Chapter 52: Oh, Dear, of Course!

Chapter 52: Oh, Darling, Of Course!

What,

everyone knows I am an evil god?

Karen felt somewhat speechless,

Mr. Hoffen said he was an evil god, the cat at home said he was an evil god, and the radio goblin also said he was an evil god;

but he himself,

truly was not.

He was no reincarnated "spiritual child,"

nor was he the rebirth of some "True God,"

he had not the slightest connection to the God of Order or the God of Light;

even his understanding of this world had begun amidst the domestic gossip of Aunt Mary and Uncle Mason.

In his past life he was Zhou Xun, and in this life he was Karen; of this, there was no doubt.

However,

he had grown somewhat accustomed to it, much like he had grown accustomed to his own handsome face.

Karen placed the gift box on the passenger seat, but after a moment's hesitation, he put it away, slipping it into the car's interior drawer and securing it with two stacks of Lubis so it would not rattle.

This box of paint, barring any surprises, was likely made from Linda's ashes.

Because if it were merely an ordinary box of paint, given Piaget's wealth combined with his own family background, there was absolutely no need to make a special gift of it, as he was not some destitute young apprentice obsessed with painting but lacking the money to buy materials.

He started the car and drove forward.

Steering at a steady pace, Karen pondered in his heart:

From the looks of it, Linda was likely not a believer of the Berry Faith, but rather a follower of the Mural Faith.

Because to a certain extent, the style of the Berry Faith believers was very similar to that of the Mural Faith;

the former pursued gratitude toward nature and emphasized the liberation of one's instincts, to the point where their morals had once slid so far that whenever people heard a clothes-free gathering was being held somewhere, they would always follow up with: it must have been done by that bunch of Berry Faith believers!

The latter, in this modern era where a slave class generally no longer existed, essentially belonged to the realm of painters and artists.

The former were numerous, after all, it was very easy to pretend to be an artist, or to mistakenly believe oneself to be an artist, while the latter could utilize the vast numbers of the former to conceal themselves.

So then,

was Linda ultimately a human or an aberrant demon?

Alfred had once said that Lady Molly could no longer be considered human, because the human part of her had long since dwindled to a pitiful shred; even if she now used the body of the deceased nurse, "Nace," to present herself in a "human" guise once more, in essence, Lady Molly was an aberrant demon.

Therefore,

someone like Linda, whose very remains had been burned to ash, undoubtedly belonged to the category of aberrant demons; Lady Molly, at least, had two legs and a face left.

The books said,

in order to keep up with cycles and fearing it would be too late to create them on short notice, the Mural Faith would sometimes even choose to "pre-fabricate" murals.

This "pre-fabrication" here actually carried the implication of "prophecy."

They seemed able to foresee the God's next move.

In fact, setting aside the religious aspect of "recording," the medium of the mural itself often carried imaginations of the future as well.

Just like the murals within tombs, many times the first half recorded the achievements and merits of the tomb owner during their lifetime, while the second half was highly likely to be the tomb owner's state of living in the "Kingdom of the Dead," and in some cases, curses upon future grave robbers would even be added.

It was no wonder this church could never truly grow large and powerful, for this attribute of the Mural Faith doomed it to be suppressed by the major orthodox churches.

Foreseeing the future was the will of the "True God," the capability of the "True God," and something that required obtaining fragmented words from the deity through descent rituals to guess and comprehend; how could a tiny church like yours be allowed to snatch the "livelihood" of the True God and the major churches?

Karen felt that this must be the real reason why Linda needed to borrow the identity of the "Berry Faith" to hide herself.

So then, how strong was Linda's power exactly?

Compared to Alfred?

Unknowingly, Alfred had already become Karen's unit of measurement for analyzing and gauging the strength of aberrant demons.

Or perhaps,

the abilities of certain aberrant demons could not be distinguished by simple "strength" and "weakness"?

Just like Purr, it could easily tear through the illusions created by the bewitching demon with its claws, yet when facing a possessed puppet, it could only be kicked flying.

What a pity,

the records in the books regarding this were not very detailed; the specifics would still have to wait until he returned to ask Dis, who surely knew more.

"Alright, the Evil God is going to drive home now."

Karen smiled with self-deprecation.

Then,

his expression froze,

and he slammed violently on the brakes!

The sudden deceleration caused Karen's body to lurch, the seatbelt jerking tightly against him twice.

Who knows I am an evil god?

Mr. Hoffen, Purr—they were direct participants in the divine descent ritual and also knew the previous "Karen," so it was normal for them to know he was an "evil god."

