"Mysteries!" Genie uttered instinctively.
The greyish-white fog churned with an intensity that could not be matched, rolling and folding in on itself as if stirred by some unseen will. The two individuals behind Genie both froze at the exclamation, for entirely different reasons.
Mysteries… Amanises swallowed, her throat tightening. No emotion crossed her face, yet her body tensed ever so slightly, betraying the weight the word carried.
Mysteries… Grisha, on the other hand, felt "His" curiosity spike to its limit. Mysteries as in the concept of Mystery?
A flash of cryptic symbols lit up behind "His" eyes.
Fooling, History, Shapeshifter, Miracles, Destiny. Errors, Time, Theft, Fate-stealing, Deceit. And Door—Space, Worlds, Replication, Travel.
All of these authorities, belonging to the three neighbouring pathways, bore an uncanny similarity. They complemented one another, overlapping at their edges, weaving into a single conceptual web. When combined, they no longer felt fragmented. They formed something whole.
A concrete symbolism… Is that symbolism Mysteries?
I had previously concluded that the authority of the Tower pathway, when combined with that of the Dragon pathway, should give rise to Omniscience—especially when paired with the Chaos Sea.
So then… Mysteries would be the convergence of all three pathways—Door, Error, and Fool—with Sefirah Castle as their anchor.
A state beyond Sequence 0. A state Above the Sequence.
The greyish white fog parted ever so slightly, revealing the silhouette that had just stepped into the Cathedral.
A man with slick black hair, dark eyes, and a grin stretched far too wide across his face.
At once, Genie's form seized, its flickering golden figure trembling as if struck by some unseen force. The light around it flared, brightening in a literal sense. Its gaze locked onto Klein's grinning face.
The very next second, it spoke, its tone warped, carrying an unmistakably unhuman cadence. "You are not Him."
How reminiscent!
Klein couldn't help but feel as though he was watching the replay of some grand Mystery-drama.
"You don't sound so surprised."
"You resemble his skin. Nothing more. There is nothing worthy of sacrifice."
Absolute certainty in my identity, huh?
Klein raised a brow, his gaze drifting past the Genie to the two behind it—Grisha and Amanises. "Surprise aside," he spoke, fixing his eyes on Grisha, "they call me the Fool. A pleasure making your acquaintance, Son of Chaos."
The Genie's form froze.
The grey fog that enshrouded the opulent gathering place peeled back in slow layers, exposing the Astral World beyond. Out in the vastness of the Cosmos, the Mist-filled planet turned its distant gaze toward Earth. Blurred and seemingly out of reach, It still felt the tightening connection between Itself and Its scattered parts—threads drawing closer, binding more firmly than before.
Amanises, Grisha, and Klein all felt that gaze.
Almost at once, Amanises unfolded a veil of concealment around the entire Cathedral, darkness layering upon darkness. Grisha and Klein anchored the Astral barrier over the Earth with their own authrotiy, settling over reality threatening to warp it.
Even so, the Genie did not move.
Its attention remained fixed on the being wreathed in fog. A probe, huh?
Klein let his focus return to the Genie, satisfaction curling faintly at the edge of his thoughts. Chaos. Truth… there's more. He committed the fragments to memory, reviewing the symbolism glimpsed through that distant light in the cosmos. Understanding the exact powers of the Outer Deities without paying an irreversible price was always precarious. But with this conveniently weakened great existence as a reference point—coupled with Error—there was room to maneuver.
The rest is uncertain… His relaxed posture replaced his previous rigidity. The instant he used the Genie as a medium, a common misconception he had built around Him was finally overturned. The sealed main consciousness of the Son of Chaos was far from being powerless.
Then again, the initial time we met then, he was quite confident in being able to use his Sefirah as witness. Klein reviewed his past interactions with the Genie before letting his jovial mood get exposed for the latter to sense.
He's doing this on purpose.
The thought struck Grisha with an uncomfortable clarity. Klein wasn't just talking to the Genie. He was talking in front of them. As if deliberately wanting them to piece it on their own.
Grisha's gaze lingered on the Genie, but "His" mind had already moved past the surface of this exchange. That gaze from across the cosmos, the pressure, the sensation of being observed from something impossibly distant, something that did not belong to this world, nor to its structure.
The Astral Barrier around Earth…
Grisha had studied it before. Its purpose had never felt like mere protection—it was meant to keep something out. The Crimson Moon.
If this world truly was Earth, then what about the moon? Why had it turned from a stroke of white and silver to blood crimson? When "He" had just woken up, Grisha had chalked this anomaly to just a byproduct of cataclysm. But the way Moon and Mother pathway behaved, and the madness "She" had once implied in their private conversation betrayed this sentiment. The corruption originated from an external force.
