Chapter Text
Klein stared out into the dark chaos the world has turned into and couldn't help but to reminisce about how everything ended up like this, and how he ended up here.
Back when he was 25, a chubby little software engineer, he had a stroke of bad luck, and decided to do an old Taoist luck ritual he bought from a shady peddler. Surprisingly, it had worked but not the way he expected. After he completed the simplistic ritual, his vision was momentarily covered in red as he was pulled into a grey fog, Sefirah Castle he would later learn, and there he met the God who would become his Master and Teacher, the Celestial Worthy, Tianzun.
His Master had explained everything to him, how the end of the world was approaching, and how He had foreseen his own demise. He had explained that instead of wasting effort by finding ways around that demise, He instead chose to accept it, and raise an heir instead. It turned out He had orchestrated the events leading up to him doing the ritual in order to pull him into the castle. The God had apparently been following him for a while in secret, to see if he was not only worthy, but also capable, of being His heir.
Though he had long since outgrown his chuunbi days, he couldn't give up an opportunity like this,so mystical and fanciful, it was all to easily for someone like him trapped in the corporate grind to agree. And to this day he still did not regret that decision. Soon after, he quit his office job and told his parents that he intended to become a shaman at a shrine of the Celestial Worthy. His parents were worried about his decision, fearing for his lively hood and future, but still supported him in the end.
It was during this time at the shrine that he studied everything he could, leant all there was to learn from his Master Tianzun. After a decade of dedication and hard work, he had mastered the paths of Space, Time and Change, the last being his favourite. During this time he had also become a rather renowned shaman due to his actions while acting. This had not only put his parents hearts at ease, but also made them very proud, though his mother had always been a bit sad at never having any grandchildren.
Over the years, he and his Master started crafting more artifacts to act as his anchors after the end times, but artifacts would not be enough. So eventually, he had decided to take seven disciples, who he would teach about the same teachings he was taught, but instead of letting them walk the Divine Pathways, he instead slowly grafted their souls and the spirit world together. He had also noticed that his Master was start to reap the souls of random individuals, and when he had enquired about it, he was told that it acted as a smokescreen to hide him from His enemies. Even now they still hung in their cocoons in the deepest parts of the sefirot.
In the later days, when he couldn't appear in public due to still looking young despite it being decades, his disciples took to the stage in his stead, becoming known as his heralds, his lights. When the end finally arrived, they retreated into the spirit world, while his master Tianzun sealed him in the sefirot with the uniquenesses and final real characteristics. That way he could slowly absorb them and become the Lord of Mysteries, while his master used the historical void to maintain the illusion of his power.
Now there was nothing left in the world but darkness and chaos. He can see through the Rivers of Fate that in the future one will come to bring the light and with it a new age, so with peace in His heart, He sent His lights to continue their vigil over what was now His kingdom, the Spirit World. Slowly, He leaned back against the stone throne and closed His eyes, entering a dream like state, turning His full attention to reinforcing the barrier His master gave his life to create, to protect what remained from those who wished to consume it all.
~~
Sitting upright He opened His eyes. This was not waking up in a mortal sense, for He was never truly asleep in the way mortals think of it. He didn't keep track of time, but with a single thought He could instantly tell how much time had passed, for time was Him, and He was it.
He could sense it, how the rivers of fate have converged and the bringer of light was about to awakening. With a single step forward, He appeared before the entrance to the Chaos Sea, before Chernobyl. Patiently He waited, watch as a young Ukrainian man with blonde and black hair stumbled out of the ruins. When the man fell down to the ground outside the still standing building, He walked over to him offering a helping hand.
One golden eyed gaze met another, and a single word escaped the mouth of the fallen man.
"Mysteries."
He gave a slight chuckle at that, not surprised to be recognised by the bearer of omnipotence. "I am, but I prefer Mr. Fool. Though you may call me Mingrui, as long as I can call you Grisha."
