Waking up groggily, Loki felt like he'd been hit by a truck.
He looked around while slowly opening his eyes.
'Oh? I'm back here? Did I run out of spirituality and get kicked out of the castle?'
Pushing himself off the ground while groaning and adjusting due to the pain he was feeling from both, the terrible battle he had with Voldemort's soul and his odd sleeping posture on the hard floor, Loki looked at the altar that he'd set up for the ritual.
The candles on it had melted away and the fire had long gone out but there was nothing else on it.
'Did I leave the locket in the castle?'
Loki stood up and relit the candles and quickly performed a bestowment ritual to bless himself with the locket which was just lying on the table inside the castle.
Beside the locket was however something that Loki had completely forgotten about.
'Beyonder Characteristics.'
'Which Sequence is it? Sequence 3 Blatherer?'
The characteristics looked strange. They looked like a set of small teeth bones, shaped almost like a jaw but every tooth was aligned in a different jagged way making it quite hard to believe that it could be an actual jaw. Simultaneously a dark mist swirled around it like a pack of flies around rotting food.
Loki grabbed the jaw and stuffed it inside the glass case the locket was inside earlier and sealed it under a wall of spirituality.
With the locket now in hand, Loki looked at it carefully for a while, seeing if there were any remnants of Voldemort's soul still attached to it.
He remembered having already done this before he fell asleep, but he didn't want to take any more risks.
Once he was sure, he left the Sefirah Castle and his eyes dragged themselves until he was looking right at Salazar through the crystal.
'*sigh* I hope he wakes up when I drop this into it.'
Loki, however, didn't go to Salazar's crystal, he left the locket on one of the shelves filled with books.
There were several precautions he had to take before he would give Salazar his locket.
And so Loki pulled out the Marauder's map to check if there were any people outside the room, patrolling it.
Ever since Loki had noticed the three people patrolling around the seventh floor, he'd become borderline paranoid about monitoring their presence.
He'd always keep his eyes on the map to see if they were anywhere near him.
The only times he'd come into the 'Puzzle room' would be when there was no one there and even then he'd hide himself using his illusions with the Marauder's map out so that he wouldn't run into them.
Luckily there was currently no one outside the room.
'Probably because they have to attend classes.' Loki reasoned since he had fallen asleep and woken up after a proper nap.
Loki pulled out his topaz pendant and performed a divination.
"Now is the best time to sacrifice the locket to Salazar Slytherin."
"Now is the best time to sacrifice the locket to Salazar Slytherin."
"Now is the best time to sacrifice the locket to Salazar Slytherin."
…
"Now is the best time to sacrifice the locket to Salazar Slytherin."
Opening his eyes, Loki looked at the result and was surprised because the pendant was spinning anti-clockwise.
'Ah, is it because he is of the Darkness pathway?'
'Meaning his domain is the night?'
'I understand.'
Satisfied with his reasoning Loki calmed down and walked out of the room leaving everything inside as it was.
He had classes to attend and he was already running late.
Loki rushed to his room under the cover of illusions and took a quick cold shower which had the added effect of freshing up his mood and getting his blood pumping.
A smirk eventually made its way onto his face.
'I beat a Saint.'
'Hehehehehe~'
Arriving at Potion's class Loki entered the classroom and ducked behind students to arrive at his place in the room beside Hermione.
"Loki!! I thought something happened to you!" Hermione exclaimed in a whisper.
"Haha~ As if anything could take me down! These bones have been through a decade and will live through a million more" Loki said with pride, a little loudly since he was still feeling excited that he'd beaten a Saint, all on his own.
Seeing Loki was alright, Hermione rolled her eyes at his antics, but someone else wasn't pleased with his boasting.
*BANG*
"This is a classroom Mr. Loki. Not a place for you to live through your delusions." Snape slapped the back of Loki's head with his textbook.
The class snickered at Loki, everyone doing their best to not break out in full-blown laughter while Loki just ducked his head and began to focus on the potion Hermione was making, helping her by slicing the ingredients and such.
Class ended gracefully and Loki passed through the rest of the classes with equal excitement until it was finally the end of the day and Loki could entertain the idea of gonig back into the 'puzzle room'.
Except, there was just one problem.
'Damn. Why aren't they moving away from the spot?'
'Do they know that something is going to happen today?'
It had been a couple of hours into the night and the three students were still patrolling around the puzzle room's entrance.
'Hmpf. They don't know that I've defeated a Saint! As if three mere brats will be able to stop me!'
With a determined resolve, Loki walked around the castle collecting chalk from different classrooms while consulting the Marauder's map to check where everyone was so that he wouldn't get caught.
Once he was done with his preparations, Loki ran upto the sixth floor where Finch was and while masking his face with illusions.
"Hey! You're a squib aren't you!!?" Loki shouted while modifying his voice to be high-pitched.
"W- WHO ARE YOU!!!???" Finch shouted and began to follow Loki up the stairs where he tried to chase him through to the seventh floor.
Rushing through the corridors at a steady pace, Loki smirked.
'Alright, now to reveal the hiding spots of these three fools.'
The students were under a disillusionment charm, something that kept them invisible, but Loki knew their locations through the map he was holding.
Finch moved behind Loki, following him through but he didn't expect Loki to suddenly throw chalk powder into the air, making it form a white cloud.
Finch stopped, thinking it was something that might harm him since students had done this sort of thing before but soon he noticed three distinct outlines form from the chalk powder Loki had tossed into the air.
The invisible students and Finch froze for a few seconds before Finch and Miss Norris jumped at two of them, holding onto them tightly while the third one escape by breaking into a run.
Loki watched all of this action while hidden in the shadows until he scanned the Marauder map and saw all those involved either rush back to the dorms or be taken to Finch's office.
'Too easy.'
'Of course it is, I've beaten a Saint afterall.'
'Hmpf.'
Distant away in faraway lands, a ghost like soul shivered as it felt a part of itself suddenly vanish from the world.
Voldemort searched around in confusion for a while, trying to understand the source of this feeling but only settled after possessing an unsuspecting traveller to perform a simple ritual.
'Who did it!?'
'How did my failsafe fail to inform me how it happened!?'
'Was it 'Him'?'
'No. Not even 'He' could do such a thing. It is a part of me after all, we share a bond deeper than anyone else!'
'And no one could have just killed me! That was the strongest one of them all! It was a Saint after all.'
'I need 'Her' help.'
Voldemort used the unsuspecting traveller's body to perform a new ritual, the response to it was a single piece of paper that floated out of the candle fire after it flared for a second.
Voldemort caught the piece of paper and looked at it with a frown.
'A Sefirot…? Like the one she wants me to conquer for 'Her'?'
'I need to speed up the plans for my rebirth.'
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