"Three Divinities in one person!" Caius celebrated with a smile as jubilant as if it were his birthday, completely ignoring his client's gasp of surprise. "Not in my wildest dreams would I have imagined I'd live enough to see something like this. How exciting!"

"Kantrus and Xiliarra?"

Saying those names out loud confused Tristessa.

It was far better to feel that way than to fear that the old man had discovered her [Divinity of Death and Resurrection] and would inevitably fall into insanity and murder her.

But for him to identify her other Divinities with the other Gods was something she hadn't expected. Let alone a third Divinity…

If she had only allowed him to see the two she knew, what was this third one he mentioned?

"W-wait a moment, Master Caius. Are you saying that none of my Divinities correspond to Vel'Moran?" She asked, one question at a time. "You know that one of my Divinities allows me to bring the dead back to life, right? You must have felt that dark light inside me… That switch I flip to bring them back."

"Oh no, that Divinity you mention has no relation to Vel'Moran. In fact, from what I'm detecting, it's quite the opposite: you take a fragment of a soul lost in the astral plane and grant it an imitation of Life. That, according to my books, tips the scales toward Xiliarra."

"Oh! I hadn't thought of it that way…" she said softly, even more surprised by the elder's way of speaking before the reasoning she had just heard.

Master Caius explained his first impression of that Divinity, emphasizing the word imitation and nothing else. Without prejudice, without feeling the abhorrence Tiara felt when she saw Tristessa bring Gaal back to life live and in person, in that now-nonexistent timeline.

"You must be careful when using this Divinity. I don't want to know in what context you discovered it, but I felt the wrath of that revenant against you, and it worries me. Do not tire your own soul through overuse, or you will collapse and die, just like a thaumaturge who overdoes their art. And do not allow the revenant to become your enemy either... You must always be in control. If you can't, surrender and focus on nurturing your Divinity, making it more powerful."

For the first time, Caius's voice held a seriousness that was uncharacteristic of him after so much shouting and outbursts. His analysis and understanding of a Divinity that Tristessa had been grappling with for days was impressive. The decades of experience he carried were more than evident.

"So, tell me, did you give your ability a name? If you want, I can give it one, it's at your discretion."

"[Divinity of Accursed Existence]," she replied, somewhat relieved to see him nod. "That is the name I gave it."

"Then it shall be. A token of the love of the Brightest Star, Xiliarra, toward you and Life."

"It sounds like something horrible…"

"No one said Xiliarra isn't a goddess who invites dark thoughts. She can be as terrible as she is benevolent," the elder monk explained. "You know the myth of Endrel and Margules? There are versions that tell of Xiliarra, envious of Margules' beauty, sent the ring of assassins, the Red Hood, to kill her and her entire family."

Another new bit of information that disturbed the girl. If that had been the case, she felt sorry for the she-devil guarding the Infinite Corridor.

"So don't be confused, Miss Tristessa. Those kinds of assumptions are what lead people to vilify those having great Discord like you and praise those with [Grace] more than necessary…" he told her, introducing her to that new concept she hadn't heard before. "Do you understand my point?"

"Yes, Master Caius."

"Good, that's good. Then let's move on to this other Divinity," he continued, his eyes rolling back for a few seconds as he peered into Tristessa through that hands-glyph connection. "Hmm… I sense the voice of a poor, troubled soul. If I feel his pain in my heart, I don't want to imagine what you feel, miss. Yes, I understand… You listen to and acquire the knowledge and experiences of the echoes left by the dead in our plane of existence. And that's Power, in my books."

"Exactly… My encounter with the shadow of someone who died rewarded me with a part of who they were in life," she affirmed, remembering the agility that Viktor Enma's echo had given her when she had the hunting knife in her hands. "Do you have any advice regarding this Divinity?"

"Use it whenever you can: the echoes the dead leave behind will be of use to you. I see no disadvantage other than carrying on your consciousness the pain, sorrow, and torment of those lost in the void," Caius replied, his smile fading, saddened. "Did you also give it a name?"

"[Divinity of Whispers in the Dark]."

"Then it shall be, a token of love of the Dark Sun, Kantrus, toward you and Power."

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"And what is this other Divinity you mentioned, Master Caius?" Tristessa asked with great interest.

"Oh yes, your third Divinity! I can barely contain my excitement! I've only ever met people with a maximum of two Divinities, and that's already too many. Let's see…"

Again, Caius rolled his eyes and concentrated.

"I see the structure of your consciousness. It's arranged in a private space for you, but now that you've invited me, I can see it too... It's a room... My, how dark."

"A-a room... a [Dark Room]?"

Tristessa's heart began to beat rapidly, in step with her increasing breathing. She waited, impatient, for Caius to finish meditating, feeling the sweat on her palms against the mystic tattooist's, and the insignificant heat emanating from the burner turning into a glowing fire.