The man accept His hand after a few moments of thinking, and Mingrui easily helped him up.
"Allow me to be the first to welcome you back to the land of the living. Now, why don't we celebrate this joyous occasion by creating a bit of light?"
~~
Within what felt like a blink of the eye, years became decades, then centuries and soon millennia. In the beginning he taught Grisha about the world and what it had become, as well as what he had become. Later it changed to other knowledge He had gathered over the ages, and eventually it came to more personal information and experiences. At some point in time, he had started to wonder if this is what it felt like to have a child.
When the 3rd epoch came to be, He had made preparations to enter sleep one more. Grisha had come a long way from the naive young man who walked out of the Chaos Sea so long ago, and no longer was he alone, for he had several Angels by his side.
His last parting gift to the one who had become His child was the Error Uniqueness, in the form of a monocle. He had told him that it was for two reasons, one was to remind him that He was always the for him, even when sleeping, and the other was to remind him of the time he came from, for monocles were yet to be reinvented.
Because of the way He had neglected the barrier during this long time he spent roaming the world, His connect to the mortal realm was sealed off to far greater extent this time, compared to his previous excursions over the epochs. This caused him to be unaware of the developments happening… and the tragedies.
It wasn't until the 5th Epoch when a prayer pulled Him from His slumber-like state. A young man, even more a child than Grisha was when he first walked out of Chaos Sea, was sitting at his desk, trembling as he held a gun to his own head. It was easy to tell his body was not under his own control, but his will was strong enough to be able to break free from the control enough to be able to pray for help. And pray he did, to the Orthodox Deities of this time, to the Unorthodox he's heard about, and simply into the void, the unknown and unknowable, to Him.
With a fic of a tentacle, he pulled the child into the Castle.
He watched as the child spun around in confusion and fear seeing the grey fog he is in now. "Oh Goddess, I've died haven't I? No no no no no… what about Mesilla and Benson? Oh please no, Melissa will be the one to find my body!"
"You are not dead, not truly yet at least."
He watched as the young man spun around to look in his direction. "Are- are you one of the Gods I prayed to?"
He rested His head against His hand, "In a sense, yes. You prayed into the nothing hoping for anyone, anything, to hear, and heard I did, for your prayers awoke me from my slumber."
He could easily tell that that His words terrified the child. "And who might You be then? A long forgotten Ancient God?"
He chuckled, though the child was terrified, he was still curious and brave enough to delve deeper. "A God far more Ancient than any other. I am the one who was clothed by the Rivers of fate while being baptised in Cosmic Starlight as I suckled on the essence of Time itself. I am that which is inconceivable and inevitable. You may refer to Me as the Fool."
"It is an honour Mr. Fool, but what do you intend to do with me?"
"You prayed for help, so help I intend, though not for free."
"Free things are the most expensive." It wasn't directly spoken to him, but more an unconscious mutter under the breath.
"Indeed they are, which is why I am someone who prefers equivalent exchange. The price for resurrection, for a long and prosperous life, would be loyalty towards Me and you would be bearing My Blessing."
He could see the child thinking it over. "And what would the price be for resurrecting my friends as well?"
"Their souls have long since left this world. Their resurrection, though possible is not something I will bring about. Nothing ever comes back the same, you will not be entirely the same when you return, either, should you accept."
~~
He watched on as His Blessed quietly got to work cleaning up the scene of his suicide, but He could also see that in the next room his sister was curled up on her bed, hand covering her mouth as tears streamed down her face, she had heard everything happening. Carefully He reached out and stole the memories from her, and coincidentally noticed that He was effected by the Laws of Convergence and Divergence.
Leaning back on His throne, He inspected his Being, finding that the only characteristics He still held were that of a single sequence 1 Mystery Attendant. Getting an understanding of the situation, He started making plans for the future, starting with finding his Child, and for that, He needed His Disciples help. It was time for the King of Yellow and Black who wields Good Luck to return.