An Ancient God’s downfall

This is the story of a god, a long time ago, who ruled over living beings with generosity.

Compared to the other mad gods at the time, the values from his era had quite high moral standards, thus belief in him widely spread.

That god, standing at the top of the three pathways—Fool, Door and Error—was more commonly called 'Mysteries'. However, the Lord of Mysteries had another name, forgotten in time—Zhou Mingrui.

Believing in Mysteries or the Ancient Sun God were the two mainstream religions at the time. Moreover, coming from the same era, the two were allies.

Mysteries also had a less common name—the Fool.

"Mr. Fool."

It all started with a gift.

"You must be lonely here."

The innocent gift of a believer.

"Here, a cat. That way you won't be alone anymore!"

Seeing the little girl's shining eyes, the god accepted the pet.

After a few years, Mysteries found the cat dead. Its life had come to its term.

Sefirah Castle felt a bit more empty.

Then, to replace the void caused by the cat, another believer offered him a dog.

The dog also ended up dying.

"…"

And like a foreshadowing of the future, the Fool was soon forced to realize something.

Gods' lifespans are much longer than humans'.

After seeing them grow, others' hair turning gray while he didn't age at all, his acquaintances began to die of old age.

Usually, gods full of divinity don't care too much about such matters—but as a god who valued humanity, these deaths still took a toll on his heart.

As his believers passed away one by one as well, the god took some distance with others. He started to interfere less, acting more as a god than as a friend.

At least, his angels were still alive. After all, angels' lifespans are also longer than ordinary humans.

Sometimes, people he knew turned mad.

"Save me…"

At others, they were killed.

Or, their life naturally came to an end.

Every time that happened, the god who chose humanity felt more and more exhausted.

"Arrodes, I'm tired."

But that was still fine, he could bear it.

An important angel was now gone due to madness.

But that was still fine, he could bear it…

"Haha. Hahaha…"

Another important angel perished during battle.

Mysteries became quieter.

Although his life was long, Mysteries could bear such loneliness. He was already used to it.

"Mysteries, please save us."

"Save us."

"Save me."

Even though he was unable to save everyone, he only had to do his best like now to save as many people as possible.

"Save us."

"Save us."

"Save us."

The Fool was tired.

Tired of seeing his close ones disappear, tired because he was used to seeing people die, tired when he was unable to save people asking for help, and because his life was much longer than others.

Stop praying to me. Stop asking me to save you.

One day, the Fool gave up on saving everyone.

After all, all humans eventually die.

"Mysteries, I want to be independent. I will go explore the world."

Another angel just stopped believing in him and left.

The Fool watched with soulless eyes as cities were destroyed, all the believers he was acquainted with long gone, only echoes of strangers chanting his name and asking for help from him.

'Ah.'

The Fool realized.

'I lost everything.'

Years passed. The Evernight Goddess had her own matters to attend to, so the two did not meet often.

The Fool looked at his Blessed. One of his remaining angels, with unparalleled loyalty.

"My lord, do you need something from me?"

Yet, that hierarchical relationship created a sense of distance that couldn't be called friendship.

A lot of time passed, alone.

A very long amount of time…

The Fool created a marionette town, recreating the past.

There, the ones he once knew were still alive and well, leading peaceful lives in the style of a civilisation that was long lost. Compared to the rest of the world, this delusion really seemed like a utopia.

"Please save me."

"Save my child."

"Mr. Fool, would you like another cup of tea?"

As if unaware of the prayers in his ears, Mysteries nodded to the marionette speaking to him.

Soon, the Beyonders from the three pathways—Fool, Door and Error—began to hear ravings.

"My lord…"

"Ah, you're here."

His lips curled up like a clown.

"Look, —— said…"

Speaking more.

"Why are you looking at me like this? Everything's fine."

The Blessed looked at the god and broke his illusion.

"…My lord, —— is… dead since long ago."

This was just a marionette.

The Fool's smile became wider.

"No, no, look. She's here."

The Blessed stared at his god in silence.

"She's right here! Don't you see it?"

The Fool's ravings brought his believers to the brink of losing control.

Before he knew it, some people started to do sacrificial rituals for him, viewing him as an evil god.

Sacrificing living humans to 'appease his anger'.

The outside world's change of cognition of him as these events progressed as well as the rapid decrease of his remaining anchors also participated in the instability of Mysteries' mental state.

"Oh great Mysteries, please take pity upon us and save us," said someone.

How laughable.

They were asking for help from someone who could not even save himself.

"You are not alone, my lord."

Loneliness had never been the problem.

The prayers for help gradually became more frequent, until only this kind were left.

Does salvation really exist?

Was he conscious of the extent of the destruction he caused? Was he already turning mad?

By this time, Mysteries was still rational.

Maybe he could have still been saved.

