With the soft thud of the carriage, Hermione pretended to wake up from her 'sleep' that she had pretended to take while she was at the Tarot Club.
Her eyes still slightly in a daze as she thought about what Mr. Strength had told them about.
'A corruption that not even Mr. Error can do anything about…'
'Are we going to Mr. Strength right now?'
"Thinking something Mione?" Daphne asked from the side as she waited for someone to knock on the carriage door to let them know it was alright to get out.
Not that they couldn't get out otherwise, but since they were dealing with a rather dangerous corruption this time, they were supposed to take every precaution they could to save themselves and those around them.
Hermione's gaze flicked towards Daphne before she broke into a smile, "Nothing, I was just wondering what scrolls I'll have to read and write to make sure my current potion digests quickly."
"Hmm.." Daphne nodded before saying, "If you want to digest your potion quickly you should read things from the third epoch, they are the most mysterious but also interspersed with information about high sequence beings."
Hermione nodded but just as she was about to respond a soft knock from outside on their carriage door interrupted them.
Daphne quietly pulled open the latch and stepped outside along with Hermione, only to be greeted by her first year Slytherin Prefect and head boy-
"Dominic."
Dominic looked worse for wear, his usually neat hair was all rumbled up and thick eye bags hung around his sunken cheeks.
Yet, his posture didn't falter as he bowed deeply before speaking, "Greetings Madam Greengrass. I was not expecting you or I would've been better prepared."
Daphne simply waved her hand, "I'm not so heartless Dominic, and I'm not here as heiress Greengrass this time, just a member of the Unspeakables."
Dominic nodded, relief evident on his face as he quickly looked at Hermione and gave her a short nod before walking towards the modest manor behind them as he began speaking.
"My father is rather unwell. Most Unspeakables higher up in the department of curses have already taken samples of my father for study. I have sent away all the servants after they were screened for any potential contamination. And since Mother is away trying to find a way to help father, I'm here keeping him company through all this madness."
Hermione trailed along a little behind the two of them, her eyes constantly scanning the priceless artifacts scattered around them in various glass cases with an occasional glimmer in her eyes as she contemplated about how she would one day own something similar in her grand mansion after she became a rich young lady as a high sequence in her own pathway.
Only, her machinations were cut short when they entered a rather silent, cold and opaque corridor.
At its end was a simple door that gave Hermione an unnerving chill, but she didn't let it show.
Instead she patiently followed Dominic and Daphne as they moved in silence to the door and then to the world beyond it.
And it truly was a different world all together.
The mansion outside, one filled with wealth of unimaginable price from all parts of the world was replaced by the sudden ramblings of a mad old black man who was half drooling, half sleeping and half scratching the surface of the walls with his nails.
Blood painted the surface in tally marks that counted from or towards an unknown point in time as Dominic quickly rushed towards him.
"Father, no! Don't do it! I told you already there is no one hidden in the shadows! No one's waiting to watch you die!"
Hermione looked at the person squatting on the ground in the corner with a slight tremble in her hands. Her palms turned sweaty and her mind felt strangely bogged down by the sluggishness of fear.
Her gaze flickered between the person fighting Dominic for control of his hands as he attempted to etch his blood onto the wall some more and then to Dominic himself who looked pained and heartbroken.
She gulped dryly before whispering to Daphne, "Isn't he…already…"
Daphne shook her head and stayed silent, but quietly pointed at her eyes.
Hermione understood and quickly activated her spirit vision.
Only-
'It failed?'
'...'
Things clicked in Hermione's head and the coincidental suspicion suddenly turned into a solid confirmation.
'So he is Mr. Strength…'
'But…'
'The corruption of a True God?'
'How are we supposed to cure that?'
'Why did Professor McGonagall even send us up here in the first place?'
Suddenly the divination error from earlier that she and Daphne hadn't had the time to figure more about felt rather important.
'So the entity corrupting Mr. Strength's father interfered with Daphne's divination but not mine?'
'Why?'
'Does it have something to do with the Topaz Pendulum I use for divination?'
'Could the pendulum perhaps have a way to stop the corruption of the True god corrupting Mr. Strength's father?'
Hermione clenched her fists tight as she felt the cold sensation wrapped around her wrist inside her sleeves.
She felt a strange discordance around herself from the room she was in. Almost as if the room had turned stuffier in an instant, like someone had wrapped a noose around her neck.
She did want to be a high sequence beyonder one day, and also help serve Mr. Error a bit better, but wasn't this too soon?
