Secret: The years I served as a foreign aid for the Aurora Club

Chapter 285 Aggregation
583
In the endless gray fog, Klein first responded to the Hanged Man's prayer and brought the "Word of the Sea" cane to his side.

Then, Klein discovered that this cane also had a habit of singing a song every six hours and causing some minor or major setbacks for its owner. After using normal means to have a friendly exchange with the magical item in the gray fog, he made three agreements with "Sea Words" and successfully stipulated the time and frequency of the magical item's singing every day.

He brought the cane to reality and gave it to the secret puppet, using the good luck of the "winner" to neutralize the bad hobby of "Sea Words". He still held the hardwood and gold-inlaid cane in his hand, which was used to show his status, was very valuable, and had no other use.

He then began to prepare the ritual to summon the "Red Light".

He lit three candles, placed the prepared essential oils and various spiritual items, and left a paper figurine for the Red Light to descend upon. Klein had become very proficient at it and quickly completed the first part of the ceremony.

He stepped back, opened his mouth, and chanted in ancient Hermetic language:
"I!"

"I pray in my name:"

"I pray to communicate with the 'Eternal Light of the Spirit World, the Incarnation of Endless Knowledge, the Red of Authority and Will'..."

From the perspective of mysticism, the seven lights of the spiritual world do not belong to or serve any one god. Therefore, the names of any gods cannot appear, otherwise the ceremony will fail.

As words that could communicate with the spirit of nature were uttered one by one, Klein saw the three candle flames expand at the same time, and merged into one with a slight crackling sound, as if a door of light had opened.

The area around the altar suddenly became quiet and dark, and pairs of inexplicable eyes looked over from different places.

A cold wind blew violently, and all the objects on the altar, except for the three candles, floated into the air. Among them, the paper man stood up shakily, and its surface was suddenly stained with a rich, bright red color that was not bloody at all.

"Hello." Klein recalled some of the mystical books about the seven lights of the spiritual world and spoke according to the correct interaction model he had summarized.

He acted as if he were dealing with a teacher.

The bright red paper figure moved its head slightly and uttered an illusory but majestic voice: "Hello."

Quite polite... Various thoughts flashed through Klein's mind, and he said sincerely and respectfully:
"Sir El Moria, I have something to ask you."

“You can just call me El Moria. Go ahead.” The paper figure floating in the air seemed to be competing with Klein to see who was more polite.

Klein did not change his attitude because of this: "I want to know the information related to Calderon City."

The bright red, almost transparent paper figure hesitated for two seconds and said, "Can I know your purpose?"

Klein did not hide anything and said frankly:
"Hunting spirit world predators."

The paper man's head moved slightly and said, "It is true that it is only easy to find in Calderon City. In other places, the spirit world predators are like a drop of water entering the sea, which is very difficult to distinguish. Even I can only find them occasionally and cannot lock them for a long time. Under normal circumstances, some of them are active in the core area of ​​Calderon City, and a small number are scattered in the outer layer. In the past, as long as you don't try to go deep, there is actually not much danger."

"In the past?" Klein asked.

"Yes. With the return of Balam's god of death, Calderon City has changed from a ruin to a city-state of spirits and undead creatures, and spirits are instinctively moving towards it to worship their 'King of Hell'. The spirits are affected and have developed a hierarchy, starting to arrange themselves from the outside to the inside based on their own strength. If you want to hunt spirit predators, just get a little closer to the core area."

"We don't have to enter the core area, which seems to be less risky, but we have to go through a lot of low-level and mid-level spiritual creatures." The paper man said, "Unfortunately, something special there prevents us, the Seven Lights, from entering, otherwise we can still provide some substantial help."

"I see... Because that was the kingdom of the ancient god Gray Carrie?" Klein was certain in his heart and asked a confirming question.

Minghongzhirendao:
“Yes, the ancient god of death hoped to revive with the help of this ‘City of the Dead’, but he completely failed, and the authority was taken over by Balam’s god of death. Now that the latter has taken over the place again, the arrangements left by the ancient god of death should no longer exist. Balam’s ‘King of Hell’ does not appear in the spirit world often, and every time he comes, it is very grand.”

