This is stupid, this is so stupid!' Hela wanted to scream that out loud however that would blow her cover.
She had no clue what made the doctor think this was a good idea and honestly she wanted whatever he was smoking. The plan was so stupid that she wondered whether the doctor was also a transmigrator because only a person who had been on the internet would think this was a good idea.
She tried adjusting her position but stopped when Sharron seemed to be annoyed by her movement. Hela looked at Sherlock who was on top of Maric's shoulders wearing a creepy looking mask. Despite not being able to see his face his thoughts were evident with the ridiculous situation they were in.
'Well at least I got top half.' Hela lampooned.
She made sure the mask was on properly as they arrived at a brick wall.
'How creative.' She rolled her eyes.
She could tell Sherlock was thinking the same.
***
Apollo tapped the brick wall in a pattern while avoiding looking at the others who were stacked on each other's shoulders wearing a trench coat.
Of course this wouldn't actually work but with a few illusions and some fooling he could make even a loaf of bread look like the Mother Goddess of Depravity.
The door opened as they walked in. Immediately there was a strong stench of blood and the indulgence faction members were indulging in various acts of depravity. Alongside his two monsters Apollo walked up to the 3 saints of the rose school of thought. Two sequence 4's and one sequence 3. The Fool smiled as "he" recognised one of them. It was Klarman, the sequence 4 saint of the moon pathway, who had one of Reinette's body parts. The saints seemed to recognise "him" or rather the person "he" had turned in to a marionette. The puppet spoke first.
"Oh, I… I thought you were dead."
The Fool smiled wildly.
"My death was… greatly exaggerated."
"He" laughed wildly. The saints looked at him with confusion evident in their faces. The Fool stared back. The demigods felt an unsettling chill go down their spines as if something far beyond their comprehension was watching them. "He" threw a bouquet of Seville chrysanthemums in the air. The others took the signal and burst out of their costumes.
Apollo brought out an ominous red key twisting it various illusory, red doors appeared and a flood of spirit creatures emerged from them. In the chaos a headless woman wearing a complex dark dress emerged from a door of starlight. The four heads held in her hands turned their red eyes towards the saints of the indulgence faction.
***
Sherlock snapped his fingers firing an air bullet at the sequence 6 vampire who nimbly dodged. Chains of shadow grabbed Sherlock, binding him.
He activated the sun brooch summoning a halo which began melting the chains. The vampire's nails grew as he slashed at Sherlock. The claw was about to hit when Sherlock disappeared in a spark of fire. Then a holy light descended where he once stood burning the vampire.
Sherlock cast a cleave of purification cutting the vampire's limbs limiting his movements. He then fired an air bullet at the vampire's heart.
'Maybe I could make a bounty hunter persona.' Klein thought.
***
Hela chased after a fleeing zombie as she commanded spirits to block his path. She lined up death knell firing a shot at the zombies weak point. He slowed down but wasn't stopped.
Hela sent spirits ahead, further slowing down his progress and leading him down a dead end. In the closed off room the zombie realised he was trapped and decided to make a final stand. Hela dodged the wild swipes of the beyonder, she blocked a blow hearing a slight crack as she pointed death knell directly at the zombies head firing a lethal shot knocking him on the ground. Then for good measure she fired another bullet.
***
Apollo engaged in battle with Klarman while Reinette fought the other two saints. Apollo transformed his appearance to that of Klarman's and immediately killed himself. The curse took hold and Klarman dropped to the floor.
A figure emerged from the historical void and began looting the corpse; "he" whistled a happy tune as "he" took a severed hand from the demigod's corpse alongside his wallet.
'Nice 237 pounds. Also the puppet suicide bomb sure is usefull, maybe I'll kidnap a few and keep them in Sefirah castle to use in the next dimension.'
"He" parasitised a few enemies and looked through the battlefield to see if "he" needed to assist. Everything was going well so "he" went to watch Reinette's fight.
