Loki ducked under the rosewood wand that was pointed at him just in time as he noticed a burst of fire erupt out of it.
Because he couldn't stop his momentum, Loki was forced to run past the girl before he was able to come to a skidding halt. He turned around with a quick jump to reset his posture and pulled out his wand which was primed and ready to blow up the girl if things demanded it.
But he didn't fire out any spells for the sole reason that the girl's wand hadn't followed him. She was still pointing her wand at something random in the air, not even at the Minotaur.
The girl flicked her hand and caused the curtain of fire that had erupted to fly in the direction she was pointing at.
All of a sudden the flaming curtain wrapped around something in the air before a shrill *Screech* erupted out to reveal a long slimy octopus that was stuck to the ceiling of the corridor.
Loki's eyes narrowed dangerously.
'That thing was following me?'
'Since when?'
But the girl didn't give Loki more time to figure things out, instead, she shoved the device that was in her hand into the air after tapping it with her wand in specific spots.
Almost instantly, Loki saw a thin ethereal barrier spill out of the device as it passed over both the girl and himself. It stuck around their bodies, causing Loki to feel like he'd been granted a second skin on top of his normal body.
His body had a soft golden glow to it but Loki didn't have time to understand what it was since the Minotaur and the cooked octopus were still almost flying towards him.
He felt a sudden jerk and found the girl pulling him towards herself and he was out of the path of the two monsters.
Under Loki's surprised gaze, he found the Minotaur and the cooked octopus rushing away from them without disturbing them even once.
'Ho…'
'So the device makes us invisible to them?'
As if the girl had read his mind she spoke quickly.
"Zhe device marks us with the blessing of the God of Steam And Machinery."
Loki nodded while looking at the device that was in the girl's hands before he noticed its glow, slowly, dimming down.
"Can it not be used forever?"
The girl shook her head.
"It will only work for three and a half decades more."
Loki's eyes narrowed at the girl as he realised her sense of time seemed to have been warped deeply.
He felt a little pity for her but didn't try and argue with her about it for now.
'Is that why she was crying and sobbing? Because she thought someone abandoned her?'
'...'
'So the device will work for about a few dozen minutes more?'
"My name ez' Fleur. Fleur Delacour."
'I heard that name somewhere before…where?' Loki wondered.
'Ah! The Delacour Family that holds the Assassin pathway? Didn't Professor McGonagall tell me about it? About the one in France?'
'But that strange ring on her finger…why does it feel so precious and at the same time dangerous?'
With his suspicions about Fleur being an Assassin confirmed Loki introduced himself.
"I am Loki. An orphan."
Fleur nodded before explaining her current state.
"Zhe monsters can adapt to whatever attacks you launch at zhem. Any spell you shoot to zhem once doesn't work again."
Loki's pupils narrowed at that information and he nodded in understanding before asking the question that was confusing him a little.
"Have you figured out what we're supposed to do here?" Loki asked and Fleur nodded quickly.
"We are supposed to fix zhe runic arrangement on a portal. I suspect it will get us out of here."
"A portal? Like the door that we came in through?" Loki asked slightly puzzled.
Fleur took a little time to understand what Loki said but she nodded in the end after faintly remembering the door that they had used to enter the labyrinthian corridors.
"Similar."
A smile formed on Loki's face, "Is that all we have to do? Figure out a solution for the door?"
Fleur frowned slightly.
"It iz not easy."
Loki's smile only deepened. "We won't know unless we try won't we?"
Fleur's frown only deepened after hearing Loki's overconfident statement but she just shook her head and started walking away.
"Follow me'"
"Where to my dear princess?"
Fleur's head snapped towards Loki faster than an exploding kernel as she looked at him with a glare and unspoken threat, "I am not your princess."
Loki laughed a little and raised his hands in surrender.
Fleur mumbled something and Loki was sure it sounded something like-
"Gabrielle is zhe only one zhat can call me her princess."
- causing Loki's eyes to narrow at the statement.
'Gabrielle? Her friend?'
'No…she'd have long forgotten about them by now…'
'Unless…she's like me…'
Loki looked at Fleur for a few seconds before fixing his expression as he continued following her.
It took a while but with the protection of the device that Fleur was carrying, they arrived at a pathway that Fleur had marked. The marks were small unnoticeble patches of spirituality that Fleur had left behind to mark the area and keep track of where she had been.
Throughout their entire journey on the pathway, Loki was constantly amazed about how the creatures all decided to ignore him and Fleur so easily no matter what they did.
Even the times Loki stabbed his wand into one of them, it didn't react, only laying there as if Loki hadn't done anything to it.
'Huh…'
Loki analysed the door frame or 'portal' as Fleur had taken to calling it that was in the middle of the corridor around which were several creatures relaxing and hanging upside down from the ceilings or hanging on another creature that was hanging upside down.
There were even a few that were sleeping inside the walls and Loki only noticed them because of the dents that they made in the wall because of their body protruding or sinking into the wall at organic angles.
Eventually, however, Loki moved to the portal and looked at the runes that had been etched on it by Fleur.
'Hmm…so they'll be powered by the device that is currently protecting us…'
'I see…'
'And it'll take about three minutes to power the portal…'
'Is that why she was worried?'
'Worried about fighting so many of these creatures?'
'Huh? Wait this thing-'
'The hell!!!!!!!!'
Loki's eyes almost widened sharply but he controlled his expression with tremendous effort at the last second.
Before giving out a fake nod of understanding as he studied the runes that Fleur had carved all around the frame with great interest.
"....Hmm…difficult."
Fleur heard those words and then asked her question, "Can you do it?"
It was clear she wanted to know if Loki could reduce the time it would take for the portal to activate.
Loki shook his head, but just as Fleur was about to begin crying again he spoke, "It's going to be difficult to work with the runes you've already carved since they're wrong in several places. I can probably reduce the time it'll take to about ten…days?"
Fleur's eyes widened at that information, but Loki didn't care, he only continued speaking.
"In fact, if you are able to handle the monsters for that amount of time by yourself, I will be able to speed up the process even further by optimising the rune pathways on it while it is working all by myself. That'll probably knock off another four or five days of the time we need to stay here."
Fleur's eyes trembled at that and she quickly looked at Loki and spoke calmly.
"I'll do it."
Loki smiled before nodding and getting to work on the door frame because his mind was already in calamitous chaos.
'I didn't mention it to her…'
'But clearly this door is made with the Beyonder Characteristic of someone from the Door pathway…'
'....how?'
'Why?'
'And where did they get this…?'
'Do the Flamels know something about the Lord of the Mysteries pathways?'
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