Mystery: Lucky One

Alice did not answer Klein's question.

If Alice really wanted to say it, she felt that the "Storm Lord" might have known it, but...what if He knew it? Would He still come to attack her?

No, it seemed like He could really come and beat her. After all, in a sense, Klein could be considered His enemy...

While Alice was daydreaming, Klein had already appeared at the entrance of the "Forsaken Land of the Gods". He looked at the closed entrance with a moved expression, lowered his head and asked:
"Did you...feel anything?"

"There's trouble here," Alice answered. "Why, are you going to save your lover, Mr. Fool?"

Klein's expression became distorted for a moment, and he stopped her with a weak voice, "Alice, you know exactly what's going on..."

Alice groaned, and indeed did not continue to dwell on this topic. She said:

"Just wait a moment."

Then the surroundings fell into silence. No one spoke again. They all stared at the golden ocean in front of them.

An unknown amount of time had passed, but on a mountain in the "God-forsaken Land", a layer of faint shadow curtain emerged from the surface of a huge cross, then cracked open, and a man walked out of it.

He was wearing a simple white robe, his beard was golden, and his hair was only light golden at the roots, the rest was completely black.

His eyes were dark, deep and viscous, like a small whirlpool.

“He” raised his hand and turned the monocle on his right eye. Then he grasped the silver cross on his chest and said in a low voice:

“Not taking ‘visionary’ as the cornerstone seems to have some influence.

"But it seems our helpers have arrived."

He looked in a certain direction and nodded slightly, as if in greeting.

……

"What are you doing?" Klein lowered his head and looked at Alice who suddenly covered her eyes.

"Tell yourself not to look around..." Alice said faintly, "Although this is actually useless... Damn it, shouldn't "Him" have the symbol of "Omniscient and Omnipotent" yet? There are only two paths, so he shouldn't have figured them out yet, right?"

Klein deduced something from her messy words and asked:
"You saw a picture of the future? And then you were discovered again?"

“…Don’t say it so harshly.” Alice’s tone did not sound happy. “Okay, Mr. Fool…I think this news should be for you.”

“Give it to me?” Klein repeated doubtfully.

"That's right," Alice responded cheerfully, "'The Hanged Man'... 'The Visionary'... go find the three paths that 'He's still missing, go find those three shameless traitors."

Klein was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously asked, "I... go kill them?"

His tone was full of hesitation, and Alice questioned, "Can you beat him?"

“I don’t know,” Klein said frankly, “I haven’t fought a true god yet.”

He paused, then smiled and said what was really important:

"However, I think you should know that as the master of Sefirah Castle, I am not on the same level as them.

"It's just that I think it might be difficult for me to kill them. There are many reasons for this, such as my own abilities being biased, and the fact that I just became a True God and am not familiar with my own abilities yet...

"I think I can only delay them. Moreover, since I am not familiar with them, I cannot determine the time."

"It won't take long," Alice said calmly, "You just need to hold it for a while... let... wait a moment."

Alice's voice suddenly stopped, and she said hesitantly:
"Since the Fifth Epoch, the Seven Gods have stayed in the Astral Realm all year round, using the Divine Kingdom to reinforce the barrier to prevent the infiltration of the Outer Gods, but...

"The death of the 'God of War' reduced their number by one, which must have had an impact. After I became a true god, I did not actually go to the astral realm... My current situation did not allow me to do so.

"I think Adam didn't have it after he became a god, and you definitely didn't have it either. That is to say, there is still no one to fill the vacant position of the God of War. And if you and He killed the storm, wisdom, and the sun..."

“The barrier will be greatly affected, and it may not be able to maintain its balance,” Klein said in a calm voice. “They cannot die just like this, at least not all at once... Unless there is another, more powerful existence to fill the gap and deter the Outer Gods, for example..."

"Lord of Mysteries?" Alice finished his unfinished words, "I think you'd better not... Klein, you are not the real 'Lord of Mysteries'. You just became a true god, and you need time to stabilize your state. And none of us knows whether the Outer Gods can forcibly open the barrier..."

She paused, then sighed:

"If it's the real 'Lord of Mysteries', I think it would be enough for you to just show up. After all, even if the Outer Gods can forcibly open the barrier, it will definitely affect your own strength. But you are not, and you happen to be in a special stage. At the moment, you are stronger than the average True God, but you are not qualified to fight against the Outer Gods. If I were an Outer God, if I saw such a 'Lord of Mysteries', if I happened to have a way to forcibly break through the barrier...

"Klein, if it were me, I would break through the barrier without hesitation, and then deal with you first, and then deal with the 'God' who is in a similar state as you. As for the rest of the people, there is nothing to be afraid of.

"Then I can leave with my spoils."

Klein was silent for a moment because of the future she described, and then he said helplessly:

"Alice... I don't even plan to go and retrieve Mr. Door's extraordinary characteristics myself, so why would I take such a risk on something like this?

"It's not like I would...I wouldn't do that."

He subconsciously wanted to say, "I'm not like you," but finally stopped cautiously.

Alice didn't understand the hidden meaning in his words. She felt relieved and said:

"Okay, then go help your father-in-law. As your ex-wife's child, I won't bother you any more."

“?” Klein was confused. “Wait, are you talking about… Alice!”

Looking at the empty arms, Klein opened and closed his mouth, rubbed his head, and revealed a sour expression.

