The Void. Fishbone Hall.
The colossal skull atop the Bone Throne gazed down at the small skull standing silently at its feet. Inside the giant's cavernous eye sockets, violent green flas roared.
"My, faith—when, did it, beco, Deceit's, place, to ddle?
"Does He, truly, believe, that by, stealing, My, follower, He can, steal, Death's, divine na, as well?
"Absurd!
"Ti, and again, He uses, this, faith, nonsense, to deceive, . Does He, truly, think, I fear, Void?!"
"..."
The small skull didn't dare make a sound. Its oversized eye sockets seed to want to narrow, but no amount of squeezing could change the shape of two hollow holes. All it could manage was to slightly wrinkle the edges of those cavities. After a mont of silence, it cautiously corrected the great Lord's statent.
"My Lord, forgive my presumption, but I must remind You—this is rely a ssage from Deceit. It seems to have... nothing to do with the other one on the Void path."
"How, could it, possibly, have nothing, to do, with Him?
"You, are too, naive. You have, no idea, how complex, the Void, path, truly is!
"The mont, sothing, involves, Cheng, Shi, Void, becos, two-in-one, a single, unified will.
"This, is Their, era. Void, must not, be underestimated."
"But my Lord," the small skull raised its head in confusion, "didn't You just say You weren't afraid of Them?"
The words weren't even fully out before the small skull realized its mistake. It clamped its mouth shut at once.
'Bad. My nerves, always wound so tight in this Lord's presence, slipped for just a mont. Started talking without thinking. How could I say sothing like that?!'
'It must be Deceit's influence!'
The small skull shuddered, its gaze dropping to the floor. 'My, what a lovely shade of white this bone floor is.'
The colossal skull paused as well, then regarded the small skull with a few additional threads of scrutiny in its gaze.
"Your, words, have grown, many.
"Indeed, any, life, that draws near, Him, cannot escape, Deceit's, contamination."
"That does seem to be the case!" The small skull nodded hastily, then added with careful diplomacy, "However, my Lord, based on my understanding of Deceit, if You don't agree to His... request, the subsequent harassnt will likely only..."
"He wouldn't dare!"
"My Lord, with all due respect, He may not dare to face Your divine might directly, but He is very likely to harass the others, stirring and goading Them into bothering You indirectly..."
At these words, the green flas in the colossal skull's eyes flickered.
He knew His follower spoke the truth. Deceit was absolutely capable of pulling sothing like that.
The small skull continued:
"So rather than endure even greater harassnt later, wouldn't it be better to... lend Deceit a hand with His request now? Help Him temporarily, and that way, You can enjoy Your peace."
"..."
Did the colossal skull not understand such simple logic? Of course He did. He understood all too well—and that was precisely why He couldn't swallow this indignity.
A re sliver of His fear had slipped out, and Deceit had seized upon it, leveraging it again and again, pushing further and further, doing as He pleased. And now He was ddling in faith fusions under Death's domain!
At this rate, who knew—one day Deceit might truly claim Death's divine na for Himself!
It had to be guarded against. It absolutely had to.
But then...
The colossal skull suddenly broke off its train of thought and turned a brooding gaze upon His follower. That look contained so many tangled emotions that the small skull on the receiving end—Zhang Jizu—found himself growing uneasy.
Indeed, the small skull was none other than Zhang Jizu. He had co to give his Benefactor a heads-up in advance, to prevent the Lord from being blindsided by one of Deceit's sches.
But now it seed his Benefactor was... displeased with him?
"You, have changed, greatly.
"Stay away, from, Cheng, Shi, in the future.
"You reek, of far, too much, Deceit.
"Today, you sound, more like, His, lobbyist!
"Do not, forget—you, are first, and foremost, My, follower. A Gravekeeper. Only, secondarily, are you, His..."
At this point, the colossal skull's tone turned bitter. He seed reluctant to ntion the episode of His follower being deceived and stolen away.
"...Never mind. You, are right.
"I shall, help Him, once more—consider it, repaynt, for His, not having, mistreated, you, in matters, of faith.
"But there, will not, be, a next ti!
"Absolutely, not!"
"...Praise be to the great God of Death."
Though his Benefactor's words were resolute, Zhang Jizu had a feeling there would absolutely be a next ti. After all, whether or not a "next ti" happened probably wasn't up to this Lord—it was up to his other Benefactor.
But his Benefactor's grace was profound. All he could do was give advance notice, just as he was doing now.
