"When Roselle was gathering items related to Sefirot, he actually attracted the attention of quite a few existences. They all, to varying degrees, facilitated the successful execution of that ritual eleven years ago," Aglea continued at this time. "The ones I could sense were the Mother Tree of Desire, the True Creator, and the Mother Goddess of Depravity—She is also the one who influenced Bethel and Roselle.
"Besides that, the 'Seal of Calamity' Roselle often mentioned is also very suspicious… and then there are some of the orthodox gods. I suspect they tacitly approved of this as well."
I remember that Little Snake Will mentioned that, aside from "me," the biggest mastermind, and the evil gods you mentioned, the existences paying attention to that experiment also included Yaldabaoth, the Spiritual Order, the Hidden Sage, and Little Snake himself.
And through "analyzing" the "secrets" of the five survivors like Bianca and Maria, I have come to understand some of the essence of that ritual… its greatest function was to use the "God's Box," with items carrying the aura of Sefirot as a medium, to communicate with those Sefirot sealed by the gray fog in the Western Continent.
And the "bridge" of that communication… first, it could be the authority of the "Door," so this ritual likely required the power of Mr. Door to be completed;
Second, it was the special souls originally inside the "God's Box" that were closely related to Sefirot.
Therefore, one of the side effects of this ritual was the ability to determine the locations of those special souls, or the soul stones formed from them, or the characteristics stripped from those special souls by the "God of Luck."
Thus, I still haven't figured out the true purpose of the True Creator in paying attention to this ritual, but the Mother Tree of Desire clearly used this "ritual" to locate that sea monster carrying characteristics related to the Tenebrous World, and then set up a scheme, successfully using me to find the Tenebrous World. Even now, it is still entangled with it—although, judging from the current situation, it seems more like It has fallen into the schemes of the Goddess and Lilith…
Mm, perhaps not only that… judging from the state of Suah that Klein divined, maybe the Mother Goddess of Depravity also intervened.
As for the Hidden Sage, it most likely also used that ritual to determine that the special soul related to the Knowledge Moor inside the "God's Box" had its characteristics transferred onto Yaloran, which is why it kept targeting her, forcing her to hide for many years.
Its act of seizing the Sequence 1 "Knowledge Emperor" last time might have been a smokescreen, waiting for Yaloran to lower her guard before dealing with her… of course, it's also possible that it hasn't become a true god yet, and its top priority is still completing the Sequence 0 ritual, so there's no need to aim for Sefirot so early.
As for the Mother Goddess of Depravity, there's no need to elaborate. Her greatest goal was to find the "Brood Hive," but unfortunately, the ritual eleven years ago did not fully succeed, and the characteristics of the "Brood Hive" remain unknown to this day.
However, She did not gain nothing… for example, She likely used this to trap the Mother Tree of Desire.
On the side of the Spiritual Order, it was probably Princess Bruna of the former Balam Empire who was presiding over the matter. She was likely just carrying out Roselle's instructions… moreover, since "Pale Admiral" Maria was discovered early and brought into the Spiritual Order, the issues on her body were addressed most promptly. She was probably the one among the five survivors who fared the best.
However, according to Alvin's memories, the "Pale Empress" Shia Palenque Eggers of the Spiritual Order was actually an avatar of the Goddess… which means the Goddess had been monitoring that experiment all along. No wonder She was able to prevent the response of the River of Eternal Darkness in time.
As for "Duke of Terror" Yaldabaoth, on the surface he was following Roselle's final wishes. Even the matter of providing sufficient "sacrifices" for the ritual was handled entirely by him…
It was precisely because of his push that the once-every-twelve-years "Castle Trial" of the northern nobles of the Feysac Empire came into being!
As for whose will this "Duke of Terror" truly represents… it could be Adam, but more likely it is the "God of Luck"…
He is very likely a backup plan planted in advance by the "God of Luck" to secure dominance after his "revival."
This can be seen from the fact that he disrupted parts of the "Seal of Calamity's" plans multiple times…
And in this matter, his active involvement was likely for two reasons. First, to sabotage Rhine's "revival" method; second, he likely sensed the schemes of the "Seal of Calamity," so he followed the entire process to keep the development of the ritual under his control.
As for the purpose of the "Seal of Calamity," it's relatively easy to guess. After all, the "God of Luck" himself carries a special soul related to the Key of Light. Otherwise, he wouldn't have "awakened" after opening the "God's Box"… in short, he wanted to expose the location of the "God of Luck's" body, attract that snake to seize it, and disrupt its arrangements.
Mm, perhaps this is why the True Creator paid attention to the ritual? But He ultimately didn't take action, nor did He inform the Angel of Fate Ouroboros…
That could either be because the True Creator was interfered with and couldn't obtain the exact location… though this possibility seems unlikely.
Or it could be that the True Creator believed that if Ouroboros disrupted the "God of Luck's" arrangements, then the debt owed in terms of fate would become even greater—so great that it couldn't be repaid with just a single characteristic!
If it were someone else, killing them would settle any so-called "debt of fate," but Liu Bo clearly cannot truly be killed. That debt would have to be repaid sooner or later.
As for "Little Snake" Will, He clearly doesn't want to get involved in the struggle among the "Liu Bo"s. As long as the "Unknown" doesn't awaken, no matter who wins, they must fulfill their promises to Him.
So His attention to this experiment was probably more about guarding against the True Creator…
As for the seven orthodox gods… the Goddess was probably watching the entire time but chose not to interfere. She likely used this opportunity to set up some arrangements, though the specific effects remain unclear. Even the hidden moves targeting the Mother Tree of Desire and the Hidden Sage are just my guesses.
The attitude of the Earth Mother Goddess Lilith is also unclear. She appears uninformed and even assigned me a task to investigate… but I feel that this is merely part of Her plan. As for what She aims to achieve, I cannot figure it out at all…
The God of Knowledge and Wisdom probably didn't know beforehand, but after remotely studying the "Pale Admiral," He likely understood everything… hehe, the information He shared back then was probably the most insignificant part of what He had "discerned."
The Lord of Storms doesn't seem to have intervened, but for Mr. Door to leak even a trace of power to assist that ritual, it would have been impossible not to alert Him… it seems He also tacitly approved.
The Eternal Blazing Sun and the God of Steam and Machinery show no signs of involvement. Perhaps they were unaware…
As for the God of Combat, He most likely also gave tacit approval. After all, the Observer Castle is within His domain. It would have been nearly impossible for Yaldabaoth and those nobles to create such a commotion without Him noticing.
Combining Aglea's account, Ebner quickly analyzed most of the masterminds behind this experiment. Just as he was about to continue asking his "cheap" daughter more questions, Roselle suddenly returned to the "Ritual Room."
This also meant that the focus of the theater had shifted back here once again.
Thus, Ebner and Aglea quickly returned to their "acting" states.
(End of Chapter)