Meanwhile, inside a white room, four beings were facing each other.
The serpent was coming from out of nowhere with its body connected to another place by a bluish portal.
Next to him was a wolf standing proudly before all of them. He looked at them with his ferocious gaze but always turned his head around whenever the woman in front of him stared into his eyes.
The woman was simply standing still with a smile on her face. But the wolf could sense the mockeries behind that gaze.
Meanwhile, the man, who gathered all of them in this place, remained silent for a long time.
After another few minutes, he asked the woman, "How do you feel right now?"
"I'm alright, Dear Father." She smiled sweetly before saying, "The Death Order should give a considerable amount of power, right?"
"Yeah." He nodded. "Though, it won't last for too long."
"Before that, I want to ask you… Who is going to teach him next? Lil Fen and I have taught him, so I don't think we will need to appear again. Is it going to be your turn next?"
The God of Mischief, Loki, shook his head. Even though it was obvious he needed to be the one coming out next since Theo's progress was leaning to illusion, he refused to come out.
"Why is that? Or are you just messing with the little guy?"
"No. I'm thinking about skipping the level." Loki shook his head.
"Skipping the level?" Hel frowned before realizing what he wanted. "Ah, are you planning to teach a special Breathing Technique that can incorporate the Order?"
"Yeah. He'll search for a Breathing Technique in his own world, so…" Loki stopped and turned to the serpent. "You're next. Teach him to strengthen his body."
"I understand."
"Still, if you're looking at this far, are you confident he can get an Order?"
"You're still underestimating him." Loki smiled. "I was the one who found him. There's no way he's an ordinary guy. Do you know the reason why I waste all that power to call all of you here?"
"No." She shook her head and thought for a moment. "You're not planning to tell us that you're just going to trick the kid, right?"
"Of course not. When I do something like that, I'm usually bored. Right now, I'm not." He shook his head. "And I have my limitations… Other than teasing and joking, have I ever pulled something funny that makes you three mad?"
Hel looked down before shaking her head. Fenrir and Jormugand also shared the same opinion.
"Either way, I'm here to tell you that the tribulation is coming." He narrowed his eyes before creating a wooden chair behind him. He sat down and looked at the ceiling. "The end is the beginning. The beginning is the end. A never-ending cycle."
Hel squinted her eyes and muttered, "The ending of an era is the beginning of another era… Are you telling us…"
"I have thought that it's inevitable." Loki closed his eyes with a serious expression as though he was contemplating a complicated problem.
Even Hel stopped commenting and chose to listen to whatever he said. Fenrir and Jormugand slightly moved their heads forward, making sure they didn't miss a single word.
Suddenly, Loki opened his mouth again. "And I still think that is inevitable."
Their eyebrows twitched as they realized he tricked them. They thought he was planning to say it wasn't inevitable.
"Are you joking with us right now?" Hel asked while trying to contain her anger.
"Alright, alright. It's that this cycle is inevitable. However, I don't say that it needs to happen now." He smiled.
"What do you mean?" Hel frowned. "I'm not following your words."
"I say it's possible to halt its progress. The end is inevitable, but it doesn't mean that it will come at that moment. We simply need someone that can prolong the era until they reach a period where they can avoid the end."
"The kid?"
"Probably." Loki shrugged his shoulders as though he didn't have any belief in Theo.
"But he's very outstanding. Even when we were alive, not many people were like him."
"Who knows." Loki let out a long sigh. "Have you ever thought of these questions… Would a man be called ruthless if he killed fifty people to save a million lives? Would a man be called a bad guy when he joined the enemy side to protect the people on his side?"
If Theo was here, he would recognize these two questions. After all, he received these two questions when he first met the serpent.
"Why are you asking those two questions?" Hel frowned.
"I don't know. It's just a hunch… Depending on the answer he finds, he might be able to prolong an era. Not that I have high expectations though…" He raised his hand as if grasping the sky. "Cruel winters and moral chaos… The sky will vanish, the sun and moon will face each other, Heaven and Hell will collapse, and the earth will sink into the sea. Afterward, the earth will rise again, and the mother of all will once again create another era."
"Father…" Hel stepped forward, looking at his troubled expression.
"It's fine." He smiled. "For now, give the kid your Underworld Dominion and open another power with the remaining energy. Also, teach him a bit about Order… As for the way to grasp an Order, it's better to give that explanation to the living.
"It's not the era we live in, so the Order might be different. Either way, we can't really intervene that much. We can only give some support here and there. That's all.
"Remember. Don't interfere too much as it'll bring the end much faster than the prediction. Still, what a bad place to live in…
"Is this place a real world? Is this place an illusion world? I sometimes wonder if there's a being that actually watches us, like how the kid watches a movie. From one generation to another, from one place to another, from one realm to another, from one dimension to another…
"Many seek the truth, yet, no one has ever found it… What is the price to learn the truth? Or everything is truly a lie… and what is the cost of lies?" Loki smiled as the white room suddenly cracked and shattered into pieces, revealing endless darkness that engulfed them.