Thinking about a group of big shots blocking the door... that really is a promising future, a promising future indeed~
Don took off the monocle he was wearing and tucked it into his pocket.
Since his identity had already been exposed, continuing to wear that ominous thing would be rather impolite.
Actually, Don had already envisioned what to do after his identity was revealed, but he hadn't expected this day to come so quickly.
He recalled his secret marionette and dispelled the illusion, but did not dismiss the Theater With Curtains That Never Draw, still keeping this area in a concealed state.
What Don was about to say next, if done without the participation of concealment, would likely cause Amon to notice the fluctuations of fate, thereby exposing some problems and being detected by Amon in advance.
"Mr. Zoroast, your reasoning ability is as excellent as your character." Having removed his disguised identity, Don's voice returned to normal, the somewhat exaggerated expressions on his face also returned to calm, no longer performing as Amon to harvest feedback from the potion.
Pallez remained noncommittal, neither rejecting the flattery from the person before him, nor showing much of a pleasant expression.
He still remembered the scene just now, when an Amon suddenly appeared behind him. If he hadn't already been a Sequence 1 Beyonder who had seen great storms, who knows what problems might have occurred.
Moreover, Sequence 4...
He looked at the Bizarro Sorcerer before him and narrowed his eyes, "Don't you plan to meet me with your true body?"
Don glanced at the baby-faced knight whose thoughts and five senses had been temporarily stolen, and spoke directly with this parasite.
"I'm very afraid that my fate will be directly stolen and that you'll replace my identity." He smiled, "After all, as you said, I want to cooperate with you to eliminate Amon's avatars remaining in Tingen together, but I'm equally afraid that you'll do the same thing as Amon."
"After all, you don't trust me, and I don't have much trust in you either."
A direct answer.
"Young man, being too stubborn and self-willed isn't very good." Hearing this, Pallez snorted coldly, then said in what seemed like a reminder and a warning, "Amon's avatars aren't so easy to eliminate. I think you know this."
"If the Amon avatars in this area disappear, then Amon will very likely come personally to investigate, and the result at that time will be the same as now, or even more dangerous. Unless, are you planning to eliminate Amon's true body?"
Eliminating Amon's avatars and eliminating Amon's true body are completely different in nature, with an unbridgeable chasm between them.
The former mostly only have the status of angels without the abilities of angels. Amon couldn't possibly split off a Sequence 1 avatar, as this would seriously affect the stability of His own state.
Eliminating the former requires caution and prudence, needing to guard against whether Amon's avatars are bait, hiding more predators behind them. As for the latter, He Himself is a shark. Once confronted, both sides would suffer heavy losses. Even if a Sequence 1 faces Amon, it's not impossible for Amon to replace their fate.
Don nodded, indicating that he was quite clear about this point.
"Eliminating Amon's true body is very difficult, but it's not impossible. Why not try? Mr. Zoroast, just as Amon only lacks the ritual and a Sequence 1 potion, aren't you similarly only missing one Amon from the divine throne?"
Amon Himself carries a Sequence 1 of the Error Pathway and its Uniqueness, and later obtained another Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristic from the ancestor of the Jacob family.
Now, only the one from Pallez Zoroast remains. As long as they're gathered together and the ritual completed, He can advance to Sequence 0.
But this is the same for the old man. Two Sequence 1s and one Uniqueness—Amon is also a shortcut to the divine throne for Pallez Zoroast.
This is a battle at the top of the sequences, where it's either kill or be killed.
Pallez fell silent again. He was obviously thinking about what Don had said, his expression becoming more solemn, seeming to age slightly in an instant.
So the ancestor of the Jacob family has already been devoured by Amon...
Although he had suspected it early on, when it was confirmed, he still felt incredulous, and a very small amount of... fear.
Don knew that the other party was beginning to have some thoughts and held him in certain regard.
Being able to clearly know Amon's state, capable of seeing parasites in the Error Pathway angel state, knowing the situation of the Jacob family's Sequence 1, and even wanting to plot against Amon, this Angel of Time, was not something a Bizarro Sorcerer could accomplish.
Behind this Bizarro Sorcerer, there must be someone else standing.
