Super Righteous Player
Chapter 706 - 247: Ritual: Touching the Darkness_1

Chapter 706: Chapter 247: Ritual: Touching the Darkness_1

"Elle" went to the Swordsmanship Dojo of Delicacy Goose by herself.

It must be said that she’s one of the players with the strongest psychological quality... Delicacy Goose had already stabilized his emotions before "Elle’s" arrival, and had started investigating while playing his own part.

And after "Elle" arrived, just like the other players... he swiftly gave his trust to Annan. They agreed to meet at Elle’s doorstep at midnight with Longjing tea and the wandering child.

But Annan didn’t personally go to find the Longjing tea.

Because there was no need anymore.

Afterward, he started to draw the ceremonial ground in the underground basement of his own dojo with "Elle."

——This was also why Annan had asked the wandering child to send the ritual materials here.

[Annan, are you... planning to summon the Bone Mother]

"Not at all."

Annan said leisurely, "This isn’t a ritual to summon the Bone Mother."

"Did Elle ask anything?"

Delicacy Goose, kneeling on the ground and carving ritual lines with a silver ceremonial knife, looked up and explained with a smile, "She thought this was a ritual from the realm of Bones? Why would she think that?"

"It’s simple, because I’ve tested before... I couldn’t use Divine Arts from the realms of ’Skeleton’ and ’Betrayal’ at all while in Elle’s identity. And I also tested, the True God’s rituals couldn’t be used either..."

"Elle," sitting on a chair and carving wooden runes with a small knife, turned her head with a light laugh and asked, "How would you use a ritual to verify whether this is the Mist Continent or not if you were in my place?"

"For me... I would probably summon the Silver Baron. After all, if the price is right, the success rate for Silver Baron’s rituals is the highest—he won’t refuse any form of trade. If this world evidently has trade and currency, but the Silver Baron doesn’t respond to rituals... then something is definitely off."

Delicacy Goose pondered for a moment and nodded in response.

"Well said."

Annan praised, "You are worthy of someone who has studied Ritualism with Naifertali... When we return, I’ll send you to Rasputin’s family. Then you can learn some top-secret large-scale rituals."

"...Uh, boss. That phrase, in our region, is known as setting a flag, which is kind of an inauspicious thing to do..."

Delicacy Goose said awkwardly.

However, Annan merely smiled.

"Elle" quickly changed the subject, while continuing to carve the wooden block chopped from the chair, "Your judgment is correct. Among the True Gods, the Silver Baron and the Goddess of Cup are the deities with the highest response rate without the need for ’influence’ to assist and position—

"Like the Bone Mother when there is no encounter with the undead, the Red Knight when there’s no conflict, the Moth Mother when the ritualist isn’t female... they rarely answer the ritual calls from non-believers. There’s also Lady Luck, who responds based on mood, and the Mysterious Lady, who is extremely demanding on precision. Their presence also greatly disrupts your judgment.

"I, too, like you, tried the Silver Baron’s ritual and found it ineffective; but because this nightmare was created by the Bone Mother, I also tried the Bone Mother’s ritual and found there was a response..."

As "Elle" spoke, she chuckled, "So, I tentatively concluded that this is a world where ’other True Gods do not exist, only the Bone Mother does.’ That’s what Elle heard too."

At those words though, Delicacy Goose frowned.

He had just completed the ritual and stood up, looking oddly at "Elle," who was sitting back in her chair with crossed legs; just as he was about to say something, the doorbell rang.

"It’s the wandering child."

"Elle" added.

With that, Delicacy Goose nodded and went to open the door first.

Since there were strangers present, although they couldn’t hear them speak, Elle, who was still trying to keep quiet, finally couldn’t help but ask:

[Uncle Delicacy Goose, it seemed like you had something to say just now... Did I miss something?]

"...You don’t have to call him uncle, he might look very... reliable, but he is only twenty-nine years old this year."

"Elle" smirked, her lips curving up in a smile, "I’m glad you realized something was wrong here... although it’s a bit late."

"——Because this deduction is wrong."

The calm voice of Delicacy Goose came from the entrance: "Why, after only trying the rituals of the Silver Baron and Bone Mother did you conclude that the Bone Mother is the only True God in this world? It’s totally unreasonable, and I don’t believe Lord Annan would make such an inference..."

