The High Priest laughed.
"Heh."
"Heh."
"Heh."
One High Priest was reading a book, turning the pages from time to time; another held a cigar, exhaling smoke; a third was reading the latest intelligence delivered to him and briefing the others.
"It seems I underestimated that man's strength and overestimated the Divine Temple's."
"Some of the old things in the Divine Temple probably haven't woken up."
"If a nap and a roll over could solve the problem, just see whether they'd wake up. Fundamentally, they still think they can't solve it without fully awakening... or perhaps they couldn't solve it even if they did."
"Besides that, a real deity appeared on Mink Street. Not a phantom doppelganger, not a spiritual imprint. I truly never expected the first returning god to be Him."
"No, whether he counts as a returning god is still uncertain. Our Lord's barrier hasn't collapsed yet. The first returning gods can only be the two Gods of Life about to descend in that Black Sea region of the Garden of Life, along with our church's Ogurev. Of course, if any deities survive their mutual slaughter, they might return with them."
"So how did this one get out? Was He hiding all along, waiting for His moment?"
"When it comes to hiding, the Cavern Order God Church's chief god-the God of the Cavern-should be the one truly in hiding. I've long suspected that He foresaw this present epoch without gods an epoch in advance and prepared to hide Himself long ago."
"Yes, and considering the good relationship the Cavern branch gods had with our Lord back then, it's hard not to suspect they acted on the God of the Cavern's instructions. Even gods accommodate one another and compromise."
"Then what about this one? If He wasn't hiding, how