It was pretty one sided as expected since even a weakened angel was still an incomparable existence compared to a regular demigod. The Fool utilised an auditory illusion and whispered in the puppets ear. The puppet immediately lost control as her body turned in to a bunch of curses before becoming a bunch of various worms. "He" had wanted to see if "he" could just whisper information on great old ones to people and just kill them that way. It seemed to work so maybe it would be a good way to assassinate anyone below the angel level. "He" could even use information on other great old ones making it hard to track back to him. Of course "he" didn't need to do this but it was just a fun idea.
The Fool deactivated "his" concealment and turned the disciple of silence in to a marionette. "He" waved to the angel who was looking at him.
"Ten" "thousand" "gold" "coins" "please."
The Fool was stunned at the bill "he" had just received.
"Um, do you accept worms?"
"Only" "complete" "mystical" "items."
"Alright, I'll pay in a few days." "He" sighed.
'I might as well be called The Poor at this point.' The Fool lampooned.
***
Sharron had finished setting up the explosives when she saw a familiar figure. It was her master but she was talking to a man wearing a formal suit with a black windbreaker. His face was covered by an illusory mask with blank facial features, his hands were covered by a pair of black gloves and he held a staff inlaid with star speckles. She saw the man's features change, his body morphed into another familiar person. It was the doctor as Hela called him.
***
The group of 5 had finished dealing with the hideout which became a breeze once Apollo finished fighting the saints. They stood outside as Sharron detonated the explosives. The night of Backlund was suddenly filled with a deafening boom as a ball of fire destroyed a small block.
"Do you think it will be alright?" Hela asked.
"I divined it and no one innocent was around. In fact the other buildings were gang hideouts and some of the explosions were because they had gunpowder stored inside." Sherlock answered."
Sherlock scattered a deck of Tarot cards at the crime scene which the group was used to by now. He then burned a paper figurine as they left before the official beyonders arrived.
***
The next morning the air was quite lively in the safehouse as they had just removed a large weight off their shoulders. Sherlock had cooked them a celebration meal with the doctor who was surprisingly a really good cook. Maric placed a newspaper on the table and the front cover was an image of the fire they had started.
"Looks like we made it to the front pages." Maric said.
They weren't sure whether to be proud or scared as the churches and MI9 were likely looking for them. They used anti divination however it could likely be seen through by a sufficiently high level beyonder. Sharron finished her meal and turned to Apollo.
"I would like to have a private discussion."
"Sure."
***
They entered a spare room and set up a wall of spirituality.
"What do you want to talk about?" Apollo asked.
"First, what do you have to do with my teacher?"
"Not much really just summoned her during the fight."
Sharron wasn't really buying it but moved on.
"Who are you really? I saw you transform and that is not an ability of the prisoner pathway."
"I'm actually a seer and Apollo was just a marionette of an Indulgence faction member. I lost him during the fight so I had to transform into him."
"So the same pathway as Sherlock."
"Yeah."
"That's enough as you clearly are an ally so I won't pry in to your secrets too much."
"Thank you."
***
Hela had some suspicions about Apollo and so did Sherlock. His name was too similar to Sherlock's naming scheme as he just took two characters and mashed their names together. Their theory of him being a transmigrator was also supported by the conversation between him and the saint before the fight as it was quoted from a movie. If that were the case it may have been more than luck that made her transmigrate in to the body the doctor was working on as she had coincidentally met Sherlock as well. It was almost like the law of convergence was attracting the transmigrators to each other and that it is planned by someone. Sherlock had also mentioned a mysterious man named Merlin Hermes which was also suspicious in her opinion.
***
The Fool felt his intuition warning him that someone was talking about him behind his back.
***
Hela looked at the yellowish-green liquid that smelled of corpses. She was reminded of the corpse collector potion due to the stench. Her previous two potions weren't nearly as bad and she even found the spirit medium potion quite pretty. However she had returned to the disgusting liquids that no sane human would consider drinking. At least she had a stronger stomach now.
She downed the potion as its effects quickly settled in. She began cogitation in order to calm herself and soon the potions side effects subsided.
***
The Fool watched all their advancements to make sure nothing went wrong; "he" paid extra attention to Sharron as she was advancing to sequence 4. "He" turned his attention to Klein as he advanced to faceless. His face morphed, switching between his own and Zhou Mingrui's.
