Pathway and Rituals

Many thoughts ran through Max's mind as he quickly understood the meanings behind the various sequences of his newly acquired pathway and the ingredients for each were just as ridiculous as the abilities granted by each sequence.

But more importantly, he was not being corrupted by the knowledge of this world, especially the cosmos and the Outer Deities who existed out there, beyond the protection of the Gods of this planet.

However, this was quickly dissipated by the single phrase 'Outer God: Unity' which was the final form of his Singularity pathway, when combined with 3 other pathways all of which did not exist in the original work of Lord of Mysteries, an incredible novel he had read during his days as a pandemic university student, and had also more recently decided to reread it to remember his past and his hardships, not long before he was killed.

From the fact that the final form was not a 'Great Old One', but rather an 'Outer God,' It meant that he would ultimately become an 'Outer God' if he was able to survive in this chaotic hellscape called a world, and thus add to the power of the 'Outer Gods'. Why would they harm one of their own, when this being would ultimately end up siding with them.

Or someone super strong was protecting him? Or perhaps, he was just immune to corruption from knowledge? 'The latter would be preferable' Max hoped in his heart.

Sighing in relief for a moment, another thought crossed Max's mind and he couldn't help a shiver run through his body. If he was an 'Outer God' then that would mean he would essentially be going against every other conventional pathway; including normal Beyonders of low and medium sequence, saints and angels, as well as king of angels, gods, and even 'Great Old Ones' like Klein Moretti or whoever followed him in the next novel released by the author. Perhaps it would be the Ancient Sun God in the form of Adam, or it might even be the Evernight Goddess due to the relation between Klein and her.

Anyways, this meant that his path was bound to go against Klein, the protagonist of this story.

'Now that I think about it, is this story truly fictional? Or is this the future that awaits Earth far in the future… or present? If so, then was the author a time traveller or was the work of the author turned into reality due to its influence? But then again, many other novels had had a far greater impact on society and there had been no signs of them becoming reality.' Max mused but put the thought aside as he began thinking about his next moves.

"Tis world ish really f*cked up…" Only now did he recall he no longer had any reach and would not be able to speak.

'Well, this is going to make living in this world only that much harder.' Max shook his head and decided to slowly get up from his position, finding out that the hole in his chest was slowly healing, just like the hold in Klein's head when he was first reincarnated.

Feeling around with his tongue, Max was elated to notice that there were indeed teeth slowly growing inside his mouth, but the speed of recovery was pathetically slow. It would take at least two days for it to fully form, and the bloodied golf ball-sized hole in his chest should also take a few hours to form.

Thus, Max did the only thing he could think of, run. He needed to get out of here before the Official Beyonders arrived from the commotion of the missing Evernight believers. Being seen as a living corpse was a shortcut to being turned into a sealed artefact, or worse, just outright killed on the spot for appearing to have lost control or something. Taking a step, Max realised he was also not wearing any shoes nor was he wearing any clothes other than what could only be considered rags. Ironically, Samuel's memories came into this world the same way Max's body came into this world, almost completely butt-naked; One time he was covered in blood and other liquids, this time he was covered in blood and brown and stiff cloth around his waist and torso.

This did not stop Max as he moved swiftly onto the somewhat paved path which would help hide his tracks compared to walking on damp grass and leaving behind possible footprints.

Of course, he made sure to walk in all directions from a single spot until all the wud, soil, water and grass was completely off his feet before he ran towards the forest away from Tingen City.

At the very least, he would not want to get involved with the mess that Adam was building in Tingen City, and he did not want a blonde-haired perfectionist eldritch creature with an unfulfilled wish of becoming 'God Almighty' visiting him out of the blue. At least not until he was strong enough.

Quickly entering the forest, Max did not stop moving and soon found himself lost. But that did not matter as he found a large tree, climbed up to a sturdy yet high enough branch, used some vines to secure himself to the branch and prevent him from falling while sleeping, and decided to go to sleep.

…

Opening his eyes to the bright sunlight somehow directly entering his eyes through the thick foliage of the tree, Max tried hard but could not recall his dream. However, he was certain it was something important and made sure to check it out later.

Taking in a deep breath, Max could already feel that the hold in his body was fixed, and his teeth were already halfway there. Perhaps by the end of the day, they would be fully formed. It appeared that reincarnation is similar to a 'Full Heal' recovery option for the body. But compared to Klein's recovery, his was a lot slower, and perhaps this was the plot armour working its magic.

'The current date is May 3rd, 1348, around 1 year before Klein is brought into this world if Max remembered correctly. If he remembers correctly; it was around September of 1349 that the 'True Creator' tried to descend into Tingen City using his child.

Max did not recall all the minor events that occurred throughout the story, only the overarching story since he had only been able to read the first 20 chapters before being killed. Thus, most of his memory came from the time he had read the novel many years in the past, which was a very long time ago.

As such, even remembering things like dates was a shocking thing, and just went to show how good the novel was, since long-term memory is generally related to emotions and if you feel bored, you would not recall it no matter how many times you read something.

But he also remembered one very vital aspect, that the entire Tingen city was under the control of Adam and his crazed pen that was in the hands of Ince Zanguill who was either under the control of the pen or Adam himself.

Either way, Tingen City was definitely the last place he would have wanted to be until Klein died for the first time and was revived by the Sefirot called the Safirah Castle in the Grey Fog in the Spiritual World.

However, Max had already read his advancement requirements, which were absolutely bonkers, to be honest.

His Sequence 9 Bender potion formula was rather simple, but in order to actually succeed, he needed to perform a ritual! The ritual involved him 'Bending' three different concepts without physically interacting with them This could be matter or otherwise.

For this, Max decided he would use a magnifying glass or monocle to bend light.

'Indeed, perhaps using the monocle would be useful in scaring off certain nosy individuals,' was Max's reasoning who saw nothing wrong with impersonating a certain mentally decapitated and deranged king of angels.

Other than that, he would use a sheet of wood to bend the wind to go around him, and finally, he would use another sheet of wood to bend the path of flowing water, all while taking his potion.

This potion was all fine and easy to collect, make, and ingest. The problem came with the next Sequence. It just brought up more questions than answers!

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Sequence 8: Fools End

Ritual: Ingest the potion after witnessing the end of the soon-to-be-crowned Fool Klein Moretti, without coming into contact with Angel of the Visionary Pathway Adam in Tingen City in 1349.

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'Who in the fresh h*ll has such specific rituals to advance? And why is it set up as though the potion itself knows the future? Who the h*ll created this Pathway for them to set up the advancement ritual so specifically? And what happens if he missed his opportunity for some reason? Would he be unable to advance forever? Stuck at Sequence 9, hoping Klein survived his battle with the Celestial Worthy; the original owner of the title of Lord of the Mysteries and the Safirah Castle?

Thankfully, after Sequence 8, the rituals were no longer as specific, as though the person creating the pathway knew that Max's very existence would change the future plot in uncontrollable ways and the result would be hard to predict.

His future rituals all involved other pathways and ruining them in some way or the other, but at the very least, it was not so time or place-specific as his Sequence 8 ritual.