I am God LSLCCF

Chapter 445: Eye of Divine Oracle

From its belly the ceramic figurine drew the Divine Artifact, the Eye of Divine Oracle, the very spyglass Xiao had fashioned with his own hands.

The metal monocular looked as though it had come alive. The monstrous reliefs carved across it writhed like snakes, and those carved beasts seemed gripped by terror.

At this very moment, it was giving off a signal of danger.

A swarm of voices seemed to hum at the ceramic figurineʼs ears, every one of them chanting in the same mechanical tone, ”Danger!”

”Danger!”

”Danger!”

Only once the ceramic figurine had drawn it fully out did it slowly settle, until at last it was an ordinary, faintly elegant spyglass once more.

【Divine Artifact: Eye of Divine Oracle】

【Sequence Number 136】

【Ability 1 Mirror of Analysis: The lenses of the Eye of Divine Oracle possess the power to analyze the properties and information of whatever they behold, then gather and order it all, committing it to memory and to record.】
【Ability 2 Danger Perception: The Eye of Divine Oracle was forged by the hand of the God of Original Sin, Xiao. Through Spirit Activation it was turned from a dead thing into an extraordinary artifact bearing some of the traits of life, and through that Spirituality it possesses a keen power to sense danger. When danger draws near, it warns of its own accord, like a god guiding a believer to steer clear of calamity.】

【Ability 3 Divine Oracle Guidance: In a moment of crisis, by offering a sacrifice to the reliefs upon the Eye of Divine Oracle and praying for the guidance of the divine oracle, it can point out a path to survival amid death and danger. Of course, that depends on just how dangerous your danger truly is. After all, it can only guide you to a way out where a way out exists. It does not always work, yet the price will be exacted all the same.】

The ceramic figurine understood at once. The artifact was warning it that danger was near.

”Thereʼs danger? Where is it?”

In an instant the ceramic figurine was on alert. It scrambled across the chest heaped with treasure, clambered up to the cabin window in a few quick movements, and raised the Eye of Divine Oracle to sweep its gaze all around.

Everywhere its gaze fell there was only blue sea and bluer sky, calm weather and gentle sun.

”Calm seas, still waves. Whereʼs the danger in any of that?”

With its mental power the ceramic figurine held the metal monocular aloft, a thing larger than itself, and gave it a shake, then a tap. ”Is this thing broken?”

Still, it was the work of a god, and surely such a thing would not break so easily. The ceramic figurine ran to the far side of the cabin and set about studying the view carefully once more.

Through the window on this side it peered off into the distance. ”Nothing!”

”Farther. Push it out a hundred miles. Two hundred.”

”Farther still...”

There was no need to go farther. Something was stirring already.

Across the mirrored surface of the Eye of Divine Oracle, several lines of text came flowing into view. ”A gh... gh... ghost?”

The ceramic figurineʼs expression flickered, its mouth stumbling over the word.

Then its expression went blank, and in a callous, muttering tone it speculated aloud, ”Where would a ghost come from, out on the open sea?”

”Some poor unlucky sod must have died and turned into a ghost by accident. Thatʼs got to be it. Thatʼs got to be it.”

But regrettably for that theory, a ghost was not something born the moment a person died.

It was a product of the fourfold-division power of Divine Grace, a spirit-body wrought from memory.

And the one who wielded this power, and wielded it best of all, was the sworn enemy of the ceramic figurineʼs master, Xiao. Not long ago the two had clashed in a divine war, and both had come away grievously wounded.

So the moment it saw a ghost, the ceramic figurineʼs heart lurched, and in its fright it nearly dropped the Eye of Divine Oracle.

Still it clung to a shred of hope. After all, the God of Knowledge and Truth was not the only one who could make ghosts. The Scarlet Goddess, the God of Demon Spirits, and a handful of ancient beings all knew the method of creating them.

Though running into any of those beings would hardly be pleasant either.

