The Cycle of Fate

Chapter 196: Fools

"Hela" glanced at Lumian, remaining silent for a couple of seconds before replying, "Alright, I'll start preparing now. But don't get your hopes too high. Even in an emergency meeting, people need at least ten minutes to disguise themselves, or they won't show up."

Ten minutes, combined with their current discussion, might just give "Loki" enough time to resurrect and warn his allies.

Lumian maintained a neutral expression and nodded slightly, "We have to try."

"Yeah, catching just one would be a breakthrough. After that, it'll be easier to track down the others," Franca agreed with Lumian. She suspected that some of the dead members of the "Curly-haired Baboon Research Society" had been killed by Loki and his associates.

Hela didn't waste any more time. Darkness suddenly enveloped her surroundings, repelling the light from the three flames nearby. Her figure vanished, presumably to begin preparing for the emergency meeting.

Lumian gazed at the rotting, mud-like flesh crawling with dead maggots, his thoughts racing. Meanwhile, Franca carefully examined her physical state. She found no substantial or visible injuries—the pain she'd endured had been mostly from mental trauma. Now that her spirit had been soothed and treated, only a few faint cracks remained.

"Phew." Franca exhaled deeply. "Loki is truly insidious and powerful. Good thing you thought to call Hela for help. Otherwise, if it were just the two of us, we'd already be his marionettes by now."

Lumian wholeheartedly agreed. Had he not anticipated Loki's abilities to detect something special about himself and decided to set a trap that very night, things might have turned out far worse. If Loki had found them unprepared, neither he nor Franca would have stood a chance.

Lumian could still unleash the "Blood Emperor" aura to indiscriminately draw in official Beyonders and buy enough time to escape through "transmission." Franca, however, would almost certainly have been controlled.

Without the trap, Lumian might have chosen to retreat into the spirit world with Franca, escaping Loki's sight before sneaking back later.

"You don't need to worry about becoming a puppet," Lumian reassured Franca. "Loki's plan was to nurture you into a Sequence 4 Witch before converting you."

Franca was momentarily stunned. "He told me he's been wanting a Witch marionette for a long time..."

"He lied to you. He also said those four segments of the divine name were to speed things up, but in reality, it was a trap to create a space that could block most struggles," Lumian calmly pointed out.

"...!" Franca couldn't help but curse, "Is there anything true coming out of his mouth? No wonder he's the leader of the Fool's Day group, living across from the *Extraordinary Ballroom* like some next-gen con artist!"

Franca began to muse aloud, "But the name he chanted must be real. The fact that he could use that Tianzun's power to locate me through some shared characteristic between us—that's probably true too. As for the specific range, well, with his track record, it's most likely nonsense."

She paused for a moment, then turned to Lumian, "During the gathering, Loki must have already recognized you as a fake Muggle! You don't have the Tianzun's aura or mark!"

"Right," Lumian's mood dampened slightly.

"You should tell Hela about this detail later. Maybe she can come up with a way to remove that Tianzun aura from us. Otherwise, Loki and his group will keep hunting us," Franca suggested while glancing at the faint green light leaking from a part of the corpse and combining with its remnants. "What should we do with this extraordinary characteristic?"