"Ha... indeed."
The Celestial Worthy watched Nimrod swipe casually a few times Above the Gray Fog, "grafting" the scene of the Tarot Club meeting in front of him. An inscrutable light flickered in his eyes forged from starlight:
"From the few things you've said, I seem to have glimpsed my future. It's just that the future you described is rather hard for me to believe."
"You mean a 'Clown at the level of a Great Old One'?" Nimrod remarked out of nowhere:
"I find it hard to believe too-as the Beacon of Destiny, not a single one of your arrangements succeeded, while God Almighty, who had no authority over destiny, still accomplished part of what he set out to do. Does your 'Beacon of Destiny' actually work?"
"...Destiny remains wondrous even for beings at our level." The Celestial Worthy's tone did not change:
"But I don't entirely agree with that statement. If I became that Original Creator, destiny would be nothing more than a plaything in my hands. Would that statement still hold true?"
At this point, a smile appeared on the Celestial Worthy's face. He extended his hand toward Nimrod and said:
"Is there something you wish to accomplish? Our combined standing would be enough to transcend the level of a Pillar, and we each have a universe of our own. There is no fundamental conflict of interest between us... we could work together, couldn't we?"
"Your words are very tempting, but my favorite thing to do is say 'no' to people like you." Nimrod rejected the Celestial Worthy's invitation without hesitation and turned his attention to the Tarot Club meeting, which was proceeding steadily.
No matter what, Nimrod would never willingly cooperate with the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings. One only had to look at all the gods and organizations that had worked with the Celestial Worthy-not a single one had escaped being stabbed in the back by him and come to a good end.
For instance... April Fools' Day, which had gotten its just deserts.
Though rejected, the Celestial Worthy showed no embarrassment or anger. He simply withdrew his right hand with seamless ease and, along with Nimrod, turned his attention to the Tarot Club meeting below.
Just then, Klein's voice came from the Tarot Club meeting:
"Congratulations, Miss Justice. You are a Beyonder now."
At this point in time, Miss Justice, Audrey, had officially become a Beyonder, while the Hanged Man, Alger, had advanced to Sequence 7. Then it looks like I misremembered Alger's Sequence at the start... Nimrod thought silently, without voicing it.
None of the Tarot Club's members noticed that two people were watching them from above their heads. They continued the meeting as usual, and had now reached the stage of asking about Roselle's Diary:
"...Very good."
Upon hearing that there were three pages of the diary, Master Zhou smiled inwardly with delight, deliberately maintaining a guarded demeanor in front of the Spectator.
"Roselle Gustav." While Klein was reading Roselle's Diary, the Celestial Worthy beside Nimrod suddenly spoke:
"His original name was Huang Tao. A sales professional, unmarried, and a graduate of some obscure second-tier university."
Nimrod glanced sideways at the Celestial Worthy without interrupting his explanation:
"I chose him because of his innate arrogance and cruelty... heh, however much kindness he showed his loved ones, he would show his enemies just as much cruelty. From what I could vaguely perceive, if being the Son of Steam was a gift bestowed upon him by his Beyonder characteristics, then the emperor's cruelty and cold-bloodedness were talents he was born with."
The Celestial Worthy could not help shaking his head, sounding somewhat regretful:
"Heh, an arrogant emperor who thought of the entire world as a game. If he had chosen one of my three Pathways, I would have resurrected before God Almighty long ago."
Listening to the Celestial Worthy's rather snide assessment, Nimrod said to him:
"I wouldn't judge Huang Tao in such extreme terms."
"Considering the evil he committed in his early years, I'm not particularly fond of this emperor. Given his nationality, actively promoting colonization was far too ironic, and his ending was dramatic enough."
"But I don't particularly hate him either, because the other gods in this world are more or less the same. In this world, 'God loves humanity' is nothing but a laughable lie (note 1). Compared with the other gods, Huang Tao was already relatively human."
Hearing Nimrod's words, the Celestial Worthy merely gave a light shrug:
"You're right, my dear compatriot. After all, our Creator was insane and twisted. How could you expect beings who inherited part of the Creator to be kind and benevolent?"
"However..."
The Celestial Worthy narrowed his eyes and began tempting him again:
"Your world seems full of order, and you've preserved your humanity very well. My compatriot, if you cannot stand what you see here, perhaps you could consider working with me. I can guarantee it on my authority: as long as we can transcend our original standing, you can make our entire world orderly, and I wouldn't mind becoming the most benevolent god-instincts can be changed. Would you like to try?"
This time, Nimrod completely ignored the Celestial Worthy's enticement. He simply turned his head in silence, fixing his gaze on the deliberately enlarged pages.
He had to admit.
...Huang Tao's handwriting was downright hideous.
These three diary pages described Huang Tao's experiences at sea, his mastery of the Savant potion, and his discovery of the Acting Method. Klein also began answering Audrey's questions about acting, mentioning that he wanted information about the Antigonus Family as payment.
Alger then began talking about the Antigonus Family Notebook:
"The Antigonus Family is an ancient family with a very long history. If we trace it back, it even reaches the Cataclysm Epoch before the Fourth Epoch, and has ties to the second Blasphemy Slate."
"The Cataclysm Epoch..." Hearing the term, Nimrod recalled the history he knew:
After the Original Creator awoke came the chaotic First Epoch, the Chaos Epoch. After that came the Dark Epoch, an age of utter darkness that had lost the sun represented by Primordial God Almighty, while the barrier prevented the Supernova Dominator's light from reaching the surface.
Then, the Ancient Sun God ended the darkness, but ultimately fell. This was the Cataclysm Epoch, when the gods emerged and the Ancient Sun God perished.
Afterward, during the Age of the Gods, gods walked the earth, unleashing one catastrophe after another. In the Fifth Epoch, the Black Iron Age, the gods no longer appeared, while the Beyonders released once again by Sefirah Castle began walking the earth.
Just as Alger mentioned the Blasphemy Slate, Nimrod heard the Celestial Worthy give a long "tsk."
"What's wrong?" Nimrod casually asked his dear Worthy.
"Hearing anything related to God Almighty annoys me," the Celestial Worthy said expressionlessly. "If you can, give the Blasphemy Slate a couple of stomps for me."
After saying that, the Celestial Worthy added:
"The first one, that is. I find the second God Almighty rather more agreeable. I hope he wins his resurrection match soon."
Before you continue