After Ebner and Miss Justice's private conversation ended, the members once again began, as usual, to teach Little Sun ancient Hermes, while also learning bits of knowledge in the field of mysticism from each other.
Time passed quickly. When the tacit exchange among the members came to a stop, The Fool Klein swept his gaze across the group and said:
"That will be all for today."
"Following Your will." Justice Audrey immediately rose, lifted her skirt slightly, and curtsied. The other members followed almost simultaneously.
Watching one blurry figure after another disappear before his eyes, even Mr. Fool was respectfully seen off. Only one figure remained here besides himself. Klein turned toward that person and directly asked:
"You know the Sequence 4 potion formula of the Spectator pathway?"
"I do." Ebner first nodded, then spoke in a tone tinged with regret. "But you asked too late… I can't tell you now."
Hearing this, Klein frowned. He had some guesses but still asked in a low voice: "Why?"
Ebner thought for a moment. Instead of answering directly, he carefully said:
"You should still remember the reward given by the Goddess after the events of the first level of the 'Dream Maze Tower,' right?"
Klein deliberately asked with a serious face: "Which Goddess?"
That time, there were quite a few Goddesses tied to you… the Earth Mother, the Vampire Ancient God, the Evernight Goddess…
Ebner was left speechless and almost rolled his eyes, certain that Klein was nitpicking on purpose.
"If not specified, I usually refer to the Evernight Goddess as 'the Goddess.'" He answered expressionlessly.
"The Goddess… I remember She bestowed an oracle to Miss Daly, asking Mr. Fool's Blessed—me—to find a way into the Chanis Gate of Saint Samuel Cathedral. For this, I even went out of my way to help Dunn prepare an identity as a wealthy man, to make things easier in the future." Klein pondered aloud. "Does this have something to do with the Trickmaster's potion formula?"
Though he said it as a question, Klein was already certain the two were connected, since when he asked Arrodes about it, that was the answer too.
"This should be the Goddess testing you… and the greatest reward is precisely the potion formula of the Spectator pathway beyond demigod… which is why I can't interfere." Ebner spread his hands, indicating his helplessness.
You henpecked man, couldn't you whisper to your pillow-side Goddess for me just once? Klein muttered under his breath, then said aloud:
"So that means Dwayne Dantès… no, Captain Dunn, should be returning that identity to me soon?"
Ebner nodded. "Unless there's an accident, he'll soon receive another oracle, sending him to a new mission."
This wasn't pure speculation. Just last week, when Ebner was shadowing Filina, he had coincidentally spotted Dunn accompanying his wife on a museum visit. Observing his "Fate," Ebner had seen signs that Dunn would be leaving Backlund soon.
As for the destination, with limited information, Ebner only caught the hint "North."
"So be it then…" Klein sighed. He knew that even though Ebner had lived through many lifetimes and seemed formidable, he too couldn't go against the will of a true God… and neither could he himself.
The only small comfort is that the Goddess should also be a fellow Earth transmigrator. Even if She isn't as close to me as She is to Liu Bo, She shouldn't make things too hard for me… right?
The more Klein thought, the less confident he felt. He almost wished Liu Bo would man up for once and just hand him the formula directly. But that was only wishful thinking… Helplessly, he sighed again and asked:
"Do you know the exact definition of a 'complete mythical creature'?"
"For a demigod, one major feature of losing control is losing their sanity, never being able to restrain their mythical creature form again.
"However, the mythical creature forms of Saints aren't complete. They still retain clear traces of their original race. Strictly speaking, only when one reaches Sequence 2 can one be considered a true mythical creature.
"Of course, there are some pathways whose Saints can temporarily transform into 'incomplete mythical creature forms' to fight… for example, the Spectator, the Demon, and the Reader pathways."
Ebner patiently explained.
He had read quite a few Roselle diary pages from Klein related to "Liu Bo," so he owed him a favor. Naturally, whatever he could answer, he answered earnestly.
"Sequence 2… an Angel, huh!" Klein exclaimed, then cast a glance at the paper crane sitting on his cluttered desk. A new idea emerged in his mind.
Still cautious, he asked: "Hermit wants a drop of mythical creature's blood to complete some ritual?"
"Yes. Hermit is currently a Sequence 5 Constellations Master of the Mystery Pryer pathway. To advance to demigod, her ritual requires fully analyzing a drop of mythical creature's blood and gaining from it vast, complex knowledge." Ebner gave a very "textbook-like" answer.
