17 Oren Foleur, The Unwavering Faith

"A true night never stays a true haze, but what would forever lay in blue rays of weathered glades to forge a mending in the pyre of a new race, shall rend in a neverding crusade." Sae-no-Mitama's torch was weaved into the air, revealing vivid imagery of historical wonders upon patches of spreading liquid-like illusory of her abundant wisdom. "Time's quill is quick to spill its ink onto a new page."

The imagery moved as if they were there. There were even some events Oren noticed like in the back of her mind like the creation of the pyramid, the making of Rome's colosseum, the parting of the red sea, the extraction of human heart for the offering of Aztec gods, and even the ascension of a prince who gained enlightenment that resulted in the passing of Buddhism into this world.

Many of the images however, were unknown in the eyes of Oren. A spearman who seemingly fights against thousands of divine beings on top of a rocking boat in the middle of a raging sea. A deity who hides the sun and the moon to show her spite to a noble scouring the earth.

Some of them were even more bizarre. Some were even, incomprehensible.

Seeing the awestruck Oren, Sae giggled wholeheartedly. "Faith taken toll by mortals is reeled by nasty omen. Where there is despair, there is hope to be mend. Perhaps thou know why a deity came to be? And why do they nudge living sins and make them repent?"

"Is it because they need to maintain faith?" Oren raised her brows.

"Indeed. And why would they need faith to walk and fly lest they starve like a mortal?"

"Because they were born from the existence of living beings and conscious minds."

Sae-no-Mitama chuckled at the answer. "Keen eyes thou poses. What prevented thee from gaining knowledge of crafting divinity as time went along?"

"I just don't know that it is possible." Oren's formerly vibrant eyes were already in their brink needs of satiation of her one and only warmth that doesn't exist in this world anymore. "The more I looked at the scrolls that were describing the nature of the 'self', the more blurred the reality of existing and confined evidence.

"It turns out that everything is the truth, and the truth is false in everything."

"Is that how thou saw the state of our reality, or is it a made up faith to preserve what was left of the crackings on the surface of the egg?" Sae asked once again.

"The truth can be seen from many angles. Different eyes in different locations will see different truths, and so does everything we believe and see with our own eyes."

It was the first time for Sae-no-Mitama to witness a pair of eyes that were so curious, yet restrained into the normalcy of the world.

"Won't some of them just be the result of intrinsic hubris?"

"Then deities and gods might as well not exist." Oren shrugged with a daring smirk. "If they didn't believe in their own hubris after seeing that they could rain the village and roam the fire, then I won't be ending up meeting with one now."

Sae's smile widened. "Then the conclusion of mine question will be?"

"That the soul exists because we separate the mind and body, as there won't be anything that connects between the two of them."

"And there won't be any leash to believe in when death takes its toll."

"They all connect if we perceive them as so."

Sae-no-Mitama stopped in her tracks, before drawing an ethereal 'character' from her crackling torch onto the empty moving illusory in front of them. A gate of light was formed.

In front of the blinding light, Sae-no-Mitama reached out her hand. Like the guardian angel who came at the most dire of situations, this divine being began to crumble every illusory image in the vicinity into a mirror that reflected the face of a human, bearing the name of Oren Foleur.

"Thy mind is ready to comprehend the endless paradox of sentience and reality. Come, for I, the Deity of Exploration and Discovery, to take you back to the vault of knowledge and beyond the expanding horizon of this fascinating world full of felicity!"

The scary first impression of Sae-no-Mitama began to break down as she revealed her jovial nature.

Slowly, albeit hesitant at first, Oren took Sae's reached-out hand before she was playfully dragged into a world of wonder.

With Sae-no-Mitama's power to travel everywhere and anywhere, Oren knew that she was in for a ride.

They went to the vision of pastoralism and harmony with nature, derived from the Greek province Arkadia which dates to antiquity, to the Elysium where lies the final resting place of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous.

They went to Muspelheim, Niflheim, Niflhel, and many more until Yggdrasil. Exchanging some treats with Ratatoskr, they immediately left with a souvenir to Agartha, and maybe a little bit of a glance to Naraka.

