Chapter 18: Deities and Devotees

Chapter 18: Deities and Devotees

"Fallen Creator… fallen…" Alger repeated these words, while Alice quietly observed his expression, thinking to herself that this gentleman's imagination was indeed rich.

Alice saw him mutter something under his breath, then with a smile said, "Mr. Fool, your description is indeed more apt. According to our observations, those who worship the true Creator, no, the fallen Creator, have a far higher rate of losing control than normal, and most of the rest are madmen."

"All mad?" Alice raised her eyebrows in surprise, suddenly realizing that the state of the deities might indeed affect the state of their followers.

Then… what about the reverse? Alice suddenly realized that she had always had a misconception.

If the deities were false, that would be one thing, but for those that truly exist, why would they care about the faith of mortals? Not to mention, the holy scriptures of the church contain not only the deities themselves but also the biographies of saints and angels…

Since saints are the beginning of merging with divinity, does this imply that divinity, like the sequence potions, could contaminate the Beyonder? And that followers could help resist this contamination…

These unverifiable speculations were suppressed by Alice, after all, she was far from the high sequence, and she didn't have much desire to ascend, perhaps she would never need this knowledge in her lifetime—this is what Alice thought at the moment.

Meanwhile, Mr. Fool, who was pondering how to inquire about the secret society and the Clown potion, was considering the hopeless small account while secretly setting his sights on Alice.

Mr. Fool was considering the possibility of commissioning Alice to make a purchase at the next Tarot meeting, when Audrey half sighed and half curiously said, "That sounds terrifying, um, Miss 'Wheel of Fortune,' Mr. 'Hanged Man,' could you tell us in detail about the various mysterious organizations and secret sects? I can hardly come into contact with these in my daily life, I can only learn through you, and I will pay for it, what do you want?"

"Clues about the Life School or the 'Monster' pathway extraordinaries," Alice stated her initial request, "If I get the clues in advance, I'll exchange them for something else."

Audrey readily agreed, indicating she would keep an eye out for relevant clues.

"I need a sum of money, 1,000 pounds, preferably in non-sequential bills, or freshly mined gems, calculated at the monthly average price of the Backlund jewelry market," Alger said without showing much disappointment, and after a moment's thought, he stated his demand.

This price made Alice somewhat astonished, and even more astonishing was that Audrey readily agreed, and her tone was cheerful, not at all bothered by it—she didn't even mind Alice eavesdropping without spending money.

She must be really wealthy. Alice silently marveled, gaining a bit of understanding of Audrey's ability to maintain such naivety.

Alger was silent for a long time before giving the location of the transaction, and Alice suspected he was regretting asking for too little.

"Mr. 'Hanged Man,' please speak first," Alice suggested, "I will provide additional information."

"Let's start with the Moss Ascetic Society, it's one of the earliest secret organizations, of course, many believe that the earliest secret organizations should be the Church of the Night Goddess, the Church of the Earth Mother, and the Church of the War God."

"What about the other four orthodox churches?" Alice sincerely asked.

"These people are definitely members of the Church of the Storm Lord, the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun, or the Church of Knowledge and Wisdom," Audrey rebutted in a muffled voice.

"These truths have long been buried in that ancient history, the only certainty is that no one has ever said that the Church of the Storm Lord, the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun, or the Church of Knowledge and Wisdom were ever secret organizations.

"Alright, let's save time and get back to the point. The Moss Ascetic Society was originally formed by several humans who had witnessed the blasphemous slates. They worship a non-personified deity called the Hidden Sage…"

Alger began to introduce the Moss Ascetic Society and the Hidden Sage, a once highly respected organization, until the "Hidden Sage" came to life. Like a ghost story… Alice mused, recalling the eyes behind old Neil, she added, "The Moss Ascetic Society holds the 'Peeker' pathway, and the Hidden Sage is suspected to be the true god or high-sequence powerhouse of this pathway. He intermittently imparts knowledge to all 'Peeker' pathway extraordinaries, and once they can't bear it, they go mad."

The fact that the Peeker would be pursued by the knowledge of the Hidden Sage was something Alice heard after old Neil was taken for treatment—clearly, those eyes back then belonged to the Hidden Sage.

Next, as Alger introduced several secret organizations in turn, Alice pointed out a possible reason why the upper echelons of the Witch Sect were all female: "Hmm… the sequence 7 of the 'Assassin' pathway is called the Witch."

"Witch?" Audrey's eyes widened in surprise, "What if a man drank the potion? How would he play the role of a witch?"

Alger also showed confusion and incomprehension.

"If a man drank the 'Witch' potion, he would no longer be considered a man, in every sense of the word, he would become a 'Witch'," Alice said, carefully observing the confused expressions of Audrey and Alger, satisfied with the result.

While Alice was enjoying her handiwork, she remembered the "Hidden Sage" who had come to life because of faith, and she thought again of the hypothesis that followers could affect deities.

After exchanging information for a while, Klein announced the end of the Tarot meeting.

…

The next morning, Alice encountered Miss Daly at the Blackthorn Security Company.

"Good morning, Miss Daly∽," Alice greeted Daly cheerfully.

"Good morning, little Alice∽," Daly's tone was familiarly frivolous, as she reached out her hand to Alice.

Alice, with foresight, kept her distance from Daly's sinful hand: "Please spare me—I guess you must be here to see the captain, right?"

"Oh!" Daly withdrew her hand in disappointment, then regained her smile and said, "I have some good news for you, little Alice∽"

"What is it?" Alice asked while warily watching Daly's hand to prevent a sneak attack—since they met, Daly had always liked to touch her head, but she was already a big kid!

"I'm being transferred to Backlund." Daly answered, which made Alice wary.

Alice knew Daly's qualifications; she had become an Beyonder only five years ago, but had already reached sequence 7, and unlike Alice, who had accidentally swallowed a potion, Daly had truly ascended step by step, which meant…

Alice looked at Daly curiously, "Are you going to ascend again?"

Daly nodded and left, while Alice fell into deep thought—if Daly's rapid promotion was due to mastering the art of impersonation, did the church's higher-ups decide to transfer her to Backlund because they guessed this? This also meant that the higher-ups indeed knew of the existence of the art of impersonation.

(End of Chapter)