315.Chapter 309 – Ligeia’s Killing Command

Chapter 309 – Ligeia’s Killing Instruction

Witnessing with his own eyes how Ivars had easily sealed the fifth energy level Earth Binding Spirit into a small tarot card.

Sherlock, who was watching from the side, was extremely shocked.

One could even say that he was dumbstruck.

“…… How on earth did you do this?”

Sherlock was puzzled.

This was because it completely violated Sherlock’s common sense – on the Transcendent Path, the suppression of the superior over the inferior was very obvious.

Many abilities would become significantly weaker across one energy level, and would be nullified across two energy levels. Those cases where the so-called weak beat the strong either avoided the suppressed abilities in some way, or the weak actually took the fragments or inheritance of the stronger, and outperformed the stronger in a particular area.

But Aywas’s ritual could be said to be neither.

–That was clearly a “ritual” that transcended the path!
I don’t see Ivars using any power stronger than the Earthbound Spirit to suppress her …… Ivars did pray to Amber, but that can’t be Amber herself helping him!

Even if the Earthbound Spirit had left voluntarily, it would be nearly impossible to contain the power so perfectly.

All of her existence and power had been collected into this tiny piece of ordinary card, without the slightest leakage. This was an incomparably perfect seal – the power of the Wisdom Pathway allowed Sherlock to keenly analyze that as long as Aiwas did not voluntarily lift the complex seal on top of this card, the Earth Bound Spirit would absolutely not be able to get out.

And looking at Aiwas’ proficiency, this was clearly not the first time for him either.

“How many of these cards have you gotten?”

Sherlock couldn’t help but ask.

Ivars smirked and said, “Secrets. And it’s not getting them, it’s making them.”

–As long as Sherlock didn’t know that he only had four cards, then he would look incredibly tall and unusually mysterious.

“Just as I gifted you the Mithra Worshiper’s Ritual of Transformation. As you have also said, I also have the phase of the Wisdom Path. However, I knowingly knew about this kind of ritual but did not use it on myself …… That is naturally because I have a better career choice.”

Aywas said seriously, “Haven’t you been curious about my profession beyond the Dao Way for a long time? Great Sin Scholar – that’s my profession.”

Although Aiwas is not nowadays, it can be a hard loan.

Anyway, two more advancements would be it.

“…… Great Sin Scholar, sounds a lot like Demon Scholar. But not the same.”

Sherlock muttered, “You don’t have a native demon, but you have the additional ability to make cards. That card is Tarot’s Grim Reaper, and I’m afraid that by that reasoning you can have up to 22 such cards …… summoning twenty-two phantom demon attendants that you personally captured? The ceiling of this profession is so powerful ……”

Although he couldn’t see the attributes of [Attachment Card: Earthbound Spirit], from the previous conversation between Aiwas and Earthbound Spirit Alice, he could probably guess that Aiwas was trying to take the Earthbound Spirit away. And by looking at this smug look on his face now, he knew that he had definitely succeeded.

However, Sherlock was still relieved when he heard that Aiwas was not a Demon Scholar.

He had recognized Aiwas more and more nowadays.

When investigating Edward before, Sherlock did not feel that exciting feeling of gradually approaching the truth. Instead, there was a kind of inexplicable annoyance …… as if something was instinctively warning himself to stay as far away from this truth as possible.

At that time, Sherlock completely relied on an incipient obsessive conviction, as well as gambling rebellious mentality – the harder I am, the more I want to get this done – before finally forcing the Moriarty family’s black history and criminal evidence to check out.

But he wasn’t happy at the time.

That emotion, Sherlock thought, was called remorse.

And now, he was reluctant to investigate Aiwass any further. Yet Her Majesty had been kind to him, and the family had been loyal to Avalon for generations. As a matter of reason, he should also make sure that Aiwas would not become the next Minister Drost …… And now, he finally had a result of the investigation that he could convince himself and also hand over to the Queen.

Aiwas did not avoid Sherlock at all when he prepared the materials for the ceremony, and was even with him during the collection of the swamp dialysate.

Sherlock could see clearly that Aiwas did not use any human materials throughout.

–Compared to the evil and depraved Demon Scholars, as well as the dangerous and mysterious Spell Ceremony Mages, it seemed that the Great Sin Scholars were a cleaner profession on the way beyond the path.

Compared to this, it wasn’t that hard to capture a Phantom Demon.

“Next time,” Sherlock spoke softly as he reached up and pressed the newsboy’s hat he was wearing, “I mean later – if you need it, feel free to come to me. I can help you catch as many …… undead as you want? Or I can help you investigate the information you want.”

He wasn’t quite sure what the scope of Aiwas’s capture was. One could only result to judge that Aiwas could at least capture undead.

Aiwas brightened up, “That would be a dare.”

He did not push back at all, but happily agreed.

Rather, it was better to say that he shared his secret with Sherlock just for this.

Although by relying on his eyesight and intelligence advantage, Ivars occasionally seemed to be a bit smarter than Sherlock, Ivars still knew clearly in his heart how many pounds he had. The ability to analyze using available intelligence was quite a bit weaker for him than Sherlock.

And Sherlock will further level up on the intelligence path, his brain will get better and better …… The smarter and more capable his own secretary was, the more trouble-free Ivars would be.

However, before leaving, Ivars still mentioned to Sherlock, try not to tell other people about his profession – Sherlock understood that “try” means that you can talk about it, but do not talk about it.

This is probably the reason why Ivars didn’t avoid Liz the Griffin.

Although Lizzie couldn’t speak yet, she would soon be fully developed. By then, what she knew, Hajna would surely know as well.

After capturing Alice away, Aiwas flew directly back to Eagle Point Village with Sherlock, aboard Lizzie.

He originally thought that he still had to retrace his steps into the village, and had to wait until dusk to enter the village …… only to find out that he was able to fly straight back to the village.

They did not drag their feet at all, and it was just after noon when they flew back.

“It could be that we were recognized as one of our own because a villager invited us to spend the night, or simply because a villager accepted us,” Sherlock analyzed softly, “so we were recognized as one of our own.

“That would be more normal, otherwise it would be difficult for a messenger to deliver a letter here – it’s dusk every time it’s delivered, it’s always going to be noticed as unusual, and it’s easy to run into the Wild Hunt as well. Hajna, too; it’s obviously not dusk when she gets home, or she wouldn’t have made a point of buying train tickets that arrived in the early morning hours.”

“True enough.”

Ivas agreed.

The materials for the New Moon Ceremony were much harder to put together than the Full Moon Ceremony. There were substitutions, but that wasn’t something that could be found haphazardly.

The standard new moon ceremony demanded a live petrel, the heart of a deer that had just died today, a miniature wax statue of a philosopher, a snake, a handful of black salt, a horse’s phallus, a fed rat, an oyster, and a mirror.

One of the sea oats can be replaced by a pigeon or sparrow, as long as it can fly; the oyster can be replaced by a pearl oyster or other shellfish. The phallus of the horse can also be used air dried; the snake is not forced to be alive, but must be kept soft …… therefore Ivars also bought a few soaked in wine and brought them along.

The hardest to find was undoubtedly the deer heart.

But there was a substitute for deer heart, and that was the heart of a lamb. Lily and Hajna had just gone to Bagpipe Town to buy sheep – catching some rats back on the way, and there weren’t even any rats in Eagle Point Village. Turns out Ivars came back a little faster than they did.

Even before they returned, Ivas and Sherlock began sketching the spells needed for the promotion ceremony from a room on the second floor of Hajna’s house.

There were three people to be advanced in this New Moon Ceremony – Aiwas and Lily were two into three, while Hajna was three into four.

Three into four meant that it was time to advance their professions, and Hajna was switching from Monitor to Arbiter.

Ivars had also discouraged Hajna, telling her that she might as well wait for them to join her. It wouldn’t be too long a wait anyway ……

But Hajna said helplessly that it was her teacher’s intention.

Ligeia had asked her to pass the Crescent Moon Ceremony once alone before she could be considered to have officially passed the test. And before that, Hajna had gone through full moon ceremonies, she had never experienced a new moon ceremony at all.

But Ligeia believed that the difficulties Hajna was about to face were far more dangerous and sudden. She had to have the ability to face sudden difficulties and solve them head on in order to do so, as well as to survive the battle of wits and grueling fights between people unharmed.

At that time, Hajna did not quite understand what exactly she had to do in the future to be more dangerous than the three into four new moon ceremony …… But now she has gradually understood.

–If Hajna is the successor of the “Grand Arbiter”, then she does need to have this kind of education.

If she couldn’t even protect herself, wouldn’t she be so nervous that her stomach ached when it came time to protect a country?

In front of that kind of responsibility, just rely on oneself to be promoted from the Crescent Moon Field to the fourth energy level …… seems to be nothing at all.

Hajna would also need to be stronger than that, far stronger than that, personally, in order to do so.

Originally, Ivars had thought that it might be difficult.

But when Ivars realized that Hajna is the future leader of the “Hyena Gang”, and even has a small fragment of Lancelot I’s soul in her body,……, he felt that Hajna might be able to do it. Old Meg’s eyesight is really poisonous, this can be seen.

Hajna had that kind of talent, she just lacked some of the pressure to squeeze it out of her.

This time, facing the New Moon Ceremony alone, which she had never experienced before, could give her this kind of pressure – the punishment of the New Moon Ceremony was usually one level higher than that of the Full Moon Ceremony, and the price of “death” could already be found frequently in the Third into Fourth Ceremony, and at the very least, it was the damage of the soul, and the impossibility of advancing to the Fifth Energetic Level in the future. The least she can do is to have her soul damaged and not be able to advance to the fifth power level in the future.

–In other words, Ligeia is asking Hajna to kill someone.

It wasn’t for the sake of justice, for the Queen, for Avalon, or in the name of law and guardianship. There was no excuse to shirk her responsibility, but rather, squarely for her own growth, her own interests, to kill others without mercy – and as many as possible – in the new moon ceremony without a partner.

The future Grand Arbiter must not be a man of mercy and indecision.

She must be ruthless enough, with an iron fist and cold blood, to quell both internal and external troubles.

Ivars was looking forward to it.

When the sun rises tomorrow, how much will Hajna …… who came out alive from this promotion ceremony grow.

(End of chapter)