Chapter 323: Theft (2) : Safe?
Floating about in one straight line, Loki was getting bored of the unchanging cold scenery and after a few more minutes of floating around, activated the overpowered charm of the darkness pathway.
Almost instantly, Loki felt something glaze over his very being. It felt as if he was no longer a part of the world. And in some sense, it was true because a thin film of darkness shrouded Loki's entire spirit. It felt like someone had wrapped Loki in a blanket of invisibility.
'This is much more powerful than my illusions…'
'It feels like there's something more to this than just changing my visibility.'
'It almost feels as if my fate has been plucked away from the world itself, like I can do anything and the laws of the world would fail to react to it in any appropriate way.'
Loki controlled the darkness for a moment and spared the ring with the Beyodner Characteristics of Sequence 1 Abomination from the veil around him so that the Law of Beyonder Characteristics Convergence would still work and attract him to the divine kingdom of the Chained God.
With the pocket watch being his only companion to track time, Loki soon got lost in the tundra. He stopped being able to tell if he was going in circles or if he was still climbing a hill he could swear he'd climbed a few minutes earlier.
'Is that thing real?' Loki asked himself as he spotted the ice statue of a frozen crane planted in the snow.
Soon he spotted statues not only of simple animals but magical animals too. But what truly set in the depth of fear in his were the statues of various humans, all mutated in various ways as if they'd lost control.
He wasn't afraid of losing control, the Mystical Item Helena had given took care of that, what he was afraid of was the fact that the people he was looking at didn't even have the time to fully lose control before freezing into ice sculptures.
Each human sculpture had a story to tell and as Loki passed them he clearly recognised each one, at least a little bit.
The first few statues were of Unspeakables, each one was in the same uniform Loki had seen Ethan wearing, a long dark coat that had several pockets to hold various Beyonder materials for rituals and the like.
The next few statues were of werewolves, zombies, and even wraiths. All frozen in time as they gazed at something in shock and terror. Their final moments of death captured like the shadows of a nuclear blast, like a picture through time.
'These people didn't realise that the Chained God was corrupted?'
'Was his corruption sudden? So that it could catch off guard the most number of people?'
As Loki floated in deeper, a thick fog rolled out. At first, the fog only touched his ankles but slowly the fog started rising and in less than a few minutes it was all over him. He could barely see his hands and he feared he'd inadvertently do something that might break the invisibility over him.
But soon the fear of making a mistake was blindsided by the immense cold that assaulted Loki's spirit body.
Loki felt he'd freeze like the other sculptures before and shatter into the dust of time before he'd even get a chance to scream.
'I need heat.'
'The bullets?'
Loki pulled out the gun and slowly let the magazine slide out.
On alert to see if his actions had caused any changes around him or had alerted the wrong person Loki waited quietly for a while as he held the magazine.
The bullets in it glowed a dim yellow and carried the warmth of the sun.
Loki unloaded a single bullet from his gun and held it between his teeth. Giving warmth to the most important organ in his body and situation, his brain.
'Alright. Remember not to swallow.'
With that done Loki put away the Sequence 1 Abomination Beyonder Characteristic that was given to him because he reasoned that he was already inside the divine kingdom of the Chained God. At least it's form on the physical realm.
Floating even deeper with renewed vigour Loki stayed alert for any sudden changes. The shifting of the fog and the shadows cast by it played various tricks on his mind that were only made worse by his three-sixty vision which kept him on edge as he floated deeper.
Soon, Loki arrived at a clearing.
A clearing that had no ice sculptures, no fog, and not even any ice.
All there was was a giant tree trapped in which was a mummy-like figure, wrapped in several layers of bandages breathing in a strained manner.
The comedic drawing that represented the scenario instead of reality due to the mysterious locket Helena had given Loki did nothing to curb his excessive worry about the situation. Instead, he almost felt like he was trapped. A single wrong move and he'd lose his life.
Loki's intuition almost drowned him in a barrage because of how many items were on the body of the Chained God but two stood out the most.
The first one was the Sequence 2 Beyonder Characteristic that Helena was looking for but what captured his attention was the least valuable item of them all.
It was a simple piece of parchment floating about above the entire tree, held and supported in the air by a few bandages that the tree had done everything to grow and burden.
But the few bandages held strong, somehow.
Loki recognised it for what it was almost instantly as if he was intuitively aligned with the Chained God.
'That contains his last words doesn't it?'
'Something he wanted to say to someone who'd eventually find their way here.'
'For Helena perhaps?'
'Do I take i-'
Loki's head froze mid-thought as he noticed one of the branches of the tree twitch.
The branch that was wrapped around the Chained God slowly unwrapped as it floated through the air like a dog, sniffing it and trying to detect something that had intruded into its territory.
Loki remained absolutely still and made no noise.
He forgoed any thoughts by using cogitation to clear his mind as he prayed to whatever deity was looking out for him to keep the concealment item that Helena had given him to keep working.
The branch twisted around robotically, jerking in moments to create several cracks along itself as it bent and twisted around the area meant to have nothing but itself and the Chained God.
The branch soon arrived right in front of Loki but what he was expecting didn't happen. The branch didn't stop in front of his face and neither did it drill through his head. The branch just swept by as if he hadn't existed.
Loki heaved a mental *sigh* of relief when the branch passed him and went back to wrap around the Chained God who was using the opportunity to free himself from the tree itself through a series of painful-sounding *groans*, like someone getting a stretch after a long time of sitting down.
Only after waiting for a while, when the silence interrupted only by the heavy breathing of the Chained God returned, did Loki make a move.
He first hid the ring with the Sequence 1 Abomination Beyonder Characteristic deeper inside his robes, making sure that it wouldn't be stolen no matter what happened next.
He then double-checked the veil of secrecy around him and once he was sure that it hadn't been breached or weakened, and only then, did he float closer to the tree.
Loki reached the section of the Chained God that he intuitively figured contained the Sequence 2 Beyonder Characteristic and examined it with his Spirit vision while the amusing necklace worked overtime to prevent him from seeing anything that would make him lose his mind.
'I was right.'
'This is it.'
'But I'm sure if I'll steal it, 'She' will immediately figure out where I am.'
'I have one chance and when I do take it. I need to be quick in hiding away the ring under the veil of secrecy.'
'Theoretically I should be able to vanish back into the Sefirah Castle as soon as I grab the damn ring.'
Loki nodded and hyped himself.
'Alright Loki, you've got this!'
'You know what this is for! Let's do it! There's no better opportunity than this!'
'You've done this once before and digested nearly everything! You can do it again!'
Loki took deep breaths to calm himself and when he felt like he was ready, Loki extended his hand and twisted it with a flick.
The ring morphed into a rune and flew towards Loki.
And given his closeness to it, the rune was absorbed by him in an instant.
As soon as he came in contact with the item, Loki hid it under the veil of secrecy.
*creak*
Loki's heartbeat sped up when he heard the tree creak.
He froze for a moment and moved to cut off his connection to the ritual that was keeping him bound to the real world almost instantly.
*creak*
Except nothing happened.
The veil that had kept Loki hidden was also stopping his return to the castle.
Loki had played himself.
With nothing better to do, Loki waited exactly where he was as he felt the tree branch unwrap from the Chained God and sweep the area.
But after a few seconds, in which it did not detect Loki, it returned to its original spot.
'Safe?'
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