"In this state, if I force myself to be promoted, the chances of losing control and going crazy will increase significantly."
Hearing his words, Burton, who was half-kneeling on the ground, raised his head in confusion:
"My Lord Bishop, didn't you prepare a 'spiritual cup' to restore the spirit and heal the body?"
"Yes."
Bona smiled and nodded:
“But that would only work if I wasn’t injured.
"The backlash of the Mirror of Redmormon has caused great damage to my spirituality, which cannot be healed by the spirituality of a few righteous mages and righteous warriors stored in the Spirit Cup.
"Burton, you don't know enough about the spiritual system. How can a wounded top mage be healed so easily?"
"Then, what should we do?"
Burton was a little flustered and asked hurriedly. Because of nervousness and anxiety, he stuttered and paused:
"If you force the promotion and cause it to get out of control, the Church of Life will lose its most powerful and reliable leader! This, this is really..."
"So I say, Burton, you don't know enough about the spiritual system."
Bona smiled slightly coldly and interrupted the other party:
"The principle of the 'Spirit Cup' restoring the user's spirituality is to 'graft' the perfect state of spirituality stored inside onto the user's own spirituality, thereby restoring the user's spirituality to perfection.
"The efficiency of this 'grafting' is not only affected by the amount of stored spiritual energy, but also by the 'characteristics' and 'nature' of the stored spiritual energy."
Burton was a little confused:
"My Lord Bishop, what do you mean?"
Bona laughed again:
“The spirituality within a transcendent is largely affected by the field in which they excel.
"For example, I am a magician from the Moon realm. If the Spirit Cup can store another magician from the Moon realm, when I activate it, the recovery effect will far exceed the original expectation.
"I estimate that in order to restore me to my current state of perfection, I only need to store one more Moon Realm Mage in the Spirit Cup... well, a True Mage Realm Mage. That will be enough."
"But where can we find a true mage from the Moon realm?"
Burton's face was full of anxiety and confusion:
"Magicians in the Moon Realm are extremely rare, let alone those who have reached the level of a True Mage!
"Besides, even if there is one, it will take some time to find it. However...it won't take long for the people from the Super Management Bureau to find this place."
"Yes, time is tight. We don't have that much time to look for it slowly."
Bona nodded in agreement, then slowly turned around with a relaxed smile on his face, not seeming nervous at all:
"Isn't this right?"
"what?"
Burton was confused and was about to say something when he suddenly felt a chill in his heart.
He subconsciously lowered his head and saw a dark and reddish blade slowly extending from his chest.
Amid the surging pain and weakness, he felt that his spirituality was being drained away at an irresistible speed.
The pupils of this high-ranking righteous mage from the "Moon" realm suddenly contracted, and he immediately understood what had happened. His face was instantly covered with disbelief and despair:
"My Lord Bishop...why...why...didn't you say...that you would lead us...to serve the Lord of flesh and blood...and save Him..."
"host?"
Bona suddenly burst into laughter, as if mocking something, his eyes full of mockery:
"I am very curious, why would you crazy people choose to believe in a 'Lord' who doesn't even have a name or a divine name?"
"You, you're...cheating us?!"
With the loss of spirituality, Burton's skin has become as dry and dark as that of an old man, and his body has shrunk and withered dramatically, like a burnt piece of wood.
But he still used up his last bit of strength, and before his consciousness completely dissipated, he opened his eyes wide and squeezed out this question full of anger and despair from his dry throat.
"That's right. From the very beginning, I founded the Church of Life in order to advance to the position of Metallurgist."
Bona smiled and nodded without any psychological burden:
"Your usefulness has disappeared. Even if I don't need your spirituality to recover myself, I will clean up the mess after the task is completed."
“You…you…giggle…”
In endless anger, despair and regret, Burton's soul and body were devoured, completely turned into ashes and dissipated in the darkness.
"What a bunch of lunatics," Bona restrained his smile slightly and waved his left hand in the air, "As expected, the cultists all have problems with their brains."
Where Burton disappeared, a pitch-black and reddish blade flew into his hand and merged into his skin as soon as it came into contact with it.
"Okay, now everything is complete."
He closed his eyes, feeling his condition rising rapidly until it finally reached perfection. He slowly opened his eyes and nodded with satisfaction.
Then he turned and walked to the edge of the room and pushed open a small door at the top.
A room shrouded in crimson light came into view, and the ground was painted with blood-like traces of huge, complex and evil ritual magic arrays.
In the center of the room stands a stone altar, the surface of which is engraved with messy and rough patterns that look like they were cut by knives and axes.
On the ground around the altar, seven young bodies were lying quietly and irregularly, like lambs to be slaughtered.
Reference picture of "Melting Sea at Dusk". Please use your imagination to replace the kayak with a small yacht.
(From a still from Ang Lee's film "Life of Pi", please delete if infringement)
Chapter 225 The protagonist makes a grand appearance!
