Chapter 18: Who Is a Friend, Who Is an Enemy

Chapter 18: Who Is a Friend, Who Is an Enemy

Bayam, inside the Sea God Church.

Alger Wilson had just finished holding Mass and returned to his room when he saw a figure appear beside the window.

It was Gehrman Sparrow, wearing a top hat and a trench coat.

Before Alger could speak, Klein took two steps forward and said solemnly, “I come by Mr. Fool’s command.”

He habitually played the role of Attendant of Mysteries.

Alger immediately lowered his head and pressed his right hand to his left chest.

“Praise Mr. Fool.”

Klein gave a slight nod, raised his hand, and took an item from the pile of miscellaneous objects in Sefirah Castle.

In Alger’s eyes, a short staff made of white bone was immediately reflected.

The head of the staff was inlaid with tiny blue-green gemstones. A few were stained deep black, while a few were veiled in dawn light. Around it hovered countless pure points of light. Illusory, ethereal prayers came from them, overlapping layer upon layer and revealing a sacred majesty.

Alger’s pupils instantly dilated. He could not suppress the trace of greed that surfaced within them.

As a Sequence 4 demigod of the Sailor pathway, he was completely certain that the bone scepter before him was the symbol of the Sea God’s identity, status, and power.

While enduring the slight dizziness brought by the prayers, he turned his gaze toward The World, Gehrman Sparrow, and waited for this attendant of a deity to speak.

Klein raised the Sea God Scepter in one hand. With a solemn expression, he said, “This is Mr. Fool’s bestowment and trust, as well as His reward for your protection of a great number of believers.

“No matter what happens in the future, I hope you will always strictly follow Mr. Fool’s instructions and do your utmost to complete the missions He gives you.”

…Alger keenly heard the deeper meaning hidden within those words.

He suspected that Mr. Fool might encounter certain matters in the future, perhaps even suffer damage and fall into a trough.

Thinking that he had already left the Church of Storms and had no way back, Alger pressed his right hand to his left chest and replied loudly:

“I follow only Mr. Fool!”

Seeing this, Klein nodded inwardly. Only then did he repeat the explanation he had given to Miss Justice and Miss Judgment.

This instead made Alger breathe a sigh of relief. After all, knowing what might happen in the future was far better than knowing nothing at all.

Without hesitation, and with exceptional gravity, he repeated the words he had just spoken.

Klein then handed him the Sea God Scepter.

“First adapt to this Sealed Artifact and to the Sea God’s daily affairs. After you finish digesting the Cataclysmic Interrer potion, use it to prepare the next potion. This advance acting will significantly reduce the difficulty of promotion.”

In truth, Klein could now undo the Grafting and transfer the concept of Sea God, which pointed to himself and Sefirah Castle, to Alger, allowing him to directly become half a Sea God, better adapt to the identity, and better begin acting in advance.

But considering that after accommodating The Fool Uniqueness, he would need sufficient anchors to balance the further awakening will of the Celestial Worthy, the Sea God’s believers were indispensable. Klein decided to wait until his state had truly stabilized before transferring everything related to the Sea God completely.

The current Alger was closer to an attendant who temporarily administered authority, helping the deity listen to prayers and respond to them, yet not enjoying the corresponding anchors and identity. The “owner” of the Sea God Scepter remained Klein. It still pointed to him. This was a marvelous use of Grafting.

Suppressing the excitement and joy in his heart, Alger sincerely responded to Gehrman Sparrow and received the Sea God Scepter.

Then, after some deliberation, he asked, “What are the negative effects of this Sealed Artifact?”

“Mr. Fool has already sealed it to a certain degree. The negative effects of the Sea God Scepter have been greatly reduced,” Klein said simply. “Now, it will only make the holder slightly more irritable, and it will place the spirit in a certain degree of disorder. In addition, once every month, it will drain the blood of nearby living beings. You can fly out to sea or to an uninhabited island in advance.”

That is manageable… Alger secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He then asked about the Beyonder powers the scepter possessed.

After Klein roughly described them, he vanished from the spot.

…

Above the gray fog, within the ancient palace.

After completing the extra preparations, Klein sat in The Fool’s chair. He manifested a sheet of parchment and a dark-red, round-bellied fountain pen, and began analyzing the possible developments that might occur when he went to the main peak of the Hornacis mountain range to face the ancestor of the Antigonus family.

“If everything goes smoothly and I enter the final stage of accommodating The Fool Uniqueness, the Goddess will definitely undo the concealment. Only in this way can that area interact with reality, allow fate to connect, and achieve the effect of fooling fate.

“Judging from Mr. Door’s apotheosis ritual, the commotion caused by accommodating a Uniqueness will definitely not be small. Once concealment is gone, this matter will inevitably be noticed by the other gods. Moreover, existences concerned with this matter have surely been watching the main peak of the Hornacis mountain range recently. The moment anything changes there, They will know at once.

“Under such circumstances, there will undoubtedly be interference, destruction, aid, and support. It is very important to determine who is an enemy and who is a friend. Otherwise, I cannot make targeted preparations.

