Lord Shadow

Chapter 1735: The Curtain Raised

Maybe it is good that the world now has changed.

If not, she would remember all those places that she had gone with him. And if that is the case then it is harder to forget about him

Sina could not know what Sofia is thinking right now. She has her own thoughts and Sofia has her own thoughts on things. ”I think that is enough about my love life”

Sina nodded ”I actually came here hoping to persuade you against joining the World Government. If you are here, Azief would be reluctant to do anything to the World Government if the need arise. But...I understand why. And you choose our own path.” ”Will it not be hard for you....in Pandemonium?” Hearing this Sina shakes her head ”Donʼt worry about me” she paused for a second and then she ask ”I actually have something that I want you to do” ”Hmm” ”This is a secret commission. Sasha has some other jobs and she could not do it”

Sofia raise her eyebrows

This is the first time she got a job from Pandemonium.

Most of the people in Pandemonium never give her any commission.

Not because they did not want to give her the jobs but because at that time the position of Sofia is different than the position that she is now.

Now, she is a hunter for hire

And even though she has been one for quite some time those people in Pandemonium still feel like it is not appropriate to give her some commission like she is some hired thug.

What would Death Monarch, their lord, think of them if it is found out that his minister hired his ex-girlfriend to labor under them?

Do you have a lot of lives to spare?

That would not be a pleasant topic conversation between a ruler and his subordinate.

Others could not give the commission but Sina clearly could. ”Am I the only one?”

Sina shakes her head ”I assemble a team to help you”

She then gives her a photo. The photo is quite blurry. A man, six feet three, muscular, but his face is covered by a mask ”Who is this?” ”This man once a taskmaster in the Dark Syndicate among some of his jobs. He also organizes most assassin jobs in the Crime Alliance. He seems to be retired. Washing his hands out of the affairs of the world powers.” ”Then we should not disturb him, right?” ”Someone told me that Void has visited him” She paused for a second and then she sighed ”I want him found and brought o Pandemonium. If you could do this, there is a million- energy stone that would be given to you as rewards. If you donʼt want that, you couple exchange it with others tings in the Pandemonium treasury”

Sofia look at the picture and nodded

Then she put the picture away and they continue reminiscing about old stories and asking each other about their life.

Five months after the world changed, a new conflict is about to arise

A curtain that is raised for the final act ....

Greece

Mount Parnassus.

On the top of the peak of Mount Parnassus, there is a large clearing. Surrounded by harsh winds and cold air, this place become even more mystical after the world is separated into ten continents.

Today, on that peak, there is two people.

There is a stone table two feet wide, two feet length. Across from each other is a woman with an eyepatch and a man dressed in a luxury three-piece suit with a fedora on top of his head.

On top of the stone table is a chess board.

It is the Trickster and the One-Eyed Oracle. Both of them is playing chess. And Loki is making the final moves.

One move to checkmate the king ”I lose” the Oracle said with a smile on her face as she put down her King on the chess table.

Loki only smiles. Clearly, he did not care much whether he wins or lose sin this normal chess games. ”I sometimes wonder why you always loses against me even if you could see my moves”

Eriak however is not angry at all. Loki was not provoking and she herself plays the game as more a casual fan.

She looks at the skies in the distance and then she answer ”Just because I could see what moves you make doesnʼt mean that I could defeat you. Especially when I donʼt know how to play the game. If I learn to play the game, it might be easy to win. But then it would not be so fun to play it now”

Loki only chuckles at this. ”I heard you send some news to Pandemonium” Hearing this Eriak only smiles and nodded

She never did intended to hide this from Loki anyway.

But the feeling of having her moves being exposed is never pleasant ”Which little bird tell you? I thought I had purge most of your spies and your talisman from my Temple last time”

Loki only laughed ”I am nothing without my tricks. And if I tell you the trick, it is not so fun anymore”

Hearing this Erika only chuckles.

The wind blows, the branches of the treeʼs sways, the leaves fall and the echoes of the wind pleasantly fills the silence between these two old friends. ”You think he is up there?” Erika ask.

Loki shakes his head ”Why ask question you already know the answer to?”

Erika smiles and nodded. ”Itʼs fast”

Loki nodded ”This never happens before. I could guess what made him wanting to do this kind of thing. When he moved the landmasses, the continents and the seas, he must have realized something. Whatever this something is, it is accelerating his breakthrough”

Loki chuckles helplessly ”no one said that you have to stabilize your realm when you enter Essence Formation and wanting to enter Sovereign realm. Not to mention, his method of breakthrough reminds me of.... a taboo existence”

He paused for a second and then said ”Since his method is different than before, the outcome would also be different. But I donʼt think that this is that good for me. Or you”

Loki then look at Erika ”Etherna” Erika mutters and Loki nodded ”It also resembles a bit of the Separation of the Three Souls methods of the Three Thousand

Realms” ”It is more that the method of the Three Separations comes after. Either the previous Saints found the method of the Etherna method and improvise it or they developed it independently without the influence of the Etherna ”Things changes too much at a breakneck speed. Sometimes I could not keep up”

Loki mutters. His stance toward these change sis still complicated. He never expected that he would lose the projected trajectory of the future this quickly.

Then he was reminded of what Jean had told him before he travels back through time. ”Read the plan. And expect that the plan would go wrong. And then improvise” because to Jean, once you change something in the past, however insignificant, however infinitesimal the change is, a change that o never expected to do anything could sometime change the world

Jean once told him a story of how one pebble doomed a world. Jean saw a couple of time travelers went to the past.

They thought they changed nothing.

The intention of these time travelers are simple

They just wanted to see the past, and make sure that their calculation was correct.

They did not interact with any other people; they did not do anything.

They just went there for a few minutes.

On a side road with the desert on both sides of the road.

One of them kick the ground to make sure that they are on soldi ground. After a few minutes, they went back to their time

To their surprise when they go back to their time, the world changed. It became a little bit darker, a little bleaker.

What they didnʼt know was that when they went back into the past, when that person kick the ground, a pebble fall into the cracks of the tar road.

And on that tar road, a certain person rides a car, had his tire blown out by that pebble. That person then goes to a gas station and then goes to a mechanic to repair the tire. That person in the original timeline should have run over a person.

But because he was delayed, he did not run over a person. This person that should have died, did not die.

And that is where it all go wrong.

Because then a person that died lives and person that lives died.

And when enough mistakes and irregularity happens, then the future that those two-time travelers come from become very different

Jean said that because those two-time travelers aid him in his understanding of time, he offers them help and manage to not only reverse the dystopia of their world but also at the same time make it even better.

Because of that Jean gave him that advice. >>