"October 3rd. Benjamin came to me, requesting that I take action to save one branch of their Abraham family.
"Due to improper safekeeping, they allowed a Grade '0' Sealed Artifact called the 'God's Painting Scroll' to lose control.
"That branch's base was located within Intis, so the final distress message ended up reaching Benjamin.
"According to Benjamin, the Sealed Artifact known as the 'God's Painting Scroll' looks like an ordinary oil painting set within a brass frame, but the content depicted on it changes at irregular intervals.
"When it displays different locations, the holder can cause the surrounding area of a target to change, allowing the corresponding scene to descend;
"When it displays different people, the holder can cause those people to launch attacks against a target, once per person;
"When it displays abstract and difficult-to-understand images, different effects will manifest in reality;
"When it displays one door after another, opening different 'doors' will transfer one to different places. The destination cannot be known in advance, and it can be used to exile a target;
"When it displays dim underground depths or a profound starry sky, it becomes extremely dangerous and must be sealed.
"This oil painting must always be watched, must always be appreciated. Otherwise, the figures within it will come alive, stretch their hands out from the painting, and little by little enter the real world.
"This time, it was precisely because this Abraham family branch made the mistake of 'no one watching' that the 'deity' within the painting came to life and walked out of it.
"Having just advanced to Knowledge Mentor not long ago, I was very interested in this matter, so after making some preparations, I had Benjamin 'teleport' me to that branch's base.
"Unfortunately, we still arrived one step too late. That branch of the Abraham family had already been annihilated. The surroundings were filled with the aura of 'destruction' and 'disaster,' and only a few mentally deranged members remained, screaming and shouting madly…
"The good news was that the 'deity' who had come out of the 'God's Painting Scroll' had not been gone for long and had left behind many traces. Thus, I quickly calculated the location where She would soon appear and blocked Her in advance through 'teleportation.'
"Strictly speaking, She was not truly a 'deity,' but rather an existence similar to the evil spirit formed after the death of the last angel of the Sauron family.
"Only, her condition seemed much better than that of the Sauron family's angel.
"Yes, the reason I use 'her' is because She was an extremely beautiful lady—black hair, brown eyes, facial features that combined the three-dimensional depth of a Westerner with the gentle softness of an Easterner, and slightly pointed ears that made it obvious She possessed elven blood in life.
"I can responsibly say that, aside from Lady Helen, she is the most beautiful woman I have seen in my entire life.
"In any case, after I blocked her, she did not choose to fight. Instead, she simply explained her own condition, saying that even after death she remained a symbol of 'disaster' and 'doomsday,' and that having just broken free, she could not control herself—hence the calamity suffered by that Abraham family branch… In essence, she had already left as quickly as possible.
"I didn't really believe her words, but since combat could be avoided, I truly didn't wish to resort to violence against such a beautiful lady either…
"Thus, at my suggestion, I brought her to a secret base belonging to the 'Men in Black' and evacuated the agents originally stationed there.
"As for Benjamin, he went off on his own to deal with the affairs of that Abraham family branch and to re-seal the 'God's Painting Scroll.'"
"October 4th. Using the 'Gatekeeper' characteristic stored within the secret base, combined with multiple precious materials, I helped this 'deity' lady construct a realistic mechanical body.
"This both 'sealed' the 'calamity' and 'destruction' aura upon her body—naturally also sealing her abilities—while temporarily freeing her from the problem of her soul's continual weakening. One action, multiple benefits…
"She should consider herself fortunate that the first person she encountered after breaking free was me, this 'Child of Steam,' the greatest and most powerful 'mechanical expert' of the current era.
"Afterward, I had a conversation with her.
"She said her name was Aglaea Constantine, the daughter of the elven subordinate god 'God of Fortune' Oliver Constantine and the elven queen 'Queen of Calamity' Cohinem.
"To be honest, upon hearing this, I—who had been somewhat mentally fatigued from crafting the 'mechanical body'—instantly lost all sleepiness!
"Heh heh, was the elven race's atmosphere back then similar to that of Intis? I wonder what the Elven King Soniathrym thinks about this…
"Mm, perhaps I should gather some intelligence about the 'God of Fortune'? I could also go back and ask the 'Seal of Calamity.' Although his earliest life was as the sanguine 'Rhine,' that era was closer to the Third Epoch, so he would definitely know more.
"Back to the point. According to Lady Aglaea Constantine herself, she was born a Catastrophe Demoness, and later, after observing the 'Blasphemy Slate,' she successfully gathered all the materials and conducted a ritual to advance to Sequence 1. She formed a family and stood opposed to the succubus demoness branch family 'Monica,' becoming the two great 'Demoness Families.'
