Lord of Mysteries: Taiyi

Above the gray fog, in what seemed to be the dwelling place of a giant king.

Once Audrey had finished remembering, Kurt didn't offer any other deals. He planned to start selling his "complete" talisman only after Mr. Fool had learned how to perform sacrifices.

Alger initiated the conversation, carefully stating:

"I heard that an Aurora Society 'listener' is searching for traces of the true Creator, which is what they call the 'Sanctuary'."

"The true creator?" Audrey was drawn to the term and expressed her question.

"That is an ancient being worshipped by many secret cults or mysterious organizations. They proclaim that the Creator has not completely died, and that the true Creator is His remaining core." Alger explained roughly, "Since the Fifth Age, He has often appeared as the 'Hanged Giant' or the 'Eye Behind the Veil of Shadows.' Many people believe that when Emperor Roselle invented the Tarot, he referenced the true Creator, which is why the 'Hanged Man' card was created."

At this point, Alger, the "Hanged Man," because of what happened with Taiichi earlier, didn't directly ask Mr. Fool as he did in the original story, but instead looked at the "Lover."

Kurt paused for a moment, wondering:

"Shouldn't he be asking Klein and letting Little Klein show off? Why is he looking at me? Because of what happened with 'Taiyi' earlier? Alger had already vaguely guessed the existence of the concept of Sequence Zero before this, and he imagined 'Taiyi' to be something similar to Sequence Zero? And combined with my reaction, he's already treating 'The Fool' as a god-level being?"

Kurt paused for only a second, recalling the original plot development, and slightly curled the corners of his mouth, saying:

"Countless phenomena indicate that the true Creator has gone mad for some reason."

Madness? Does Mr. "Lover" mean that even gods can go mad? Klein was slightly shaken, but outwardly remained calm as he continued tapping the edge of the bronze table, as if he had heard something trivial.

Alger frowned deeply, his heart churning with turmoil… Extraordinary beings can go mad… even gods can go mad. He forcibly suppressed the urge to ask the question; he didn't yet have enough leverage to exchange…

Audrey covered her mouth, her body trembling slightly, as she imagined how terrifying a god would be if he went mad.

Seeing that all three were stunned for a moment, Kurt added:

"This is why the members of the Aurora Club are so twisted and crazy."

Alger suppressed a tremor in his voice and asked:

"Were they influenced by the true Creator...?"

Curry nodded, and said in a slightly serious tone:

"So be careful of the Aurora Society, they are all lunatics, and also be careful of the True Creator, as far as I know, even just seeing the image of the True Creator can cause one to lose control."

His second half of the sentence was meant for Klein, because according to the current timeline, Dunn had already been corrupted by the true creator in Haynes Vancent's dream. Klein needed to notice these anomalies, and then gradually reveal 0-08 in the diary so that Klein could discover and save them himself. At most, he could provide some methods for making the talismans; that was all he could help with. The rest was up to Klein...

Kurt remembered that he had digested a lot of his potions after the last Tarot gathering, so he decided to continue:

"The 'Listeners' that 'The Hanged Man' mentioned earlier are Sequence Eight of the 'Secret Man' pathway, formerly known as 'Whispers.' They gain a new ability: Listening. They can directly hear the delirious ramblings of the true creator who has gone mad, thus gaining some incredible abilities. But without a doubt, they are all insane, even if they appear normal on the surface... Even without using the Listening ability, they can hear things that normal extraordinary beings cannot hear, so ordinary Listeners don't live more than 5 years and must advance to Sequence Seven as soon as possible."

Audrey raised her little hand curiously and asked:

"Does that mean they won't be in danger unless they advance to Sequence Eight?"

Kurt chuckled and said:

"As I just said, almost all 'Secret Inquiry' pathways are insane because they acquire knowledge from potions at Sequence Nine, including the name of the true creator! They are subtly influenced and become distorted in personality... and are very prone to losing control."

"What a terrifying method!" Audrey clenched her hands nervously, asking with concern, "Won't the 'audience' method also have some problems?"

Kurt shook his head and said:

"I'm not sure, but I can guarantee that Sequence 8 or Sequence 7 will be fine. I have a friend who has this pathway, provided the previous potion is fully digested. Of course, I think you understand that the risk of losing control and going insane is unavoidable..."

"This is about all the information I know about the true Creator."

His words made Audrey swallow back all her questions. She wasn't stupid; the content that followed would likely be chargeable. She had originally intended to ask "the lover" to name a price, but then she thought better of it and decided to observe Mr. "The Hanged Man's" reaction first, to see what this man, who clearly had more experience than herself, would do in the same situation.

And to be honest, her fear of the true creator outweighed her curiosity; she was more interested in knowing the secrets of the seven true gods... Wait, it seems like we're talking about gods?

"I've joined an amazing organization, and I'm even one of its founding members..." Miss Justice thought excitedly.

"Lover" is indeed extraordinary; he knows so much about deities. He was definitely testing me last time. There's no way he wouldn't know about the Antigonus family. If we exclude the possibility that he's collecting materials for someone else, then he's only Sequence Eight. Even if he's an official, he couldn't be a high-ranking member. So he's probably a member of an ancient organization, the Morse Order? Unlikely. Or perhaps the offspring of a high-ranking member of some church?

Sequence Seven "The Painter"... Alger silently noted down the name, planning to look up some information about this path when he returned to the church. He also noticed the ever-calm Mr. Fool, whom he believed was well aware of the information and disdained to participate in such a low-level discussion.

Klein silently noted down this information. The Aurora Society's madness and loss of control were indeed mentioned in the Night Watchers' internal files. He was also worried about the captain's condition. After all, "Lover" described a complete loss of control, and the captain was probably spared because of the dream... He also remembered the bad ending scene about Dunn that he had seen when he "viewed" the timeline last time, which was very likely caused by this dream.

As Klein was organizing the information and marveling at the "lover's" erudition and mystery, the "lover" Kurt suddenly looked over and asked:

"Was I right? Mr. Fool?"

After finishing his selective "science popularization," Kurt began to "test" the "gods."

"The Lover" was testing me. "The Fool," seeing the three pairs of eyes looking at me, thought rapidly and replied calmly:

"I prefer to call Him the Fallen Creator."