She wasn't even a full fledged Sequence 6 yet and she was already dealing directly with a True God's corruption?
Hermione then slowly turned towards Daphne while keeping an eye on Dominic who was slowly and gently dragging his father back to the bed to let him rest.
And it seemed that Daphne had the same idea as her, to test the strange Topaz pendulum of unknown origin.
They nodded when their gazes locked and Daphne took a step forward.
"We want to try something out, but it'll take time."
Dominic looked surprised because he hadn't expected Daphne and Hermione to be of any real help.
He'd only known that Professor McGonagall had asked them to be sent over herself after discussing a few things with his superior Laura, but he assumed it was just to help him handle his nearly wonderful father, not actually solve the issue.
He'd already seen the look on the faces of the curse breaking department's team members and knew that if nothing was done soon, it might be the end of the line for his father.
But he still held hope.
Why he still held hope was simple.
It was because it was as Mr. Moon had said in the Tarot Club, that perhaps the True God who had cursed his father didn't want him dead and only wanted to use him in some way.
Maybe if he could distract the two little girls with something else, he could look into this avenue of the matter on his own.
And so he nodded softly while looking a little unsure but still confident.
After all, if worst came to it he could ask Mr. Moon for the ritual and sacrifice himself to keep his father safe and well. It pained him to see such pain on the face of one he respected the most.
With that, Dominic showed the two girls to a separate room nearby where they made sure to make themselves comfortable and prepare to examine the bizarre chain that Hermione had acquired.
"Do you think the two things are connected, Daph?"
"I don't know." Daphne shook her head, "But if they are I wouldn't be surprised."
Hermione nodded softly before placing the topaz pendulum in her hand onto the table for them to examine once again as another question came to her mind.
"Perhaps Professor McGonagall knew about it all along?"
Daphne shrugged as she enveloped the chain in her spirituality since she had sensed that the chain wouldn't harm her as long as she didn't harm it.
The runes on the chain showed up first which Hermione began to sketch onto papers she'd conjured using her wand while Daphne was more interested in the chain's reaction to her on a more spiritual level.
The two stood in silence around the table continuing their deepening research while Dominic summoned books from the library towards him in his father's room, to try and figure out if there was any way he could communicate with the True God that had cursed his father.
…
"...phew. Hard work." Loki said, wiping the sweat off his brows as he looked at the newly formed Beyonder Characteristics in front of him.
"Am I going to become a True God all at once?"
Loki found it a little disbelieving that he had encountered the True God of his pathway or at least a King of Angels so soon. And above all that he had killed it without much effort.
'Well not like anyone wouldn't be surprised by an artifact that is above the sequence in a world where Outer Gods have only just reached the planet…'
Loki frowned then in thought.
"Couldn't the gods have already figured out my identity though?"
"Why haven't they dealt with me yet?"
"....perhaps because they fear that I am only a shell that is a spawn of an outer god? So they don't want to risk corruption without knowing how to defeat me for sure? Worried to turn crimson like the moon? And then there's the fact that I already killed the Sun god… I'd be scared if I were them too."
"Or is it just because of their inherent madness in this era?"
"Perhaps both…" Loki finally concluded.
A sharp gleam appeared in Loki's eyes at that moment…
"Can I…steal the uniquenesses from all the mad gods?"
"After all, that would be a service to humanity would it not? And it would also help those mad gods regain some sense if they haven't already been corrupted by Outer Gods…"
And so the fire of greed suddenly lit up in Loki.
"In doing so I could even find the current Fool pathway True God if one exists and steal his uniqueness and give it back to him when he completes his Apotheosis ritual only to steal it from him again to become the Error pathway True God and Lord of the Mysteries once and for all?"
"Hmm…how easy…"
"Is LOTM supposed to be so easy?"
But something that had been sitting in the back of his mind reared its ugly head in his mind once again.
"...ah, there's that thing that the Goddess of the Wheel of Fortune pathway said and wants to do with me…"
"What does she want to do with me?"
"Surely she knows that I'm the one performing these killings of True Gods, so why hasn't she tried to stop me or kill me to help the others?"
"...bahh. Troubles for another time." Loki shook his head before grabbing the esteemed Monocle off the table in front of him.
"Can I place it on my right eye? Or will that cause me to become the guy from before?"
"...."
"Alright, I'll only put the monocle on my eye when I reach King of Angels status, until then let's advance my sequence…"
"What was the ritual for becoming a Sequence 3 mentor of deceit again?"
