Regarding that indescribable being, the Supernova Dominator had some impression of it, but didn't care much.
As a top-tier Outer Deity beyond the starry sky, He paid no attention to so-called prophecies. Only prophecies originating from the stars themselves would make Him wary, and even then, only wary.
What He truly cared about was that the Sovereign of Stars had deliberately spoken that sentence. That meant they acknowledged this prophecy and had specifically reminded Him.
The Eternal Blazing Sun, originally, He had planned to deal with Him slowly, but now it seemed better to drag Him down from His divine throne sooner rather than later, lest delays bring unforeseen changes.
The Son of Chaos clicked His tongue, his tone tinged with disdain. "Prophecies are just excuses used by the incompetent who can't change the outcome."
"Don't you think that sentence suits you quite well?"
The Mother Tree of Desire and the Supernova Dominator both turned their gazes over. Hastur leaned back slightly, playing the role of a proper spectator.
"Hmph. I prophesy that the Supernova Dominator will ultimately be devoured by the Eternal Blazing Sun, and that the Mother Tree of Desire will fall at the hands of the Mother Goddess of Depravity. Do you accept this prophecy?"
"It seems you can't distinguish between prophecy and nonsense."
"Why should I bother distinguishing? I don't believe in prophecy anyway."
The Son of Chaos gave a light snort, looking utterly punchable, as if to say: what can you do to me?
The Mother Tree of Desire and the Supernova Dominator ignored Him and began discussing their upcoming actions on the Southern Continent.
This time, the Rose School of Thought had been jointly targeted by the Churches of the Seven Gods. Although they weren't completely wiped out, their losses were severe. The small golden sun left behind by the Supernova Dominator had also been forcibly cracked by the Eternal Blazing Sun and needed time to recover.
They decided their next foothold would be the Intis Republic, which lay under the dominion of the Eternal Blazing Sun, aiming to erode His authority and influence His believers.
"That's Bernadette's homeland. If necessary, she will return to Intis," the Son of Chaos kindly reminded them, also preemptively clearing Hastur of involvement.
The Mother Tree of Desire stated that the Rose School of Thought needed to lie low this time and wouldn't stir up major trouble that might attract Bernadette.
On this point, Hastur didn't express any opinion. He wouldn't restrict Bernadette's freedom, he would only give her a slight reminder at critical moments.
Soon, the meeting of the stars ended. Hastur sent off the Mother Tree of Desire and the others, then turned his gaze toward the High-Dimensional Overseer.
This time, He didn't deliberately avoid Him. Instead, He took the initiative to meet His gaze for a few seconds before looking away and leaving the star He resided on.
This was to tell the High-Dimensional Overseer that His goodwill had been received, but more effort was needed.
If the High-Dimensional Overseer showed goodwill again, then at the next meeting of the stars, Hastur would allow Him to participate.
At present, among the Outer Deity's, only the High-Dimensional Overseer was the most active. His authority was especially suited for moving within the real world.
With Him participating in the meeting, it would certainly become more lively.
As usual, Hastur scanned the starry sky. This time, He discovered a black star, and on that black star were faint points of light.
Zooming in, the brightest of those light points turned out to be Madam Lisa!
Could this black star represent the King in Yellow?
Hastur's spirit lifted. He had often observed the starry sky but had never found the star corresponding to the King in Yellow.
Now, He had finally appeared!
But after carefully searching the entire black star several times, Hastur still couldn't find any trace of the King in Yellow.
Could it be that the King in Yellow had already fallen? Hastur tapped his fingers lightly on the table, deep in thought.
Perhaps the King in Yellow had never existed at all? Or perhaps this was an illusion deliberately left behind?
If so, it would mean the King in Yellow understood something about the Hall of Stars and had used some special method to evade the gaze of the stars.
After pondering for a while, Hastur shifted his gaze to the light point where Madam Lisa was located and used divine revelation to understand her entire life.
Just as she herself had said, she had always been a devout follower.
Should he try granting her a divine revelation?
As long as he helped her advance to Sequence 2, he would gain another Angel under his command.
With the Star Vessel and Bernadette, he would already have three Angels.
That was already close to the peak combat strength of each Orthodox Church.
The reason it was only "close" was because Hastur didn't know the exact number of angels each Orthodox Church possessed. With true gods present and different Beyonder pathways, the number of Sequence 2s could vary.
"At least now, as the one who returns the stars to their place, I truly have the confidence to rival the Orthodox Churches."
Thinking this, Hastur decided to bestow a divine revelation upon Madam Lisa and give her a chance to advance.
….
Inside the castle, Madam Lisa sat quietly alone in her room at her desk, writing a new set of church scriptures.