But anything was better than running into the God of Knowledge and Truth. This deity did not abide by the rules the way the others did, and hated the Evil God of Original Sin to the very marrow.

The Eye of Divine Oracle swiftly magnified the distant scene, and there it saw a transparent ghost weaving above the sea of clouds, searching for something across the ocean.

The ceramic figurine saw at once that this was no ordinary ghost. In its hand it held a Book of the Witch Spirit, and it could unleash special Divine Techniques as well.

At the sight of the Book of the Witch Spirit, the ceramic figurine let go of its last shred of hope.

Smack!

It raised one little hand and brought it down hard against its own forehead.

The ceramic figurineʼs painted eyes squeezed shut, its whole face the picture of despair. ”Damn it all. It really is a servant of the God of Knowledge and Truth.”

The ceramic figurine lowered its hand and twisted the metal monocular. In an instant its view stretched to the very limit, reaching a scene more distant still.

It knew things had turned grim, but it still had to look and see just how grim.

Finally, it beheld a scene at least a thousand miles away. Above the sea of clouds there drifted a kingdom out of dream.

Through the hazy sea of clouds and a mirage-like veil of illusion, the lens could even faintly make out that gate which stood for truth and knowledge, the Gate of Mythology.

The Witch Spirit ghost had plainly come out of that divine kingdom, and it seemed to be hunting for something along this sea route. Along this very route, at this very moment, there was no telling how many ghosts were out there searching, combing over everything.

The ceramic figurine lowered the Eye of Divine Oracle and went tearing around the cargo hold like a mad thing, clutching its head. Its painted face contorted into a hoarse, screaming wail, mouth flung wide open.

”Iʼm done for!”

”Iʼm done for!”

”Whatʼs going on?!”

”How is the Kingdom of Knowledge and Truth here of all places? Are they after me?”

”They have to be after me. Who else would be on this route but me?”

It felt as though they had been lying in wait for it on this very route all along.

”How did they know I meant to leave Ruhe Beast Island? How did they know Iʼd come this way?”

The Earth Witch had seen that the ceramic figurine meant to leave Ruhe Beast Island.

And this was very likely the only road it had for leaving the Storm Sea. The ceramic figurine, after all, was not like Ray, who possessed a Miracle Tool flying device.

Its own power was slight, and it could not simply cross the ocean directly, brushing aside all the perils that filled those waters.

So Polik had predicted that it would most likely follow the very route the Avel people had taken when they left long ago, and had set ghosts to search for it all along that path. And the ceramic figurineʼs plan was indeed exactly that.

What Polik had not foreseen was that the ceramic figurine still held a peculiar artifact like this ”Eye of Divine Oracle” in its hands.

It was an artifact with no great power to attack, one that seemed made for nothing but gathering data and fleeing for oneʼs life, and even so it ranked somewhere past a hundred in the sequence.

”Iʼm done for!”

”Theyʼre going to find me!”

”Theyʼre going to catch me!”

In its panic, drawing on all its experience, the ceramic figurine had already pictured the fate awaiting it. ”What are these people going to do to me?”

”Theyʼll toy with me, for certain, absolutely certain. Theyʼll hang me over a fire and roast me, roast me for a thousand years, ten thousand years, and torture me to death by the cruelest means they can dream up.”

”No. They wonʼt even kill me. Theyʼll pull me apart and lock my will away in the dark, forever.”

”Theyʼll make me their slave, and never once let me find release.”

Though that last one seemed little different from its life right now.

Trembling all over, it hopped and skittered down into the chest full of treasure, as though it wanted to bury itself away.

But before long it poked its head back up out of the riches.

Once the fright had passed, it finally came to its senses. The enemy had not truly found it yet.

”No, I wonʼt go over there. Thereʼs still time to turn back now.”

”The new world is the God of Knowledge and Truthʼs own land of faith. They already know where Iʼm headed. Go there now, and Iʼd be walking straight into the net.”

”No good. I have to change course, right now.”