I see... Klein nodded imperceptibly and asked several questions from different perspectives, all of which he received relatively satisfactory answers.

After politely ending the summoning ceremony and bidding farewell to the "red light", Klein first temporarily left Berens with the secret doll, opened the door and left, and found a safe place where he would not be disturbed. Then he returned to Sefirah Castle again and began to think about the relevant matters of exploring Calderon City.

Between the Blasphemous Cards "Black Emperor" and "Tyrant", Klein pondered for a long time and finally chose the latter.

"With the 'Poseidon Scepter' and the 'Tyrant', my power is infinitely close to a Sequence 4. The 'Poseidon Scepter' has the weird negative effect of 'rapidly collapsing the soul and flesh of the person who comes into contact with it'. As long as it is used properly and combined with the 'Lightning Storm', a clean area can be quickly cleared in Calderon City. There is no need to worry about Extraordinary Aggregation. If a high-sequence person from the storm path is really attracted here, it can be used."

As his thoughts came and went, Klein stretched out his hand and made the "Tyrant" card on the bronze table fly up, fall into his palm, and merge into his soul.

Suddenly, an extremely majestic and terrifying aura emanated from the location of The Fool. A deep triple crown silently appeared on Klein's head, and his clothes turned into religious robes.

The sound of wind whistled, and the Pope's robe suddenly spread out. Klein raised his right hand, and the bone scepter flew over on its own and hung in the air.

The Seagod's Scepter was lifted up by the swirling wind and did not touch Klein. At the time, he was at Sequence 6 and could not even get close to it. Now, even in Sefirah Castle, there was still a layer of Tyrant between them. Klein did not dare to personally experience how long he could last under the strange effect.

Then again, Klein always felt that this strange negative effect was somewhat familiar, but he couldn't figure out where he had seen it.

On the top of the scepter, gems suddenly emitted a dazzling blue or silver light, surrounding the seated "tyrant" like lightning.

The "Word of the Sea" cane fell to the ground with a snap, and crawled next to Klein, who was holding a scepter and dressed as the Pope.

584
"First, we need to clarify a premise. That is, until the Pale Disaster in the Fourth Epoch, the church did not have the concept of 'the dead must be comforted before burial'. The only criteria for going to the Kingdom of God were piety and not committing suicide. Due to economic conditions and social system restrictions, many people were hastily buried after death. Later, the Pale Disaster allowed the unrequited dead to walk out of their graves, and the wandering spirits obeyed the orders of the Hades, bringing a huge disaster to the Northern Continent."

"Ah."

"So, this incident alerted the gods, and they naturally implemented the steps of 'requiem-cremation-burial'."

Edward put down the small blackboard in his hand, looked into the eyes of the True Creator, and asked curiously with a thirst for knowledge:
"Can I understand 'requiem' as a sacrificial ritual?"

"I think the essence of the requiem ritual is a two-way special ritual magic. Through the requiem ritual, the church 'sacrifices' the soul of the deceased to the kingdom of God, and borrows power from the gods to pollute the body of the deceased so that the deceased will no longer be affected by other extraordinary powers." "With this explanation, I can understand why the church prohibits suicide, because in a sense, the suicide has dedicated his life and soul to other things, and has completed the sacrifice of time, so naturally there is no spirit to be offered to the kingdom of God through the requiem ritual."

"Similarly, corpses and spirits that have not been contaminated, or 'baptized', are still unprotected. They can be affected by the power of the dead and crawl out of the grave." Edward put a pencil behind his ear and thought for a moment. "Oh, they are promoting cremation now, but this is also a free choice based on the wishes of the family and the deceased."

"So far, your guesses seem logical."

The True Creator did not comment. He had not yet finished reading the latest report from the Aurora Society. He only saw that Medici said that the Southern Continent did not need him now, and he ran to a corner to cause trouble for the Witch Cult.

Although the Original Witch was equally troublesome, the True Creator was not so worried about Medici compared to the lively Outer God in front of him.

“Is there no spirit in your own kingdom of God that you have chosen?”

"Yes. But as you said, I will only take away souls that I have chosen and have passed my test."

