Chapter 6: The Mysticism Knowledge

 Alma introduced with a smile, "There are 22 pathways currently known in the Beyonder or 'the supernatural world' you think it is. These pathways are also called paths to the divine, or paths to blasphemy."

 "Why are they- these pathways… called in such ways?" Zenith furrowed his brows.

 "Now, that's a question," Alma's smile became wider, and more mysterious. "That's quite an advanced question. If you want the answer, you must pay a small price. How about it? Do you want to know?"

 "No, thank you," After contemplating for a second, Zenith rejected him. Based on Alma's personality he had seen for the past few weeks, the price must be troublesome, or the answer itself must be a trap. If he were to embark on the Beyonder road, he would naturally come in contact with the answer. He had no need to pay a price for the answer right now just because he was curious.

 Alma's face betrayed no reaction to the rejection and continued as if nothing happened. "For each pathway, there are 10 sequences. Sequence 9 to sequence 0. The bigger the sequence number, the weaker a person is. On the contrary, the smaller the sequence number, the stronger a person is. Everyone must thread a path starting from the smallest number." Alma shrugged, "Of course, there are also certain exceptions."

 "Some special people in this world are born Beyonders. They are either fortunate or unfortunate depending on who or how you view them."

 Zenith digested the news, and then asked a question, "Suppose that I chose a pathway but am not satisfied with it. Then, can I change the pathway?"

 "Tsk tsk, You certainly know how to ask a question," Alma looked at him and shook his head, "To say it in an easy way, some pathways can change to its adjacent pathways at the higher sequences. However, some pathways cannot."

 "What number of sequences is this 'higher sequence'?"

 "Sequence four, also called half-human half-divine 'Demigods'. Below the level of Demigods, no one can change to their adjacent pathways."

 "If they do?"

 "If they do? Heh, madness or death is the only fate for them."

 At this point Alma laughed, "I will give you a piece of advice. In this chaotic and turbulent Era, ordinary people are worth less than ants. Low sequence Beyonders –Sequence 9 to 6– are nothing more than cannon fodders. Middle sequence Beyonders –Sequence 5 and 4– are as common as dogs. In short, even Demigods can be killed by the passing Angels. And before you are a Demigod, you are not qualified to live as you wish. No, perhaps even if you are a Demigod, you may not come close to the truth you seem to be seeking, all that awaits you is death. Heh, Angel, only an Angel has the most basic qualification to survive."

 Zenith's irises shook, he tightly pressed his lips together, and said nothing. 

 Zenith thought about what Alma had explained to him before. For him, not even a sequence 9, titles like Demigods and Angels seemed so far away. He actually had some desire to go back. However, his original body should be dead, or would be dead soon. Falling from that kind of height, no one could survive. For him, going back or not going back, what differences were there?

 One thing was sure: if he managed to go back, he certainly would be dead. If he did not go back, he would have a silver chance of survival.

 Was this new life worth trying?

 He did not want to die. Even if he had nothing to live for, even if he had no idea of why he was here, and even if he were to regret this decision in the future, he wanted to try living.

 He wanted to, no, he wants to survive.

 "Actually, I'm surprised that you don't know about the Beyonder world at all," Alma said, "Perhaps you don't know about it because this was an extreme rural area and only slaves and guards with low education are here. It's only natural that they are ignorant in such matters. However…"

 Alma gazed at him with interest, "These people you run over to at every break, the gladiator slaves number one, two, three, and even that brother of yours, I'm sure that they are Beyonders or have some knowledge of it. They told you nothing about it? Tsk, tsk," Alma looked at him, in his eyes were faux pity and maliciousness, "How touching the trust between you all are."

 He knew that Alma, for some reason, wanted to create a bridge between him and his companions. He did not fault himself for almost biting the bait, and almost lashing out at Belial.

 Still, he decided to confront them. For people who wanted to escape from this hellhole, the existence of Beyonder powers were both a blessing and a curse. He was certain that it would be immensely helpful when it came to escaping safely.

 After Alma tried to create a rift, he realised that there was a need for greater trust between the escapee group. Belial, he wanted to take this self-appointed brother of his to escape together. This was out of consideration for the previous Zenith.

