old dream

Chapter 98 The First Way
Because I came here in a hurry after finishing the work at Holy One Theological Seminary, it was actually evening, and the afterglow of the setting sun would soon disappear.When Colin began to feel that he could not read the handwriting, he realized that the sky was going to be completely dark.

"Horst"'s room was only divided into half of the windows in the corner, and the other half, which should have been on the other side of the partition, fell into the next door neighbor's room.There was only one room in the home with a full window, which was ceded by "Horst" to a seriously ill lieutenant.

Colin pulled the curtains back, walked over to the table that was about to be emptied, and lit the dim kerosene lamp with a match.It may be a blessing to have kerosene lamps in such places. After all, for most poor people, the long and boring nights are not worth wasting kerosene to light.

Colin recalled the days when he lived in such a place, and guessed that looking from outside the apartment building, this might be the only window that shines through.

Will it be a bit conspicuous?
At this point, it might be time to get out of here as soon as possible, but Colin was afraid that his inspection had missed something.

The manuscript, "The Wedding Ring of the Slave King," has been read through to rubble.There are dozens of pages on it, densely filled with remarks by its previous owners.A considerable part of it was left by "Horst", especially between the several pages of the records about "Fengmo", almost covered with handwriting.

Until then, Colin didn't know what the devil he was fighting against in the speakeasy.

According to the description of the manuscript, the wind demon is a vicious parasitic spirit that feeds on guilt, and there are cases of infection among a considerable range of people east of Nare.

Judging from the marks left by "Horst", he should have been an infected person since he was a child.He wrote in twisted handwriting:

"...that's why you never feel guilty for committing those sins without empathy."

Don't feel guilty, because they have been taken away by that wind demon and devoured?
Maybe he was originally a person with rich empathy, so after controlling the wind demon, the guilt that was deprived came back like a wave, eating away at his heart.

For the rest of his life, he had to focus on redemption.

Fumo is a demon belonging to the No.20 second district, but the name of its monarch is not recorded in this "Wedding Ring".The scribe notes that human translations of that name were lost before the Dark Ages.

The same kind of devil often exists in plural in the world, which can be compared to a biological group.But their respective imaginary coordinates have many differences.Just like humans have different faces and names.However, they need to abide by the same agreement in the 36 district hell.

In addition to the specific incantations for expelling wind demons, this book also records the methods of restraining and controlling wind demons: quenching dragon blood celery and red pine needles to obtain "flavor oil", and then the caster needs to use it on their own Write a specific line of cipher text on the inside of the right arm joint.

Ke Lin guessed that the line of cipher text might be the name of the monarch of District 22 in the language of the demons. It may be that the author is not clear about the pronunciation and meaning of the Urzhu language, so he couldn't restore the writing method of the monarch's name.

After gradually flipping through some of the entries, Colin found that the author (and possibly the copywriter) of The Wedding Ring himself admitted that the book's record of demons' promises and weaknesses may not be accurate:
"The original agreement between humans and evil spirits was unverifiable before all writings were formed."

The First Empire of Nare had a large-scale compilation of these "conventions", but the author himself had been separated by many years and several languages.

It is not difficult to find from his wording that he did not even know that the race that completed the initial contract with the devil was the demon, not the human beings today.Not to mention the existence of the original book "Devil's Hierarchy".

And from the language style, it can be seen that he was somewhat influenced by the Ankh people and used a lot of modern vocabulary.So this "Wedding Ring" was written at least when Nare was colonized.

This also seems to explain the divergence between "The Wedding Ring" and Arecio's "Devil's Hierarchy" on "thirteen fig leaves" and "seven laurel leaves".

First of all, there is no need for Arecio to make up a wrong version. At the same time, compared to the authority of the Great Library of the Lighthouse, this "Wedding Ring" of unknown origin is more likely to be the one with errors.

However, Colin thought about the near-perfect control of "Horst" over the wind demon in the speakeasy, and vaguely felt that the truth did not seem so simple.

The annotations made by "Horst" are not entirely focused on the article "Feng Mo".After flipping through it roughly, Colin found that the content in this "Wedding Ring" was far more than the records of 32 demons.

Colin only saw it when he flipped it for the second time. Because of his bad reading habits, he skipped the main idea that the author had already written in the opening preface of "The Wedding Ring":
"There are flaws in the agreement itself. Even if the evil spirits are controlled by the method in the 'first agreement', the effect is not permanent."

According to him, after completing a specific mission, the devil can get out of control and return to the virtual world.Because of the lack of means of forced summoning, if it feels persecuted after leaving the material world, it is likely not to respond to the summons next time.

Even if the Spirit Rider mishandled in the middle of the summoning or at the end, and accidentally exposed his coordinates to it, there would even be a possibility of backlash and revenge in the future.

Thus, a delicate balance is formed between the devil and the eunuch.Although through the so-called "initial agreement" - that is, the method recorded in the original "Devil's Hierarchy", you can temporarily guarantee that the devil can work for him.But if you want to borrow power from a certain devil in a long-term and stable manner, you must provide some of the "sacrifice" they ask for on time, so that they don't feel that it is unprofitable to answer the call.

Such "sacrifices" are often specially made corpses.Or provide conditions that can be used for reproduction.

As a result, at this time, the matter of "who is who is the slave" has begun to become ambiguous again.

Colin thought to himself, I am afraid that this is also the reason why many sects are hostile to those who communicate with demons.

"Devil's Hierarchy" itself is only a dictionary to communicate with evil spirits. Although those agreements are still strong, they are mostly temporary defensive measures.

To put it bluntly, the establishment of hell in District 36 was originally more of a preventive strategy.Therefore, all agreements concluded under it are more inclined to protect the residents of the material world from being harmed when encountering demons suddenly, rather than enslaving demons in turn.