'...I should've just asked the guy before killing him like I did while advancing to Sequence 4…'
Loki walked up to the precious door that had survived attacks from two True God level beings by now and still stood standing impressively before placing his hand on it and entering divination mode and quietly moving in search of his next target-
"Location of an avatar of the Error pathway True God I killed that has advanced to Sequence 3."
The stars within the door gently floated around as if scanning the vast world around them before spitting out the fractured image of four different people.
One was an old man gardening in his backyard.
The other was of a child sitting patiently in what appeared to be a church to the Sun God in a random village.
The third was strangely of a single celled creature floating around in some liquid he suspected was blood.
And the final was of a young dashing man preaching to other people about the gospel of the Crimson Moon.
Only, things weren't as good and easy as they seemed.
The old man gardening had fused with his backyard, using his tears to water the plants.
The young child sitting patiently in a church of the Sun God was staring blankly ahead, completely oblivious to the half dozen knives stabbed into his body.
The single celled creature inside the blood stream was consuming itself.
And the one teaching the gospel of the crimson moon seemed to have become a tree that had trapped random people passing by to preach to them.
'Did they all lose control when the Main body died?'
'But weren't avatars supposed to be independent?'
'...'
'Mysterious…'
"Well I can just try and divine where the Blasphemy slate of this era is."
"The location of the first blasphemy slate."
Loki repeated the statement seven times before opening his eyes and looking at the translucent gate whose image twisted into a swirl before it paused and shuddered for a second and quickly returned to normal as if nothing had happened.
"Huh?"
"Divination failed?"
"...no that felt more like rejection or anti divination…"
"Is it because of the power inherently within the Blasphemy Slate or is it because of some True God?"
Loki frowned.
He then looked at the characteristics on the table and thought of a different rather cumbersome plan that he did not like the thought of one bit.
"...can I just subject myself to absorbing the characteristics forcefully and then experimenting with whatever feels right and wrong and helps me digest the potion better?"
"After all, isn't there supposed to be a guiding instinct within a Beyonder to make sure they remain a semblance of humanity regardless of the situation? And even if there isn't…I'm sure I have the time and the means to experiment since I don't get corrupted fully…"
"But the question still remains, why do I have to even act to digest my potions?"
"Hmm…"
With no answers in sight, Loki did the best he could to quickly advance to power in this world of madness, he simply swallowed the Sequence 3 Beyonder Characteristics without even making a potion out of it.
The effect was near instant.
Loki felt his body explode with power, only the price extracted for it was rather enormous. His body exploded in a shower of worms as he heard the wailings of a million different creatures all aiming to fuse and over write his own identity, his image and his history. Aiming to transform him into something beyond himself, into something unrecognisable as it all ate away at his sanity.
Loki remained sane, barely, by focusing on the fact that he was incorruptible.
'Why can I not be corrupted by outer gods, the Sefirots and everything else but have to bear with the corruption of a stupid beyonder characteristics!?'
'What's wrong with this game balance!? If you're going to give me debuffs, at least give me something that makes sense!'
Loki waited patiently as he felt the Beyonder Characteristics slowly dissolve into his body, merge with his core being and become a part of his spirit.
Only did the hellish assault on his senses stop.
But the wailings of beyond remained, just slightly toned down to be audible on the edge of his hearing, like tinnitus.
…
Mr. Error looked down at the Card of Blasphemy in front of him and sneered.
'What a fool, he followed the trap I set up for him through the founders, and now he's done all the wrong advancement rituals to advance through the sequences.'
He then looked at the Sequence 3 and 4 ritual that was written and compared it with what he knew himself.
"Instead of parasitising a fundamental force of the universe, all I have to do is to collapse the order in a region. And with the Uniqueness of the Justicar pathway in my hands that is rather easy."
"For Sequence 2 instead of advancing by remaining a parasite for three hundred years and drinking the potion after that, all I have to do is assume the identity of another through deception and without violence."
"This one I am already doing by assuming 'His' identity…obtained only by exploiting the loophole that I was always a remnant will in 'His' beyonder characteristics since he advanced forcefully after killing me. I only have to make sure that none of the Tarot Club members find out so that I can turn them into my anchors…"
"Should I include new members? So that I can create more anchors?"
"After all, I can't create more avatars and risk awakening 'His' will within me again."
