Mystery: The Return of the Stars

"The sacrificial site that has been used once is no longer clean. The Lord likes cleanliness and hates dirtiness. He is the master who leads to rest. A clean and refreshing environment is suitable for His kingdom on earth." Earl Richard introduced it with piety.

Maric nodded without doubt, and Hasta secretly paid attention.

This time, Hasta and Maric came earlier and just caught up with their complete sacrificial session.

At the beginning, they sat cross-legged on one side of the campfire, closed their eyes and chanted songs praising the Lord.

"The dead souls wandering in the world, with nowhere to rest.

We need guidance, we need salvation, and we need the Lord's gift.

Lord, the Lord of Rest in the Land of the Dead.

Please cast your compassionate eyes and bless us to lead us forward..."

Earl Richard finished the first session after chanting the song ten times.

The second session was the summoning ceremony, which was hosted and completed by Earl Richard alone.

Surrounded by the crowd, he drew a mysterious and complex rune on the ground with a pious look, with several curves, three circles, and four straight lines.

Hasta stepped forward to observe it, his mouth twitched slightly, and he retreated to the side with all his strength.

This is not a summoning rune at all, it is clearly an ordinary pattern that Count Richard saw from somewhere and drew casually, it just looks bluffing.

Count Richard then took out three candles that had been prepared long ago, the black candle was placed in the upper left corner, the red candle was placed in the upper right corner, and the last ordinary candle was placed in the center.

This scene surprised Hasta. The rune that was nothing just now made him think that Count Richard's knowledge of mysticism was very poor, but the placement of these three candles did meet the needs of ritual magic.

When he saw Count Richard take out plants such as rotten body grass, corpse flower, night herb, deep sleep flower, etc., and placed them respectfully and neatly, he was inexplicably shocked.

He was now certain that Earl Richard must have mixed the God of Death and the Goddess of Night together to form what he thought was the Lord of the Dead.

Plants with a strong smell of death, such as the Rotten Body Grass and the Corpse Flower, were favored and favored by the God of Death.

Night Vanilla and Deep Sleep Flower were the favorites of the Goddess of Night.

Before he finished, Earl Richard carefully took out a fist-sized crystal ball from his arms and placed it in the center of the three candles.

After preparing all this, Earl Richard began to chant the spell devoutly.

"I!

I summon in my name!

The spirit entrenched in the depths of the void, the mysterious creature that likes the night and tranquility, the messenger who wanders between the world of the living and the dead."

When Earl Richard finished chanting the spell in ancient Hermes, a strong wind blew up in the void, gloomy and cold, and the swaying candlelight was stained with a deep blue light.

The huge toad-like spiritual creature last night appeared again, coiled up, and overlooked Earl Richard and others below.

Richard stood up and bowed respectfully to the location of the spirit creature.

Five of the participants who were gathered in a circle outside took out brass whistles and blew them. Soon, five smaller spirit creatures appeared.

The temperature around dropped again, and a gust of wind came, making people feel cold all over.

"The ceremony is over!"

After completing these, Earl Richard was very happy, and the participants around him also praised the Lord's gaze from the dead world to the world.

Maric was also well-informed, but he was still shocked by this scene.

A ritual magic messed up, but it was still successful in the end?

He really wanted to know how this Earl Richard and this huge spirit creature lived in harmony for so long?

There was no contract, but he could summon it successfully every time, and he hadn't encountered any accidents.

Isn't this luck too good?

And five brass whistles can actually summon five spirit creatures. Could it be a seal?

No, if it is a seal, the negative effects alone are not something that these ordinary people can bear.

Hasta was also shocked by Earl Richard's operation. What a talent!

The third part was to dance around the bonfire to please the gods.

Maric still did not join in. Hasta took the initiative to join the dance team without waiting for Earl Richard to invite him, which made Earl Richard very satisfied.

There were three rounds of this sacrificial dance, and each round had its own symbolic meaning.

The first round of sacrificial dance was to please the gods, let the gods listen to their tiny wishes, and satisfy their wishes.

The second round of sacrificial dance was for their dead relatives, hoping that dance could make their souls rest in peace.

The third round of sacrificial dance was for themselves. The dead souls needed to rest in peace, and the people who were still alive in the world still needed to move forward. They needed courage, blessings, and the luck to complete their lives.

After the three rounds of sacrificial dance, Hasta and the people around him began to discuss the deeds of the god, the Lord of the Dead, and their respective sad stories.

At three o'clock in the morning, the grand and mysterious ceremony ended again, and Count Richard sincerely invited Hasta and Maric to visit his manor again.

"If I can witness a miracle tomorrow night, I think I should change my faith."

Hasta did not say it completely, but just gave Count Richard a signal that he might join.

