Two days before the start of the Training Camp,
HQ — The Apostles of Mr. Fool
In the Conference Hall, Luke sat at the head chair, holding a blurry letter in his hands.
Nyx, perched on his shoulder, was eyeing it as well.
Just moments ago, Miss Justice had informed him that Miss Magician had replied to all three letters he had sent to her. So, after hurriedly arranging a bestowal ritual, Luke had prayed to Mr. Fool, receiving this letter.
Luke had already tested that he could sacrifice physical objects to Mr. Fool, letting his fellow Tarot Club members receive them on the other end. However, for some baffling reason, it wasn't a two-way route, as he still couldn't receive physical objects from the Gray Castle.
The blurry letter in Luke's hands was bound to disappear as well.
Unfortunately… it wasn't disappearing as fast as he now wanted it to be.
Miss Magician had worded the letter with impeccable meticulousness, beginning with how receiving back-to-back letters from Mr. Devil had confused and alarmed her.
From this very sentence, Luke could tell that even though he had sent the letters with a considerable gap of days between them, Miss Magician seemed to have received them within a period of 24 hours. Not only that, but the gap between her receiving these letters also didn't equate to the time gap between sending them.
This very mystery baffled Luke the most.
If it weren't for the grave content this letter carried further, he would have spent some time decrypting it as well.
Calling the rest of the letter 'grave content' was an understatement, though.
Every piece of information was like a hammer, nailing a spike in Luke's consciousness.
Miss Magician had mentioned that they had convened an urgent meeting in the Gray Castle and had decided to let him know some crucial details. However, the way she had phrased the letter, it felt more like a warning to him… a warning full of pity.
From the history surrounding the ancestor of some Abraham family in Mr. Fool's world, who went by the name of Mr. Door, to His relation with the mad ravings regarding the Apprentice Pathway, especially during the full moons.
From Mr. Door being a King of Angels to His death… to His fate of being consumed by Amon, who went on to become Error — a God!
The letter mentioned it all.
These striking revelations were enough to make Luke relive the horrifying moments related to the strange door he had seen in his vision. However, he also noticed that he had not experienced another such episode during the full moon after becoming an Astrologer.
This should have calmed Luke down, hoping that Miss Magician was only relating his vision to the original events of Mr. Fool's world.
Even if the ingredients weren't from His world, the corruption still came directly from Him.
So, perhaps, because of the accumulated corruption of five potions of three different pathways, Luke might have accidentally tapped deeper into the lingering memories that this corruption carried.
The vision itself hadn't suggested anything that could relate it to his planet, either.
Luke hadn't taken more than a few seconds to come to this conclusion, decrypting it from the letter's content and his mysticism knowledge.
However, as said, the conclusion itself had failed to calm him down.
And it was all because of information shared by Miss Magician after the history lesson — telling him about a Beyonder Law that the Tarot Club members had skipped last time, finding it irrelevant.
Not only the members, but even the System had skipped it, because it had absolutely no applicability in Luke's home world.
The Law of Beyonder Characteristics Convergence!
High-Sequence Beyonders of the same pathway or group could intermittently and unconsciously draw Low- and Mid-Sequence Beyonders toward them.
Just like when one boarded a train, one might suddenly feel that the scenery along the way was beautiful and would get off the train in advance, resulting in one entering the small city. This might be because there were Beyonders of neighboring pathways around.
In a way, the Law of Beyonder Characteristics Convergence directly influenced fate.
Under this, Miss Magician finally pointed out Luke's error in Divination through the Crystal Ball, resulting in him seeing a man with glasses.
Coupled with the matter of The Boundary getting breached, all the Tarot Club members had strongly concluded that…
… Amon, the God of Mischief, and Mr. Fool's greatest adversary, had somehow infiltrated Luke's home world.
A chill had run down Luke's spine, making his fingers shake.
It was not only because of the unsettling conclusion, but also because of the warning Miss Magician had written as advice from the Tarot Club's experienced members.
The warning was — to postpone becoming a Cryptologist as long as he could, at least until he could get a response from Mr. Fool regarding this.
Suddenly, the letter lingering between Luke's fingers vanished.
Brokenly, he and Nyx looked at each other, Miss Justice's sigh, full of irony, echoing in their heads.
Because, just moments before receiving Miss Justice's letter moments ago… Luke had already become a Cryptologist.
"… I don't think Singularity keeps talking about fate for no reason…" Nyx cawed, lacking any humor for once. "… We are fucked…"
Luke's mouth flattened into a thin line. "… Now that I think about it," he said, decrypting, "… my decision to go after Dr. Samuel, right after Mr. Iwao and Miss Kazuho's recent advancement, was already… flawed. Everything had gone wrong right after that moment…"
Nyx's red pupils widened, Miss Justice gasping in Luke's mind.
"… Oi," the Clown cawed. "Are you saying that… this… Amon was near the Detention Center?"
Luke tapped his fingers on the table, his eyes shifting left and right as he decrypted.
Then, taking a deep breath, he put his fingers on his temples and massaged them in helplessness. "… It's possible that… if Amon's really on Earth… if He was really somewhere near when we were at LA, then… our missing Dr. Sam is with Him…"
Suddenly, like a jump scare from a horror movie, Luke's mobile rang.
Even Nyx almost flew away, as she was just too absorbed in Luke's chilling guess. "Is it that horny rabbit again?!" she cursed. "I swear I am gonna…"
Rabbit Hero Mirko had been calling Luke ever since the end of U.A.'s second term.
Luke never picked up her call, though, knowing she just wanted a durable punching bag.
Frowning and thinking almost the same as Nyx, he took out the mobile and found an unknown number.
Luke's frown deepened as he picked up the call. "Hello?"
"PRAISE BE TO MR. FOOL — PRAISE BE TO MR. FOOL — PRAISE BE TO…"
Crack—Hissssssssss!
Luke crushed the mobile and threw it away, his face paling—losing all blood to fear.
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