"Hence the fourth Epoch was called the Godless Collapse, though a few give it a different name, they call it the Greedy Collapse to signify the corruption of Beyonders and Magicians because of the Muggle populus."
"Hogwarts was established in the middle of the third Epoch, but only really took off at the end of the fourth Epoch with one of the notable graduates being Merlin."
"It was also during this epoch that once the wounds between the Muggles and the rest of the world settled, a few visionaries attempted to bring back and join the two worlds together by allowing the first Muggle students to come to Hogwarts to study magic once again."
Loki felt like there was a wordplay in there but he didn't know if it was intended or unintended.
'Given how I have a book that teaches Occlumency and is written by someone with the initials M, it is likely Merlin was a-'
'Shit…I just thought of his name…'
'I hope he isn't like Hermes and is still alive today… that would be terrible.'
'But if he was alive, I don't doubt he'd have been much more popular.'
'But if Hermes could go undercover, then 'He' could probably too…'
"Professor." Suddenly Loki interrupted with a rather strange question that he hadn't thought about before.
"Yes?" Professor McGonagall asked politely.
"Why are all Beyonders only in Britain? Why aren't there Beyodners in say, in India or the USA?"
McGonagall smiled at the question and explained, "That is not true. Although the focus of the world throughout the last few epochs has been Britain because of Hogwarts and because of the birth of the first Magicians, the rest of the world also has a great contribution."
"For example, the Delacour family in France controls the Assassin Pathway."
A strange expression showed on Loki's face as soon as he heard this, courtesy of Emperor Roselle who proudly stated, 'The taste of a Demoness still isn't bad.'
McGonagall misunderstood Loki's expression and spoke with a slight laughter, "Although it sounds cool on paper, you are out of luck, since the Delacour family only admits women into their pathway. They also remain undercover in the normal magical world by identifying as Veelas."
Meanwhile, internally McGonagall laughed heartily, 'Poor boy. I wonder what his reaction will be if he learns that the pathway actually changes your gender!'
Loki nodded and then suddenly asked, "Wait why are the Beyonders still secret among the Magical world?"
McGonagall smiled as if she was proud she had a good student who was paying attention.
"That is because, by the end of the fourth epoch, we lost contact with our Gods, or rather most pathways did, since some still have contact with their Gods, but even they have gone mad and the only ones that are still active are downright evil."
Loki's face first morphed into a frown and then into disbelief.
'They're all sleeping!'
'That letter Salazar Slytherin wrote! He wants me to wake him up!'
'So the other gods are sleeping too?'
'And all their bodies are in Hogwarts?'
'The heck!? Is Hogwarts a graveyard or something?!'
McGonagall thought Loki's response was appropriate and continued to explain.
"The evil pathways that you should be wary of are the Secrets Supplicant Pathway that worships an evil god called the True Creator, the Assassin pathway which is often involved with them which worships the Primordial Demoness-"
"-the Criminal and the Prisoner pathway which worships their own evil gods the Devil Monarch Farbauti and the Chained God. But there is a different school of thought in the Prisoner pathway that is more…for the lack of right words, sane so you might want to evaluate people from that pathway first before you declare them as insane."
"There's also the Apothecary pathway which is currently controlled by Professor Snape not because he has held it the longest, but because he is the blessed of the True Goddess of the pathway."
"I understand." Loki nodded. "Are there any other pathways that I should know about?"
"Yes. There are the Warrior, Hunter, Corpse Collector, Lawyer and Arbiter pathways that you still need to learn about, but we shall study about those in the future."
"For now I want to introduce you to the current Epoch. There are several names for it, but one that keeps coming up is the Rebirth epoch. Several saints and prophets have repeatedly called this epoch the era of transcendence. The era in which the True Gods will awake."
Loki instantly became worried since that meant that something was going on in the background pushing Beyonders to become True Gods. And-
'If more than one high sequence Beyodner is going to try and ascend to the True God status, it is going to be downright chaos in the future.'
"Alright, that will be the end of today's class."
Loki nodded and with that ended the impromptu class on world history with McGonagall.
In the Sefirah Castle Loki thought over the various revelations about the different Epochs and came to a single conclusion.
'The Wheel of Fortune True God…Whoever the Goddess of Fortune is is very important.'
'If she is someone that has been corrupted by the Mother Tree of Desire or the Mother Goddess of Depravity then things could get a whole lot worse.'
'I should pay attention to Daphne too…'
'After all, she might be placed beside me so that she can spy on me.'
'I mean wasn't our initial meeting a coincidence? I met her when she randomly showed up in front of me to give me a good luck charm…'
'And then we came closer again when I 'luckily' saw her drawing while I needed an artist.'
'How strange…'
'Either 'Adam' did something to make this happen, or the Goddess of Fortune herself needs something from me, like how the Moon Goddess sent Emyln into the Tarot Club to get closer to Klein.'
'And why is Professor Snape the blessed of Lilith?'
'...strange…so many questions yet so little answers.'
'For example, what happened in the third epoch that caused the downfall of such a great civilization?'
'Clearly, Professor McGonagall hid something from me. I mean who'd believe that the Muggles were responsible for their downfall…?'
'Unless the muggles who were believers of the gods and goddesses were corrupted in some way so that they stopped being anchors for their Gods and Goddesses?'
'That would explain the madness which the True Gods of that era suffered and continue to suffer since there are no anchors for them still.'
'But that still doesn't explain how they managed to kill a True God since if a True God exists in a pathway, there can't be any Sequence one in the same pathway.'
'So either the gods worked together to kill others, or the outer gods were involved.'
'And then there's the mystery of Hogwarts.'
'If the founders discovered Magic and made a school for it, it stands to reason that they knew it best which was why everyone else supported the school and decided it was good to have around.'
'But who would be connected to them that created this system of magic?'
'And why is its workings still a secret from the rest of the world?'
'I mean moulding spirituality into runes creates magic, but why does it cause magic?'
'For example, heating up water causes it to turn into steam or cooling it causes it to transform into ice. And we know why it does that because we add or remove energy from the system.'
'But what about magic?'
'Is Professor McGonagall hiding something from me? Or is it really just a well-kept secret by whoever invented the damn thing?'
'Confusing.'
Loki performed a few divinations on the matter and decided that Professor McGonagall didn't lie to him. But that just made the matter more confusing. If there really was someone who invented it and kept it a secret, why did they do so in the first place?
'Did they fear someone else taking advantage of the system and ruining it for everyone?'
'Why was it made in the first place?'
'Since magic came around the same time 'muggles' destroyed the thriving civilization, it couldn't have been made for them since otherwise there would be no reason for the muggles to revolt because magic was made just for them.'
'So there has to be some other reason…was it made in response to the revolt of the muggles?'
'Strange.'
'Then there's the current epoch. The Era of Rebirth…how strange it all is.'
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