In the Hall of Stars, Hastur sat in his seat, looking down from above at this ritual from the City of Silver.
Although many of them were not his believers, and their faith was not pure, their sacrificial prayers were more like a transaction of equivalent exchange.
They were responsible for providing the offerings and conducting the ritual, while he would provide them with a certain degree of protection.
For existences at the level of gods, sacrificial offerings were fundamentally insignificant. They could only affect their preferences and impressions.
As for whether they would bestow a blessing, that depended on other factors.
A ritual like the City of Silver's, which did not stem from truly devout faith in their hearts, could potentially bring about negative consequences.
It was like this: you were sleeping soundly when someone in the distance started calling your name, waking you from your slumber. The person calling you happened to perfectly match your aesthetic preferences in both appearance and figure, but before you could approach her, she smiled and told you that the person she liked was someone else.
Wouldn't you feel annoyed and want to give her a beating? The City of Silver's current situation was somewhat similar.
Fortunately, the target of their prayers tonight was not the Lord of Storms. Otherwise, given the Lord of Storms' violent temper, He would surely have sent down several bolts of divine punishment, wiping out the ritual site along with the entire City of Silver.
Hastur's good temper came from the enormous crown among the offerings, made entirely of pure gold.
For the sake of this offering prepared by the City of Silver, coupled with the fact that he did not wish to make things difficult for them, he ultimately decided to manifest the gates of the divine kingdom of the Stars.
To prevent any accidents from occurring, Hastur concentrated fully. But an accident still happened.
The High-Dimensional Overseer actually arrived at the City of Silver at this moment. He wore a brown soft hat and was dressed like a traveler in gray and black. His right hand rested on a slender bamboo pole over his shoulder, and from the rear end of the pole hung two Amons tightly bound with green vines.
Mm, they should be Amon avatars that had secretly come to spy on things. It had to be said that the High-Dimensional Overseer was truly skilled at fishing for Amon.
Given His traveling speed, He should have arrived at the City of Silver long ago, but He had quietly hidden himself and waited for the day of the Stars' ritual.
He knew that with Amon's love of joining in on excitement, coupled with His ability to create nearly limitless avatars, He definitely wouldn't be able to resist coming over to join the fun.
Sure enough, tonight He had caught two of Amon's avatars.
"The High-Dimensional Overseer really is a qualified fisherman."
Hastur clicked his tongue softly, his gaze lingering on the two Amons bound to the bamboo pole for a few moments before shifting back to the ongoing ritual of the Stars.
In the central square of the City of Silver, the arrival of the High-Dimensional Overseer caused an uproar and fear among the residents.
Colin's eyelids twitched violently. He didn't know the origins of the person before him, but he could tell that the two people tightly bound to the bamboo pole were Amon's avatars.
Someone capable of easily subduing Amon's avatars had to be terrifyingly powerful.
Before Colin and the residents of the City of Silver could react, the High-Dimensional Overseer walked toward the statue as though no one else were present. He glanced at the statue of the Stars and smiled faintly. With a flick of the bamboo pole on His shoulder, the two tightly bound Amon avatars landed on the offering table and transformed into six Worms of Time that fell into a wineglass.
"It's a ritual for the Stars, so I'll also contribute an offering." The High-Dimensional Overseer spoke to Himself, then swept His gaze over Mr. A, Colin, and the others before smiling. "There's no need to pay so much attention to me. Just continue pleasing the Stars."
"..."
Mr. A's head was filled with question marks, but right now, completing the ritual of the Stars was indeed the priority.
He hurriedly suppressed his other thoughts and cooperated with Colin to complete the final stage of the ritual.
Unfortunately, the starry gateway in the sky did not open. It merely flickered repeatedly as countless rays of starlight descended, enveloping the entire City of Silver.
That night, it seemed as though rain had fallen over the City of Silver. The rain of stars was dreamlike, beautiful, and dazzling.
When the residents of the City of Silver recovered from their shock, the gateway of the Stars deep in the sky had already vanished.
The starlight that had filled the sky like rain had also completely disappeared, leaving them momentarily unable to distinguish whether what they had just witnessed had been an illusion or something that had truly happened.
Mr. A's tense facial expression relaxed slightly, and the heavy stone that had weighed on his heart for so long was finally lifted.
He glanced at the imposing and majestic statue, then at the offering table, before sweeping his gaze around the surroundings. However, he could no longer see the person who had suddenly appeared earlier.
"He has already left," Colin said from the side, his eyes filled with complicated emotions.
"Is He also a resident of the Forsaken Land of the Gods?" Mr. A also changed his wording, choosing to refer to the person from earlier as "He."
Colin shook his head. "I don't know. There are too many secrets here. We haven't even finished investigating the Giant King's Court."