"However, with Cheek's rise, Lady Aglaea Constantine became material for the other party's advancement to the 'Primordial Demoness' and was hunted down and killed.
"After death, her soul once fell into the hands of the 'Night Emperor'… It was only after her close friend from life, Bethel Abraham, agreed to certain conditions demanded by the 'Night Emperor' that she was exchanged back and placed into the 'God's Painting Scroll' to sleep, in hopes of recovery…
"Tsk tsk, isn't Bethel Abraham 'Mr. Door'? So this beauty is actually a friend of 'Mr. Door'… I remember 'Mr. Door' once told me that He and the 'Night Emperor' had privately cooperated to construct a 'door,' and I previously found its remains on a small island in the Berserk Sea.
"So could this cooperation have occurred precisely because 'Mr. Door' wanted to exchange for this 'Doom Demoness' before my eyes?
"Furthermore, that door was absolutely not a good thing—it may very well have been one of the reasons 'Mr. Door' was exiled by the gods!
"Worthy of a Doom Demoness—even in death, even without subjective intent, she could still become the 'trigger' of a catastrophe.
"Additionally, the fact that Lady Aglaea Constantine's soul fell into the hands of the 'Night Emperor'—does that mean that among those who hunted her down was the not-yet-deified Trunsoest?
"Was He already an ally of the 'Primordial Demoness' at that time?
"Unfortunately, Lady Aglaea Constantine did not see the others who helped Cheek; she only sensed the existence of the power of 'Order.'"
The first page was written on both sides, and its contents were extremely rich. Klein read for a long time before finally setting it down, inwardly complaining:
Although I'd long suspected that the relationship between the 'God of Fortune' and the 'Queen of Calamity' wasn't normal, Liu Bo really did end up acting like a complete scoundrel… He even had a child…
—Since this involved Ebner's "private affairs," he had never mentioned such matters during the "small meetings."
But isn't the 'Primordial Demoness' closely connected with the 'Underworld Emperor'? Why has the 'Night Emperor' appeared now as well?
Mm… that actually makes sense. I remember the latter half of The Feast of Blood mentioning that Rhine, Solomon, and the 'Underworld Emperor' once conducted research together on a small island off the western coast of the Southern Continent… If Old Liu's daughter really was hunted down by Cheek in cooperation with the 'Underworld Emperor,' then based on my understanding of Old Liu, he would absolutely never have any further dealings with the 'Underworld Emperor.'
What a pity. If Old Liu's daughter had won this Demoness 'struggle,' the Demonesses of today probably wouldn't be so 'mentally twisted'…
Of course, things might also have been even worse in other aspects… After all, the fact that 'Demoness' symbolizes 'disaster' would not change.
After thinking for a moment, Klein picked up the second page.
This page continued from the previous one, but only had writing on the front, so the word count was much lower. It was mostly Lady Aglaea Constantine's recollections of her father.
"…Heh, after listening to Aglaea's account, I realized that this 'God of Fortune' actually played around even more wildly than I did, and even styled himself as the 'Poetry of the Goddess'?
"But the more I listened, the more something felt off, because some of this 'God of Fortune's' actions carried a strong 'transmigrator' flavor, and combined with his relationships with multiple goddesses…
"He wouldn't also be that brat 'Liu Bo,' would he?
"No, I'm certain… Aside from being much more chuuni, some of the things Aglaea relayed about the 'God of Fortune' were extremely similar to Liu Bo's habits!
"So the question is, why would 'Liu Bo' hide his first life from me? No—this might not even have been his first life. Before that, he may very well have had other lives!
"Heh heh, was I perhaps a bit too trusting of him in the past?"
It seemed that this was where Old Huang began to harbor doubts toward "Liu Bo," becoming increasingly distrustful, eventually ignoring his warning about "landing on the moon."
Of course, the Liu Bo associated with the "Seal of Calamity" was Sequence 1, and according to Old Huang's final diary, he truly was not worthy of trust.
Nodding thoughtfully, Klein continued reading:
"November 8th, the night of the full moon. As usual, I met with Bethel Abraham.
"I cautiously questioned Him about Aglaea Constantine, and to my surprise, He displayed complete ignorance, as if such a person had never existed at all.
"For a time, I was unable to determine who was lying…
"But no matter how I think about it, Bethel is far more suspicious… This isn't because Aglaea Constantine is beautiful, but because that 'Doom Demoness's' soul came out of the Abraham family's 'God's Painting Scroll'!
"How could Bethel possibly know nothing about her?
"If He now claims not to recognize her… what purpose does that serve?
"Protecting her? Or has Bethel truly forgotten?"
(End of chapter)