Volume 7 The Inverted Hanged Man Chapter 18 Who’s a Friend and Who’s an Enemy
Byam, inside the Church of Neptune.
Alger Wilson, who had just returned to his room after celebrating mass, saw a figure emerge next to the window.
It was Germaine Sparrow who was wearing a bowler hat and a trench coat.
Without waiting for Alger to speak, Klein took two steps forward and said solemnly:
”I come in compliance with Mr. ‘Fool”s order.”
He habitually played the role of the “Secret Servant”.
Alger immediately bowed his head and pressed his right hand against his left breast, saying:
”Praise be to Mr. ‘Fool’.”
Klein nodded slightly and raised his hand to take out an item from the “Source Castle”‘s clutter pile.
A short staff made of white bone was immediately reflected in Alger’s eyes.
Its head was inlaid with a tiny greenish-blue gemstone, a small amount of which was dyed with black, a small amount of which was covered with morning sun; around it, there were countless pure points of light, and the sound of illusory and ethereal prayers came out from it, overlapping layers and layers, showing the holiness of the world.
Algernon’s pupils suddenly dilated, and it was difficult to contain the flow of a little greed.
As a Sequence 4 Demigod of the “Sailor” pathway, he was certain that the white bone scepter in front of him was a symbol of the “Sea God’s” identity, rank, and power.
While enduring the slight dizziness brought about by the sound of prayers, he cast his eyes toward the “world” Germaine Sparrow, waiting for this servant of the gods to speak.
Klein raised the “Scepter of Poseidon” with one hand and said with a solemn expression:
”This is a gift and trust from Mr. ‘Fool’, and a commendation for protecting a large number of your followers.”
”No matter what happens in the future, I hope that you will always follow Mr. ‘Fool”s orders and do your best to complete the tasks given by k.”
…… Alger keenly heard some latent meaning.
He suspected that something would happen to Mr. “Fool” after that, so much so that he would be damaged and fall to a low point.
Thinking that he had already broken away from the Storm Church and there was no more way back, Alger pressed his right hand against his left chest and responded in a loud voice:
”Only after Mr. ‘Fool’!”
Seeing this, Klein secretly nodded his head before repeating what he had said to Ms. Justice and Ms. Judgement.
After all, knowing what might happen in the future was better than not knowing anything at all.
He did not hesitate to repeat what he had just said with great solemnity.
Klein then handed him the Poseidon Scepter:
”You first get used to this seal and the daily routine of Poseidon, and wait until you’ve digested the ‘Disaster Officiating’ magic potion before you use it to mix the magic potion. This early play can make promotion a lot less difficult.”
In fact, Klein could have lifted the “graft” and transferred the concept of Poseidon pointing to himself and the “Source Castle” to Alger, allowing him to directly become half a Poseidon, better adapting to this identity, and better playing in advance.
However, considering the fact that after accommodating the uniqueness of the “Fool”, he would need enough anchors to balance the further revival of the will of the “Heavenly Father”, and that the followers of Poseidon were indispensable, Klein decided to wait until his own state was truly stabilized before completely transferring the god of the sea related to him.
Nowadays, Alger is more similar to a servant who is in charge of the authority, helping the god to listen to the prayers and answer the prayers, but he does not enjoy the corresponding anchor and identity – the “owner” of the Neptune’s scepter is still Kraven, and it still points to him. This is the wonderful use of “grafting”.
Algernon suppressed his inner excitement and joy, responded sincerely to Germaine Sparrow, and received the scepter of Poseidon.
Then, he asked with deliberation:
”What are the negative effects of this seal?”
”Mr. ‘Fool’ has done a certain amount of sealing, and the negative effects of the Poseidon Scepter have been drastically reduced.” Klein said simply, “It will now only make the holder a little more irritable and leave the spirit in a certain amount of chaos, also, it will drain the blood of the surrounding creatures once every month, you can fly ahead to the sea or to an uninhabited island.”
Luckily …… Alger was secretly relieved, and turned to ask what extraordinary abilities the scepter in his hand had.
Klein described it roughly and disappeared into thin air.
……
Above the gray mist, inside the ancient palace.
After completing the additional preparations, Krynn sat down on the seat of the Fool, manifested a piece of parchment and a dark red round-bellied fountain pen, and analyzed the possible development of the journey to the main peak of the Hornechs Mountains to face the ancestors of the Antigonus family:
”If all goes well, and the final stage of accommodating the uniqueness of the ‘Fool’ is reached, the Goddess will inevitably lift the concealment, for only then will that area interact with reality, and the fates be interchanged for the effect of the Fool.”
”Judging from Mr. ‘Gate”s godhood ceremony, the movement of accommodating the Uniqueness will definitely not be too small, once there is no more concealment, the matter will definitely be noticed by the rest of the gods, moreover, the existences who are concerned about this matter will definitely all be watching the main peak of the Hornachis Mountain Range lately, and as soon as there is any change there, the k’s will be the first to will be able to know.”
”In this situation, there will undoubtedly be interference, sabotage, help, and support, and it’s important to figure out who’s the enemy and who’s the friend, otherwise there’s no way to make targeted preparations.”
”The goddess is definitely on my side, if k was an enemy, I would have been hidden countless times already, there’s no way I could have grown to the level I’m at now, to put it simply, if k wanted to sell me, there were plenty of chances to do so before, and at a good price, and, for k to support whoever becomes the ‘Lord of Sneaky Secrets ‘, it wouldn’t even materially hinder k himself, and could be decided on preference alone – Adam couldn’t get around the seal and get the ‘River of Eternal Darkness’ so far.”