Mr. Error's nails tapped away at the table rhythmically as he pondered on the identity of these new members before coming to a conclusion.
"....perhaps someone from the Sun pathway, the death pathway and the Abyss pathways will do…"
"..."
With his mind firmed Mr. Error filed away the act of inviting them for later by shortlisting candidates with the help of Gehrman Sparrow, and quickly waved his hand to use the Sequence 3 Beyonder characteristic; He had recovered it from his body after taking over when Loki died because he invoked the will of the Original Creator in the Abyss.
He then waved his hand and used the characteristic to manipulate his seal on the True Creator.
'Who would've thought that the fool would store away the Uniqueness of the Error pathway in his own soul and hide it there so that it remained with him when he reincarnated?'
It was only because of that when Mr. Error took over that he had been able to temporarily raise his Sequence to 0 forcefully and manipulate the memories of all those around Loki to forget he ever existed, reducing 'His' anchors so that 'His' will would be weakened.
The sealing keeping the Monocle sealed quickly caught on however and ripped control back away, but before it did he managed to parasitise the avatar sealed alongside it, Gehrman Sparrow and bring it to the real world.
As for the monocle, it would unlock eventually when he advanced to Sequence 1 anyway so he wasn't worried about it.
"Now all that remains is to advance slowly and methodically to make sure that 'His' remnant will never reawaken within me."
With that Mr. Error walked up to the True Creator hidden in the Fog of the Sefirah Castle, sealed by various errors in space and time that caused 'Him' to remain frozen while experiencing the flow of time in a bizarre manner.
'At least his plan of making someone become the Fool pathway True God wasn't a waste…I can use it to advance myself now.'
…
Hermione looked at the symbols she'd drawn on her paper by copying the pendulum with slight confusion.
"Have you ever seen runes arranged so meticulously before, Daph? How much would this thing even be worth? Thirty galleons?"
Daphne looked up from the ritual she was setting up before gazing at the runic arrangement of the locket that Hermione had drawn in the book.
It was nothing short of spectacular.
She had taken Runes as her elective too and knew just how hard it was to come up with an arrangement so perfect, yet so beautiful and without any random shortcut blemishes.
"I don't think such a thing would even exist…"
Hermione nodded, "But that does narrow it down a lot, doesn't it? Who among the people currently alive in the wizarding world would be able to make such a thing?"
Daphne's eyes widened slightly.
"No way."
"Exactly, the headmaster and Nicholas Flamel and Perenelle."
Daphne nodded before sharing her own observations, "The lingering balance of fortune and misfortune tells me that the pendulum was recently touched by the domain of Luck, meaning it was in the possession of a High Sequence Beyonder of my pathway, or even my true god. I wanted to perform a ritual to divine an answer from 'Her', but if we know the three people who are likely to have made it, the price I have to pay won't be that big."
"...understood." Hermione nodded, slightly nervous about knowing more about the pendulum, something that seemed to be haunting her and those around her with its mysteries.
Only as soon as Daphne finished setting up her ritual and was about to set up the wall of spirituality, a small tabby cat jumped out of thin air, appearing with a soundless swirl of perfect apparition.
The cat immediately transformed into McGonagall who rushed towards Hermione without reserve and grabbed her shoulders.
"Miss Granger and Miss Greengrass, I'm sorry but I'll have to take you away from this mission for now."
"Huh?"
Looking at the worried expression on McGonagall's face Hermione felt her throat dry up. Something ominous lingered around McGonagall's expression as it made her immensely worried seeing her pillar of support and admiration suddenly in such a panic.
"What happened Professor?" Hermione blurted out in a rushed whisper.
McGonagall looked at the two girls before speaking softly, "The corruption seems to be able to spread."
"Huh?" Hermione felt surprised for a second, wondering if Professor McGongall was actually just worried about that since she felt just fine right now, but then McGonagall dropped the bombshell.
"The corruption spreads not directly to those in contact with the patient, but to those that they know and spend time with."
"Huh?" Hermione became dumbfounded as McGongall went on to explain.
"Harry and Ron have been infected, Miss Granger, and Astoria too, Miss Greengrass."
"...what?" Hermione blurted out while Daphne's hand hung loose over the altar she had just prepared.
Both the girls felt the world buzz by in a whirl after that as they even left Dominic out of the loop before they apparated away with McGonagall, back to the castle before rushing towards the infirmary where their dearests were being held.
And both felt it would've been better had they not laid eyes on the result.
