September 3rd, 1349 of the Fifth Epoch…
In the auspicious castle above the grey fog, Max recovered his sight as the crimson saturation of the world around him melted away to reveal the colourless grey fog.
[AN: Technically… black and white are not colours, but shades. So grey, something in between the two, should also not be a colour. I may be wrong, but until proven so, I will go with this thought process.]
Audrey, who appeared to be in deep thought while rather successfully masking it behind indifference and slight innocence, greeted everyone.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Fool! Good afternoon, Mr. Hanged Man! Good afternoon, Mr. Sun! Ah, and Good afternoon Mr. Death!"
After they greeted one another, Klein saw that Miss Justice was indicating her desire to speak; therefore, he nodded faintly to express his permission.
"Honourable Mr. Fool, I wonder if your adorer has received the compensation of 300 pounds?"
Audrey asked, holding back her urge to talk about Qilangos while she showed concern over her leader's adorer.
Klein smiled and said, "I didn't pay close attention to this matter. But as my adorer didn't request additional help, I suppose he has already received it."
Max smirked internally, imagining how jubilant Klein; the future Beggar God would have been at suddenly coming across such a great sum of money.
The person in question; Klein, did have such thoughts. But he was also intrigued by the odd clothing Max was wearing, which looked like something from at least a few hundred years ago.
"That's great!" Audrey relaxed and looked across her, "Mr. Hanged Man, there's been progress regarding Qilangos."
Alger suddenly sat up straight. He couldn't hide his excitement as he asked, "Where is he?"
"Unfortunately, he noticed our investigations just after we discovered his tracks. He killed one of the personnel involved," Audrey repeated the highlights of Xio's and Fors's story and explained their follow-up plan in detail.
Max had a pleasant smile on his face as he recalled the source of the information Ms Justice was giving to Alger just now. He couldn't help but reminisce the bitter-sweet story that the two friends had to face together due to the horrors of this world and the worse horrors that lay outside.
Alger nodded faintly and said, "I'll pay close attention."
Then, he turned to the side and looked towards the seat of honour at the long bronze table. Under the vacant gaze of The Sun, Derrick, who listened but didn't understand anything, said, "Honourable Mr. Fool, if I were to find out Qilangos' true intention and the very important and magical item that he intends to obtain, please allow me to recite your name and inform you through the ritual."
He didn't repeat his request for The Fool's adorer to provide him assistance. As he brought it up before and The Fool had given his answer, there was no need to harp on the topic. Otherwise, it might provoke the god.
Hence, Alger made it clear that his intention was only to report his findings. If the final temptation was sufficient, he believed that Mr. Fool's adorer would definitely appear.
'That works?' Audrey widened her eyes, 'I should've asked for the right to report as well. I might be able to gain Mr. Fool's guidance occasionally,' she thought with regret.
Under everyone's gaze, Klein leaned back into his chair and nodded faintly. He replied slowly, "You may."
Alger heaved a sigh of relief when he heard The Fool's answer. He lowered his head and humbly said, "Please allow me to thank you in advance."
Max was sure Klein was thinking about how exactly he would be able to convince Mr. Azik to go and help him when he needed it. Though it was none of his concern. All he needed to do was ensure that everything went according to the original plan, and the world itself also seemed to want it to happen as such.
This left Max with a bitter taste in his mouth as he realised how 'fate' or the concept of something or someone dictating the actions and ultimate endings of the vast majority of people seemed to exist here. It was as though the original novel had become the script that would be followed through to the end by the world, one way or another.
'Will I really be able to do anything to change the story when it truly matters?' Max often thought about this when planning for the future. He had already realised that this corrective force seemed to ignore his actions, and just correct the world around him, bypassing the things he changed.
Like Ademisaul. The kid's original fate was to continue suffering due to his state as a half-monster. But his intervention changed this, and the world did not change much, only correcting the broader narrative of everything.
But what would happen if that broader narrative was something that Max wanted to or ended up changing? Would the corrective force also ignore it and change the future by introducing stronger variables, or would it outright destroy him before bringing back balance?
Many thoughts went through Max's mind, and the same could be said for Klein.
The Hanged Man Alger looked at The Fool and spoke once again, "I'm about to receive a batch of pages from Emperor Roselle's diary. I believe that I can present them to you in the next gathering, or the gathering after that."
