Pastor's Tantra

When the art of pastoral care is on the path of consecration, its expression is prayer and sacrifice.

But when this mysterious skill is used with power beyond the path, it becomes a ritual—

The ritual circle was once again carved on the ground by Aiwass and Lily. But what is different from before is that this time the eight-pointed star array does not have the names of any Nine Pillar Gods engraved on it. Instead, it is filled with Aiwas's name and its various variations in different languages.

They prepared a glass of fine wine at midnight and soaked the cinnamon in it. After soaking for half an hour, bring to a boil over low heat and take out the cinnamon.

After that, Lily put in the most important element.

It was an amethyst carved into an eight-sided die by Aiwass.

Amethyst is a protective gemstone that transcends the path. Because it can balance the incongruous parts of various rituals, and the core skill of the transcendent path is ritual.

The ritual that was originally just a few inches away from being completed but failed due to a subtle imbalance can now take effect normally after being coordinated by the amethyst... which means increasing the fault tolerance of the ritual.

Pastoral care is inherently taboo, just like letting water flow backwards and letting a fire burn forever. Without the use of amethyst for balance, the ritual part of it will inevitably fail.

After the amethyst eight-sided die was put in, Lily allowed the wine to cool down naturally. Once the wine has cooled down to room temperature, the ceremony can begin.

Lily half-knelt in front of Aiwass, while Aiwass was sitting on a chair with a backrest, and the chair was placed in the ritual circle.

He stepped on the ground with both feet, and the shadow demon spontaneously flowed into Aiwass' body. This made Aiwass' whole body pale and cold, with a faint black smoke emitting from his body. His eyes were completely filled with black mist, and his hands seemed to be wearing black silk gloves - the limbs and seven orifices were the parts of the demon that were most easily exposed.

“I am your shepherd, I will keep you in need.”

Aiwass said softly.

He said, taking out the ceremonial knife used to feed the shadow demon before.

He cut his finger with the blade of a knife and wrote his name, excluding his surname, on Lily's forehead with his bloody index finger. Lily, on the other hand, raised her head and stared at Aiwass the whole time, as if praying for a favor.

After writing a brief name, Aiwass let his blood flow downward. A little bit of Shadow Demon's breath was poured into the blood, making the drop of blood particularly thick and dark. There is even a hint of sour smell like rotten wood.

Lily lowered her head and raised the cup of ceremonial wine with both hands.

Amethyst is a symbol of Dionysus, but also represents loyalty and love. This also represents two other characteristics of the transcendent path - rebellion and contract.

"Here, I give you grace, hope, and bliss."

Aiwass dropped his blood into the wine, and the voice that overlapped with the shadow demon declared: "Ask for nothing in return."

Lily raised her head and drank the wine in one gulp. Hold the eight-sided dice in the wine in your mouth.

Then she placed the wine glass at Aiwass' feet. Carefully spit out the eight-sided dice in your mouth.

If the ritual is successful, it will only show the number 8 at this time, regardless of the probability of rolling other faces.

8 means infinity and endlessness, circulation and transcendence. It is also the sacred number that symbolizes the snake father.

Sure enough, the dice rolled in the wine glass and then lay down. The number 8 was engraved on the sloping surface, and it seemed to Aiwass and Lily that it was lying on the ground. So it looks more like "infinite".

The moment the dice stopped rolling, an infinite black mark suddenly appeared under Aiwass and Lily's feet. Two rings encircled him and Lily respectively.

Aiwass's dark attribute mana flowed wildly, and the shadow demon instantly overflowed from Aiwass, flowed to Lily, and then flowed back again.

After about a few seconds, as Aiwass's mana bottomed out, the amount of black mist hanging on the two people's bodies became even.

And Aiwass clearly felt that there was another person at the end of the contract between himself and Shadow Demon - the relationship between Lily and Shadow Demon became extremely close, as if they were half of each other. Lily's authority lies with Shadow Demon, and Shadow Demon's authority lies with herself.

——It’s like purchasing the “family version” of Shadow Demon and then sharing its child version rights with Lily.

"The ceremony was a success."

Aiwass replied happily.

"About half of the power was taken away."

Without waiting for Aiwass to ask, Shadow Demon returned to Chloe's voice and said softly: "But if you give me a little more, you can slowly replenish it..."

"Where's Lily?"

Aiwass asked his maid.

Lily lowered her head, feeling the shadow aura coming out of her body. Like ink falling into water, she instantly became blurred and dissipated into the material world. Another moment condensed back like time went back.

She raised her head, her tone full of joy: "My relationship with the shadows has suddenly become so close! I feel like I can sneak into the shadows now!"

"of course."

Shadow Demon's voice became a little harsh for some reason: "You are now half Shadow Demon, but all the skills that Shadow Demon has need to be practiced from scratch. But if you can fully exert your power, you will be like He is a shadow demon who has obtained a material body...Don't let down the gift from the master."

In fact, Shadow Demon was also surprised by the mystery of this shepherding method. But in front of Aiwass and Lily, it didn't want to show too much fuss. So although it was surprised, it acted as if it was natural.

After the ceremony was established, there was a mysterious and strong connection between Shadow Demon and Lily.

