"And I have to do work!"
Standing on top of a house. Klein Moretti, overlooked the hundreds of people he had just saved from death a few hours ago. Many confused, scared, shaking, kneeled on the ground, praying to the goddess of misfortune, who had presumably saved them.
At least, that's what Klein told them.
He gazed at the masses and sighed in his heart. Many of them are badly wounded and most of them are still afraid and shaken from the recent and lifetime of hellish experiences they have endured... He shook his head, and witnessed as the brave among these survivors, a few whom still had some level of rationality began to roam the small town Klein had erected through the power of wishes.
He had chosen a random, and isolated area in the northern continent, so as to safely rehabilitate these survivors from the demonic wolf settlement. Then through the power of wishes of a Miracle Invoker, Klein had invoked a miracle, erecting a small town, with all the basic necessities—livestock, ration, farm land and clothes included within, giving these poor survivors an easy start to their new reality.
The land where this small town lay was surrounded by hilly regions and a lush green forest. The crimson moon shining above, ever so brightly greatly complemented the appearance of the surroundings. The small town in the middle, torches lining the roads illuminating the area brightly together with the ominous crimson moon, reflected the petrified look of most who lay on the ground, leaned on the walls, weary, tired, terrified, and mourning those they have lost.
Yet, these people continued to struggle at the sight of new hope, evident by the few individuals that took command, when they noticed that perhaps they may still be able to live a fulfilling life, and leave the past horrors behind for good.
"All thanks to the Goddess of Misfortune." That's what Klein said.
Yet, hesitancy and fear dawned on even the bravest one. They slowly began to fall back, as if their past trauma lurked the surroundings.
Seeing this, Klein took a step forward, falling from the roof of the house to the grassy ground, attracting the attention of everyone present. He slowly walked towards the center of the town and summoned a pedestal from the historical void.
He stood on the pedestal, cleared his throat and said loud and clearly,
"Stay calm everybody! Do not be afraid!" Klein said, his voice resonating in a strange way to the people. This further startled the people surrounding the pedestal, as many of them began to back away. Klein, noticing this, sighed, feeling the misery and fear of people.
Even though he had already introduced himself when informing them of their situation, reassuring them that they were completely safe, the people were still visibly shaken, believing that this was yet another twisted way the gods will toy with them. Klein knew well that their trust could not be easily bought, after all, these people have gone through scenarios like these countless times—given false hope of freedom and tranquility only for it to to be ruthlessly crushed.
But he had to try right? He thought to himself, closed his eyes, cleared his throat once more and said in a reassuring and affirming tone, "I know what every single one of you are going through currently. I can understand your fear...
"But just being petrified like this isn't going to make things better!" Klein tried to reason with the hesitant survivors, yet his attempt only seemed to worsen things.
You can't reason with those that have lost reason... Klein mused looking at the mutilated faces of the survivors. Their faces lined with hesitance and fear. Klein stood at the pedestal motionless, looking down on them. He took a moment and analyzed the words he had just uttered and thought to himself,
Hehe, seems like godhood has begun to show its effect now that I don't have any anchors… These words are not 'mine' but words stemming from my godhood. I am trying to reason with these hesitant and traumatized people, who have long lost hope. Even the prayers from before were done out of fear instead of devotion…
I need to do something otherwise these people will succumb to their internal trauma and madness... If only Ms. Justice was here! Klein suddenly paused his initial train of thoughts and then went on. Ms. Justice... How would she have taken care of these survivors and the follow-up rehabilitation?
Klein imagined a scenario. He took this same situation he was in currently, but replaced himself with the kind, beautiful and caring Ms Justice. He began to emulate the scenario in his mind as to how Ms Justice would have gained these people's trust.
He simulated the scenario further and further in his mind and a smile slowly formed on his face. Klein looked down at the frightened people, flashing them a smile. He canceled the projection of the mic and pedestal, causing him to drop down on the ground, though Klein, slick as a cat, landed on his feet.
