Lord of Mysteries 2: Circle of Inevitability Chapter 1173: Accommodation

The Monarch of Decay detected that the invocations directed toward the Malady God were being funneled into the Origins of Disaster. This overlap in identity provided Him a golden chance to forcibly occupy His target’s physical vessel.

However, He refrained from seizing the moment—He was no fool. The only logical path to success was to slay the Origins of Disaster first before attempting to accommodate the sefirah!

To invade the other’s body at this stage would trigger a brutal conflict of spirit and consciousness. Currently, the Monarch of Decay lacked the certainty of an absolute win. Should He fail, He risked being assimilated and consumed by the Origins of Disaster, becoming merely a fragment of that collective mind. Furthermore, in a psychic struggle of this magnitude, there would be no retreat, as His adversary stood upon the same divine tier.

Consequently, no Great Old Dominator possessing a shred of sanity would ever fall for such obvious bait laid by Lumian.

Lumian, having orchestrated this scheme, naturally possessed a secondary tactic: You believe you are rational? You think you are wise? Very well, I shall strip you of your wits!

While the congregation roared the name of the "Great Malady God" and the Monarch of Decay unleashed His Sure Hit, Certain Death strike, Lumian triggered the contract mark bestowed by Mr. Fool. He possessed one final use of its power.

Fooled!

This contract, established after The Fool Klein successfully accommodated Sefirah Castle, was infused with the potent symbolism of Foolishness.

As the sigil on Lumian’s skin radiated a dark bluish-black light, the extended left hand of the Monarch of Decay abruptly faltered.

For a truly transcendent being like the Monarch of Decay, the Fooling effect projected by half a Lord of Mysteries had a restricted lifespan and impact. It lacked the strength to completely shatter His intellect or reduce Him to mere primal impulse. Yet, Lumian never anticipated a total victory from this alone.

In that instant, the central head on Lumian’s form erupted in laughter, emitting a wave of intense Provocation. It was as if he were shouting, "A primordial Great Old Dominator like yourself cannot even compete with a lowly mortal who climbed the ranks? If you fail to seize me now, you will be the one I accommodate! What is the matter? Has the Mother Tree of Desire terrified you so much that you are too cowardly to face my mind? You might as well crawl back into the Mother Goddess of Depravity’s womb to be reborn with a fresh soul!"

Simultaneously, the countenances of Aurore and Jenna manifested smiles in turn, each casting looks of pure derision at the Monarch of Decay.

Provocation combined with Charm! This was Provocation and Charm elevated to the level of Symbolism!

Another of Lumian’s forms, the one possessing a face like a swirling maelstrom of chaos, acted in concert with his primary consciousness, triggering the convergence force of the City of Calamity.

The Tudor visage, burning with the urge to challenge, and the mocking face of Cheek worked in perfect harmony, invoking the Law of Beyonder Characteristics Convergence to send a magnetic, irresistible invitation to the Monarch of Decay.

Come, accommodate this sefirah. Take control of our flesh!

Still mired in the fog of Foolishness, the Monarch of Decay lost His self-restraint when faced with the triple assault of Provocation, Charm, and the Law of Aggregation. His focus narrowed entirely onto the loathsome yet intoxicating target before Him. Without a second thought, He lunged forward, discarding the golden shell that encased Him to reveal a rotting, putrid body dripping with yellow-green bile.

That hideous form expanded violently, instantly swallowing Lumian’s three-headed, six-armed manifestation.

In a heartbeat, within the domain of Lumian’s consciousness, the blood-spattered stone floor was smothered by a repulsive carpet of yellow-green fungus.

The Monarch of Decay perceived several entities standing in His path.

Aurore stood there with darkened hair and deep brown eyes; Jenna wore a mask of contempt; Cheek radiated a manic excitement; Alista Tudor’s eyes were alight with insanity; and the swirling vortex face remained motionless.

Behind them loomed the massive, coiled shape of the twin-bodied malevolent dragon.

Beyond that nightmare lay a staircase climbing toward eternal heights. At its summit sat Lumian—dressed in a white shirt, black vest, and dark trousers—resting upon a throne of crimson blood. With his right foot draped over his left knee, he looked down at the Monarch of Decay with a brilliant, mocking grin.

As the Origins of Disaster sitting Above the Sequences, Lumian’s multiple consciousnesses had long since merged into a single entity. He was merely utilizing the Visionary’s power to project six aspects of his mind as distinct figures to facilitate different offensive strikes. In the physical realm, his six arms could operate various abilities independently, though they could not channel symbolisms.

…

Inside the mercury-hued River of Fate, as shifting destinies knitted together to form the consciousness of the Goddess of Fate, She prepared to emerge, intending to depart this domain and reclaim a physical form.