That said, based on the recent intelligence gleaned from Cheng Shi about the gods and his own observations of both Benefactors, Zhang Jizu couldn't shake the feeling that the Lord upon the Bone Throne didn't truly reject the Fun God. His behavior looked more like an unwillingness to publicly support the Fun God in the open.
So... had They been allied all along?
Otherwise it was hard to explain how he'd been so smoothly swindled into Deceit. What had happened to him could only an one of two things:
Either these two gods had a hidden partnership, or the Fun God's power far exceeded his Lord's—only then could He have stolen a follower right under Death's nose.
At this thought, Zhang Jizu furrowed his brow. Seizing a mont when the green flas in his Lord's eyes had dimd slightly, he ventured a question:
"My Lord, do You know of a Servant God of Void called... Yu Xi?"
Zhang Jizu had not forgotten Yu Xi. Excessive forgetting would scramble his mories. Even though Existence would logically fill in the gaps, the cautious Mi Laozhang had chosen not to entrust his mories to Existence—after all, he was half a Void follower himself.
So what he'd erased in that trial wasn't Yu Xi at all. It was the matter of Cheng Shi's dual personality.
All of his anxiety about Yu Xi had stemd from Cheng Shi's dual personality. As he'd told Cheng Shi, he feared that Cheng Shi's Deceit personality was actually a sign of Yu Xi's self-resurrection. But having already established a deep alliance with Cheng Shi, he didn't want to spend every future collaboration on tenterhooks—or worse, abandon the alliance out of caution. So Zhang Jizu had taken a bold, risky decision:
He chose to trust that Cheng Shi could manage the relationship between the Clown and Yu Xi, and then decisively erased the knowledge of Cheng Shi's dual personality.
It was a minor adjustnt to his mory. After the Rembrance Needle took effect, what had been "Yu Xi's personality lurking within" was rewritten as "Cheng Shi tracing Yu Xi's footsteps." This way, the ever-steady Zhang could maintain his composure through continued collaboration without wasting ntal energy guarding against Yu Xi.
Now that a rare opportunity presented itself, he naturally posed the question to his Benefactor.
The Lord upon the Bone Throne paused for a mont, then shook His head, His voice a deep rumble:
"Void, has never, had, a Servant God.
"Just as, Existence, has never, had one, either."
"Existence doesn't have a Servant God either?" Zhang Jizu was also taken aback. "But I recently heard that Ti has a Servant God called Shi Zhen—apparently the first hour hand that Ti personally shaped upon His descent... Could that be false?"
The green flas reignited in the colossal skull's eyes. He pondered for a mont, then shook His head once more.
"Perhaps, not false, but certainly, not true.
"Since, the Void, Era, began, Ti, has grown, ever more, mysterious. No one, knows, what He, is doing.
"I, have never, heard, of Him, creating, any, hour hand.
"Rather, what you, ntioned—Yu Xi...
"I have heard, that Deceit, once showed, extraordinary, favor, toward, a certain, follower. But that, follower, appears to have, perished, in the very, first, God War, of the, Void Era."
"A God War?!" The small skull tried once more to narrow its eye sockets.
"Indeed. Shortly, after Void's, descent, the new, era's, masters, challenged, the old.
"Void, and Existence, clashed, in a great, battle, drawing, all, the gods, to watch.
"Though, era transitions, are common, and such things, happen often, never before, had any, power, acted, as blatantly, as Void.
"That is why, I say, Void, is forever, united. Even if, Deceit, stabbed, Fate, in the back...
"No one, knows, whether that, was rely, a bitter, ploy, staged by, Void, itself.
"So even, upon seeing, cracks, between Them, no one, dares provoke, Them, in this, era."
"..."
Today's revelations were so explosive that Mi Laozhang's brain suffered a brief crash. He carefully committed every word his Benefactor had spoken to mory, feeling that it wasn't just him whose tongue had loosened—this Lord was also unusually talkative.
'Could it really be like the Fun God said—that when gods grow old they need companionship?'
"..."
'Zhang Jizu, what are you thinking? Where did your logic go? Are you really turning into a Deceit-brain?'
Zhang Jizu shook his head hard, flinging the stray thoughts out, and hurriedly asked another question:
"If Void splits apart, what happens to the followers who've undergone faith fusion?"
"That, is not, your, concern.
"Withdraw. I have, heard, what you've, said.
"Continue, on your, path. That, is all."
With that, the entire Hall of White Bones surged into a torrent that crashed into the small skull, sweeping it into the Void and out of sight.
Reviews
All reviews (0)