After a long time, this angel slowly said, "I don't know what method you used to see me, sense the parasite, and make theft ineffective."
"But Amon is more terrifying than you think, and more terrifying than me. He has no humanity, nothing that can be called emotions. Even gods are careful to guard against Him, fearing that their authority might be unknowingly stolen by Him."
Knowing about Amon, understanding Pallez Zoroast, comprehending Sequence 0—he didn't doubt that the other party understood that gods are real, supreme existences.
And you, a Sequence 4, are here discussing with me how to eliminate Amon's true body? Who is behind you?
Thinking of this, this angel asked, "Who told you these things? What relationship do you have with Death's descendants?"
If this Bizarro Sorcerer had Death's descendants behind him, retaining some of Death God Salinger's contingencies... perhaps it could be attempted?
For Pallez, he longed to reclaim the other Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristics and Uniqueness of the Error Pathway, but the current situation was that the enemy was strong while he was weak. He could only hide rather than face the enemy directly.
It was very likely that he would fall into the same situation as the Sequence 1 of the Jacob family, having his Beyonder characteristics seized by Amon and his fate replaced.
Amon is synonymous with powerful, cunning, terrifying, and mischievous. Even gods and Sequence 1s of other pathways are extremely wary of Him.
Regarding Don's words, Pallez wouldn't act without seeing concrete benefits.
He was a great noble of the Fourth Epoch, an undying mythical creature who had lived for thousands of years. To put it bluntly, Don had eaten less rice than he had eaten salt.
Leaving Tingen, changing parasites, and going elsewhere to avoid Amon was equally problem-free for this angel.
Cooperating with a Sequence 4 Beyonder to fight against the nemesis of the Error Pathway was risky, worthless, and extremely dangerous.
As a battle-hardened Beyonder who respected the mysterious the more he understood it, he would never take risks for a mere pie in the sky.
Don had to show trump cards that could move the other party before there was any possibility of attempting cooperation. And the Bizarro Sorcerer before him had currently shown something that made Pallez perceive a tiny, imperceptible possibility.
Don didn't answer this question, but instead asked, "Then, Mr. Zoroast, what is your intention?"
Cooperate with me? Or leave here?
This was information that had to be confirmed first.
Don's thinking was simple: if they cooperated, then they would continue talking. If not, then they would part ways here, each making their own preparations.
His thoughts aligned with Pallez's—both believed that facing Amon's possible arrival at any time, or even that Amon's avatars might be bait thrown out by Amon's true body just to lure out certain things He wanted to see.
For Pallez, in situations where it was possible to eliminate Amon's avatars or severely damage Amon's true body, it was worth the risk.
Weakening the enemy was equivalent to strengthening oneself. Even if Amon's true body didn't arrive, they would inevitably battle in the future. Weakening was better than not weakening. Pallez was very clear about this—he couldn't hide forever without being discovered, and Amon couldn't remain forever without achievements.
For Don, weakening Amon was equally helping himself.
"The Error Pathway is related to the Seer Pathway, and I'm also on Amon's menu... God of Deceit, God of Mischief—just the titles alone are disgusting."
Pallez Zoroast's reasoning was interlocking, almost stripping his identity bare, but this didn't harm the fundamentals.
His father had already left, his mother had been transferred to the theater, Owen was far away in the Orkney Highlands, and he himself was also within Euclidean space. Even if his true identity was exposed, Don could take the theater and run directly, causing him no substantial harm.
At most, his identity would be exposed, but for a Faceless, this posed no threat at all.
However, there was one point where Pallez Zoroast was right.
He was a very nostalgic person. This territory was a place where he had lived for nearly twenty years. Don couldn't just let Amon plague-like spread to the surroundings here and then pray to the gods for the other party to leave quickly.
This was the stupidest approach. Better to take the initiative while it was still relatively safe and concealed, weakening Amon's strength.
Losing the initiative would be no fun—he might end up being played to death by Amon.
"So, cooperation against Amon requires negotiation, just like how I initially didn't approach this contact as a Sequence 4 Bizarro Sorcerer, but disguised myself as Amon, deliberately exposing my special nature."
For Don, the Theater With Curtains That Never Draw, the system and the Knowledge Moor behind it, as well as Euclidean space—these were all his bargaining chips.
