Chapter 121
New Moon Ritual
Time flew by, and it was now Sunday.
The scheduled attack from the Lloyd Society was not expected until the following week. The Noble Red Society had also suddenly gone silent. Old Professor Moriarty’s death had not yet been reported, the Trade Minister remained inactive, and the assassin’s superior had still not made contact.
It had been an unusually quiet and peaceful week.
It was so quiet, in fact, that Lily was starting to feel restless.
Everyone else, however, seemed content, and perhaps the only one truly uncomfortable was Sherlock. His personality always demanded activity. He usually channeled his restless mind by finding things to do. Now, with a forced vacation and no outlet, he had apparently resorted to studying spells at the Bishop’s residence by the weekend, according to Haina.
He had also entrusted Haina with a lengthy reply letter to Young Master Eivass. It was meticulously filled with potential issues Eivass might encounter with the Lloyd Society and how to deal with them. It also proposed seven hypotheses requiring verification using Lloyd Society credentials, urging Eivass to test them when he had the chance. The sheer length of the letter indicated his concern for Eivass and how bored he was.
Young Master Eivass, naturally, had no such free time.
He had spent the week attending classes, a rare period of calm. He diligently followed the school’s library curriculum for occult studies, naturally progressing to Level Nine with minimal experience. Young Master Eivass absorbed knowledge like a sponge. While reviewing his studies and finishing the two books he had intended to borrow earlier, he began self-studying Elven Language in his spare time. This was because his instructor for devotional studies, Madam Maya, intended to lend him a Grimoire of the Path of Devotion, which was translated into Elven Language. To understand this Grimoire, Young Master Eivass was preparing himself in advance.
The only thing that surprised Young Master Eivass was that Lily had indeed reached the peak of the First Tier in just one week. Strictly speaking, it was less than a week. By Thursday, she had already touched the “wall” of the Second Tier, three days earlier than Young Master Eivass’s most optimistic projection.
This meant that this New Moon Ritual could indeed be performed together with Lily. As they were both in Avalon, resources for both the Path Adaptation and Transcendent Path were scarce, implying they would almost certainly be paired together tonight.
And considering the house at No. 14 Ronin Street, Princess Isabel had a key.
Although the possibility was slim, given Princess Isabel’s potential to visit Young Master Eivass on Sunday evenings, he had requested a day off from his mentor for Monday. He planned to take Lily home to prepare for the Ascension Ritual and to seal the Butterfly.
When they arrived home, Young Master Eivass discovered that Master Janis’s promised painting, “The Golden Dawn,” had already been delivered and installed.
As Young Master Eivass arrived home on Sunday morning, he found the living room remarkably bright. It was as if the wall wasn’t a wall at all, but a giant window spanning time and space. Mixed with the deep red of the morning sun, a brilliantly pure golden radiance rose from the center of the sacred, gold-crafted architecture. Below it, the Nephthys guards of the Horus Empire worshipped the sun. Though their human forms were tiny and vague, they exuded a sense of tangible reality. The radiance pierced through numerous surrounding structures made of crystal and gold, refracting repeatedly and shimmering with a misty halo. Even as a silent painting, one could almost faintly hear solemn hymns of praise.
This window created a fascinating visual distortion. It seemed like looking out from inside the window, yet it simultaneously offered the perspectives of looking straight ahead at eye level and looking down from the sky. As Young Master Eivass entered from the doorway and walked forward, the angle and distance from which he viewed the painting changed, altering the angle of the light emitted from it, the perspective of the surrounding buildings, and their angles of reflection. The surrounding architecture was rendered with striking realism and detail; even a slightly protruding brick on the wall or a small flake of gold paint peeling off was depicted with exceptional clarity. Yet, when viewed as a whole, one could faintly discern a golden hawk soaring in the blue sky amidst the radiant splendor of the sacred buildings and the layered sense of depth they created.
This was Young Master Eivass’s first real-life encounter with “The Golden Dawn.” It was so sacred and radiant that simply gazing at it brought a clarity and peace to his soul. Even someone with no appreciation for art would understand the timeless beauty contained within this painting. It was undoubtedly Master Janis’s most technically perfect magic painting.
“Young Master Edward was utterly astonished when this painting was delivered,” the old butler, Oswald, whispered, walking beside Young Master Eivass with his hands behind his back, like a ghost. “He repeatedly confirmed that it was Master Janis’s gift to Young Master Eivass, and kept exclaiming, ‘Incredible,’ and ‘How is this possible?’ He spent a long time on the phone late at night just to understand what had happened.” His dry, wrinkled face was etched with crumpled smiles, and his wolf-like, emerald green pupils narrowed with amusement. “Does Young Master Eivass like it?”