Mr. A thought for a moment and smiled. "Fortunately, tonight's ritual went smoothly. The City of Silver has also successfully obtained the protection of the Stars."
"Yes, this is indeed a good thing." Colin's wrinkled face, rarely relaxed at this moment.
"I'll set out and leave tomorrow." Mr. A directly brought up the matter. Now that the City of Silver had obtained the attention of the Stars, it was time for him to embark on a journey to seek out his own faith.
Should he continue holding firm to his faith in the Lord, or betray his faith in the Lord and choose to believe in the Stars? He needed to resolve this question through a journey.
"This will be a regret for our City of Silver."
Colin sighed. After spending time with Mr. A recently, he had discovered that Mr. A was not as insane as the Aurora Order believers Derrick had described. On the contrary, he was filled with reason and self-restraint.
He always moved forward in the direction he had chosen for himself.
After the ritual of the Stars ended, Colin distributed all the food on the offering table among the residents of the City of Silver, leaving behind only a golden crown, a diamond planet, and a wineglass containing six Worms of Time.
...
Above the gray fog, Klein finally withdrew his gaze after seeing everything come to an end.
Tonight, because Little Sun had informed him in advance, he had paid particular attention to the City of Silver's ritual of the Stars.
Whether it was the miracle bestowed by the Stars or the mysterious figure who had suddenly appeared carrying two Amon avatars suspended from a pole, both left him deeply shocked.
A blessing capable of easily benefiting the entire City of Silver, now that was truly a blessing belonging to a god.
Klein sighed emotionally. Just as he was preparing to leave the gray fog, the gray fog above his head suddenly began churning wildly, as though someone were trying to force their way inside!
Klein looked in the direction where the gray fog was gathering and saw that the mysterious figure who had appeared in the City of Silver tonight was now staring at him through the concealment of the gray fog.
"Mysteries, you've finally appeared. That fellow has been thinking about you all this time."
The words seemed to sound directly beside his ears, striking like a thunderclap. Klein was so shaken that he couldn't recover from his shock for a moment. His entire body stiffened and tensed, cold sweat streaming down his back while beads of sweat formed across his forehead.
How had this mysterious person suddenly appeared outside the gray fog?! And even caused such an enormous reaction from the gray fog!
The degree of rejection was far more intense than when Amon had once tried to invade this place through Derrick.
Just which existence was He?
Thoughts raced rapidly through Klein's mind. He forced himself to calm down and consider how he should resolve the crisis before him.
"Strange. This doesn't fit your personality... Did you only recently awaken?"
"Heh, what do you think?"
Klein said only those words before fully mobilizing the gray fog to drive away this mysterious visitor.
"It seems you aren't truly Mysteries. Are you a vessel left behind by Mysteries to await His resurrection?"
That murmur disappeared into the gray fog, but Klein still heard it clearly.
A vessel for Mysteries' resurrection. Was He talking about him?
Klein's mood suddenly became extremely heavy. He had considered this possibility before, but deep inside, he had always held onto a trace of hope. Perhaps he would be that uniquely special person?
But tonight, someone had directly exposed the truth to his face.
The final trace of hope in his heart was gone. He truly was the vessel for the future resurrection of the Lord of Mysteries!
"Shouldn't I have understood long ago that my fate had already been arranged by someone else?"
Klein laughed self-mockingly and raised his head. The gray fog above Sefirah Castle gradually returned to its usual calm.
That mysterious figure had already been expelled by the gray fog and could no longer appear before him.
"Mysteries..." Klein murmured the word a few times before leaving the gray fog.
Although he was curious about the mysterious person's identity, he wasn't foolish enough to divine anything related to Him.
An existence capable of provoking such intense rejection from the gray fog... That person was probably an incarnation of some true god walking the earth.
...
In the Feynapotter Kingdom, Hastur returned from the Hall of Stars and lay in bed, unable to sleep.
He was thinking about how he should make use of the Worms of Time left behind by Amon. He had obtained twelve Worms of Time from the previous incident, and now he had received another six. Eighteen Worms of Time in total, this was an enormous fortune.
He suddenly felt that Amon's existence was like a boss in a dungeon. Every time he farmed Him, He would reliably drop high-level Beyonder materials like Worms of Time.
If he caught Amon and locked Him up, then kept farming Him, wouldn't that be equivalent to obtaining a perpetual Worm of Time generator?
Hastur only thought about it for a while before turning his gaze toward the mirror placed in front of the window.
After staring at it for a moment, he got up and sat on the sofa by the window, looking at the mirror from close range.
Sharron's figure slowly appeared on its surface.
The crimson moonlight was not particularly bright tonight. As it fell upon the mirror, it seemed to drape Sharron in a hazy red veil.
Beautiful and dreamlike.
Hastur merely smiled in greeting without speaking, quietly admiring the moonlight outside the window together with Sharron.