Loki looked down at the rune that the fake Mr. Error's will had turned into, with satisfaction.
'Finally….'
'It's good to be back…' Loki mumbled under his breath.
He then softly looked around the Sefirah Castle, soaking in its silent sanctity as he quietly thought about all the things he had to do next.
'There's advancing to Sequence 3 Mentor of Deceit.'
'Then there's acquiring the Fool card from Rowena.'
'And finally… the most important question…'
'...should I return to Hogwarts?'
'To do so would mean that I return the memories that the fake Mr. Error stole from everyone.'
'But doing so would also bring questions…'
'Why did he steal my memories in particular?'
'What reason could I come up with?'
'....hmmm.'
Loki thought about a few things around himself, about Voldemort, whose body he now owned to be able to do whatever he wished with whenever he felt like it, Dumbledore's virtual persona body that he also now owned to be able to do whatever he wished whenever he wished, or at least if the rat man Merlin didn't get to it first.
'Let's see… What's the advancement ritual for Sequence 3 again?'
'Why don't I plan things according to that?'
Loki thought back to the memories he had in this body because of the fake Mr. Error and learnt the ritual that he had to perform.
'Without violence, find and exploit loopholes in rules to temporarily collapse order in a region.'
'Hmm…can the exploiting of rules be twisted? As in, do I have to exploit actual rules or can the rules be social rules or office rules etc?'
'And the region must be no smaller than a village… the smallest entity that can form a projection in the Spirit World.'
'Can I cause a collapse in order in Britain by revealing that Voldemort's alive? Would that count as exploiting a loophole? Since the Ministry vehemently defies his existence, what if… he is suddenly revealed to be alive, which causes all of the Ministry's social rules about speaking against his revival to collapse…'
'What if Voldemmort gave out an interview to the Hogwarts Honest Mill?'
'Could he reveal his plan to grow stronger by consuming the despair and distraughtness of people all over Britain after he kills Harry?'
'That would surely cause a scene wouldn't it?'
Loki liked his new advancement ritual.
'Walburga would be happy about it if that happened since it would send the Black family's stocks up!'
'...so I should return to Hogwarts then?'
'What reason do I give everyone then about my disappearance?'
'The reason could be that I was being safe guarded from Voldemort because I took a secret video of him while he was revealing his plans to the Death Eaters? So he is out to get me?'
'And now that the 'interview' has been released I can safely return to daily life with none the wiser?'
'Ha~! How genius! Someone should build a statue in praise of me!'
And so, Loki began working once again.
Loki detached a worm of time from himself and used the Monocle on his right eye to turn it into an avatar.
However, since he wasn't a full fledged Sequence 3 the avatar would be weaker, but that perfectly suited his needs.
The avatar bowed before him until Loki spoke calmly, "Parasitise Voldemort. Your job for now is to summon a meeting across the Death Eaters and tell them of your plan to kill Harry Potter."
The avatar nodded, knowing exactly what Loki planned to do and parasitised Voldemort before Loki sent him away to his position under the Hogwarts Castle.
'How weird…'
'I don't think I can ever get used to seeing my face on something else and not shiver… even if it is just an avatar.'
'Alright… now that that is taken care of I should get going to record the entire event under the guise of free and fair reporting…'
'Before then however…'
Loki walked to a random spot in the Grey Fog surrounding the castle where the fog slowly swirled out of view to reveal the captive of three generations of Mr. Error's in the Sefirah Castle.
"Ho… you're still alive…" Loki mumbled looking at the True Creator that was now trembling looking at the Primordial Chaos baby that was fused with past Loki lying safely in present Loki's hands.
"Be a good boy and cough up the Fool pathway Beyonder Characteristics… or you know what I'll do right?" Loki said plainly and openly even though he actually had no way of truly waking up the past Loki right now and if he did he wasn't sure if past Loki could take using his abilities while fusing with the Primordial Chaos.
After all, past Loki had already fallen asleep to help cure everyone on the planet from the plague that had recently spread.
Loki didn't know if he had energy for more without being fully overwhelmed by the Primordial Chaos's will.
The trembling True Creator however knew none of that.
And so, Loki watched patiently as the True Creator bound to an upside down cross coughed up several Beyonder Characteristics neatly separated by Sequence onto the floor.
Loki had debated shortly with himself whether he would take away the Beyonder Characteristics or not, but in the end decided to take them away since he could use them himself and then return them to the True Creator once he wanted to advance to Sequence 0 Error.
Loki didn't feel like touching all the Characteristics drowned in spit so he kicked the giant eyeball once or… twice… or thrice… before pulling out his wand and flicking it lazily to stow the away in his pile of things that now held the Uniqueness of the Justiciar Pathway as well.
"Alright… now that I have the Fool Pathway Sequence 9 to 1 Characteristics, I should be able to make mystical items to perform grafting and use historical projections."
