Lord Shadow

Her thought then speeds up and everything seems to slow down even more. She could see that her husband is using a chopping motion toward her neck slowly.

Like a very slowed down video

There is a force swirling around his hand. It is not enough to kill but strong enough to make someone unconscious.

If she wanted to evade, now is the time. Her heart says fight. Her mind said to let it go. In that moment, she looks toward Nathalie under Loki arm.

Loki seems to notice as he looks toward her. And he smiles.

Even in this situation where everything seems to slow down, that her thought process become so fast that synapses is shooting off in her brain nerve, Loki seems to be able to sync his consciousness with her, matching up with the speed of her thought

It is akin like moving in super speed where everything seems to slow down only it is different in that only the perception of time was slowed down.

But even that did not escape Loki eyes. She made her decision right at that moment. She did not show any signs that she would deflect that attack coming towards her

Tears of sadness falls form her eyes and then she let go.

Time seems to move again for her and just right before that hand reach her neck, she whispers to him

‘Sorry. I love you’ And then the strike connected. 

A shockwave exploded and disperse some of the green mist around Nathan and Riana. Riana was about to fall down but Nathan grab her and hugged her unconscious body.

Nathan eyes is moist with water. He hugged her and he almost didn’t want to let go. Loki then sighed

‘You made the right choice.’

Nathan did not answer. Instead he said

‘It did not feel like it’

Loki smiles bitterly.

‘She is still one of my people after all. At the end, she chose to be a mother. I know she would never make this choice if not for the baby in my arms’ Pausing for a second, he then added

‘She did not like abandoning people. Because she was abandoned herself’

Nathan did not say anything as the moment keep on moving. A second felt like a year. And he wished that time would stretch out for infinity as he hugged her tightly.

He closes his eyes, fearing that his tears would fall down. Sadness comes in many forms. Nathan had suffered a lot in the course of his life

And he had made people suffers before. A life of a sinner 

It is not like this is the first time he felt sadness. But nothing trumps this sorrow he is feeling right now

A sorrow where even if he screams and sobs and unleash all the tears in his eyes, it could not be stopped.

Bottling up like some kind of poisons that coursing through his vein. A sadness that have no name. 

He had felt what it felt like to fall in love. To live a normal life. A happy life. A life without no waves. Only calmness and peace.

He felt the joy of being a father. Felt the joy of being a husband. Of someone who have been loved and of loving someone.

And right now, at this moment, when death was so close that all of this happy memories flashed inside his mind and his sorrow multiplied by a hundred fold. Knowing that he has to leave it all behind

But then, thinking that his daughter would be safe, then that sorrows, the regrets and the fears all dissipated. The tears fall, but the sadness is no longer.

He then looks at Loki and said with a cold voice.

‘keep your promise’ Loki nodded

‘I’ll take care of her’

Nathan then carries Riana on his arms. One arm under her legs and the other supporting her back and he carried her toward Loki

And then he laid her down on the ground near Loki. 

Loki click his fingers and a bed made of green mist appears from underneath her and it floats before flying slowly behind Loki

Nathan takes a deep breath. It is not every day that one knows exactly when they are going to die. It takes courage to face death, to accept death the way he is right now

The Nathan in the past would never be this brave. But, he now has Nathalie. That child not once she was disturbed. She sleeps very peacefully. He then walks toward Loki

‘Let me see her’ Loki nodded as he let him close. Nathan did not plan any sneak attack. He did not plan a last minute escape attempt. He just looks at her baby daughter and he smiles

He did not leave any last words. Only a smile on his face and a few tears coming down from his eyes.

Then he leans down and kiss the baby forehead. Then he walks away from Loki. He fears that if he flinched, if he suddenly attacks, the attack would also harm his precious treasure.

Loki smiles and then he brought out something from his sleeve. His jackets flutter a bit as the wind seems to waves violently outside the house.

But even so, it was not able to move the house. The green mist seems to protect the house. Loki smiles as he looks at toward the distance.

In his eyes, he could see that Sasha had been sending attack toward the barriers he had set forth a few hundred kilometers away from this house

She is now tangling with the barrier. It would not be long now before she arrives here. But Loki did not seem panicked

To him, she came just right on time.

Loki then look back at Nathan and shakes his head

‘What?’ Nathan asked

‘Maybe…. just maybe, I judged you too early. You have learned self-sacrifice. You have learned what it is like to be kind. And you have learned to love. I would have never believed it if I didn’t not see it with my own eyes. That you were capable of such thing’ 

Nathan did not have the energy to keep playing this game. He would rather die quickly. Now that he had made his decision, his eyes return to that coldness in the past.

The eye of the predator is back. When he is like this he is quite stoic. After all, just like politician, criminals also wear mask.

And this is the mask he wears. The mask of a cold man.

He simply said

‘So, how do you want to do this?’ Loki smiles mischievously. And then bringing out something from his sleeve, he showed him something.

Nathan had to squint his eyes to look at what Loki was showing him. There on top of Loki palm there is a grain.

Nathan then understood. He knows that grain. He had never seen it but he heard stories about it. The Grain Palace.

It is said that in the early days of the rise of Loki, he had used the Grain Palace many times to bring his forces undetected.

Other than the people who have been inside the Grain Palace no one knows what is inside the Grain palace.

But some people said that the reason why the grain is called the Grain Palace is because if one enters the small grain, there is a space inside it as large as a heavenly palace.

In other words, the Grain palace is an artifact that manipulate space and maybe even time. 

Since Nathan had never had any information about the abilities of the Grain Palace he did not know much about its capabilities.

However, he does know that the Grain Palace is undetectable not only because of its size, it is also hard to trace its fluctuation of energy

But last he heard the Grain Palace belongs to Budiman, the Head Researcher of the Research Department of Pandemonium.

Budiman himself is always travelling the world. Last he heard he already got married to some Japanese woman he met on his journey. 

But he still headed the Research Department. After all, he could still communicate with Pandemonium even when he is far away.

He has his own communication method and channels. 

It might be inefficient for the Head Researcher to do his job when he is on the other side of the world enjoying life, but the truth of the reason why he was give the position is because Budiman had been recognized by Death Monarch

And what Death Monarch recognize about him is that he was loyal to him. he was capable and he is loyal.

What more could Death Monarch ask for?

while Budiman rarely research the more intricate technologies, neither did he pioneer new technologies or discoveries, he had built a few dozen Battlestar Destroyer class spaceship for Pandemonium

The Head Researcher title was a title of honor and of certain power in the Research Department

Nathan knew that the Research Department is very vast in its size of people working there and the researchers there

It might be only rivalled by the Order of Thinkers researchers

>>>>