The image before him slowly stabilized.
A ruined planet.
Oceans evaporating.
The sky completely shattered.
Entire continents collapsing as enormous black fissures tore across the world's surface like open wounds.
And at the center of it all...
A figure.
Genesis.
The young man stood motionless amidst the catastrophe while uncontrolled light poured from his body. Origin Energy expanded wildly, distorting the space around him.
Then...
Everything exploded.
The image shattered into thousands of luminous fragments.
Silence returned.
The false Loki slowly raised a hand to his forehead and let out a weary sigh.
"Genesis..."
His voice sounded exhausted.
"How could you fall into such an obvious trap?"
The images surrounding him began to shift once more.
Thousands of possible futures appeared and vanished like currents within a raging river.
The entire space seemed unstable.
The threads of fate were trembling.
And that meant only one thing.
The future had begun to change.
His eyes glimmered faintly as he observed the alterations.
"It has begun..."
he murmured seriously.
The consequences of his recent actions were finally beginning to appear.
The ritual.
The awakening.
The alteration of Tharok's destiny.
All of it had triggered a chain reaction.
Future timelines were diverging.
Breaking apart.
Rewriting themselves.
The immense river of images before him became turbulent.
Some scenes vanished before they could even fully form.
Others emerged completely different.
The destruction of the planet he had witnessed moments ago began to fade.
First the oceans.
Then the shattered sky.
Then the ruined continents.
Until finally the vision disappeared completely.
A small smile appeared on his face.
"As expected..."
He slowly stroked his chin.
"My actions caused repercussions."
And that was exactly what he wanted.
For countless years, he had observed possible futures.
Far too many to count.
Most of them ended the same way.
With destruction.
Death.
And failure.
But now...
For the first time in a very long time...
Destiny had begun to deviate in a significant way.
In a direction that directly benefited him.
The thought filled him with satisfaction.
Though not too much.
There was still a long way to go.
A very long way.
His gaze slowly drifted into the distance.
Passing through mountains.
Forests.
Frozen storms.
Until it settled upon a single location.
The floating city of Dalaran.
Even with time frozen, the city still radiated majesty. It floated silently among the clouds like a colossal fortress suspended in the heavens.
And inside a brightly lit office...
Sat Genesis.
The young man remained completely motionless due to the temporal freeze.
A suspended quill floated near his hand.
Half-written documents covered the desk.
The false Loki observed the scene for several seconds.
Something unusual appeared in his eyes.
Curiosity.
Interest.
And even...
A faint trace of approval.
"To think someone like you could produce so many surprises..."
His voice echoed softly through the frozen forest.
That was not something that happened often.
Very few things truly surprised him anymore.
Especially after living for so long.
But Genesis...
Was different.
He slowly narrowed his eyes.
"You're far too sentimental."
His tone had become more serious.
"Although I suppose that's normal considering how young and inexperienced you are."
The boy possessed something absurdly rare.
The Power of Creation.
A power that very few beings even knew existed, and one that countless others would do anything to obtain.
And yet...
He was using it poorly.
Wasting much of its potential.
That much was obvious.
Though he could hardly blame him.
Genesis was still young.
Far too young.
He didn't truly understand what it meant to possess a power like that.
And precisely because of that...
He needed to change.
His expression gradually darkened.
"This will be a wake-up call for you."
His voice was cold now.
"Make good use of it... because I won't be able to help you again."
Those words were not a threat.
They were simply reality.
What he had just done had been extraordinarily costly in his current state.
Freezing time across an entire planet.
Manipulating destinies.
Altering futures.
Forcing an early awakening.
None of those things could be done lightly, and his body was already showing signs of strain.
Small black cracks slowly began to appear along his right arm before fading away once more.
He observed them indifferently.
Then his gaze returned to Genesis.
"You need to mature faster."
Silence spread once again.
Snow remained suspended around him.
The enormous crimson egg behind him continued to pulse slowly.
Each heartbeat released waves of Umbra that distorted the surrounding air.
The false Loki remained still for several moments before speaking again.
"The Power of Creation..."
he murmured almost to himself.
"You have no idea how absurd it is to possess something like that."
Throughout his endless existence, he had seen countless beings.
Monsters.
Gods.
Kings.
Creatures capable of destroying continents.
And even among all of them...
Genesis's power stood out.
Because Creation was not merely a powerful ability.
It was an anomaly.
Something that should not exist so easily.
And yet...
The boy still didn't understand that.
He still thought like an ordinary mortal.
Too emotional.
Too soft.
Too human.
His eyes grew colder.
"That will have to change."
The motionless air around him trembled slightly.
Small black cracks appeared throughout space itself.
Maintaining a temporal freeze over an entire planet was consuming enormous amounts of energy.
Even he had limits in his current state.
And there was still one final thing he needed to do.
At last, all emotion vanished from his expression.
Only seriousness remained.
A heavy seriousness.
An ancient one.
"We don't have much time left."
Those words echoed through the silent forest.
And for the first time since he had awakened...
The joy disappeared completely from his eyes.