"All that remains now are the Beyonder Characteristics for the Door pathway which past me should know the locations of or at least Salazar should know about it…"
After all that Loki kicked the True Creator twice more before he whispered, "That's for not telling me that Elane was the Moon Goddess all along."
Before he kicked the True Creator once again as he mumbled, "And that's for being annoying and kickable."
"Now you're just a single pathway god… make sure you don't behave like a mad man… if the Aurora order members aren't stepping in line by tomorrow morning and helping the Black Family in their operations, I'll make sure you don't remain alive anymore… Got that?"
The True Creator gave Loki a spiteful glare but when Loki threatened to drop the Primordial Chaos onto his head he shivered repeatedly once again before falling limp and still, as he closed his eyes to play dead.
'...'
Loki kicked him once again before covering him up with the Grey Fog so that no one could see him again.
…
Lucius Malfoy felt the sudden burning up on his left wrist and knew exactly what was happening.
''He' calls for us? Now?'
Lucius Malfoy did not waste any time.
He had been working on organising certain files for the funds needed for 'His' works and plans but he quickly stopped and got ready to meet his Lord once again.
He folded the files with a wave of his wand and set them back in their respective drawers with another.
He then quietly walked out of Malfoy Manor in the dead of the night before focusing on the dark mark on his left hand and apparating away.
He vanished in a swirl of darkness as it wrapped around him like a womb before transporting him through the Abyss and into a different location altogether.
It was a grand hall of magnificent proportions that would've made him jealous if not for the constantly burning human candles on the edge of his sight and the constantly screaming piles of skulls that seemed to still hold the souls of people that were still alive and being tortured.
Lucius knelt on the floor almost as soon as he arrived in the area. It was something he had practiced to do often so that he could do so without tripping at the wrong moment, at any moment.
Almost as soon as he did so, he felt the familiar pressure on his body that arose from his Lord's high Sequence.
However, what Lucius did not realise just like the other death eaters with their heads bowed down and kneeling on the floor in that moment was that Loki was currently standing behind Lucius with a camera resting on his shoulder to record the entire event.
Loki was hidden using the illusions of the Mentor of Deceit Characteristics he had gotten from the fake Mr. Error to make sure he remained hidden from view of everyone.
Loki even stole Malfoy's thoughts about moving too much because of the pressure on his shoulder so that the video would be stable and wouldn't have too many jerky movements.
'Should've brought along a tripod….'
'Well no worries…. if Voldemort can have human candles, I can have human tripods.'
'...also my acting skills are pretty good… my avatar is playing Voldemort perfectly. The scary aura radiating off of him that is created using the subconscious thought of fear and inflating that desire in everyone near him is perfect.'
The Voldemort who was staring at the darkness-filled skull hanging on the wall turned around slowly as he looked at everyone kneeling before him.
He spotted Loki visibly since he was a Sequence 2 and Loki was only using a Sequence 3 characteristic but he didn't expose Loki, instead he acted quickly so that he didn't delay his Lord from achieving his best shots and leaving.
"Today…"
"I called you all here for a simple reason…" Voldemort said softly.
"My rise… it comes soon." He said looking over each person present slowly.
Several people trembled, including Lucius but Loki frowned at it and stole his thoughts to stop him from trembling too much.
"I have prophesied the date of my advancement to the status of a High Angel at the end of this Hogwarts year." Voldemort said with great excitement before proclaiming in a frenzied tone, "That will be the day I attack Harry Potter while he lies within the Castle! That will be the day the news of his death spreads! The day the boy who lived turns into the boy no longer!"
"And the despair that follows…" Voldemort's voice suddenly turned into a whisper.
"It shall help me rise." he said, his voice level, resonating off of the walls and bone pillars of the hall that they were in.
"I shall rise to take over Britain soon after… Dumbledore will no longer be a threat and neither will the puppet rulers of the country be any of any consequence."
"I shall take over Britain and all shall tremble in my presence."
"I shall take over Britain and be known as the Greatest Wizard to have ever lived!"
"A Dark Lord Greater than Grindelwald."
"And a wizard greater than Merlin himself."
"I shall return!"
Voldemort finally stopped with his arms stretched wide as if embracing the world itself, showing his domination over it as he stepped onto everything it stood for and muscled it under his feet.
Voldemort's gaze passed over Loki, looking for praise, but Voldemort's strange appearance coupled with his lack of expression made Loki think for a second that he truly was in the presence of a Dark Lord himself.
Loki nearly shivered and felt goosebumps rise on his body at being stared down by Voldemort but he got control over his emotions quickly and nodded.
'Good Job.' Loki mouthed before picking up his clunky wizarding camera from Lucius's shoulder and turning off the record button.
Loki looked around all the people that existed in the hall and gave new commands to Voldemort through the Monocle, by implanting a thought into him.