"If I didn't show my uniqueness from the very beginning, demonstrating the possibility of confronting the Worm of Time, knowing many secrets, I think the old man wouldn't have stayed here to chat with me at all. Pure empty talk has no practical meaning...
"I just didn't expect that right after dealing with the divine descender from the dark side of the universe, the old man would come knocking... But this timing isn't bad either. I advanced to Sequence 4 and became a demigod, so I won't be restricted in everything I do." Don sighed helplessly in his heart, "Detonating danger in advance while still relatively safe, weakening Amon—hmm, the existence that even high-sequence Beyonders of the three Gou families must guard against. Amon can indeed be considered our collective enemy."
'System, are the things ready?' he asked the system.
[Ready, ready, you can take it out.] the system replied.
Don took out the Sun Scepter from the warehouse, ignoring the Sun Scepter's low praise-singing to the sun. He carefully examined the text carved on the scepter that faintly revealed madness. Those were the text slots that had been embedded with mad knowledge when the Sun Scepter was first made.
During the first Sun Rises, the mad knowledge of the Knowledge Moor was infused into these slots, forming Mad Mysteries that prevented the pollution of the Chaos Sea from further contaminating the real world.
Unfortunately, those Mad Mysteries were one-time use. After preventing the pollution of the Chaos Sea, they had already followed the power of the Knowledge Moor and disappeared. However, the text slots embedded with mad knowledge remained, but without their core, they could only serve decorative purposes and had no other mystical significance.
But now, after the system's reprocessing, a very small portion of the dimmed text embedded in the Sun Scepter again revealed traces of madness. Don looked meaningfully at the smug system,
"Exactly how much did you hide back then?"
[Just a little bit, just a tiny bit~]
Previously, when facing the first Sun Rises, the Knowledge Moor had temporarily managed the system. Later, when the Knowledge Moor left, the system received residual power from the Knowledge Moor, upgrading from version 1.0 to version 1.1, and also retained some mad knowledge.
Now, embedding this mad knowledge that the system had privately stored in the Sun Scepter could similarly trigger 'Mad Mysteries' to a small degree.
Looking at the Sun Scepter that wasn't filled with mad knowledge, the system looked at its own secretly hidden inventory that was more than half empty, comparing the state of the Sun Scepter when the main system came before with its current state.
Its mechanical voice carried a thoughtful tone, [Host, if—I mean if—if there's more of this stuff, do you want it?]
It seems like the main system has plenty of it... The main system probably wouldn't mind, right?
"Want them? Why wouldn't I?"
Don waved the Sun Scepter in his hand and replied casually, "This kind of thing, as long as it's within my control range, naturally the more the better."
"Who complains about having too many good things?"
If he had enough mad knowledge, he wondered if he could remotely blow up Amon's head using 'Knowledge Pursues Man' mode.
The system understood immediately. Hadn't it seen that the singing one stopped loving to sing after being infused with some mad knowledge? Who doesn't like good things?
It decided to crawl along the network cable to the main system later and circle around a few times, seeing if it could coax some more mad knowledge back to replenish its inventory.
Knowledge Moor: ??
Knowledge Moor: )
"So, what is your answer?"
After a long silence, Pallez said, "It's possible, but I need to know—who exactly do you believe in?"
Good question.
This question naturally couldn't be pointing to which god he believed in.
The ultimate direction of this question was: which faction does the person behind him belong to?
Is it Death God Salinger? Or...
Don maintained his expression and said, "I believe in—"
"The Great Existence Above the Spirit World."
"The Great Existence Above the Spirit World..."
Pallez fell into another long silence.
"I'll keep watch on Amon's avatars. If there are any problems, I'll contact you immediately."
As for who the Great Existence Above the Spirit World was, old gentleman, you can guess all you like. One guess leaves you speechless. [Chinese idiom: rendered silent/speechless]
[The Fool?]
"Did I say whether it was in a mysticism sense or a dimensional sense?" Don smiled in response to the system.
Isn't Euclidean space also above the dimension of the Spirit World?
I believe in myself who exists in this space—is there any problem with that?
To extend it further, why can't the Great Existence be the future me who lends me spirituality?
(End of Chapter)