Loki stood tall and observed the damages the very short battle between him and a Great Old One had brought onto the planet and it was nothing short of devastating.
The once lush lands of Africa that bordered the Mediterranean sea had been turned into a harsh desert after Mother Goddess of Depravity had revoked all life in Loki's vicinity.
The many organisations of Beyonders that were prepared for the chaos and devastation were no more, completely erased in the aftermath of the other Outer Gods appearing on the battlefield for mere moments after the Astral Barrier had been shattered.
Most humans on the planet were once again turned into maddened creatures that only knew how to reproduce to save themselves.
The Abyss was corrupted with the devils leaving it for better grounds, already bargaining a deal with Salazar who hoped to save them and convert them to the faction of his Lord.
The Mirror dimension was shattered since Cheek had forcibly absorbed the Red Priest Characteristics and Uniqueness after killing the True God of the Red Priest pathway in a surprise attack only to then be doused with parasitism by Loki before being brutally hurt to deceive the concepts by similarity into hurting the Primordial Chaos within Mother Goddess of Depravity.
It hurt her quite a bit. But she knew well enough that in such a situation escaping death by being turned into the plaything of a Great Old One was a greater boon than anything else available.
The Moon Goddess was dead, sacrificed by Loki since she was already corrupted beyond saving so that he could steal Mother Goddess of Depravity's authority over the moon by deceiving the theft of the weakened Moon Goddess to apply to the Outer God.
She was supposed to reincarnate into a new vessel of Loki's choosing. A price she had to pay because she had schemed against Loki and his disciples.
The Chained God was corrupted as well by Mother Tree of Desire.
So the tally was two gods dead, one corrupted god and one whose home was now dislocated.
But it wasn't all for naught.
They had repelled the Outer Gods and Loki had even managed to corrupt the Original Creator's spawn inside Mother Goddess of Depravity. If nothing went wrong, she would have to take drastic measures to keep herself safe from the healing of the corruption of the Original Creator's spawn, like separating herself from it or even possibly getting rid of it in some way.
But the fact still remained that Loki felt a corruption engraved deep within his soul as a rebound at his attempt at corrupting the Original Creator's spawn, even though successful.
A corruption of magnitude he could not properly comprehend even as he spent time studying it from all angles to see how it could be 'solved'.
Only, he could figure nothing out.
'Can I divine about it in the Sefirah Castle?'
'Since the castle is an Original Creator level item, it should be able to at least help me figure out what the fuss is about, shouldn't it?'
Loki looked around the battlefield and cleaned up any remnants of his blood or fleshy bits from it before vanishing on the spot and reappearing on his seat in the Sefirah Castle.
He could've performed the divination outside by dragging the Sefirah Castle's influence outside but he didn't want to leave behind any traces. The High Sequence Beyonders that were all alive were mostly from his side but should any other angels catch wind of his poor state and plan something with the 'enemy' True Gods like Cheek and the Chained God it would almost certainly spell doom for him at this moment and he didn't want to be caught off guard.
So Loki flicked a coin to perform the divination inside the Sefirah Castle.
"The Corruption of the Primordial Chaos in me is for a planned reason."
The statement indicated Loki's already sharp mind decrypting the nature of his corruption partly.
If the corruption hadn't killed him yet, that could only mean that the spawn of the Original Creator wanted to use him in some way.
And true to his status as a King of King of Angels, Loki didn't have to repeat the statement seven times or even close his eyes.
A vision simply flashed in front of his eyes as a scene drew itself up from vivid colourful paints in his view.
"So you finally choose to kill me?" A feminine voice asked Loki inside the vision.
Loki holding a bizarre bone stiletto looked in the direction of the voice hidden in darkness and spoke in a bizarre voice that sounded both broken and pleasant at the same time.
It was harsh on the ears but soft on the mind.
Almost like an error, but of a much greater magnitude than Loki could currently conjure.
"The day you died was nailed to the calendar the day you chose to kill me."
The vision shattered and Loki found himself seated in the Sefirah Castle with his back drenched in sweat.
'What?'
'The Goddess of Fortune wants to kill me?'
Loki's mind went into overdrive as his decryption abilities clicked into place.