Harry and Ron were struggling to get off the tight leather shacklers keeping them on the bed, trying to scratch them off with their nails as they ground their teeth in a fit of madness, all in trying to break free.
Blood flowed out of shattered teeth as they each had already bitten through the leather straps in their mouth before Madam Pomfry rushed towards them once again with a syringe.
"What's happening to them Pomfrey?" McGonagall asked first.
"I don't know whose curse it is that is on them, but it is hell bent on making them carve out numbers to a certain day in the future. The walls in their dorms have been ruined, they were discovered after those straw dolls over there asked the students for help."
There was a short silence before Pomfrey spoke again.
"Could you get a hold of your sister girl while I forcefully feed these ones the sleeping draught?" Pomfrey ended while looking at Daphne whose eyes were wide as she stared at her sister who was in a similar if not worse state than Harry and Ron since she had managed to break free of one of the leather restraints before scratching the skin and muscle off her other hand to the bone.
"Don't worry dear, I'm sure the Headmaster will figure something out, he's already here."
Daphne's head swiveled towards the door where Dumbledore had just entered the room looking rather surprised and a little worried.
He ignored everyone else for the moment and rushed straight to the patients' beds, watching over them closely as he examined them while bending low enough for his nose to touch them.
Surprisingly, each one of the maddened patients ignored him completely as if he didn't exist but since no one was in the mood for a detailed explanation, the phenomenon went unexplained.
Sound ceased to exist for everyone in the next moments as they waited with bated breaths for the outcome of the examination of the world's greatest wizard and Beyonder.
The painful silence that had only been expected to last a few seconds started to stretch further and after only a full half a minute of close examination did Dumbledore whisper into the deafened silence.
"...not again…"
The words were perfectly audible in the silence and it aided everyone in their own line of thoughts.
McGonagall and Lily with their rich knowledge as a Sequence 4 of their respective pathways began to think about recent history leading their thoughts on various mentions about the Bubonic plague being the work of a powerful beyonder.
For Hermione the extended silence had let McGonagall's words from earlier sink in a little, 'If people related to those who were in contact with Mr. Strength's father are infected, then…are my parents alright? Did the headmaster see more infected people on his way here?"
Daphne was stunned about the fact that the Goddess of her pathway had simply blessed Astoria with the misfortune of another curse.
While James simply sat stunned, wondering if it was all the work of some dark wizard like Grindelwald or Voldemort. Especially since curses were often related to the latter. Or if it was possibly a witch.
Dumbledore straightened his back before turning around to McGonagall and explaining, "You are right. This is indeed the Bubonic plague. That plague occurred because of the corruption of a True God too. Those that were Beyonders were heavily affected while those that weren't faced mild corruption in the form of physical ailments. At least according to records in Hogwarts' headmasters' diaries."
Not minding the invasion of the privacy of her mind in the situation, McGonagall nodded before asking, "Is there a way to cure them?"
Dumbledore gave a hard long look at Harry before speaking softly.
"No. Not really. Not unless one can survive for centuries without any sustenance or be reborn in some way. The last plague wiped away nearly all independent Beyonder organisations in the world that existed at that point in time."
"Not even if we sacrifice ourselves?" James quickly asked, hoping to at least transfer the curses on themselves since they were already dead.
But Dumbledore only shook his head, "No. Not unless you are just as strong as the one you want to replace."
The expression on the straw doll that was Lily fell as an aura of sorrow and absolute distraughtness radiated off of her since they were both weaker than Harry currently without their Beyonder Characteristics lost at the time of their deaths.
They still had parts of their divinity still, but that was of no use now without any characteristics, especially when they were only Sequence 4 and Harry was Sequence 3.
…
'How long has it been?' Loki asked himself as he studied the night sky for the nth time in the last dozen centuries.
He adjusted the monocle over his right eye slightly before speaking out into a glassy rock that reflected his image.
"Cheek, did you come to peek at my beautiful self again? Or are you here to tell me just how much better it is to be a man than to be a woman?"
The reflection shimmered for a few seconds before the rock disintegrated.
"Tsk. Shy as always…I've helped you so many times yet you always give me the cold shoulder. Or is it that you want some new help from me? What was it the last time? Didn't I kill the Lord Of Storms for you? I just took the Uniqueness and the Characteristics as payment and you're so angry?"
A short angry voice filled the air, coming from behind Loki as the dust from the rock shimmered to form a mirror out of which Cheek stepped but she was still hidden, as if light itself bent away from her anger.
