"It works now. All we have to do is write our 'wish' on this paper crane, and that Snake of Mercury will come help make it happen."
"You're pretty free with the favors, considering it's a Sequence 1 Grand Angel."
Vincent muttered, "I honestly think it sent us that paper crane on purpose."
Just like in the original story — Klein had gotten the little snake's paper crane after what looked like a whole investigation and search, but from how things played out afterward, it was almost certainly the little snake's plan from the very start, engineered to build a connection with Klein.
By the same logic — now that the little snake thought Bernadette could help it toward Sequence 0, of course it would want a deeper relationship with her too.
Vincent seriously suspected that "praying to the great serpent so that 5664 finds the little snake" was purely a pretext the little snake had invented on its own.
Of course, this was all just his own guesswork — it was the Fate Pathway, after all. Anything was possible.
"So what do we do next?"
Their original plan had been to pray to the great serpent, try to make contact, and ask whether it could help with what was coming.
With the little snake interrupting like that, the original plan was on hold for now.
"How about we just pray to the True Creator instead? Ask for its opinion."
Come to think of it, it had been a while since Vincent had heard the True Creator's "Sukabolie." Back when he'd had that cross bracelet, he could "call" it directly whenever he wanted.
But after the bracelet helped him fend off the Primordial Witch's attack, it had lost its connection to the True Creator, and he could no longer use it to talk to the god at all — not that the "conversation" had ever amounted to much: either incomprehensible whispering, a stream of "Sukabolie," or the god singing along with him to a few lines of Katyusha. Basically nothing useful ever came out of it.
That was exactly why he'd felt safe lending it to Little Sun temporarily — otherwise, one burst of the True Creator's whispering and Little Sun would've lost control and dropped dead on the spot.
Still — it'd been almost a week now. Why hadn't Derrick returned the thing yet?
Bernadette asked, hesitant, "Are you sure it can give you anything useful?"
"..."
"If you're set on this, I'd suggest waiting until you're the one in control of the body to pray to it. The 'countryman' the True Creator recognizes is you, not me."
"Hey, you're still its countryman's daughter, at least."
"I don't think it can tell the difference."
True enough — the True Creator these days was basically in a pure state of madness.
He still had no idea how, in the original story, when Klein arrived at the god-forsaken land, the True Creator had suddenly regained its sanity and had that whole in-depth conversation with him.
"Then let's go find Katerina again. See what she can tell us about the current situation. Why is the news of George III's advancement all over Backlund, and yet the city's still so calm? Are the Castia and Tamara families getting cold feet?"
Bernadette said flatly, "Fights between neighboring pathways in the same lineage are always to the death. The more afraid you are, the fewer options you actually have. Everything right now is just the calm before the storm."
...
In Queens District, at that same villa where they'd met Katerina twice before, Bernadette was met with an empty house — everyone gone, everything cleaned out spotless, as if no one had ever lived there.
Except for a letter sitting on the coffee table in the living room: "To Mr. A."
"Careful — the Witch cult's leadership already knows about my 'cooperation' with you. Since you already know where the tomb is, I shouldn't need to spell out the rest for you."
"I'm pulling out for now. Wishing you the best of luck next week."
That was all the letter said. It looked like nothing on the surface, but it actually gave away one very important detail: "next week."
Bernadette folded the letter and said quietly, "Next week, huh?"
Vincent clicked his tongue. "No idea whether that message we had the Intis ambassador send back will actually draw Intis and the Iron Blood Cross Society over here. Hope those two really beat the hell out of each other when the time comes!"
Bernadette then asked a question that didn't quite suit her usual composure: "...Tell me — why would the Church tolerate the Witch cult and the Aurora Order working with George III to cause that much bloodshed?"
"Er, as a local here, and a Queen Mystic who's been through plenty — shouldn't you know that better than me? The Church isn't actually as 'righteous' as it advertises, and the gods aren't nearly as 'merciful' as legend says." Vincent thought it over. "Besides, it's not really about tolerance — the Aurora Order and the Witch cult were positioned from the start to take the fall for George III."
"No."
She shook her head. "You're not getting what I'm actually asking. I mean — why would the Church, the Seven Gods, be so willing to tacitly allow George III's ascension to godhood in the first place?"
"One more god means the existing faith gets split, and one more potential enemy — especially one already tangled up with the True Creator and the Primordial Witch, both of whom the Seven Gods despise."
"If I were one of the Seven Gods, I'd absolutely not want an eighth god showing up."
Vincent thought it over. "That... I honestly don't know."
He really didn't. It was likely part of the plot he hadn't finished reading yet, but his best guess was that it had something to do with the apocalypse.
"Maybe it has something to do with the legendary apocalypse?"
"The apocalypse?"
Bernadette repeated the word softly. "Dad's personality suddenly changed, and he tried to force his way to Black Emperor, all because he learned about the apocalypse. Now George III's attempting to become Black Emperor too."
"But — why was Dad opposed and stopped, while George III's being tacitly allowed?"
"That..."
Now that was a good question.
Based on the original story and fan speculation, the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun and the Church of Steam and Machinery had gone after Roselle — the former for unclear reasons, possibly just not wanting Roselle to slip out of their control, or possibly because Roselle had risen to Black Emperor with Adam's backing, making him a natural ally of Adam — something the Eternal Blazing Sun, a traitor to that alliance, would obviously not want to see.
As for the God of Steam and Machinery, that was pure "love turned to hate": I gave you everything I had to give, made you second only to me in the whole Church, and you still weren't satisfied... Classic resentful-lover logic — which was exactly why the God of Steam and Machinery got jokingly nicknamed "Steam Girl."
Though Vincent had later learned online that "Steam Girl" was apparently some ripped guy with eight-pack abs, which made the whole thing even more interesting.
Hey — should he tell Bernadette that her dad had almost gotten her a god as a "second dad"?
To be continued…
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