This place was the Holy Mountain, the Divine Kingdom. Only the most devout believers, those most valued by the Lord, were qualified to appear here!
Mr. A's body trembled violently. His legs naturally slid down as he knelt, suspended in midair above the black ocean.
His eyes were bloodshot, his body shaking uncontrollably as he repeatedly kowtowed heavily toward the inverted figure on the Holy Mountain.
This was the Holy Mountain recorded in the scriptures, hanging alone in the vast sea at a great distance.
Aside from the Angel of Fate Oroboros, beloved by the Lord and able to remain by His side, very few believers were ever able to see this Holy Mountain. This was the Lord's Divine Kingdom!
"O Lord, creator of all things, Lord, Father of all living beings…" Mr. A muttered in a near-mad delirium.
After an unknown amount of time, Mr. A gradually regained his rationality. He raised his head to gaze up at the Lord's Divine Kingdom, still kneeling where he was.
The black ocean began to surge. From within the curtain of shadow in the night sky, the Lord's gaze descended.
With just a single glance, Mr. A felt that everything about him, his flesh, bones, appearance, even his soul, had been seen through completely.
He was also willing to offer everything to the Lord, including his life and soul.
"Suspend the cooperation with the Primordial Witch."
A divine revelation descended into the depths of Mr. A's mind. Before he could even think it through, the world before his eyes shattered, and he had already returned to the real world.
Before him was still the Lord's statue.
"I obey only Your divine revelation." Mr. A knelt before the statue, not rising for a long time.
....
In the Hall of Stars, Hastur recalled the sensation of comprehending Mr. A completely with a single glance just now.
Under the focus of his gaze, all of Mr. A's secrets were laid bare before him. He even knew clearly that there was a mole on the right side of Mr. A's buttock.
Under the gaze of the stars, there were no secrets.
This was a line Hastur used to enjoy using to fool people, but now, he truly could accomplish it.
Those devout believers were willing to dedicate everything they had, without reservation, to the god in their hearts.
Hastur saw Mr. A's entire life, as well as the recent cooperation between the Aurora Order and the Witch Sect.
In the original story, the Great Smog Incident of Backlund would occur before the New Year.
Naturally, Hastur did not want this to happen. He wanted the New Year to pass peacefully.
So he tried issuing a divine revelation to Mr. A, telling him to terminate the cooperation with the Witch Sect.
In this way, the probability of the Great Smog Incident in Backlund occurring at the end of the year should be reduced by half.
Even if it really did happen, it would involve only the Witch Sect as a single organization, which would be easier to deal with and far less harmful.
After thinking for a while longer, Hastur shifted his gaze toward the region where Adam was located. He was very curious about how many devout believers Adam actually had.
The points of light belonging to Adam's devout believers were not many, only around ten or so, about the same number as those of the Mother Tree of Desire.
This was easy enough to understand. Believing in Adam and believing in the true Creator were two different concepts.
What he could see were only Adam's devout believers, not the believers of the Ancient Sun God.
Although, in a certain sense, the two were equivalent, they had not yet merged into one.
The Aurora Order created by the True Creator consisted almost entirely of His devout believers, but Adam was different.
The Twilight Hermit Order he created recruited people from many different fields, and not only believers could join.
Even someone like Roselle, who did not believe in any god, could join such an organization. The loyalty and faith of its members were therefore self-evident.
More than half of those who joined the Twilight Hermit Order were ambitious schemers, or else undercover traitors.
Adam had never cared about their faith, and was even completely indifferent to their little schemes.
Under such circumstances, there were very few who truly believed in Adam.
After looking over the True Creator and Adam, Hastur's gaze turned toward the Son of Chaos… pitiful, not a single devout believer.
Hastur sighed, then shifted his gaze toward the star where the Mother Tree of Desire resided.
He saw where the Abomination Suah was, and also learned of His hiding place.
It was a black tree that could blot out the sky and sun. At the very top of the tree, a small sun floated, striving to radiate its own light.
The body of the Abomination Suah had merged into the trunk of the black tree, seemingly using it to recover from the injuries he had suffered in the past.
At the outermost edge of the field of vision was a massive mountain, and beyond the mountain lay a vast ocean.
So the Abomination Suah and the indulgence-faction Beyonders were not on the landmass of the Southern Continent, but on an island on the nearby sea surface!
No wonder the Eternal Blazing Sun Church had searched the land so thoroughly yet failed to find any trace of them. From the very beginning, they had gone in the wrong direction.
Bernadette had likewise failed to find the correct location, and was still searching deep within the primeval forest.
"No wonder the Mother Tree of Desire and the Supernova Dominator are so fearless. It turns out They had already arranged a retreat for the Abomination Suah and the others."
"That small sun floating at the top of the black tree should be the Supernova Dominator's hidden trump card. Judging by its appearance, it should be continuously absorbing the power of the Eternal Blazing Sun to grow."
