Chapter 32: You ate it?!
“How did the raid go?”
Shade decided to ask the saintess how the raid went. While the building was found by his Silver Moon branch, as the building was in the northern district they let the northern branch take care of the raid.
Shade had nothing to do while waiting for the raid to happen. He was hopping to try what Ms. Snow had proposed last week to hunt down Gourmet.
“Failure. Empty.”
“The building was empty?”
“Yes.”
Shade understood what the aloof and a bit weird saintess had said… It was empty? Did Bloody Mary evacuate the building? We should have expected it, but did a large group of mystics get nothing even after searching the whole building?
The cold gaze expressed his thoughts… Divination interference on a large scale.
Shade was about to ask what the cold gaze knew of divination interference when he remembered that there was a saintess in front of him.
Shade had yet to decide if he should report what he was experiencing to the other mystics. Preferably he wanted to ask the goddess first for her advice, but he wanted to do that in the temple.
The cold gaze decided to speak once again… I may not hear what you are thinking but I could probably guess. Do not inform the knights in the order, the goddess already knows and if she hasn’t given either you or any of her knights any instructions, then it is best that they remain in the dark.
The nefarious smile decided to speak as well… Old man, they are called mystics now instead of knights.
The cold gaze blinked in surprise… They are? Did the Silver goddess change the structure of the church?
The nefarious smile laughed before answering… That I do not know, but the ones contracting spirits are now formally called mystics. The silver moon is a sect now as well.
The two entities within Shade started to speak more and more because of this, Shade had unknowingly become more stable mentally.
Before, he had unknowingly thought of himself as Mr. Magician, he had more or less forgotten his own name while working until something caused a large change in his emotions.
He was practically on the verge of forgetting who he was. Now with the two entities speaking from time to time, even reminding Shade that his name wasn’t Magician.
He separated himself and Mr. Magician and now, his risk of losing control of himself and becoming mad significantly lessen.
Shade decided that it was best to bid his farewells to the saintess and head down to the temple. While going down the stone stairs he asked the cold gaze what he knew about divination interference.
The cold gaze answered truthfully… I was once a knight under the silver moon. I may be reduced to a mere characteristic, but I still want to be of use to the goddess. It does not matter that it is through you that I give my service.
There are many ways to interfere with divination. However, hiding a whole building from the scrutiny of divination is next to impossible. Except with the aid of a god, it shouldn’t be possible.
However, I remember something a fellow knight once told me. Instead of completely erasing a path, why not create multiple other paths that originate from the first one.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
The nefarious smile stopped smiling as it understood what the cold gaze was trying to convey… Setting up multiple bait buildings with the same coordinates in the spirit world as the building you are trying to hide.
Shade hurriedly walked on the marbled path to the central platform and prepared the spirit world ritual. While he wanted to report what he knew to Ms. Snow or Mr. Rouge, he had to focus on getting stronger if someone from Gourmet showed up again.
Shade entered the spirit world and started looking for a fitting spirit. It took more than 30 minutes for him to finally find a spirit that fit his needs.
The nefarious smile looked at the spirit… Illusion and anti-divination. It’s perfect, I vote to contract this one!
“Agreed. But what does anti-divination actually do?”
Shade aimed the question towards the cold gaze within him… While outside of combat, it will hide you from divination. But during combat, the nature of the anti-divination characteristic change.
A mystic that is unable to use divination during a fight is practically blind, especially if your opponent is capable of using illusions. To find your enemy, you use divination. To understand your enemy, you use divination, and to find out if you are caught in an illusion you use divination.
That spirit is much better than you think it will be. Take it, I will help.
Shade prepared himself and recited the chant in his mind before saying it. The spirit in front of him looked like a white snake with red eyes.
“Incarnation of Power. Foundation of mysticism. I propose a contract of Evolution.”
The chant reverberated in the spirit world, but nothing happened. Shade was left confused.
“What now? Shouldn’t chains come out of me and a contract be made?”
The cold gaze within Shade noticed something about the spirit… Get away!
The spirit hissed and lightning struck Shade. The worst pain Shade had ever experienced struck him. He experienced a pain that felt like his body was pulled apart.
Unable to even scream Shade had no choice but to endure the pain until it finally stopped.
“What was that?”
The cold gaze answered… The spirit attacked you. Thanks to the spirit protection charm you placed on the altar, you received no damage but that doesn’t change the fact that you have to experience the pain.
Shade was out of breath. He thought about what he did wrong and then wanted to try to contract the spirit a second time.
“What happens if I chant it thrice?”
The cold gaze thought for a moment then rolled its eyes… Nothing will change. The chant proposes a contract, not force a contract. If the spirit does not agree then using that contract is completely useless.
And chains won’t appear when you make a contract this way. There are multiple ways for a powerful mystic to forcefully create a contract with an entity.
“Is there any way for me to do that?”
Shade wanted the spirit, not only because he wanted to grow stronger but because he wanted to speak to Mr. Rouge about the divination interference and start planning.
The cold gaze thought for a moment and were just about to answer when the nefarious smile decided to speak… Eat it.
“What?”
The nefarious smile opened its mouth again… I said eat it. It’s as simple as that. Making a contract and eating a spirit is the same thing.
Shade thought for a moment and were about to disagree, saying something in line with “If I could simply eat it then there would be no meaning to the chants.”.
However, the cold gaze spoke before he could say anything… He’s right. If you want the spirit, then eat it. The reason humans do not usually eat spirits is because our bodies can’t handle it.
However, there has been saints that has not only survived but successfully absorbed a characteristic by eating a spirit is more than one would expect.
With me and that smiling brat in you, eating a spirit should prove more useful than using a chant. Try it if you want.
Shade thought for a moment before making his decision. Shade opened his mouth and slurped up the spirit that was completely caught off guard.
The snake spirit was not transported to his stomach but to Shade’s own spirit where the characteristics was and two certain entities dwelled.
The spirit sensed the two entities and noticed that it was severely outmatched with no way to escape.
The nefarious smile and cold gaze started channeling their spirituality. They forcefully absorbed the spirit which granted Shade two characteristics. The cold gaze spoke to Shade… We are done.
Shade let out a sigh of relief as he turned around only to see a woman in a silver dress.
“You ate it?!”
Shade felt like a child with his hands stuck in the cookie jar. He didn’t know what to say.
…
Floating between stars, the reminiscing man started laughing out loud. He couldn’t keep it together, that memory was too much for even a god to handle.
“Even with her expressionless face, she looked so worried about me that day. I sure miss those days.”
