Lord of Mysteries 2: Circle of Inevitability

The Monarch of Decay sensed that the prayers to the Malady God were directed at the Origins of Disaster, creating an overlap in identity and offering Him a direct opportunity to seize His target's body.

But He didn't take the opportunity-He wasn't foolish. Killing the Origins of Disaster first and then accommodating the sefirah was the only correct choice!

To seize the other's body now would mean engaging in a battle of consciousness and spirit. The Monarch of Decay wasn't confident of a guaranteed victory at the moment. If, He lost, He would end up being accommodated and devoured by the Origins of Disaster, becoming part of that collective consciousness. Moreover, in such a war of consciousness, defeat would mean no chance of escape, given that His opponent was of the same tier.

Thus, any Great Old Dominator with a functioning mind would never take such bait from Lumian.

For Lumian, having prepared this plan, there was naturally a follow-up strategy: You're rational? You're not foolish? That's fine, I'll make you foolish!

As the believers chanted "Great Malady God" and the Monarch of Decay launched His Sure Hit, Certain Death attack, Lumian activated the contract mark left by Mr. Fool. He could still use it once.

Fooled!

This contract, signed after The Fool Klein accommodated Sefirah Castle, carried a trace of the Foolishness symbolism.

As the mark on Lumian's body glowed a bluish-black, the Monarch of Decay's outstretched left palm suddenly slowed.

He hesitated. He stopped.
For a being as truly great as the Monarch of Decay, the Fooling imposed by half a Lord of Mysteries had limited duration and effect. It wasn't potent enough to make Him lose all reason and act purely on instinct. But Lumian had never expected it to succeed outright.

At that moment, the middle head on Lumian's body laughed, radiating intense provocation, as if saying, "A naturally great existence like you can't even match a lowly one like me who advanced the ranks? If you don't seize this opportunity now, you'll end up being accommodated by me! What's the matter? Did the Mother Tree of Desire ignite your survival instincts so much that you're too cowardly to confront my consciousness head-on? You might as well crawl back into the Mother Goddess of Depravity's womb and be reborn with a new consciousness!"

Simultaneously, Aurore's and Jenna's faces smiled in turn, each glancing mockingly at the Monarch of Decay.

Provocation plus Charm! Symbolic-level Provocation and Charm!

Another of Lumian's bodies, the one with the face of a swirling vortex of chaos, followed his main consciousness's lead, activating the City of Calamity's convergence force.

The Tudor face brimming with the desire to challenge and the amused Cheek face cooperated perfectly with this attempt, invoking the Law of Beyonder Characteristics Convergence and sending an irresistibly alluring invitation to the Monarch of Decay.

Come, accommodate this sefirah. Take over our body!

Still under the influence of Foolishness, the Monarch of Decay could no longer control Himself in the face of Provocation, Charm, and the Law of Aggregation. His vision fixated solely on the hateful yet irresistibly enticing target before Him. Without hesitation, He stepped forward, shedding the golden plating covering His body to reveal a heavily decayed, oozing yellow- green pus-covered body.

That body rapidly expanded, instantly enveloping Lumian's three-headed, six-armed body.

In the blink of an eye, within Lumian's consciousness space, the bloodstained stone-brick floor became covered in a nauseating yellow-green fungal carpet.

The Monarch of Decay saw several figures standing before Him.

Aurore with her, hair darkened and eyes deep brown; Jenna with an expression of disdain; Cheek, radiating excitement; Alista Tudor, eyes blazing with madness; and the stationary swirling face of chaos.

Behind them loomed the coiled twin-bodied malevolent dragon.

Beyond the malevolent dragon lay the staircase ascending to infinite heights, atop which sat Lumian - wearing a white shirt, black vest, and dark trousers-on a crimson-blooded throne, his right foot resting on his left knee, gazing down at the Monarch of Decay with a bright smile.

As the Origins of Disaster who was Above the Sequences, Lumian's consciousnesses had long since unified into an entity. He was simply using the Visionary's ability to manifest six arms of his consciousness as six figures for ease of unleashing different attacks later. In the real world, his six arms could independently employ distinct abilities, though not involving symbolisms.

…

Within the mercury-colored River of Fate, as the intertwined destinies coalesced into the Goddess of Fate's consciousness and spirit, She prepared to surface, to leave this realm and reclaim a body.

Suddenly, Lord of Mysteries Klein appeared above Her, clad in his black long coat and silk half top hat.

Klein extended his black-gloved left hand.

Steal!

Klein sought to extract the Goddess of Fate's consciousness and spirit from the River of Fate, stealing it into his grasp!

