Lord Shadow

He looks around and saw no sign of that bodyguard of hers and he nodded. 

She must have sent him to do some errands for her he thought to himself.

He walks to the tree like so many times before. But unlike before, his feeling is heavy and there is a trace of reluctance. There are not many people in the word that knows him as she did.

He is tired of losing people. He is tired of talking only to ghost of the past 

The woman eyes are clear and not cloudy white like she always appears to be in front of other people.

Maybe, she too shares this same feeling of melancholy that he is feeling

She looks at him and she shakes her head

‘That face again? You went to Falmouth first?’ she asks. The man nodded

She sighed and said

‘I think you like pretending to be a hero.’ He chuckles and replies

‘It is not that bad’ 

She laughs a bit. 

‘You don’t like it?’ he asks

‘I like the other one better’ he nodded

He then clicks his finger and green mist appears from his finger that shrouded him and as the wind blows the green mist, a different face and a different kind of person appears in front of the woman

His hair is green tint with a little silver. He has green eyes that seem to shine with the ability to see through lies and deceit

He is wearing a black suit with black tie with formal shoes like he is about to go to some formal dinner.

Like some kind of a dashing devil that is about to tempt you to sold your soul

His face is young and handsome and his body is lean and not too muscly. And there is always a smile on the corner edge of his mouth.

‘What about now, Erika? Like this face?’ he asked

‘that fits you more, Trickster’ she said and he only chuckles. These two person is none other than Loki the Trickster and The Great Oracle Erika.

Loki then ask

‘Where is Antonius?’ she sighed and then she said

‘I send him away’

‘You know I am coming.’

She was silent for a while before saying

‘I could guess. He is returning’ she said like it explains each and every thing that Loki did. The answer itself make sense to both of them. 

Loki sighed bitterly and nodded. Loki then said

‘Your wait is almost over’ he said. She chuckles bitterly and said

‘It is the most torturous wait’ she laughs faintly. But there is nothing funny about it. 

‘I had hoped this day would never have come’ Loki said

‘This is Destiny and Fate’ she said. Loki did not say anything to refute her words.

There was silence between them. 

Only the sound of the wind and the cawing of the ravens could be heard in that space of silence between then. 

They look at each other; their eyes are both determined. Loki then said

‘I didn’t think you and Antonius would stay together this long’

‘What is that supposed to mean?’ Erika ask.

‘I thought you would break up with him. I did not expect even after knowing all about your future self that you would still stay with him. Is it loyalty? Or is it true love?’ Loki nonchalantly said

‘What gives you that idea?’ she asks, her tone is slightly rising

‘Will’ he answers and Erika face changes.

‘You confuse me again with that old friend of yours’ she said coldly.

Loki shakes his head and said

‘You too, now are an old friend of mine’

She smiles bitterly and then said

‘Our ending is too tragic’ she said. She still remembers the vision about her and Will and she always felt that it is too needlessly tragic.

Loki then answer

‘Then make a new ending’ she did not answer him and the words died in the air. There is once again silence between them as they look at each other.

This is just the obligatory banter between them before they reach to the objective of this visit.

For four years, Loki keeps coming here to meet her. Even when he is swamped with administrating Pandemonium, he still would make time to meet her

No, it is not a romantic feeling. It is nothing like that between them. They understand each other which makes them detest each other guts even more

Once a year, he would come to see her.

And just like the year before, he once again came. To ask the same question that he had asked for four years’ straight

The silence passed as Loki ask her

‘Can you tell me now?’ he asks. The question seems simple but with Loki, a question is never so simple.

It has many meaning. And to Erika who knows the general outline of the future, the past and everything in between, she knows the meaning of such a simple question. It is the same question he had asked for years.

She always refrains from telling.

She did not lie because it would be useless to lie. Since she could not lie and she could not answer the question, she could only refrain.

‘I am not her’ she once again reply

Loki smiles.

‘You were not her before but after four years of seeing each other, don’t you think you are the same. My old friend is gone. But I got a new old friend’ he said.

Erika chuckles a bit.

‘I could not deny it’ she said.