He maintained his smile as he extended his hand pulling out the Life's cane from the historical void. Holding the mystical artifact, Klein walked towards a lady who lay on the ground, missing an arm, while her face and neck were badly mutilated. She noticed Klein approaching her and began to back away. Due to her badly mutilated face and neck, she had long lost her voice preventing her from creating any noise.
Yet the fear was evident. The panic shone through what remained of her face, she stumbled and backed away extending her only arm in defense. The people surrounding her dispersed in fear. The disabled women hopelessly watched as Klein lifted the hand that held the Life's cane. He extended the cane vertically pointing its tip towards the woman.
Before she could back away any further, he leaped forward gently tapping her body with the tip of the cane. The woman, witnessing this, fell in despair, and closed her eyes waiting for the worst to happen.
Then, she felt an indescribable sensation crawling up her body, towards the cut off area of the limb she dearly missed. There, she felt a chilling sensation that intensified, taking a familiar shape that resembled that of an arm. An arm!
She opened her eyes and looked down to witness as her arm regenerated itself! Instinctually she curled her fingers, feeling the sensation of her nails poking against the skin of her palm.
"Hu-" In surprise, she brought her arms up and felt her thin lips. She repeatedly touched her face, feeling the smooth sensation of her skin radiating both from her fingers and her face. Tears unconsciously began to flow down her cheeks, as the lady, now completely healed, devoid of any deformities she once had, broke down into a shrill cry.
Hearing her own voice she had lost long ago once more caused her cries to intensify, just so she could hear herself more. She looked up at Klein, and saw a mirror in his hands. The mirror clearly reflecting her intact features. She saw the tears and snout, running down her skinny cheeks, and a smile which soon turned into a wide grin, formed on her face.
Her bright grin made her happiness evident to all those who wearily observed from a distance.
Having witnessed this miracle, the people that once surrounded her and then backed away, returned. The sound of murmurs and the faces of awe dominating the environment. Klein looked at these people with an innocent smile, and inwardly sighed. He looked back at the women before him and saw her hands and her head lowered to the floor, in pure reverence. A gesture of extreme gratitude and worship from the women.
Klein chuckled and nonchalantly shook his hands. He clutched Life's cane tightly in his hands, and began to walk towards the surrounding people. Having bore witness to a profound miracle and an act of benevolence, these people held themselves firmly to the ground, not letting their fears take over.
Klein gently bumped the cane's tip to each and everyone present, healing away wounds, mutations and disease. These people having been ridden of their aliments roared in joy, a moment of pure bliss taking over them and the fear they possessed within themselves.
Perhaps in a long while, for some, the first time in their lives, they could feel a moment of joy having not to worry about death hanging over their necks.
Witnessing this joy and happiness spreading, Klein smiled feeling his own humanity increase.
More often than not, words aren't enough to move people, especially those that have become incapable of trust. Only actions can speak to them, and show them that perhaps, this world still cherishes and nurtures hope, and that there are still people out there that are willing to help with everything they can! Ms Justice's voice rang through Klein's ears, beckoning him to curl his lips further.
He chuckled before breaking into a short laughter. Klein brought his hands up and rubbed his temples. Hehe, my relation with the Tarot club runs far deeper than merely the relation between a god and his believers. In fact, so deep it surpasses the barrier of time separating us…
I'll patiently wait for the day to convey that meeting once more. After all, it's the tarot club that makes me 'The Fool'. Klein shook his head and clasped his hands, attracting the attention of everyone in the small town.
This time he didn't summon a pedestal. He remained standing at his spot and began to speak audibly. "I can't understand what you all went through. I am incapable of feeling your emotions, especially your fears, loss and nightmares. I have neither borne witness to the horrors and tragedies that you have all faced nor have I suffered anything similar." Klein paused to gauge the reaction of the crowd. Seeing the mixed faces of grief and slight fear, he continued,
"Yet… I can understand them, even if that's not enough. I can understand why you would not want to trust me, or anyone else, for your life was once reduced to nothing but playthings to the gods of this world." Klein's gaze grew dull and his smile distant, making it seem like he was going through great pain while speaking.
