Mysteries- 3

The Error Pathway's Angel ot Deciet, Amon.

An acolyte of all things wrong and the Thief of destiny, who stands as one of the most feared existences below the True Gods in the Lord of Mysteries Universe.

Fallacy of Fate.

The Trojan Horse of Destiny.

The Slug of Time.

The reason for "His" infamy was due to many reasons.

"He" could simply, on a whim, decide to steal your destiny, your identity and your existence. Anyone you have ever known, all your family members, all your loved ones and acquaintances will refuse to acknowledge your existence, seeing "Him", as 'you.' All the while you get sidelined, losing even the ability to be acknowledged by the people you oh so cherished. The worst part? "He" could simply pull it off to prove a point, or play a 'harmless' little prank.

However, that stood to be only one of the reason "He" was so feared. If there was one Amon near you, there wasn't. There were hundreds of "Him", perhaps even thousands of "Him."

"He" could be anything. A member of your family, a beloved friend, the birds in the sky, even the bacteria in the air could be replaced by Amon. If you could see Amon, you were the target. If you couldn't, you were most likely the collateral.

The ability to make avatars, autonomous version of "Him" at his own wishes, an ability that defined the Error pathway. The ability of a true virus and a bug. Multiplication to infinity.

And that was something Winston Heath, at this moment, managed to make a cheap imitation of with Shinsu!

Of course, the true ability was still too far away from his hands. He could not even copy a sliver of its true power, but it was still shocking in and of itself that he had managed to make it. He had made an avatar.

The concept was simple. It followed the same principles that astral travel followed, only this time, only a part of his astral body was 'bestowed' onto an 'entity' made from shinsu.

He had read on the Box that Enryu was famed for being able to make life from shinsu. And with that idea, he had encorporated it into ritualistic magic. The first step was pinpointing himself as a creature from the 'spirit world.' The next step included the offering of the 'entity' to the pinpointed existence and finally, asking the existence to offer up a part of their astral body to possess the shinsu.

It was akin to the possession of beyonders by evil gods through the mirror divination, like what had happened to one of Melissa's friends in volume 1 of Lord of Mysteries; only this was far easier as the entity to be possessed was being rightfully offered to the existence solely for the sake of possession.

And finally, when the possession was done, a part of Winston's astral body was given to the shinsu for as long as Winston wanted.

Of course, there were a lot of downsides to this.

The first and foremost being that the avatar, unlike the marionettes of the Fool and the avatars of the Error, lacked information procession and could not operate autonomously. It made Winston have to split his focus, like operating at different levels in a hierarchical arrangement, controlling the actions to two different sets of bodies.

In layman terms, it was like trying to learn Chinese through one ear and listening to Mozart on the other. Incredibly disorienting.

The next thing was that it halved Winston's spirituality reserves. And not only that, the half of the spirituality that was given to the avatar couldn't even be used fully. It was not Winston after all, only a small part of his astral body. And hence, it could hardly utilize any of his true beyonder powers. Even the ones that worked were weaker in comparison to his main body and took just a little longer to activate. The physical strength of the avatar was also far weaker. So weak that he would even lose to Endorsi and Anaak, as Winston saw it.

And finally, atop all of that, it was impossible to have multiple of them.

Every time Winston made an avatar, his spirituality reserves would be halved, leaving him weakened, not to mention the avatars, even if he were to make multiple, would hardly be considered stronger than him, even in those numbers. And that's even considering the fact that he would too be weakened. All in all, it was not worth it for combative purposes.

However, for a distraction...

That takes care of that. Winston smiled as he watched the ranker zoom away in the direction the ship had supposedly followed.

Except it hadn't.

As Winston, with his enhanced eyesight that could peer hundreds of kilometers away, lost sight of the ranker, a strange shift happened in the air.

The air hummed and rippled as a gigantic illusion was taken down. Immediately, Winston felt a weight off his shoulders as the spirituality drain to cover such a large structure was indeed ginormous.

Truthfully speaking, such a large illusion was something he should only be able to do at the level of a demigod, which corresponded to the Sequence 4 of any pathway.

However, the synergy between Fool and Error, of which illusion creation was a great part of in the lower sequences, along with the spirituality increase of the three pathways and finally, the boost provided atop all that through shinsu, such a wide scale illusion did not seem to be a pipe dream anymore. Sure, it was still a daunting task.

As the illusion cleared, Winston saw the ship emerging. It had already begun to descend from the sky and towards the ground, hovering just 200 meters from it's destination.

The crates and suspendium that had fallen down?

They too had been secured soon after they crossed the clouds, the people within which had been released already in the nearby megacity.

Winston looked down at the mega city, the residents of which gazed up at the floating behemoth in fear and trepidation.

Sweat poured from most of their faces as they gazed upon the giant structure. The warriors of the city gathered around, weapons in hand as they waited for the ship to make it's move.

There were hardly any rankers here, even though most of the population in the middle tower was filled with families and family trees of rankers.

There were always such cities on the lower floors where rankers didn't frequent. And the traffickers took advantage of the absence of strong people which could offer resistance to carry on unabated.