"Ah--"
As if floating up from deep water, Claire took a deep breath and suddenly opened her eyes.
What came into view was an ambiguous darkness. Apart from vague and strange outlines, nothing could be seen.
She didn't know what had happened. She only vaguely remembered that her last memory was being taken out of the Twilight Castle Hotel by Viscount Mossante's butler Bona and boarding the Viscount's private carriage.
After that, no matter how she tried to recall, all she could remember were vague and chaotic fragments of memory.
It's like the state of sleepwalking or being half asleep and half awake, with no logic, no content, and no meaning.
She had spent an unknown amount of time in this confused state when she suddenly heard a dream-like murmur, which came faintly and intermittently, as if it was a whisper from the void.
At that moment, an extremely strong sense of fear instantly gripped her heart.
It seemed that once the vague mumbling was finished, he would fall into the abyss of hell from which there would be no escape, and face indescribable horrific torment and torture.
But in the next second, a bright and dazzling emerald green flash emerged from the chaos without warning, piercing, tearing, and shattering the chaos in an instant, allowing his consciousness to return to clarity.
So, she woke up.
"I...I, what's wrong?"
She sat up dazedly and found herself lying on the cold and wet ground, surrounded by darkness.
It is not absolute black, but rather dim darkness under extremely weak light.
The strange crimson light was looming, providing negligible lighting.
"Where is...where?"
Soon, her eyes adjusted to the darkness, and she subconsciously turned her head to look around in a daze.
She saw the ground painted with scarlet runes, the stone altar with rough patterns as if it had been cut by a knife or an axe, and the back of a person dancing an eerie dance and chanting wild nonsense on the altar.
And, seven unconscious, young bodies.
"!"
Claire suddenly shuddered, all the confusion in her mind suddenly cleared up, her whole body tensed up, and she instinctively wanted to scream.
But as soon as the scream rose to her throat, she forced herself to control her emotions and blocked out all the sounds.
"…Calm down! Claire, calm down!"
Her brain was working rapidly, cold sweat broke out, and her small body was shaking, but she still tried her best to think rationally.
My, are we being kidnapped?
Is this some kind of evil religious ritual?
The ground is shaking... Are we on a boat? On the sea?
That man, that man is a priest, or a bishop or something like that?
All kinds of thoughts flashed through her mind, and she used all her brainpower to search for ways to save herself and escape.
In just a few seconds, countless thoughts flashed through her mind, and she finally came to a single conclusion:
No matter what the man on the altar is doing, he must be stopped and not allowed to continue!
"Come on, Claire, you can do it!"
After experiencing that incident, her character and will were much stronger than her peers, and she quickly made up her mind.
She moved her body, trying not to make any sound, and slowly stood up from the ground.
Then, he walked step by step towards the blurry figure on the altar.
The footsteps were gentle, slow, yet extremely firm.
Perhaps it was because the man had his back to him, or perhaps he was too absorbed in his dancing and singing, or perhaps both, but in any case, he seemed not to notice anyone approaching.
Still moving his limbs and head in that grotesque and twisted dance, he kept mumbling and reciting blasphemous and morbid sentences in an extremely fanatical manner:
"...The Supreme Holy Spirit, the omniscient and almighty Lord, the one who shines with millions of radiances—"
Suddenly, his chanting stopped.
Including his dancing hands and feet, all froze in place at the same time.
There was no buffer or sign, the pause was extremely abrupt, like a recorded video with the pause button pressed.
"not good……"
Claire had only taken a few steps when her hair stood on end, as if ice water was injected into her veins. A huge fear permeated her whole body, making her unable to move.
Before she could calm down, the figure on the altar slowly lowered his twisted arms and stood up straight in a strange posture.
Then, he turned around little by little.
"Sure enough, something went wrong."
An old, low, yet somewhat familiar male voice came from the altar.
Claire froze in place, not daring to move at all. She could only stare at the figure hidden in the darkness with eyes full of despair.
“Although this is somewhat inconsistent with the requirements of the ritual, there is no time to find another sacrifice now,” the figure said in a deep voice, “If the corpse is fresh enough, it should be possible…”
Then, Claire saw him slowly raise his right hand and point it at her.
"brush--"
A blood-red sword pierced through the darkness and stabbed towards her chest!
"what!"
Claire only had time to put her arms in front of her to protect herself before the scarlet blade was already within reach.
"It's over..."
"Snapped!"
When all hope was lost, the excruciating pain of the body being torn apart did not come as expected. Instead, a clear sound of something breaking reached my ears.
She felt something strange on her wrist and took a look subconsciously.
I saw that the bracelet that I had been wearing since I became conscious suddenly emitted a dazzling emerald green light.
The flash rose up as if it had life, and quickly came in front of her, blocking the oncoming scarlet blade.
But it itself also burst into pieces and turned into fine dust.
"……what?"