The Fool looked at the familiar face with an unreadable expression. "He" vaguely remembered a hometown "he" had lost. "He" knew that it was impossible to return and "he" should be satisfied with the fact "he" could at least return to "his" own dimension even if it took thousands of years, even if it would take a thousand dimensions, "he" knew "he" could return, however there was one place that "he" could never return to.
"He" looked at Klein who still held hope of returning despite everything he still hadn't given up even after Tingen's tragedy. The Fool realised something, "He" had taken the Error uniqueness so that meant a Lord of the Mysteries couldn't be born without "his" consent. But that may be for the best. "He" did not wish this fate on anyone, "he" didn't want Klein to suffer the same fate "he" had. However Earth needed a Lord of the Mysteries.
Well maybe Klein didn't need to become Lord of the Mysteries. After all The Fool was here and even if "he" couldn't kill all of "them" "he" could chase "them" to the other side of the universe and make sure "they" would never return.
"His" smile was wide.
'I have already lost my humanity, if I accommodate more uniqueness's, dealing with the outer gods would be a breeze. Plus I need to prepare for the outer gods in my world and more power would mean I won't have to fall asleep again, in fact I may even be able to seal the Mother Goddess of Depravity for a while, but I don't have any hope of killing "her". Well I should leave this world with some guardians so I should get Roselle to become The Anarchy."
***
The Fool atop Sefirah castle picked up the Error uniqueness "He" would take some time to accommodate it as preventing convergence was still important even if "he" no longer cared about retaining "his" humanity.
'Maybe Amanises will wake up by then.'
"He" turned on the radio and switched channels to indistinguishable ravings. "He" used the stolen Worm of Time characteristics and created two sequence 1 avatars to watch the group.
***
Adam sat beside Amon looking at the Garden of Eden and waited for Amon to finish explaining the events that happened.
"Isn't it obvious? The Lord of the Mysteries has arrived."
Amon dissected the sentence as an expert cryptologist. The word "arrived" implies that "he" didn't originate from this world. "He" wondered where "he" came from as until recently Amon held the Error uniqueness and the other uniqueness's were still in the hands of their respective angels.
'Interesting.' Amon looked towards the mind world and wondered about how "he" would affect the trend of the times.
Adam closed "his" eyes. 'I wish you luck on your long journey, Mysteries.'
Notes:Klein ascended in to the grey fog. Unlike what normally happened he didn't appear in the seat of the Fool rather he sat at the other end of the table. Looking across he saw a figure covered by the grey fog obscuring the majority of his features. He had a radio next to him but Klein was unable to hear the sound as the fog prevented it.
'Is this the original owner of the grey fog?' Klein questioned.
The figure seemed to wake up as he sat up. Curiously he tilted his head.
"What are you doing here?"
"I was just coming up to divine something."
"Alright carry on."
"Wait, are you the owner of the grey fog?"
"Yes… but also no."
"What does that mean?"
"You will hopefully never understand."
The man was about to go back to sleep.
"I have a meeting soon as well and that's my seat."
"Do the seating arrangements matter that much?"
"Yes, as it's kind of a sign of status."
"Oh, well I'm really comfy right now and also I'm ____ so my status should be highest."
Klein wondered what the grey fog had blocked as it had managed to defend him from looking at a true god. So what was strong enough to make it completely block him from hearing it. The person in front of him was clearly of high status, most likely a true god.
"Should I address you as "he" then?"
The man paused for a moment thinking how to respond.
"Do what you want."
"Alright. But I really need to sit there for the meeting."
"What even is the meeting for?"
"Secret organisation stuff."
"But you're only sequence 6."
"I'm pretending to be a god using the grey fog."
"How about I take that role? Since I am actually one."
'Well that answered what 'he' was.' Klein thought.
Klein explained the Tarot club and role of The Fool.
"Alright that's all."
"Interesting."
"By the way what should I call you?"
"Just call me The Fool."
"Ok."
***
Four people emerged from the red stars. A young noble lady bowed to the head of the table.
"Good afternoon Mr Fool~!" Her voice had a youthful joy to it.