 Isaiah was already on his side. He had some suspicions about number two. He thought back to Valerie's inhuman strength and thought, She should be a Beyonder too, right? I'm sure that she, Isaiah, and number two are all Beyonders. Is Belial one too? No, I don't think so. But he should have some knowledge of it. He pressed his lips slightly. He was a little mad at them for not telling him about the extraordinary world and powers. However, he thought again, Why should they tell me to begin with? Belial, he is disgustingly overprotective. Be it the previous Zenith or me, who he thinks is the real Zenith, he won't tell Zenith about it even if he were to die. Valerie and I haven't reached that level of friendship where she can talk comfortably with me. Number two, he is even worse. But how about Isaiah? Does he think that I already knew about it or… is he deliberately concealing it?

 Zenith did not want to have the situation of the new-found alliance running amok and trust being ruined from paranoia. Instead of approaching a wait-and-see attitude and being suspicious of his strongest fighting force, he would rather confront the man in the story head on.

 He looked up at the sky and saw the sun still shining bright. He then glanced at the general direction where the slaves were gathering due to break and seeing that the break was not over, he took decisive steps toward the gladiator ring.

 All the guards at the gladiator ring now recognised him. Some nodded at him and some did not. Due to the brewing storm in his heart, he paid them all no mind and headed straight to room number 2.

 "Isaiah…" He opened the door and called out softly. His voice was not like someone who was mad at all. However, his eyes were quite cold.

 "Zenith," Isaiah's face brightened at his appearance. But a frown soon appeared on his face when he saw Zenith's cold eyes. "You… What happened? All of you, get out." The later part, was of course, meant for the people with gossipy appearance in the room. They all looked at each other with disappointment, and then went out of the room.

 Isaiah waited until all the people went out of the room. He stood up from the chair he was sitting on. Perhaps because of his status as the number one gladiator, he had quite the fancy and comfortable chair. He gestured for Zenith to sit at the chair; however, Zenith shook his head and stared at Isaiah flatly.

 Isaiah felt a pit in his stomach. Did I do something wrong…? Isaiah could not help but wonder. He thought back on everything that had happened in the last few days however his memories came back blank. At last, faced with the suffocating silence and Zenith's unimpressed stare, he nervously asked, "Did something happen? And ahem… Did I do something wrong?"

 Because Zenith did not take the offered chair, Isaiah sat back at the chair, and Zenith was standing in front of him with his arms crossed over his chest. 

 Zenith sighed. He understood that the truth still had not come out, and Isaiah truly might not be at fault. His eyes were not as cold as before and he asked, "Isaiah, do you know about Beyonders?" Isaiah did not seem to know what was the problem and said, "Yeah, why? Did someone give you trouble?" 

 At least it is not me who made the mistake, Isaiah thought and felt a subtle relief.

 "Someone did kind of give me trouble," Zenith's eyelashes lowered and he secretly thought, for example, an irredeemable brat named 'Alma Roffe'. Isaiah opened his mouth, seemingly about to say something but Zenith cut him off, 'The problem right now is not him right now, but you.' That was what he wanted to say at first, however he decided against it. Although the man seemed pretty amiable right now, Zenith was still cautious, and decided not to antagonise him.

 "Isaiah… why did you not tell me about the Beyonders? You do know the prowess the Beyonders hold and the help they could be in the escape, right?"

 "That…" Isaiah appeared shocked by the unexpected question. He was dazed for a second or two, then snapped out of his stupor. "I thought you already knew about it."

 In fact, it was not wrong for Isaiah to think that way. After all, when Zenith first appeared in front of him and confronted him later, he appeared to have some confidence and high intelligence. His stable and calm voice, confident eyes, and appearance when he confronted him made a deep impression on him that he still remembers it to this day. In his mind, Zenith, although not a Beyonder, did not lack intelligence in such matters. It was also why he made no move to mention it. Who would have known that the man in question did not have any idea about it at all?

 Thought so… Zenith was inexplicably relieved when he heard the answer and made a wry smile. He felt even more relieved when he saw no falsehood in Isaiah's movements and eyes. That meant the man just overestimated his abilities to gather intelligence. Who knew that his over-confident appearance back then would backfire in such a way? He felt a little funny in his heart.

 "Forget about it. It's actually my mistake," Zenith gave a little laugh. It was a small laugh, however it was the most genuine he had ever been in a while. The brightness in the room was not that bright but the young man's laugh just now seemed to brighten up the room. Isaiah fell into a momentary daze. "Now, tell me everything about the Beyonder world you know."

