Lord Shadow

He had never thought that when Loki found their safe house that they would get their happy ending.

Well, this is not quite a happy ending to some people. 

But to him it is. 

He had long wanted to get out from the whirlpool of the power struggle in the world. 

The Seven great powers that fought against each other in the dark, the Crime Alliance, and the many other forces that is biding their time in the shadows, ready to come out once these titans duke it out with each other

He never thought he could escape it. 

Because he has the Book of Secrets and he is the Broker. 

He had to keep using the Book of secrets because he knows, that without any value, he would be discarded. 

He was kept under protection by the Shadow Guards because he provides intelligence to them. If not how could the Shadow Guards tolerate him. 

There is a reason why Sasha did not bring him to Death Monarch. Because they both don’t know what Death Monarch would do to him, if he ever shows his face in front of him

Regardless of Nathan intention, he co-founded the Crime Alliance. A such, he is one of the enemy that pandemonium wanted dead.

The only escape….at least in his mind, was death

But with what Loki had done, he no longer had to worry. He smiles and then looking at Loki he said

‘Thank you’ He means it from the bottom of his heart

Loki look at him and scoffed

‘trust me. I didn’t do it for you.’ Then he added

‘As for the Book of Secrets, I think you’ve notice’ Nathan nodded

‘I don’t mind’ Then pausing for a second he then said with a calm tone

‘I don’t know how you do it but it seems that you managed to split my unique class and put it into the Book. Now, the Book is truly not bind to me anymore. Is this the Price for this freedom?’ He asks

‘Why? Do you want your power back?’ Nathan chuckles as he shakes his head.

‘It’s fine. Knowing a lot of secrets is not as good as one thinks. Then he looks at Riana beside her, and hold her hand.

Then he said

‘I would only strengthen myself strong enough to protect my family from now on. It is good to start anew. Maybe, I would be just a simple warrior’ he said with a smile as he squeezed a bit of Riana hand

Riana look at her and smile. And because she smiles, he smiles. 

Nathan right now around Orb Condensing stage

Loki had done something to him when he was enveloped by that huge amount of energy

Even so, Nathan did not blame Loki. 

He knows why Loki came to him. he wants to take control of the Book of Secrets. That could not happen unless he dies. 

But when he dies, his unique class could once again be inherited by someone else who fulfill the requirements of the class.

At least that is what he thought. It is clear now, that Loki had found another way to make sure that he could use the Book of Secrets without killing him who had created such an item

But Loki seems to have a method to seal the unique will into the Book of Secrets. Nathan could already think of how Loki would explain this to the Crime Lords.

He would probably say that when Nathan died, he seals the Unique Will inside the book so that he could have complete control over the Book.

It would make it even more legit. 

Since the Crime Lords probably also believe that only by the original owner dying that one such item could be taken control of.

Nathan admired Loki farsightedness at this moment and shudders to think how deep his planning was.

Loki then said

‘Riana, you should take a rest. From what I heard from Trisha she had modified the place. And as for you’ he said as his eyes went back to Nathan

‘Don’t ever reveal yourself to anyone. I already take a lot of risk saving you when it is simply easier just to kill you. And-‘ he paused for a second before saying

‘Treat Riana good. If not, I don’t mind making the lies become the truth’ Nathan nodded and smile

‘I promise you’ Loki just shakes his head. 

‘Still, you don’t have a trustworthy face. I wonder what she sees in you’ he could only sigh at this as he exhaled his breath.

Riana was about to say something but Loki raise his hand and whatever she wanted to say is stuck on her throat.

‘I know; you have more questions. And probably there is a lot of things you wanted to say too. But…. I am tired’ 

He then added

‘Let us talk tonight. On the other side of the forest there is thick trees and the energies around that forest is also quite weird. I bet it would distort any surveillance methods. We could have a barbecue, like the old times’

He looks back at Nathan and said grudgingly

‘You are invited’ Nathan nodded

Loki then gesture to Riana to exit the room. Riana got up and as she got up Nathan also got up. They look at each other and they smile. 

The smile is subtle but one could see a trace of happiness in each curve of the mouth

There is still this surreal feeling in their hearts

Just a couple of hours ago, they were ready to live without each other. 

But now, that they are together, safe and sound and also free from the burdens that plagued them…. all of it seems like a happy dream that they almost couldn’t believe it.

It was like they were dazed because of this sudden euphoria that they could not exactly describe. 

But Riana understood her father. 

She nodded and said something under her breath

‘Thank you’ She said it gently, almost as faint as the blowing of a wind in a calm day but Loki head it. And he smiles hearing it. 

They slowly get out of the room.

Now, Loki is alone in the room. He already had the Book of Secrets but he is not intending to check the book right now. 

Instead, he opens his drawers. There is a rectangular object the size of a tissue box. It is thin and have grey metallic color.

He brought it out and put it in the table. 

Then he pushed the bottom in the middle of that object and the object expanded becoming wider. 

It looks a lot like a laptop, the primitive technological device before the Fall

It is designed to look like a laptop. 

After all, this is still not yet the prosperous era where there is peace and people would have time to design things

For now, most of the creation is more focused on functionality. Of course some builders and architect do inject some of their personality to their works

But those people are usually those that have found their path. Most builders just build whatever they were told to build.

This laptop-looking items however does have some personalization. 

Because Loki rarely commissioned things to others when it is something that he would use regularly. 

This laptop emits magical energy and if one brought out a measurement of energy reading, the energy reading would be minimal because most of its energy is contained in the circuit of the laptop.

He called it the Imaging Magical laptop.

Yes, he did not pay so much attention in naming it. 

Considering that this is already the tenth iteration of this laptop, Loki decided to not care that much about its name. 

In the end, the only one that have this technology is him so it did not matter what he names it.

But he does feel cringe saying it. 

He shakes his head and open the laptop lid. 

And all kinds of runes appear. 

It is unlike normal laptop where you see all kinds of computer icons. 

Instead of icons, there is only running lines, like that Matrix movies moving inside the Imaging Magical Laptop

But unlike the Matrix where it has 0 and 1 running down the lines, there is runes. And these runes did not come down fast

Instead it is slow. 

Loki touch the screen and made a gesture of opening his palm. 

The moment he did that, the screen expanded to cover half the surface of the office. 

Loki get up from his seat as he walks toward the holographic image and narrowed his eyes on one particular rune

Each rune contains large amount of information that even some supercomputer would find it hard to measure

He tilted his head to the right and shakes his head

‘This could not be right’ He said to himself

‘No, no, no. This isn’t possible’ He come closer to that rune. And as he narrowed his eyes and look closer to that one particular rune, his face turns dark

‘Shit. Fuck’ he cursed as he felt like he wanted to break some stuff. 

No one would believe it if they see Loki right now. Loki rarely lose his calm. This is one of the few times that he had lost his calm

Instead of angry, it was more of a frustration. 

Then he knocks his chest a few times. 

He forces himself to calm down. 

He closes his eyes and take deep breath and inhale and exhale air. 

The energy of the world around the facility had also increase because of the Multiversal Convergence so he is now inhaling energy and slowly after a few second he become calm again

‘Another event brought too early. Is the event going to change order?’ he thought to himself. 

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