He was in fact using his Clown prowess to produce facial emotions that would warm these people up. "But you are safe now. Even if it's hard to believe, or that your fear prevents you from doing so, you are safe here. This town has been…" He paused and internally cringed for what he was about to say.
"This town has been built by the goddess of misfortune for you all to live here peacefully!!" Klein exclaimed, trying his best to maintain his affirming tone. Internally, his thoughts were running wild. This reminds me of when I was preaching about myself! Ahh cringe memories~!!
""She" is a benevolent deity that has not long ago infiltrated the wicked forces of the demonic wolves so as to help the common man out! The scene you all saw earlier including those doors were "Her" doing!" Klein felt his chest tightening from embarrassment. If it wasn't for a clown's facial control, Klein would have produced the most abstract facial expression known to man.
For some weird reason, this is a good way to strengthen humanity. I suppose embarrassment is quite a strong human emotion… Actually, if i can feel embarrassment that means my humanity is indeed strengthening and that's good!
Klein further preached about Amanises, or the Goddess of misfortune. About her benevolence, her good nature, will and kindness. By the end, he had successfully managed to convert the faith of people to the goddess of misfortune, yet some remained on edge. It wasn't easy to suddenly believe in a deity especially after their lifelong experiences.
"This town rightfully belongs to you now. Make this your new home and build a friendly and strong civilization!!" Cheers erupted as the people began to explore the town. What was once a mass of empty structures was now a bustling town, with people slowly warming up and accepting it as their new home.
Klein observed this beautiful development and sighed, maintaining his smile. I suppose for now this should be good enough. He thought and walked towards the wall of a building and leaned against it.
The reason "Klein" didn't return to Sefirah Castle was because of the ongoing meeting between his real body and Amanises and Grisha. Until that meeting concluded he couldn't return to the main body.
Hence, this "Klein" simply waited on the outskirts of the town. After an unknown amount of time, he felt his surroundings thicken as the Greyish white fog enveloped him. The next moment, he appeared seated at the high back of The World, in front him the copper mottled long table, and above beautiful stars.
At the end of the table, at the high back chair of the fool, sat the main body looking at his avatar. He smiled and spoke softly, "You did a great job."
"I suppose being complimented by myself is a good thing?" the real body chuckled and so did the avatar. The avatar Klein gazed at the real body with a smile before turning into a cluster of maggots. These clusters of worms of spirits jumped on the ancient table and crawled towards the real Klein and merged back into his body, becoming whole again.
Klein closed his eyes and felt one of his Sequence 2 Miracle Invoker characteristics return to his body. Interesting... Usually a Trojan horse of Destiny is incapable of creating Avatars of other pathways. All his avatars would have to be from the error pathway due to them being formed from Worms of time... This isn't the case for me. Due to my authority over Sefirah castle, I can use Error and Door pathways abilities, which allows my worms of spirits to split from my body and form Avatars of the Fool pathway... If I had any characteristics of error or door within me, I would probably be able to form an avatar of them too…
Klein, when creating this particular avatar, had split one of the two miracle invokers' characteristics from within his body, which allowed him to create a sequence 2 avatar. This way Klein was able to perform two separate actions simultaneously without having to split his attention between.
Avatars truly are a useful ability... Still, marionettes are much better. Unlike Avatars where I have to split parts of my own body to form them, marionettes are merely puppets that I can control and have no relation to me except my control over their spirit body threads.
As a King of angels, I can create tens of thousands of marionettes at any given moment, and the best thing is, these marionettes can be of any sequence, even my own! Klein grinned widely and chuckled. He leaned back on his chair and leisurely thought.
