Chapter 29: Tarot Cards
Diana held the card in her hand as various pieces of information appeared in her mind.
'Sequence 9: mystery pryer, Sequence 8: Melee Scholar.... Sequence 1: Knowledge Emperor...'
'Sequence 0 - Hermit...'
She couldn't believe she was holding the entire path of God that so many had earned to know, for some would give anything to obtain this knowledge.
Yet here she was, holding it in the heat of the moment, without even expecting it in the least. Now, her faith in her lord and fate itself had never been higher than it was now.
"Does it have the entire path of God?" Lucas inquired, his gaze never leaving the card in his hand.
He was well aware of what "blasphemy" represented, and the card was something that their lord had created himself, so he can easily guess what it might be.
Aucuces, on the other hand, was just watching them from the side-lines, enjoying his wine.
"Yes, the hermit." Diana responded, while she also found a lot of the depiction of the old man in the card to be far from simple, and it somewhat correlates with the essence of the hermit pathway itself.
She truly felt her lord's might once more; everything he does has a very deep meaning.
She then passed the card to Lucas, whose gaze was literally too hot on the card, as she could feel the surrounding temperature rise.
Lucas immediately accepted the card and fell into a trance as he digested the full path of god for the first time.
Meanwhile, Diana's mind kept repeating the knowledge of the promotion ritual and formula. She was also wondering if she had a chance, even if it was slim.
She has desire to advance further in order to become stronger, because she had a terrible feeling about future from the knowledge given by her idol, the mysteries of the black door, the blood moon and calamity that followed.
This notion was strengthened when she saw her lord giving her this without even batting an eye and she even had a hunch, her lord hasn't finished, he might even take out something else, which could be the very thing she always wanted and requested from her lord, by doing a lot of tasks and raising a lot of contribution.
Her lord, on the other hand, was anything but generous. He can be very strict and expects a lot from others in return if they want anything from him. She knew there was more to this than meets the eye.
"This card, my lord..." Diana finally said something.
"Do you find anything special in the image of card?" interpreted Aucuces, while placing the cup below in the table.
"Yes." Diana nodded and said as she felt her lord's inquiring gaze. "The card has a lot in common with the essence of the hermit. The old man is alone on his path of knowledge, and the lamp he holds only illuminates his front and not the entire path, indicating that he must proceed to see what lies ahead, knowing that not everything will be revealed at once."
Aucuces gave her an appreciative look before talking something out of nowhere and setting it on the table.
He no longer bothered and simply handed it to her.
For the next war, some powerful archangels will be required to at least make a stand against the forces of True Creator and Solomon while they deal with them.
Diana is the perfect fit right now at the moment, which correlated with his plan.
There were two things on the table: the characteristics of the knowledge emperor and a deck of cards.
A silence descended as soon as he placed those things.
Diana stared at the characteristics in the table, her mind blank.
Even though she had anticipated it, seeing it in person had a profound effect on her.
As it stands in this day and age, being promoted to angel is the best one can hope for, and the chances of being promoted to archangel in a path with no god are so slim that they can be dismissed entirely.
Almost all of the remaining paths have archangels in place, or sequence 1 characteristics are already in the hands of gods and king of angels.
So, unless someone is blessed by fate, one can imagine the chances are too low.
Diana was aware that her path lacked archangels, but the characteristics of the knowledge emperor were already in the hands of the king of angels and gods.
Even though, she requested a lot to her lord about this. She didn't have much hope, because anything involving the gods and the king of angels is bound to become complicated. Just like what happened with her idol before.
Diana almost jumped out of her seat when she remembered. 'The hermit Uniqueness? Did the Lord get it?'
The knowledge emperor here should be the one that was owned by her idol and the lord has it now, so there is a good chance that the uniqueness.....
As soon as she thought of this, her heart leapt with joy. Nonetheless, she managed to resist the urge to inquire.
She was well aware that nothing in this world was free, and her lord was far from generous.
"Diana?!" Aucuces called out as she noticed her dazed state, and her eyes never left the characteristics 'Was it too much of a shocker for her?'
"L- Lord, T-this.." Diana strutted, trying to organise herself, after jolting out of her daze.
"Take it, Diana." Aucuces said this in between sips of wine. "You need to be promoted because I will be assigning you to face a formidable foe in the coming chaos." He concluded with a smile.
'There it is...!' Diana was well aware that whoever she was about to face would be anything but ordinary, and could even be fatal to her. But she knew that this was the only chance that she could advance in her path.
She didn't show hesitation because she knew her lord would be disappointed in her because this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, that many wouldn't even get.
"Thank you very much, Milord." Diana said after she had calmed down. "I will face whoever you ask!" She said it with confidence, depsite having very bad felling afterwards.
Then, almost immediately, she took the knowledge emperor characteristics from the table and placed them in her separate space. She also noticed a deck of cards on the table, which she had previously overlooked subconsciously.
Aucuces simply chuckled as he noticed this and turned to see the dejected eyes of Lucas, who was still starting at the place where the characteristics was.
"You, too, Lucas, will get your chance in the future." He said lightly, leaving Lucas perplexed, because almost every pathway interchangeable with the sun pathway already has gods.
Aucuces wasn't joking when he said that. With the addition of hermit uniqueness, which he can use, his overall strength has increased significantly.
Just like Amanines, she holds the moon uniqueness, which is what made her much stronger than other gods.
"Then, let's move onto the final thing." Aucuces said, as he ignored the expressions of Lucas and Diana, after hearing that.
He took the deck of cards on the table and spread it all in the table.
There were total number of 22 cards with Roman number on top of each of card and unique image related to its name in the below.
The beginning of the cards was the "0" – The Fool and the ending was the "21" – The World.
The Tarot Cards!