Grisha looked at the potion in awe, tilting the vial from time to time as the multicolored liquid swirled inside. It looked like a cocktail where its layers would never mix. Shades of blue like the ocean, silver with bubbles, pitch black, churning crimson, and pure white liquids danced within the glass.
{Based on the principle of reciprocity, you can ask one more question, Great Master.}
Among sealed artifacts, Arrodes' divination power was second to none, capable of glimpsing information about gods, but it wouldn't dare to show it on the surface of the mirror, as it would alert the deity. But to be able to use this special artifact, the user had to answer an embarrassing or sensitive question from the mirror itself, and had to be accompanied by someone to witness the act for Arrodes to be used. If the user doesn't answer the question, they will receive a lightning strike as punishment.
However, those favored by Arrodes could bypass the majority of the rules. The only rule that remained was the fact that the favored one still needed to answer a question from Arrodes, though it could be twisted by the mirror itself. The mirror would either ask a trivial question or phrase it so that they can ask two questions in one setting. In conclusion, it is totally biased and rigged from the beginning.
Grisha smiled, fully knowing how the system worked, and asked like a professional seer.
"Is it safe to drink this potion?"
{Yes. Despite the potion containing the Sequence 9 of Visionary (Spectator), Sun (Bard), Tyrant (Sailor), White Tower (Reader), and Hanged Man (Secrets Suppliant) pathways, it's perfectly safe for Great Master's consumption!}
Grisha felt his eyebrow twitch. 'Are you serious? You mean to tell me, this isn't a potion of one of God Almighty's pathways, but all of them combined into one? If I didn't know any better, I would've thought that you were trying to kill me!'
After all, drinking various potions at the same time, even for neighbouring pathways, would lead to instant loss of control. Thus, his mind entered into conflict: should he trust in his metaknowledge or in Arrodes?
'Well, since I haven't been corrupted until now, should I think of it as a perk from my reincarnation?' Grisha thought and wondered if he was immune to corruption and/or madness. If he really had, then he should be fine drinking this potion. 'It's a huge gamble, with my life on the line.' He thought and had to admit it was a bit reckless and idiotic, but would he lose?
'Nah, I'd win.'
Grisha smiled, raising the vial to his lips and drank it in one go. The cold liquid slid down his throat, and the transformation from a regular human to a Beyonder had immediately begun.
Grisha froze, his mind suddenly blanked, and everything had gone silent. Then the illusory eyes of the Chaos Sea reappeared, as if to witness him taking his first steps to godhood.
Amidst the silence, he could feel his body changing. Phantom scales started to grow underneath the clothes, and his muscles were bulging and condensing, his eyes felt stinging as his vision felt clear, and the darkness in the corridor was actively receding.
Before Grisha could adapt, a barrage of images, sounds, voices, and names that he wasn't supposed to hear hit him, causing his spiritually to go erratic.
*Booom!*
The surroundings were trembling as if an earthquake was happening, and despite all that, he was smiling.
'Comparing this to what I felt earlier, this is nothing.' Grisha calmly closed his eyes and conjured an image of Arrodes. He focused on it until his spirituality started to stabilize.
However, the process didn't end just yet, there was a final step left.
Grisha let go of the image of the silver mirror and replaced something that didn't exist in this world. His imagination started with anime related objects, then progressed to astronauts, the moon, stars, cosmos, and then to cosmic beings.
The corridor that was once chaotic returned to its serene state. The illusory eyes of Chaos Sea squinted in amusement before disappearing, and the phantom scales fell off his body and dispersed into nothingness.
Everything returned to normalcy, and at the center of all, Grisha opened his eyes and smiled.
"I've become a Beyonder, and probably the strongest Sequence 9 that ever existed." He muttered with surprisingly calmness, considering his situation. 'Is this what Gojo Satoru felt when he unlocked the Reverse Curse Technique? I feel enlightened.'
Besides the massive physical improvement and strength that definitely didn't belong to a 12-year-old kid, his mind felt clearer and sharper like never before, and with eidetic memory, he could recall every detail of Lord of the Mysteries' lore that he had learned.
With Arrodes in his hand, Grisha made his way to the exit.
{Congratulations on recovering a portion of your former strength, Great Master! Do you have anything in mind?}
"Has Ancient Sun God already been fallen by 'His' followers?"
{There are no sun gods who have been slain by their followers from any pantheon on Earth in the last millennium. But those inferior gods don't hold a candle to you once you regain your authorities!}
Grisha stopped in his tracks as he had to digest the information that he had just received.
'The existence of multiple sun gods should be impossible, as there can only be one Sequence 0 of the Sun pathway at a time!' Grisha was genuinely confused as this went against everything he learned about Lord of the Mysteries. 'Unless…'
"Arrodes, what is the current situation outside the world?"