Alfred had said later that it was because he had inadvertently utilized Jeff's remains to descend his consciousness onto the spiritual bridge between himself and Lady Molly, combined with that rendition of "The Internationale" sung in Chinese—which was the "holy hymn" in Alfred's words—which had given him an immense shock;

he had also clashed with Dis, and Dis's mystery made him think of the non-compliant, over-specification divine descent ritual that had occurred not long ago in the city of Belwin;

in short, Alfred had arrived at this conclusion because he had been in deep contact with him, coupled with his own intellectual analysis.

To a certain extent, Dis had even condoned Alfred's speculation, and had furthermore agreed to his and Lady Molly's employment applications, granting them the status of listed aberrant demon assistants under the Church of Order.

Aside from the two of them,

who else could know he was an evil god?

Could one tell he was an evil god just by a single glance?

Was Linda that powerful?

Both Purr and Dis had told him that as long as he was not currently in that state of awakening corpses in the basement, in his daily life, he was an absolute, genuine ordinary person;

because he had not entered the church at all, nor had he undergone purification; except for those occasionally triggered special abilities, he really was just an ordinary person.

So,

how did Linda see through it?

Most importantly,

look at the reactions of Mr. Hoffen and Purr toward his identity as an "evil god";

even on the verge of death, Mr. Hoffen felt that letting Dis kill him was the wisest choice, and while Purr seemed to have a great relationship with him for the sake of eating fish, in her heart she had always been very averse to him forming any connection with her family's descendants, fearing his identity as an evil god would bring misfortune to her clan.

What about Linda?

She was grateful to me for becoming friends with her husband, grateful that I had come to accompany him and help him move on during this period of despondency following her loss.

Did you perhaps have some kind of misunderstanding about the concept of an "Evil God"?

Yet,

if it was not a misunderstanding,

then did it mean,

she actually understood herself quite well?

Therefore,

who else could understand themselves?

...

"In a few days, another grand-scale deity descent ritual will be held in the City of Berwin. A powerful aberrant demon will attempt to summon his progenitor, who was suppressed by the God of Order in the previous epoch."

"Yes, I will help him fulfill his long-cherished wish, and he will help me completely strip away all blame and suspicion from the previous deity descent ritual."

...

What his grandfather had said on the hearse, when they were bringing Mr. Hoffen home last time, surfaced in Cullen's mind.

There was one more person,

no,

there was one more aberrant demon who also knew about his grandfather's grand-scale deity descent ritual, and he was prepared to replicate this ritual. This action of his would help wash away all suspicion from the Inmeles family.

Cullen restarted the car, then turned the steering wheel sharply to make a U-turn.

The car pulled up once again in front of Piaget's house. To Cullen's surprise, Piaget's car, which had been parked right next to his when he came out earlier, was gone now.

Cullen got out of the car and pushed open the courtyard gate. The inner door of Piaget's house was still unlocked, even left wide open.

"Piaget? Piaget?"

Cullen called out in the living room.

On the dining table, the breakfast plates had not yet been cleared away.

Cullen went upstairs, searching the bedroom, the guest room, and the study, but Piaget was nowhere to be seen.

Finally, Cullen came to that art studio.

He pushed the door open;

there were only paintings inside, no people.

Yet,

different from his last visit,

the wall that had originally been pristine white was now painted with a mural, much like the ceiling of the guest room last night.

Cullen walked up to this mural and took a few steps back.

In the mural,

a woman floated in mid-air. Beneath her lay a cluster of buildings, and on the rooftop of the tallest skyscraper, there was the figure of a man holding a box in his hands, looking up at the woman in the sky with a smile on his face.

As for the woman,

she was shedding tears while extending her hand toward the sky.

In the sky, there was a patch of dark clouds, but deep within those dark clouds, a towering figure loomed indistinctly—it was the silhouette of a giantess.

Her hair was very long, like vines, surrounded by a luminescence akin to stardust. The hands she extended from the dark clouds held a pond on one side and a giant quill feather on the other.

The Mural Cult!

The Evil God Linda wanted to summon... was the True God of the Mural Cult, the very deity in the image of a giantess that he had dreamed of last night.

Was this her progenitor?

Was this giantess her ancestor?

Or perhaps, in Dis's narrative and perception, to a true believer, the True God of their faith was inherently a closer and grander existence than one's own progenitor?

After all, how many people could directly state the names of their grandfather's father?

Yet the vast majority of people could recite the honorary title of the True God of their faith, even if separated by thousands of years or more than an epoch.