"This is the true reason the Eternal Blazing Sun Church has gone mad. If this is allowed to continue, the god they believe in will be replaced, and then completely fall."
Hastur pondered all of this, then turned his gaze toward the star where the Supernova Dominator was.
What surprised him was that the Supernova Dominator actually had a devout believer as well!
How long had He even descended into this world? And He had not actively spread His faith either, so how could there already be a devout believer?
Hastur drew closer to observe. It was a pale-faced young man, currently lying on a hospital bed resting, his hands wrapped in bandages, with an IV drip hanging beside him.
A patient? Outside the hospital bed was not a hospital, but a large courtyard. Judging from the surrounding architectural style, this should be the Intis Republic.
"Could it be that the Supernova Dominator has already begun secretly developing His faith in the Eternal Blazing Sun's homeland?"
Truly terrifying. The more Hastur thought about it, the more likely it seemed. After some time, the faith of the Supernova Dominator would probably blossom everywhere across the Intis Republic.
Because for ordinary believers of the Eternal Blazing Sun, they could not distinguish between the Eternal Blazing Sun and the Supernova Dominator.
Only people such as the Pope of the Eternal Blazing Sun Church and those favored by the gods could truly tell the difference.
After sweeping his gaze around once, Hastur turned his attention to the two newly appeared stars.
Inside one of them was an Outer God that Hastur had once seen while traveling the starry sky with the High-Dimensional Overlooker, a planet with a mouth.
Its mouth opened and closed, and the entire planet split into two halves along with it. At the very center of the mouth was a point of light.
Each time it opened its mouth, nearby meteorites or clouds of gas would be swallowed into it.
Primordial Hunger?
Hastur had some guesses, but could not be certain. The only information this big-mouthed planet revealed was that it occasionally ate things.
When Hastur kept his gaze fixed on it, the big-mouthed planet suddenly closed its mouth, disguising itself as an ordinary planet.
From the outside, this planet, with its blue and yellow rings, did not look much different from other planets in the surrounding region.
This scene was somewhat like a Venus flytrap, ordinarily it looks just like an ordinary flower, but once suitable prey approaches, it immediately opens its mouth and swallows the prey whole.
Hastur observed for a bit longer. Seeing that it showed no further reaction and continued to disguise itself as a planet with no signs of life, he shifted his gaze to the other star.
That was a gigantic yellow ring suspended deep within the entire starry sky, hollow in the middle.
The planets beside it were insignificant existences in comparison.
The huge ring was continuously in motion, with no physical substance, flowing like mist, draining away from one end and gathering again at the other.
It formed a closed loop by itself, a closed loop of fate.
The Ring of Fate!
With just a single glance, Hastur could identify its identity.
This feature was far too distinctive. Other than the Ring of Fate, there was no other possibility.
It had to be said that the Ring of Fate's appearance was truly beautiful, possessing the grandeur and magnificence of a cosmic wonder.
As Hastur kept watching, the yellow mist flowing around the Ring of Fate seemed to complete a full cycle in an instant, accelerating briefly.
Was it using fate to peer into his existence? Hastur did not feel afraid because of this. If the Ring of Fate could find him, then there was no reason for the Mother Goddess of Depravity to be able to do nothing but stare helplessly.
After completing a cycle, the Ring of Fate seemed unable to perceive him through fate. But it did not panic at all, continuing to flow in an orderly manner according to its original rhythm.
A self-contained loop, repeating endlessly.
Hastur thought of Will and Oroboros, those two Snakes of Mercury from the Wheel of Fortune pathway. When they used their abilities, they often bit their own tails, forming a circular loop with their bodies.
Forming a closed loop of fate, was this the defining characteristic of the Fate pathway?
But it seemed a bit different. If Will were to consume the Uniqueness, become a true god at the correct time, and then fuse with the Key of Light, that portion of Sefirot, becoming an Above The Sequence of the Fate pathway, his final form should be different from the Ring of Fate.
Because the Key of Light, that portion of Sefirot, did not originate from the Ring of Fate, but was instead a portion of Sefirot adjacent to it.
This should be the reason the Ring of Fate was peering into the real world, it wanted to devour and merge with the Key of Light.
For this reason alone, Hastur temporarily excluded it from the gathering of the stars. He did not want to bring a major enemy from an adjacent pathway to Will.
If necessary, that big-mouthed planet capable of simple disguise was a very good choice.
After seeing all this, Hastur felt his head grow heavy. This was a sign that his spiritual power was nearing exhaustion.
Originally, he had planned to inform Bernadette about the hiding place of the Abomination Suah, but now he could only choose to delay it.
Perhaps delaying it was indeed the better choice. If the hiding place of the Abomination Suah and the others were discovered too early, the great battle would erupt sooner.
He still wanted to spend a peaceful New Year in Backlund.