21. Chapter 21: Sacred Techniques: Ritual Fire

Chapter 21: Sacred Technique: Sacrificial Fire

At least in this matter, Ivars could be sure that Bishop Mathers’ intelligence was truly inferior to his own.

Although Aiwas had already forgotten all about the plot, the [Letter sent by someone to the Noble Red Junction] that he had obtained at the Pelican Bar earlier mentioned some key information.

The letter mentioned that the Demon Scholars sent by the Noble Red Society this time should be “a group of people”, not just two. The “Lord” would cooperate with their actions and create cases all over the Glass Island in advance to distract the attention and manpower of the Bureau of Supervision.

Similarly, the mysterious person who wrote the letter also issued a warning to the Noble Red Association as an equal partner – to the effect that there was a limit to the amount of money he could allow the Association to take on credit. If the organization still does not give him what he wants this time, then he will also “with sadness and firmness perform acts of discord that neither of us wants or desires”.

The two “pen pals” who came to meet with Ivars had in fact arrived earlier than the rest of the group.

Their motives are easy to understand.

They had been running the “Ivars” line for a long, long time. Perhaps they thought that AIWAS would die in the ongoing turmoil, or they felt that their superiors would come to take away AIWAS as a resource, or they felt uneasy about this operation, so they used AIWAS as a reserve to replenish the important resources in advance.

Perhaps it was the “Moriarty” family name that came to them in the beginning, but when Ivars became a priest and still put his trust in them, he became a special value in his own right.

Noble blood, a pure heart, a soul that seeks to transcend, a willing sacrifice – and perhaps a few other factors. But Aiwas was of a very high specification as a sacrifice.

Because that sacrifice ceremony wasn’t a directed ritual to summon a Shadow Demon, but rather any superior demon could come. As a result, the ceremony had only just begun, and the Shadow Demon came over at the smell of it.

Aiwas used half of his life force as a sacrifice and signed a contract with the shadow demon – which was actually the correct price.

The correct price for a sacrifice is “half”. No matter how much you offer, the demon only gets half, and usually the renewable half. Because the essence of the ritual is “equalization”.

Equal shares of property, equal shares of power, equal shares of gain, equal shares of risk – such parties can be called collaborators. If the quality of the summoner is satisfactory to the demon, the summoner can take a nominal 1% more, as a way of informing the difference between “master and servant”; if the summoner is barely able to summon the demon, then it’s usually a normal 50/50 split.

In practice, however, this is not binding on the demon’s behavior. It’s just a verbal distinction between “master” and “partner”.

Demonologists are legal in all countries except Avalon and the Eternal Kingdom. If the use of the Sacrifice Technique requires the killing of one’s own sacrifice, then a Demon Scholar must be a murderer, and there is no way that this profession can be legal. Moreover, if a Demon Scholar performs a self-sacrifice, it would be tantamount to suicide.

Sacrifices made by demonologists in Avalon are accompanied by massacres, which are not really demonic needs, but rather needs for extermination, robbery, or the preparation of ritual materials.

With the limited circulation of mystical knowledge, most common people don’t even know what transcendent professions are available beyond the path, not even the official title of “Demon Scholar”, but rather the title of “Warlock”, which means a person who can cast spells. Instead, they use “warlock” as a substitute for the established impression that he is an old man who can cast spells.

But in fact, the Demon Scholar’s spellcasting ability is not very strong, and the types of spells he can use are quite few.

Compared to the mages of the Wisdom Path, the necromancers of the Twilight Path, the sages of the Adaptation Path, and even the Lawgiver of the Authoritarian Path, the Demon Scholar’s main power comes from “rituals” and “demons”. The main power of a demonologist comes from “rituals” and “demons. Many spells rely on rituals, require advance preparation, and are far more powerful than normal spells.

For example, Veronica’s “Curse Baby” requires a baby that has been cursed to death by the caster to be used as ritual material. The destructive power of a ritual spell guided by a second-level Demon Scholar was enough to threaten or even kill a third-level front-row professional.

If one did not have the right materials on hand, and did not contract a powerful enough demon, the Demon Scholar would become very weak.

However, on the other hand, if the Demon Scholars secretly planned and prepared in advance, they could completely utilize destructive power that far exceeded their level.

Nowadays, they were in the light and they were in the dark.

If Aiwas were to use only his Demon Scholar’s abilities against them, it would be a double disadvantage – not only would he easily give away his identity, but he would also be completely unable to cooperate with his teammates.

Mixing wouldn’t even be mixing. Lying wouldn’t even be good.

Originally, Aiwas had planned to obtain the Priest Profession Rank as soon as possible, he just hadn’t expected it to be so soon. He hadn’t even said this matter to his adoptive father yet, and Bishop Mathers had thought of it ahead of time.

In the morning, the Inspector General’s side called to make an appointment – saying that he intended to come to Moriarty Manor in the evening. The adoptive father was happy, saying that he was going to send Aiwas some kind of commendation or something …… like that, but Aiwas wasn’t really interested in that.

What kind of good things could the Ombudsman give? The players in the game were so busy that they didn’t get anything at all in the end. The benefits were all divided amongst themselves.

And Aiwas was worried that this time it was that douchebag Hajna who came several hours ahead of time again. So he didn’t even dare to go out today.

Originally, he had planned to stay home with his sister and read books.

