Baited.

Loki stared at the slot at the top of the door that the device protecting them was supposed to deliver power to and analysed it for a while.

The constant *Buzz* that he had been hearing seemed to come from inside the currently empty door.

'Is there something on the other side?'

Loki pondered on this question for a few seconds before turning away.

Suddenly, his wand flicked like an orchestra conductor, each flick carving new runes into the doorframe as Loki found himself adjusting Fleur's mistakes made because of her half-baked technique and skill.

He had a frown as he worked through all the mistakes that Fleur had made since she'd transfigured the wood at several points to try again after making mistakes. This made the consistency of the wood strange and uneven which was causing Loki to make more mistakes himself.

"How much longer!?" Fleur asked patiently as she looked at all the creatures around them.

Loki noticed her studying his work and explained calmly since he understood that although he knew only a few minutes had passed, it had been a few years for Fleur.

"I don't need to do much. I just have to rewrite the few runes that you wrote which only allow a single person to pass through the door, after that it'll be done."

Fleur's eyes lit up as she studied the runes Loki had drawn and quickly found a slight admiration for him.

"You zid good." Fleur cheered while patting Loki's shoulder.

'First test done…' Loki thought while looking at Fleur through the corner of his eye, 'I still don't trust her…but perhaps she's just not as eager as I thought? Or does she just want to do it when she's fully sure?'

Loki went back to meddling with the runes and he was done not before long.

"Fleur, could you slot in the device you have in your hands to activate the device?"

Fleur looked at Loki with narrowed eyes before she asked, "Iz it do~ne?"

Loki nodded, "You don't need to worry about it. As soon as you slot it in go back to protecting me and I'll focus on enhancing the runes so that we can get out of here."

Fleur closed her eyes, and took a deep breath before she nodded-

"You have been a greatz' he~lp."

"My pleasure." Loki teased with a slightly exaggerated nod, but his mind was thinking something else.

'Will she take the bait?'

Fleur looked at the device in her hands before she slotted it into the top of the device, she was a little taller than Loki and hence could reach the top of the door easier than him which caused him to frown a little.

'Why am I still so short?'

While Loki was distracted, Fleur finished bringing the device in her hands closer to the slot and the changes were almost instantaneous.

The device began to *humm* and *buzz* as it got closer to the slot while the glow around Loki's and Fleur's bodies started to flicker as if the thing powering it was going out of fuel.

Loki's eyes snapped to the device and as soon as he looked at it, Fleur stuffed the device into the slot with a soft *click*.

Loki quickly looked around and saw that all the creatures in the room were looking around in a panic as they looked to find out what exactly was going on.

Loki's eyes narrowed at their reactions while Fleur kept looking at the slot that was now powering the door.

'I guess I made the right choice?'

Loki turned back towards Fleur and spoke calmly, "Why did you use magic to stop the other people from hearing the *buzz*?"

Fleur's eyes widened as the door frame powered up and she spoke calmly.

"I was so worried that no one else would wake up and come around to help me…" Fleur said in a soft tone while looking down at Loki as he was shorter than her before putting her hand on his shoulder and squeezing it lightly to thank him.

"I probably would've gone insane if I would've remained stuck here for longer…"

Loki was about to speak but was forced to swallow his words when he felt Fleur's grip over his shoulder tighten.

"....But I'm sorry, you'll have to stay here.", Fleur said almost instantly as she twisted Loki's arm around and pushed him to the floor while holding her wand on his neck.

"That hurts…" Loki complained with a roll of his eyes.

He'd realised something like this might happen in case Fleur wanted to pull something off at the last second since she was still going to need to protect him while the artefact was on the doorframe, so he threw out a test.

Unfortunately or fortunately for him, Fleur did what he'd anticipated.

'Well, whatever. I never wanted to go into that thing first. Who knows if it is even the real exit.' Loki thought as he looked at Fleur who had shot an incarcerous spell at him to tie him up in ropes.

Loki had a dull look in his eye while Fleur was smiling and beaming with joy.

"Sorry for not 'ztaking you alo~ng little boy Loki! But I need to win this for my sister!!"

Loki's, childish competitive, hatred for Fleur melted slightly when he heard her talk about a sister but he didn't let it show on his face.

Yet he was still a little worried.

'What does she mean by needing to win this for her sister?'

'Did the Flamel's kidnap her or something?'

Loki frowned but he didn't argue back as he saw Fleur levitate him towards the monsters around them before creating several walls around herself and the door portal while watching the device direct power away from their invisibility shield towards the door frame itself.

Loki, being out of Fleur's view, calmly looked at the creatures that had all gotten up and were looking around until he finally made eye contact with one of them.

The creature looked at him and *grunted*, pushing out a sudden gush of air as it began walking closer to Loki whose presence was slowly being revealed.

Except as soon as the creature took a step its body suddenly shivered.

Loki looked at the creature, and then at all the others that had also decided to freeze in their places.

'Damn I knew I was right but who thought I would be this right!?'

Loki looked in Fleur's direction and let her act as bait for him so that he could escape.

Flicking his wand quickly, Loki used the ice blade he had on him to cut through the ropes before he stood up and sent one last look in Fleur's direction before he ran away from the place.

Fleur, on the other hand, looked at the portal door with eagerness as she heard several *clicks* come out of the door frame.

Her eagerness grew as the *buzz* that was ringing from the door grew with each passing moment.

"Gabrielle! I am going to bring the cure for you!!! Don't-"

Except that was when her words froze mid-way.

A warm updraft began emerging out of the door frame as a swirling greenish mist formed in the frame before a sudden hand emerged out of the portal and grabbed the frame.

Fleur, frozen stiff with shock, watched as a Minotaur poked its head out of the portal before it looked around and locked onto Fleur's eyes.

*gulp*

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