Medici clicked his tongue again, glancing at Alaric with irritation. "What kind of student are you raising?"
"I taught him just fine! Besides, what teacher would drill a Sequence 7 on knowledge about the Creator's fall?" Alaric shot back, then turned to Klein to explain. "Here's the deal: City of Silver's Creator did fall, but he came back... sort of. The revival didn't go well, and he split into two halves."
At those words, Klein froze. So did Medici.
Wait, why was Medici stunned too?
Klein caught Medici's odd reaction and gave him a puzzled look.
Alaric blinked and continued, "One half inherited his humanity and the authority of corruption, so it went mad. The other half inherited his divinity, becoming an utterly rational entity."
He looked up at Klein. "You've actually already indirectly encountered the human half of the Creator."
"How could I... " Klein started, then his eyes widened in shock. "No way, you mean the True Creator?"
The True Creator's honorific name... "The Lord that creates everything; The Lord who Reigns Behind the Curtain of Shadows,; The Degenerate Nature of all Living Things"... fit Alaric's description almost perfectly.
And crucially, Klein hadn't encountered many Sequence 0s since transmigrating. The Creator couldn't be the Evernight Goddess, so it had to be the True Creator.
"Correct!" Alaric clapped like an excited seal.
"Stop messing around! How's that possible? The True Creator's an evil god!" Klein's mind was a mess, unable to reconcile the City of Silver Creator, who liberated humanity and slew ancient gods, with the evil True Creator.
The gap was too vast!
"That's why I said the True Creator went mad!" Alaric sighed. "He used to be a good god, but he lost his mind, and that's why he's like this now."
Klein opened his mouth, a lingering sense of chaos in his heart. Then another thought struck him. "But didn't you say Mr. Medici's faction is pushing for reform? Would a mad True Creator really do that?"
"A plain lunatic wouldn't, but what if he regained his sanity?" Alaric countered. This wasn't baseless... each time the Ancient Sun God was summoned, the True Creator seemed less deranged, almost lucid, likely due to something the Ancient Sun God did.
Alaric was happy to see it. A sane True Creator was far easier to deal with than a mad one.
Klein fell silent. If the True Creator's misdeeds stemmed from madness, it made sense that he'd try to make amends after regaining clarity.
"Of course, I know you've got a bias against the True Creator. He did cause a lot of harm while he was out of his mind, so it's normal not to like him." Alaric said. "But that's got nothing to do with Red. He's only recently been revived and didn't partake in the True Creator's misdeeds, so you don't need to feel uneasy about him."
This was the truth. Though the True Creator went mad long ago, back in the Solomon Empire, he had enough anchors as an official god and didn't cause much trouble.
His misdeeds mostly happened in the Fifth Epoch.
"I don't have any issues with Mr. Red." Klein said, shaking his head. The information was overwhelming, and he instinctively asked, "What's this about revival?"
"You remember me mentioning the Blood Emperor, right? Red died by his hand... cooked into a stew, actually. It wasn't until a month ago when Lucifer found him that he was brought back." Alaric explained.
A spark lit in Klein's mind. "Is the True Creator's recovery tied to Lucifer too?"
"Yup!" Alaric nodded, confirming.
Klein pieced it together. The True Creator had been lost to madness, becoming an evil god, until Lucifer did something to restore his sanity, revive his War Angel Medici, and strike a deal with them.
The deal's details were unclear, but part of it likely involved reform.
"This is…" Klein's emotions were complex. As a former Nighthawk, he was wary of an evil god like the True Creator, especially after nearly dying to his spawn.
But he couldn't ignore the City of Silver Creator's achievements, the fact of the True Creator's madness, or that he was now seeking reform after regaining sanity.
It left Klein unsure how to feel about the True Creator, only able to sigh at the whims of fate.
As for Medici, Klein had no strong feelings. After days of living together, he could tell Medici wasn't a bad person, and since Jack said he'd only just been revived, the True Creator's sins couldn't be pinned on him.
"Done talking?" Medici's voice cut in, his red eyes fixed on Alaric with unprecedented sharpness. "Little lunatic, care to explain what you meant by 'the other half inherited his divinity, becoming an utterly rational entity'?"
Huh? Mr. Red didn't know about this?
Klein blinked, surprised by the turn of events.
Alaric leisurely finished his apple, poured himself a cup of coffee, and took a sip before saying, "I thought you'd already figured it out."
He looked up at Medici. "You were once the greatest conspirator, after all."
"Hahahaha!" Medici let out a cold laugh at the "compliment." not aimed at Alaric but dripping with self-mockery.
He'd figured it out. If he hadn't thought that way with limited information before, now, knowing the Creator split in two and recalling the conversations between the Ancient Sun God and Adam, what was there not to understand?
He just found it bitterly ironic.
The Lord he'd followed and revered had betrayed and abandoned him!
"Not entirely." Alaric said, his voice low. "At least Adam didn't mean to abandon you. He's genuinely trying to make up for it. As for the True Creator… he probably tried to save you but failed."
***
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