"I can't continue like this. You have Visionary abilities, you can arrange the situation."

The Ancient Sun God did not help him.

Despite remaining rational, conscious of the chaos he caused, his state only worsened as time passed.

The contradiction of his values and the consequences of his actions ate at his sanity a little more each day.

In truth, the reason Mysteries turned mad wasn't loneliness.

The hounds of Fulgrim harmed. By his own hands.

It wasn't time either.

The corpses around him when he returned to his senses, summoned by another sacrificial ritual, and his spiritual intuition telling him that he was the culprit of this gruesome massacre.

The sinking feeling of despair every time that happened.

No, it was actually for a very simple reason.

"My lord."

Evil gods can't save people.

His Blessed smiling softly at him in reassurance.

Evil gods cause people's deaths instead.

"You are loved."

At that moment, Mysteries felt something in him shatter.

But whose deaths?

Mysteries wasn't lonely.

If only he had been truly alone, it would have been easier.

The realization that the people he had hurt, who were harmed by him or because of him, were people who truly cared for him was enough to make his last thread of sanity snap.

When he heard this sentence, among his angels, only his Blessed was left.

His Blessed, softly smiling, yet disfigured, missing an arm because of the god he loved. He was the one who suffered the most from Mysteries' whims.

Actually, he already knew. He just didn't want to face it.

Yet his Blessed had stayed by his side.

Don't you know? How getting hurt by the ones you love hurts so much more.

The believers who had lost control due to his ravings also loved him.

How could you still love me? Stop it.

All the ones he decided to not save. Everyone who could have survived if only they gave up their faith in him—yet they continued believing, desperately trusting him to 'return to normal'.

The Fool went crazy.

Compared to the time Mysteries had spent sane, becoming more and more tired as time passed, the start of his ravings to his complete downfall were much faster.

This is the story of a god who went mad.

A god who went mad due to being loved by his believers.

Yet, Mysteries didn't die.

Occasional flickers of consciousness, blurry recollections of some events, snippets of memories where his rationality returned…

When he finally completely regained his senses, all his remaining believers had been dragged down with him. His Blessed was also no longer in this world.

Mysteries borrowed Amon's method. With marionettes, he created enough anchors to barely stabilize his state. However, since the marionettes' cognition of him depended on himself, the balance created was precarious.

Although his mental state was still fragile, he could bear that much.

He then proceeded to get rid of some Beyonder characteristics. The Error uniqueness the Ancient Sun God had imagined for him after using the original one for Amon's birth had disappeared since long ago; thus only a Sequence 1 Error Beyonder characteristic, a Sequence 1 Door Uniqueness and a Sequence 1 Door Beyonder characteristics were removed and put back into the outside world.

Mysteries instead returned to the status of a Sequence 0 Fool, ingesting the missing Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristics once more—characteristics that he had removed and kept after becoming a Lord of Mysteries.

The Fool did not need to digest them a second time—the characteristics immediately adapted to him.

With the Sequence 0 Fool's powers, he voluntarily trapped himself within Sefirah Castle, cutting himself off from the world.

He didn't want to hurt others again.

He wouldn't have any living followers this time. No believers, even less a Blessed. He wouldn't interact with the outside world. Being alone wasn't a problem, he was used to it.

Above all, he swore to himself to never leave Sefirah Castle.

Centuries passed. Maybe even more.

An unknown amount of time passed.

Then, you all know what happened, right?

The Fool faced the Tarot Club members, smiling.

Putting on the perfect mask of a human being.

Audrey also kept a smile on her face, pushing aside the strange atmosphere.

Some Tarot Club members had noticed, others were doing a bad job at hiding their feelings, others like Derrick didn't think it was wrong.

Maybe it was how it looked like since the beginning, but it was just hidden by fog, or maybe it had just turned that way at some point.

Audrey's gaze swept over the other members, observing their reactions.

The Hanged Man was suppressing his trembling.

As for her, she was already used to it. As a Spectator and sitting so close, when the fog got thinner, or even when the fog was too thick to see anything, how could she not notice?

"Mr. Fool."

The abilities of the Seer Pathway let one control their expressions perfectly.

However, when you think you're imitating humans well, it's easy to overlook flaws, since you don't doubt your own acting could be flawed.

The Fool was smiling like a clown.

"You once said a deity needed anchors, but also mentioned having no followers. Then, who are your anchors?"

At Miss Justice's curious question, everybody fell into silence, turning toward the Fool.

In response, the Fool looked at them and softly revealed.

"You are my most precious anchors."

Some members' eyes opened wide in surprise, while others felt flattered by the remark coming from the god.

Audrey's smile became genuine, her faith becoming deeper as her heart burned with newfound determination.

Being qualified as one of the Fool's most precious anchors was an honor. She would do her best to meet those expectations.

History was repeating itself.