"You made me pay you with the Beyonder Characteristics of the Twilight giant and the Death Pathways just so that you could kill the Lord of Storms while I ended up with nothing! And worst of all killing him was something you already planned to do! I bet if I looked into it, I'd find that'Him' threatening and killing my followers indiscriminately was part of your plan too! And before that you tricked me into paying you with the White tower pathway and the Mystery Pryer pathway characteristics to kill the Hanged Man and you took his characteristics then too! Only later did I find that you were the one who informed him about my secret and told him how to kill me!"
"Hey! Fool you once shame on me, fool you twice shame on you! And what did you expect, killing a True God for the price of a few characteristics and you still want their uniqueness and Characteristics after advancing and fully completing your Apotheosis ritual?"
"What even is that saying? Who even says that? And it wasn't just any characteristics!! Those were characteristics from Sequence 9 to Sequence 1!!! You could make a King of Angels with those Characteristics!! What are you even doing with them!?"
"Don't worry about it, I never ask you what you do in your free time while standing in front of the mirror and putting on make up while dressed as a man to look pretty, do I?"
Cheek coughed up blood at that moment.
Fortunately she was hidden and hence Loki didn't seem to have spotted her-
"Oh, you actually coughed up blood from that statement, I always wondered if the saying was true, now I know it is…"
"Ho- How!-"
"Forget all that, tell me why you're here. I'm a little busy at the moment, I need to communicate with 'Her'."
"Who- Oh, 'Her'? Have you still not stopped pursuing 'Her'? A woman's heart is delicate, want me to give you a few tips? I'm sure all you're doing is driving 'Her' away with your persistence."
"The last thing I should be taking from you are tips…and for the last time no, I'm not pursuing 'Her'. It's just personal business." Loki whispered but the words seemed to have reached Cheek's ears as she shouted out loud, but since Loki reflexively stole her ability to speak she found herself mouthing words strenuously to produce no sound whatsoever.
Cheek stopped in a while after which Loki restored her ability to speak.
They both immediately adopted a serious look before Cheek began speaking, "I need your help. I want you to find me believers."
Loki smiled and spoke quickly, "How many? Fifty thousand, a hundred thousand? Maybe even a million if you're feeling a little unstable at the moment? The price is one Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristic from the Door pathway, negotiable of course if you want the believers for less than fifty years."
Cheek's brows twitched before she spoke rather strenuously, "No, not those fake avatar believers of yours. I want to become an orthodox deity."
Loki shook his head, "Not possible…unless you're willing to change your ways."
"Not everyone has the ability to steal knowledge from the ravings of their own pathways advancements and change them you know." Cheek said harshly, annoyed.
"Then give me your uniqueness for a few minutes and I'll do it for you."
Cheek gave Loki a deadpanned stare which caused him to chuckle slightly as he spoke again, "Alright, alright, I do have a different way, but it'll take a long time to implement."
"What is it?"
"No way, I'm not telling you about it. What if you steal it?"
"I'm not from the Error Pathway…"
It was Loki's turn to deadpan before Cheek spoke agian.
"I'll give you one door pathway Sequence 1 characteristics and one fool pathway Sequence 1 characteristics in the next decade."
"Deal, the method is to create an artificial prayer ritual that anyone can take part in along with any god on the receiving end so that neither the ritual performer knows which god is on the other end and neither does the god know who the ritual came from. It will help with avoiding you becoming contaminated by the images of your believers while you get the full effects of them praying to an anonymous god."
Cheek pondered the idea for a while before asking simply, "Is it really possible?"
"Eh…more or less. I already have a frame in mind and I think I can follow it to make it come true."
"Fine then. I'll make sure to deliver on my promise as long as you deliver yours."
Loki nodded and watched as Cheek slowly shimmered away, and only then after nudging his monocle a little did he speak out loud, "Finally, I have the locations of two more Sequence 1 Beyonder Characteristics of the Door and the Fool pathways…I should be able to snatch them up sometime in the next few days…"
'It's been a long time…" Loki wondered as he undid the illusion on the bone wand in his left hand that currently had only a single spell recorded on it.'
'Legilimency.'
A spell that had been birthed by Loki for reading the minds of those that wailed away mystical information constantly while he was unstable so that he could learn the Advancement rituals quicker.
He had spent the first century waiting to figure out the advancement ritual for Sequence 4 but had no luck since there were no other Error pathway beyonders around, and those that were, were all birthed directly by other creatures splitting off the characteristics without progressing through the sequence like he did or had to do.