'No. If she wanted to kill me she would've killed me when she first met me or anytime else.'
'But why was I trying to kill her then when we have no beef?'
'....was I possessed?'
'Did the corruption of the Original Creator grow and take over my body and make that scene happen?'
'But why?'
'Why does the Original Creator have beef with the Goddess of Fortune?'
'And what does it have to do with me?'
Loki sat puzzled for a few seconds before things clicked into place.
'I can't be corrupted by anything other than an Original Creator level corruption….'
'Am I the descent vessel for the Original Creator or something?'
'No, that can't be the case, if that were true then 'She' wouldn't have risked letting me live so easily. She did nothing to me and even in the vision she patiently asked me if that was my choice…'
'It doesn't seem like I'm a descent vessel for the original creator or I'd have known sooner. My fate would've always been tied to 'His' descent if that was the case.'
'But if I'm not a descent vessel…then why am I incorruptible?'
Loki frowned in thought until a vague thought struck him.
'The Primordial Chaos…'
'If Goddess the Fortune is willing to kill the Primordial Chaos as the vision stated then it could be possible that it is because the Primordial Chaos has already corrupted 'Her'? Which is why she wants to get rid of it? And to get rid of it she needs it trapped in a vessel? And that vessel is me?'
Loki's mind trembled at the revelation.
'Is this true?'
'But how is a vessel to contain the Original Creator made? Such that it is incorruptible to anything other than Original Creator level power and corruption?'
Loki still remembered the words that the Goddess of Fortune had used when she'd met him.
'You're still rather naive…this iteration won't do…'
'That means that 'She' has created multiple of me and destroyed them all multiple times before.'
'She has faced off against the Primordial Chaos multiple times before.'
'How is it so cheap to create vessels that can contain the Original Creator Level entities?'
'Especially since I just transmigrated into the world one day, didn't I?'
'...didn't I?'
Loki felt his world view shatter as he felt himself losing control.
And almost instantly, the corruption within him grew in size, gnawing on his sense of self as it tried to assert control. Ravings that he had once parted with after their long stay returned with full force as Loki did his best to remain sitting still.
Loki wanted to do nothing else than create an avatar and swap places with it to achieve a temporary rebirth while it died to the corruption but the words that the Goddess of Fortune had told him next echoed in Loki's mind.
'You must start over again once you reach the peak or there will be no hope in the next.'
"Did the staring over mean for me to be reborn?"
"Reborn for what?"
"To die again?"
"How would reaching the peak of my pathway or even a Great Old One status help?"
"How does a Great Old One even fight a fully powered Primordial Creator?"
"How can one fight a Original Creator level being without being an Original Creator level being himself?"
The question suddenly struck a deep chord within Loki as he repeated it a few times, specifically.
'...without being an Original Creator Level being himself…how could he fight an Original Creator level being?'
'Without being an Original Creator level being…'
'...'
'What if my peak isn't just the Great Old One status?'
'What if…'
'What if it is straight up Original Creator level?'
'....'
…
Hermione gulped audibly as she along with Daphne followed their guide out of Hogwarts.
"Are we going to Ilvermorny?"
"Ilvermorny?" Coco asked puzzled, "Oh no, we aren't going there little ones. That would be too far for my taste and we need to go to the Department of Mysteries anyway since that's where you'll be departing from so let's finish everything there."
Hermione nodded but was slightly confused so she proposed her question, "How are we going to stay sane in the Department of Mysteries? My memories of whenever I entered the place are all fudged up."
"Hmm..? You don't know its secret?" Coco asked slightly surprised but before Hermione could say anything else she nodded thinking to herself, "Of course you don't know. It isn't taught at Hogwarts anymore. Don't worry about it. Just know that I know the person in charge of the Department of Mysteries, and they will let us go in and out without being affected."
"The person incharge…Madam Bones?" Daphne asked softly.
Only to have Coco give out a high pitched laugh, "Hahaha~ No, what a funny joke. What made you think that a mere Sequence 2 Angel could be the lord of what's in the Department of Mysteries? Anyway, like I said before, don't worry about it, worrying will get you nothing."
'Mere angel?' the words rang in both Hermione and Daphne's minds.