It originally thought that Aiwass only took away part of its power, and that it would need to find it to replenish it after Lily used it up. But that's not actually the case - a more appropriate metaphor is that it consumed half of its power to add a racial talent to Lily.

In a sense, there is a kind of kinship between them - a connection that is closer than the possession of a demon.

...just like a mother.

Lily vaguely had such a feeling, and the Shadow Demon, who was a little afraid before, now became intimate with him.

She could even vaguely sense Shadow Demon's thoughts and ideas.

For example, right now, Shadow Demon is a little confused about the power of pastoral care.

So Lily said to Shadow Demon thoughtfully: "I feel as if I can also bear your existence..."

Lily said, then gently pressed a finger on Aiwass's shadow.

Immediately afterwards, the shadow demon flowed from the shadow cast by the finger into Lily's shadow and was safely hidden. Even more stable than in Aiwass's shadow - at least there is no situation where Aiwass is motionless and his shadow keeps shaking.

"Is it really okay?"

Aiwass was a little surprised.

"Not too far, not too long."

Shadow Demon's voice came from under Lily: "And I feel that when I am here with Lily, I don't seem to be able to exert my full power..."

"You can do an experiment first. You go out with Lily and see how far it can go and how much power it can exert."

Aiwass said, standing up from the chair: "I will pack the things in the house first. If you see Oswald, you can also tell him the good news about Yulia's recovery."

At this moment, his shadow finally stopped shaking. It was as if he had returned to normal.

Lily nodded and left with Shadow Demon silently.

After Shadow Demon left, Aiwass sighed in a low voice: "I finally feel the touch of the cashmere carpet again..."

This is the first time Aiwass has stood and walked normally since he recovered his past life memories.

When he usually stands and walks, no matter what surface he walks on, he will feel that he is stepping on some kind of elastic and soft ground. In fact, it was Shadow Demon's body.

Shadow Demon feels like slightly soft rubber when stepped on.

The advantage is that Aiwass can run normally on rough roads - maybe even in swamps or sand. The disadvantage is that it is really uncomfortable to step on.

It's even slightly sticky to the feet... like half a bottle of Coke spilled on the rubber floor.

That is because Aiwass was wearing cloth shoes used by priests, not leather shoes or boots. At least it's not too clingy.

Aiwass sighed a few words and began to clean up the ceremony skillfully.

He has cleaned up the ceremony room three times in a row this night...Aiwass is even thinking now, how about getting a room that no one goes to, such as a basement, and transforming it into a ceremony room? Of course, you can't do it in your own bedroom, it would smell too much.

Now Aiwass could vaguely smell the bloody smell like killing chickens. He didn't even know where the smell came from because the room had been exposed to so many bloods overnight. Even the floor might be soaked in blood.

If a spray of luminol reagent were sprayed, Aiwass's bedroom would probably be lit up like a slaughterhouse.

When the shadow demon comes back, let it wander on the ground and corrode the blood.

...It just feels inexplicably like letting a puppy deal with fallen food scraps.

In order not to wake up Yulia, Aiwass moved very gently. He quickly cleaned up the ceremony place, and a shadow quickly flowed across the ground and submerged into his own shadow.

After a while, Lily also came back to report.

"It should be as far as Master Edward's room, and it will automatically go back any further. However, when Miss Shadow Demon is here, she can only spread five or six steps outward."

A mother-to-child router, right? Aiwass complained in his heart.

And why is she a young lady?

Was it because of Chloe's voice that the Shadow Demon, who had no fixed shape or gender, was identified as a woman?

Forget it, it doesn't matter. Aiwass didn't bother to correct Lily.

"If we can get to Edward...that means the radius is about fifty meters, and Lily's five or six steps is only about three meters..."

Aiwass muttered in a low voice.

With a radius of three meters, the shadow demon can actually only play a protective role at most and cannot exert much destructive power. But on the other hand, you can also use this characteristic to let Shadow Demon follow Lily to explore the outside.

Because without the "Field Card: Shadow Vault", the Shadow Demon will be restrained.

It can only appear on the shadow of Aiwass itself, and the attached shadow is inaccessible. Otherwise if it's at night, it can go anywhere.

For example, when Aiwass is standing under the corner, the shadow demon cannot move from the shadow cast by the corner; when Aiwass is with other people, it cannot enter other people's shadows.

That's why Shadow Demon spreads the shadow field like a carpet of bacteria to directly expand the size of Aiwass's shadow.

But now Lily can also serve as a temporary carrier for Shadow Demon.

If there is a three-meter radius, Lily can basically use the techniques that Aiwass used in the previous ritual.

In a sense, this is equivalent to increasing Lily's offensive capabilities in disguise!

And Aiwass also realized that this has the biggest advantage——

"Let Lily raise her hand."

Aiwass said to Shadow Demon in his heart.

He wanted to do an experiment.

Sure enough, after about two seconds, Lily raised her hand inexplicably.

Aiwas's eyes lit up, it was really good!

If Shadow Demon is his contractor and Lily is Shadow Demon's contractor...then Aiwass can use Shadow Demon as a transfer station to issue precise orders to Lily remotely without even opening his mouth!

From the looks of it, it's like telepathy with a slight delay. Or……

This is the squad voice!

Thanks to the leader with black eyes for feeding me~Thank you boss~