After leaving the Sefirah Castle, Edward activated the Traveler's Door and returned to the deserted island where Lilith and the others were staying.
Before offering the Sea God's Sceptre to Mr. Fool, he had already used the artifact—while posing as the Sea God—to announce his "return" to the believers in the Rorsted Archipelago. He had also notified several core members of the resistance—or rather, the Sea God Church—that he intended to begin "teaching" the faithful.
Naturally, relying solely on the Sea God's Sceptre, Edward couldn't possibly deliver online lectures to hundreds of thousands of believers all at once. So, he had devised two plans:
First, he would teach the core members directly, allowing them to relay the knowledge to the others—an approach that might even assist with potion digestion. If that didn't work, he'd limit the number of attendees per lecture and assume the identity of a Blessed of the Sea God to hold in-person teachings for the islanders.
As for the content of these lessons, they would focus primarily on scientific knowledge, sprinkled with a bit of mystical theory. Most of the native inhabitants of the Rorsted Archipelago were illiterate and far behind the mainland in terms of scientific understanding. Given their massive population, even the simplest, most practical scientific teachings could bring Edward enormous benefits.
When he returned to the island, Lilith was sitting on the beach with her chin in her hands, staring blankly at the sea as it reflected the starlight. Phoenix lay curled beside her, its wide, pitch-black eyes fixed on some unknown thought.
Danitz was already awake, though his face was clouded with worry.
Just to be safe, Edward performed another divination and confirmed that Danitz was indeed unharmed and in no immediate danger.
Lilith was the first to notice his return. She sprang to her feet and ran toward him at full speed. "Edward, you were gone for so long!"
"What do you mean? It was barely fifteen minutes," Edward replied, then turned to Phoenix. "Thanks, Phoenix. Could you do me a favour and deliver this letter to Klein?"
The letter explained Edward's plan to impersonate the Sea God using the sceptre and to educate the believers of the Rorsted Archipelago. It also included a request that, if Klein received Mr. Fool's blessing to use the sceptre, he must be careful not to blow his cover.
Phoenix nodded and vanished.
Lilith tilted her head upward and pouted, "It was a long time. Miss Lilith was counting in her head the whole time. She got to several thousand!"
Edward immediately praised her, "Wow, you can count to several thousand already? That's amazing! When I was your age, I couldn't even make it to a hundred."
She beamed with delight. If she had a tail, it would've been wagging like mad. "Yup! Miss Lilith is super smart!"
"Yes, yes, she is," Edward said, ruffling her soft hair. He then turned to Danitz. "Still brooding about the meaning of life?"
Danitz forced a bitter smile. "No. I'm wondering how much of it I have left."
Edward's expression darkened. "What do you mean by that?"
Danitz raised his left hand, now covered in scales the colour of blue-green serpentine. "This arm of mine…"
"Is it contaminated? I divined that already—your luck is unusually good. It won't threaten your life, and there should be a way to cure it. Worst-case scenario…you can always amputate."
Danitz shook his head. "No, it's not just contamination."
"Oh?"
He spoke solemnly, "When a Beyonder dies, their Beyonder characteristic will separate from the body. If it's left unattended for too long, it can merge with nearby objects, turning them into mystical items—sealed artifacts."
"…Are you being possessed by Edwina now?"
"No. What I mean is—my left arm is the object that merged with the Beyonder characteristic." He clenched his fist, and a faint flicker of lightning danced across it. "So now…my left arm is a mystical item."
Edward stood frozen. "What?"
That's even possible?
But he quickly worked through the logic. Why not?
Most people contaminated by a Beyonder characteristic either lost control and became monsters, dropped dead on the spot, or were transformed into a Beyonder of that path. In Danitz's case—already a Beyonder of another path—he would, under normal circumstances, at best go mad.
But maybe…maybe he had been fortunate enough that the characteristic treated his left arm as an independent object and fused with it, turning it into a sealed artifact?
That probability is absurdly low…
Unless…Kalvetua's luck, when it was controlling Danitz, somehow transferred onto him?
"That's not necessarily a bad thing, is it?"
Danitz sighed. "In the short term, maybe not. But the longer I use it, the more the power inside will inevitably start to seep into the rest of my body. When that happens, I'll either die…or become a monster because of the conflict between two distinct Beyonder paths."
Edward's expression grew serious. "Is there still time to amputate your left arm?"
"I don't know."
"This is beyond me…" Edward muttered, thinking hard. "You'll need a specialist for this."
"Who?"
"I'm still figuring that out…See, from the perspective of sealed artifacts, you'd need someone from the Savant Pathway. But from the biological angle, it'd have to be someone from the Apothecary path."
Danitz blinked. "Apothecary path? You mean Emlyn?"
"Exactly."
At that, Edward smacked his own forehead. "Ah, right—where did you stash Emlyn's treasures? He's helped me out several times recently, and I promised I'd retrieve them for him."
Danitz pouted. "I just threw them into that clutter pile in his basement. I thought he'd have found them by now."
"…"
So Emlyn hadn't even looked seriously?
He really had abandoned the old flame for a new love, huh?
Tch. Scumbag!