"Good afternoon Miss Justice."
Justice greeted the rest of the table before they sat down. She had observed how The Fool seemed to be covered in more fog than usual and that his clothes were different… very different.
"Is something wrong Miss Justice?"
"Um, it's just that you look different than usual. It's not a bad thing though." She replied.
The Fool looked at himself. "He" was wearing some pyjamas with cats on them.
"Ah, I forgot."
"He" changed "his" clothes to a dark robe covering "his" body and slightly reduced the amount of fog covering "him".
There was an awkward silence before the Hanged man spoke.
"Mr Fool, I have a page of Roselle's diary."
He conjured a piece of paper and The Fool brought it over. Klein got worried as he didn't know what The Fool would do. However it seemed like "he" was reading it just fine.
"Pft."
The Fool let out a slight laugh. Alger the Hanged man began freaking out, coming up with wild conspiracy theories. The Fool then began cackling and the grey fog shook violently. Everyone felt their spirit bodies begin to erupt. The Fool realising the damage stopped and somehow reversed the damage on their spirit bodies.
"I apologise. I suppose I should compensate you all."
"It is no issue Mr Fool. It is simply because we are far too weak." Alger replied.
"No it is my fault I made a mistake so I should compensate you all. So what do you want?"
Everyone went silent waiting for someone else to speak first. Klein running out of patience after 5 minutes passed, finally broke the silence.
"Mr Fool, I was wondering whether you can assist me in my sequence 5 advancement."
"That will sort itself out as you haven't even finished digesting your sequence 6 potion. Ask for something else."
"Well can I have hints to my sequence 4 then?"
Klein was trying to understand The Fool as "he" was most likely related to his transmigration so before asking questions about that he would test "his" limits.
"Sure, I can give you the formula right now."
The Tarot club members were completely shaken.
'Mr Fool really is a benevolent deity he gave away a formula for free.' Alger glazed The Fool even more.
Klein took the piece of paper and memorised its contents.
"Thank you Mr Fool."
"No problem. Now who wants to go next?"
The Sun decided to follow the World's example.
"I would like some information on how our land was forsaken by the creator."
The Fool had a soft smile.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"To put it simply the creator or as I know "him" the Ancient Sun God was betrayed and devoured by "his" kings of angels. Now "they" have become the Lord of Storms, the Eternal Blazing Sun and the God of Knowledge and Wisdom. That isn't the full story however you knowing will corrupt you so I will only tell you later."
Everyone had been overcome with shock, especially Derrick. The revelation that the creator had not forsaken them but rather died and was devoured was too shocking. Now the traitors had become gods worshipped by many.
"Umm, I'll go next." Audrey said changing the topic.
"Alright." The Fool replied.
"The spectator pathway doesn't have any combat related abilities so I would like an artifact to defend myself especially due to me joining the Psychology Alchemists."
The Fool looked through "his" junk pile in the other Sefirah castle however "he" realised that there was nothing that would work.
"I don't have anything that would work."
"Oh, I could change my request."
"No, just give me a few second and I'll find something."
***
Julia held a small revolver which was freezing to touch. She had managed to obtain it after months of planning and once she returned to the Demoness sect her superior would give her the characteristic from it for her to advance to sequence 4.
All of a sudden a door of starlight opened up and a man wearing clown makup emerged. She prepared for battle but before she knew it her heart was in the man's hand.
The sequence 2 planes walker avatar picked up the gun and returned to Sefirah castle.
***
The Tarot club members watched as a clown appeared in the meeting room handing a small black revolver and handed it to The Fool. The clown then bowed before leaving.
"Here you go Miss Justice."
"He" slid over the gun to Justice.
"Thank you Mr Fool." She tried her best to remain calm from all the shocking events today.
"Alright who's next?"
Fors had been plotting a novel in her head since the moment she saw The Fool in cat pyjamas. Suddenly she slammed her hands on the table.
"I wasn't thinking about anything weird!"
Everyone looked at the Magician who suddenly curled up in to a ball.
'I'm going to die. I'm sorry Mr Fool please forgive me.'
The Fool having read her novels realised what she had probably been thinking about.
