Chapter 147: Chapter 147: First Sect Meeting [3]

Chapter 147 – First Sect Meeting [3]

Once Ananke had given all her directives, she fell silent and prepared herself, drawing on a significant reserve of GeumGeum to fuel the card-drawing process and make it run smoothly.

She had already envisioned the exhaustion her Blessed would endure afterward.

’I lied to him...’ Ananke thought, feeling a flicker of guilt, but said nothing to warn him.

Already, inside her mind, the irritated voice of Cassius complaining about having his body taken over was echoing without pause. Even though the Goddess paid him no mind, she had no wish to add anything to his rambling.

But all of this was necessary. And in the first place, it was Cassius’s own fault.

He had proposed names that did not fundamentally exist in Sunu Gaal’s Records of Knowledge.

Even those like Sun and Moon — which existed in this world’s understanding — carried vastly different meanings and significance here. Let alone the remaining names Cassius had shamelessly borrowed from his previous world’s solar system, as though it were nothing.

But names held power. So if they wanted this to mean anything — truly mean anything — those names needed to be deeply embedded into Sunu Gaal’s Records. They needed roots.

And that was only possible by binding those names to an inhabitant of this world.

With that understanding settled, Ananke decided to spend whatever GeumGeum was necessary.

She would need to do it quietly, for it was a dangerous act, linking the name of something celestial to a mere mortal, even if that celestial thing was unknown to this world.

But her faith in her believers was as strong as their faith in her.

So...

[Let us begin.]

Sarah drew a slow, shaky breath and leaned forward toward the strange box. At the mere intention of reaching for it, it opened with a sharp click.

She counted to three as instructed, then stretched her hand forward and placed it inside.

The air stilled.

An unknown tension slithered through the meeting room, accompanied by a peculiar feeling. The feeling of being watched by something vast and unknowable, something that perceived everything without limit.

That feeling was fleeting, vanishing as quickly as it arrived — leaving Meadow and Isolde momentarily dazed — only to be broken by an odd voice that resonated directly through their minds.

The voice of the Deck of Providence.

<Destined Card: Moon.>

The words were followed by a card materialising in front of Sarah. It was formed of shadows, but shadows of silver and blue. On its surface, a beautiful silver-blue moon was engraved, shining brilliantly. Yet its light only concealed. It never revealed.

Ananke acted immediately.

With Sarah being her believer, she held more power and more influence over her than she did over most. She used that power to take hold of Sarah’s Nexus Fate Thread — the most fundamental fate thread, the one even Ananke herself could not fully read — and bound it to the Moon Card.

Sarah of Secrecy’s blue eyes snapped wide open.

The Moon Card glowed, dissolved into molten silver-blue light, and entered her. The blue in her eyes began to shift, now a faint silver creeping inward from the edges.

For one brief moment, the tattoo of a full moon appeared on her forehead, then vanished instantly.

The odd voice continued, delivering its final words.

<Sarah of Secrecy — The Moon.>

<The Moon reflects. The Moon records what she witnesses during the shadows she herself casts over the world. The Moon reveals in cycles what she chooses to reveal. And the Moon conceals in darkness.>

Before the moment had fully settled, panels flickered in front of Sarah in rapid succession.

DING!

[You have obtained a new Title: Moon.]

DING!

[Your Aspect: Memory Keeper is attempting to evolve.]

[A fundamental and unexpected requirement has been identified.]

[You have obtained the right to know the conditions for evolving your Aspect from Memory Keeper to Library of Moon.]

[Do you wish to know them?]

Sarah was dazed, unable to fully process what she was witnessing. Aspect Evolution? Was such a thing truly possible?

She turned her mesmerising eyes toward Cassius — toward her Goddess — and saw her smiling through that borrowed face. Though there was now a faint touch of fatigue in those unfathomable eyes.

[This is your reward for your devotion.] Ananke said, then turned to Meadow. [Your turn now.]

Meadow nodded, her heart thundering with excitement. She already felt that something fundamental in her was about to change.

Setting aside Sarah — who was gazing at her Goddess with a faith that only deepened with every passing second — Meadow counted to three and plunged her right hand inside the box.

As with the first time, the air in the room shifted.

But the sensation was entirely different in its nature.

The feeling that settled over both Isolde and Sarah as golden light condensed into a Card in front of Meadow made them feel an instinctive, uncomfortable urge to confess everything; as though a light had been turned on and trained directly on every shadow they had been trying to keep hidden.

It was deeply uncomfortable.

The Deck of Providence spoke again.

<Destined Card: Sun.>

Inside Ananke’s mind, Cassius was already cursing, demanding to know why Meadow received the Sun Card.

The Goddess only smiled, knowing exactly why.

She looked at the card where a golden sun with mesmerising rays extending in all directions, etched across its surface.

She repeated the process, binding Meadow’s Nexus Fate Thread to the Sun Card.

The card dissolved and entered the young tycoon. A Sun tattoo appeared on her forehead for a heartbeat, then faded.

Inside herself, Meadow felt something shift, a part of her fundamentally modified and significantly enhanced.

She felt stronger. And new ways of wielding her Aspect began to bloom inside her mind with startling clarity.