Since this route was no longer safe, it would simply go back the way it had come.

The ceramic figurine made up its mind at once to turn the ships around and abandon this attempt.

That very night, the ceramic figurine played its old trick once more.

It used its consciousness to hypnotize the captain, bidding him turn the ships about and start back along the way they had come.

Lost in his daze, the captain once more dreamed of the shadow of a divine being, and that great power, transcending all things, smothered every scrap of his reason, until nothing was left in him but fervor and devotion.

The great divine being once more sent down its guidance, though he did not so much as know the godʼs name. ”Go back.”

”There is danger ahead. Now is not the time to leave Ruhe Beast Island.”

The godʼs guidance left the captain without a shred of doubt, his will long since seized and lulled under the ceramic figurineʼs spell.

When he woke, the captain at once ordered the fleet to halt, then declared that they would turn back.

He gathered every crewman together and told them the divine oracle he had heard. ”The god has spoken to us. There is danger ahead, and now is no time to make for the new world.”

”We must turn back now, and wait for our next chance.”

But the moment the captain put this to them, the whole crew rose against it, and they began to cast doubt on this divine oracle handed down by a god whose very name none of them knew.

A month gone since they set out, and now they were to turn back?

No fortune to be made? No noble titles after all? And what of the warrants out for their arrest?

Argument, suspicion, and fury spread through the crowd, and then turned to bloodshed.

At a shout from someone no one could name, the whole scene erupted into chaotic struggle.

”Kill him!”

”The manʼs gone mad!”

”Turn back now? Turn back for what?”

”We want a way out! We want the treasure!”

Those who dared to roam the seas were, by and large, hard and ruthless sorts. Some among them carried rare skills, masters of the sailorʼs craft.

Others were Ability Users of apprentice rank, or held special artifacts of their own.

Every manner of trick and power came out at once aboard that ship, and in the chaos the captain was killed.

The new captain took his place at the helm, brandishing the blood-streaked sea chart and commanding a rope-like Divine Artifact that writhed at his will, as he cried out, ”Onward! On to the new world!”

”This time, we have to make it. Thereʼs no road back for us now!”

The ceramic figurine was dumbstruck. This was nothing at all like what it had imagined.

These fools. Did they want money more than their own lives?

I told you already, thereʼs danger ahead. This was a godʼs own guidance.

The ceramic figurine watched the fleet set out again, drawing nearer and nearer to the stretch of the route the ghosts patrolled.

Not far ahead a ghost was already on patrol, and once they reached it, it would surely find them. The ceramic figurine was beside itself with terror. ”What is wrong with these people?!”

”I told you, thereʼs danger! Donʼt you people understand? Danger!”

”Stupid mortals! And now theyʼll drag me down to die right alongside them!”

”Still going forward? Still heading over there?”

The fleet pressed closer to the waters the ghost patrolled, and at any moment it might be spotted. The ceramic figurine felt as though a fire had been lit beneath it, unable to sit still, tumbling and flipping over and over in its agitation. ”That ghost is about to spot us. I canʼt let it find this ship.”

”That divine kingdom might come marching over here as well. These waters are outside Ruhe Beast Islandʼs bounds now, so thereʼs nothing left to hold them back.”

At this the ceramic figurine was at a loss. Its own power was not enough to hypnotize and control every man aboard. There were, to be sure, plenty of things in the Divine Treasury that could kill them all at a single stroke.

But such things made far too great a commotion. The moment it used one, it would give itself away all the faster.

And besides, if it killed all these people off, who would sail the ship?

One scheme having failed, it hatched another.

”The sea chart. Without it, theyʼll never reach the new world.”

The ceramic figurine used its hypnosis to lull the new captain into a drunken stupor, then set a great blaze roaring, igniting the captainʼs cabin on the second deck and burning him to death within it.

The blaze was put out only with great difficulty, but the new captain was already burned to death, and more importantly, the sea chart left behind by the Avel people had gone up in flames along with him.