"Yes, the Lord will show miracles and give equal blessings to every believer."

Count Richard was very happy to lead his team away. Before leaving, they still put out the bonfire and cleaned up the scene.

"It's unimaginable, unbelievable, that he can survive until now!"

With no outsiders present, Maric let out a series of sighs.

Hasta hid his smile and asked puzzledly: "Is there any problem?"

"Of course there is a problem! The problem is huge!"

"Could it be that Earl Richard is parasitized by some evil god or demon?"

Maric waved his hand and said: "It's not that serious. He, how should I put it, is a lucky guy. The main problem does not come from him, but from the huge spiritual world creature."

Hastur showed an expression of humbly asking for advice, and Maric took two steps back and forth: "There are indeed friendly creatures in the spiritual world, but the ritual magic that Earl Richard just performed did not specifically mention friendliness and harmlessness. and other words.”

"A spirit that dwells in the depths of the void, a mysterious creature that likes darkness and tranquility, a messenger that travels between the world of the living and the dead."

"Spiritual creatures that fit this description do exist, but they are not necessarily friendly. They are more likely to be evil, terrifying creatures with hidden evil intentions."

"Especially the one about messengers who travel between the living world and the world of the dead. I have never heard of any friendly creatures coming out of the world of the dead."

"Hmm...you should understand the ancient Hermetic language, right?"

Hastur said modestly: "I can understand part of it."

"Then you have to study harder. If you want to enter the extraordinary world, ancient Hermes is a very important mystical language. If you have the ability, you must also master such mystical languages ​​as Elf and Giant."

“It’s hard to find the right teachers.”

Hastur sighed slightly. Although he knew some Giant and Elvish languages, they were limited to a few and difficult to master. It was really difficult to find a suitable teacher for these two languages.

Maric thought for a while, "Sharon is very good at learning this kind of knowledge, much better than me. If she is willing to be your teacher..."

"With her personality, she won't just become someone else's teacher. You'd better go to Backlund University and find those old professors who specialize in languages."

Maric felt that it was very unreliable to ask Sharon to teach the occult language.

Based on her temperament, she would probably throw the relevant books directly in front of Hastur and let him study on his own.

Hastur also felt that with Sharon’s character, she wouldn’t be his teacher, which was a bit of a pity.

"Do you think Earl Richard should be an Extraordinary of what order?" Hastur changed the topic.

"It will definitely not exceed Sequence 5. I estimate that he should be around Sequence 7."

Sequence 7, a psychic on the path of death?

This is quite similar to the ability shown by Earl Richard.

He is so lucky that a person like him who is not very proficient in mystical knowledge can be successfully promoted to Sequence 7 without losing control.

The two of them chatted all the way back to the lake. When parting, Hastur specifically guided them: "You said that Earl Richard and the others have to change places every time they hold a ceremony. Is there any special reason?"

Maric thought for a long time and said, "Tomorrow, let's go investigate together."

…

The next day, Hasta and Maric started searching along the nearby dense forest, and soon found the third and fourth places where ceremonies had been held.

"Have you noticed that these four ritual sites seem to be around a circle?" Hastur guessed.

"Do you think the thirteenth ceremony will be at the center of the location of the previous twelve ceremonies?" Maric's face became more solemn.

The two of them followed this line of thinking and searched in circles, and sure enough they found the fifth, sixth... and twelfth ceremony location.

Connecting these twelve points, it does look like a circle, and the distance between the two points is almost the same.

This can already show that Earl Richard and his party did not choose the ceremony location randomly, but had already decided on thirteen ceremony locations at the very beginning of the ceremony.

"According to the order in which they performed the ceremony, it should go in a counter-clockwise direction."

Hastur's expression also became serious.

In occultism, counterclockwise and clockwise are also important. For example, in Tarot cards, there is a difference between upright and reverse.

If clockwise represents the passage of time, from the past to the future, then counterclockwise represents the exact opposite.

It can be understood as going back in time, from the present to the past.

The idea pursued by Earl Richard and his party is to put the dead souls to rest, and then reincarnate the souls after death, from death to rebirth. This should mean clockwise, because time flows normally.

On the contrary, counterclockwise represents the pursuit of resurrection from the dead.

This is completely contrary to the philosophy pursued by Earl Richard and others, and is extremely dangerous.

He is now a little suspicious that Earl Richard may not understand the occult meaning of this at all, and his actions are guided by external forces.

For example, the huge spiritual creature that cannot see the depth clearly.

According to Earl Richard's description, it is a messenger walking between the world of the living and the dead.

So wanting to escape from the undead world and appear in this world should be its very reasonable pursuit, right?

This can also explain why Earl Richard can accurately summon it every time and is always safe with the opponent.

Because Earl Richard still has enough use value.