Upon hearing this, "Elle" merely smiled.

She approached and took the ritual materials from Delicacy Goose’s hand.

——Three black ram’s horns, three black buck’s horns, and three pairs of bull horns. Also, three black candles, three mirrors, a small bottle of crocodile tears, twenty-seven rat hearts, twenty-seven centipede venom glands, and a small bottle of oil of Silence.

[...Huh?]

Elle was momentarily stunned when she saw it.

""

"Does it look familiar, Elle?"

"Elle" asked softly.

Of course, Elle recognized it.

Part of these ritual materials—specifically, the three candles, the three black rams’ horns, the three black bucks’ horns, and the three pairs of bull horns—were the same ones Amos had used to sacrifice Elle to the Skeleton Lord in the ritual "Contacting the Skeleton Lord."

"Do you know, Elle?"

Annan spoke calmly and quietly, word by word, "This ’Contacting the Skeleton Lord’ ritual is actually a low-grade version of another ritual.

"When you hear ’3’, what do you think of?"

""

"—Exactly."

Annan replied.

He spoke as he placed the ritual materials in order, fitting them into the ritual array that the Delicious Wind Goose had carved into the ground.

Each "horn" had its right place. Around the nine horns, hearts of rats and venom glands of centipedes were laid out in groups of nine to form nine triangles—substitutes for the hearts of infants and the brains of villains.

Then, Annan placed the three black candles on the outermost edge and created two overlapping triangles with three mirrors before lighting the candles.

The moment the third candle was lit, the warm orange flame turned into a chilling ice-blue fire. Annan then extinguished all other lights in the room.

"Delicious Wind Goose was right. I only confirmed that the Silver Baron’s ritual was invalid, and that Granny Bonecarver’s ritual was effective... Why would you believe that Granny Bonecarver is the only one that exists in this world?

"I’ve been pondering whether Granny Bonecarver is special. But later, when I heard Amos mention ’Yawen’s Reward’ and ’Rituals for Yawen’... Only then was I certain that the concept of ’rituals’ exists in this world, just that their power isn’t as immense, unable to summon Transcendent forces.

"So the question arises. Why can’t the True Gods respond to rituals in this slice of the world? Or why don’t ’rituals’ possess Transcendent power in themselves?"

Annan said, as he burned the wooden charms he had carved with the Lady of Silence’s runes above the three candles.

When the runes touched the candles burning with chilling blue flames, they too flickered with cold light. It didn’t look like wood burning; it was more like being gradually "swallowed" by the flames.

Soon, the runes vanished from Annan’s hands.

Shadow-like runes appeared above the candle flames, still rotating.

"The answer is simple. The True God who doesn’t exist here isn’t the Silver Baron... but the Lady of Mysteries."

Annan spoke and dripped crocodile tears on the three candles to extinguish them.

The flames were being snuffed out one by one, but the three rotating runes remained above the candles.

Finally, the flames were completely extinguished.

The three runes spun quietly, silently.

"This is the true form of the ’Contacting the Skeleton Lord’ ritual... ’Contacting the Night.’"

—It was not about contacting the Lady of Silence, but contacting the Night itself.

At the exact moment the ritual succeeded.

The entire world visibly plunged into twilight.

The success of this ritual meant that all of Annan’s previous inferences were correct.

It wasn’t the sun that had fallen, but time had flowed a thousand times faster—if one could see people outside now, it would look like watching fast-forwarded footage, as they dashed about rapidly.

The ritual, unnoticed by all, directly shifted the world’s time to nine o’clock at night.

Delicious Wind Goose and the Wandering Child, who had been nearby, had disappeared without a trace at some point... By now, they should have found the Longjing tea. Following Annan’s previous guidance, they might be on their way to the paddy fields or in the midst of assassinating the "unworthy descendants."

But they were no longer in the fencing hall... If all went well, they should not have gone mad by now.

"Now it’s twenty-one o’clock. Two plus one equals three; twenty-one o’clock is also ’nine at night,’ nine is three times three; three hours also happens to separate nine and twelve... meaning, three hours until midnight. This is the Lady of Silence’s ’sacred hour.’"

"Elle" looked up calmly.

"—Here and now, I will begin to reveal the answer."