Wow, that sounded straight out of some wiki entry… If this weren't another world, I'd swear you just copy-pasted from Baidu. Klein muttered in his mind, nodding slightly. Then he dropped the subject and instead brought up the changes in the "Floating City" within the God War Ruins Sea.
He knew that the Floating City had deep ties with one of Liu Bo's past lives, so this was his way of returning the favor.
Hearing this, Ebner indeed straightened in his seat, leaning forward slightly, and repeated:
"You mean that not long after Mr. Fool helped Little Sun escape, the Floating City in the dreamscape of the God War Ruins erupted with a light like the sun?"
Klein nodded firmly. "Exactly."
*It seems the connection between the Morning Star City in Nightmare Afternoon Town and the Floating City in the dreamscape of the God War Ruins is even deeper than I imagined!
This must be the handiwork of the 'Calamity Seal'…
But that's good. That means swapping their positions—the real and the dream, the inside and the outside—should be easier than expected, since they're already mystically linked.*
After pondering a bit, Ebner asked Klein for more details about the Floating City.
Klein recalled for a while, then materialized a mural.
It depicted a sea aflame, splitting apart to reveal a path.
On that path was a long procession, its members either bowing their heads or kneeling devoutly.
At the end of the road, above the faint silhouette of palace complexes, floated an inverted mountain peak!
At the forefront of the procession stood a tall, thin man with long silver hair, delicate features, closed eyes, and layers of wings unfurling behind him. He raised his hand, pointing toward the floating mountain.
This was unmistakably Uro—no, Ouroboros—leaving behind the mural of striking down the Floating City.
"So that's how it was… The Machinery Emperor's fall wasn't an accident, but the secret hand of Ouroboros. That's what dragged the modified Evans into 'misfortune,' to the point that even his supposedly safe energy core could explode out of nowhere…
"And the subsequent battle between the Imperialist demigods and the True Creator demigods, even the fall of Morning Star, was likely due to this as well!
"But why would Ouroboros strike at me?
"From what I know of myself, since I allowed the construction of churches to the True Creator atop the Floating City, I must've had some tacit understanding with that degenerate true god.
"That tacit understanding isn't hard to guess—it was most likely the True Creator wanting to use my special trait, the authority beyond the 'Pure White Eye,' the rank of the 'Unknown Land,' to open the door within the Giant King's Court.
"And the reason I parked Morning Star City above Afternoon Town was probably twofold: first, as the Machinery Emperor, I was already old and weak, needing mechanical modifications; second, I was waiting for the True Creator's followers to retrieve the key lost in the outside world.
"But why would that tacit understanding be sabotaged by Ouroboros, the Angel of Fate?
"Hm… The True Creator wanted to open that door alone, and as His other half, Adam certainly couldn't allow that.
"So if I make a bold hypothesis—it must be that Ouroboros had just brought back followers from the outside, and didn't yet know of the tacit pact between the Machinery Emperor and His Lord. Adam then used that ignorance to 'arrange' matters!
"I'd already thought it odd that a small Morning Star City could have four churches of the True Creator, each calling itself pope. Clearly, each had their own doctrine.
"Likely, they had 'heard' different things, and without a proper angelic envoy to guide them, they each strayed into extremity.
"And 'I' apparently paid no attention to their divisions, maybe even welcomed them…
"But in the eyes of a devout believer like Ouroboros, that's blatant blasphemy!
"If this hypothesis holds, then Morning Star City's fall was inevitable.
"After all, whether Adam, the Three Gods, the Goddess, Lilith, the God of Combat, or even the God of Steam and Machinery—they'd all want to prevent the True Creator from obtaining the Blasphemy Slate.
"I probably foresaw this too, but still wanted to take my chances, so I made two preparations.
'In the darkness, civilization's miracle is ruined by corruption'…
"I used to think this 'corruption' meant the corruption of human hearts, or the True Creator Himself.
"But now I see, it has a third layer… To the True Creator, the one who truly 'fell' was Adam!"
At last, Ebner untangled the causes behind Morning Star's fall and also gained new considerations on how to eventually bring Morning Star City into reality.
With this in mind, he turned to Klein and asked with a smile:
"Anything else you want to ask?"
Klein thought for a bit, then casually asked:
"Do you know who Frank Lee's parents are, the ones on Hermit's ship?"
Ebner froze for a few seconds, then calmly countered:
"Why do you care about that?"
"He's my friend… and there's something special about him…" Klein didn't overthink and simply relayed what Bernadette had said.
After hearing this, Ebner pinched his chin and pondered carefully. Then he frowned slightly and answered:
"Frank… he should be Lamia's adopted son."