Lord of Mysteries 2: Circle of Inevitability
Chapter Summary
This would buy more time, or perhaps allow Klein to find a way to kill Grisha Adam, putting an end to the possibility of the Primordial God Almighty resurrecting with the Mother Goddess of Depravity's assistance. Afterward, Klein could exchange places with the Evernight Goddess, personally dealing with the Circle of Inevitability while the Evernight Goddess put Grisha Adam into slumber and hold off Primordial Hunger. In a one-on-one confrontation, Klein was confident he could swiftly deal with t...
When the crimson moonlight descended, Klein immediately realized that Grisha Adam likely couldn't hold on much longer. He had been barely maintaining a fragile balance, temporarily reaching quasi-Great Old One strength, only through the merging of Herabergen's and Leodero's consciousness. Once granted New Life, the accumulated latent issues would swiftly manifest.
If the Primordial God Almighty truly gained the upper hand and the Mother Goddess of Depravity returned fully healed, the situation would become irredeemable.
At that moment, three contingency plans formed in Klein's mind:
The first plan had the Evernight Goddess forcibly put Grisha Adam and the Primordial God Almighty's consciousness into slumber. This would buy more time, or perhaps allow Klein to find a way to kill Grisha Adam, putting an end to the possibility of the Primordial God Almighty resurrecting with the Mother Goddess of Depravity's assistance.
The issue with this plan was that it would release Primordial Hunger. At that point, it would likely take a substantial bite out of Grisha Adam, and this insatiable entity would inevitably seek out Lumian, attempting to accommodate the City of Calamity. Combined with the possible return of Inextinguishable Ravings in a short while, the situation would spiral completely out of control.
The second plan utilized the Change symbolism to delay the adverse changes in Grisha Adam, keeping Him as a buffer against Primordial Hunger. Klein would give up chasing the Mother Tree of Desire and recovering the Tenebrous World for now. Instead, he would focus on delaying the Goddess of Fate and Supernova Dominator while joining the battle between the remaining three sefirot and the High-Dimensional Overseer. The goal would be to heavily wound or eliminate this Great Old Dominator as quickly as possible.
This would free the sefirot to assist Lumian and the Evernight Goddess, potentially bringing that battlefield to a swift resolution. If the Primordial God Almighty had not yet resurrected by then, the situation would be brought under control and significantly improve.
The downside to this plan was that if Klein became deeply entangled in the fight against the High- Dimensional Overseer, he would struggle to manage the Goddess of Fate and Supernova Dominator in the other star dominions. Should They intervene, the situation could become even more chaotic and deteriorate further.
The third plan was to once again use the Change symbolism to allow Grisha Adam to hold on a little longer. Meanwhile, Klein would avoid the battle with the High-Dimensional Overseer, refrain from interfering with the Circle of Inevitability or joining Lumian and the Evernight Goddess's battlefield, and not pursue the Mother Tree of Desire. Instead, he would focus all his efforts on confronting the Goddess of Fate and Supernova Dominator.
Although it would be a two-against-one situation, the symbolism's of these two Great Old Dominators did not directly restrain the Lord of Mysteries. By further utilizing the Pillar's symbolisms, Klein had a chance to severely wound the Goddess of Fate and Supernova Dominator, forcing Them to give up and flee, or temporarily seal Them before the Primordial God Almighty could resurrect-despite interference from the Mother Goddess of Depravity.
Afterward, Klein could exchange places with the Evernight Goddess, personally dealing with the Circle of Inevitability while the Evernight Goddess put Grisha Adam into slumber and hold off Primordial Hunger.
In a one-on-one confrontation, Klein was confident he could swiftly deal with the Circle of Inevitability, racing against time before the Mother Goddess of Depravity healed and descended once more. Even if he couldn't isolate the Circle of Inevitability, Klein could simultaneously hold back the Monarch of Decay, enabling Lumian to execute a pre-prepared move that would make the Monarch of Decay experience what it meant by being the Origins of Disaster.
The only flaw in this plan was that every second would count-any wasted moment could lead to failure!
As for the idea of feeding the Uniquenesses of the Moon and Mother pathways to Primordial Hunger to provoke the Mother Goddess of Depravity into dealing with Him, this approach lacked real feasibility. Unless Lord of Mysteries Klein went to the Mother Goddess of Depravity now, making Her succumb to Foolishness and completing a Deceit, She could afford to wait until the situation grew more chaotic and both sides were heavily wounded before descending.
Even if Klein did seek out the Mother Goddess of Depravity, She was still a Pillar, albeit weakened and injured. He wouldn't be able to spare his attention for the other battlefields for some time.
Klein made his decision in an instant. His high-frequency flickering figure raised its coat.
Change!
The symbolism was applied to the enormous luminous figure, immediately delaying the adverse effects of the crimson moonlight.
Next, Klein transferred Amon from the Chaos Sea to the peripheral planet at the universe's edge, leaving behind only the Chained Uniqueness and Sequence 1 Beauty Goddess Beyonder characteristic from Lilith, which he Grafted into Sefirah Castle.
After completing this, Klein's flickering figure disappeared from the star dominion.
