Among the snake species was one called the green snake. It lived in trees, possessing an impeccable physical trait that it could remain absolutely still, camouflaging itself amid the leaves until a prey walks in dangerously close.
It catches the prey swiftly and swallows them. The speciality of its camouflage was that when the wind blew, the branches of the tree swung accordingly. And unsurprisingly, the body of the green snake too behaves in the same way, as if perfectly a branch of the tree.
The weight, the swing, the centre of gravity, everything would be impeccable. This was the extent it went to casually crawl up right behind its prey and remain in wait for hours before the snatch.
Deceit, camouflage, false suggestions, etc. none of the animals or insects in the wild possessed any special power, but they performed various plays that fooled the minds of both the predator and prey.
The prey depended on such tricks to survive against the predators while the predators had tricks of their own to counter and catch their prey.
Eyes, nose, ears, skin, heat sensation, etc. a flesh and blood organism had countless methods to sense and perceive their surroundings. To fool them was an art, an aspect of evolution that happened in nature naturally over time.
Just an optical illusion was a great example of how at certain angles, a two-dimensional image would appear to be three-dimensional. In this way, there were illusions for sound, smell, taste, temperature, etc.
Compass Carburettor had experience regarding everything thanks to his Dreamland. And hence, his every action, from the way he breathed, the words he uttered, the frequency of sound he emitted, the way he led the conversation around, to promoting a relevant reply from Arnark, everything was calculated.
Combined, they acted as a formation that fooled the senses of the spectators, causing their minds to hallucinate the scene that Compass Carburettor had directed and wanted them to see.
As a result, the spectating Saints had long since fallen prey to the hallucination. Moreover, his experiences had attained such a level that Compass Carburettor was able to customise the hallucination that everyone experienced.
He tailored the hallucination for every Deity and Devil seeing through their respective Saint. And as the minds of the divine beasts were affected accordingly, the faith they generated towards the God King shifted.
Carried through it was a very subtle shift in power that created a blind spot in Arnark's senses. This void constantly moved around the field as Compass Carburettor continued to walk and maintain his spot in the void.
Arnark was being fooled all along, even during his radial attacks. He was of the assumption that his attacks were being sent in all directions, leaving no blind spots. But in truth, they were actually missing the true location where he had been standing at.
The spectators were each observing different scenes, so none realised yet. Therefore, Arnark was just attacking recklessly.
Until now, Compass Carburettor had only unleashed a single attack. It was the first clash where he used his shadows to pierce through Arnark's body. But when they failed to even scratch him, he understood the extent of power the divine faith possessed.
In terms of absolute power, Arnark was indeed unrivalled. But, that never mattered, for Compass Carburettor never intended to compete in that regard.
'I was ready since day one, Arnark.' Compass Carburettor thought while continuing to fool Arnark, 'For you, creating a brilliant scheme to gain absolute power is the end game. After all, in all the experiences you've stolen, once the protagonist vanquishes the antagonist, they live happily ever after.'
'That's how all the main characters live as in the stories. As the Main Character System, that's when you harvest them. So, you're never aware of what to expect after.' He grinned, 'My scheme starts after that supposed end.'
During their trash talks, Arnark had revealed the fact that he wished to extract Lore and Tell-Tale from this world once he won. That was his true intention.
The moment this happened, the divine beasts fell at a loss, realising that the God King they served wasn't loyal to their world. Rather, he wished to destroy everything they valued.
So over time, the faith streaming into him was slowly, but surely reducing. On the other hand, the God of Humanity was fighting to protect their world. So, his faith was growing stronger as a result.
Moreover, through the Avatar of Pneua, he condensed his domain into a very tiny patch of land and moved it with him as he walked around. He naturally caused Arnark's domain to flow around like water as he casually moved, all while fooling him into sensing something else.
And over time, thanks to the God of Rain's initiative, the faith streaming into him was experiencing a surge in quality. It was impossible to gain the divine faith though, for that was Arnark's thing.
His representation was humans, so he was himself only by having mortal faith.
Compass Carburettor wasn't even counting on that, for what he planned to do was very simple—to implode Arnark from within.
He never forgot that Arnark killed Stencil, Gehera, and Earth Star once. For someone like that, a swift death was being overly kind. And he…was far from being kind.
"Where the hell are you, bastard?" Arnark screamed as he thrashed around.
Compass Carburettor stood right behind him, watching Arnark's attacks hit everywhere but him, 'Your schemes ended once you became the God King. But, mine started to take effect only after that.'
He then gazed up, watching the laws of the world actively observing the fight while reinforcing the barrier further to defend against Arnark's attacks, 'You seriously underestimate my power, Arnark.'
When Arnark shouted that he would extract Lore and Tell-Tale from the world for himself, the recipient Compass Carburettor wished to hear this weren't the divine beasts, but Lore and Tell-Tale themselves.
After all, unlike before, after fusing into one, they were sentient and capable of making decisions on their own. And they, didn't like Arnark's proclamation. This was why they reinforced Peddler's barrier and were maintaining it themselves now, which was why it managed to withstand so many of Arnark's bombastic attacks.
And the greater Arnark raged and behaved in a manner against the self-preservation modus operandi of Lore and Tell-Tale, the more he lost their support.
Yes, Compass Carburettor was pushing Arnark towards the cliff and the one taking the plunge was Arnark himself.