{Current year is 1997, 9 years after the incident known to the world as 'Chernobyl Disaster', but in reality was the awakening of the Chaos Sea. And then several human magicians, devils, etc, have visited the projected reality, but failed to find the entrance to the Sefirot or anything irregular in their eyes. Do you have more questions?}
"Can you tell me more about those human magicians and devils?" Grisha asked for elaboration. There were devils from the 'Abyss' pathway and magicians from the 'Seer' pathway, but he had a feeling that Arrodes wasn't referring to them.
{Human magicians referred to humans who prove themselves capable of learning and utilizing Magic. Currently, the magic system developed by Merlin Ambrosius is one of the most popular among magicians. The most well-known organizations are Grauzauberer and Golden Dawn. Devils are a race created by Lilith and Helel, after he fell from grace and changed his name to Lucifer. However, after the Great Biblical War between Heaven (Bible God and Angels), Grigori (Fallen Angels) and Underworld (Devils), devils lost majority of their forces and entered in dire state that was leading to extinction, so after a civil war between the Old Satan faction and Anti-Satan faction, the latter emerged victorious and their leaders inherited the old Satan names as title. The current leaders are Sirzechs (Gremory) Lucifer, Ajuka (Astaroth) Beelzebub, Serafall (Sitri) Leviathan, and Fallbium (Glasya-Labolas) Asmodeus.}
Grisha blinked rapidly as his mind raced upon recognizing some of these names that felt strangely familiar.
'W–Wait a moment.' His eyes widened as he connected the dots, 'It's no wonder I haven't been corrupted by the knowledge of Outer Gods because 'They' simply don't exist here in 'Highschool DxD'!'
Grisha sighed in relief and smiled, feeling more confident now that the danger level had massively decreased.
'If I recall correctly, there should be some years left before canon.' He thought and resumed walking. 'I have to advance in sequences as much as I can before shit hits the fan.'
By then, he reached the exit, and without hesitation, he twisted the handle and pushed the rusty door open. The door creaked, and the sunrays illuminated the corridor after years of darkness.
Grisha took a deep breath and savored the fresh air while stretching his arms. Looking at the position of the sun, it was about midday.
'Chernobyl is just as I imagined it to be, completely abandoned.' He saw deserted streets with zero signs of recent human activity, and all he needed were some zombies to be a perfect scenario for a zombie apocalypse movie.
He raised the hand that was holding Arrodes and asked.
"Arrodes."
{Yes, Great Master, what is your question?}
"Where is the nearest human settlement?"
{The nearest human settlement is 30 km away in the direction you are facing.}
Grisha nodded, and when he was about to stride forward, he heard his stomach grumble. He was speechless for a second before remembering that it had been quite a long time since he last ate.
"...Also, where is the nearest place that I can safely eat?"
Reading the answer from the Sealed Artifact, Grisha nodded solemnly and followed the path that was told, silently lamenting that it would be pretty embarrassing if he died of hunger before becoming a God.
…
Inside a church within Chernobyl's exclusion zone, an old man could be seen praying. He was Father Petro, a retired exorcist who decided to live out the rest of his life in his hometown.
No young people were living there, just some old folks who were too stubborn to move out of the city, despite the disaster that had happened here. Furthermore, an abandoned city like this would be a safe haven for some Stray Devils, so Petro had to look out for his neighbours to prevent anything bad from happening.
He sighed softly, getting up from his kneeling position and prepared to return to the bedroom, but then he heard someone knocking on the door,
"Humn." Petro frowned as it was unusual for anyone in this community to seek him late at night, unless it was an emergency. He seamlessly walked towards the door while the muscles under the priest's robe gradually tensed.
He looked through the peephole and saw a blond haired boy, wearing ragged clothes and dirty all over his body, but what caught his attention was the silver mirror in his hand…It felt rather special.
'Not an illusion.' The warrior's instincts that Petro honed over the years told him that this wasn't a trap to lure him out and ambush him, but there was something off about this boy. Still, it didn't stop the priest from being concerned, so he opened the door.
"Hello little one, why have you come so late at night? Where are your parents?" Petro asked in Ukrainian with a gentle, trying to look approachable, but he noticed confusion on the boy's face. 'Did he not understand?'
"M–Mister, if it's not much, can I spend the night here?" The boy asked in English, his voice trembled from either nervousness or cold.
'A foreigner? How did a kid end up here? This isn't exactly a famous place for tourism!' Petro thought and felt like he should have a serious talk with the boy's parents. "Of course, the house of Lord welcomes anyone." This time, he spoke in English.
Petro guided the boy inside and offered him a chair to sit on.
"I am Father Petro, the priest who takes care of this Church." Petro introduced himself. The boy stopped trembling, but he still looked rather nervous, clenching tightly on the silver mirror. "What's your name?"
"I-I am Grisha." The boy said nervously, but in his mind was another story. 'Man, I hope my nonexistent acting skills won't let me down.'
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Hi guys, sorry for the late update! Life has been busy with university starting all over again. By the way, what are your thoughts about LOTM anime?