The Sage of the Mind

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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 120[May 2012]

Zurich, Switzerland 

–Loki Odinson Laufeyson–

He grinned under the illusion he had cast over the machine. It was very hard for his magic to latch onto the machine because it was so suffused with energy from the Tesseract but with some light energy cleansing work, he was able to get his lightest illusion spell working which was just a visible illusion. He would still be visible and detectable to other means, far from his magnum opus which would slip his body in between spaces to make sure that he remained undetected.

The very heavy impact on his brain, when he had been rescued from the mortals, had been enough to dislodge the parasitic spell that was implanted in him. Now that he was clear in his mind, it was also very clear to him that the sceptre was only partially there to use as a weapon. It was most likely used as a link between him and the Other who would use it to reinforce the spell if needed.

That was where the overwhelming fear came from, he was sure. Nothing to do with the torture he experienced under them, he was sure of that.

Now that he had no Master commanding him, he could have done away with the Invasion but it was still true that he needed to conquer a realm, to become King, to show Odin that he was not some failure, not someone who is not worthy.

So, there he was, making sure that the machine worked as best as it could. He had dismissed all the thralls he made under the Sceptre's control and told them to go where they would be arrested with ease, and fight back. He grinned deliciously at the sheer amount of chaos it would cause.

But that was neither here nor there. No, the reason he was continuing this invasion was because he needed to make sure that Midgard remained weak. Despite his earlier notions about mortals, they had grown a lot since he last came here. They also had champions who were much stronger than he had anticipated.

The Genus Loci in the city called Manhattan alone gave him chills. The only reason the machine had reached that godforsaken place was because it was the default location set by Eric Selwig, something about the city being the optimum place for the most damage, to both people as well as their morale.

He did not agree and as such, after dumping a small squad of Chitauri, he jumped out of that place so fast. He then jumped on to the next location, which was usually some city population by the ants he was going to crush and then rule, to bring them into a new age of prosperity, away from the needless genocide they committed against one another.

It was so wasteful. He had watched a few of the documentaries, wherein they documented the crimes they committed against their own kind and he had been beyond repulsed. Even the Fire Demons, which were mostly cannibals, were better since they didn't know any better. They had no conscious thoughts.

These humans, they had empathy, and enough intelligence to realise what they were doing but they continued to do so anyway, and not just that, they had the audacity to come up with new and better ways to kill one another.

One such thing was the nukes. He shuddered as he undid the illusion on himself, and jammed his hand near the cube's barrier, where the button was. He winced as his skin was singed by the Tesseract's energy but that was a small price to pay, as he watched a blue hole appear in the sky and droves of Chitauri fly down. The only reason he was doing this one by one, with only a few Chitauri soldiers was because, one, he wanted the Other to expend his forces needlessly, and two, he wanted to whittle down Earth's defenses, slowly.

He didn't want to create a super large invasion force and then force their leaders to send in the nukes. Those were weapons that contained the power of the sun and would destroy even him, with ease. The Tesseract will be fine but he will be fine mist, even with all his power.

Hell, he reckoned that not even Thor would survive one of those attacks.

These damn mortals, how did they even come up with a way to contain the power of the sun, he would never know. Then again, if it were only the nukes he had to worry about, it would be fine. No, it was more than that. Midgard had hidden defenses in most major cities.

In some of the cities he attacked, he witnessed multiple champions emerging out of nowhere to defend the city, even though they were not really successful. He made sure that large buildings were the first ones to be toppled before he left for a new city. Even so, when he was in the city called Mumbai, one of the champions who could fly on his own, had almost collided with him before he had retreated from that zone.

He could have easily dealt with that mortal since he knew that despite their various abilities, almost all of them were vulnerable to attacks from the Chitauri but he couldn't enter the fray himself, mainly because he was still connected to the machine.

When the machine was being built, he had asked the resident Doctor a few questions, and that had elicited a couple of very interesting answers to him. So, he had changed some parameters from the original design which meant that now, instead of the portal being controlled by the Other who would prefer it to be open in a stationary location with endless droves of Chitauri arriving and destroying everything in sight, the control was held in his hands, literally.

His blood was used to control the Tesseract's portal location and as soon as his hands left the machine, it would cease to function. Activating it was no simple matter and he knew that the mortals would not let that happen again.

So, he had to make this one chance count. He could not let Thor or the champions defeat him but he could not let the Chitauri destroy everything. This was supposed to be his kingdom now.

He sighed and closed the portal above this Zurich City. It was one of the smaller cities but if he recalled correctly, it held significance in the sense that the country it belonged to, didn't enter any World War that the humans had in the last century.

He was about to leave but then his senses prickled, as he felt someone watching him. Which was supposed to be impossible because he was cloaked in his illusion and far away from the original portal location.

His neck swiveled around as he tried to look for the stalker, only to find himself face to face with a mortal, flying, looking straight at him.

He immediately backpedaled, his first instinct to get away from this place but reality around him rippled and he fled right into the woman's open palm. 

__xx__

Zurich, 

–Ancient One–

"Hmm, this is concerning," She mused as she withdrew her spell from Loki's mind and destroyed his memories of their encounter. She could have defeated him herself and confiscated the Tesseract, she was well within her rights but this was not going to be her era for long.

It was time for the future generation to step up and do their part, especially since the crutch everyone was lingering on, Axle, was now comatose.

Then again, it was not like she couldn't give the soon to be Avengers a helping hand, her mouth quirked into a small smile as she cast a subtle compulsion on Loki's mind, one that would unravel in a few hours but that would be more than enough time for Stark to make his move.

____xx___

–Loki–

He came to consciousness with a gasp, a feeling of terror in his heart for some reason, even though he was cloaked, perfectly safe, with the mortals in front of him scrambling to defeat the small squad of Chitaur.

He chuckled to himself. Pathetic, these mortals were.

They didn't even have any champions to protect them. He would be that champion, and once their cities were ashes, they would learn to accept him as their patron God.

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