And so he had a strange idea, what if he birthed himself?
And so Loki began to study creatures birthing each other with split off characteristics so that he could advance himself.
Only, the second you interfered with the process of birthing, it seemed that you couldn't advance to a new sequence, or even if you did you would have to be mad or in the same state as you were before.
Why? Loki hadn't figured that out yet since it was a rather well kept secret one couldn't learn without losing themselves in the process, he could either learn the secret and lose all his characteristics or keep his characteristics and never learn the secret.
It was possible to rid one self of corruption this way, but not advancing through the sequences. Believe him, he tried several times by delicately stealing thoughts of his 'parents' of running away once they had his Beyonder Characteristics and not mating with each other, fortunately because of madness and a couple strong suggestions they mated with each other and gave birth to a still mad him.
So, he spent the rest of the half dozen centuries after that developing the spell to pierce the minds of those that had constantly been wailing in his ears all this time to piece together bits and pieces of information about his pathway, those that he knew, like the abilities and finally the advancement rituals.
It had delayed him quite a bit, but after a few centuries he finally did it and his progress shot back up, advancing to Sequence 1 in only a year more.
During that time Loki took on odd jobs to keep in touch with the Beyonder world while also constantly bugging around the Goddess of Fortune to figure out what she meant by the words she had spoken when he'd first come to this world.
But she'd either forgotten or was ignoring him completely since she never responded to any of his rituals.
'Granted, I call her about three times a day on average…but it still feels like the right thing to do…after all, this could be a question of my life and death!'
'What if something goes wrong during my apotheosis ritual? Can't have someone immune to corruption lost can we? After all, I'm the only person in the Beyonder world who can currently take on jobs related to fighting off the spawns of Outer Gods without any risk. I'm doing a great service to humanity!'
The ligilimency spell was rather odd, in that Loki had made it using the remnant will of the previous Mr. Error who had died at his hands.
The bone for the wand was sourced off of the previous Mr. Error's body which had given him the remnant will which could use Beyonder abilities by forcing it to flow through various runes prearranged by Loki.
He used his own authority as a King of Angels to force the remnant will to perform his bidding. It worked not because Loki was threatening the will in some way, but because the will wanted to resurrect itself, it tried to maintain its sanity by accepting Loki's ritual of asking for an ability to manifest before blessing it to happen. It was almost like ritualistic magic, only shortened quite a bit using runes to activate it immediately, like a charm.
It allowed him to use abilities without any detection in secrecy or with greater strength than usual if combined with his own, which was why he had recently secretly stolen Cheek's memory regarding the locations of the two Sequence 1 Characteristics, only as advance payment of course.
So while this did not mean that the previous Mr. Error had returned, it did mean that the previous Mr. Error was being kept alive and abused like a slave.
'Knowledge about the Sefirots and Great Old Ones has become common over the years among the remaining True Gods…'
'Fortunately I'm a King of King of Angels right now and hence no one can really pick a bone with me.'
'Not like there's anyone even really left to pick a bone with me.'
'I have the entire sequence characteristics from Sequence 9 to 0 for the Twilight Giant pathway, the Death Pathway, the Mystery Pryer pathway, the Sun and the White Tower Pathway, and the Moon pathways.'
'And the uniquenesses of the Hanged man and the Tyrant pathway…'
'That's a lot of gods in my pocket…'
'Shouldn't I be called the Original Creator at this point since I will be helping birth so many True Gods?'
'I should rename my honorific name to-'
'The one who births,'
'The master beyond eras,'
'The King who defies all madness.'
'The True Original Creator.'
Loki already had the abilities from the other pathways, and there wasn't anyone really in the three adjacent pathways who could be his match in any way.
But Loki still hadn't advanced to Sequence 0 or even above the sequence because he hadn't found the perfect opportunity.
'My fate still shows uncertaininty…' Loki mumbled looking up at the spirit thread connected to his body.
It wasn't the uncertainty of death, it was one of survival.
He wouldn't die during the apotheosis ritual, but there was a great chance he would be turned into a cog in the machine for someone else if he did so right now.
'Is it the goddess of fortune?'
'...I don't know…'
'And what's the Chaos pathway duo doing anyways?'
'Why can't I ever find any of them on this planet?'