What was the Sequence of Miss Coco for her to be able to call someone a 'mere' sequence 2 angel?
Was she a True God?
No, no way, why would a True God of all people come down and ask them to help her?
That would be truly bizarre.
Perhaps Miss Coco was a Sequence 1 Angel herself.
'As expected of Mr. Error, he has someone like Coco under him.' Hermione mentally commented.
Either way, both the girls started to unconsciously respect Miss Coco more.
And Daphne asked her another question, "Wait, is Madam Bones a Sequence 2? How!? I thought no one in this era can grow beyond Sequence 4? And doesn't the Arbiter pathway not even have a True God? How is she even beyond Sequence 5?"
Hermione nodded at the question too since it was something she'd recognised as well.
Coco looked at the two girls with a funny smirk before motioning them to zip their lips as she winked and explained vaguely.
"All I can tell you without risking you to corruption is that a Genie trapped in a bottle somewhere will be helping us out in our current situation and is related to the Bones pathway mysteries."
The girls nodded wondering if the Genie was the true master of the Department of Mysteries but didn't question Coco any further since they'd stepped outside the Hogwarts grounds and onto the unguarded pathway towards Hogsmeade where Coco turned around and spoke to them-
"Come on girls, place your hands on mine and we'll apparate to our destination."
Hermione looked at Daphne and they placed their hands into Coco's and soon after the second they did, they twisted from the spot in a swirl of colours before landing in a dark and dreary but mostly empty place.
Almost as soon as they landed, Hermione felt the pull of an external force on her. Almost as if she was meant to be one with the object pulling her, not physically but spiritually.
Hermione turned around and there it was, standing in all its glory, a glassy door. It was underneath an archway that held a mask sitting on the front face of the vault stone on top of which was a lamp much like the one from aladin.
The door pulled her closer almost automatically.
One moment she was standing a couple meters away and the next she was right in front of the door, about to touch it with her hands.
However, she was stopped at the last second. Both by Daphne and by Coco who were looking at her with a slight sense of confusion and intrigue respectively.
The entire place was caked in a thick layer of dust so Coco softly pushed Hermione behind her before clapping her hands and to make the dust magically vanish using a simple scourgify spell.
After which, Coco moved directly to the now ominous door that visibly radiated a deep hatred towards her before flicking her finger and grabbing the lamp sitting atop it using the levitation spell.
The display of magical authority captivated Hermione the most since she'd never seen anything like it before but she was further surprised when Coco slightly rubbed the lamp like it was a wish granting lamp before the wick at the spout of the magic wishing lamp suddenly ignited, emitting light that looked like viscous water, spurting upwards to form a blurred and distorted pale golden figure.
"A real genie!?" Hermione audibly gasped. "I thought you were only speaking in similes."
…
'So I need to become the Original Creator or reach his level before dying along with the Primordial Chaos to be reborn without corruption and escape the fate of becoming a descent vessel?' Loki concluded after recovering from his shock only to sink into another shock after he concluded this.
'What the hell!'
'But I'm already cursed by the Primordial Chaos!? And the only way to rid myself of 'His' corruption is by being reborn inside one of my Avatars and switching places so that it dies instead of me!'
'But now you tell me that I have to reach the level of the Original Creator first before being reborn to save myself!!?? How do I do that!? How do I reach the Original Creator level without cleansing myself of corruption from the Original Creator?'
Loki closed his eyes and thought carefully for a solution.
'...'
And he found one, a risky one but a solution nonetheless.
'What if I let my avatar grow to the Original Creator level and then parasitise it fully as if it were my own self? And then replace some random avatar to die in my stead with the Primordial Creator's corruption?'
'Of course this has the risk of the avatar turning against me…'
'Especially since it would have gained Original Creator Level Authority…'
'But shouldn't it listen to its master if I explain it the situation a little?'
'After all, according to the Goddess of Fortune, we can't survive either way without me being reborn after reaching the peak…and if my Avatar tries to take birth without merging with me, I will simply steal the rebirth or at least contest for it which would let the Primordial Chaos fudge things up again?'
'Also if I fall asleep during the time I plan for the Avatar to be born and work for me, merging will simply be a continuation, as in, my memories will end when I fall asleep and the Avatar's memories will be a continuation, blurring the lines between who lives and who dies.'