'That would be impossible my presence alone would kill almost anyone and my body fluids contain enough spirituality to kill a demigod. Well I suppose I can't blame her for things she doesn't know.' The Fool lampooned.
"Um, I'll just take whatever."
"No, you have to request something that you actually want."
The Magician stared in to space for a moment.
'Agh, Fors stop thinking about it!' She screamed inwardly.
"How about we come back to you?" The Fool suggested.
Fors managed to nod. The Fool turned to Alger.
"What is your wish, you can ask a bit extra as you gave me the diary page."
"Mr Fool I would like some assistance exploring the Blue Avenger."
"I will help personally for this due to my current circumstances it will take a month for me to be ready to descend. It is an item that has some relation to my authorities created by Alista Tudor so I am curious to explore it myself."
All the members simply sat in awe.
"Miss Magician are you ready?"
Fors was snapped out of her stupor and nearly jumped out of her seat.
"Um, I would like to get some stuff related to the apprentice pathway."
"Great, you will join myself and the Hanged man exploring the Blue Avenger."
'No! I can't this is too scary, Mr Fool I'm only sequence 9. Have some mercy, I know I had blasphemous thoughts about you but please I still have manuscripts to finish! My publishers will kill me! Even though I will probably die on that ship.' Fors cried inwardly.
'Hm, The Fool is related to the apprentice pathway. That makes sense as the clown before showed something similar to the apprentice pathways ability to open doors. Perhaps they gain the ability to open doors to other places for teleportation. Maybe this is how I was brought to this world.' Klein theorised.
"Alright now for the exchange segment."
Everyone was silent as they were too tired to think.
"Hmm, looks like no one has anything to exchange. How about the free exchange?"
Everyone stared in to space.
"Well you all look tired how about we just have a casual chat?"
The Fool summoned various foods and drinks on the table and also changed it to a round shape. The Tarot club members saw the food and recognised some however others were completely foreign. Klein however recognised everything as some food was clearly from Earth.
'Hmm, it seems The Fool has good taste despite potentially being an interdimensional kidnapper.' Klein lampooned.
He took a slice of desi pie and poured himself a glass of cola from the pitcher on the table. The others joined in as they tried the various delicacies of both this world and Earth.
"I think we should do this every meeting. It gets pretty boring being a god so having a nice meal with some friends is a good way to keep me stable."
'Mr Fool considers us friends.' Derrick's heart jumped with glee as he enjoyed this strange food called pizza.
'Mr Fool is different however this is a nice change. Perhaps he finally let his guard down now that he has recovered more power.' Audrey thought sipping some sweet fizzy drink.
"Mr Fool is truly a gracious god. I made the right choice to follow "him".' Alger smiled while he tried some fried chicken.
'Finally I needed a drink after that meeting. Praise the Fool.' Fors downed a bottle of beer.
'This Fool is really an enigma.' Klein thought reminiscing about his home town.
The Fool watched the group enjoy themselves with idle banter and a good meal.
'I wish I could have done this with everyone before, though not as The Fool but rather Klein Morreti or Zhou Mingrui. I should have a big celebration when I return home after all we did handle the apocalypse, I hope I can at least retain enough humanity to enjoy that.'
***
Klein read the diary page and laughed after all he had no need to retain his image as the grey fog only had him and The Fool.
"This guy I can't believe he's real." Klein exclaimed.
"Well he is, sometimes reality is just as ridiculous if not more then fiction." The Fool said.
"By the way I can't do the food thing so you're going to have to do that."
"How about I just take over, you get the benefits while having to play god anymore." The Fool suggested.
"What's the catch."
"It's not as you think. A god needs believers to maintain their rationality so this benefits me as well."
"Sure that sounds good."
Klein left Sefirah castle leaving The Fool alone. The Fool laughed turns out sleeping in the wrong Sefirah castle on accident had created quite the interesting turn of events.
"Klein you don't have to play god anymore. Create relationships that will be your anchors in the future. You don't have to bare this alone. I'm here to do that for you. If I can't be happy then I will make you happy in every universe I can." Klein whispered in to the void.
Notes: