13 Mink Street

Chapter 70: Grandpa’s Divinity!

Upon facing the man who had once been its master, the golden retriever shrank back. It could smell that the man in front of it did not have at all the same scent as its former owner, and that difference frightened the beast.

However, as soon as Mr. Hoffen’s hand settled onto its neck and began to stroke the dog, familiar feelings returned. The golden retriever slowly leaned its head against Hoffen, its expression easing into enjoyment and affection.

“Very good,” Mr. Hoffen said. Sealing the heretical god inside the golden retriever did not mean the dog would be killed, because they were sealing the heretical god, not merely storing it within the animal temporarily. Any other option would risk the heretical god being able to emerge at any moment, which would defeat the purpose.

This was a method of soul custody.

To use a metaphor, it was like strapping a small backpack onto the golden retriever, and the heretical god would be placed inside that backpack. When it needed to be used, it would be possible to simply call the golden retriever over, open that backpack, and take out what was needed. The key difference was that this backpack would be almost impossible to remove from the dog.

Of course, the golden retriever itself would carry certain risks, but what in the world was without risk?

Moreover, the dog itself would benefit. First, it would live longer than other dogs, perhaps far longer. Second, it would become smarter.

Of course, with two souls living in one body day in and day out, mutual influence was inevitable. Either the golden retriever, as it grew smarter, would develop a degree of humanlike behavior, or the heretical god would gradually become more like a dog.

“Alright, I understand. So when do we begin?”

“Now,” Tiz said.

“Now?” Mr. Hoffen froze. “Right now?”

“Yes. Right now.”

“I can complete the seal quickly. Wait, I have a question: can I still use basic Principle powers?”

Tiz nodded. “There is no problem. While you may already be dead, you still have spirituality within you. Also, when I awakened you, I injected some more.”

“Good.” Mr. Hoffen looked over at Alfred. “Come, help me hold Kevin.”

“Alright.” Alfred immediately stepped forward and grabbed the golden retriever, lifting it up in front of Mr. Hoffen.

Mr. Hoffen spread his hands and began to chant. The next moment, two halos appeared over his palms, runes with hidden meaning circulating within them.

Alfred showed no surprise at all, because this was the most basic Art of the Church of Principle, basic to the point of being almost nothing. It was so basic that it could be likened to picking up a pen.

Mr. Hoffen himself did not know many Arts. He had taken the academic path, and did not even know how to fight. Otherwise, he would never have slipped upon meeting Karon for the first time, and nearly killed himself with the fall.

However, the same pen could produce drastically different things, depending on whether it was wielded by the hands of an ordinary person, the hands of a painter, or the hands of a mathematician or a writer.

Mr. Hoffen only needed this pen, and he could begin “drawing” the ritual array.

Before truly starting, Mr. Hoffen still lifted his head and glanced at Tiz. “Because that heretical god is extremely weak right now, I don’t need to consider the array’s strength, loss, or duration, and when an array doesn’t require any of those considerations, it becomes simple.”

Of course, this simplicity was only simple in Mr. Hoffen’s eyes. Everyone understood that an array capable of sealing a heretical god could not possibly be ordinary.

“I only need fifteen minutes to complete it, so, Tiz, I’ll set it up first, and then...”

“No. Together.”

“Together?”

Tiz stood with his hands behind his back. From his feet, enormous black chains spread outward. In an instant, they formed a black barrier that covered the entire Oak Cemetery.

Then he began to loosen his realm.

What followed was his aura surging upward at a speed that left one stunned. Before this aura, Alfred felt the impulse to kneel. He had already known that Tiz was powerful, but had never imagined that Tiz could be this powerful.

And yet, this was far from the end, because at this moment, beneath Tiz’s eyes, a layer of gold began to spread. At this moment, the old man possessed a grandeur that no mortal would dare look upon directly.

This was a crushing superiority that went beyond ordinary realms. It was the pressure of a higher level of life itself, as if Tiz was meant to stand and look down upon all beings.

Thud. Within the barrier, Alfred met that presence directly, and he dropped to his knees.

Mr. Hoffen also fell to his knees, because at that moment, a feeling arose within both men: to remain standing would be a sin.

Fortunately, they had merely gone from standing to kneeling, so the golden retriever was still held in Alfred’s arms, and he remained a suitable distance away from Mr. Hoffen.

In truth, even if Alfred had not been holding the dog, it would not have been able to move any longer. It had been frightened to the point that it was foaming at the mouth.

Tiz did not look at them. He slowly raised his head. A small opening split in the barrier above, and Tiz’s gaze pierced it.

The instant that his gaze, bearing a trace of divine will, passed beyond the barrier, three enormous pillars of light shot up at Roja City’s center.

“He can’t suppress his realm anymore?”

“That should be it. He can no longer control himself from stepping into that domain.”

“Wait, wait, wait. This is the price of waiting that you persuaded me to pay. We chose to wait, and he did not even give us a chance to negotiate.”

Rasma’s figure appeared on a rooftop, his gaze fixed in the direction of the cemetery.

Even after making countless guesses, even after laying down countless preparations, and even after the consciousness projections of three Temple elders arriving here had practically provided the answer in advance, at this moment, Rasma still felt shaken to the core.

So it turned out that the rival he had measured himself against all this time had indeed been secretly, quietly, becoming a god.

“Rasma, give the order for them to enter Roja City,” Sithe said.

But at that very moment, to the far north, south, east, and west of Roja City, at positions spaced evenly apart, four more pillars of light rose.

“Church of Abyss.

“Church of Reincarnation.

“Church of Night.

“Church of Principle,” Sithe called out names one by one. All four were major orthodox churches, and though their absolute power could not compare to the Church of Order, that did not mean they lacked the courage to try their luck.

That was because the current temptation was simply too great and could not be denied.

A Temple-elder level existence carrying a godhead fragment and then defecting was practically impossible, and yet it was happening.

“We can’t wait for more people, Sithe, Niven. We must act first. Remember, we are not attacking Tiz, we are protecting him as he completes his breakthrough. Until the very last moment, we absolutely cannot start a war.”

The next moment, the three pillars of light rose up and shot towards the cemetery. At nearly the same time, the four pillars that had risen in the cardinal directions also raced for the same place at the fastest possible speed.

In the eyes of ordinary people, it was only an ordinary, rainy winter night, but in the eyes of those who lived on a different level, the night was so bright that their eyes ached.

***

On the third floor of the Immers home, in the study, the candle in front of Karon had almost burned to nothing, which meant that it would go out soon.

When that happened, he would be able to go to the washroom, take a shower, change into sleepwear, climb into a warm bed, and finally fall into sweet dreams.

He was genuinely getting sleepy. The two gazes had been watching him for so long that he had almost stopped feeling them.

If Tiz had not instructed Karon to stare at the flame, he would have wanted to greet whoever those two gazes belonged to and invite them to sit down and rest with him as well.

On the windowsill outside of the study, Pu’er’s head suddenly snapped up. She stared into the sky outside the window, disbelief in her voice. “Tiz can’t suppress his realm anymore? Shouldn’t there still be two more days?”

Pu’er’s head then whipped back around to stare at the study’s door behind. Her whiskers trembled lightly, but she saw nothing.

She had once confidently told Karon that despite not being able to fight, her eyes could see through all things. When the Beguiler had attacked in the hospital, Pu’er had slashed a single paw across its face, leaving it bleeding.

Yet at this moment, Pu’er saw nothing. She turned her head back and continued staring out the window. “Tiz, you absolutely cannot be harmed.”

Outside of the study, just behind Pu’er, a man’s mouth curled to form a smile. The cat had apparently sensed something, but it was not truly able to see him.

If he had not revealed his anger towards Karon back then, that Inquisitor of the Church of Order would never have been able to sense his existence. In the end, it had been his own carelessness.

Still, it was not entirely his fault. Who could have imagined that after an epoch, the Church of Order would become so terrifying, to the point that a local Inquisitor could condense a godhead fragment? What had happened to the world?

Still, it was precisely because of this change that he could wait for a real opportunity. Right now, you can no longer spare attention for anything else, can you? Then I will take back what is mine.

His body passed straight through the study door and entered the study.

“Ah.” Still staring at the candle that was about to go out, Karon yawned and rubbed his eyes.

At that instant, the blue flame suddenly turned black.

Black was also a color, and when it could devour all other colors around it, it became the brightest color, as it was the only one.

Karon’s heart lurched. He immediately began scanning the room in tense alarm, but saw nothing.

“My bed was warmed, but before I could even lay down in it, you laid down first. Do you know how cold the floor is?

“Now, I will take back my bed, my bedroom, my house, and I will take back my dignity, the dignity of Rhanedar!” As he roared in a language no one could hear, the man stepped into Karon’s body.

In that instant, Karon felt a cold so dreadful that it swept through his whole body. It felt as if his soul had been frozen in a heartbeat.

“You, get out!” Rhanedar roared. More than half of his body had already entered Karon.

At that exact moment, two figures appeared at Karon’s sides: a man and a woman.

Rhanedar laughed loudly. “Useless, useless, hahahaha! I may be unbelievably weak right now, I may be unbelievably wretched, but my state of existence is something you cannot see and or even sense! Of course I knew that a Inquisitor who has condensed divinity would leave a precaution for this thief, but does that matter?

