'To Mr. Error's Blessed.' Loki continued to read.
'I'm glad you've partnered up with my descendants to reach here. I hope they didn't give you much trouble.'
'Rowena and Helga both said you wouldn't like them but your presence here proves otherwise!'
'Much cannot be said as I suspect you are still quite weak, so to help you grow stronger we've prepared a series of trials for you from which you get a special reward after you clear them to help you grow stronger.'
'The trials might help us a little though?'
'To begin the trials follow this riddle.'
Every positive circle you make,
While keeping in mind the trial you may take,
Will lead you to me to wake,
On the Magical floor from where you can see the lake.
'Why a riddle of all things?' Loki sighed and read on.
'I hope to meet you soon.'
'P.S. Don't take the jar with the heart of Saint Selena inside it, it is a part of the Hogwarts defensive measures.'
'P.P.S. You can keep the ring that is under it, you might like what is contained inside it.'
'Your Admirer,'
'Salazar Slytherin.'
There was a symbol at the end of the letter which was the same as the one on the seal and Loki found his memory sparking a little as soon as he saw it.
'Now I remember…this, wasn't this the symbol for the True God of the Darkness pathway in mysticism?'
Loki looked at the jar with a little suspicion wondering if he would be struck by the hair-like projections that surrounded it if he tried stealing it.
Everything felt like a fever dream and didn't make much sense inside his head, if he had to guess he would guess that he was dreaming but nothing he was doing woke him up.
Such a feeling came not only from the letter that was addressed to him but also from the sudden potion feedback digestion that he'd felt as soon as he read the letter.
He'd digested about ninety-nine per cent of the potion now.
Carefully or rather cautiously, Loki squatted and slowly picked up the jar off the stone shelf, years of remaining undisturbed caused a little bit of dust to flow down the jar but Loki ignored it and bent low to look underneath it.
A simple ring with a black gem mounted in its hold appeared in front of Loki.
Shifting a little to grab the heavy jar with a beating heart with one hand, Loki slowly picked up the ring with the dark stone set into it.
Grasping the ring Loki sent a bit of his spirituality into it but unlike normal when runes would light up on it, Loki found the ring greedily absorbing his spirituality.
All of a sudden Loki had information about a new space.
'A ring with an undetectable extension charm?' Loki looked at the ring with raised eyebrows.
There were many items inside the ring, but Loki felt he didn't have the time to pay attention to it right now.
Instead, Loki placed the jar of 'Saint Selena's Ashes' back into its place and after giving the secret chamber one last look trotted his way out to go back to where Tom, Harry, The phoenix and the Basilisk were fighting in their dream because of Sunny.
'Does this mean that Salazer Slytherin and the four founders are aware of the Three Missing Pathways?'
'Do they have something to do with these pathways going missing?'
'Did Salazar use his concealment ability to conceal all these pathways from the Beyonders in this universe?'
'But why do that?'
'Why would the founders want to do that?'
'And although professional, why is the letter written to me with such a startling sense of familiarity.'
'Why do they know about me when I don't know about them?'
'Divination? But wouldn't the Sefirah Castle stop such attempts?'
Loki wanted to stop and ponder more, but he knew that Sunny might be getting to his limit trying to simulate the dream for all the people involved so he kept moving and eventually ended up coming out of the mouth of Salazar Slytherin only to see everyone frozen in a tranquil sleep as they had been when he'd left.
"Did you digest any of your potion yet?" Loki asked Sunny who looked like he was extremely tired.
*Squeak*
"Good that you did, we can give you the next potion when we return home. Now tell me everyone's condition quickly so that I can replicate their dream in reality."
"Harry is about to collapse. He stabbed a Basilisk fang into the diary and destroyed it. While the Phoenix has destroyed the Basilisk's eyes, it was killed after a pristine long sword was stuck into the roof of its mouth." The Niffler said with exhaustion. "Oh and the phoenix is crying on Harry's wound from where the Basilisk fang stabbed it into its arm."
"You can speak!!?" Loki asked shocked "What the hell!?"
But instead of responding right, Sunny just gave Loki a glare.
"Ok! Ok! Keep your secrets! But your David Attenborough-sounding voice doesn't suit your tiny little frame!" Loki complained and the Niffler just turned his head away and spoke once again and chided him for the delay, "Be quick."
"Umm…it'd be a shame to kill the beautiful serpent, is there nothing in the ring that could save it? I could put up an illusion for the Phoenix to see? But can I even do that? I don't think I can make such a huge illusion…"
Although the size of his illusions had gotten bigger after digesting his potion a little more making an entire Basilisk wasn't something Loki could do.
