//------------------------------// // A New Threat // Story: Tale of Loki 2: Into the Void // by Mega NewWays97 //------------------------------// “That would be 12.89 sir.” The lady at the front said. Rolling his eyes Loki handed her a twenty that he had summoned up from his pocket dimension, “Keep the change.” Loki then took the bag and the two dinks before walking out and in a flash reappear next to Sunset who was reading a book in her hands as she waited for him, “Hey Sunset got us lunch.” Loki trapped as he placed everything down. “Oh thanks,” Sunset put a old looking book down and grabbed her food. Loki reached over and looked at the time in question. “Hmm this looks like what was it Latin?” Discord asked within his mind. “No I think this is Aramaic.” Evilight pointed out. “Actually it’s both.” Loki pointed out as he did a few reading. “Where did you get this?” Loki questioned as Sunset was finishing her hamburger. “In that last reality we visited remember that grand library… you know before you burned it?” Sunset asked, Loki had an awkward chuckle at that. How was he supposed to know that one of those books was actually alive? On the plus side he did free several people from the libraries torment so that was a plus, “Anyway before it burned down I saved quite a bit of it and before you ask yes I know I probably should have looked at what they were before hand.” “Yeah we probably should.” Loki said in a casual tone. A few minutes later Loki was shorting out the books Sunset had took into four piles, History, Magic Tomes, Eldritch books and surprisingly cook books, “Eldritch, Magic, Cook, cook, cook, history, history, magic, magic, and Eldritch.” Loki put them down as four towers each about ten feet tall stood around him, “So that’s about 234 books out of a library with… a million?” Loki asked having not paid attention when they were being given the taur. “Two hundred and fifty thousand.” Evilight corrected. “Right.” Loki opened up a portal to his pocket dimension and stuffed the books inside, “Well now that that’s out of the way where do you want to go next?” Loki asked as he pulled out his hamburger and started to eat it not even bothering to unwrap it. “You know this would be so much easier if we had some kinda map.” Sunset pointed out as she finished her drink. Loki rolled his eyes at this. Ever since they left the Multiverse and wondered beyond it Sunset has been criticizing the fact that Loki had literally no idea where they were going. They been randomly appearing in other realities. That one time they appeared in the middle of a war zone didn’t help at all. “You're still mad about the whole ‘teleported us into the middle of a war zone with a nuclear missile flying at us’ aren’t you?” Loki asked with a bit of a deadpan tone. “Oh yes, yes I am.” Sunset deadpanned. Loki sighed before hitting his head on the table. “You really should have seen that coming you know.” Loki somehow managed to shoot him a glare despite him currently speaking from within his mind, “Hey just saying.” Picking his head up Loki’s expression changed to one of neutrality, “Yes well given we do have no map to show us the way, I might be able to make a kinda compass using my senses this will give us a kinda idea about where we are going.” Sunset blinked for a moment after hearing this. “It didn’t occur to you to do this because?” Loki looked away for a moment as Astral Discord appeared. “Oh because he thought that maybe going around with no real idea where would be fun.” Loki shot him a glare at this. Astral Discord turned to him, “What would you rather you both end up in a big crunch?” Discord asked with a smile on his face. “Traitor.” Loki waved his hands and Astral Discord disappeared, “Yeah kinda what he said.” Sunset shot him a glare telling him that she wasn’t happy at this, “I’ll just go sense us a nice place to visit.” Loki said trying to change the subject. Loki focused out as reality seemed to change for him. His senses moved out looking at the energy of nearby realities and planes. However something was wrong, his senses came across what felt like a torn reality, a cancer to his senses. Loki blinked after he felt this, ‘You both felt that right?’ “Yep.” Both Evilight and Discord said at the same time. “It felt like something just walked in there and had just eaten the Chaos and Order right out of it.” Discord couldn’t believe he was saying that. “You think it’s Eris?” Evilight asked unsure herself about what could cause this mess. ‘No we know what Eris feels like this… this isn’t her… it’s something else.’ Loki then had a mental sigh at this, ‘And because I’m a god of balance it’s my job to figure out what it is even if I know I’m going to regret this.’ Loki finished her sense search as Sunset sat there with her arms crossed waiting. “Well what did you find?” Sunset asked before she noticed the solemn look in Loki’s eyes, “Is something wrong?” Sunset was starting to panic a bit at this. “I felt a universe… a whole reality that felt like cancer to me.” Loki’s tone was low as he said this, “Something just walked in and ate all the Chaos and Order in it leaving a shell behind.” “Is it Eris?” Sunset asked with a glare at thinking about Loki’s alternative counterpart. They hadn’t run into her yet but they did come across a bit of her handiwork. When Loki shock his head at this Sunset then became both concerned and confused, “What is it then? Another Dweller?” Loki’s face became serious as he spoke, “I have no idea and I can’t tell until we go there to check it out so...” Sunset gave him a nod of reassurance. With a snap the two of them disappeared in a flash of light leaving this reality behind. In a flash the two of them reappeared with Loki retaking his Draconequus form. The sight before them wasn’t pretty. Holes in the fabric of space-time gave