After mentally disparaging the vampire, Edward asked, "So what do you plan to do next? Do you want me to introduce you to someone from either of those paths?"
"I…want to go back to the Golden Dream first. To see the captain…and the rest of the crew."
You really didn't need to say that last part out loud…
Edward raised an eyebrow. Then, as if remembering something, he reached into his leather pouch and pulled out a folded letter. "Oh, right. This dropped from you earlier."
"???"
Danitz froze, quickly fumbling at his chest. His face turned bright red as panic crept into his voice. "You…you didn't open it, did you?"
"Take a guess."
"…"
He forced himself to act calm. "So what if you did? I was sure I was going to die at the time, so I just wrote a farewell letter."
"Ah, yes, yes, of course."
"At most…it just contained some words of respect for the captain."
"Ah, yes, yes, of course."
"And…and maybe some well wishes."
"Ah, yes, yes, of course."
Danitz erupted, "Can't you say anything else?!"
Edward frowned and turned to look at him coldly. "What did you just say?"
Danitz immediately straightened up and became painfully well-behaved. "I…uh, slip of tongue. Please pretend you didn't hear that." Crap! I almost forgot—this man in front of me is the notoriously unpredictable and moody Gehrman Sparrow!
I'm dead. I'm so dead.
But just you wait…once I fully digest my Conspirer potion and advance to Sequence 5…hmph, I won't have to be this scared of you anymore!
Considering the Golden Dream was far too distant, Edward summoned Phoenix once again and entrusted it with escorting Danitz back to the ship.
Before letting him go, Edward also handed him a portkey capable of teleporting to Backlund. "Once you've seen Edwina, head to Backlund on your own and find Emlyn."
"Whew—" Edward exhaled. "What a long night…"
He turned to Lilith. "Hungry?"
"Starving!"
Edward pulled out a portable tent. "Come on, let's cook."
"What are we eating?"
"Grilled fish-monster meat. Same kind we had on the White Agate. I bought the leftovers and kept them frozen."
"Yay!"
———
Aboard the Unnamed.
Klein finished a few slices of toasted bread, calling it a night's dinner.
It had been almost an hour since Aldrich took the women ashore by rowboat. Now, on the entire massive passenger ship, only Klein and three or four sailors remained—those responsible for piloting and maintaining the vessel.
Bored, Klein ascended once more above the grey fog. After summoning himself, he took on the Black Emperor's form through the Card of Blasphemy and tested the Sea God's Sceptre out at a distance.
Overall, he was quite satisfied. But without the buffering effect of the grey fog, the ceaseless tide of overlapping prayers began to wear on him again—unbearably so.
Even Klein, with his strengthened spiritual body enhanced by the Card of Blasphemy and the Copper Whistle, could barely tolerate it. Ordinary Beyonders of the same sequence would probably go mad within minutes.
After finishing his test of the Sea God's Sceptre, Klein unsummoned himself and returned to the grey fog. He began contemplating how best to use it for playing the role of a Faceless.
Just days ago, Edward had said something about how, if ever given the chance, he'd like to impersonate an emperor, a pope, or even a god. And now, quite unexpectedly, it was Klein who was about to impersonate…a god.
Though Klein was already very experienced at "pretending to be a god," there was a big difference between performing in the closed circle of the Tarot Club and facing an audience of hundreds of thousands.
"So…I need to thoroughly understand the Church of the Sea God first—its dogma, doctrine, objectives, and current situation. But to gather that kind of information, I'll have to go to the Rorsted Archipelago myself and interact with the locals."
"Until then, I should tread carefully."
With that thought, Klein extended his spirituality to touch the starlight clustering around the sceptre. At once, a vivid scene unfolded before his eyes, and the murmuring hum of countless prayers became real.
A thin, sallow-faced woman in plain clothes knelt before a shattered idol, whispering, "Great Sea God…please, grant me a bit of food…"
She looked frail and utterly sickly. Yet the wish she offered was heartbreakingly simple.
How could any god possibly respond to a prayer like that? Klein thought to himself. Especially considering what Edward said—that the original Sea God was just a mad beast.
He continued tapping into other points of starlight. Most of the believers were asking for peace and protection. Some, likely clergy, were requesting guidance. A few were like the first woman—begging simply for food.
Klein curled his lip and muttered, "If it were that easy to get food from a god… then divine blessings would really be cheap."
———
Somewhere in the Rorsted Archipelago.
In a dilapidated hut, the same frail woman finished her daily prayer and slowly rose to her feet to go search for food again.
She knew, deep down, that such prayers were futile. But it was the only thing she could still do.
Whoosh—
A gust of wind suddenly swept through the room, stirring the dust and forcing her to shield her eyes. When the wind died down, she opened them again…and froze.
In front of the broken idol now lay several long loaves of bread.
Stunned, she fell to her knees once more, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Thank you… Thank you for your gift. Praise be to you, Sea God."
And scenes just like this one occurred simultaneously across the Rorsted Archipelago.
Back above the grey fog, Klein set down the Sea God's Sceptre and grumbled under his breath:
"Tch. That food came from the great Mr. Fool, okay?"
———
[Note]: Don't forget to VOTE. It keeps me motivated.