According to the arrangement of the Church of the Lord of Storms, Pritz Harbour was under the jurisdiction of the Backlund diocese. Thus, Alger could enter the capital and wait for Rear Admiral Hurricane Qilangos to show himself under the guise of reporting about his previous voyage.
Backlund had been the headquarters of the Church of the Lord of Storms until the end of the last epoch, having shifted their holy altar to Pasu Island only after the establishment of the Loen Kingdom. Regardless, the status of the Church of the Lord of Storms in Backlund was second only to the headquarters of the Seven Great Churches.
One could imagine the information the Church of the Lord of Storms held. Under these circumstances, Alger was confident that he would be able to collect pages of Emperor Roselle's diary in the name of research. After all, they were indecipherable at present.
Klein allowed joy to colour his tone, as he said with a gentle nod, "Very good."
Audrey Hall hurriedly spoke up when she saw the conversation between The Hanged Man and The Fool end. "Honourable Mr. Fool, may I recite your name and inform you using a ritual should I receive any timely and useful information?"
Klein nodded slightly, saying past the fog, "You may."
'Great!' Audrey secretly clenched her fists. At the same time, Klein turned to look at The Sun, Derrick Berg, who had been silently listening to their conversations. He spoke, his tone was peaceful, "The same goes for you as well."
"Yes, Mr. Fool." Derrick lowered his head.
Max observed as things played out much in the same way as before, and he refrained from interfering much, still lost in the existential crisis he was going through. Audrey asked for an item and Alger said he would be able to find it for her in exchange for finding Qilangos.
'Alger really must have a thing for the dude. Well, we partake in no kink-shaming here.' Max thought to himself as he brought himself out of his own thoughts and back to the important discussion going on.
After the end of the transaction discussions, Klein looked around, then turned to The Sun. He asked in a gentle tone, "Does the City of Silver still believe in gods?"
Derrick replied in a respectful tone, "We still believe in the Lord that created everything, the omnipotent and omniscient God."
"Kek-" Unknowingly, Max let out a slight chuckle but then suppressed it and waved off the interested looks of those around him. "Pardon my actions. Please continue little Sun."
Klein wasn't surprised at all. He purposely chuckled and asked in reply, "Even though He abandoned you?"
'Abandoned? The Creator abandoned the City of Silver?' Alger was shocked. Suddenly when he made the connection regarding a particular term. 'The Forsaken Land of the Gods!'
In the confidential information of the Church of the Lord of Storms, at the security clearance level that Alger, who was Captain—equivalent to the Bishop level—could access, the Forsaken Land of the Gods had always only been a name with no actual description.
However, it clearly pointed towards the end of the Sonia Sea. From what he knew, even the Cardinals at the core of the church had no idea what the Forsaken Land of the Gods represented. But only the leader of the church, the Proxy of the Lord of Storms, knew something about the situation and seemed to be taking charge of the hidden mission to look for the Forsaken Land of the Gods.
Audrey wasn't particularly moved about it. The only time that she had heard about the Forsaken Land of the Gods was from The Hanged Man's question. She wasn't particularly interested, so she failed to associate it with anything from what Mr. Fool said earlier.
'The City of Silver has the legend about being abandoned by the Creator... Huh, Mr. Hanged Man seems to be deeply affected... What is he amazed and afraid of?' Audrey nodded in puzzlement as she remembered the details of the moment.
"Yes, we believe that we will regain the Lord's favour in the end. Perhaps, it will be on the day the sun rises again," Derrick Berg answered in an uncertain tone. "We were once ruled by the giants' royal family, and we worshipped the Giant King Aurmir. Later, we were saved by the Lord and we will never betray the Lord again."
'Ruled by the giants' royal family... It really is ancient. But it doesn't seem to match,' Alger, who had guessed at something, suddenly recalled the description about the Second Epoch in the hidden chapter of The Book of Storms.
'The Second Epoch was also known as humanity's Dark Epoch. At the time, the sky, ocean, and land were ruled over by dragons, giants, elves, mutants, devils, phoenixes, demonic wolves, and dead spirits. But in the end, the Lord of Storms, the Eternal Blazing Sun, and the God of Knowledge and Wisdom led humanity into defeating the supernatural creatures and ushered in the beginning of the Third Epoch, the Glorious Era, which was later known as Cataclysm.'