'Give me a list of all their names and addresses.'
'Also give me information about what they do in the organisation.'
'Make sure those people burning as human candles are put off and rescued if possible and if not, just give them a proper burial and let them rest in peace… same for the skulls.
Through his vague peek around Loki noticed that Snape was absent and felt some relief that his teacher wasn't a fanatic and quietly slipped out of the hall.
With a simple vanishing act, Loki reappeared in the Sefirah Castle, vanishing entirely from his previous position without a trace.
Inside the Sefirah Castle, Loki looked at the recording before wondering how he would turn it into a film that could be watched and heard by the audience before realising that he could just use the Miracle Invoker's Beyonder Characteristic that he had just obtained from the True Creator.
Loki summoned it to himself and gave it a good thorough clean in water produced by the Aguamenti charm before he held it and looked at it deeply.
"Alright… this thing still has some power left to it."
Loki summoned his disk of wishes and used the Monocle to substitute the already present but dried out Characteristics in it with the new one and found it obtaining a soft steady green glow, indicating it was ready to be used.
So Loki made his wish.
"Give me a moving picture version of the video recorded in this camera so that anyone can hear the words spoken by Voldemort in it as long as they wish to do so."
The disk of wishes complied and Loki soon had a simple piece of newspaper in his hands with the entirety of the article about what was in the recording but as long as one paid close attention to the video in the paper they would be able to listen to it themselves!
Truly a wonderful piece of magic.
Loki studied the runes making it possible and edited it a little to his liking before becoming satisfied enough to be ready to print it in the newspaper for tomorrow morning.
Loki looked at the Disk of Wishes and found that it still held some power given its dim green glow so he asked it for another wish.
"I wish for the memories of all those that had their memories about me stolen, returned."
…
Walburga sat down in her study with great unease.
She felt a keen sense of fortune suddenly track their family.
She'd just received the news that all the Aurora Order Members had begun to search for Black Family handlers in the Black Market to suddenly want to work under them.
However this made her feel a deep sense of unease and worry.
Why was the Aurora Order whom she'd been ready to get rid of until recently suddenly showing up at her door step asking for asylum?
Especially when there was currently a seemingly incurable plague going around? Was the plague infecting them and making them suddenly subservient to her house because she was related to the God that the plague was spreading information about, Mr. Error?
She lifted her cup of tea for a sip of cold tea only for the cup to slip out of her hands and shatter on the floor!
"How could I forget!!!!" Walburga suddenly gasped as she regained her memories.
Walburga panicked instantly as she remembered about Loki and the fact that she hadn't heard from him in weeks if not months.
"What happened to him!?"
"Is he alright?"
"How did I lose memories of him so suddenly!?"
"Was it the doing of that Evil God of his that he has a pact with!?"
"But why would 'He' make me forget my grandson!?"
"Did Loki get involved in something dangerous!??"
"What's going on!?"
"Where is he right now!?"
Suddenly her vision was filled with crimson as her gaze slipped past the spirit world and landed on Mr. Error who was sitting above the Grey Fog on his regal seat.
She was about to ask him questions about Loki, bombarding him with them to understand the situation but Mr. Error spoke first.
"Loki is alright. He will return soon. He was involved in a matter that required absolute secrecy which was why he and all knowledge regarding him was concealed for a while so as to not let the Spirit world be polluted by his intentions. Loki hopes to see you again soon."
Walburga's questions got caught up in her throat at that moment.
Her eyes teared up and Loki felt the urgent need to give her a warm hug, but he felt that that could wait for now since he had other important things to do right then.
"While I cannot tell you all that he was doing in this time frame, one part of it is this." Mr. Error said softly, sending a paper floating Walburga's way as she grabbed it to study it carefully.
'A newspaper?'
Almost as soon as Walburga read the headline her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
'Voldemort's Plan to Conquer the World Exposed!'
Underneath the headline was an article but what took Walburga's full attention was the moving picture recording currently playing underneath the headlines.
'A recording of Voldemort?! How!?'
"Did Loki record this!?" Walburga immediately asked Mr. Error and he nodded.
And if not for the fact that Mr. Error had started with the words 'Loki is alright.' she would've currently been at his throat, god or not.
"You can listen to it." Mr. Error said softly and Walburga became confused, however when she paid attention to the moving pictures in the paper once again her eyes widened!
'It's true!'
'I can list-'
That was when Walburga heard the content of Voldemort's speech.
It shocked, bamboozled and left her bewildered since it revealed Voldemort's plan for his advancement ritual!
Which meant that Loki had infiltrated a seriously high level meeting!
'How!?'
'...his memories missing now make a little more sense….'
'Was he preparing to infiltrate this meeting for so long?'
Walburga trembled with pride and acknowledgement of her adopted grandson since the things he did always left her shocked and surprised.
"Do you wish for me to include this news in tomorrow's paper Mr. Error?"