He returned to the original battlefield, now fully intent on dealing with the Goddess of Fate and Supernova Dominator!
…
In the meantime, Amon appeared on the peripheral planet of the universe. Still affected by His survival instinct, He hid within the protected zone, not daring to venture out.
On the battlefield outside the protected zone, Franca and other angels were stunned to find that the Cupids and Leviathans had simultaneously left the area, entering the universe and disappearing.
This significantly reduced the pressure on them.
The beautiful Cupids had been firing arrows that stole True Hearts, inciting internal strife. Meanwhile, the Leviathans had stirred up jealousy and dissatisfaction among many Angels, nearly causing the disbandment of the Red Angel Medici's legion. It was only thanks to The Star Leonard, Arianna, and other Servants of Concealment who put the affected Angels into slumber, and Justice Audrey and other Spectator pathway Angels who used Hypnosis, Placate, or implanted virtual personalities, that the angelic legion avoided greater turmoil.
Now, for whatever reason, the departure of the Cupids and Leviathans from the battlefield was a welcome relief for Medici, the legion commander.
…
In the boundless void, sometimes shrouded in the Fog of War and other times plunged into darkness.
The voice of Lumian echoed in Eternal Darkness Amanises's mind. "Change of strategy-target the Circle of Inevitability first."
Previously, Lumian had aimed to use his preparations to swiftly wound or eliminate the Monarch of Decay, making Him the primary target.
He and Amanises had nearly succeeded three times, but each time, the Circle of Inevitability had intervened-either resetting the state through Loop or exerting influence via the symbolism of Inevitability.
This caused Lumian to be affected by the symbolism of Decay, where "anything that can go wrong will go wrong," further destabilizing his internal balance and reducing the time he could sustain himself by another minute.
Hence, Lumian decided not to remain trapped in this back-and-forth. A breakthrough was needed, starting with eliminating the support and the disruptive interference.
Although the Circle of Inevitability was even harder to eliminate quickly-whether through His Loop symbolism or His combination of Future and Destined symbolisms that made Him nearly impossible to hit - Lumian felt it was worth a try given the deadlock elsewhere.
He also noticed the crimson moonlight and understood the urgency of time!
Suddenly, Lumian once again conjured the Fog of War to envelop the void, swapping his position with Eternal Darkness Amanises.
Eternal Darkness Amanises now faced the golden mummy-like Monarch of Decay.
The strange book of coiled feathered serpents in Her hands flipped open with a rustling sound, displaying only one name written across its pages: "Monarch of Decay."
Death!
Amanises invoked the symbolism of Death!
Time, already slow around the Monarch of Decay, slowed further, pushing His body into the depths of illusory ripples.
There, it seemed to reach the end of time, the final point of change.
The Monarch of Decay did not evade the influence of Death. Instead, He used His symbolism as the End of the River of Time to delay Death until that endpoint, leaving the present unaffected.
As Amanises dealt with the Monarch of Decay, Lumian, with his omniscient perspective within the Fog of War, located the Circle of Inevitability.
The body with Aurore's and Jenna's face clenched its right hand.
They caused all contradictions in the area to erupt instantly, transforming the apocalypse into a vortex of chaos that swallowed nearby asteroids, along with time, space, and fate.
This chaos vortex rapidly expanded toward the Circle of Inevitability, targeting not His body but a fixed tributary within the mercury-colored River of Fate.
It sought to drag this tributary into the apocalypse, returning it to chaos, thereby breaking the Circle of Inevitability's Destined powers.
The Circle of Inevitability's three bodies began spinning around a single point.
He attempted to trigger a Loop not yet affected by the chaos vortex, resetting the state of the battlefield.
At this moment, Amanises suddenly abandoned applying symbolic influence on the Monarch of Decay. Instead, using the team's connection, She unleashed deep darkness like a river from the void near Lumian, pulling time and space into Herself and merging them swiftly.
Eternal Darkness was also Space-Time-in-One!
Although this symbolism was incomplete, it managed to halt the Circle of Inevitability's spinning, suspending Him like an insect trapped in amber.
Origins of Disaster Lumian seized the opportunity, allowing the chaos vortex to spread over, engulfing the fixed tributary of fate and the pre-set Loop node.
Then, the chaos vortex, embodying all colors and possibilities, consumed the three-bodied Circle of Inevitability, causing Him to collapse into chaos in an instant.
Neither Lumian nor Amanises paused to confirm their victory, as the Monarch of Decay made the Fog of War advance to its end and applied the symbolism of Certain Death to them.
A second later, at the dissipating chaos vortex's center, the dark body of the Circle of Inevitability reappeared. He had reunited with His mercury-colored and redemptive light-formed bodies, resuming His hand signs.
Past symbolism!
What was not lost in the past could not be destroyed in the present!
Lumian instantly realized one thing: only by using the kind of power associated with the Fourth Pillar- erasing the very concept of the Circle of Inevitability's existence and His past history-could He be truly wounded or killed.
Of course, the King of Space-Time, who held the symbolism of History, might not be able to kill the Circle of Inevitability but could certainly inflict suffering worse than death.