Klein nodded deliberately but didn't think any further and asked calmly, "Do you still offer sacrifices to this omnipotent God?"
"Yes, we still do. But since the day we were abandoned, we have never gotten any response," Derrick's voice had a hint of unconcealed pain.
Klein leaned against the back of his chair leisurely. He half-closed his eyes and said, "Describe the process of your offering ritual in detail."
Derrick didn't notice the weight that was hanging on his answer as he replied frankly, "We build opulent altars covered in the Lord's symbol. Every time we receive a bumper Black-Faced Grass harvest, we hold a sacrificial ritual."
"We use the monsters we capture in the depths of the darkness to use as sacrificial offerings. After we recite God's honourable title and the necessary prayers, we dance for Him and then kill the monsters, to let their spirituality and tainted blood dye the entire altar. If we haven't caught any monsters, then we use a sinner on the lowest floor in the City of Silver prison instead."
"Then, we turn the very first batch of Black-Faced Grass into food and serve it before the Lord. In the end, we sing praises in unison and end the ritual."
Klein used his mysticism knowledge to analyse every step of the sacrificial ritual in the City of Silver before finally saying, "What are the corresponding prayers? What language do you recite them in?"
Derrick was also looking forward to this, so as to gain hints from Mr. Fool on how to shake off the curse, so he recalled it carefully and answered, "We use Jotun, which is also our common language. The corresponding prayers are, 'Your devoted believers pray for your attention. We pray for you to take their offerings. We pray for you to open the gates to your Kingdom'."
Klein listened in silence and intentionally let the engulfing fog slowly swirl around him. He nodded as though deep in thought and remained silent.
After some more communication, Klein ended the gathering. He watched Justice's, The Hanged Man's, Death's and The Sun's figures vanish before him.
He looked down and saw the boundless grey fog and crimson stars that seemed eternally immutable. However, after he advanced to Sequence 8, he realized that he could connect even more stars. In other words, he could pull in more members. At least two... Klein nodded indiscernibly.
He wasn't in a hurry to add new members. He planned to act as he had before. He would first wait and observe. If Justice and The Hanged Man had any recommendations, he could assess them first.
'What I saw the last few times was when The Sun was praying. There was a clear crystal ball before him, but ever since I pulled him into the world above the grey fog, that crystal ball has never appeared again'
'Does the prerequisite needed to pull people in through the connection of the crimson star have something to do with having a special item around them? Or does every crimson star correspond to an item in reality, which, when it's connected successfully, it would return to the world above the grey fog?'
'I wonder if Miss Justice and Mr. Hanged Man were the same... Let's just assume that's the case. In that case, if people without this special item were to recite: "The Fool that doesn't belong to this era, the mysterious ruler above the grey fog; the King of Yellow and Black who wields good luck." and allow me to hear their prayers, would I be able to pull them in? I can give it a try in the future.'
Klein paused for a moment as his gaze turned towards the slightly tilted seat; Mr. Death's seat. The amount of Black substance that seemed to be corrupting the grey fog had only increased over time, but now that he had advanced to Sequence 8, he might as well try to get rid of it once and for all.
And so, he tried and failed miserably. Ultimately, he sighed deeply before leaving the space above the grey fog.
…
Thus, Max returned to his body, and without waiting for much time, walked right back through the door, instructing Ademisaul and Tom to perform the exact same ritual again, making the door on Earth, and the door on independence vanish into the Amalgamation of All for safe-keeping.
[AN: This is not counted in the word count. Anyway, I am here to inform you that I am back to writing this novel. In the middle, I began reading this comic called A Nebula's Civilisation and was intrigued by the plot, so I began reading the novel. TO the point that I then put this fanfic aside to write another one. Only for me to realise I work a lot better when trying to do two things at once. Like writing two novels simultaneously. Suprise surprise, I wrote 2 chapters in just 1 hour. though the next chapter is only 1000 words as compensation for how long this chapter has been. And thus you have this chapter being released. The next chapter on Wednesday at 00:00 web novel time. Do comment on what you think about this chapter. Also, next chapter will focus on Mc in the new world, just as promised.]