Unfortunately… The elder man opened his eyes, clear as water, and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, but what I see and feel it's an empty space that is not yet defined because you never visited it and gave it a form. From what I understand, you can organize your thoughts and memories in such space," he explained, dismissing Tristessa's anxiety and crushing her hopes for a revelation of her past. "In my books, there's no doubt that it follows the principle of Mind, also aligned with Kantrus."

"The way he explained, it sounds like a mind palace," she thought, having read about this method of organizing information somewhere, perhaps in a book or one of her school classes back on Earth. "Only here it seems to be a divine ability I have thanks to the god Kantrus."

"I'll name it [Divinity of the Dark Room], if you don't mind, this demonstration of love of the Dark Sun Kantrus toward you and the Mind," Caius told her, scratching his chin under those layers of beard. "There's something about that concept that's deeply intertwined with your… fragmented personality."

"¿Fragmented? So, you saw it."

"Yes. Bound to your soul, your personality is distorted, like your memories. Undefined, even," he explained, gifting her with a pitiful gaze. "I can help you with certain mystical techniques involving the implementation of soul-ink over your skin and stimulate your memory with the image it creates, but it will take time."

"Oh… Something that I don't have, to be honest," she lamented herself, her shoulders dropping. Her memories were going to have to wait a little longer.

"Then I recommend that you seek the help of a thaumaturgist expert in healing. On my part, please consider utilizing that new Divinity once you return home, undisturbed. It's the kind of Divinity that doesn't tire your soul and has the only drawback of isolating yourself from the world. If someone tries to harm you while you're immersed in your Dark Room… You might not realize it until it's too late. Be very careful."

"I will, Master Caius. Thank you for your concern."

"Anything for a valued client so loved by the Gods."

With that, the mystical tattooist withdrew his hands—the glyphs having lost all effectiveness—and used a handkerchief to wipe away all the sweat left by the embarrassed girl.

Though, rather than feeling ashamed, Tristessa was even more skeptical of what Caius had just told her.

Loved by the Gods? The way Tristessa saw it, she was deeply hated by them.

She had believed that only Vel'Moran was the architect of that endless construct where she was trapped, and each level was built with despair, blood, and tears. But it turns out that the other two Gods were also behind those mysterious abilities she acquired upon arriving in Nekrom, silently proliferating in her soul, like a virus whose existence one only realized when it was too late...

"Master Caius... What if someone is loved by all Three Gods?" she asked, wanting to sound as discreet as possible.

What she achieved was a laugh worthy of the kind of mannerisms the elder man had displayed before beginning that Divinity reading session.

"Oh my, something like that, it's the epitome of impossibilities! Who can be so exceptional as to receive the blessing of the Three? You should already be more than happy that the Brightest Star and the Dark Sun love you."

The tattooist's laughter faded. The puffs of incense had already stopped flowing from the burner, and among the shadows that abounded in that small room, the old man interlaced his fingers and stared at Tristessa. His nails were like claws; his countenance was... disturbing.

Frightening.

"Or is it...that it's not enough for you, Tristessa Irandell? Do you wish to be loved also by the Devourer of Worlds, Vel'Moran? The God of Chaos, who the Empire and the Church abandoned?"

"N-no, I didn't mean that," she said quickly. "I just want to know what it would mean if someone were loved by the Three Gods. I'm not very close to the divine... And knowing that there are two Gods who blessed me with gifts changed my perspective."

"I see, I see..." Caius filled his lungs with the last vestiges of the perfumed aroma in the air and exhaled. As if he wanted to get something more than depleted oxygen out of his body. "There is a proverb among us Mystic Tattooists, passed down from generation to generation since the Great Sage Joakim Menelagg, who was the last to bear witness to someone loved by the Three Gods. He committed suicide in the twilight of his life... Do you want to hear it?"

Tristessa nodded with some shyness, and so the Mystic Tattooist spoke aloud:

If you are loved by one God, you will be destined to be happy all your life.

If you are loved by two Gods, you will be destined for glory and a name that will go down in history.

But if you are loved by the Three Gods, you will be destined to be a Dark Lord, bringing misfortune and calamity to Nekrom. You will be hated, feared, and your name cursed forever and ever.

"…"

His words caused an undying darkness to envelop Tristessa, as if the power crystals in the four corners had lost their ability to keep it at bay. The shadows loomed, tall and bearing a message of doom.

The girl couldn't think. Her eyes were lost, her reasoning blocked. She could only hear the pounding of her racing heart, like drums echoing in her ears.

"A... Dark Lord..." she could only say.

Among the shadows, Master Caius nodded.

"Great Sage Joakim bore witness to the [Shadow Queen], whose name I only spoke aloud once and will never do so again… For five hundred years, she's still the last recorded holder of Divinities of the Three Gods."

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