”The ones who least want Amon to become the ‘Lord of Secrecy’ are the ‘Eternal Sun’, the ‘Lord of Storms’, and the ‘God of Knowledge and the God of Wisdom’, and the K’s will undoubtedly help me by providing direct assistance should anyone try to disrupt my ritual of accommodating the uniqueness of the ‘Fool’.”
”In addition to these four true gods, inside the remaining Sequence 0:”
’Imagineer’ Adam and ‘True Creator’ are Amon’s fathers, and the probability of helping the k’s is certainly higher than just being bystanders; ‘Earth Mother Goddess’ has a bet on me through Emlyn, but it is not a given that she will help me at the critical moment, in k’s case, without interest involved, patiently waiting for the outcome may be the best choice; ‘Original Witch’ is in a strange state, making any choice is possible; ‘God of Steam and Machinery’ has an ambiguous attitude, neutral or and Amon, Adam is more likely to make a deal privately, I don’t have the leverage to be able to impress K.
”Of the less common Sequence 0 or near Sequence 0 conscious beings outside of these true gods:”
”The ‘Lord of the Abyss’, also known as the ‘Dark Side of the Universe’, is suspected to have been eroded by the ‘Mother Tree of Desire’, and only occasionally answers the prayers of the Blood Worshipping Cult, and hasn’t not exerted any influence on the real world for a long time, and likewise, the ‘Bound God’ is in a similar position.”
”What the Ks will do depends only on what the ‘Mother Tree of Desire’ thinks, and to the Outer Gods, delaying the birth of the ‘Lord of Secrecy’ should be the consensus. With such a premise, blocking me from accommodating the ‘Fool’ uniqueness would only result in me being at an absolute disadvantage in the competition with Amon, allowing the game to be decided quickly.”
”The most likely strategy of the ‘Mother Tree of Desire’ is to acquiesce, or even help me accommodate the ‘Fool’ Uniqueness, so that the scales between Amon and I will no longer be tilted, and after that, to sabotage our convergence tendencies and attempts time and time again to bring the birth of the ‘Lord of Mystery’ delayed until the end came.”
”The ‘Red Angel’ Evil Spirit definitely hasn’t recovered to a level where he can get involved in this kind of thing; the ‘Hidden Sage’ is mysterious and it’s hard to guess what K is thinking, but K should know that I’m harboring hostility towards K ……”
Analyzing this, Klein made a generalization:
”Friendly: ‘Goddess of Night’, ‘Lord of Storms’, ‘Eternal Blaze’, ‘God of Knowledge and Wisdom ‘;”
”Enemies: ‘Adam the Imagineer’, ‘The True Creator’, Mr. ‘Error’ Amon;”
”Those favoring my side in Neutrality: ‘Mother Earth’, ‘Dark Side of the Universe’, ‘God of the Bound’;”
”Those who favor Amon in Neutral: ‘The Hidden Sage’;”
”Those with vague attitudes in Neutral: ‘The Original Witch’, ‘The God of Steam and Machinery’.”
”Well, regardless of how far the fusion of Adam and the ‘True Creator’ has gone, just counting on the worst-case scenario, treating the K’s as Ancient Sun Gods, as Dual Pathway Sequence 0 True Gods …… Goddesses there are ‘Twilight Giant’ and ‘Death God’ uniqueness, although not accommodated, but relying on that bird-shaped gold jewelry as a medium, should have been able to initially control it, even if it’s not yet comparable to the Ancient Sun God, it’s still definitely possible to stall the other side… …”
”Amon also according to the dual pathway sequence 0 True God calculation, ‘Lord of the Storm’ks three inside at least two points to have hope to block k …… From the surface of the situation, my side still has a certain advantage …… “Klein looked at what was listed on the paper, and while concentrating on his thoughts, he muttered silently to himself.
However, such an advantage was without counting the neutrals.
Klein tapped the edge of the long, mottled table, considering what might be the worst possible scenario:
The “Original Witch”, the “Hidden Sage”, and the “God of Steam and Machinery” all chose to help Amon based on their own under-the-table deals or their own good or bad intentions.
In this way, even if the “Mother Goddess of Earth” enters the battle, Klein’s side will still be at a disadvantage: the “God of Steam and Machinery” and the remaining one of the Five Paths of Omniscience and Omnipotence offset each other, and the “Witch of the Beginning” drags down the one who has just regained the “Goddess of the Beginning”. “The Witch of the Beginning holds off the Earth Mother, who has just regained her uniqueness, and the Hidden Sage faces off against the Mother Tree of Desire. The “Hidden Sage” faced the “Dark Side of the Universe” and the “Bound God”, which had been eroded by the “Mother Tree of Desire” – the power of the foreign gods to penetrate into the universe was very limited. The “Hidden Sage” has a great chance of gaining an advantage.
Moreover, such a counterbalance is an ideal type of calculation. In the actual scenario, in that kind of chaotic situation, Amon, who was in charge of the “error”, could play a lot of tricks, and it was possible to find the weak spot at once, directly bypassing the blockage, so that Kraven’s ritual was invalidated, and lost control of the scene. In addition, some of the deities who are apparently supporting Kraven may turn to help Amon for reasons that he has no way of knowing at the moment.
As for the seals that could change the power ratio between the deities, Klein didn’t know much about them and couldn’t analyze them.
”Heh, I didn’t think there would be a day to wool-gather the ‘Mother Tree of Desire’, well, I have to make some more preparations for this worst-case scenario to prevent things from really going in this direction.” Klein dispersed the paper and pen in front of him, and turned his gaze to a certain specially marked point of light for prayer.
His figure then disappeared inside the “Source Castle” and appeared on Bernadette’s “Dawn”.