Sequence 5 : Dream Stealer.

Waiting in his dark room looking at the golden chatterbox strewn on his table, Loki felt very nervous.

'Will someone notice?'

'Will 'Adam' notice?'

'What if something goes wrong and some evil god is able to intercept the ritual?'

'What if 'She- no. Calm down Loki.'

Loki stayed silent for a while before his feet inadvertently began tapping the floor in tension.

Finally, Loki caught his knee and he *sighed* to loosen himself before he charmed himself.

"I'm perfect. What could go wrong?"

"Precisely."

Suddenly it was easy for Loki to put on a smile as he patiently looked at the chatterbox.

Loki pulled out his pocket watch and looked at the time; it was already ten pm.

"They haven't slept yet?"

Loki waited about two more hours with patience before the effect of his self-foolery started to wear off, bringing back with it his nervousness.

But just as Loki was about to begin tapping his feet, the golden chatterbox came alight.

A golden halo formed around it as it floated into the air and pointed at Loki.

"Chatterbox, chatterbox, a dream for the unaware."

Miles away, in the small town that Loki had visited earlier, nearly every member of the town dreamt of an illusory whimsical man wearing a monocle in their sleep.

He simultaneously appeared in all their dreams, making them all feel different things.

Some automatically flocked to the man and tried to surround him, giving into his charm that put him in the spotlight, while others quickly rushed away, trying to hide their secrets from him, afraid that he'd figure out their deepest desires.

A few aware, remained confused about what was happening, but they too were charmed when the dreamy man spoke in a soothing tone.

"This is all a dream."

"You will go back to sleep now."

In Loki's room, the chatterbox dimmed before collapsing onto the table as Loki immediately stood up and moved to the table.

He first picked up the beaker with the incomplete green potion inside it, then carefully opened the drawer and pulled out a simple ingredient from inside it.

Loki looked at it and thought back to what he had to do to get a hold of the main ingredients for this potion.

He'd run around all week, sending letters to Nicholas and Prenelle to help find the two main ingredients, 'The scale of a Qilin, willingly given.' and 'The pearl of a Royal Mermaid Clam, untouched for twenty years.'.

Both the ingredients were ridiculously rare to find.

A Qilin was an animal that was said to be pure of heart and could recognise others whose souls were meant for greatness and glory without being affected by the two.

They were so important and accurate at detecting the pure of heart in fact that the newly born Qilin was used to decide the reigning Supreme Mugwump during each election of the International Confederation of Wizards, who was currently Dumbledore.

To get a scale of a Qilin willingly was only possible if one was pure of heart.

Similarly, the pearl of a Mermaid Clam was used to identify the ruling king of the Mermen population who would lead the Mermen population in the world. Deciding things like their travel routes, the sea they would settle in and make their home and several other things like their relation with wizards or even if they were going to interact with the outer world and such.

The pearl was made in a clam given to chosen contestants during their childhood. The quality and size of this pearl when the contestant chose to participate in the race was what decided who would become the king.

To obtain a pearl that had remained untouched for twenty years meant that the person who got it would've had to meet a mermen who nurtured their pearl for twenty years only to give up participating in the competition to become the king.

It was a pearl that was nearly impossible to simply come by.

But Nicholas and Prenelle had done the unthinkable and helped Loki find the two items and delivered them to him without asking for any compensation in return.

'At least I didn't have to go to R.O.B's warehouse this time…' Loki thought thankfully.

Picking up the beautiful rose-pink pearl from his drawer, Loki dropped it into the incomplete green potion.

The pearl floated on the surface of the potion for a few seconds before it started to dissolve into the potion bit by bit until there was nothing left and the potion changed colours from the emerald green it was before to the rose pink of the pearl.

Looking at the golden chatterbox that was still floating, Loki picked up the beaker and gulped down its entire contents in a single gulp.

The potion slipped past his gullet before landing in his stomach silently as it began to be absorbed by all the individual cells in his body.

An invisible force attracted them and Loki started to feel his body heat up.

Slowly, Loki saw several protrusions happening under his skin as he forced himself to use cogitation to calm down.

His mind still kept wandering and his body mutating but slowly Loki began to feel an ethereal connection that sprouted out of his body and spread around the world.

It felt like several eyes were watching him.

Watching his every move as if they were anticipating his words. As if they were looking at him with awe and respect.

Loki felt the spotlight was on and the world was waiting for his words.

With this connection to the world, Loki felt his loss of control calm down. It felt as if his world had begun to fall into an anticipatory silence.

Loki slowly opened his eyes and inspected himself.

With the flick of his finger, an almost life-like illusion appeared before him.

Loki activated spirit vision and found the illusion in front of him partially alive. Anyone without a deep inspection wouldn't be able to tell that the person created by the illusion was a fake. Loki himself found it rather hard to believe what he had created was not alive.

It had a spirit body and a body of heart and mind along with an astral body.

Loki however knew instinctively that it wasn't a completely perfect illusion since it was missing something that he couldn't quite comprehend but could feel.

Loki turned his attention to his Body of Heart and Mind.

He felt he could look at his thoughts with a profound sense of clarity.

Each ripple on its surface felt like it conveyed to him a clear story of what had caused it in the first place.

But that wasn't what excited Loki the most.

What he found captivating was the trace those ripples in his Body of Heart and Mind led to deeper in his consciousness. Loki could trace back the origin of these thoughts to his subconscious.

Being something he hadn't been able to interact with until now, Loki was curious how he could use this new ability to manipulate his enemies without a reliable Beyonder from the spectator pathway to find out any errors in their subconscious.

It felt empowering to know that if he caught a person off guard in their sleep, he could plant thoughts of puppeteered devotion to him in them, through their dreams, so that they'd think of him favourably.

'With this, I can even use my own subconscious to venture into the collective sea of subconscious of all the people around me so that I can know more about them.'

'It should even be helpful for my plan against you-know-who.'

Above all-

'This is one more way I can stay safe from 'Adam'.' Loki thought to himself. 'Although he hasn't tried to directly manipulate me yet, if he ever does I'll immediately be able to tell.'

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