Blood gushed into his mouth for a second before it healed without a change in his expression.
Except, what he revealed when he opened his palm wasn't a bloody tooth, or even a clean one for that matter.
In it was an oddly shaped die.
The tooth had been filed and turned into a six sided bone die.
"Ready?" Nicholas asked Perenelle while giving her a sidelong glance.
Perenelle, unlike her usual grandmotherly self, appeared filled with pride. Her chin lifted, her shoulders squared and her chest out. On the whole she looked like a Noble Queen.
And true to her current nature, she simply nodded without use of any excess words.
Nicholas sighed as he looked at the die in his hand.
"Good bye…friend." he mumbled as if speaking to a dying loved one before tossing the die.
The die spun around, imbalanced as it was in its odd oblique weight distribution, it spun only on the vertical axis.
The die fell to the floor, bouncing seemingly randomly as it jumped around on its edges, producing a striking clacking before it settled on one side.
'One.' Hermione noted, even though she didn't know what was to happen, obtaining a 'special' number was the best, right?
Except Nicholas looked like he'd seen something horrific as he barely mumbled-
"Super position."
The seemingly simple words seemed to have carried a great amount of depth, since even the cold and haughty Queen Perenelle showed a slight crack in her infallible expression.
…
Grindelwald looked at the golden marble that was in the air in front of him with a weird expression.
It had indeed stopped moving after he'd directed the being inside the doll in his hand to discard their protection.
But that wasn't supposed to happen.
Instead, everyone inside the marble should've been dead by now. The golden barrier should've turned rotten and corrupted, permeating into every single pore of their bodies to turn them into meat puppets that would become a part of the undead eternal army of the current Abyss.
He looked back at the doll in his hands and then at the Great Old One hovering right in the sky, 'Her' gaze intently focused on the area as 'She' appeared wary of getting closer like the golden marble was something untouchable.
Scared of a golden ball? Grindelwald tried to joke, but the words just wouldn't come out.
Could a golden ball really be that scary? He could barely even feel anything building up to be unleashed from inside it.
It was likely purely a defensive ability to shield from corruption.
'And yet 'She's afraid…' Grindelwald dared to comment in his mind.
He looked at the doll and then at the Great Old One in the sky and then as if his desire to escape from his locked situation had been amplified, a thought crept up in his mind.
Grindelwald was weak.
For now.
According to him.
And so he couldn't fight off a Great Old One.
So if the doll in his hand was unable to withhold the Great Old One in the sky, wasn't the best option to seek shelter?
After all, if his 'friends' had been so kind as to make one for him? Couldn't he just use it as their 'friend'?
And so Grindelwald moved towards it bravely.
The bone wand in Grindelwald's right hand vanished as he stretched his hand away from the doll and towards the golden marble hung in mid air.
His arm stretched fully, as the tip of his index finger brushed against the golden drop.
Surprisingly, the temperature was absolutely normal.
He'd expected it to be scalding given the energy of the domain of the sun radiating off of it, however it felt pleasant to the touch. As if being embraced by a comfortable, soft blanket on a cold winter night.
'So I was right!' Grindelwald exclaimed. 'This thing was purely defensive, and meant to only stop 'Her' from spreading 'Her' influence and corruption!'
That was however when Grindelwald suddenly heard a soft giggle ring at the edge of his mind, before the world was swiped.
…
Loki looked at the previously one eyed creature standing in front of him and frowned deeply.
'The connection between the True Creator, the Chaos Sea…?'
'Apart from the most obvious need for him to ascend to the status of a Great Old One with its help, what other reason would there be for 'Him' to be able to 'access' it but not accommodate it?'
'That's a rather strange situation, isn't it?'
'A True God being unable to accommodate a Sefirot of their pathway, even partially?'
'..I mean maybe not everyone can use a Mentor Of Deceit Characteristics to temporarily do such a thing, but I'm just a demigod…and 'He's a literal True God…but he still can't accommodate his Sefirot?'
'...he's locked in some way? Unable to reach it…is that why he wants me here? To help 'free' him so that he can accommodate the Sefirot?'
'But why not just plant a will inside me like he did with Klein? After all that thing fused with his spirit body and he couldn't separate it easily without suffering a major setback, not even I could steal something so perfectly blended with my own soul without sacrificing my gathered worms of time.'
'....'
'Hmm….' Loki's gaze finally turned to the creature standing in front of him as he looked at it with a serious expression.
'Unless the lock requires someone to 'willingly' set him free?'
'No, then he could've simply used one of the Aurora Order members, mad or not, they'd all be eager to set 'Him' free…'
'Maybe he needs me specifically? Mr. Error? To set 'Him' free? Willingly?'
'...' Loki's frown deepened.
'Why did I keep 'Him' locked up anyway?'
'Why not just kill 'Him' and give 'His' characteristics, uniqueness and Authorities to Helga to digest? She's already on her way to being the God Almighty with Two Pathways under her, what's one more?'