With the sea chart gone, there was nothing left to be done. They could only turn back the way they had come.

Every man aboard was sunk in dejection, yet the fleet had no choice but to come about and sail home.

No one, after all, was willing to go blundering blind into the terrors of the Storm Sea. That was as good as seeking death.

And with two captains dead one after another, every one of them caught the scent of disaster, and fear took root in their hearts.

Trick after trick, the ceramic figurine had managed in the end to hold this fleet back.

It watched as they drew slowly away from the stretch of route thick with ghosts, away from that Kingdom of Knowledge drifting elusive above the sea of clouds.

Only when it could see them no longer did it finally let out a breath of relief.

”What a pack of fools. Scared me half to death.”

With the crisis behind it, the fleet at last began its journey home.

It had not managed to leave Ruhe Beast Island as it wished, but so long as it could put a little more distance between itself and those cursed Witch Spirit ghosts, a little more distance between itself and that terrible kingdom of the God of Knowledge and Truth, it felt wrapped in safety.

Only, what was it to do next?

Since the line of the God of Knowledge and Truth was hunting for it, something must surely have happened, and it wanted to know how it might slip clear of this danger.

The ceramic figurine knocked a shard loose from its own body, then fed it to the Eye of Divine Oracle.

Several of the carved monsters upon the Eye of Divine Oracle began to move, and one of them stretched out its head, opened its mouth, and swallowed the ceramic figurineʼs shard down.

It ached with the loss, but to save its own life there was nothing else to be done.

”Great Darkness of All, Flesh and Blood Star that holds the seven layers of the Abyss, God of Original Sin who devours all.”

Only after repeating it three times did the ceramic figurine go on, ”Oh, Master!”

”Please, show me a way to live!”

”What am I to do next?”

”Your servant still has duties left unfinished. I cannot simply die like this!”

The ceramic figurine went on and on about its duties, though even now it had no idea what those duties actually were.

To come out here and take a beating, perhaps?

But in the instant the ritual was complete, the ceramic figurine felt itself joined as one with the Eye of Divine Oracle in its hands.

It felt its own Spirituality spilling outward without limit, reaching out to touch the power of some authority hidden in the unseen dark.

The sensation was as though the whole world had been laid out before its very eyes.

It seemed to feel an endless tide of malice, madness, and craving surging toward it, drowning it beneath that ocean of ill will.

The ceramic figurine knew this was the malice the people of this world gave off toward it, yet it was the first time it had ever faced that malice so directly.

And only in this moment did it come to know just how vast the worldʼs hatred of it truly was.

”What is all this?”

”I only did a few bad things. And even those, I just egged others on. Itʼs not as if I did them myself.”

”How can this world hold so much spite for me?”

”Iʼm not the one who did the evil. If you people didnʼt carry original sin, if you hadnʼt fallen of your own accord, how would you ever have sunk into madness?”

”Not one of you goes after your real enemy for revenge. So why aim all this hatred at me?”

The ceramic figurine sneered at this pack of foolish mortals, then set at once to using the chance it had paid such a price to earn.

”The Avel route is closed to me now. The new world peninsula, where the Avel people live, is out of reach too. Thereʼs nothing left but to turn back.”

”O Divine Being, tell me, can I go back?”

The thought of turning back surfaced in its mind, but the answer that came was, ”Danger!”

”Danger!”

”Danger!”

The mechanical voice repeated it endlessly, shrill past all bearing.

A countless host of voices told it that it must never go back, and above all that it must never set foot on Ruhe Beast Island.

The ceramic figurineʼs face filled with bewilderment. It could not understand why it must not go back.

”Why canʼt I go back? Everything was perfectly fine when I left.”

But this was what the Eye of Divine Oracle told it, and so it could only choose to believe.

Then it would simply drift here on the sea, and go back after a time had passed.

