Descent Into Chaos : Buying Time.

'So he's after disturbing my ritual…?'

'How naive does he think he can command the devil by simply pretending to be me?…the demon won't listen to anyone's orders but mine because I have a part of her with me.'

'Naive…'

For the first time in a while, Voldemort (Looks like Loki) smiled, and then stepped to the side while speaking, "Why don't you show us how easy it is for you to advance your sequence, Lord Voldemort? I need a little rest myself after you pushed me to my brink. I'm sure I can defeat you once you grow even stronger."

To others, it appeared as though Loki was mocking Voldemort because the shadow appendages suddenly grew in size and thickness as they rushed even faster towards the devil that was patiently waiting for the real Voldemort's orders.

Voldemort appropriately attacked and stopped them using more corrupted trees but Loki doubled down even more.

Loki was able to 'calmly' control the shadowy appendages to such an extent only because he wasn't the one controlling them in the first place.

Loki was just planting thoughts into Mr. A's mind and making him control the shadowy appendages forcefully using the thorns in the Ring of Harvest which were bound around his soul to increase his pain and make him cry in agony in case he didn't do what he was told to.

Loki was only thinking in broad terms about what needed to happen, it was Mr. A who was actually working like a slave to make things happen behind the scenes.

The death eaters wanted to cast curses at 'Loki' for mocking their lord, but 'Voldemort's' reminder about not attacking his prey held them back.

Loki listening to Voldemort's remarks only smiled happily internally, while externally he looked at Voldemort like he was but a mere pest that could be squashed underneath his feet and started walking.

"I don't need you to tell me what to do."

Voldemort's brows shot up as he looked at Loki.

'His aim is not the demon?'

'Or is it because he knows that he cannot go close to it?'

But instead of arguing further, Loki calmly walked towards the frozen Harry Potter.

Loki had long since realised that Harry could see through the illusion he'd created since Harry was using his Eye of Demon Hunting which showed him a somewhat true sense of reality based on intuition and experience.

Yet, because Loki couldn't trust Harry's acting skills Loki had frozen him using a simple Immobulus.

Harry could see that it was Loki who cast the spell on him and hence he played his part by staying perfectly still and pretending as if the freezing charm was strong enough that it could stop him.

However, even if Harry had actually tried to break it, he would've found that he was wholly inadequate to do such a thing because the spell was strengthened in ways he couldn't imagine using tips and tricks that Rowena had taught Loki through her books.

The Death Eaters cleared the way as they watched Loki walk towards Harry while Voldemort stood behind him while doing nothing, not only because this would give him time to fix his teetering mental sanity, but also because he was interested in seeing what Loki wanted to do.

Moving close to Harry, Loki pointed his wand at the boy and flicked it lightly.

The freezing charm was suddenly lifted and Harry took in deep breaths as if he was starved of oxygen for all the time Loki had left him frozen.

The Death Eaters all began to smile as they all wondered what Harry's fate would be since he'd been annoying them for a while now. They could neither attack him with lethal spells nor could they run away and allow him to interfere with the fight between Loki and their lord.

Every Death Eater suddenly felt vindicated.

Voldemort felt their giddiness, but instead of angering him it only reinforced his mind to punish them with blood when he got the chance. He felt a strong sense of disgust and wanted to do nothing but whip them until they paid for their sins in blood.

But he didn't have the time for that.

As soon as Voldemort even attempted to take a step in Loki's direction to attack the silly boy who gained popularity recently as one of the Triwizard Champions, he suddenly felt immense danger. 

He felt such danger that his spirituality forced him to see a vision.

His vision of the scenario in front of him was taken away and switched against his will to a dim scene much like the one he was in now, except as soon as he tried to attack Loki in it-

-he collapsed as his body suddenly fell to the ground and began to rapidly lose control.

And soon after he found himself killed by a woman who stepped close to him and kicked him into a portal that looked like it was connected to an abyss even darker than the demonic abyss.

Voldemort recognised what it was as soon as he saw what happened to his body when he was pushed inside it against his will since he was too weak to fight back after whatever had just caused him to suddenly lose control!

Everything about him was torn to shreds, his body ripped into pieces like a demon had sunk its claws into him and ripped him to shreds.

But that wasn't the worst of it!

Everything else from his body of heart and mind to the astral and spiritual bodies, even his soul had been similarly ripped apart, leaving no room or even a chance for resurrection!

'The void!'

Voldemort's eyes shook at the recognition.

Irrespective of his shock, Voldemort was forced to return back to the real world where he saw that Loki had increased the intensity of the shadow appendages attacking the demon helping his advancement ritual.

But Loki hadn't stopped there.

No, Loki had increased the shadowy appendages to attack even the bodies that had been carefully prepared through near-continuous torture to become the perfect witnesses for his advancement ritual.

Voldemort reacted immediately, in spite of his shock as he conjured more and more degenerative trees to counter the shadowy appendages by pinning them using the special branches and roots that sprouted off of them. 

Specifically, he was using their degenerative and corrupt nature to decompose the shadows into fragments that couldn't do much on their own when Loki stopped controlling them because he would not want to be corrupted through them.

In the same breath, Voldemort got to work on figuring out how he could break the illusion Loki had created as a question rang in his mind.

'Why is it so dangerous to attack the boy?'

'How did he suddenly make me lose control!?'

'Is there someone else around him that is helping him!?'

'Tom!?'

'Is Tom helping him in some way!?'

'....I can still feel his proximity…'

'Is he still here?'

'Did he never leave!?'

'That woman…Laura…if I'm not wrong…'

'I remember sending death eaters to their home during the second great wizarding war to capture her husband…but he went missing after obliterating the death eaters I sent after him…'

'Is she here to take her revenge too?'

'....if she has a connection to the void she's likely from the Arbiter pathway.'

Meanwhile, Harry who was finally being allowed to stand up, quickly distanced himself from Loki while giving him a wary look to pretend like he was afraid of Voldemort.

"Haha~ Did you see that!? The wonder boy is afraid! Could you guess that!? The baby boy who is touted as the saviour of the wizarding world is afraid of me!!" Loki said laughingly while making sure his voice and words sounded as annoying as possible to Voldemort.

___

A/N : Sorry for only one chapter yesarday, didn't have an internet connection for a while since I'm still travelling. Another extra chapter will be uploaded soon. Thank you for reading! Have fun!