'...but is it possible?'
'Is there a safer way to do it?'
'...what if I transfer the Corruption at the right moment?'
'What if I transfer the corruption of the Primordial Chaos to the remnant will of the previous Error Pathway True God that I killed and trapped in my wand?'
'...'
'Hmm…'
Loki frowned in thought, thinking rather deeply about his greater plans and the final details for his resurrection. Making sure every detail was taken into account so that he wouldn't fall through.
And after quite a bit of thought, Loki felt like he had conceived a preliminary plan that could be put into work.
'What if when I create a new child avatar, I also create a backup avatar so that in case something happens to the child avatar, the will in the wand can take over for me to sacrifice it to the corruption, while the backup avatar becomes a backup for the child avatar to resurrect in?'
'This way the will of the wand lets me live longer by living as me for now while I am asleep and waiting for the right time for the resurrection of the child avatar.'
'All that will be needed after that is for me to guide the will in the wand into freeing the backup avatar in case things get spicy.'
'And I'm pretty sure if I lock the will in the wand to the Sefirah Castle, he'll want an avatar to try and explore and affect the outside world… so he'll try to parasitise the already available avatar and use it instead.'
'Which means that given as long as I protect that backup avatar from getting parasitised, I can upload the will of the child avatar into it and then let it continue reaching the top in case something happens to it.'
'To reach the top I'll also need to provide the child avatar with rituals for advancement, that is a blasphemy card.'
'...perhaps I can even give the child false advancement rituals as a backup plan for myself, so that I can parasitise the child easier in the final event. Especially since my avatars can't get corrupted, so as long as the child avatar believes that he has successfully passed a ritual, he'll be happy, and since he will never try to use a different ritual from the ones in the card of blasphemy he'll never know that those are the false rituals!'
'So as long as there are no Original Creator Level corruptions, I should be safe…perhaps even Cheek's corruptions could affect the avatar since she has already temporarily achieved the level of the Mirrored Original Creator.'
'But why would she even corrupt me, no reason for friends to turn daggers against each other, right?'
'No…if she does, I should have a back up plan for that too…'
'But what can cleanse the corruption of a God that has previously attained the level of the Mirrored Original Creator?'
'..to cleanse corruption on the level of life…'
Loki's eyes suddenly narrowed, 'Isn't that the authority of the Sequence 0 of the Moon pathway?'
'So as long as I bargain for some favors from the newly resurrected vessel of the Moon goddess I should be able to get myself cleansed of corruption?'
'...'
Loki finally relaxed.
He knew just how he would gain those favours from 'Her'. If he could resurrect her in any vessel he wished, then he could simply make her a family member the next time around.
With a plan finally settled, Loki acted almost immediately.
He changed the trajectory of the fate of the Moon Goddess to be reborn close to when his avatar would be reborn. And made it so that they would be a family that would be under his protection as long as the plan was in effect.
After which he carefully decided on the memories to give his new child avatar that would resurrect in a few thousand years.
'The new avatar must want to constantly grow stronger…'
'And to do that he must choose the error pathway…'
'Since I don't want anyone else to choose that pathway I'll give the responsibility of my avatar choosing the error pathway to Salazar so that he'll cover the Lord of the Mysteries pathways in a layer of concealment once he becomes a True God so that only my avatar can see through it and use the pathway's potions and advancement rituals.'
'I can guide Rowena and the others to set up Hogwarts in the meantime so that my avatar in the future thinks that there is something more to this world than on the surface so that he isn't distracted enough to experiment with his incorruptibility.'
'I can even use the avatar sealed in his soul for a backup to pretend like he gets corrupted by having it play the sound of ravings each time it thinks the child avatar should be corrupted so that the child avatar stops doing whatever he is doing and finds a way out of the situation.'
'I can even make the backup avatar sealed in the child avatar's soul add ravings like 'Hornacis flegrea' to make the child avatar believe that he needs to get stronger by following those like Klein did.'
With a smile, Loki then moved to slowly replace himself with the will inside the wand by taking its position in the wand, so that he could fall asleep for now and only periodically wake up to make sure his new avatar would be created in time and the surrounding situation would happen as expected according to his calculations.