It was like asking someone to paint the universe on an atom.
"Whatever it is! Be quick!"
Loki searched through the contents of the ring in a hurry but he didn't have to, since as soon as he thought about the serpent the ring spat out a new ring, this one had a metallic serpent for its band and a green gem in its eye.
The serpent on the ring slithered around its body, coiling around itself to make a complex brocade.
"Huh?" Loki appeared confused at the ring that seemed to have a mind of its own but as soon as the new ring came into the open, the Basilisk opened its eyes.
Loki couldn't close his eyes in time and felt as if he'd be petrified instantly but after a few seconds of staring at the Basilisk and seeing nothing happening to Loki or Sunny they became confused.
"Hello?" Loki said in English.
*Hiss~* The Basilisk nodded and Loki looked at it with confusion.
"Erm…do you recognise this ring?" Loki asked showing the Basilisk the ring he'd gotten from Salazar.
*Hiss~*
The Basilisk was vocal and physical about its recognition as it nodded heavily, creating a breeze that rustled Loki's hair.
"Would you like to follow me?" Loki asked with a smile and the Basilisk nodded once again and instantly shrank in size.
But instead of leaving nothing behind it left out the outer layer of its skin so that it'd appear as if there was a large snake still in the chamber.
"Well, that solves the problem of faking your death." Loki nodded and found a small serpent climbing up to his shoulders using his leg.
The serpent *hissed* in satisfaction as Loki scratched its underside.
Loki walked up to the book next and instead of directly using the poison from the basilisk to kill it, Loki brought it close to the Ring of Harvest on his hand and gave it the order to consume it.
A slick black mouth opened up on the ring and before he even realised what was happening to him, Tom's soul was dragged out of the diary and consumed by the ring.
Simultaneously the soul of an old spectacled man appeared from the ring as it looked back at Loki and nodded thankfully at him.
The soul left by merging with the air around it and turning invisible and instantly beyonder characteristics of the corresponding pathway and sequence appeared out of the ring, Sequence 8 Doctor of the Planter Pathway.
Only after that did Loki borrow a fang from the Basilisk to stab through the book which he placed beside Harry.
After arranging the rest of the scene as Sunny directed, Loki used the Basilisk's help to leave the Chamber of Secrets and vanish from the scene without leaving behind any evidence of his existence there.
He even cleaned up the blood that had spilt out of his body with the help of the Basilisk and the book that was oozing ink.
'Why didn't Ginny lose Tom's Beyonder Characteristics after I 'killed' him? Did consuming the soul with the Ring of Harvest bring along the Beyonder Characteristics or something?'
'Whatever…' Loki thought as the giant Basilisk slithered through the sewer pipe. He was more excited about something else.
'I guess I cheated 'Adam' this time…'
'Hopefully.'
'I don't want him to learn about the note Slytherin gave me.'
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A/N : Sorry for the delay! Enjoy!
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Entering the dormitory Loki walked into Daphne who was waiting right by the entrance for Loki.
"Are you alright?" Daphne asked scanning Loki for any visible injuries and when she saw the large hole in his dress she panicked.
"Calm down Daph!" Loki said holding Daphne who had already begun parting Loki's torn clothes to inspect his 'wound' better. "It's not my blood." Loki lied. "Could you do me a favour and help me fix my clothes? I don't want anyone else to get worried."
"Whose blood is it then if it is not yours!?" Daphne almost shouted but somehow managed to keep her tone contained in a barely audible whisper.
"Don't worry about that. Know some way to help me fix the blood on my clothes and repair them?"
Daphne gave Loki a long stare but then sighed and complied, "...I don't know how to fix your clothes but I can get rid of the blood from them. There's a simple charm for that."
Daphne quickly waved her wand while muttering the phrase, "Scourgify Sanguis." all the blood from Loki's dress immediately flowed out and hovered in the air, forming a small blob of slightly dark red blood before Daphne collected it all in a small vial and handed it back to Loki.
"Any ideas how I can get my clothes fixed?" Loki asked wondering if he'd have to use his deft hands to fix up his dress by sewing it.
"Umm…get out of it and give it to me, I'll ask a senior student to fix it for you."
"Sure." Loki nodded and Daphne followed him to his room.
Under the curious gazes of various students, where Loki hid the hole in his shirt using illusions, he went inside changed into new clothes and handed back his torn shirt to Daphne who was patiently waiting outside.
"Thank you Daph, you've been helpful, in more ways than one." Loki said appreciatively with a smile that Daphne returned.
"Did you manage to save the girl who was taken into the Chamber?"
"Yes, I did, although I will not be taking credit for it. No one else must know that I did it."