'...wait a second…'
'That brings up the old question of why didn't she absorb the Visionary Pathway too?'
'Why wait for Merlin to Become a King of Angels in the Visionary Pathway?'
'If she wanted Dumbledore would've never gotten the Sequence 1 Characteristics if she'd simply hidden it all or accommodated the Uniqueness before he even arrived at Hogwarts?'
'....because she had to leave her spirit body in that crystal that I have to free her from?'
Loki was confused.
There were too many questions floating in his mind and barely any strong threads to unravel them all.
So he paused, rolled back, and took it step by step.
'Let's start with why I might keep the True Creator alive and keep him near the Chaos Sea but not let him access it.'
'....sadism?'
'...Possible.' Loki nodded but continued to look for a different reason and he struck one fast.
'Because I wanted 'Him' to do something that I didn't want to have Helga do?'
'...hanged man pathway…'
'Sacrifice?'
Loki looked at the creature and suddenly felt slight pity for it as a strange thought crawled into his mind.
'...this thing…it looks…weak…'
'Either the True Creator is genuinely very weak for some reason or 'His' seal is quite strong.'
'But why would I seal a true god so close to the source of modern magic? A true god that is not part of the magical system?'
Loki thought about it as a peripheral thought reminded him of something stranger, 'I took nearly all his stronger believers and turned them into Marionettes….'
'But he's still maintaining his Sanity…'
'How can a weak god maintain their Sanity so easily?'
'Easy enough to maintain the rationality that they don't want to kill someone and use them to free themselves?'
'....if the True Creator cannot use the Chaos Sea to keep himself sane, then 'He' is sane already?'
'But why would a sane person be by the side of the most secretive keystone of the modern wizarding world?'
'....is he protecting Magic in some way?' Loki wondered but couldn't come up with an appropriate position for the True God immediately so he dove deeper.
'...True Creator…Hanged man pathway….'
'Sacrifice? Isn't the Hanged man pathway about sacrifice? Is the True Creator there to sacrifice himself and take damage if something happens to the Chaos Sea?'
'But why seal him there then? A sealed person wouldn't want to sacrifice themselves, and if a person were to sacrifice themselves for such a thing, they don't need to be sealed in the first place since they can sacrifice themselves from anywhere.'
'Wait a second….'
Loki remembered his offhanded comment about the Authority of Degeneration and Corruption.
'What I thought back then…is that really true then?'
'No way…'
'He's an Anti Virus being forced to work to keep the magic of the world safe?'
'And he's being sealed there so that he can't go elsewhere and do anything else? And so that he doesn't even access the Chaos Sea while protecting it?'
'Did I lure him in the past with the Chaos Sea as bait and then trap him there in some way and then give the job of protecting it so that he doesn't die?'
Loki opened his mouth for a second, intending to directly ask the source of all his questions who was standing in front of him but then paused.
'....if it is indeed true…what can I…be 'paid' for performing this 'grateful' act?'
'After all…if the future me imprisoned 'Him'.... I must've had a damn good reason to 'play house' with someone like this… I definitely didn't do it on a whim right? So I should have also prepared a corresponding payment that I could be blessed with in this situation…'
'Payment…'
'True Creator…Chaos Sea…'
A few moments passed before the proverbial lightbulb flicked inside Loki's head.
'...advancement ritual?!'
A smile as warm as the spring sun and as gentle as the morning dew formed Loki's new expressionisms.
Even the creature standing in front of Loki felt numbed by it, falling further into a pleasant trance as Loki continued to speak disarmingly.
"Great being, o' great being, we both need things from each other, so why don't we come to an agreement?" Loki said with the charm of a naive child.
And somehow, the charm seemed to have been effective.
The creature's 'shoulders' dropped, loosened as it looked straight at Loki, seemingly paying complete attention to what he was saying next.
Having gotten the response he wanted, albeit a little too easily, Loki continued, "Why don't you take me to your dwelling, and I'll see what I can do to help you."
The creature nodded but then stopped and looked back at Loki with what 'felt' like a deadpan frown that one gave to a stupid person, at least as far as Loki could tell.
However, Loki wasn't one to shamelessly backdown when caught, instead he doubled down as if his persona was never an act in the first place.
"Oh, you're wondering what I want in exchange O Great Being? Please don't worry. I'm not like those foolhardy humans who wish for booze and booty. I'm wise. I wish for nothing for myself."
But the creature remained unmoving.
So Loki spoke as if he was truly heartbroken, "Is that so? You truly wish to burden me with the weight of a gift? Even when I have nothing to give to you? Well, alright then. How about this, what if you give me access to three wishes, the classic? And as long as I can help you out, you help me out?"
"Obviously, I'm being generous and I don't want to ridicule you. Since a True God's problem that needs someone's help to solve must be important, I cannot devalue your goals and ideas, so in exchange for helping you once with a great big task, you can help me out thrice in my three little problem tasks. Only fair for you? Right?"
Loki's eyes blinked rapidly as his smile widened.
