Cthulhu Gonfalon

After agreements were concluded, King Dyke made his way to the shrine to pray. Through prayer, he would report the situation in detail to the gods, following which he would ask them how best to deal with it.

Within the palace of human gods, the God of Light’s mouth tilted slightly upwards, showing a hint of a smile.

For someone as normally serious as him, this was an incredibly rare sight to see. It was so rare, in fact, that the other gods were all a little astonished, and the God of Heroes couldn’t help but ask, “Your Majesty, has something happened worth celebrating?”

“I wouldn’t say it’s quite worth celebrating, but it is rather amusing,” the God of Light said. “I’ve just received news that the Void Mask is lying on the border between the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs and the Kingdom of Dwarfs, preventing either side from fighting each other.”

The human gods all exchanged looks, unsure what about this news was so amusing.

“I assume all of you know that the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs often launches attacks on the Kingdom of Dwarfs. But this time, the Kingdom of Dwarfs received assistance from the Orc Empire. Thinking that they wouldn’t be able to win relying solely on their own power, they took out a piece of a dead god’s remains which they’d found by chance some time ago and offered it as payment for the Mifata Federation’s cooperation in a united offensive.” The God of Light continued to say, “However, just as they’d finished preparations and were about to send out their troops, that big jellyfish went and laid itself down on the border. Consequently, they have no way of continuing and have been forced to pray to me, hoping I can give them instruction—don’t you all find that funny?”

The human gods all stayed silent for a while before finally, the God of Heroes, who had a relatively higher position than the rest, sighed and said in a sincere voice, “Your Majesty, I’m very sorry, but I really don’t see what’s so funny about that…”

The God of Light shook his head. “All of you really should find more time to study strategy!”

As he spoke, he laid his gaze upon the God of Aristocracy.

The God of Aristocracy naturally understood what he meant and began to explain to the other gods, “The Kingdom of Thousands of Springs wishes to admit defeat, but they can’t resign themselves to simply giving away their precious god’s corpse to the Mifata Federation. Hence, them now coming to His Majesty with prayers… In truth, all they want to ask His Majesty is whether or not it would be alright for them to use this opportunity to plot against the Mifata Federation, perhaps even going so far as to scheme against the Master of Mystery.”

The human Gods were all shocked; so this was an attempt to scheme against the Master of Mystery?

“But… what should we do, then?” asked the God of Heroes.

“In a word, all they need to do is attempt to incite the Mifata Federation’s greed, letting them send themselves to their deaths at the Void Mask’s hand. Afterwards, they can spread this news to the public, forcing the God of Spellcaster to make an appearance. The God of Spellcaster definitely won’t be able to win against the Void Mask, meaning that the Master of Mystery will have no choice but to take the task on himself.” The God of Aristocracy laughed, then said, “It’s a rather simple plan but also quite dependable—I like it.”

The God of Heroes nodded, saying, “This plan is simple, yes, but as long as we can complete the first step, the rest should all come together very neatly. Not bad at all.”

“The problem is with the first step,” The God of Light said. “The king of the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs prayed to me in hopes that we could improve upon that first step, guaranteeing that they could seduce those Legendary Masters of the Mifata Federation into recklessly throwing themselves at the Void Mask.”

“That’s a really difficult problem!” said the God of Heroes with a frown. “Are we going to have to use our Divine Power to control their minds? But if we do that and the God of Spellcaster looks into it, we’ll be the ones he finds…”

“There’s always a plan,” said the God of Light. “There’s no need to rush on this. All of you go contact your friends; what we need are reliable people who can be cautious and meticulous in their work and who are good at keeping secrets, too.”

The gods all stood up together, answered in unison, then left.

The palace, filled with gods just moments ago, was now empty save for the God of Light sitting alone on his throne.

He gently drummed his fingers against the armrest, thinking aloud in a low voice, “Ever since you eliminated the Elf God System, you’ve never once put out all your strength; even last time was no different. Have you grown stronger after all these years? Or have you become weaker? Hehe, I’m truly looking forward to it!”

At about this same time, near an enchanted spring surrounded by rainbows, the Master of Mystery—dressed in a simple and unadorned magic robe—opened his eyes.

“Your Highness, is something wrong?” asked the surprised God of Spellcaster serving as an attendant by his side.

The Master of Mystery usually maintained a meditative posture, pondering the mysteries of the world. The number of times he had opened his eyes in the past few hundred years could be counted on one’s fingers. For him to suddenly open his eyes without any apparent reason like this probably meant that something had happened.

The Master of Mystery shook his head, a sliver of a smile revealing itself upon a face as mottled as an old tree. “An old friend is thinking of me.”

The God of Spellcaster naturally understood what he must be referring to. He narrowed his eyes, revealing a hint of murderous intent.

“Don’t get excited, as long as people are alive on this earth, one can’t avoid being thought of on occasion,” the Master of Mystery serenely said. “There have been all sorts of old friends thinking about me these past few years, so there’s no need to care about one more.”

“I’ll go arrange things right now. Regardless of who it is, if anyone dares to stir up trouble, I’ll teach them a thorough lesson!”

“There’s no need to be so nervous,” said the Master of Mystery, shaking his head. “Why worry before they’ve even begun to take action? If they wait a thousand years without moving, will you just stay worried for a thousand years?”

The God of Spellcaster froze at that, saying without thinking, “A thousand years? That’s too long!”

“I wouldn’t call it long. In a god’s point of view, spending a thousand years to prepare a trap against an enemy can only be called prudent, rather than slow.” The Master of Mystery continued to speak, “You still have yet to change your ways of thinking. Don’t let yourself be held back by a mortal’s ideology. Time holds very little meaning to you and I.”

The God of Spellcaster stared blankly for a moment before slowly sitting back down. He sank deep into contemplation.

The Master of Mystery said no more, only calmly staring off into the distance as a thoughtful smile snuck its way onto his face.

Sometime later, Sui Xiong received a strange piece of news.

“Someone wants to fight me?” He stared in confusion at the scroll that had suddenly appeared before him. As he stared, the words written upon it slowly faded away until even the scroll itself began to disappear. It was much like a piece of ice left in the water, slowly melting away.

“Who would challenge me? I even came all the way out here just to defend world peace. Why would anyone want to challenge me? What happened to the natural order of things!” Sui Xiong didn’t stop this scroll from disappearing, instead quickly getting his brain to work. Who in the world could be plotting against him? And who was it that had come to warn him?

It seemed that there were a lot of people who might want to plot against him. The possibility that it was the evil gods was pretty high, but that didn’t mean that it being the good gods wasn’t possible. Then there were some among the neutral gods too who might dislike him and want him to suffer a bit.

As for who might have contacted him, there weren’t very many possibilities. Firstly, this person had to have talent, with at least mid-level Divine Powers, or else they wouldn’t be capable of doing this. Then they had to have a considerably high position, making them well-informed, but with an identity that made it a little awkward for them to contact him in person. Lastly, they had to hope that Sui Xiong would use this chance to kill in retaliation… so if Sui Xiong considered all this…

“F*ck! There’s still too many!”

Sui Xiong let out a helpless sigh, split off a clone, and gathered his friends for a discussion.

As an artist, trickery and strategy and the like really weren’t his forte.