But the Deck of Providence spoke again, cutting through the strange, euphoric sensation.

<Meadow Wealth — Sun.>

<The Sun illuminates everything. It hides nothing, and burns away every deception that cloaks the world. No one can lie beneath the Sun.>

Meadow drew a shaky breath, murmuring soft, amazed words under her breath.

DING!

[You have obtained a new Title: Sun.]

And that was all.

Unlike Sarah’s Aspect — which was unique but still modest in potency — Meadow’s Aspect was already of the highest grade, comparable to that of a true Chosen One.

At her level, evolution would require far more than a celestial name bound to her Nexus Fate.

Ananke understood that clearly, and moved immediately to Isolde.

By this point, the fatigue was visible with Cassius’s skin growing paler and paler by the moment.

What she was doing was something no other god would ever attempt. Something most gods could not even conceive of attempting.

Her Gate was special beyond understanding. She had always known that, for she had never encountered another Gate so close to the fundamental Authorities of Mother System as her own.

That proximity allowed her to do things other gods could not begin to fathom. But the price was steep.

Ananke was pouring back every fragment of GeumGeum she had accumulated, reversing the pitiful progress she had managed to make on the Ladder.

It was deeply, genuinely aggravating.

But by now, she had learned one important lesson that few gods ever came to understand.

’To receive, you must first give.’ Ananke thought, silently asking Cassius to hold on just a little longer.

She had not anticipated having to go this far. But having started, she had to finish.

The Queen of Fate looked at Isolde who had already plunged her right hand into the Deck, a card already floating in front of her face.

The Card was strange. One moment it appeared solid, the next it appeared liquid, before reverting to solid again.

It transmuted constantly, as though incapable of settling into a single state, or rather...as though it existed precisely between states, permanently occupying the boundary.

Ananke’s eyes curved with delight.

[How fitting.] She whispered.

And indeed...

<Destined Card: Mercury.>

Isolde’s heart lurched, her purple eyes filling with a strange and overwhelming sensation.

The Card surged toward her and entered her body directly. She shook as though an electrical charge had been released somewhere deep inside her.

A strange mark appeared on her forehead — a circle, with a curved line just above it — and vanished.

<Isolde Amaris — Mercury.>

<Mercury is the messenger between worlds. The one who escorts souls to death. Unseen, unheard, leaving no trace behind.>

’Oh my...’ Isolde breathed inwardly, then noticed the panels appearing at the edge of her vision.

DING!

[You have obtained a new Title: Mercury.]

DING!

[Alstar, Mother of Assassins, watches you with eyes holding the light of surprise.]

[Alstar, Mother of Assassins, wonders where the Name came from.]

[The Mother of Assassins’s interest in Isolde Amaris is growing.]

’Even a goddess is surprised...’ Isolde mused, then turned her gaze to Cassius, who looked as though not a single drop of blood remained in him.

"Are you alright?" She asked immediately, moving closer, her concern firmly on him rather than on the Goddess.

[Sufficient.] Ananke answered on his behalf, her breathing audibly strained. [Sufficient for one more.]

She let out a quiet smile and looked inward.

’Are you ready, Cassius?’

’You are going to leave me bedridden at this rate.’ Cassius sighed.

’Not bedridden. A few hours of sleep and a healing potion should see to it. And you are already bearing it better than before, your Innate is working.’

’Let’s just finish it, Queen.’

Ananke acted on Cassius’s behalf and placed his hand inside the Deck of Providence.

It glowed a warm, brilliant light flooding out and blanketing the space entirely.

The three women watched in silence, each quietly wondering what card would come for him.

A Card materialised before him. Its form was fixed, but the image inside shifted constantly, as though it contained everything and anything at once.

Since Ananke herself had become Cassius’s Nexus Fate the moment she gave him her Blessing, she linked the Card to herself. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

And in linking it to herself, she linked it to Cassius Desdemona.

Because they were one and the same.

Their Fates of Life and Death were locked together, permanently and irrevocably.

And so the Deck of Providence spoke one final time.

This time, the tone had changed.

No longer odd. No longer distant.

It was the voice of something that had been waiting a very long time for this moment.

<Destined Card: Earth.>

The entire mansion trembled.

The earth beneath it seemed to writhe and twist upon itself.

Isolde, Meadow and Sarah rose from their seats in a single movement, stepping back instinctively — hearts hammering — watching the infinite, shifting light that now enveloped Cassius entirely.

For just a moment, within the light moving around him like some kind of ancient and mythical dance, they thought they saw it: a beautiful blue world, and a woman whose face and future were blurred beyond recognition, holding that world in her arms with a love so profound it was almost unbearable to look at.

And in their daze, the Deck delivered its final words.

<Cassius Desdemona — Earth.>

<Mountains may erode. Forests may burn. Civilisations become dust and ashes. But through all of it...Earth remains. Earth persists. Through transformation. Through adaptation. And yet, Earth is also...>

The light began to pull back, drawing away, returning Cassius to himself, Ananke receding with it.

<...the Memory of Everything That Has Ever Happened.>

—End of Chapter 147—