The two of them revisited Kunlun Mountain where the immortal lived, and at some point of their time, taking a picnic break at the waterfall of Longmen to witness a carp trying their best to swim upstream and becoming a dragon, splashing their tails and new-gained freedom as heavenly rainbows commemorated their achievement.

After all of those miraculous visits and interaction with the native dwellers of each realm, they took another stop at the formerly reigning Library of Alexandria. There, Sae pointed out numerous scrolls that possessed a great hint of enlightenment onto whatever kind of skill Oren wanted to procure.

The next visit was the Tower of Babel, where the whole earth had the same language and the same words. Not stopping the momentum, they went onto an even transcendental place where records and words could even describe the place and view that they were experiencing.

It was only at the one and only place that could be described to be the total one-to-one imitation of Akashic Records where the momentum stopped, as Oren flipped the page and more pages containing the events of the past and beyond the creation of her original world.

There, Sae stood with closed eyes and acknowledgment, as Oren shed her tears and the remains of her doubt within her nearly crumbling heart.

"Even after this, will thou still stay true to thy feeling forevermore?"

A smile became ever present on Oren's face after the journey she went through. And now that she attained the truth, her flickering shadow was cast away to the bewilderment of her soul, as they were no longer able to distract her unwavering path.

"Back then, I had never been connected to anything and everything. Food and water tasted dull to me. Music sounds irritating, and people could only be seen for their carcass of meaning I gave to them and vice versa.

"I tried to understand why I feel that way, and why the world made me that way. In the end, I nearly succumb to finality due to the drastic conclusion I have made.

"And then I met with the sun of my life. Everything became so vivid after that blissful moment, and there was nothing but my faith that believed till paved soil beneath the deepest of my heart, that everything I got from that time and onward, are but the effect of being bathed by the warmth of his light.

"Even with every enlightenment of truths I gained with you, Sae the Honorable, this firm belief of mine still stood briskly. In fact, it had been elevated to the highest of skies!" With her hand gently pressing her chest, futilely trying to contain the exuberant of her soul, Oren revealed her happiest smile that she had ever placed on her face throughout her whole life. "What can I do with this joy of debilitating longing to enshrine my sun and even more? Has there been a better meaning to life than to expand my entirety so the sun can still shed its warmth?"

Sae-no-Mitama nodded, for there was nothing more that she could do to waver the unwavering from Oren's mind to spite the skies.

"It seems like thou art ready to be sent to Hisoutenshizen." Before she could weave her torch into the air, she stopped her motion in the middle of it. "After this one guest of ours, of course."

Within the realm of 'Akashic Records', a small pool of void began to converge from the crevice of reality. Without wasting any time and effort, the guest immediately popped out of the pitch-black pool.

It was a humanoid entity with a hair of sakura's color. Standing at the same height as Oren, this individual appeared to be an androgynous with pale skin and dark tattoo of encroaching thematic. A hole could be seen on the figure's chest, throning a beating cube-shaped crystal of the same color with the hair.

Shadows could be seen to expand from the roots of his feet, creating a waving motions similar to that of an animal tendrils.

A deep hoarse voice echoed the realm.

"It's been a long time, Sae."

"A, fancy meeting thy here, Jack. Having been informed by Ouroboros, I presumed?"

"A great friend, and a great meddler she was." The enigmatic figure latched his gaze onto the soon-to-be Meister. "An unwavering soul, such a fine specimen that you picked, torchy friend. But are you sure that this method will work? We put an end to the Rafflesia of the Void a couple of eternities ago, yet now you're using them for the very core of the plan… Wait, is it okay to say this in front of her?"

"She read the record of that event, Jack, no need to hold any truth."

"I won't be here for long then." He smirked, before lethargically pointing his finger to Oren, a visible patch of shadow began to stretch onward, connecting to the very unwavering soul. "This youngling is smart and inquisitive, but it still has more room to grow and experience to sow."

Suddenly, a rather detailed screen of purple hue appeared in front of Oren's view.