'All I need to do while periodically waking up is make sure there's someone like Dumbledore and Grindelwald and Voldemort in the future.'
…
The genie in the lamp looked at Hermione and Daphne before his eyes widened slightly, "Where did you get…"
"That's not important Mr. Genie in the lamp." Coco interrupted unhesitatingly before continuing with her purpose, "I want to use my second wish."
The genie looked at her with a soft glare before nodding, "What is it?"
"I wish for these two to be sent to the Primordial Chaos's hold after I give them the required items to clear the Chaos Plague."
The Genie's eyes widened almost instantly before it shouted as it tried retreating back into its lamp, "Insanity! Utter insanity! Who would do such a thing!"
But Coco held a firm grip on his clothes using the levitation spell, causing the genie to comically freeze in the air as it tried swimming away.
Finally seeing no semblance of sanity in the woman holding him hostage, the genie turned towards the girls, "You should know how wonderful the job you are doing is, do you really think you are fit for it?"
Hermione's eyes firmed as did Daphne's in that moment as they spoke firmly, "We are."
Hermione then added on, "If we can do it, then we must."
The genie looked absolutely bewildered at the madness it was witnessing before simply adorning a neutral face that had no reaction on it and asking Coco a question, "Are you sure?"
Coco nodded and then shrugged her shoulders as she explained, "As long as you don't take them to a different Primordial Chaos's hold everything's fine. I'll handle the rest."
"I can't control how the wish is twisted, but alright." The genie nodded.
Coco then turned to the two girls waiting for her instructions.
She walked up to them and placed her hands on their heads.
A warm current of energy flowed into their bodies, spreading through each nerve, each fiber, each pore in their bodies as it gave them a relaxing feeling before something coalesced in front of their chests that was different looking in between the two of them.
The crystal in front of Hermione was in the shape of a surreal, shimmering eye embedded with intricate gray-white patterns and flecks of starlight while Daphne's was a sharp, deep black horn-like object with countless grey-white wrinkles.
It was their beyonder characteristics.
Coco had used the Sun pathway's purification ability to purify the two off their Beyonder Characteristics.
She grabbed them from the air before holding it for them in return.
"I won't be holding them for you, instead since you'll need the abilities of your pathways to help you in the assassination I'll morph them into-"
'-this." Coco revealed her hand to show new items in it once again.
Both were powerfully bright golden bracelets, one with the eye embedded into it and the other the horn.
"You can use these mystical items for your mission and once you're done, simply consume the Beyonder Characteristics to regain your Sequences."
Hermione and Daphne nodded but Coco wasn't done.
Instead she handed the two, two similar looking glasses.
"Wear these and it'll steal your vision before turning anything that can corrupt you through sight into cartoonish figures and showing it back to you. It'll also translate any language for you so that you can understand it to the best of your ability."
Hermione and Daphne nodded again putting on the glasses and immediately feeling slightly startled when Coco turned into a chibi version of herself and he Genie turned into a cartoonish character too.
"The plan is simple, you're going to be teleported into the centre of a dying neutron star where a diseased baby is being held. All you have to do is ascertain your direction to the baby and reach it before strangling it or killing it using any of your Beyonder abilities."
"...baby?" Hermione asked, her tone faltering slightly.
"Don't be sorry, it's a baby that's over two millenia old."
Hermione gulped and nodded softly.
"The place is going to be filled with a ton of different spirits, so make sure you aren't caught or even if you are you are caught after you kill the baby. I will teleport you back here once you are done with another wish, so you don't need to worry."
"Got all that?" Coco finally asked.
Hermione and Daphne nodded again.
"Alright then," Coco turned to the Genie before speaking, "You can send them away."
The Genie snapped his fingers, and even before he was done-
Hermione and Daphne found themselves in a dark stone cavern enclosed on all sides with the only open side blocked by hard stone bars.
'...'
The looked around themselves to find a large crowd in the middle of which they had arrived before Hermione's eyes fell on a board at the top of the bars-
"Prison Block…" she mumbled, causing Daphne to look at the same board before they looked at each other in surprise and mild shock.
'Of all the places we could go to…'
'Why did we have to begin with a prison?'
…