Edward said, "They were chosen by me and welcomed by me personally. I don't need other people, and I don't need so many useless souls, even though their souls are indeed a very good resource. Your kingdom of heaven - I'll just call it the kingdom of heaven. God has always said that the souls of believers can enter the kingdom of heaven. Your five paths can also check and balance each other, without bias, to construct a world that may indeed allow spirits to live. So is this actually the case?"

"Yes."

"I see. Can you explain the principle?"

"Faith and prayer are the means to establish a connection between humans and gods. Prayers that can be received by gods are themselves a kind of ritual magic, the simplest kind of ritual magic." The True Creator replied, "Prayer is the simplest way to establish a connection, and piety is used to consolidate the connection. But the piety of mortals is ultimately limited, and their voices are difficult to truly reach my ears. A thousand mortal anchors are not as good as a saint, let alone an angel."

“Therefore, such a requiem ceremony is needed to ensure that the soul can go to the kingdom of God through the mystical connection.”

Edward covered his mouth with his hand and frowned as he thought for a moment.

"Then I think 'becoming one with God' is the most accurate description of this situation, rather than 'ascending to the Kingdom of God'?"

"Tell me what you think."

“To be honest, it’s hard for me to imagine what the kingdoms of the Eternal Blazing Sun and the Lord of Storms look like, although I occasionally hear their followers describe the former as a palace with blooming flowers and the latter as a vast ocean with eternal lightning and waves. But their paths themselves seem…”

Edward thought for a second:
"Not so undead friendly."

"It's like the God-Forsaken Land is your kingdom, and your authority is corrupt, so we can all see clearly what the people living there are like. Obviously, their disaster was not entirely caused by the remaining power after your fight, the main responsibility lies with you."

True Creator: “Yeah.”

"Then if you ask me to imagine a place illuminated by the power of the sun where there are a group of undead living normally, I can't imagine it either. The closest I've ever been to a requiem ceremony was when I watched a funeral through a telescope 150 kilometers outside the Cathedral of Light in Intis."

Edward smiled: "So, after the sacrifice, the spirit was restored to its basic spirituality, contributing to the kingdom of the gods, right?"

Before the real Creator could speak, Edward made a conclusion for himself: "This is my current speculation. If conditions permit, I will try to visit other gods' kingdoms."

He stood up, walked around the sofa and the coffee table, around the manuscripts and chessboard piled on the floor, walked to the wall, and tore off a page from the calendar.

"It's already the evening of the 28th, and no one has told me to go to the southeast coast? When did your divine side become so euphemistic?"

"There are only 6 days in June. It's not even long enough to take a boat to the southeast coast. What are we gathering for..."

He suddenly stopped talking.

The True Creator noticed something, frowned, looked at the demon who suddenly stood still, and asked, "Has the reason appeared?"

A stick-drawn eye swam from the shadows to Edward's side, and when it saw that he ignored it, it naturally blended into his shadow.

"..."

Edward's expression became very interesting. He first opened his eyes wide, then frowned, and finally scratched his head in some confusion.

"...I know why your divine side is so sure that I will go there." Edward seemed to understand something and smiled. "He hung the 'blasphemous card' on the bait. There may be others, but I have heard a lot of messed up prayers now. There are demon families who have reported to me that they have seen the trace of this card, and some have provided me with information. Some people even prayed for me to grant them the power to help them find this card. It seems that many people are attracted there."

The True Creator asked back, “Then why do you want to go?”

“Because this thing is very important to me.”

Edward said jokingly, "Perhaps Roselle is deliberately disgusting me. The opening spell of this card is my name, so there is a very strong mystical connection between me and you. You see, I am about to be led there. - I can't let something that may have a cohesive effect on me at any time stay in someone else's hands."

"It's just a card grab. It won't be a big deal." Edward picked up the suit jacket draped over the back of the sofa, walked into the spirit world calmly, and waved goodbye to the real creator. "Then I'm leaving."

Heh. Recalling how the other party had assured him that all the people on the southeast coast were dead, the True Creator could not believe His words. As the other party's eye opened, the True Creator decided to watch what was about to happen on the southeast coast at any time to decide whether to stop it in time or wait for the believers to leave before stopping it.

TBC
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Double update finished!

(End of this chapter)