If that gaze from the cosmos was what "He" thought it was, then the Son of Chaos—this Genie—was likely not a normal high-level existence either. Not a Sequence 0. Not even something that belonged cleanly to the established order.
An Above the Sequence creature. The Sefirot's combined with the authority of all neighbouring pathway to complete a symbolism. Is that it?
The words hadn't left "His" mouth, before the Genie completed his analysis. Klein was patient, thus ramping up the build up as the Genie finally spoke, "At a glance, I confirm one key detail:
You do not know the full capabilities of us Great Existences."
Klein's light smirk remained as the golden mist representing the Son of Chaos, shook. "Going into the Dark – the Void, lacking any directives. You cannot be certain you have not already fallen into the intricate web, weaved eons before your birth."
He turned around towards Grisha and Amanises, "Certainly, your authority, together with your accomplices is commendable. Yet, you can become victims all the same. Ignorance is bliss, but in this case, it is the single, most horrifying reality."
Speaking from experience? Klein supported his chin with a hand. "Is that an indirect way of stating your position?"
"Heh, how ironic," the Genie's figure blurred as he added, "There's already an imbalance between both sides." he didn't continue immediately as his form stabilised and brightened. "I have but one wish: to be freed from all my shackles."
Klein's gaze immediately narrowed at this. This was completely unexpected.
The Fog of History playing his interactions with the Genie in the future iteration blurred with the current, ongoing one. You don't want to take your things and get back to the Cosmos?
"I'll admit this isn't quite what I expected." Klein mused, his smile slowly dropping. The Genie didn't spoke for some seconds before flickering a blurry finger.
"This isn't the first time we are talking, is it?"
Klein almost felt his heart drop in an instant. Using the incredible expression control of a Clown, Klein prevented his face from contorting, wishing in his mind to not have been noticed by neither The Knight of Misfortune or God. He… was right. I truly am not aware of the extent of these Great Existence… He immediately lampooned to soften the blow and relieve the pressure in his heart. Does he know? It shouldn't be possible under his conditions but then…?
"Does it matter?" Klein had wedged his chips on Genie not taking this conversation further so as to avoid explaining things he simply didn't want to at the moment. Especially to Amanises…
The Genie wasn't bothered by "His" possible musings. "I can already sense many things. This single wish would need to be seriously distorted and re-imagined for your liking. After all, in your eyes, I am not any different from that Usurper we all oppose."
Indeed. After all, they were born great existences without a wick of humanity.
"Of course," the Genie resumed. "I know a fair bit about negotiations, so I am painfully aware of how pressing our 'advantage' would only end up backfiring."
"Thus," He waved a blurry hand. "Let me present you with an imperceptible note: It is unbelievably striking to have both the Chaos Sea and Sefirah Castle Side by Side." The Genie's figure wavered. "Unbelievable enough that it shouldn't be possible without "His" intervention. The pieces lines up too perfectly. Perhaps a bit too "reasonably" too.
A reasonable development? Both Grisha and Klein had the same thought.
"Or it could be an intervention beyond even "His" grasp. It matters naught in the end. Both of "Them" will exploit this situation in their own ways. Perhaps they already are." The tenseness in the cathedral heightened.
"Can you truly trust today's alias to not be tomorrow's enemies? This world was built on the foundations of chaos. Nothing is certain when involving "Them", not even fate. The moment any of you tip too far, and all that has been built will crumble." The Genie's hazy figure had fully turned towards Grisha, his eyes stared at the Chaos Sea that pooled under the shadow of this God.
"Ultimately…" Amanises finally spoke after having remained silent for nearly the whole conversation. She had determined the substance of such was too far beyond her reach, especially when in presence of two Sefirot-bearing Deities. "It is a matter of time. The Astral Barrier won't be dropping for anytime soon."
The genie remained silent for a moment. "More like a race against time.
"…You won't have to worry about "Their" intervention, both overt and covert, anytime soon."
"What you'll really have to worry about is the danger lurking just beneath the very flesh of your body." The golden and blurry figure suddenly begin to laugh. "But I suppose things have already gotten so out of hand due to this friend of yours." He turned towards Klein. "We'll just have to see how it goes."
With that, Genie snapped his finger revealing a bright pulse that promptly warped around Klein like the thread of contract. Genie laughed once more and receded back into his lamp, sealing Klein as the current owner of Magic Wishing Lamp.
The Cathedral went quiet with quiet his exit.
That backfired immensely… Klein almost felt like turning away. Damn it! I didn't expect the Genie to turn out so different, I thought he was going to initiate a deal to return back to cosmos but that plan didn't even crossed his mind. Klein raised a hand to his temple and rubbed them. He looked over at Amanises and Grisha, both of whom had seemingly relaxed after Genie's dismissal.
Before Klein could spoke, Grisha nudged him on the shoulder. "Sefirah Castle."
Klein blinked a few times before understanding him. "Sefirah Castle it is."