However, that had changed at this moment.

As Winston continued to gaze down, he spoke out.

"Take out and containers and free everyone." His crooked voice was still ongoing. But to the workers, within whose ears the voice rang like an alarm, it sounded as the voice that promised pain. The few workers that were atop the ship looked at him in terror, for in their eyes, he looked to be exactly like the red skinned ranker.

An illusion that had been targeted only at them.

Winston smiled softly as he watched the workers scatter about and pull giant chains from the ship, slowly carrying down the containers used to traffic people. As for the suspendium? Winston was going to take a couple of containers for himself. Think of it as his 'fee' for helping out.

He chuckled, and then held his arms out as if to embrace the world and boomed out with his voice.

"People of the city! The men, women and children that had been abducted from here are being returned to you! Worry not, for the captain of this ship is now gone! And as the last of my gift to you, I provide you with these!" Winston yelled as if proclaiming a holy decree. And then, he signaled the workers to also throw down the containers of suspendium.

Of course, there was the matter of the major forces coming here to raid the suspendium, along with the more imminent threat of the ranker returning. Winston cared little about that. The thing needed for acting was the cause and the consequence. As long as he did not know about it, the aftermath had no relation with it. After all, Prometheus helping the humans did not turn out great for the titan.

There was also the reason that the avatar of Winston had not yet been completely suspended, at least not the astral projection. Funny thing about the way he created avatars, due to a loophole, the astral projection could persist for as much as 3 days, as he calculated, after the possession was cancelled. After which, it would return and merge again with his body.

It was still following the ranker, taunting it and leading it further and further away. And with the added in 'deception' from the avatar that allowed him to lead opponents of lower intelligence without them suspecting anything, the ranker was in for a trip. If the ranker came back here before the city could get reinforcements he would no doubt slaughter everyone; then, it was simple a matter of bad luck.

All in all, Winston would not bother with them longer than he should. In the first place, he was not a saint. He knew bad things happen all the time, he could not be a hero and stop everything that's bad in the world. In the end, it came down to a matter of self interest.

As the crates of suspendium were thrown down, crystals, bars and coins, pale blue in color poured out of them. The city folk were staggered seeing such a large amount of wealth.

As the people rushed forward to carry the riches and meet back with their loved ones, Winston could not help but look at them in pity. The Jahad forces would no doubt wipe this city off. If not, they would be in for a world of pain. It was tragic either way.

"Causing chaos for the sake of it. Do you enjoy it, perhaps?" Suddenly, a familiar voice sounded behind Winston.

And without turning back, Winston knew exactly who it was.

"You seem plenty relaxed. What might be the reason I wonder?" Winston asked the 7 feet tall man who floated atop a suitcase behind him.

The man held a smile on his face with his tooth showing. His wrinkles were more enhanced at the cheeks while the rest of the face looked frieghteningly plain.

Winston could not help but want to comment on his strange features, but he held himself back.

He could feel that the man was more than he let on. He was enigmatic. But his intuition told him one thing. He was not to be underestimated.

I guess I'll get the chance to test out my prowess.

"Why would I not be? Have I done anything wrong here?" The man asked, his smile widening ever so slightly.

"I would say giving away my position is a good enough reason." Winston replied.

The man held up his hands in a gesture of 'what can be done?' "I do apologize. Just couldn't help myself. Though that doesn't change the fact that you're here causing chaos."

"Chaos? Perhaps you're right." Winston chuckled slightly.

The man continued on with the same smile.

"Do you find this to be comedic? Not that I have anything against it. Chaos has always been a crucial part of the Tower's progression. Everywhere in the tower can be described to be chaotic after all."

"Not comedic no. Just tragic. The life of the masses can really be messed up by the ruling classes. Even if someone were to rebel against it, the masses would suffer nonetheless. And so, it is logical to better yourself through them. Go with the flow and break out at the crucial moment to seize the power." He explained.

Then shook his head, not willing to continue on with the conversation anymore. He continued, "Enough talk. It is pointless to continue on with the conversation."

As the words landed, Winston took a combat stance midair. The cane he held at his right hand was put into the arms inventory that appeared by his side, and from that, a peculiar hook was taken out. How did the hook get to him when it was the avatar that had stolen it? The armed inventory worked on an 'owner' basis. With the avatar, it recognized both of them as owners and would follow either one. With the avatar gone, the armed inventory returned to him.

"I haven't yet gotten the chance to test this out. Neither have I gotten the chance to fully test out my own capabilities yet. I suppose you will do quite nicely." He said.

The man in front took off the hat from his head and held it at his chest. Then, he did a curt bow.

"It would be my pleasure to be of use to you." The sarcasm in the man's voice couldn't have been more obvious. But he continued. "But before we start, why don't we introduce ourselves? Myself Samuel Helmons." He said.

Winston raised an eyebrow at this and smiled. Though it was all hidden beneath the mask.

"You may refer to me as... Mysteries."

His voice reverberated in the air, echoing through the city.

The man's eyes scanned Winston, gleaming as he did so.

"Mysteries..."

~~~

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