The moment the thought of drifting surfaced in its mind, the voices in its ears grew fainter at once, though they stayed as sharp as ever. ”Careful!”

”Careful!”

”Careful!”

The ceramic figurine froze. ”What? I have to watch myself out on the open sea as well?”

The ceramic figurine had no choice but to try yet another thought, another road. ”Then Iʼll find some other way to break out. If the Avel peopleʼs channel is closed to me, Iʼll find my own place to leave from.”

But the answer that came was overwhelming, a tidal roar of sound like a tsunami crashing down. ”Death!”

”Death!”

”Death!”

Fine. That road was even less passable than the last.

A puny little frame like its own, charging headlong into the Storm Sea? That truly would be the death of it.

Half a month later, they came once more to familiar waters, the coastal seas of Suinhor.

But the moment they returned, the ceramic figurine found that the whole world had changed.

There were more ships on the sea now, and fewer pirates.

Warships of Suinhor and warships of the Royal Court of Ten Thousand Serpents swept the seas in great fleets, striking at once against any vessel that flew a pirate flag or sailed under no known colors.

Even the White Tower Alchemy Alliance had rolled out its realm-guarding treasure, the Third-Rank alchemy ship, to make a show of its might upon the seas.

The pirate leagues that had once run rampant across the seas were swept aside, and the pirates who had once styled themselves kings of the ocean were either taken into service or sent to the bottom.

Pirate isles and harbors were seized and shut down one after another, and pirates in great numbers were either buried in the sea or thrown into deep dungeons, with the gallows waiting for them at the end.

The fleet that carried the ceramic figurine had only just put in at a pirate harbor, meaning to rest and refit a while.

The sailors aboard saw wanted notices and portraits plastered everywhere across the pirate port, but strangely enough, the figure on the pictures was no person at all.

”The ceramic figurine.”

”What kind of monster is this?” one of them asked.

”And the bountyʼs this high?” said another.

”Strange... why does it look so familiar?” a third muttered.

They had just been about to head in for a drink, to find some tavern and pass a few carefree days with a barmaid they had known of old.

But then something stirred out on the water. A fleet of Suinhor warships came bearing down on them.

Dong dong dong dong~

The harborʼs alarm bells rang out, and every pirate fled at the sound, surging in a frenzy toward the ships in the port.

But the sailors just back from the Avel route had no idea what was happening, not one of them able to make sense of the situation.

”Whatʼs going on?”

”Why is the sea full of warships? Have the King of Suinhor and his noble lords all gone mad?”

The other pirates, scrambling aboard their ships amid the cannon fire, were all shouting a single name. ”The ceramic figurine!”

”Whoever finds it will win the blessing of a god!”

”You know the ceramic figurine? Itʼs carrying a godʼs own treasury!”

”It has a divine artifact!”

”Every nationʼs after this monster. Not just Suinhor, but the Royal Court of Ten Thousand Serpents, the White Tower Alchemy Alliance, the Thunder Kingdom, the Yellow Sand Kingdom, and more besides.”

”Every power there is is hunting it. Even the gods have sent down oracles!”

”Everyoneʼs out on the sea after this monster, and what comes of it? Nobodyʼs found the monster, but theyʼve smashed the pirate leagues to bits. Those warships chase us across the water all day long, going on about some ceramic figurine or other.”

It was the ceramic figurine they hunted, yet it was the pirates who were dying off to the last man.

The world was a strange and wondrous place indeed.

On the ship, the ceramic figurine, the true subject of this whole affair and the very eye of its storm, stood before the small round window. Hearing the sailors talk, it was struck utterly dumb.

Hard on the heels of that came a fury that blazed to the heavens, and with it a bellyful of grievance.

Who was it that had spread these rumors? Since when did it have any divine artifact?

The ceramic figurine stamped its little feet again and again, so angry it seemed about to give off smoke. ”Whoʼs dragging my name through the mud? Whoʼs the one spreading all these lies?”

”A divine artifact? Where would I ever get a divine artifact?”