[ Name: Atziluth {Power Level 1}

Type: Beholder

Length: 100cm

Width: 26cm-12cm

Weight: 17kg

Kinetic Strength: 55kg

Toughness: F

Regeneration: G

Growth Rate: A

Unique Feature: Calling Of The Void]

[Mutated Ability: Shadow Incorporation {M2} | Luminescence Secretion {MX} | Anti-Heat Protein Production {MX} | Solemn Igniter {M1} | Near To God {MX} ]

[Mutagen Sockets>

Socket: Mutagen {Inefable Factor} >> (10%)

Socket: Mutagen {Empty}

[Artificial Intelligence>

Intelligent Quotient: 45

Body Feature: Host Allocation | Exteroception | Hostile Identifier | Weapon Usage | Empathic Reception

Trait: Calm

Aggressiveness: 72 ]

"I've sent a memory manual into your soul where you can peruse them anytime." Jack grinned with exhilaration. "With this, I have nothing else to give to my little junior."

Oren bowed to express her gratitude.

"I'm thankful for this gift."

"Now, now. It's time for our aspiring vagabond to start her brand new adventure and life." There, behind Sae-no-Mitama, a gate to the world of Hisoutenshizen had been erected. "From the bottom of mine heart, may thou keep company with peace throughout your life."

With faith and her pride, Oren walked through the gate of light.

The next thing she saw was darkness.

And then a motherly embrace wrapping her entire being.

As she reopened her eyes, her soul had been sent to the body of a young daughter from an outskirt farmer.

On those pairs of her pitch-black pupils, embedded the bright white marks of the Virtuosic Crest.

Memories began to surge into the crevice of her brand new mind.

"A transmigration, huh."

A cathartic smile appeared on her face as the morning sun in front of her eyes began to bathe her with endearing light.

Her knee-length silver prismatic hair caressed by the wind

"Not as warm as Occam."

She saw herself waving at her father who was herding the sheep-like animals.

Both herself and father possessed rather unusual hair. Looking into her newfound memory, her mother must be as beautiful as a goddess with it.

Not wasting any time, she got into a place on the farm with the least of eyes around.

As she summoned Atziluth, her new partner for life.

"Fascinating."

A shadowy tendril of darkness arose from the ground.

It was as if she had possessed a three-dimensional mapping grid program on her head, she could summon an unsummon Atziluth on any surface visible to her eyes.

A small notification popped up on the very corner of her view.

[Length: 102cm(+2)]

"Oya, it seems to grow due to the new stimulation of this abandoned barn."

With her brand new start, she already possessed a plan within her young skull.

Oren knew that Sae would send her somewhere very far away from Occam to strike a balance for the upcoming grand 'event' after enough Meisters had been recruited into Hisoutenshizen.

And the fact that Hisoutenshizen was a hundred times bigger than that of planet Earth, Oren rested her case when it came to find Occam with brute force.

Instead, she had devised a unique method that would prove to be very supportive to Occam in the long term.

It was to create a cult in the name of her one and only sun, and gather enough followers and faith to elevate Occam's existence to that of a mortal.

"This way, I can make sure that you'll shine brighter than any other gods or deities out there, my dearest Occam~"

Even without an established cult and followers, Oren's streams of fate were already enough to create a foundation for nature to create a firm seat for Occam to sit in the future.

And this stream of endless faith would grow stronger and stronger as time goes on.

For neither the end of the universe could swerve the faith of a devoted martyr.

"Ah, this is not within the manual."

As she was checking the function of her newfound spiritual yet holographic tool, she found a separate section that comes with the system she possessed.

She tried to open this foreign section of the panel.

As she did so, a holographic screen of a different theme appeared in front of her view. There were only two things there. The first one would be a special panel with Occam's face as an icon. Currently, it signifies the current status of Occam as "Alive". The second thing was some sort of a radar with visible metric units of distance written on top of a red dot.

The value showed '123km from here'.

"Huh."

Oren then tried to touch the red dot.

A name popped up out of the screen.

[Stehno Ingram]

Her ever smiley face went stiff for the next thirty seconds.

Before a surge of anger flooded her unwavering mind.

"PEDICABO VOS ET IRRUMABO—!"

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