Warning

"You let it happen? Do you mean because you couldn't protect her?" asks the prankster after collecting himself.

"No…"

He looks at me, unsure, but then I feel him trying to invade my mind. In order to allow him to do so, I relax and let him look through my memories.

Until now, he had not seen the whole picture and could only reconstruct the events that Cthylla also experienced.

This is also the reason he let me die in front of the diner, as he didn't know what happened when Chtylla got kidnapped.

And that's why it resets when she gets pierced by her father, as she was not really there anymore after this.

But I know what happened afterwards…

The space around me changes, and in the next moment, Cthylla manifests in front of me. We are back in the mayor's office shortly after she gets wounded.

When she collapses, I catch her and kneel down on the floor while holding her in my arms. Suddenly I feel this pain in my chest again, a pain that could even hurt something like me…

As blood flows out of her mouth and her eyes become blank, her presence begins to destabilize, and the surrounding space becomes blurry.

"Ras, please stop me… I don't want to destroy… another world… not yours…" Cthylla says absentmindedly, her eyes already dead.

I grab her hand and say, "Don't worry about me, just rest a bit."

To see such a scene, I don't need a guy to repeat it for me, because I saw it countless times in ten millennia…

"No… I don't want to be alone again. I'd rather… die," she says while blood-red tears stream from her dead-looking eyes, then flow down her arm and into the hand I was holding.

"Use it… as soon as my vessel dies… use it and keep on living, like you always do." As she finishes her sentence, her body becomes limp, and I feel no life in her anymore.

It is funny how the word "living" has so many meanings for people. For example, my living is wandering the world forever, and her living is finding happiness in the short time her father gives her.

I take the last thing she created with her tears, a red glowing dagger and look at it.

This weapon is created to kill an unkillable being. How he called her? Abomination of abominations, the mother of all evil, the devourer of universes…

But the most fitting description for her is probably the pitifullest being in the whole multiverse. Damned to suffer forever, while searching for a way to escape her father and live happily.

I can feel her essence leaving her body while the building starts to dissolve around me. During this time, I didn't know that I would be thrown into her world. However, I kinda wanted to see her escaping her fate and living happily, even if I'm not there.

So I stab the dagger into the dissolved floor and wait for the world to end, while hoping that in the next world, she will find the right way. And if not, then maybe in the world after the next…

"What the hell did you do? You had the chance to end this, and you decided to let your world end instead?!" shouted the prankster, enraged, who was watching me not far away.

I place her on the ground and walk towards him as the life around us ends and the world itself starts to dissolve.

---

"Yes, I let my world end to give her a chance to find happiness."

This statement makes him stare at me with wide eyes, and he seems to be speechless.

"I sacrificed the earth where I lived for ten millennia, all for her. So, what do you think? How far will I go this time if someone threatens her?" I ask him as everything around us disappears, and we are left behind in the dark void.

He looks disgusted at me, and in his eyes, I can see that he's contemplating dealing with me here and now.

But since he doesn't attempt anything, I sigh and say, "Take this as a warning, don't mess with us, or I will find a way to mess with you, and as you also said, I'm very stubborn."

He remains quiet and says nothing, then snaps his fingers, and the void breaks down as light pours in.

And only then he says, "You know, the only reason I don't throw you into some dark void and forget about you is that you will probably come crawling out of it someday.

And I kinda don't want to always watch my back…

But take this as a warning from me. The moment you fail will be the moment she dies, so be prepared because sooner or later, they will come for her."

Again, the mysterious they?

"I will be waiting then… but maybe you should warn them that I will be prepared for them when they come," I tell him.

This makes him laugh for some reason, and he responds, "Why do you think I can warn them? I'm simply a very funny trickster."

His aura starts to change and swirls mischievously around. Of course, tricksters are a thing here… but he isn't one.

Something that has such a holy aura is not a trickster but a being who is trying to trick you into thinking he is one…

I shrug and say, "Only a feeling… so what is your name, 'trickster,' if I need to make a gravestone for you soon?"

His poker face crumbles for a second, and he looks caught. Then responds, "Loki… people call me Loki."

Sure, they call you that, but that is not your real name…

"And you? I know your name, but what are you? I mean, what are you really?" 'Loki' asks curiously.

The void is now completely white, and I can't see him anymore, but I still say, "A stubborn immortal…" and then the space shatters.

Why should I tell him what I really am if he doesn't tell me what he is or reveal his real name?

---

In the next moment, I'm back in the diner on the road outside Fairmont.

Cthylla is in front of me, in the vessel of Anna, happily munching on her fish, while Penny is running around and serving customers.

It seems that the 'Trickster' is gone too, since I can't feel any aura that resembles him. So we finally have a bit of peace again.

This world is simply too crazy sometimes for its own good…

I sigh, and Cthylla raises a brow at this, but then hides her fish, seemingly thinking that I'm dissatisfied with my meal.

"If you want some fish, order some. This is all mine. Next time you should probably choose your meals better," she replies uppishly.

To punish her I move forward, grab some fish sticks, and stuff them in my mouth. Which makes her look at me horrified and she starts to eat faster, which makes me laugh.

Afterwards I also begin to eat my meal while enjoying our time together.

Even though these are small things, I'm glad I can fool around with her. Was it worth it to let billions die for it? No idea, and I don't really care…

Also, this meeting with Loki made me realize I needed to prepare more, not only for Cthulhu but also against some other higher beings. So, I need to look through Bobby's library and check out more witchcraft books as fast as possible.

Only much later did I learn about these higher beings and what Loki really is, and that our meeting in Fairmont was only a coincidence.

Because he was traveling from town to town at that time, punishing and teaching people a lesson.

This was also not our last encounter, and we met on several occasions later, even though both of us wished we wouldn't.

Strangely, he never told Cthylla about what I did to my old world, and I didn't either. It became my and Loki's little secret.

Sometimes you need a few secrets to keep peace…

At this point, we also didn't know that the Alpha Follower of this world would avoid us for a while to find a way to get rid of me for good.

So we had a bit of time to explore the world and be dragged more into the hunter business, while dealing with the apocalyptic threats of this world that strangely follow the Winchester brothers wherever they are…

This led me to meet a being that seems to have avoided me my whole life, so it was not that bad in the end and even granted me a strange friendship I never thought I would have.

But this is a story for another time. First, Cthylla and I need to get some new papers from a guy who would also become a long-term partner because he is too strange to call him a friend…