novelAn Ancient Rite
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Chapter 249: An Ancient Rite
Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
"What's your name?" asked Sandra, who was trying to put on a nice smile on her face and soften her voice. However, the boy still got very scared. Screaming and shaking his head, the teenager boy used his hands and feet to drag himself toward the corner farther inside the chamber.
Lucien did not rush them to get to the summoning room, because the fact that the demon just disappeared like that was too weird. Now they found a survivor here, and they should get more information from him.
Exchanging a look with Sandra, Lucien slightly lifted his chin toward Susan, "Use a magic potion to calm her down. Let Susan talk to him."
Sandra nodded. Experienced as she was, Sandra always carried some magic potions with her around. Although she preferred to directly cast hypnosis on the boy to ask him questions, which was more of her style, she was also concerned that casting any spells on him right now might lead to some unwanted consequences, so Sandra took out a light blue tube and made Susan drink it using Mage Hand.
Lucien adjusted his monocle and activated the spell enchanted on it, Fernando's Electromagnetic Message. Although three of them had enough power to kill a level five demon, he had no idea whether this battle was just a start or not.
Lucien did not hide it from Charlie and Sandra. When the surface of the monocle was covered with magic ripples, Lucien directly called Gaston's name.
"Mr. Gaston, this is Evans."
Currently, this fifth-circle spell could only turn sound vibration into electromagnetic wave.
There was no response from the other side. Lucien raised his voice, "Mr. Gaston? Hello?!"
Still nothing came back.
Lucien started to get a bit concerned. He looked at the wall on the other side of the bookshelf, where there was a window. Outside the window, he could see light fog coming in. Everything looked mysterious, as if they were in a nightmarish maze.
"This is similar to Mind Mist, but not exactly the same. The mist can block and absorb electromagnetic wave... I've never seen something like this..." Lucien really wished that he could have read more books in the libraries!
Watching Lucien calling Gaston's name a bit anxiously, Charlie put on a bitter smile, "We're probably in trouble now. The simple task is actually not simple."
When Lucien first received the task, he indeed felt quite suspicious, and he was actually not very surprised with the fact that things were getting complicated. If someone really wanted to give him a hard time, he had no idea how the person managed to fool both Ms. Florencia and Mr. Gaston.
Although lots of thoughts had flashed through Lucien's mind, he stopped himself from sinking into the thoughts. It was not the right time! And dangers might come to them at any moment!
"We need to figure out what is going on here first, then we decide whether we should move on or go back." Lucien looked at Charlie and said.
At this time, Susan started to calm down a bit because of the magic potion she took a minute before.
Adjusting his black battle sorcerer hat, Charlie nodded calmly, "I also checked this place before we came in, and I saw only three kinds of low-rank demons, just as what you have told us, Mr. Evans. So the question is... Where did the demon hide itself, and how?"
"You guys don't know what the demon was?" Lucien asked.
Both Sandra and Charlie shook their heads seriously.
That was not good news. If neither Sandra nor Charlie had any idea what the demon was, it meant that this kind of demon was not registered in either the Encyclopedia of Demons or Handbook of Monsters. Without enough intelligence, it was hard for them to make right decisions. For example, the reason why they did not use Invisibility here was because demons and dragons could easily see through it!
"Maybe in most cases only senior-rank sorcerers would deal with it..." Sandra murmured in low voice. Seeing that Susan was almost ready, she pointed at the teenager boy in the chamber and asked Susan, "Do you know him?"
Susan was first a bit confused. When she turned around, she exclaimed, "Oh my! Bill, you're still alive?!"
Hearing her voice, the teenager boy slowly lifted his head, "S... Susan?"
"It's me, Susan. We've come back for you, Bill." Susan put on a comforting smile, "Bill, calm down... Don't be afraid."
"Who is he?" asked Sandra in a low voice beside Susan.
Trying to get closer to Bill, Susan said to them, "He's the youngest student of Mr. Bertren. His spiritual power was very abundant, but he was not doing that great in arcana, so some other apprentices often made fun of him. Scott and me often tutored him, and we were relatively close to each other."
"Ask him what happened in the castle later." Lucien tried to follow Susan to approach Bill.
However, as soon as Bill saw Lucien moving, he lost his mind again. His whole body was trembling, and his eyes opened really wide, "Stay away from me!! Stay away!!"
Lucien nodded and slowly stepped backwards with Charlie. Sandra grabbed Susan's hand to show that she was a friend of Susan.
Although Bill's body was still trembling, he was a little less frightened now.
"Bill, tell me. What did you see in the castle?" Susan squatted down in front of him.
Sandra squatted down as well, and, at the same time, she secretly cast a second-circle spell, Distinguish Lie, around Bill. Because the spell did not work directly on Bill's body or mind, the spell was safe to him.
All of a sudden, Bill reached out his hands and grabbed Susan's arm. Susan got scared as well and she felt on the ground.
Bill said to her, panic-stricken, "All died! All died! Andy, Debra, Stevens... they all died! At first... they almost had killed all the demons, almost! But... but there was one... They couldn't kill it. By no means they could kill it... And they all died... I ran... and I hid here... Susan, get me out of here! I'm so terrified!"
Andy, Debra and Stevens were all first-circle sorcerers in the castle.
The dim light around them from the spell Distinguish Lie did not change, which meant that Bill was not lying.
Susan tried her best to withhold her fear, and started to ask Bill about the details.
Looking at what was going on in the chamber, Lucien and Charlie were on the other side. At this time, Lucien noticed a piece of half-burned parchment written in ancient magic empire characters.
"V(erased)'s special summoning rite:
"You need a rune written in your own blood, a brazier, and Pain Fable..."
The rest of the parchment was burned.
Lucien felt the rite was quite funny, as he had never seen any rites requiring a fable book. He collected the following several pages of the parchment from the floor and started to read the few lines that were left there:
"When everything's prepared, read the seventh story, chapter ten, in Pain Fable. Read it over and over again, and transcribe the fable onto the parchment written with the blood rune."
...
"Open the Encyclopedia of Demons, rip off the pages containing the information of the demons that you want summon, then throw the pages into the brazier."
...
"Chant the spell. Keep chanting. When the flame is as tall as you, you'll see your gift."
Charlie also read it, and he commented, frowning, "It looks like a stupid trick. Many of the steps are just nonsense... I mean, what kind of rite would require a fable book? That's ridiculous... The fact that it is found in the apprentice hall shows that it was just a joke. Only idiots would probably try."
"Have you ever read Pain Fable?" Lucien was a bit hesitant, "Ridiculous as it is, the fact that Bertren died when he tried to summon demons here makes me feel nervous about any weird rites that are related to demon summoning."
Charlie paused for a second and then answered, "No, I have never, but someone told me about it before. Those fables were folktales originating from the border between Holm and Brianne in ancient magic empire, and those fables are not cheerful at all. The book is called Pain Fable because those fables teach people lessons by making people feel sad, depressed, resentful and angry. I don't read stuff that makes me feel bad. By the way, Mr. Evans, don't you think the style of the parchment is of the ancient magic empire style? Something before the War of Dawn..."
"It is." Lucien took a glance at the bookshelves around, "I wonder if we can find Pain Fable here..."
At this time, Susan finished asking questions. As soon as Sandra got the basic information, she cast Charm Person on Bill for further verification.
"So, according to Bill, the summoning room lost control first, and low-rank demons invaded the castle and killed most people here. At this time, Susan and Scott managed to escape. Then later, when the several level one sorcerers that assisted Mr. Bertren got the control of the castle core back and managed to kill most of the low-rank demons there. However, things went wrong when they arrived at the summoning room. They met the demon there and were killed." Based on all the clues, Sandra made this conclusion. She walked to Lucien and Charlie and said, "So, it is almost certain that the demon resurrects every time at the summoning circle when it is killed. We need to destroy the summoning circle to really kill the demon!"
As soon as Sandra finished her words, the floor and walls started to ripple as if they were liquid. Many half-transparent, pale arms fiercely reached out.
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