To expand the influence of the Yellow Robe Monks organization, she would from time to time write one or two books to guide the faithful forward, scriptures, essentially.
During this process, she felt she was gradually drawing closer to the divine.
The book she was currently writing took the Twin Sons of Light and Darkness as its starting point, weaving together stories to gradually lead believers to accept that a deity might manifest two completely different incarnations to walk the mortal world.
This might sound like blasphemy, but according to what she knew, the Churches of the Seven Gods did the same. They even had personnel dedicated to fabricating nonexistent events or altering past history to help believers understand just how great their gods were.
As long as the stories didn't negatively affect the divine image, the churches encouraged their wide dissemination.
"The twins of fate were different from the moment of their birth, light and darkness, motion and stillness. Together, they bring day and night to the world."
"The Son of Light leads believers across the vast land during the day, guiding them step by step toward the eternal divine kingdom."
"The Son of Darkness wanders through the night. He often appears beneath the starry sky, by lakes, or among mountains. Sometimes He grants a bit of good fortune to those who encounter Him by chance; at other times, He bestows misfortune…"
As Madam Lisa wrote while thinking, she suddenly found herself beneath a starry sky. Among the brilliant stars, there was a black star she found incomparably familiar.
The deity was watching her!
Madam Lisa knelt to the ground, devoutly worshipping. Her emotions were beyond words, her entire body trembling with excitement. She desperately restrained herself, afraid of accidentally offending the deity.
After more than a hundred years of spreading the faith, she had finally received a divine revelation.
"The story is well written."
Just this simple praise brought tears streaming down her face.
So the deity had always been watching her, witnessing all her devout efforts.
But there was only that one sentence. The black star vanished, the starry sky dimmed, and before her remained the unfinished story.
In her hand, she still held the feather pen wrapped with a red thread, and the ink on the paper had yet to dry.
"It really feels like a dream… one can't tell what's real and what's illusion."
Madam Lisa murmured softly.
The wrinkles at the corners of her eyes gradually smoothed from joy. Looking at the brilliant starry sky outside the window, she felt she could write tirelessly until dawn.
….
The next day, not long after Hastur woke up, Madam Lisa brought him the story of the Twin Sons of Light and Darkness that she had written overnight, asking him to review it and also to give the book a suitable title.
Hastur silently read through the entire story. He originally intended to give it a fitting name based on its content: Twins of Fate.
But on second thought, that felt too straightforward and dull. After a moment's consideration, he gave it another name: Child of the Stars.
Madam Lisa repeated it several times, already interpreting the "star" within as the rising black star.
Hastur didn't explain. He didn't want a story modeled after himself to end up becoming the offspring of the King in Yellow.
Child of the Stars, child of the myriad stars, child of the starry sky.
Hastur still remembered 008's request and spoke directly, "I need an item called the Book of Prophecy."
"Alright, I'll bring it to you immediately."
Satisfied, Madam Lisa left with the newly titled Child of the Stars. Not long after, Caius delivered the Book of Prophecy on her behalf.
The entire book was placed inside a bronze box, wrapped with two silver chains. Black stars were etched all around it, and in the lower right corner was a somewhat blurred carving.
Roughly, it depicted a person kneeling devoutly, with a black book appearing above his head.
Hastur took the bronze box, it was quite heavy. Aside from the weight of the box itself, the Book of Prophecy inside also carried far more weight than an ordinary book.
Caius reminded him, "You only need to write on the blank pages with a pen to reasonably arrange a person's fate or forcibly alter events that haven't yet occurred. It also has anti-divination abilities and can occasionally predict the future. But it has three negative side effects."
"First, the greedier the holder becomes, the more easily they'll be tempted, eventually arranging their own death without realizing it."
"Second, it's heavy, this is the weight of life. Every time you arrange someone's death, you must pay with your own blood. If the change is significant or involves a high level, you'll have to pay with your lifespan."
"Third, it inherently carries misfortune. The longer you hold it, the more unlucky you become, eventually dying under that misfortune."
Hastur listened quietly, then weighed the bronze box again. He felt these three drawbacks weren't a big problem.
Aside from the second point being somewhat troublesome, he wasn't worried about the first and third. As a favored child of fate, even if misfortune was imposed on him to some extent, he could easily offset it.
It was like having a luck value of 90 out of 100, after equipping the Book of Prophecy, it might drop to 80. Compared to those whose luck was in single digits, he was still extremely fortunate.
Returning to his room, before he even opened the bronze box, the pen case containing 008 began hopping its way toward him.
The way it moved was rather peculiar, making Hastur sigh in admiration:
"So this is the power of love?"