To his fortune or misfortune, Loki hadn't found a single Beyonder from the Anarchy or Order pathways on the planet. Not even a beyonder characteristic from the duo which left him slightly puzzled since not even the other remaining gods knew of these pathways, like they didn't exist on Earth at all.
'Either way, I should start setting up my plan for birthing the new Gods and Goddesses by making them a part of the Tarot Club, so that I can have a legion of new Gods and Goddess at my beck and call.'
'How nice of me to protect the planet from outer gods when we have a deficiency of True Gods on our side.' Loki thought while adjusting his monocle while looking at the cosmos directly.
He stared at the moon for a while and thought it shuddered before chalking it up to his imagination and looking elsewhere at the stars where a grand cosmic tree resided.
…
Godric, Rowena, Helga and Salazar were sitting around their table once again in silence.
"This can't be happening, can it?" Rowena asked solemnly, her tone filled with fright and horror, something that very few things in the world could bring to her.
Salazar simply shrugged as he spoke calmly, "'Her' response is the same as last time."
"What!? She said that shitty prophecy again!?"
Salazar simply nodded before uttering the prophecy word for word-
"You killed him and hence you will die. It's the law, it always has been."
"Hiss~" Rowena sucked in a sharp breath as she looked at Helga who calmly sipped her tea and then at Godric who seemed unperturbed.
"How are the two of you so calm!?"
Godric shrugged his shoulders, "The plague won't affect me this time. I've already advanced to a half Great Old One Status."
While Helga said, "I've fully accommodated most of the God Almighty pathways, and once I find the Chaos Sea I'll be at least a half Great Old One too."
Rowena's face darkened, "I was a great old one last time and I was still affected. What makes you think you'll be any different? Even if your pathways allow you to purify corruption or put a stopper to death, that doesn't mean you'll be able to resist 'His' influence! I nearly died to prove that to you all once and for all."
Godric shook his head, "that still doesn't change the fact that we can simply ride it out over the course of the next few centuries. We did it twice, and we can do it a third time."
Helga was about to nod but Salazar suddenly interjected.
"Not possible. It's stronger this time around. I subjected one of my followers to it, and he went mad almost instantly, he started praising Mr. Error as the only Creator for whatever reason…the follower was a demigod, so I don't have any hope for us. The only way to rid the world of this plague is by sending in someone of a low sequence to get rid of it at its source in the cosmos."
"..."
A stunned silence passed through everyone else as the words sank in slowly.
"What about asking 'Her' for help?" Godric asked but Salazar shook his head in disappointment, "She said she'll help us if we help her resurrect 'Him'."
"Resurrect 'Him'!? Why does she even care!? 'She' never responded to any of his prayers! He always said she leaves me on 'seen'. So why all this love now?" Rowena practically screamed but Salzar simply shrugged his shoulder again, "Love is a foreign concept to the darkness, perhaps one grows fonder with time spent apart."
"...Can we even stop 'Her' if 'She' wants to resurrect 'Him'?" Helga asked the important question.
Salazar frowned for a second before explaining his confusion, "I'm not sure, but I don't think she's talking about the same 'Him' as we are."
"Huh?" Everyone around the table became dumbfounded. "Who's the other Mr. Error if not 'Him'?"
"Like I said, I'm not sure, it was only a spiritual intuition at the moment, nothing more." Salazar shook his head again.
"..."
"Alright…why don't we do this. We'll send in someone to break the plague in the cosmos while sending along her descent vessel for the mission then monitor everything 'She' does?" Rowena quickly came up with a plan to which everyone else acquiesced before moving on to a different matter that Helga brought up.
"'He' contacted my avatar to join the Tarot Club."
"Me too." Godric said. "Although he asked one of my misguided ones, though she's had a change of heart recently."
"Then we can have the two of you keep an eye on 'Him'."
The two of them nodded before Rowena asked again, "Is that all for this meeting then?"
Seeing everyone nod, she dismissed them all before returning 'home' in the Antarctic.
"Honey, I'm home."
"Oh? So it was today? What do you guys even discuss for so long?"
"The plague's back."
The chained god fell silent for a while before he nodded, "Yes, I felt it. It's stronger this time too."
"How did you know it's stronger?"
"Because… well… " The chained god slowly stepped aside to reveal the white wall he had been covering that was now painted red with bloody scratches.
"No!" Rowena gasped as she rushed to hold the Chained God, letting out a pained whisper in the process, "I just got you back…"
…
Fleur keenly studied the bodies of the victims of the recent plague that was just starting up.
...