He hadn't attempted this earlier because the Goddess of Fate had not yet intended to leave the River of Fate. Her existence, intertwined with the fates of all matter in the universe, was too heavy to steal. Once She fully regained a body, the Lord of Mysteries would also be unable to directly Steal the consciousness and spirit of a Great Old Dominator from Her united form. Only this moment presented the opportunity.

A strange, tree-like humanoid object coated in black slime floated in front of Klein. It was the Sequence 1 Divine Abomination Beyonder characteristic of the Chained pathway.

Once he stole the Goddess of Fate's consciousness and spirit, he would immediately place it into this formless entity, then use his symbolism to seal Her.

For the Chained pathway's Binding symbolism, high - Sequence Beyonder characteristics were ideal sealing material.

The Goddess of Fate's consciousness and spirit were uncontrollably drawn out from the illusory mercury - colored River of Fate, about to fall into Klein's hand. Just then, crimson moonlight descended, and a broken oak tree grew in the void, "fixing" the Goddess of Fate's consciousness and spirit in place.

The Mother Goddess of Depravity had come to aid Her eldest daughter.

…

Within Lumian's consciousness space.

Still under the lingering effects of Foolishness, the Monarch of Decay stretched His Sure Hit, Certain Death left palm toward the malevolent dragon's figure across the void.

At the same time, He fully invoked the Decay symbolism, slowing the surrounding flow of time and hastening its approach to the terminal point.

The malevolent dragon-represented by one of Lumian's arms-did not dodge and could not dodge. Its two heads spat black flames of destruction bound with madness toward the decayed palm.

Cheek's figure conjured an apocalypse before Him, creating a chaos vortex encompassing all possibilities and colors, rapidly spreading toward the Monarch of Decay's left palm and body.

Alista Tudor's figure revealed a blood-red mark on His forehead, clenched His right fist, and struck the void ahead. The void cracked inch by inch, collapsing space-time toward the Monarch of Decay - the Destruction symbolism from the Red Priest pathway.

Aurore did not use the authority of Origins of Disaster or Calamity of Destruction. Instead, she shared a corresponding power from her ally Eternal Darkness Amanises, summoning dense darkness that silenced everything, enveloping the Monarch of Decay.

Jenna wielded an orange-red twilight greatsword and slashed it toward the Monarch of Decay.

The swirling face of chaos held a pale book formed of coiled feathered serpents, flipping its pages silently.

At that moment, chaos, destruction, death, eternal silence, and twilight-along with the Monarch of Decay's previous attack-gathered in the consciousness, space. Some forces repelled, others blended, swiftly collapsing into a terrifying black dot.

The black dot drew the entire consciousness space toward itself, absorbing all forces and causing countless cracks to form, igniting pitch-black flames.

Under this influence, time was nearing its end, and space converged toward the unstable black dot.

Neither Lumian nor the Monarch of Decay could escape this consciousness space, unable to avoid the singularity of unified space-time and all things!

Though not yet true Fourth Pillar power and lasting only briefly, it was enough to kill the consciousness of a Great Old Dominator. Moreover, the Loop nodes in this area had been erased, and the Circle of Inevitability remained restrained by Eternal Darkness Amanises, unable to rescue the Monarch of Decay,

Thus, Lumian had no fear of the "Sure Hit, Certain Death" strike.

Everyone here would die.

It was reminiscent of how the Master of the Shadow Cottage and Farbauti had drawn Inextinguishable Ravings into Themselves and cursed Themselves. The difference was that Their consciousnesses weren't strong enough to sustain such a battle or hold back Inextinguishable Ravings without the Key of Light's help. They lacked the ability to kill a Great Old Dominator, only capable of wounding one severely.

But Lumian was a genuine great existence. Once the accommodation process began, without external intervention, the Monarch of Decay couldn't escape the battle of spirit, Lumian could harness Fourth Pillar- related power to obliterate the Monarch of Decay alongside himself.

In the collapsing consciousness space, surrounded by pitch-black flames, the Monarch of Decay had one thought: Kill the Origins of Disaster first, destabilize the Fourth Pillar's power, and let it collapse on its own!

This was the Monarch of Decay's only chance for survival.

At the top of the staircase leading to infinite heights, on the blood-stained throne, Lumian sat still, surrounded by a cracking consciousness space filled with burning black flames.

With his right foot resting on his left knee, Lumian smiled brightly as he watched the Monarch of Decay desperately trying to kill the figures to destroy him.

It's useless.

I will die, and so will you.