Erika might pretend she is fine waiting for Death Monarch these six years inside this dark forest surrounded only by the dark blob creatures and the rings of stones and the birds that sometime perched itself on the branches of the thin tall tree, but she is still young. 

She might have all the knowledge of the Future Erika of that nonexistent timeline but she doesn’t have her experience. 

Seeing something and experiencing it is a totally different matter.

And while she stays here, she also needs to be keep abreast of the many news outside this region. She did not want to suddenly being attacked because someone coveted her abilities.

And she still has acquaintance outside here. Some people she needs to protect, some people she wants to protect

So, she sent Antonius out a few times in a month to do her biding on the outside world. 

After all, she too is playing the same game of chess that Loki and Yewa Hafar is playing. 

She too had her own plans. 

Whether that plan would diverge from Loki plans is something that is still remains to be seen. 

They are allies now, because right now their objective is the same. After this, if they still share the same objective and mission, they could cooperate. If not, they could only separate.

There is no scheming against each other because both of them wanted the best possible future for this world that they lived in.

Though, whether their method is the same is not yet determined. 

The reason why Loki could tolerate Erika existence and not Morgana is because the degree of importance. 

Morgana, sadly and unfortunately is expendable in the grand scheme of things. And Erika is not.

Loki plans doesn’t make sense to people that doesn’t know what he is planning. 

But Erika understood because she too sees the End. And so, she understands what Loki is trying to 

Why he is letting certain events happens and played out exactly like before, and why he interferes in some other event in hopes of changing it.

The relationship between them in the future had always been complicated. At certain point they were rivals. Other times, they were friend. And at other time, they were enemies.

There is no like or dislike between them. 

It has always been about benefit. 

But now after experiencing the End, while the feeling between them could not quite be called like, it is no longer a feeling of dislike. If anything, it is a feeling of familiarity, of two souls that is out of their Time.

Ghost of a failure of a past. And with ghost, they always have a baggage. Erika then look at Loki, from head to toe and then she said

‘I wonder Loki, if you did not employ such methods, would you remember? Probably, you did not even need to ask me. I think you know the answer’ she asks back.

Loki expression turned hard for a second but then he calms his heart down.

He looks toward the distance, no doubt looking at Pandemonium on the other side of the world

‘I had no other choice’ he said regretfully. 

‘Everything has a Price. The Time God has sacrificed a lot and even that is not enough. I expected it. So, I have a few countermeasures. Many people forget, but I am also a Sovereign in the future. I too have magic mortal like you could never understand’ She look at Loki and sneered

Then she asks him

‘What number are you? She asks

Loki laughed a bit

‘Maybe I am the original’ he said

‘No, you’re not. That is not the Loki that the Future Erika knows’

Loki could only smirks at this and he nodded

‘True. I guess it is one own enemies that understand you better than even your friends. I am Number Five’

‘How many are you?’ Erika ask

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The answer to that question will be answered tomorrow. This is the revelation of some of Loki secret and it explaisn why there are sometiems lapse in Loki memories.

For anyone who preffered reading large chapter in a sitting isntead of the bite sized one, you can go to my patr eo n.

And please, dont copy and paste my chapter on some scrapper site.

I am not some rich writer and by doing that I also lost some income. NovelFull is not all good but if there is one thing that it had allowed me to do was to write without having to worry about where my next meal come from. 

For those who follow me from the beginning, they had to have endure my incessasnt complaint of how I always used to ony eat maggi or for a better term, cup noodle.

When I sign the contract, it gives me some income and that gives me some breathing room. I now, at least could eat what I want. KFC every once in a while and at time I could even have some money to go to the beach( of course , not now. Stay home, y’all)

So, please, consider this a heartfelt plea. Please don’t pirate my story. It is not even inside the ranking of the mosty popular novels in webnovel( notsaying that it is ok to do it if its popular)

I did my best to try to write and there some nights where I had to write after going back from some part time job so I hope you can respect this lowly writer plea.

I will put it down below the chapter writing. because if I put it in the author note, it might not come up when they scrape this chapter.