Chapter 48: Gods
*Click*
Klein exited the topaz room and saw Mr. Death turning to him with an expectant yet resigned gaze. Max knew, that it had been so long, and the old man had not tried to contact him in any way or even returned once to his Café. The conclusion was rather obvious, but there was always the possibility of the old man being captured and tortured for answers, or just stuck in some god-forbidden location.
Klein took a deep breath and finally began to speak.
"I am sorry, but the old man you are trying to find was, unfortunately, killed in the forests around Tingen. I could not locate his body or the person who killed him."
"…"
"…"
"I… see… thank you…"
"But! Mr. Verstappen, do you perhaps know of a bold man with a scar?"
Max's downturned expression immediately brightened a bit as he nodded sincerely.
"Yes, I know him. He was a very close friend of the old man. If anyone knows who killed him, it should be him. He is alive… right?"
"Yes. Although the exact location will require more details about him. But for now, all I know is that he is somewhere in Desi Bay."
"… I can give you his name."
"That should help. I might be able to find him. But it will be difficult. Finding him without any dates of birth or numbers will be difficult and will require me to search for him using another method."
"Money is not a problem. Do whatever it takes. Please find him. If possible, pls find his location in a few months' time as well. His name is…" Max leaned in closer to Klein. His long silver hair fell in front of his scarred face and brushed on Klein's shoulder.
"Cedric Negan. Yes, he is related to Duke Negan and Prime Minister Negan. How they are related I do not know."
After saying his bit, Max returned to his normal stance and brushed his hair back with his left hand, waiting for Klein to quickly begin his divination.
…
Inside the Topaz room, Klein thought to himself, 'Mr. Death is pretty well connected, and based on his earlier way of speaking, he should be pretty rich. I have indeed struck it rich by dragging him into the Tarot Club. It is just… if only I had a Smurf account… I could much more easily make use of the resources available to me!' Klein could feel his heart bleed at the missed opportunities, but put his emotions aside and began the divination.
…
A few minutes later, Klein exited the room once more and gave Max two addresses, one rather exact being the current location, and the other just giving a port on an island being the future location.
Max nodded and just took out a 1-pound note and handed it to Klein. He then turned to Angelica and handed her 10 Soli.
"Thank you, Mr. Klein." Max bowed genuinely at Klein before departing, leaving behind a slightly perplexed Klein and a rather happy Angelica, who turned to Klein to ask him for the payment.
'When did I tell Mr. Death my name?'
…
On the other hand, as Max left the street with the divination club, he clenched his fists to the point his knuckles turned white and his eyes were bloodshot. His spirituality trembled as though it was undergoing an earthquake as his emotions roiled to extremes.
'Damnit! Old Man! Why did you have to sacrifice yourself for Cedric? At least, the least you could have done was to sacrifice him to allow you to survive. For your sake. For the sake of your wife and kid who would have wished for you to live… For me! Goddamnit!'
'Relax Max. We will get to know everything once we meet Cedric. At the very least, he will be able to tell us who to kill for revenge.' Samuel said while shaking his non-existent head. Due to Max's fluctuating emotions, many restrictions on him had been lifted as he could even fight with Max for full control over the body.
But unlike other merged beings, he already merged with Max on a deeper level, making them one being. In a sense, he was both always controlling the body, and also never controlling it. Thus, he did not feel the need to try and take over. For the same reason, even Unity did not feel the need to. It had also successfully merged with Max and Samuel completely.
'Anyways, what I told you before about being manipulated was a lie. We had come to the deduction after some consideration which involved the interreference of the True gods if we just tried to use Klein. Only by killing him and creating sufficient chaos would we be able to successfully advance to Great Old One.'
'What?!'
'Yeah, but we had already decided to seal away these memories deep in our collective conscience so that only Unity or I can access it while we do not control our body. Of course, this was only decided by me and Unity as soon as we arrived at the Divination Club and realised that Klein would most definitely divine about us. As such, the body will never actually know this plan. This was done mainly to prevent powerful people, or those like Klein from finding out about our intentions to kill him. Anyways, this part of the conversation will also fall into this hidden memories vault of sorts. Close your eyes for a second. Don't worry, if you ever want to remember, just swap places with me for a while and go and check it out.'
'Alright.' Max said as he closed his eyes for a brief second, opening them only moments later with a perplexed expression. However, this was quickly replaced with a burning determination and thirst for revenge.
'Revenge will have to wait. I need to fully digest my potion and advance successfully.'
At this moment, Max noticed that he was no longer walking along the street, and was instead walking along a dark corridor with countless bones embedded into the black columns and walls.
'I see, so He wants to meet me again. I wonder what it is about?' Max thought to himself as he realised he was in the Corpse Cathedral.
After walking for a while, he entered a spacious hall with more bones embedded all over, along with some rather horrifying skulls. Then again, a rabbit and platypus have equally horrific skulls.
At one end of the hall was a large cross, and in front of it was a hooded figure in a white priest's robe, kneeling on the ground in a prayer position.
"To what do I owe this visit, Mr. Angel?"
"You owe it to God, the one and only. My father."
"…sure. So, what can I do for you."
"I can tell you who killed him."
"Who?" Max asked, trying to feign ignorance.
"You know who. The one you went looking for by going to Mr. Moretti."
"Uxas…"
"Yes."
"And what do I have to give up?"
"Smart. Nothing much. In fact, nothing that you have any control over. Just allow me to change your fate."
"You mean control my fate by throwing me into the book of yours? No thanks. Alright, Mr. Angel of Imagination. I am not very good with words, since I have not lived even a thousandth as long as you. But what I do know is not to trust someone old enough to be the grandfather of a fossilised mythical creature from the First Epoch."
"I wish to live my life my way, and that just so coincidentally involves moving along your laid-out path, and perhaps even helping your protagonist actually reach his goal, and your goal as well. I do not wish to stop any war, and you can go ahead with whatever you want. Just keep me out of it."
While saying this, Max had already taken out his monocle and placed it on his eye. All he had to do was to call out His name, and utter chaos would ensue. But he did not threaten the Angel. Especially not in his own home. Plus, this time around, it did not seem like Adam was here to immediately get rid of him like last time.
"We shall see-" Max heard before his mind went blank once again
'Not this again! You already know it won't work!' Max could not help but roll his eyes as he pulled on some power from the Amalgamation of All broke the illusion inside his mind and returned to normality.
"It appears you were right. Although I could kill you here and now, it seems like our goals do align, and another helper would not hurt. For now…"
After that, Max's vision blurred for an instant, before he returned to his previous location on the street, as though nothing had happened. Shrugging, Max continued walking as he finally reached his hotel room and met Ademisaul.
"Max!" He yelled and he quickly stood up from the game he was playing; Solitaire. This was a game Max had taught him to play in his free time when he was too bored from practicing spirituality and learning from the Mysticism books Max had brought along with him.
Ademisaul also had access to books regarding the various mysticism languages like ancient Hermes and Ancient Feysac, but he did not seem very open to learning them. Max had to force him to learn at least a little each day.
"Alright then, Ademisaul, today I will show you how to conduct a ritual. Though there is only one God you should pray to, and He is called the Almighty Singularity, the Amalgamation of All."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Shadow_Magus
Shadow_Magus Chapter length: 1621 words
Sorry for the wait between chapters. i finally found a way to proceed and now I needed to set-up a lot of backstory for the future plot. A lot... Which is taking up quite some time, but it is necessary.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone