Chapter 417: 'Plan Of The Blessed.'
"Where are we?" Walburga asked looking around the dark room Loki had brought them both into. "This isn't the Black Manor…did you have to sell it to gain capital for someplace else?"
Walburga was frowning by the end.
"...what? N- no!!" Loki was flabbergasted when he saw how little Wallburga trusted him.
"Ho? Then?" Walburga asked with raised eyebrows.
"Grandma! Don't you trust me even a little bit!?"
Walburga gave Loki a dead-eyed look, she still remembered seeing Loki's strange choice for an outfit when she was awake, and then deliberately measured him with her eyes to show how little he was when she'd left him to handle things alone.
"Come on! I've grown up! A lot~!" Loki rolled his eyes, causing Walburga to smile.
"And you've become a fine young man…tell me…you've set your eyes on any gir-"
Loki shook his head and quickly interrupted Walburga lest she start talking about something absurd.
"Forget about all that. I need your help!" Loki quickly sprang his 'problem' onto Walburga.
Walburga's eyes narrowed and she looked at Loki with a stern gaze. "What happened? Did someone try and bare their fangs at the Black family while I was gone?"
Loki shook his head.
"No. The Black Family has fared well for now. It even has an 'additional' member who has 'returned'. The trouble is with how I helped you recover."
Walburga nodded a little as if she had expected such a thing before asking, "What did you do anyway? What is that thing? An extinct magical creature or a demon?"
Loki nodded his head.
"Your guess is right. It's a demon. And although I don't have all the information about why it was haunting you, I have a few guesses."
Walburga leaned in to show her interest in the matter and Loki continued.
"According to my guesses, the demon was sent to haunt the family head by an evil god whose name I cannot take. But given the matter is related to demons you should know who it is related to."
Walburga's eyes widened with Loki's words.
"You-know-who?"
Loki nodded, "Voldemort is only 'Her' lackey."
Walburga flinched at Loki's usage of Voldemort's name but when nothing happened she looked at him with confusion.
"I fought the madman once already. He's pretty weak. He won't try and take me on directly for now so don't worry about that."
Walburga's eyes widened and almost immediately narrowed as she stared at Loki with a gaze filled with disbelief.
Except Loki wasn't interested in expanding further on the matter and continued with his 'plan'.
"But you must be wondering how and why the previous family heads have also been losing control and dying out after reaching Sequence 4?" Loki asked.
"No, I don't care about that- are you alright? You said you fought 'Him'-"
"Later. I'll tell you about that later. For now the 'problem' I have is more important." Loki waved his hand randomly.
Walburga breathed deeply, filling her chest with the cool refreshing air of the room as she calmed herself and held onto rationality as she continued to ignore the pain in her broken arm.
And then Walburga looked at Loki with a scrutinising gaze as she tried to understand what Loki had just said.
And his words only made her confused since none of the members of the Black family had ever found such a thing.
Especially when-
"You said that it was You-know-who's True Goddess that had put the demon to work, but you also indicated that all the previous Black Family Heads were 'infected' by the same demon?"
"How did we not find this for all this time? And how did you find it so easily?"
Loki shook his head, "It wasn't easy."
"You didn't find it because of a special and particular skill set that the demon had. It contained this mystical item." Loki said, pointing his wand at the pile of bones and dragging to himself the illusory ring that was inside it.
Walburga walked closer and observed the ring for a little bit but since she hadn't delved deeply into runes and their functions she found it a little hard to understand what Loki was talking about so she looked at him.
And Loki obliged.
"It's a ring that can allow you to parasitize your enemy-"
"-No way. I would've noticed something like that happening to me."
Loki shook his head.
"Why don't you try using it on me? You'll understand what I'm talking about easier that way."
Walburga frowned but true to the madness of a black family member she trusted Loki fully before slipping the ring onto her finger as she channeled her spirituality into it.
Loki stood still and waited for Walburga to activate its effects.
Walburga looked around for a second after pouring her spirituality into the ring. Trying to get used to all the new things she was feeling.
The first thing she felt was that she could simply extend her hand and rob something from Loki who was in front of her. Several runes floated around his body and each one of them seemed to be tightly wound to him along with several thoughts in his body of heart and mind.
But she could feel that with her delicate hands, she could usurp any one of them without Loki even noticing anything had been done to them.
That was when Walburga spotted-
'Is that his soul?'
Walburga was familiar with the concept of the soul since as a Black Family member she'd delved into dark magic before, several rituals, involving the soul directly. But she'd never seen one as clearly as she was seeing now ever before.
Loki waved his hands and spoke, "What happened?"
Walburga spoke, "Your soul's still pure…you haven't delved into dark magic. At least it looks like that. I thought I'd have to call in favours to help fix your soul and purify it from the corruptions of evil gods."
"Why do you think I'd ever delve into dark magic!? I'm a pure soul! The purest there is, well not exactly since I'm sure Elane's would be purer than mine but-"
But Walburga tuned him out and then examined the second feeling that the ring was giving her.
It was the sense of closeness that Walburga felt towards the clean small blob that was floating in the centre of Loki's chest.
Walburga extended her hand and within a second her entire view changed. She found herself sitting right beside Loki. Like a kangaroo baby in its mother's pouch. She found herself seeing exactly what Loki was seeing through the darkness and hearing all that he was thinking.
'He's studied occlumency.'
But she could clearly see Loki's mastery over his thoughts with how none of them were unordered or unstable. They were clearly just waiting and observing her who was suddenly attached to his soul, just like how she was observing him.
That was when she heard a thought from Loki's mind speak directly to her.
"Don't deepen the connection from this point on, that will force you to kill me and take over my body if you want to leave."
Walburga stopped supplying the ring with her spirituality and observed everything through Loki's senses.
'The ease with which it was done was a little unnerving…' Walburga wondered, 'As long as one doesn't have the ability to feel the soul it is a hard ability to counter easily.'
Loki nodded, causing Walburga's vision to shake before he spoke again.
'Precisely. And I doubt with Salazar Slytherin having gone mum for the last however many centuries there was a way for any Demigods or even Saints in the Black Family to protect themselves from this parasite.'
Walburga frowned in thought before speaking, 'Do you know why it is here?'
Loki nodded, 'Not exactly but I have a guess…'
Walburga noticed the uncertainty in his tone and spoke calmly, 'You don't have to tell me if you've sworn to some True God not to tell about it to anyone. I understand that telling me even this much was a risk.'
Loki shook his head quickly.
'It's not that I can't tell you about it. The trouble is if you can believe what I've done.'
'What did you do? It's not like you would've sold the Black Family to some evil god out there.' Walburga asked pointedly.
'I mean…' Loki was suddenly at a loss for words.
'I knew it! That spell you used- What did you do!? Which god is it? The True Creator? Or the Chained God-'
'Stop! Stop! Don't ramble away the names of True gods while you are attached to me! I don't want to become a target and be smote by thee heavens!'
'Ha! As if anyone's gaze could penetrate the concealment of the place we are in.' Walburga argued further since from the moment she'd stepped out of the coffin she had felt a deep affinity for the darkness they were in.
Loki was a little embarrassed but he still didn't want to act any more emboldened and reveal just how fearless he actually was.
'Try parasitising me a little bit deeper. Don't go at it in a full-blown assault. Just try touching my soul and you'll understand what I mean.'
Walburga did exactly as Loki told and expended a tiny bit of her spirituality, pouring it into the ring to try and touch Loki's soul.
'What's so scary about getting close to a soul? I'm sure there are several rituals performed in Knockturn Alley that take the cake-'
Walburga froze mid-way as she suddenly felt herself become insignificant.
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