“Maybe I should ask the ancient sun god how he got along with Amon back then…” Klein rubbed his head and muttered, “Amon shouldn’t be as talkative as Alice in front of him…”

Klein sighed and suddenly thought of Ouroboros. As the angel of destiny under the ancient sun god, this angel king was obviously not as noisy as Alice. Klein was not familiar with him. Although they had met, the only communication was that he used painting materials to exchange for the main materials of his Sequence 4 potion from this angel of destiny...

It must be said that this experience gave him a new understanding of the equivalent exchange of the "fate" path... Well, there was nothing new about it. After all, their true god, Miss Fate of the Tarot Club, was expressing her will with every word and action.

——She has never been fair, or rather, the most fair thing about her is that she is unfair to everyone.

However, Klein thought of Ouroboros because of his character.

He didn't want Alice to become as silent and dazed as Ouroboros. After all, if that were the case, she wouldn't be Alice anymore.

However, sometimes, like now, Klein would hope that Alice could combine with Ouroboros and become a little quieter...

Thinking of this, Klein sighed heavily.

……

Alice ran back to Meige Manor.

Although Alice felt somewhat guilty about the prophecy being discovered by the "Dialoguer", she had read the prophecy anyway, so she naturally knew that it would take some time before the gate opened.

She could continue to wait there with Klein, but she would not say anything, and...

She felt that this was not good for the maids at Meige Manor.

——"Wheel of Fortune" is neither a "Dreamer" nor a "Fool". It cannot leave a "substitute" behind when it leaves. It can only ensure that no one comes to look for it during the time it is away, so as not to expose the fact that it has left.

The true God is, after all, omniscient and omnipotent only within a certain range, just like what Alice said at the beginning... If the "Fool" turns everyone into fools, wouldn't He be omniscient and omnipotent?
But this doesn't fundamentally solve the problem. After all, the maid who forgot to come in to check on Alice would have her salary deducted afterwards... Of course, Alice could actually make up for it in other ways, such as getting a reward or picking up money...

There is always a way to cover up the truth.

But - why? Why should she stand there stupidly with Klein?
……

"...So, you didn't kill the three traitors, but trapped them in your own kingdom?" Alice asked Klein beside the bed, holding the ice cream in her hand.

“Yes,” Klein nodded. “Anyway, Grisha doesn’t have the extra energy to accommodate the uniqueness of the other three paths and the Beyonder characteristics of Sequence 1, and the three of them can’t make any splashes…”

Alice nodded, then asked:

"I have a question.

"Why do you sound like you two have suddenly become... very familiar with each other?
"Did I miss something?"

Klein was silent for a moment, then he looked at Alice and asked sincerely, "Do you remember which country 'He' is from?"

Alice frowned and said hesitantly:
"The language in the notes of the institute at that time was Russian. However, since Chernobyl still exists, He should come from..."

She raised her head and looked at Klein. Klein nodded and then smiled:
“In fact, it is enough to know that it is Russian, and the rest has nothing to do with what I want to say.

"Is such that……"

As he spoke, he reached out to grab the air and took out a bottle in front of Alice's surprised eyes...

“Vodka?” Alice’s eyes widened. “You… no, wait, you went drinking together?”

“Almost.” Klein pressed his head. “I can now be sure that during this fusion process, His humanity must have prevailed. Otherwise, the first thing He did after everything was over was not to invite me to drink with Him, and to drink vodka…”

At this point, Klein's mouth twitched, and he said to Alice:

"I don't know if you've heard this joke... It's said that if people there are sick and go to the hospital, the doctor will give them a bottle of vodka and tell them to drink it and they'll get better."

"...I've heard of it," Alice's expression was full of despair, "but isn't he a researcher?"

“Drinking helps him concentrate and can help him do research better,” Klein said expressionlessly. “I asked the same question as you, and this is how he answered me.”

"..." Alice took a breath and was completely speechless.

"Oh, right," Klein looked at him and said, "I mentioned your request to Grisha, as well as the matter of borrowing the first 'blasphemous slate'... He hopes that you will go and talk to Him yourself, and then..."

He paused, then said with a strange expression: "I think He might invite you to drink with Him."

"I'm not an adult yet," Alice said expressionlessly, "I can't drink. Have you ever seen a baby who is not even a month old drink alcohol?"

"I've never seen a baby who's not even one month old eat ice cream," Klein glanced at her. "In fact, Grisha even invited me to smoke, but I refused."

“…?” Alice took another breath. “When I think about God becoming an alcoholic and a chain smoker, I feel…”

She paused, her expression turning desperate: "This world is really over!"

"...If you can't change your mind, I hope you can control your inner voice," Klein glanced at Alice and reminded her faintly, "You know, when facing a 'dreamer', there is no difference between thinking about it in your mind and speaking it out loud."

"So," Alice kept silent on the subject, "did you tell our 'God' that I can't drink?"

"I said," Klein said calmly, "I used your underage status as an excuse, and it didn't work out. After all, everyone knows that you're not a real underage person. I then emphasized that you wanted to consolidate your humanity by pretending to be a real baby. He said..."

Klein glanced at Alice before continuing:

“On the one hand, your humanity is the most stable among all the true gods He has ever seen, although He is not sure whether it can be called humanity.

"On the other hand, as I told you, they think over there that vodka is a cure-all."

"..." Alice closed her eyes, "I really... I give in. I'll go find Him. You can be my stand-in, or you can play the role yourself... No, does it make any difference to you?"

“No,” Klein smiled slightly, “After all, the clone is also a part of me.” (End of this chapter)