“The Goddess is certainly on my side. If She were an enemy, I would have been concealed countless times already. It would have been impossible for me to grow to my current level. To put it simply, if She wanted to sell me out, She had plenty of chances before, and could have fetched an excellent price. And to Her, supporting who becomes the Lord of the Mysteries does not substantially hinder Her. She can decide purely based on preference—Adam still cannot bypass the seal and obtain the River of Eternal Darkness.

“The ones who least want Amon to become the Lord of the Mysteries are the Eternal Blazing Sun, the Lord of Storms, and the God of Knowledge and Wisdom. If anyone tries to disrupt my ritual of accommodating The Fool Uniqueness, They will undoubtedly help me and provide direct assistance.

“Apart from these four true gods, among the remaining Sequence 0s:

“Visionary Adam and the True Creator are Amon’s father. The probability that They will help Him is certainly higher than the probability that They will merely watch from the sidelines. The Earth Mother has placed a bet on me through Emlyn, but that does not mean She will necessarily help me at the critical moment. To Her, if there are no interests involved, patiently waiting for the result may be the best choice. The Primordial Demoness is in a strange state and might choose anything. The God of Steam and Machinery’s attitude is ambiguous. Neutrality, or making a private deal with Amon and Adam, seems more likely. I do not have a bargaining chip capable of moving Him.

“Outside these true gods, among conscious existences who are uncommon Sequence 0s or close to Sequence 0:

“The Lord of the Abyss, that is, the Dark Side of the Universe, is suspected of being corrupted by the Mother Tree of Desire. He only occasionally responds to the prayers of the Blood Sanctify Sect and has not influenced the real world for a very long time. Likewise, the Chained God is in a similar situation.

“What They will do depends entirely on the Mother Tree of Desire’s thinking. As for the Outer Deities, delaying the birth of the Lord of the Mysteries should be a consensus. Under such a premise, obstructing me from accommodating The Fool Uniqueness would only place me at an absolute disadvantage in my competition with Amon, causing the match to be decided very quickly.

“The most likely strategy of the Mother Tree of Desire is to tacitly permit, or even assist, my accommodation of The Fool Uniqueness, so that the scales between Amon and me no longer tilt. Afterward, She would repeatedly disrupt our tendency and attempts to converge, delaying the birth of the Lord of the Mysteries until the apocalypse arrives.

“The Red Angel evil spirit absolutely has not recovered to a level where He can participate in such matters. The Hidden Sage is very mysterious, making it difficult to guess His thoughts, but He should know that I harbor hostility toward Him…”

Having analyzed this far, Klein summarized:

“Allies: the Evernight Goddess, the Lord of Storms, the Eternal Blazing Sun, the God of Knowledge and Wisdom.

“Enemies: Visionary Adam, the True Creator, and Mr. Error, Amon.

“Neutral, inclined toward my side: the Earth Mother, the Dark Side of the Universe, and the Chained God.

“Neutral, inclined toward Amon: the Hidden Sage.

“Neutral, with ambiguous attitudes: the Primordial Demoness and the God of Steam and Machinery.

“Hmm. For now, ignore how far Adam and the True Creator’s fusion has progressed. Calculate based on the worst case and treat Them as the ancient Sun God, as a dual-pathway Sequence 0 true god… The Goddess has the Uniquenesses of the Twilight Giant and Death pathways. Although She has not accommodated them, with the golden bird-shaped ornament as a medium, She should already be able to preliminarily control them. Even if She cannot compare to the ancient Sun God, She can absolutely hold Him back…

“As for Amon, also calculate Him as a dual-pathway Sequence 0 true god. At least two among the Lord of Storms and the other two gods would have to be committed to have hope of blocking Him… Judging from the surface situation, my side still holds a certain advantage…” Klein looked at the contents listed on the paper, concentrating as he thought and muttered silently.

However, this advantage did not account for the neutral parties.

Klein lightly tapped the edge of the mottled long table and considered what might be the worst-case scenario:

The Primordial Demoness, the Hidden Sage, and the God of Steam and Machinery all choose to help Amon based on their respective under-the-table deals or personal preferences.

In that case, even if the Earth Mother entered the battle, Klein’s side would be at a disadvantage. The God of Steam and Machinery would counter the remaining one of the five omniscient and omnipotent pathways. The Primordial Demoness would hold back the Earth Mother, who had only recently recovered the Moon Uniqueness. The Hidden Sage would face the Dark Side of the Universe and the Chained God, who were corrupted by the Mother Tree of Desire. The powers Outer Deities could infiltrate into this world were extremely limited, and the Hidden Sage would very likely gain the upper hand.

Moreover, such cancellation was merely an idealized calculation. In the actual scene, amid such a chaotic situation, Amon, who controlled Error, could play countless tricks. He might instantly find a weak point and bypass the obstruction directly, causing Klein’s ritual to fail and making him lose control on the spot. In addition, some gods who appeared to support Klein might switch to helping Amon for reasons he currently had no way to know.

As for Sealed Artifacts that could alter the balance of power among gods, Klein knew too little about them and could not analyze them.

“Heh. I never expected there would be a day when I’d fleece the Mother Tree of Desire. Hmm. I need to make a few more preparations for the worst-case scenario, to guard against things truly developing in that direction.” Klein dispersed the paper and fountain pen before him and turned his gaze toward a prayer point of light that had been specially marked.

His figure immediately vanished from inside Sefirah Castle and appeared aboard Bernadette’s Dawn.