way to the void which with nothing to close them were expanding as the universe was breaking apart like holes in paper tearing it apart. The color of space which should be black was now a light blue and slowly turning a sicking green, there wasn’t no stars or planets yet Loki’s senses told him that this reality should have them. His senses also told him something that really shouldn’t be. Time has ceased to be. Sunset looked around herself at all of this thankful that the cloak seemed to protect her from the fact there was no air. Still Loki had no idea where it had come from but he figured that it was just something he either grow out of himself after he was resurrected or he picked it up a bit afterwards, “So what happened here?” Sunset asked as Loki just floated there staring out into the distance. “I… I have no idea,” Loki blankly stated, “I mean whatever it is seemed to have weaken the barriers of this reality that much we can see what with the whole tears in the fabric of space-time everywhere.” Loki motioned to the slowly decaying under structure, “Next the whole blue and green… that’s not right.” Loki waved his hand out, “There should be stars, planets, whole Galaxies out there but there is nothing… there barely is subatomic particles for me sakes.” Loki turned to her and finished his explanation, “Time Sunset… time has stopped.” “So whatever this was it just caused a premature heat death to this reality?” Sunset asked wondering if that was as close to the correct term for this as she let all that Loki told her sink in. “It’s similar in that yet it's totally different from Entropy,” Loki watched as pieces of this universe broke off and seen became one with the void, “Entropy despite common and I mean common misconception is actually in the end a force of Order, the end result is the lowest form of energy all around as reality stretches on no light, no form, no shape, the purists form of order in it’s Nihilistic sense, but this Sunset this, this is destruction, almost oblivion all chaos and order tore right out of the universe as it slowly breaks and destroys itself.” Loki saw something out the corner of his eye. Floating up Loki with Sunset following close behind they found something besides themselves floating in this dying husk of a universe. It looked like a severed head deep in the process of decay,, “Strange…” Loki looked it over, “With the way the universe is any organic life should cease to be.” “Maybe it’s from whatever caused this,” Sunset reasoned, “You think you can get anything from it?” Loki’s started to pulled down on his beard as he looked at the head contemplating Sunset’s idea. “Well it is in a advance state of decay but there might be just enough brain cells that are either still alive or partly there for me to get a picture of what happened.” Loki focused his telepathy on it’s mind and immediately he grabbed his head as visions started to flood his mind. He saw over a beautiful planet the skies turning red and green as fires rained from the sky. From these flames creatures, demons appeared in a mindless rage they attacked and destroyed across the universe. As they fought the local inhabitants it was soon becoming apparent to Loki that while they looked mindless they seemed to be adapting to the strategy using tactics. They were being controlled by something. As he watched one get sliced open Loki looked at it’s blood as it radiated both chaos and order. As he watched the fighting it became clear that more and more of these things keep pouring out worlds where burned yet all that happened was it slowed them. Eventually the stars started to burn reality tore open and this, something started to enter into the reality. The demons bowed and then let it eat no… let it reabsorb it. They were nothing more but small pieces of it sent to weaken the barrier, sent to destroy any who might pose a threat. The thing whatever it was it was a mass of chaos and order just as it’s creations. It covered all of the universe and then as sudden as it appeared it was gone. All that remained was this a husk of what it once was. “Loki… Loki? Loki!” Loki was taken back as Sunset punched him with all her might knocking him back to reality. “Sunset…” Loki looked as the head was now gone broken up into nothing as barely anything remained of the reality that they were in, “I saw the destruction demons made from chaos and order fragments they were sent by something else.” Loki shock his head as his mind returned to normal, “We can differently say that Eris didn’t do this though.” “Great, so then what caused this actually?” Sunset asked a bit uneasy that something could just do this to a whole universe, “Another Void Dweller.” “Well it’s something like that it’s kinda both a sentient dimension, and a dweller yet it’s independent of said dimension.” Sunset looked a bit confused by that. “It’s confusing I know just roll with it.” Loki waved his talons at this, “Anyway it couldn’t manifest within this reality because of how thick the barrier was but when it weakened just enough it send the demons to further weaken the barrier and when it could it walked right in and ate the chaos and order.” Loki looked around as the reality was all but gone, “Let’s talk about this somewhere that’s not well dying, what do say?” “Sure.” With that the two of them disappeared in a flash. It felt something was off. Another mind had invaded it’s own. It then tried to enter it’s own. It saw things worlds, beings, and annoying voices. It was a creature like it in some ways. It also saw another like him more destructive. As it’s mind felt the intruder pull away it reviewed its information the worlds the being and everything, and decided something. “We will follow.” “We will find more.” “More!” “More!” “More!” “MORE TO FEED!” “MORE TO EAT!” “WE'LL WILL SO SAYS WE!”