N/A: The Tamamo-No-Mae timeline is a bit confusing for me so do bear with it if it's not entirely accurate.
Tianzun sat in his lofty chair above the grey fog within Sefirah Castle. His eyes were closed as he listened to the prayers of those in his church. Not really a church, but more like a group of believers.
He would let them have free reign for the time being. They might bring him some surprises. He soon took a nap on the soft pillow he had harvested from Amaterasu. The tails themselves had been slowly tainted in Sefirah Castle's corruption.
Tianzun closed his eyes and slept in the slow slumber of the grey fog, ready to be awakened.
~~~~
He was blissfully asleep, but he was also aware. It seemed that people's beliefs also played a part in certain magecraft that the mages used. His sleeping face left a tiny imperceptible grin as he observed the mages arguing about which method produced better results.
Tianzun never understood how the magecraft worked for them, he just wasn't bothered. But it seemed that one group was advocating against using the symbolism related to him. It was religion based magecraft.
He heard countless prayers from numerous mages, borrowing power from symbolism in order to conceal their workshops. It was truly amusing, if he wasn't still comfortable sleeping, he would have dragged a few mages into Sefirah Castle out of boredom.
Perhaps that Zelretch fellow, the one who pushed back the moon. That strange crimson moon always gave him a strange feeling. While the crimson moon was Type-Moon, something nagged in his head.
It gave a lingering sense of depravity.
He would sleep for a while longer and leave his worms to do the grunt work.
~~~~
His eyes opened to the gentle light produced by the eight tails of Amaterasu. One conveniently served as his pillow. He grinned as his divined date had arrived. His grudge with Amaterasu wasn't done yet.
His eyes gazed at Takako, Amaterasu's avatar in the name of Tamamo-no-Mae, Mizukume. Whatever she wanted to be called, it would make no difference. He still remembered being roasted alive before resurrecting in the historical void. `
His teeth grit with that thought, his otherwise near perfect journey had been ruined by that one instant. But it was also his own shortcoming, he was too arrogant and believed he was above fate despite not even being able to touch it.
A gentle yet eery smile emerged from the fog as marionette strings soon descended down from the grey fog into reality.
The spirit threads made their way to the village of the Izumo province and many avatars sprung into action, each fueled with the same exact grudge.
They were reminded of memories of acting as a Bizzaro Sorcerer through the ages.
Soon enough the stage was set. He had ample time to spend and plenty of patience, he didn't speedrun godhood just to let go of his grudges. But in a strange way he had to thank Amaterasu, if it weren't for her, he would have never had the drive to advance that quickly.
He would have taken his time and leisurely existed.
In that moment, he peered into the annuls of time and the future. "Let's see... Mizukume." He had located the birth of the child who had just been named. His eerie smile that would send even the outer deities running in fear was now directed to a single baby girl.
Ethics? What were those? She didn't wait for him to grow up before roasting him alive. Why couldn't he start his revenge early too?
The baby girl opened her eyes to see the beautiful world around her. Her cries had died down as she was cradled in the arms of her parents. "Oh~ Look dear. Mizukume wants to be held by you."
The father smiled gently before his hand flinched to his right eye for a moment. Strangely the baby felt a chill despite having just been born. She started crying as the father handed her back to the mother.
"You'll grow up to be a wonderful girl and have a wonderful future~" The mother embraced the baby as Tianzun himself shivered, it was still weird acting like that. For the sake of pettiness.
Years passed by as the little girl grew up to be a wonderful child in the eyes of the villagers. Mizukume continued to stroll down the village streets while occasionally purchasing sweets that caught her eye.
It was the perfect season when cherry blossoms were in full bloom. The village was in high spirits and she felt happier than ever.
Although one thing did strike her odd, at first she thought it was some disease, but chalked it off to some village ritual. Sometimes when she walked down the streets she would notice that some villagers tended to nudge their right eye despite there being nothing.
Maybe the village was cursed? But she couldn't sense anything of the sort.
"Mizukume! It's time to enjoy the blossoms! We're having a village wide festival!" The village chief yelled out in the distance as the many villagers gathered in the blossom patch.
"Here's to a prosperous future and let's hope that our lucky charm Mizukume becomes a fine lady in the future." He raised a toast as everyone started eating and enjoying the view.
"If only this could last forever..." Mizukume whispered to herself.
Another few years passed by and as she grew older, the oddities within the village started becoming apparent. She had noticed that they hardly exited the village. Now perhaps that wasn't odd, but no, they had never stepped out of the village once.
They all stayed within the boundaries, yet for a village in such a poor financial state, they surprisingly had quite the amount of supplies including even meat.
So if the villagers never left, then how do the supplies keep coming? Not even the farmed goods ever get exported out. She shook her head and looked at the happy villagers. There was no point in thinking about it so hard.
If the answer isn't needed, some things are better off not thought about.
She closed her eyes to fall asleep and when she awoke, her life would change. She would have come of age, an adult.
"Come serve at my court!" The Emperor spoke first thing in the morning.
~~~~
Sefirah Castle:
"You can call me Celestial Worthy, the Lord of Mysteries. Or if you prefer, Mysteries for short." Tianzun sat looking at the baffled old man who was attempting to operate parallel dimensions in order to escape.
"No need to spend your energy on something pointless. Operation of parallel worlds, the second true magic. What you tried... It's just opening a door to another parallel world no?"
Zelretch had lived many years. He had fought against the crimson moon. Yet this man... If you could call him a man. Zelretch instinctively knew who he was.
"You're the deity that the Church of Mysteries worships." Zelretch responded cautiously. He had no chance, within this domain or outside. Zelretch observed the floating symbol behind Celestial Worthy's chair.
"That's the symbol for-"
"Secrecy and change. A symbol that the mages learnt from the Church of Mysteries." Tianzun finished the sentence for him. "Even praying to me as a means to strengthen certain magecraft." Tianzun gestured for him to sit down before asking, "Anything to drink or eat? Feel free to tell me."
The old man had lived for many years and his sense of danger was quite accurate. But he wasn't insane for nothing.
"I'll have tea please, and as for anything to eat? Surprise me." He grinned.
Tianzun chuckled in response, "I like your outlook." He waved his hand as a pot of tea appeared on the mottled table before a few sweet treats appeared.
Tianzun tapped the table a few times before speaking, "I brought you up here for a few reasons. But the main one is quite simple" Zelretch's ears perked up as he hummed.
"You seemed to be very amusing. I'm starting a club. A club of interesting individuals or powerful. I thought I'd extend an invitation to you."
Zelretch laughed boisterously, "This is a definite first for me. A great old one making a club. Great what will it be called?"
Tianzun thought for a bit as a strange feeling overcame him, "The Tarot Club." Zelretch grinned in amusement, "I'm in." Tianzun waved his hand as a deck of cards appeared.
He pulled one out and smiled knowingly, "Very well, then I'll be the Fool." Another set of cards appeared beside Zelretch as he picked one out.
"Welcome Mr Magician."
//Next Chapter: Fury of The Great Old One//