 "Ah… Okay!"

 Isaiah stood up and gave up his seat again. And this time, Zenith accepted it, causing Isaiah to drag over another, more shabby chair. 

 "Where do I start…?" Isaiah pondered and asked, "What do you know about Beyonders?" Zenith repeated the knowledge Alma told him that day. Isaiah thought for a moment and said, "First of all, although your knowledge is not bad, there are still holes in a lot of areas. It's incomplete."

 As expected of Alma… no surprise there. Zenith thought indifferently, his face betraying no emotions. From the start, he had never believed in Alma or his integrity/character.

 "The knowledge he told you about is a little strange," 

 "How so?" 

 "Everyone knows that there are 22 Beyonder pathways in the world. However only a few know that there are adjacent pathways that can be exchanged at the higher sequence," Isaiah scrunched up his brows, appearing to be puzzled, "It's like… a mash of both lower and higher level knowledge. From what you told me, he didn't clarify clearly too, right? It's kind of dangerous. If you made misconceptions due to not understanding clearly, it could be fatal to you. Some knowledge in this world is dangerous. So dangerous that it's better not to know at all," Isaiah hesitated, "Only… higher life forms such as Angels can contain such knowledge without going mad."

 Isaiah looked at him firmly, "I think… it would be best not to get too involved with him. I feel that he's dangerous."

 Zenith nodded, "I feel the same way."

 Isaiah heaved a sigh of relief, "From his character, if he were a Beyonder, he has a high chance of being from the marauder pathway. You can understand them as the pathway of swindlers and con-artists. One thing you need to know about when dealing with marauders are, not to trust anything they say at all. They are adept at exploiting loopholes."

 "At the apex of the marauder pathway stands someone named…" Isaiah suddenly stopped as if he had remembered something or he had come to his senses. Zenith looked at him with question in his eyes, wondering why the man had stopped. "Wait a minute!"

 Isaiah took out a silver dagger and Zenith almost stood up and run. Only after ensuring that the man had no intention to harm him, he tentatively inched deeper into the chair. However, his body was still taut and his muscle strings were tense, as if to take action and escape right away once the danger appeared.

 "...What are you doing?"

 "Sealing the room," Isaiah answered with a straight face, extremely serious. The corner of Zenith's eyes twitched. He now truly felt that he was in a cult-like world.

 After Isaiah had done doing who knew what, he plopped down onto the chair. 

 "Let's continue…" Isaiah briefly closed his eyes, "Sorry. I forgot to do something important before. Perhaps, it was just the cautiousness and paranoia. But nothing can go wrong with being cautious when you are about to call a King of Angels' name."

 "King of Angels?"

 "King of Angels, you can understand 'Them' as being stronger than the normal Angels. 'They' are just below the level of Gods. You can also call 'Them' Archangels."

 Isaiah explained, "At the apex of the marauder pathway is the King of Angels called 'Amon'. 'He' is the second and youngest son of the Creator. 'He' is a born King of Angels and a natural mythical creature. 'He' is also called 'The God of Deceit', 'Blasphemer Amon', and is said to be extremely cunning. I have never seen 'Him' before but his tales can strike terror into anyone. It's said that even the Gods are wary of 'Him'."

 "It's also said that 'He' can be anyone. Once one Amon appears, there are countless Amons near you. Be it humans or monsters, or even microbes and bacteria in the air. Slowly, you might even find your destiny being stolen, yourself becoming Amon, and everyone around you treating Amon as yourself."

 Holy moly… Zenith's eyes widened. Even with just mere description, he could not help but feel afraid of this King of Angels. Is this even a human being…!? Wait… sequence 4 is called half-human half-divine demigods. Just below the Gods mean… King of Angels should be at sequence 1, right!? Does this mean… sequence 0 are Gods?!? Is this the reason why these pathways are called paths to divine or paths to blasphemy? Right… Becoming from a mere human to a God is a blasphemous thought in itself. Perhaps… I'm just overthinking everything…

 Zenith was almost scared to death by his own thoughts. I'm not even a Beyonder yet! If my analysis is correct, isn't this knowledge pretty dangerous? Wait… It was only because I knew certain knowledge that I was able to make connections. And this knowledge… Weren't they told to me by Alma? Fuck! That bastard certainly wants me dead!