Morghi stood up. "How... how did you know?"
Judar decided to confess. "Yes. The Akademiya is carrying out a great plan—one that could change the world. They want to create a new god—their own god, Sumeru's god."
[Lumine: Scaramouche.]
[Paimon: That's insane! How could they possibly do something like this?]
[Scaramouche: What a pity. In the altered timeline, I lost the chance to become a god.]
[Paimon: You belong in prison reflecting on your actions!]
"Though things may still seem prosperous on the surface, since the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata's passing, there has been virtually no breakthrough in Sumeru's academic pursuits."
"On top of that, Irminsul's withering has been getting worse. The Sages have tried almost everything, but nothing works. They often say, 'If only the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata were still here...'"
"Some time ago, a member of the Fatui arrived, bringing a Gnosis with him. He said he wanted to borrow the Akademiya's research facilities."
"Dottore had been exiled from the Akademiya before. The Sages looked down on him. But when he said those words, everyone's expressions changed."
"Dottore asked, 'Do you want to create a god?'"
Alhaitham commented, "This is the foolishness and arrogance at the end of the academic road..."
Judar continued, "First, the Akademiya spent a long time building a divine body using an exquisite bionic puppet as the vessel."
"Then, using the Sabzeruz Festival loop to harvest dreams, they maximized the Akasha's output."
"With Dottore's help, the Akasha at maximum output successfully channeled the power contained within the Gnosis, making it the core of the new god."
[Paimon: They're actually going to succeed!]
[Lumine: Yes. And it seems they're about to. That means our next opponent will be a god.]
[Paimon: That sounds absolutely terrifying.]
[Lumine: Still, I'm actually looking forward to it now.]
[Paimon: I-I'm looking forward to it too.]
[Lumine: I think you're only looking forward to the food.]
[Furina: Haha, Paimon would never look forward to fighting.]
"Then, they said the new god needed divine wisdom. For that, they would need a massive amount of Divine Knowledge Capsules."
Dehya suddenly understood. "It's all connected..."
Alhaitham asked, "But how did you confirm that those were actually divine knowledge?"
Morghi looked at Alhaitham and said, "It's only an inference, really. The Akademiya has studied it for centuries but still doesn't understand what drives scholars mad."
"No one can interpret that inexplicable phenomenon. Scribe, you should understand what that means."
"If no one on earth can read it, then it must be knowledge only a god can understand. In other words—that's the source of the God of Wisdom's omniscience."
[Nahida: That knowledge—what they call divine knowledge—doesn't drive people mad. It's forbidden knowledge.]
[Lumine: If Scaramouche absorbs that knowledge, will he go mad?]
[Nahida: I don't yet know how forbidden knowledge affects a god. But it likely won't cause a god to lose their mind—or perhaps gods do have some resistance. After all, King Deshret took his own life.]
[Ningguang: Perhaps a sane Scaramouche is easier to deal with than a mad one.]