”If I really had a divine artifact, would I be skulking around and hiding like this?”

”First thing Iʼd do, Iʼd kill every last one who dared come after me. Even if the gods themselves came chasing me, Iʼd square up and have it out with Them!”

”No, wait. Do any of you fools even know what a divine artifact is?”

Now at last the ceramic figurine understood part of the reason it could not return to Ruhe Beast Island. Every nation and every god on Ruhe Beast Island was hunting for it now.

The fleet came about and broke away amid the chaos.

The fleet carrying the ceramic figurine had barely shaken off the pursuit of the Suinhor armada when, at the other end of its flight, it ran into something far more troublesome still.

Out of the eastern waters came a huge ship of hardwood, strange branches and leaves growing from its hull, as though the wood of it were still alive.

The ship was covered thick with inscriptions, its sails woven from the silk threads of Silk-Weaving Spirit Insects. The moment it appeared it bore down with a vast and crushing pressure, and even the wind over those waters seemed to still.

No sooner had those aboard it caught sight of them than they opened fire without hesitation, and a single shot sent one of the fleetʼs ships straight to the bottom.

Such a display of power struck every sailor dumb with terror.

”Itʼs an alchemy ship! An alchemy ship, built by Alchemy itself!” someone aboard shouted.

”A Third-Rank alchemy ship of the White Tower Alchemy Alliance,” said another, who even recognized the vessel for what it was.

”Weʼll never get away.” Despair spread across every face. It was not merely that they could not win. They could not flee either. Out on the open sea, a Third-Rank alchemy ship of the White Tower Alchemy Alliance was as good as invincible.

The sailors on the two remaining ships surrendered at once and ran up the white flag.

Several Third-Rank Ability Users came flying across from the alchemy ship, and some of the more powerful among them even carried some sort of artifact made for finding people.

In its fright the ceramic figurine scrambled hurriedly out of a window at the other end and flung itself into the sea.

It hid inside a glass bottle, paddling frantically at the water to drift off toward the far side, then screwed the cap down over itself and sealed itself away within.

Inside the bottle, the ceramic figurine pressed itself against the glass wall and stared off into the distance. ”Whatʼs going on?”

”Whatʼs going on?”

”Why is every last one of them hunting me? Who did I ever provoke? Who did I ever wrong?”

The ceramic figurine was truly scared half to death by now. This whole situation had gone utterly out of hand.

It could not understand.

What crime had it committed, to be worth hunting down with such an enormous show of force?

No. Whatever it had done, no crime could be worth the gods themselves coming to seize it like this.

That left it more baffled still.

But the ceramic figurine sensed that it had truly fallen into a hopeless corner. The one route by which it might leave Ruhe Beast Island was thick with ghosts from end to end, sealed off entirely by the servants of the God of Knowledge and Truth.

The whole of the sea was full of figures searching for it, hounding it until it knew no peace by day or night.

And returning to Ruhe Beast Island was just as impossible, with every god now combing for it as though through a magnifying glass.

At this, the ceramic figurine was thrown into utter confusion.

To go out was death. To go back was death.

And to stay on the sea, where every soul was hunting it, was death all the same.

What was it to do?

The ceramic figurine had no idea where to turn, and so it drifted here and there, hiding inside its bottle.

It could not command the flow of the tides, nor did it know which god might be the next to find it.

And so, helpless and afraid, it huddled there within.

But there at the boundary of the East Sea and the South Sea, as it drifted along with the waves, it caught sight of a cluster of moving islands.

Those islands did not merely move. They carried all manner of strange and singular powers as well.

Some were wrapped about in a scatter of mist. Around others the seawater boiled and steamed away. Still others could bend gravity to their will.

To an ordinary person, these islands were perilous in the extreme.

But the ceramic figurine recognized these moving islands for what they were. Every one of them was kin to the Ruhe Great God, the Lava Monster.

Yet there was one very strange thing about them. They were all hurrying off in a single direction.

