THE GOD EATER

Then they turned to Loki to ask, ”Could you be like that brain-dead battle maniac? What next? Do you want to fight me to see just how strong I am before you know to fear and respect me?”

Loki shook his head, saying, ”I don’t need to fight you to know how strong you are.”

The guardian said encouragingly, ”Don’t think you are inconveniencing me by asking for a fight. I am not here for a fight, but I’m sure I can put you in your place in less than a nanosecond.”

Inwardly, Loki thought, ’You sound eager for battle. Are you perhaps the one who’s a battle maniac?’

But outwardly, he ignored the offer and asked pointedly, ”If I may ask. What are you here for?”

”Did you see a great being as the manifestation of your pathway after you became a Dao Lord?” came the reply with a question.

Loki answered with a confused voice, ”What great being?”

The guardian was looking at him skeptically, but they still explained patiently, ”Think carefully before you answer. It should be a great being in the form of a black hole. It should be a black hole large beyond compare.”

”Oh, that sounds impressive.”Loki started to say. Then he shook his head and said, ”Unfortunately, I saw no such being.”

The response he got from the guardian was silence. The armored knight was still as it looked at him, making it appear like a statue.

And because there was no gap in the armor for eyes, he couldn’t see the guardian’s face. He could only guess what they were thinking.

This silence went on for a full three seconds before the guardian moved towards him. His first instinct was to step back, but then he remembered that he couldn’t run away, so he remained still.

The armored knight took a few steps before stopping short of him. Then they turned and began walking around him, all the while inspecting him like one would inspect an object they were about to buy.

After a while, the guardian asked him, saying, ”Are you sure you didn’t see anything? Is it possible that you forgot?”

”I’m sure that if I had seen something I would have remembered,” he said in reply.

As if accepting what he said, the guardian nodded and said, ”I see what is going on here. You have found a way to master your thoughts.”

This prompted Loki to say, ”What do you mean?”

”Oh. Don’t pretend. You have no second thoughts. You don’t question yourself or think in between your replies. You also don’t try to recollect events from your memory. It is as if you’re talking on instinct.”

”Are you a programmed artifact? Is this an avatar?” the guardian pressed with one question after the other. ”Tell me how you did it, and I might spare your life.”

In response, Loki sighed and said, ”If you lived under the yolk of Dao Lords for all of your life, I’m sure you’ll learn a thing or two about keeping your thoughts in check.”

Hearing this, the guardian chuckled and said, ”Good one. It is a nice excuse. But you’re not fooling me. I can sense that you have two minds. One is fuzzy, the other is clear.”

Then they asked him, saying, ”Could it be that you split your mind into two, using one as a shield to hide your thoughts while the true mind serves as the inner core of your mind?”

”I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Loki replied in the same calm and detached tone.

The guardian continued to nod in understanding as they said, ”Continue to deny it. That’s good. You’re just bad at lying. You need to work on that.”

”It is impressive that you came up with this method. The fact that you can come up with such a skill under the difficult conditions you were born to only proves that I was right to make the trip here. It also proves that I was right not to interfere and let Black Chain run amok for so long.”

”I’m glad that you’re happy,” Loki said stiffly.

The guardian ignored him and continued to say, ”So you’re lying to me. You did see something.”

”And don’t say you aren’t lying to me. If you’re lying, tell me why your Devouring Supreme Metac, which should be a Grand Dao with a dimension of 7,7,7 and a size of 343 units, instead has a dimension of 9,9,9 and a size of 729, behaving like a Cosmic Dao?”

Loki himself was interested in the answer to this question and didn’t know, so he was sincere as he said, ”I don’t know. Do you know?”

The guardian snorted before saying, ”Of course I knew. I know it is why you have ten godheads.”

As they said this, they stared intensely at Loki as if waiting to see a sign of weakness from him. This time, Loki couldn’t keep calm. His calm exterior cracked to reveal surprise and fear.

In a voice tinged with fear, he asked, ”How did you know?”

The guardian ignored his question and said, ”First of all, that was overkill. If I could read your thoughts, it shouldn’t be impossible for me to see your inner world and see how many godheads you have. You’re smart, so you should have expected something like this.”

”Secondly, your reaction was delayed. It should have been instantaneous. A lesser celestial might be fooled, but my perception is more acute than you can imagine.”

”Thirdly, your mind is too sterile. You weren’t thinking anything before I asked the question. Then all of a sudden, you became afraid. Clearly, you were putting on a show for me.”

At this point, Loki realized that he had been defeated. So he sighed and said, ”It seems you caught me. I can only blame my incompetence.”

Loki couldn’t see it, but the guardian smiled and said, ”This is fun. I haven’t come across something this fun and challenging for a long time.”