Still, in situations like my previous meeting with Grisha, I had to pay all my attention to "Him" to make sure "He" doesn't do anything funny. Controlling a marionette on top of that would have been a little tipsy and Grisha would have sensed the anomaly. Avatars are much better in times like these since they have their own consciousness and autonomy without me having to control their every step. Klein summoned a pen and paper and began to note down the strength and weakness of his various abilities.
While writing, Klein thought to himself. I'll try to gather the Sequence 2 characteristics of Error, Door and the Fool pathway so as to experiment further with Avatars. Definitely not sequence 1, merely holding them might cause the convergence effect to take place...
After thoroughly reading the paper, Klein canceled the projection and leaned back once more, diverting his thoughts to some of more important matters. Good, I was able to strengthen my humanity! This also proves my previous theory that simply being between humans isn't going to cut it. I need to form an actual, real connection with the people to be able to maintain and strengthen my humanity.
Now that I have also promised Amanises to help her maintain her humanity, I can deploy this method to efficiently help her… Actually, no. After the mess I made today, the subsidiary gods definitely won't be allowed to leave their settlement anytime soon…
And, here I was thinking I needed to prioritize keeping myself hidden. That plan didn't even last like 2 days…
Klein shook his head in disappointment. I suppose it isn't that big of a deal, after all these demonic wolves aren't going to stay alive for long. I will need to pay attention to Flegrea's subsidiary gods though. While I have stolen their memories of the recent incident, they should have realized the inconsistencies by now which would arouse suspicion... Once I get the Fool uniqueness, I'll imbue that incident with a fooling effect so as to truly conceal it.
I need to take more precautions than ever before. So long as word of my existence doesn't spread out of the demonic wolf settlement, I should be fine. In that regard, I can ask Amanises's help. I also need to stay wary of Grisha... I gave "Him" quite a scare before, a taste of "His" own medicine. Now, "He" would either evade me completely, or "He" would want to soon contact and meet me so "He" can deduce some more information out of me.
Hehe, there are so many things to take care of, some of which I never even considered when initially formulating my plans… I thought I would just silently observe whatever developments will occur, but here I am now...
The biggest variable I did not consider was my own Humanity and emotions. I can't just sit still and watch as people die for no reason other than the pleasure of some random sequence 2. Klein sighed and rubbed his temples. He smiled and affirmed himself,
If given the opportunity, I will help people in whatever way I can… Even if it means blowing my own cover. Now as for the task with helping Amanises, I suppose i'll need more help from Ms. Justice... Hehe, I sure miss them. He nodded and began to ponder over his current task. Realizing he had nothing to do in particular, Klein stood up from his seat and pulled out Merlin Hermes from the historical void. He concealed his real self, allowing his consciousness to descend into his own projection.
Assuming the demeanor of Merlin Hermes, Klein smiled brightly, took off his magician hat and bowed at the seat of the fool. He left Sefirah Castle shortly after, appearing in the spirit world. Klein rubbed his chin, thought for a moment and began to walk in a certain direction.
He had been meaning to thoroughly visit a place from the beginning, but hasn't gotten around in doing so. Now that he had nothing else to do, Klein decided it was a good time to drop by Moon City and witness the horrors of the Sanguine Ancestor, Future Earth Mother, Lilith.
In a few moments, Klein left the spirit world appearing some distance away from a gross amalgamation of wood, stone and flesh. He witnessed humans, and Sanguines alike walking on dirt roads, a clear distinction among them from the style and state of their clothing and appearance.
Before Klein could observe any further, a crimson hue began to envelope the area surrounding the city. Klein immediately looked up to witness the bright crimson moon rising from the clouds in the bluish sky, its illumination overpowering that of the already faint sun.
He felt a strange attraction and looked straight ahead, broadening his field of view further from the city to witness a giant mountain range of flesh rising from a thick black fog. From its top, all kinds of strange reproductive organs spewed out, while constantly giving birth to all sorts of strange, ugly creatures.
This was the manifestation of the Sanguine Ancestor, Sequence 0: Moon, Lilith.