In the end the ceramic figurine could not help itself. It unscrewed the cap of the bottle and poked its head out. ”Where are all these things rushing off to?”

The ceramic figurine had heard the Evil God of Original Sin speak of these giant gods, and it knew the power they held and the terror of them.

If these kin of the giant gods were on the move now, had something happened?

Could it be that the Ruhe Great God was calling to them?

The Ruhe Great God had slept without end, and would not stir to any disturbance lightly.

The ceramic figurine took out the Eye of Divine Oracle and watched the movements of these kin of the Ruhe Great God. Little by little it followed the pattern of their motion with its gaze, tracing it far into the distance, until at last it beheld a scene upon distant Ruhe Beast Island itself.

It saw the Lava Mountain, and above the mountain strange black smoke was churning.

The black smoke looked as though it were alive, a mass of countless black worms writhing together, and anything that passed into it could never come out again.

But there was nothing strange in that. This place had been just so for a thousand years and more.

What was strange was this. The ceramic figurine saw that there was something else stirring in the sky above the Lava Mountain.

”Hm? What is that thing?”

The ceramic figurineʼs eyes went wide, and a question mark surfaced on its painted brow.

It saw a thing that was white, and winged, and so vast it seemed to have no edge at all.

It moved back and forth between the real and the void, and only now and again, for a fleeting moment, would it emerge from the void into the mortal world.

And the instant the ceramic figurine saw it was the very instant it descended into the mortal world.

It came down toward the Lava Mountain, then vanished from sight amid a dazzle of colored light.

The ceramic figurine had never seen anything like it, still less could it say what the thing was. ”Itʼs gone?”

”Eye of Divine Oracle, do you know what that was?”

The ceramic figurine had only just taken a look through the Eye of Divine Oracle, only just meant to analyze what on earth the thing might be.

But all that surfaced on the mirrored face of the Eye of Divine Oracle was a chaos of symbols, a tangle of jumbled script.

Nothing could be made out at all.

”Whatʼs going on? Even if it canʼt tell, shouldnʼt it at least show the word ʼunknownʼ?”

”Whatʼs all this thatʼs popping up?”

”Is it broken?”

The ceramic figurine grumbled, deeply put out, ”When youʼre not supposed to work, you work like a charm. The moment I actually need you, youʼre no use at all.”

It was the first time the ceramic figurine had ever seen such a thing. In the past, even when it looked upon a god, the artifact could at least analyze out a scrap or two of data, could at least give a name to tell it which deity it was.

So how, all of a sudden, could it not so much as show a name?

What the ceramic figurine failed to notice was that even as the jumbled script writhed swiftly across the mirrorʼs surface, a small crack had appeared upon it as well.

Still none the wiser, the ceramic figurine even gave it a hard rap.

And at that, the Eye of Divine Oracle gave out a sharp, brittle sound.

Crack!

The crack across the mirror spread in an instant, and even the metal barrel of the thing split open all at once.

The ceramic figurine stood frozen a long while before it finally grasped what had happened.

It was forever asking whether the Eye of Divine Oracle was broken, and this time it really did seem to be broken.

”Ahh!” It seized its own head, its painted eyes and mouth stretched to their utmost, brimming with a manic frenzy.

”Itʼs over, itʼs over. This time itʼs well and truly over.”

The ceramic figurine clutched its head, planting its two little feet wide and swaying from side to side. This was the very thing that had been keeping it alive.

It even thought it had knocked the thing to pieces itself. ”How could it be so fragile?”

”I didnʼt even hit it hard!”

The ceramic figurine felt it had become a thoroughly wretched, pitiable thing, the very sort of creature it had once thought fit only to be mocked and toyed with.

It picked the thing up and looked it over from every side. It seemed it could still be used, only it no longer worked so well.

Only part of the script on the mirror could be read now, and its power to foresee danger was likely no longer so reliable as before, unless it could find some way to mend it.