Suddenly, the Lord of Mysteries, Klein, materialized above Her, dressed in his black trench coat and silk top hat.

Klein reached out with his left hand, encased in a black glove.

Steal!

Klein intended to rip the Goddess of Fate’s spirit and consciousness directly from the River of Fate, snatching it into his own possession!

He had not attempted this before because the Goddess of Fate had not yet made the move to leave the River. Her essence, bound to the destinies of all things in the cosmos, was far too massive to Steal. Once She fully inhabited a body, even the Lord of Mysteries would find it impossible to directly Steal the soul of a Great Old Dominator from Her unified state. This fleeting moment was the only window of opportunity.

A bizarre, tree-like humanoid mass covered in black sludge drifted before Klein. This was the Sequence 1 Divine Abomination Beyonder characteristic of the Chained pathway.

The moment he successfully stole the Goddess of Fate’s consciousness, he would thrust it into this mindless vessel and use his symbolism to bind Her.

For the Binding symbolism of the Chained pathway, a high-Sequence Beyonder characteristic served as the perfect cage.

The Goddess of Fate’s spirit was being dragged uncontrollably from the illusory River of Fate, nearly falling into Klein’s palm. At that critical second, blood-red moonlight poured down, and a shattered oak tree manifested in the void, "pinning" the Goddess of Fate’s consciousness in place.

The Mother Goddess of Depravity had intervened to protect Her eldest daughter.

…

Inside Lumian’s mental landscape.

Still haunted by the lingering traces of Foolishness, the Monarch of Decay lunged His Sure Hit, Certain Death left hand toward the spectral malevolent dragon across the void.

Simultaneously, He exerted the full weight of His Decay symbolism, dragging the flow of time to a crawl and forcing it toward its ultimate end.

The malevolent dragon—representing one of Lumian’s arms—remained stationary, unable and unwilling to retreat. Its twin maws exhaled black flames of ruin, laced with madness, toward the rotting palm.

The figure of Cheek summoned an apocalypse, manifesting a vortex of chaos that held every color and possibility, surging toward the Monarch of Decay’s body and hand.

Alista Tudor’s manifestation revealed a crimson sigil on His brow. He threw a punch into the empty air, causing the void to shatter and collapse space-time toward the Monarch of Decay—the raw Destruction symbolism of the Red Priest pathway.

Aurore did not call upon the power of the Origins of Disaster. Instead, she channeled the strength of her ally, Eternal Darkness Amanises, invoking a thick, heavy gloom that muffled all sound and light, drowning the Monarch of Decay.

Jenna grasped a twilight greatsword of orange-red light and swung it toward the invader.

The swirling vortex face held a pale tome constructed of feathered serpents, its pages turning in eerie silence.

In that instant, the forces of chaos, destruction, death, eternal silence, and twilight—along with the Monarch’s own strike—collided within the mental space. These powers clashed and merged, rapidly imploding into a singular, terrifying black point.

This black singularity pulled the entire consciousness space into its center, devouring all energy and causing the reality of the mind to fracture, birthing pitch-black fires.

Under this pressure, time reached its expiration, and space folded toward the volatile black dot.

Neither Lumian nor the Monarch of Decay could flee this mental prison; they were trapped as space-time and all existence converged into a single point!

While this was not the full might of the Fourth Pillar and would only last a moment, it was sufficient to annihilate the consciousness of a Great Old Dominator. Furthermore, the Loop nodes in this region had been wiped out, and the Circle of Inevitability was tied down by Eternal Darkness Amanises, leaving the Monarch of Decay without a savior.

Thus, Lumian felt no dread toward the "Sure Hit, Certain Death" blow.

Every soul here would perish.

It was a scene reminiscent of when the Master of the Shadow Cottage and Farbauti absorbed the Inextinguishable Ravings into themselves as a curse. The difference was that their minds were not powerful enough to endure such a conflict or trap the Ravings without the Key of Light’s assistance. They could only wound a Great Old Dominator, not slay one.

But Lumian was a true Great Old Dominator. Once the merger began, without outside help, the Monarch of Decay could not escape the spiritual battle. Lumian could use the power of the Fourth Pillar to erase the Monarch of Decay along with himself.

As the mental realm collapsed and black flames roared, the Monarch of Decay had but one thought: Kill the Origins of Disaster immediately to break the Fourth Pillar’s stability and let the power dissipate!

This was His sole path to survival.

At the peak of the infinite stairs, upon his throne of blood, Lumian sat motionless as his mind shattered and burned around him.

With his right foot resting on his left knee, Lumian gave a radiant smile, watching the Monarch of Decay’s desperate attempts to slaughter the figures and save Himself.

It is pointless.

I will die, and you will fall with me.