Chapter 4 - Servant of Disaster, Miracle Invoker

-Day 7 Month 7 Year 991-

I remembered the memories from my past life—the life of a man full of lies that make the truth blurry. My end was quick, as the last thing I remembered was falling asleep on a bus and waking up to see myself headbutting the seat in front of me, presumably cracking my head open from the impact, killing me instantly. It was quick enough for me to only realize it a minute later when I found myself in a black space with a shining card in front of me. The card has an image of a man in a clerical robe sitting on a throne holding a staff. I touched the card as I felt the impulse, and it turned into a staff, then merged with my hand. In my mindspace appeared two more concepts beside Gas and Liquid: Faith and Miracle.

My mind was overloaded with memories of both lives, but I recovered quickly, and after analyzing the situation, I found a good new and a bad new. The good news is that I got reincarnated or transmigrated into a modern fantasy world where there is magic and technology roughly the same as on Earth, but a bit more advanced. The bad news is

"We shall proceed with the schedule." A man in a cult-like robe said to the other, who was also wearing a cult-like robe but with fewer details,

I believe I was kidnapped in my sleep and am now scheduled to be sacrificed to an ancient god that I don't know the identity of yet, but there are also people like me scheduled to be sacrificed in bulk. Religion in this world is wild, there are 5 Primordial Gods, also called Patron Gods, beside the Primordial Gods there are also humans who have Apotheosis and became gods, called Conceptual Deities.

After I heard them talk for a while, it seems like I'm being sacrificed to a Conceptual Deity whose authority is Disaster, because she got defeated by the Sun God and currently in a weakened state since 200 years ago, and the best way for the evil goddess to recover is to take the Alterius from the sacrifices offered.

Since I already knew my fate was sealed the moment I heard the Authority of the God I ignored my surroundings, dipped into my thoughts, and contemplated my past life and this one. I kept recalling the memories of the me in this life, Peter Jefferson, a boy whose parents were killed in an accident and have to go to an orphanage since there's no close relative. My personality is still the same as it was in my past life, still full of lies nearly without any truth, until today, when I got kidnapped or maybe sold in my sleep on my 12th birthday.

'I should stop lying if I could live this life whole, maybe this place is my damnation, giving me hope before completely breaking me down mentally.'

After being pierced by a knife, I had an out-of-body experience and found myself standing in front of a castle. The surrounding areas were parts of ruined cities, the sky was bright red, and the place itself was filled with all kinds of disasters in random places. The surrounding people died rather quickly from the surrounding disasters, and I was left as the only person alive in the place. I didn't even move, just stood still in place, and the surrounding disasters miraculously dodged me.

"Interesting, very interesting." I heard a voice from above, precisely inside the door of the castle, and it opened, revealing a beautiful red-haired woman in a big black t-shirt covering her thigh. Since I was at the bottom of the stairs, I could see that she was wearing some kind of small pant underneath. I was dumbfounded by her appearance. All the clues should lead to the fact that she is the Ancient Goddess of Disaster herself, but her appearance betrayed all my expectations. Suddenly she appeared in front of me, held my chin up with her hand, and said

"Boy, would you like to work for me?"

"What do you mean?" I was caught off guard by the job proposal from a goddess of all things.

"You are the owner of The Card of Divinity, it has chosen you after hundreds of years without an owner."

"The Card of Divinity?"

"A card that has the power to channel faith to produce miracles. Since I was acquainted with the past user, I can teach you how to utilize it. Of course, nothing comes without a price. Sign this contract," The Goddess said, looking at me with eyes full of greed while a piece of paper suddenly appeared in her hand and she put it in front of my face.

After I read the contract, it was surprisingly fair. The contract stated that she would teach me how to use my power, give me a part of her authority, and make me her apostle. In exchange, I would have to work for her, comply with all her commands, and not directly or indirectly harm her in any circumstances, If she were killed, I would also die with her. I had no complaint about being in the service of a beautiful woman, so I signed it right away. The contract merged into me and appeared again inside my mindspace, giving me the authority of Storm, and a bunch of information about the coding scripts of the authority came along with it.

"Well, it's time for you to go back and spread the word that you're my apostle. With the authority of Storm, you could do it easily enough. Remember, you're bound to me. Mine and mine only, since the contract is voluntary, no god should be able to break it unless the Creator does it himself."

-Day 16 Month 7 Year 995-

"I have a mission for you," Arahathi said, looking down at me from her throne "The objective is to get stronger within the Morvita Academy and investigate the heroes of Order. Send information you've gathered through our link."

"Okay."

Arahathi, or The Goddess of Disaster, was an ancient human of Morsian descent. She was killed by the Sun God, but since her realm was intact and hidden, she was able to be revived and only recovered her consciousness around 17 years ago. She is especially clingy to me, and if the situation allows it, she would just summon my consciousness to her realm and have a talk instead of just talking to me through our link like most gods do. This is the second time she has actually summoned me to give me a mission. The first mission was for me to go on a pilgrimage through all the bases left standing after the purge of the Sun God and use my miracles to protect them from being found by the gods. This base has only had less than a hundred cult members since the purge, only 24 base have survived till this day.

My mind shifted back to my body on the bed. It was around 6 in the morning, and I had my morning routine after I got up from the bed.

"I've received a revelation from our goddess." I said this to Garson, who was minding his own business in his office.

"What's the detail of the revelation, your grace?"

"The Goddess ordered me to investigate the Heroes of Order inside the Morvita Academy."

"We will make the preparation for you, anything else?"

"No." I said that and left his office.

High Priest Garson is the guy who sacrificed me to the goddess. After I revealed myself to be Arahathi's Apostle, he became my assistant and had no problem with it, in fact, he is truly a fanatic beyond comprehension and logic but most people here are like that. Worshiping a god always brings positive and negative changes, but one of the most notable is the mental change. The higher the rank inside the religion, the more fanatical they became. Primordial Gods have the clearest and fastest signs of brainwashing their followers, but the effect isn't harmful. A saving grace for me is the fact that due to the Card of Divinity, my mind couldn't be affected by mental changes brought by being in a cult. To be honest, living with them was very comfortable, like having people you could depend on that will never betray you is great.