"You stay here. I'm stepping out." The room was sealed with secrecy and dreamlight, ensuring Lilith's presence wouldn't leak to the outside world.
Even a true Fool couldn't divine the truth of Lilith's "death."
Lilith nodded indifferently, watching Truman leave.
As the Darkness pathway's pontiff, Truman couldn't hide in this room forever.
The day's events were far from over.
"Your Eminence!" Several bishops, handpicked by Truman, bowed respectfully.
"Hm," Truman nodded, addressing them, "The goddess' oracle: the City of Deep Darkness will return to reality."
The bishops' faces tightened. They knew more about the outside world than most, being the goddess' first cultivated Beyonders.
"We obey the goddess' oracle!" The bishops wouldn't question her will.
"Oh, one more thing. Publicize the goddess' new honorific name as the standard henceforth," Truman added, recalling something.
"Change the honorific?" The bishops froze, caught off guard.
"No longer the Goddess of Misfortune, but the Evernight Goddess!" Truman declared solemnly.
"The goddess has reclaimed the authority usurped by the Demonic Wolf?!" The bishops were overjoyed.
"…Exactly!" Truman nodded. Don't mind the process, just the result—you're spot on, promising folks!
Leaving the bishops to announce this to the faithful, Truman departed the City of Deep Darkness, near the Demonic Wolf's divine kingdom.
"Awoo!" He emerged to find the goddess slaughtering wolves.
A Sequence 2 Demonic Wolf was on the verge of collapse, crushed by the goddess, who now held all characteristics needed for godhood, unable to resist.
"Amanises!" With a piercing howl, the wolf, which had routinely provoked the goddess, succumbed to fear and was slain.
The Demonic Wolf's divine kingdom had become the goddess' hunting ground.
The Dark Demonic Wolf had fled into the historical mist the moment its sire fell, long gone.
Salinger had vanished into the Spirit World's depths, seeking refuge with the Phoenix Ancestor in the Underworld.
Antigonus lingered in the crumbling divine kingdom, but upon seeing the goddess, lost all will to resist, fleeing with his closest sister.
The goddess' gaze turned to that historical mist.
"Why not spare them? For the sake of species diversity," Truman interjected, halting her pursuit.
Kill the pup, and the Fool's legend might not unfold.
This goddess was far stronger than her original trajectory, mere steps from godhood via a ritual, with an exceptionally stable mental state!
Amanises glanced at Truman, nodding lightly, her mood unreadable.
But her methods against the remaining Demonic Wolves grew harsher…
Truman blinked, transforming into an information stream and joining the fray.
Under the goddess' suppression, he used a Traveler's spatial mastery to pin a female Demonic Wolf, roughly Sequence 2 of the Darkness pathway, and overwhelmed her consciousness with chaotic information.
He wasn't done. Opening the Book of Dreams, he infused vast phosphorescent dreamlight into the vessel, greatly curbing the madness inherent in its characteristics.
He left a mark of the Book of Dreams, allowing it to draw power to neutralize madness and maintain stability.
Then, as pontiff, he offered this vessel to the goddess.
"A vessel? An avatar? Or a revival contingency?"
The goddess asked, noting the vessel's potential uses.
Unbeknownst to her, this would be one of her "masks" for sealing rifts in the future.
"A toy," Truman grinned.
Amanises nodded lightly. A thread of spirituality touched the vessel, reshaping the wolf's body into a young, dark-haired woman—elegant, with deep, shadowy eyes.
She became the "Eraser" angel from Truman's memory.
"I like this gift," the goddess said, her spirituality inhabiting the Eraser angel, nodding in satisfaction after adjusting. "Henceforth, I am the Angel of Secrets."
Worshipping herself as her own angel? Flawless logic—promising folks do this.
The goddess' true form continued the slaughter. Save for a few cunning ones, the Demonic Wolf clan was nearly exterminated. Darkness pathway wolves were crushed, becoming characteristic reserves for the future Evernight Church.
"The City of Deep Darkness should return to reality." The goddess ascended the highest peak of the Demonic Wolf's divine kingdom. Though decaying, her presence revitalized it.
"Hereafter, this shall be the Deep Dark Heaven!"
With her Darkness authority, she harnessed the broken divine kingdom's power. In that instant, the world seemed to reshape.
The sky turned pitch-black, like a velvet curtain, dotted with stars. Starlight fell, and the ground bloomed with night-blooming cereus and deep slumber flowers.
A crimson moon appeared in her hand, rising slowly to the divine kingdom's apex, hanging there, casting moonlight.
With a wave, space became a canvas, as if sketched with a pencil. The City of Deep Darkness' outline materialized within the divine kingdom.
All the city's faithful looked skyward, seeing only a divine figure fading into the night, as if becoming the night and the crimson moon.
The pontiff and an elegant angel descended to the city under the goddess' guidance.
"This is the goddess' Angel of Secrets! She is the vice-lord of the Deep Dark Heaven, the goddess' right hand, above even me, the pontiff!" Truman introduced the Secret Angel to the city's faithful.
The goddess' expression was peculiar. To maintain mystery, she had never interacted closely with her followers. This new identity was novel, aiding the balance of divinity and humanity.
"Is the Sun God planning the same? Or more…" The goddess pondered, already seeing the avatar's benefits.
"Come! Which bishop carries the Revelation of the Night? Bring it to me!" Truman called.
The bishops, devout to a fault, always carried the Revelation of the Night. It was swiftly handed to the Angel of Secrets.
The Secret Angel glanced at Truman, flipping through the Revelation. Her expression grew subtle.
But in an instant, a faint mist veiled her face, hiding it from Truman.
"It's a pity…" Truman muttered, earning a sidelong glance from the goddess. She spoke softly, "The goddess' oracle: the pontiff shall host a thirty-day nonstop mass to celebrate the reclamation of her authority."
(End of Chapter)