Therefore, if users want to gain further benefits, they cannot avoid collusion with these evil spirits.

But Colin thought that he could not rule out the possibility that those monarchs would hide more powerful orders.

In short, it may allow humans to interact with higher-level demons, but it cannot permanently improve the user's own strength, which means that it is not a real ascension path.

Perhaps today's spirit control envoys have also developed their own path of ascension.But it should have nothing to do with this thousand-year-old "Devil's Hierarchy".

Not to mention the "Wedding Ring" in his hand, it seems to be only a fragment.

But just when Colin was slightly disappointed, he saw the author immediately said in the preface:
"However, these problems are not entirely impossible to overcome."

Colin was taken aback by this turning point, but he continued to read it patiently.

"Obviously, if you can build some kind of 'wall' to cut off the demon's return to the virtual world, then the 'first covenant' will become a permanent restraint.

"And the way to build this blockage, we can find the most perfect revelation from our own body..."

"Demuge, the great builder we respect, has built the entire material world thousands of years ago. It is a sanctuary, but it is also called a 'cage' by some people, and I don't want to talk about it here. There is so much debate...but our own body is always a part of it..."

"...We can guess that Gloria, the slave king at that time, was like the master builder who came back...a new 'cage' was built in the dwelling place of the soul, and this time I also agree that it is ' Cage'..."

"Some of the structures she left behind were puzzling for a long time. It wasn't until recently that I finally understood that it was the mystery of the 'hearth'... I'm afraid this road has existed since the beginning of the old calendar, but it For us it's like..."

Reading this, Colin's heart jumped.

The author points to the construction of prisons for the devil as a solution to the flaws of The Devil's Hierarchy, and also vaguely refers to the 'hearth', which, as the name suggests, may be some way of depriving the devil of his power.

Then I am afraid that the content recorded in this "Wedding Ring" is a road to ascension developed on the basis of "Hell in District 36".

Although the author claims that this road was created by "Slave King" Gloria, it is probably just a fallacy or bluff, but it is not completely impossible.

Until this point, all the clues provided in the book finally matched up with the wizard's performance in the speakeasy.

It was only here that the entire vein became complete in Colin's eyes, and there were no longer any suspicious vacancies.

The ordinary soldier "Horst" who was originally just a wind demon infected person, I am afraid that he started this "Wedding Ring" on the ruins of the Sinal battlefield, and then completed the breakthrough from ordinary people to Ziyuetian.

If in an underground bar, the green flame that suddenly burns on the wind demon is a manifestation of the operation of the "heart", then perhaps on the road of "The Wedding Ring", "the establishment of the cage" should correspond to the road of celestial bodies and stars. "Ziyuetian" in .

At present, the initial difference between the two paths is only that "The Wedding Ring" uses the hearth to gain power from the power of the devil.

The way of celestial bodies and stars is to connect the stars through consciousness, and gain power through the ether of the stars.

Although the celestial order system formulated by the alliance used to refer to celestial magic, the most fundamental criterion for judgment today is "the scale of power that can be controlled by an individual".

That is to say, the scale of power that "Horst" can use after imprisoning the wind demon is comparable to the scale of power that the user of celestial magic draws from the Ziyue channel.

Now, a concrete path to ascension finally emerged before Colin's eyes.

Mr. No. [-] once described to Colin the panorama and end of the road of ascension. The mortals set out from the material realm, recaptured the overflowing divinity little by little in countless ways, lifted the triple curtain between the four realms, and waited in the At the end will be the answer to everything, "The Unspeakable".

Giovanni told Colin about the division of the "Heaven Rank System" of the Alliance, which is the coordinate system of countless paths of ascension, from the earth to the path of the celestial bodies and stars behind the prime mover.But one by one, it marked the ten ranks that all the powerhouses in the alliance and the world are in.

The majestic road has been continuously paved before his eyes several times, but no one has ever told him how to step forward and in what direction.He once wanted to find his "teacher" through communication rituals, and to ask some well-meaning spirits to teach him the path of ascension.But because of the existence of the memory seal, it failed again and again without any accident.

Colin put away the "Wedding Ring", which at least records the method of entering the child moon, and some people have successfully practiced it.

Then in the future battles with wizards, you can no longer rely on luck as much as in the past.

He exhaled lightly, and finally felt a little down-to-earth.Let go of the heart that has been hanging slightly.

……

……

Then, Colin followed the same search method and searched Lieutenant Heinrich's room again.

As a result, he found another forged entry certificate with a grim photo of Heinrich on it.

The name printed in ink is "Henry Hilger".

Colin thought for a while, and then took out the certificate of "Horst".After comparison, it was found that this entry certificate did not come from Benedict on the first floor.

Maybe it was three years ago, when the lieutenant was still able to travel, he found someone to forge it.

But why on earth are these two people living under false identities?
And at the same time, "Horst" was still sending money to those soldiers in the lieutenant's real name.

Colin thought for a while, but still had no clue.

Maybe it's not a big deal, maybe because it's a bit boring, like not wanting to be found out by the neighbors that you once belonged to some disgraceful army.

He went on to rummage through the boxes, while Lieutenant Heinrich's body had been lying on the sidelines, and his body temperature had not yet completely lost.

After searching other places, Colin said sorry in his heart, while carrying the lieutenant's body out of the bed, and then checked the filthy bed.

Colin had seen even dirtier scenes, like two weeks of untreated corpses or something.So now there is not much fluctuation in his heart.

In the end, Colin found that the only thing in the family that could indicate the owner's true identity, apart from the pile of letters, was the little "Heinrich" on the back of the lieutenant's mask.

Colin stared at the mask and suddenly had a new idea.

(End of this chapter)