“Huh?!” Almost immediately, Rhanedar let out a cry of shock, because the man and the woman had each reached out and placed one hand on his shoulders. They had grabbed the shoulders of a Him that did not exist.

Most importantly, they had stopped him. They had managed to prevent Rhanedar from fully entering Karon’s body, ending his attempt to take back the body that he had painstakingly improved.

How could this be, how could this be? Not even that Inquisitor could do this. At most, he could burn me with soulfire. He could not actually touch me.

So what are you two, and why can you touch me now?

Rhanedar tried to break free of their hands, but he could not. Then, suddenly, he understood. He cried out, “You are his— No, you are this body’s parents!”

His existence leaned toward nonexistence, which made him impossible to capture, but when he tried to enter Karon’s body, Rhanedar had naturally formed a connection with the body, and to a certain extent, his existence shifted because of that. In a sense, he had also become these two people’s son.

A relationship beyond any pact had been established, because no matter when, a parent’s hands could always sense the presence of their own child.

Karon had seen Tiz light candles in his study, and had even been curious about it, wondering if Tiz might have been preparing some ritual or Art. The truth was that whenever Tiz lit a candle in his study, it meant that, at that particular moment, he was thinking about his son and daughter-in-law.

“Why? Why! Why!!!” Rhanedar roared with unwilling fury. “He isn’t your son either! Your son died long ago! He and I are the same, outsiders invading this body. Why do you permit his existence, but block my entry? Why? Why is this?!”

The man and woman standing at Karon’s sides kept their hands extended, blocking Rhanedar, yet their eyes never left Karon. They looked at him with gentle gazes, an expression reserved for family.

They had seen the smile that would appear on Tiz’s face in this study after each conversation with Karon. They had heard the expectation and delight in the light footsteps of his younger brother and sister and their nieces and nephews when Karon rang the bell on the second floor, summoning everyone to hurry over to enjoy lunch.

By the windowsill outside of the study, he had taught Mina and helped her study and learn, guiding her while she was still young.

In the bedroom across from the study, he had handed Lent his own income to use as pocket money, telling the boy to ask again if it was not enough.

He made Mary put away her habit of mocking people.

He made Mason say that he wanted to call him “uncle.”

Not long ago, he had sat in this same study while the family explained that they had chosen to take out a loan to buy him a house in Veyn, their only wish being that, while he was in a foreign land, he would be able to live more comfortably and with greater confidence.

When the candle had been lit, they had examined him, because they knew that he was not their son, even if the blood in the body was their blood.

When the candle had burned halfway, their gaze began to soften.

Perhaps he was not their son, but he had been trying, all along, to be a member of the Immers family. He had been actively blending into the household, and he had done so successfully.

Their son was gone. That was a fact. Fate had taken their son’s life.

But they had gained another family member.

His younger brother liked him, his sister-in-law liked him, his younger sister liked him, his nieces and nephew liked him, and even his father liked him.

And he also liked his father, and every other person in this home.

This was the Immers family, and in the Immers home, there was one rule: family above all.

How could we watch you harm my family and remain unmoved?

A deadlock formed.With Karon’s parents barring the way, Rhanedar could not fully enter Karon and complete the replacement, because he really was weak right now; weak, extraordinarily weak.

At that moment, Rhanedar made a decision. He still had time, he could wait for the next opportunity. Since that Inquisitor would be dragged into the vortex tonight, this home would fall apart afterward.

You two will no longer exist because of that. I can wait. I can wait for the next opportunity. While I might not have much time in this drifting state, for now, I can afford to wait.

A heretical god’s decisiveness revealed itself. He no longer tried to enter Karon’s body, and instead, he began to voluntarily withdraw. Once he left Karon’s body and severed that connection, this man and woman would no longer be able to touch him.

His form was pulling free, but at that moment, a slit suddenly opened in Karon’s chest. Then, a hand reached out through that slit and seized Rhanedar.

“No! Nooo!!!”

***

“Tiz, I’ve completed the array,” Mr. Hoffen announced. He had already drawn dense runes across the golden retriever. “But there’s a problem; How do we pull it over here?

“Heavens! Look at all those lights flashing outside. It’s frightening. Can you still go out and make it home?”

Outside the barrier, a total of seven projected consciousnesses were closing in on the cemetery.

“No, there’s another very important problem.” Kneeling on the ground, Mr. Hoffen suddenly shrieked. “How are we supposed to catch it? That heretical god has no substance to it at all.”

Floating in the air, Tiz’s mouth curved into a faint smile. “Now we can catch him, because I am his grandpa.”

As he spoke, a fist-sized black hole opened in Tiz’s chest. He thrust his left hand straight into that black hole. “And also, I once opened a hole in Karon’s chest.”