His fingers came together and he looked at the eye-less creature with a passion that it had probably never experienced before.
The Creature's sludgy fingers twitched in response a few times as if it were trying to hold itself back from ripping Loki from the inside out, but then it stopped.
The creature raised its hand and was about to grab Loki's again, but Loki moved away.
"Hmm? You agree?" Loki asked softly, a little surprised.
The creature, quite annoyed by now, nodded fiercely with its hand frozen in mid air, but Loki gave it no face, instead he continued his spiel.
"Oh, how could I forget! Of course you don't trust me so easily!" Loki exclaimed. "Let's make it official with the help of a contract! That way you'll most definitely trust me! After all, I can't go against a contract created directly by the Sun Goddess right?"
The Creature froze in its tracks.
Loki could feel the gaze locked onto him strengthen but he ignored it completely. Instead he quickly pulled out an altar and a ritualistic offering that would most definitely please the Sun Goddess, Perenelle's special Crepe Suzette.
Sensing the gaze not going away, Loki paused too, he looked over at the creature and spoke quietly after looking around to see if anyone else was eavesdropping.
"....you want some?"
The intense aura the creature built around itself suddenly scattered.
"...I don't mind if you do…" Loki said, "I have a lot more so the contract won't have any issues."
The creature looked at the plate of fragrant and mouth watering food in Loki's hands and then back at Loki's mouth as if to indicate it couldn't even if it wanted to.
But Loki spoke jovially.
"Oh! You're so thoughtful! You want me to have some too!? Oh why not!" Loki exclaimed and pulled out a simple picnic cloth and spread it onto the floor of the Shadow World.
Then in between the shadow earth and the shadow sky, surrounded by the shadow grass, Loki sat in front of a True God and patiently finished his plate of Crepe Suzette.
Burp
"Delicious." Loki said, promptly licking his fingers for the sweet sauce, before wiping them with another cloth and patting his stomach.
He looked at the creature that had remained standing and never moved from its spot.
An onlooker would've felt the heavy 'glare' it was giving to Loki, but even still, they would've felt Loki's sunny and positive energy blow it all away.
Loki quickly got up and spoke softly with a hand on his head.
"Oh, you didn't have any!"
"..."
"I'm sorry. I'll get another-"
The creature snarled but Loki continued regardless.
"-one for the contract."
The creature fell still again.
Loki summoned an old piece of goatskin parchment from within his undetectable extension charm pouch and began to write the contract he'd just described on it.
Loki soon handed the contract to the creature, and to his slight surprise felt like the entire shadow world had gone slightly dim when it was beheld by the other party.
The creature simply looked at it for a few seconds and without even diving anything or performing any rituals or scanning the rules on the parchment in any way, pressed its thumb on the paper and left a muddy shadowy blot of blood on it.
Loki looked at it and smiled.
"Oh, how nice." he remarked before pointing his hand at the mouth of the undetectable extension charm bag once again.
"Accio Crepe Suzette." Loki mumbled rather childishly.
The creature looked at the bag, waiting for another of those dishes to show up, however nothing happened.
"Huh!!???!" Loki said, exaggeratedly.
"Oh no!!! I've run out of Perenelle's specials!!! What are we to do!!! Oh I know!!! We can cook our ow-"
The creature snarled again, and Loki felt the heavy hostility that it was boring towards him.
And so he paused and spoke with a light laugh, "Haha~ That was a joke. The contract you already signed was created by the Sun Goddess herself, so we don't need to perform the ritual again."
The creature looked at the contract in Loki's hands as it slowly glowed when he injected his spirituality into it.
The contract split into two parts, each glowing with an iridescent burden as they shot towards the chests of the respective parties and merged fully with their souls, forming a tight knit bond that would hold every word agreed upon beforehand to the death of the other party.
Loki finally looked at the creature and smiled warmly.
"...interesting."
The creature said nothing but Loki could already read a million words.
But instead of doing anything else, he spoke calmly, "Shall we proceed?"
The creature looked at Loki's hands, and for the first time with a little wariness before it grabbed them after a burst of confidence and caused the world to shift.
…
Grindelwald looked around himself and felt sheer terror.
He found himself in the place he least expected.
A place that was taboo.
A place so forbidden that anyone with any sense would choose to never go anywhere near it.
He found himself in the-.
…
Nicholas, Perenelle, Hermione, Tonks, Belmont and also the unconscious Ron, all found themselves at the foot of a mountain thousands or tens of thousands of meters high.
None moved.
Or rather they couldn't.
Since Nicholas had forced all their bodies to obey his commands by locking the very space they occupied and since Perenelle had bound their spirituality using strange mirrors that reflected them.
They didn't understand why Nicholas and Perenelle had suddenly taken such a drastic measure but they couldn't even voice their dissent since their vocal chords wouldn't move.
Everyone's eyes remained focused straight forward, absolutely locked, unable to make a single move as they were forced to watch.
Watch as the mountain slowly wriggled, resembling both a bird's nest and a womb.
…