Derrick thought back, trying to explain. "Honestly, I don't fully understand it myself. From what I understand, gods and angels can be depicted differently in different places — but within the same temple, the depiction should stay consistent."
He paused, then added, "At least, that's how it is in Silver City."
Hearing that, Vincent understood what he meant: it really was strange for the same location to have two different depictions of the same figure.
Think about it — the "god" a believer sees one moment, then somewhere else in the same building looks completely different the next — wouldn't that cause confusion? Of course, it wasn't impossible that this particular god was simply the kind whose form was inherently ever-changing and unfixed.
Amon happened to be exactly that kind of being, come to think of it.
Wait — no, that's not right. The Thief Pathway might also be considered "ever-changing," but that's because they parasitize others — Thieves themselves can't actually change their own appearance.
And that half-ruined temple belonged to the True Creator, tracing all the way back to the Ancient Sun God. Something painted on the walls of a temple like that couldn't possibly be showing Amon in one of his parasitized forms, could it?
So what was actually going on here?
After some thought, Vincent asked, "Besides the new depiction of the Angel of Time, was there anything else on that mural?"
"Yes!"
Derrick nodded hard. "On that mural, besides the Angel of Time, there was also a hanged man depicted, with three heads. The one on the left was a young child, the one on the right was an old man, and the middle one was really frightening — it looked just like the statue of the True Creator inside the temple."
"From what the mural shows, the Angel of Time and the True Creator seemed to get along quite well — surrounded by a group of little angels playing music, singing happily together."
In the original story, wasn't the relationship between Amon and the True Creator not nearly that good? After all, Amon had no idea the True Creator was actually the embodiment of the Ancient Sun God's negative emotions.
Could it be that the "Angel of Time" in the mural really wasn't Amon at all?
Vincent suddenly landed on the key point and asked, "Mr. Sun — if the Angel of Time deep in the temple looks completely different from the earlier depiction, why did you conclude it was the Angel of Time at all?"
Normally, wouldn't that be evidence against it being the Angel of Time?
Derrick scratched his head. "Because... he was also wearing a monocle. According to Silver City's history books, the biggest distinguishing feature of the 'Angel of Time' is the monocle."
Well — that did check out, since Amon was practically defined by his monocle.
Audrey spoke up. "Mr. Sun, Mr. Lovers — could it be... that there are actually two Angels of Time?"
"???"
Vincent froze, and immediately wanted to say "impossible" — but stopped himself before the word left his mouth. So much had already changed, unpredictably, in the past of the world of mysteries — nothing seemed truly impossible anymore.
Just because there's no rule saying the Four Great Guardians can't be five people — the Angel of Time could just as easily be two people too, right? The only real sticking point was the monocle.
That was the one thing that was supposed to be unique to the Thief Pathway.
If it was called a "Uniqueness," how could it possibly show up on two different people's eyes at once?
Vincent pressed his temples and sighed. "I was hoping Mr. Sun could help me gather some information about the Angel of Time — but the more we gather, the more questions we're piling up instead."
Derrick immediately said, anxious, "Sorry, Mr. Lovers."
"No, no — you've been a huge help."
This kid really is too earnest for his own good.
"Mr. Sun, if it's possible, please keep gathering more information about the 'Angel of Time.' As payment, I'll keep providing you with more Sun Pathway formulas."
Hearing this, Audrey, Alger, and Klein all felt a pang of envy — Little Sun really did have it good. All he had to do was stick close to Mr. Lovers and pour all his effort into hunting down intel on the "Angel of Time," and he'd never have to worry about formulas — or even materials — going forward.
Fors had been utterly lost through the whole exchange between "Lovers" and "Sun," only picking up that they were talking about some angel. But once she realized that Mr. Sun was getting future formulas just by helping "Lovers" investigate that angel, her eyes went wide, and before she could stop herself, she blurted, "If... if I found information about that Angel of Time too, could I trade it for the formula I need?"
The moment the words left her mouth, she wanted to slap herself — she didn't even know what they were talking about, what could she possibly go find?
But her outburst reminded the other three of something: the reason "Lovers" had asked "Sun" to help investigate the Angel of Time was that he'd apparently heard the name before — and after learning that Silver City's account of it didn't quite match what he knew, he'd asked Derrick to gather more intel. Of course, everyone could guess it probably wasn't that simple.
But one thing was certain: whatever traces the Angel of Time had left behind surely weren't confined to the god-forsaken land alone — which meant they, too, had a shot at digging up information on it. If it turned out to actually be useful to Mr. Lovers, even without landing their own pathway's formula, at the very least they'd bank a favor, wouldn't they?
After all, Mr. Lovers was effectively Miss Lovers too — and Miss Lovers was a demigod-level powerhouse!
Facing everyone's expectant looks, Vincent nodded readily. "Of course. As long as it's about the Angel of Time and it's useful to me, I'll pay a fair reward for it."
This concerned the endgame boss of the world of mysteries — Vincent wasn't about to be stingy here.
Sensing that his own "value" was suddenly under threat, Derrick quickly spoke up, loudly. "Mr. Lovers, I'll definitely do everything I can to gather more information about the Angel of Time!"
But right after saying it, he drooped, dejected. "But... I might not be able to do anything for a while."
"Why? Are you worried your Elder or Chief is watching you in secret?"
"No."
Derrick said, bitterly, "Because right now, I'm locked up at the bottom of the Round Tower. I can't go anywhere."
Vincent asked, surprised, "Why?"
"Because of the corruption our whole team picked up, we're all being held at the bottom of the Round Tower for quarantine and observation. We won't be let out until they've confirmed there's nothing wrong with us."
Right — the bottom of the Round Tower in Silver City was supposedly where they held people on the verge of losing control, or those tainted by corruption. In the original story, Derrick had faked being on the verge of losing control specifically to get out of joining this expedition, and ended up locked down there. Now, having actually come along, he'd ended up locked up there anyway — genuinely corrupted this time.
So — would he still run into Amon down there, in the bottom of the Round Tower?
To be continued…
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