Cullen lowered his gaze;

at the very bottom of the mural,

an altar was depicted—something that shouldn't have been drawn, yet was rendered through artistic exaggeration and enlargement.

Cullen took a deep breath.

So,

the relatively powerful aberrant demon grandfather spoke of, who was prepared to help wash their family of suspicion, was Linda!

Why did Linda need to conceal her identity and falsely claim to be a follower of the Berry Cult?

Because the Mural Cult was a taboo,

and the one who suppressed the True God of the Mural Cult was none other than the God of Order!

Why did grandfather know Linda?

Because grandfather could say right to his face: "that son-of-a-whore God of Order";

so was it really that strange for him to know a follower of the Mural Cult who harbored deep, bitter hatred toward the Cult of Order, and for them to have a decent relationship, even plotting together?

No,

it wasn't strange at all.

Cullen sat down on the floor and lowered his head;

he felt he should lose no time now in finding Piaget to tell him that your split personality, or simply your wife who hadn't died completely but merely lost her physical body, was preparing to hold a deity descent ritual from which there was no return;

Dis had said it himself—she was destined to fail, destined to perish along with the altar.

After the deity descent ritual, you will lose your wife forever.

She will no longer be able to stay by your side, cannot prepare breakfast for you, cannot help you bathe, and cannot come out to take care of you while you sleep.

You will have to accept and face the cruel reality that your beloved wife has left you forever.

As a friend, this was what Cullen ought to do.

He could use the police, or publish it in the newspaper, or simply drive to the City of Berwin himself to find the location of the building in the picture and wait for Piaget.

Piaget might not be able to stop it, but at least he would have a chance to try.

Yet, as it happened,

Cullen couldn't do it.

Because this was an agreement made between Dis and Linda, a closed loop to pull the Inmeles family out of the vortex after Dis completed his grand-scale deity descent ritual.

Cullen truly wasn't worried about his own identity as an Evil God being exposed; at least for now, it wasn't himself he was thinking about.

Rather, if he truly exhausted every means to warn and aid Piaget in stopping it,

would the subsequent searches by the Order of Order and the follow-up investigations by other orthodox grand churches drag his uncle, aunt, Aunt Mina, and the others into danger?

On one side was his family; on the other was a like-minded, good-natured friend;

he did not agonize over the choice,

for in truth,

the very fact that he sat here now, not rushing to drive down and give chase, meant he had already made his choice—he had chosen family.

"Ah..."

After sitting in the studio for about twenty minutes, Karen stood up, walked out slowly, and descended the stairs.

As he pushed open the front door and stepped into the courtyard, Karen saw Mrs. Seymour, who lived next door to Piaget, standing by the gate and peering inside.

"Karen."

"Mrs. Seymour."

"It is like this," Mrs. Seymour said, producing a letter. "Mr. Adams gave me a letter just now, saying that the next time I went to your house for a psychological consultation, I could hand it to you for him, or if I saw you coming to his house to look for him one day, I could just give it to you directly.

The date for my next consultation with you is still far off, so I was not in a hurry, but just now on the balcony, I happened to see you drive back again. I was not sure at first, but the driver looked like you, so..."

Mrs. Seymour handed the letter to Karen.

"It was meant for you next time anyway, so even if it is a bit early, it counts, does it not?"

"Thank you, Mrs. Seymour."

Karen reached out and accepted the letter.

Defending her actions, Mrs. Seymour said, "I just thought that if it was something important, it would be more appropriate to give it to you sooner, right?"

"Yes, Mrs. Seymour."

"Well then, would you like to come over and sit at my house for a while?" Mrs. Seymour asked with a hint of anticipation.

"I would like to read this letter in peace by myself first."

"Of course, of course you should do that first. I am in no hurry, no hurry at all. You read your letter, and I will head back. I will just sit in the courtyard; the sun is quite nice today, and I want to soak it in, haha."

Holding the letter, Karen walked back into Piaget's house, sat on the sofa where he had slept the previous night, and tore open the envelope.

The letter was very brief, shorter even than the one Linda had given him.

It was also written in a scrawl, clearly penned in a rush, which meant that this was a sudden impulse on Piaget's part.

No,

since it was Piaget who gave the letter to Mrs. Seymour and not Linda, it meant Linda had not controlled Piaget's body; it was Piaget's own choice, and it was Piaget himself who had driven toward the city of Berwin.

The letter unfolded:

"Dear Karen,

Linda told me in a dream last night that she wants to complete a work she has dreamed of finishing her entire life, but the price is that she will leave me forever. She asked if I agreed.

I said:

Oh, my darling, of course!"