As a result, it was only nine o’clock in the morning when he was invited by Bishop Mathers to the Si Candle Cathedral.

But nowadays, there was no half dissatisfaction in Ivars’ heart, and it was very unusually pious and extremely serious.

–Jokingly, this was a vocational skill instructor!
And technically speaking, one had gone through the back door. Without passing the exam or doing that long and stinky list of “recognized tasks”, he had directly obtained the qualification to learn sacred skills!

The old bishop slowly preached, “The so-called ‘Sacred Skills’ is the Church’s carefully selected skills based on ‘safety’, ‘health’, ‘easy to learn’, ‘healthy’, ‘healthy’, ‘healthy’, ‘healthy’, ‘safe’, ‘healthy’, ‘healthy’, and ‘healthy’, ‘safe’, ‘healthy’, ‘easy to learn’, and ‘beneficial’ principles, and filtered out the most practical, safe, and easy to master mystical skills of the Path of Devotion. After passing the corresponding qualification examination, they will be taught by the bishop free of charge to teach the corresponding skills until they are learned.”

I get it, it’s the Mikado. Little Fire Dragon, Jeni Turtle, and Mythical Frog Seed well …… stand out as a good one to use and raise. Aiwas heart broken, feel very anxious, can not wait.

And Bishop Mathers still said without haste, “There are a total of four sacred techniques that can be mastered below the bishop.

“‘Prayer,’ ‘Ritual Fire,’ ‘Illumination,’ and ‘Blessing.’ It is especially important to note that the nature of the mystical arts should not be taken literally.”

The old bishop explained, “The so-called ‘sacrificial fire’ refers to a technique that strengthens the body and restores itself.

“Human life is like a candle, and the soul is the fire. Those of us who are fellow travelers of the path of devotion will share our light and fire. And this means that the self will gradually become deficient.

“I have specially created such an unhealthy state for myself to demonstrate this to you.”

Said the old bishop, nodding at the unnaturally gray hairs on his temples.

Ivars knew what he was going to say, but still nodded obediently.

Simply put, the spells of the Consecration Pathway were all about burning one’s own blood.

Even if it was healing, it was still burning one’s own blood to return blood to others – since that was the case, then the Devotion Pathway must have a stable means of returning blood.

This was the art of “Sacrificial Fire”.

“First, light a new candle. Any color will do, it makes no difference – when you’re skilled enough, it’s fine to carry a pack of matches with you.”

The old bishop said, holding out his left hand, “I don’t know how much you understand about mystical knowledge, so I’ll start at the beginning.

“Of the five fingers of both hands, the thumb symbolizes fire, the index finger symbolizes air, the middle finger symbolizes ether, the ring finger is earth, and the little finger is water. Each of the four basic elements has two corresponding fingers, while light and darkness are the left and right hands respectively. Therefore we usually use our left hand for fire rituals – and since the elements that consecrate the path of the Tao are light and fire, our most important fingers are the left thumb and middle finger.

“Until you can use it skillfully and carve it into your instincts, I don’t recommend using your right hand for anything.”

With that said, a white flame ignited on the old bishop’s left thumb, lighting the candlestick in front of him.

There was a thick and long white candle that had been set up in advance. The glow after lighting it instantly illuminated the entire space.

“In order to facilitate guiding you through your first visualization, I have chosen the brightest model.”

Bishop Mathers explained, signaling Oswald to push Ivars’ wheelchair over.

“Here, raise your left hand. Do the …… with me.”

His movements were slow: “Imagine that what is in front of you is not a candle flame within reach, but a golden sun out of reach.

“No matter how bright the fire in front of you is, imagine that it shines with an extremely bright light – a light that fills all the corners of your perspective, infuses your entire perspective, without a single shadow. Imagine that it can penetrate your palm, and that even when you open your hand, your hand must be as transparent as glass.”

Ivars did as he was told.

And just as he reached out his hand.

A pop-up window suddenly appeared in front of his eyes:
[Samuel Mathers is teaching you “Sacrificial Fire”, do you want to pay 1 public experience to master this mysterious skill?

The moment he saw this pop-up, Ivars froze for a moment and subconsciously looked towards Bishop Mathers.

In the game, if a player’s certain mystical skill was acquired through a quest – that is to say, not by reading a book, but by being taught one-on-one after brushing up on the personal favor of a certain NPC. The experience to be consumed to learn this mystic skill is proportional to the skill level and inversely proportional to the level of the professor.

In other words, the better the skill is and the higher the level of the professor, the lower the experience consumed by the learner.

In the game, this setting doesn’t make much sense, and is just a side-effect of how strong the person is. Because players don’t really need that much experience – there’s no stamina limit in this game, and the amount of experience it takes to learn a mystical skill isn’t that much either.

But when cyberfighters discuss “who’s better than who” and “who can beat who”, they’ll pull this out as a basis for extrapolating how much the NPC’s corresponding career level is.

When players were learning the sacred arts, they had to spend seven points of experience in order to learn – and even if the teaching NPC whose name Ivars forgot was weak, he was at least a bishop of some kind.

Then what’s this about your old man, who had such a high rank in version 1.0, why have I never heard of your name in the game?
–Bad, bumped into a sweeper this is.

Today is still more than six thousand words, the new book period remember to catch up on reading~

(End of chapter)