Loki nodded softly causing Walburga to be filled with delight!
'Such an exclusive piece of news that will be sure to shake up Britain! Good job Loki! Grandmom loves you the most out of all her children!'
Loki disconnected her connection with that, allowing Walburga to continue her work for the night.
"Should I go visit her…?"
"She nearly cried… I should go visit… It's been only a short while for me since I was asleep until I resurrected… but it has been a while for her already…"
And so, Loki cut his time short and teleported back out of the Sefirah Castle and reappeared before the Black Family Manor.
KnockKnock
Loki knocked on the door using the knocker and took a few steps back as he waited.
Almost instantly, Loki felt a wave of spirituality pass over him as someone attempted to drag him into a dream, but that only lasted for a second before he heard the thundering sounds of someone rushing down the staircase by the door before it slammed open on him as it flew off its hinges!
"Grandma!" Loki shouted in surprise.
Walburga rushed to Loki's side.
Grabbing hold of him and examining him from all angles as her eyes teared up instantly before she grabbed him and held him up close in a warm tight hug.
Loki felt his shoulder get wet from tears, but he just warmly wrapped his hands around his grandmom before whispering.
"I'm alright… everything's alright… you don't need to worry about anything anymore…"
"Where did I worry…" Wablurga whispered with some disappointment. "I didn't even remember you…"
Loki noticed the deep sense of self blame in that statement but he had nothing to say to it… what had happened was a freak accident. How would he know a simple mission to protect a launch facility would turn into a battle against multiple True Gods, Outer Gods and even an Original Creator Level Being?
So Loki only whispered once again.
"I will try not to let something similar happen once again… I promise."
"Promise?" Walburga asked back, sniffling softly, completely unbecoming of her prideful Black self.
Loki nodded as he separated from Walburga and looked into her reddened and puffy eyes.
"I have to go back to Hogwarts tomorrow, but you can spoil me all you want tonight!"
Soon however Walburga slapped Loki's shoulder before praising him, "But you brought back something pretty good this time so I forgive you for worrying me."
Loki smiled and that was the end of their reunion at the door as Walburga dragged him inside the house, flicking her wand to fix the door on their way to the dining hall.
And as Walburga filled him to the brim with all sorts of sweets from various parts of the wizarding world, she asked him several questions about his time tailing Voldemort to which Loki presented her another piece of good news.
"I should have a list ready about all of Voldemort's associates by tomorrow… but yeah… there are a lot of them… so it'll be a little difficult in avoiding them… what do you want me to do? Release their names too?"
Walburga definitively nodded, "We could take over all their businesses if we have the first mover's advantage by buying it at dirt cheap! But adding that onto the paper will delay the release to evening…"
Loki smiled softly and nodded, "That should be alright, I'll send you the information tomorrow by afternoon at the latest."
"Can't you just stay longer?" Walburga asked softly.
But Loki shook his head, "Not yet, people at Hogwarts will be pretty worried about me too since they would've regained their memories of me already.. I'll send the head master a letter tomorrow morning and leave by evening at the latest."
Walburga frowned sadly but she smiled soon after, "Alright then! Let me spoil you tonight!"
Loki smiled happily as he felt more exotic sweets coming his way.
…
Loki looked at Walburga one last time in the evening and waved a good bye.
"Take care alright… no more up and vanishing with taking away my memories, alright?" Walburga whispered softly to Loki while gripping his shoulder.
Loki nodded and smiled before he gave her one last hug and teleported away from the scene!
However, Loki's destination wasn't Hogwarts!
It was the Sefirah Castle!
The changed papers took time to be published today so they would just be reaching their customers about now. And since Loki had included the list of the Death Eater's names for maximum impact into it, Walburga had decided to do a special edition evening print!
And so Loki couldn't wait anymore as he divined a simple statement.
"Now is a good time for drinking my potion for my advancement ritual."
Loki repeated the statement seven times and looked down at the pendulum hanging from his hand.
The pendulum was spinning clockwise.
Loki picked up the Mentor of Deceit Characteristics and dropped it into a beaker.
He then placed it above a small burner inside the Sefirah Castle before dropping in the supplementary ingredients that he had picked up from Walburga and those that he already had on him from the previous potions he had made.
Everything in the beaker pooled into a bright golden emerald crystalline deceptively ordinary potion that looked completely normal other than the funky colour it had on itself.
Loki looked at the potion for a while as he recounted everything he had done to get this far.
"This has been the toughest sequence to advance to so far…"
"I hope the others aren't this difficult… they probably won't…. but just in case they are… I hope they aren't."
And with that Loki picked up the cauldron and emptied its contents into a small clear beaker.
The potion felt normal to the touch despite having been on fire until recently so Loki calmly brought it to his lips with a heavy emotional feeling of pride.
And then he gulped it in one go.
…