Coming here probably meant she'd taken my advice from yesterday, then — going to ask the Earth Mother Goddess about things?
As everyone knew, the Goddess of the Evernight and the War God were mortal enemies, and the Earth Mother Goddess was the War God's own "mother" — so for the Evernight Goddess's daughter to go asking questions at the Earth Mother Goddess's own divine kingdom in the starry realm, or at the Earth Mother Goddess's church headquarters in the Kingdom of Fenport, would have been more than a little awkward.
Which made this Harvest Church here in Backlund the obvious choice.
Just no telling whether Lilith would actually respond to her "old best friend's" daughter, or how much she'd be willing to tell her.
"Let's go."
Vincent suddenly turned and walked off.
"Hm? What exactly was the point of going out of your way to come here? Don't tell me you knew you'd run into your daughter."
"I'm not that capable."
Honestly, it had just been a spur-of-the-moment idea — swinging by to check on Emlyn while he was at it. No telling whether the man would still get a shot at joining the Tarot Club down the line.
...
Lasha Island, Emerald City.
After leaving the Harvest Church, Vincent slipped into the "Ambitionist" state and used the Spirit World to travel to Bernadette's floating palace out at sea.
Advancing to a Sequence 4 demigod was a serious matter — it needed somewhere sufficiently secure to complete.
"I'm heading to the Nation of Disorder."
"All right. Good luck."
The next instant, Vincent found himself already seated on the stone chair within the Nation of Disorder's palace. "Hoping for a few surprises out of this advancement!"
He raised a hand, letting spirituality spread toward the ancient, unadorned scale, gently brushing against the gray crystal resting on the left pan.
Instantly, a faint glow seeped out from within the crystal, thin cracks spreading rapidly across its surface, accompanied by a series of sharp, glass-like snapping sounds.
A few seconds later, the gray crystal shattered with a loud crack, dissolving into a streak of gray light that spun once through the air before accelerating suddenly, pouring straight into Vincent's body.
He immediately felt his body grow heavy, as if some invisible boulder had settled across his back, pressing down on him, forcing him to bend forward bit by bit.
But Vincent knew perfectly well there was nothing actually there — this was a weight bearing down on his mind, on his consciousness itself, pressuring him to give up resisting, to simply lie down and accept it.
He had no idea what would happen if he gave in — but common sense alone told him it wouldn't be anything good. So Vincent gritted his teeth, straining every muscle in his body, fighting back against that crushing weight on his back.
Faintly, he could hear the bones within his own body creaking, cracking under the pressure.
He didn't care. There was only one thought left in his mind: I already fought off four Sequence 1s single-handedly, and put a Sequence 2 on death's door in the process. This measly bit of weight is nothing.
I'm the guy who's going to go back in time, punch out an Old God, hook up with the Goddess of the Evernight, and get her to have my kid — you think a little pressure like this is going to scare me off?
I'm the kind of "cheat-code guy" who can connect to entirely other worlds, trade back and forth with them, pull off things not even the "First One" could manage. Advancing to a measly Sequence 4 should be a walk in the park.
As Vincent repeated these thoughts over and over in his mind, the pressure crushing down on his back slowly, gradually began to lift, his spine straightening bit by bit as it did.
Then, at some point, he found himself leaning back against the chair once more, breathing hard, that crushing weight fully dissipated.
"Is that... done?"
The instant the thought crossed his mind, Vincent felt his own consciousness suddenly rise, as if he'd been lifted high into the sky, looking down over the ancient palace below, with the lapis-gold Thirty-Three Heavens visible in the distance.
In a daze, the palace, the platform, and the Thirty-Three Heavens gradually faded, turning insubstantial, replaced by countless blurry human silhouettes drifting endlessly below.
A few seconds later, Vincent realized each of these figures carried at least one "charge" against them — and he was, at once, the observer, the prosecutor, the executioner, and — most of all — the overseer.
Every one of their lives rested entirely in his hands.
A single thought was all it would take to decide their fate.
And any of them, no matter who — should they show even the slightest disrespect or dissatisfaction toward him — would inevitably face punishment; any attack against him would automatically rebound onto the attacker.
This was Sequence 4 of the Broker Pathway: the "Overseer."
Before long, Vincent felt his elevated consciousness sinking rapidly back down, returning to his own soul. Throughout the process, he watched the ancient palace grow taller, larger, more magnificent; watched the vast platform extend outward with a stone path leading into the distance; watched the chaotic architecture of the Thirty-Three Heavens show faint signs of being restored, of order gradually returning.
Until, finally, he felt himself settle back onto the stone chair.
He glanced around quickly — everything seemed unchanged, and yet somehow, everything felt different too.
Just as he was about to look closer, his vision suddenly shifted, his consciousness lifting again — and he saw himself, seated on the stone chair, saw the carved railings and painted beams surrounding him — wait! This felt like... the scale's own point of view?
The thought struck him, and his perspective snapped back to his own. He quickly looked toward the ancient scale, but found nothing different from before.
Except, with another thought, he switched back to the scale's perspective once more.
Have I merged with the scale, in some sense?
But what use would that actually be?
The only thing Vincent could confirm was that his connection to the scale had genuinely deepened — to the point where it almost felt like he and it existed within each other now.
Though that seemed limited to within the Nation of Disorder itself?
"Huh?"
Switching back and forth a few more times, Vincent suddenly noticed that the ring of broken stone chairs surrounding the scale had all been fully repaired.
Worth noting — previously, whenever he'd advanced and gained access to "Black Box," the chairs would only appear restored while "Black Box" was active, reverting back to their broken state the moment it ended.
Vincent stood up, walking a full circle around each chair, knocking on them, running his hands over them, channeling spirituality into them — still, nothing happened.
"So it's really just... fixing my chairs for me?"
That couldn't be it.
He was confident it couldn't possibly be this simple.
He only had one backside to sit with — why would he need an entire ring of a dozen-plus chairs, unless he was expected to rotate through them for fun each day?
Circling back to the first chair, Vincent leaned against its back, resting his chin on a hand, thinking. "Could it be... that the Nation of Disorder is now capable of inviting other people up here for a gathering?"
At the thought, he immediately used the ancient scale to locate Vivienne, channeling spirituality, attempting to issue a command pulling her into the Nation of Disorder.
Didn't work!
He switched targets: Xio.
Still didn't work.
Then Audrey. Also no luck.
Finally, he tried Bernadette herself... nothing.
"Guessed wrong, then."
Vincent sat back down, scratching his head, thinking it over for a long while. "Maybe... I'll need to advance further — Sequence 3, Sequence 2, even Sequence 1 — to further restore this place before I can bring people up here?"
But by then, what would even be the point of inviting people up?
Just gathering a crowd to show off?
That sounded incredibly boring.
After a while, Vincent shook his head and sighed, setting the question aside for now. "Let's first see what I actually got out of advancing to 'Overseer.'"
To be continued…
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