"...you want me to keep this a secret?" Daphne asked and Loki nodded and warned, "Yes, even from Mione."
"Why did you tell me about it then?" Daphne asked with a frown.
"Because I know you don't gossip."
"But Mione doesn't gossip, she's the straightest arrow I've ever seen." Daphne countered.
"Yes, but if I tell Mione about it she'd probably get into an argument with Harry and Ron and end up revealing things either way just to support me."
Daphne gave Loki a frustrated stare and then said with a scowl, "Although I don't think we should hide it from her, I will listen to you."
"Thank you." Loki nodded and after Daphne left went back into his room and crashed into his bed.
'Sweet rest at last.'
Loki admired the Ring of Harvest for a bit, watching Tom's soul trapped in it, unable to do anything to escape his fate.
'He transferred from one inanimate object into another.' Loki thought as a smirk made its way to his face.
"How long will you stare at that ring, will you ever give it to me?" Loki heard a deep voice beside himself and almost jumped out of the bed and pulled a wand on it before his brain kicked in with some latency and helped him recognise the voice as Sunny.
"Damn, it's going to take a bit of time to get used to you having such a deep voice you damn Niffler!"
"I've got a name! And you must use it! I'm Sunny!" The Niffler said folding its arms and sitting on Loki's bed.
"How're you able to speak anyway?" Loki asked with his own arms folded as he interrogated his pet Niffler.
"I was able to speak by vibrating my spirituality outside my body after I drank the Nightmare potion, it just took me a little while to understand how to speak so I didn't speak before today."
"*sigh* and here I was thinking you were possessed by Riddle or something."
*Hisss~ss*
A sudden hissing noise emitted from Loki's collar as a snake crawled out of Loki's robes.
"What's he saying?" Loki asked the Niffler who was looking at the ring Loki was holding with greed.
"How do you think I'll know what he says?"
"You know? Like aren't you both animals? Can't you understand each other?"
"...I hate that it works like you think it does." The Niffler said indignantly and began to talk to the serpent.
"Can you ask if it can answer a few of my questions?" Loki asked pulling out a shiny coin from his pocket to tempt the Niffler.
*squeak* *Squeak*
*Hiss~ss~!*
"What do you want me to ask it?" Sunny asked looking at Loki.
Loki smiled and spoke elegantly, "Could you ask why its ability to kill using stares doesn't work on us?"
Sunny nodded looking at the snake and began to ask it questions, and after a little back and forth between the trio Loki concluded.
"So you're also a Beyonder? Sequence 8 Gravedigger of the Death Pathway? But how did you petrify them and where does the notion of looking into people's eyes and killing them come from?"
*Hiss~ss~*
"He says it's because he can see the weakness of anything, an ability of the Sequence 8 Gravedigger, and uses his spirituality that he has a lot of to shock the weaknesses of those that see him directly."
"Shock the weaknesses? Using his spirituality? What? I don't get it. Is that how the petrifications came about? But I thought the text Mione found said it'd kill everyone it made eye contact with?"
*Hiss~ss*
"He says he cannot kill people, the result of his system-shocking spell is that people become petrified. The killing is just an understanding people have had from the past when they didn't know about petrifications."
"What is this system-shocking spell? How did he learn a spell in the first place?"
*Hiss~ss*
"It isn't a 'spell' it's more of a unique ability. When he drowns the 'weakness' of the enemy with a ton of spirituality, their souls and bodies fall into a mismatch because their bodies become confused about which spirituality is truly theirs.-"
"-And he is unique in pulling it off because Salazar Slytherin used rituals to stuff a large amount of spirituality into his body. To such a degree that any normal person would die and turn into an evil spirit before they saw any gains."
"Hmm….I see."
*Hiss~ss*
"It is also why he cannot advance to the next sequences in spite of living for so long, there is a high chance of him losing control because of the rituals that gave him so much spirituality."
"Is that so…does he live in the Chamber of Secrets?"
*Hiss~ss*
"No. He lives in the spirit world, like me. He only enters the chamber of secrets to hunt or when summoned."
"I see. What about the ring? Does he know about it?"
*Hiss~ss*
"That's his summoning ring. Salazar made it to make it easier to summon him."
"Fine then." Loki nodded and said, "I'm going to take a break now, my brain can't stand much more of all this. I'm tired. You can leave whenever you want to Mister Snake. You too Sunny."
*Hiss~ss*
"Fine."
With those words, the trio of animals, spirits and humans adjourned their meeting and comfortingly fell asleep in each other's company since it had been a long day and no one wanted to take each other's time to rest.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
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