“Of course, I like it,” Young Master Eivass replied with a smile. “And not just this painting…”
As he spoke, he looked at a portrait hanging on another wall. It was a painting by Princess Isabel for him. In that painting, Princess Isabel had omitted Young Master Eivass’s wheelchair from behind him, and thus, Lily, who originally stood there. The background was not a classroom but the sky filled with dawn clouds. Whether by deliberate design or coincidence, the background of that painting was like a faded version of “The Golden Dawn,” as if the two paintings existed in the same space-time, with Young Master Eivass positioned slightly further away, looking down at them from a higher vantage point.
When placed side-by-side, the immaturity of Princess Isabel’s technique was evident. The depicted Young Master Eivass was subtly moving and breathing, his eyelids slowly blinking, and the hair at his temples swaying in the wind, resembling an L2D character animation in a mobile game. While beautiful, it was merely aesthetically pleasing. Even the movements were somewhat unnatural—the outstretched hand seemed less like a greeting or a lecture and more like offering help to someone.
Despite this, Young Master Eivass still preferred it.
“Because the Shrine of Horus does not belong to me, and that radiant sun does not belong to me either. But this painting belongs entirely to me,” Young Master Eivass said earnestly, looking at the painting. After completing this painting, Princess Isabel herself felt it wasn’t good enough. She had told Young Master Eivass that upon her next advancement, she intended to paint another one for him. However, based on Young Master Eivass’s understanding, she would never stop there. As her technique improved, she would paint an even better one. Eventually, Young Master Eivass would be able to arrange these paintings together, forming his own photo album, a collection of his memories.
Lily, standing behind him, pouted silently, saying nothing. While she didn’t feel she should have been included in the painting, she wondered if it was quite realistic for the Princess to have omitted Young Master Eivass’s wheelchair.
Yet, inexplicably, Lily felt a sense of joy. Although Princess Isabel and Young Master Eivass’s relationship was growing closer, his hidden identity as a Demon Scholar was known only to her. Now, she alone could participate with Young Master Eivass in this most dangerous New Moon Ritual. Young Master Eivass had even stepped out of his wheelchair and personally helped her set up the ritual in his bedroom.
The ritual for the New Moon was entirely different from the Full Moon Ritual. Since there were no teammates to consider, there was no need for sacrifices in that regard. Compared to the Full Moon Ritual, the New Moon Ritual leaned more towards darkness, requiring a more brutal and dangerous ceremony.
Under Young Master Eivass’s direction, Lily fed poison to a pair of roosters and hens. While still alive, she stabbed them and spilled their blood on the ground, first soaking two ritual arrays carved with knives. After the blood dried, she used a scraper to remove the excess parts outside the ritual circle, leaving only a complete, dark red circle. The originally carved ritual arrays would turn black due to the increased blood saturation.
Next, Young Master Eivass coated a silver ritual knife with essential oils and repeatedly heated it over a candle until the blade turned slightly black before setting it aside. He then used a smudge stick made of black sage to scorch a small silver hammer. After blackening its exterior, he burned the remaining sage into ashes and applied them to a rope. He coated thick iron nails, thicker and longer than a human finger, with the roosters’ poisoned blood. He prepared six such nails. He also prepared two sets of other ritualistic items. He did not delegate this meticulous work to Lily, to ensure absolute accuracy. He affixed paper, red and translucent, onto the window. As a precaution, he also attached one to the lampshade and temporarily sealed the window in Young Master Eivass’s bedroom leading to the rest of the house with a wooden board. Young Master Eivass had also prepared two sets of ritual materials. Each set included a live petrel, the heart of a deer that had died that day, a miniature effigy of a philosopher, a snake, a handful of black salt, a horse’s phallus, a well-fed mouse, an oyster, and a mirror. However, Young Master Eivass could not find a second petrel and substituted a passing pigeon. The materials for the New Moon Ritual were harder to procure than those for the Full Moon Ritual, but fortunately, they were primarily symbolic. Therefore, many materials could be replaced with similar items. The only issue was that these materials could not be purchased from the same location, and many items had a limited shelf life.
He arranged them in order on the nine corners of the ritual array—a nonagon drawn with a single stroke, where the nine angles were not equal. On the contrary, the sizes of these nine angles were entirely different. Arranging them in ascending order of angle, Young Master Eivass placed the seabird, mirror, deer heart, effigy, black salt, mouse, horse’s phallus, snake, and oyster at the nine corners of the ritual array.
The two of them waited quietly until evening. Young Master Eivass and Lily agreed on a secret passphrase for identity verification during their meeting. Then, they changed their clothes. Young Master Eivass found a red and white robe at home and dyed it completely red with the leftover chicken blood. Lily, on the other hand, wore a very loose gray hooded sweatshirt, large enough to conceal her face and figure.
After the sun had completely set and the new moon had risen, seeing the red light seeping into the room from outside, Young Master Eivass lit the gas lamp fitted with a red lampshade. As the red light filled the entire room, the Ascension Ritual officially began.
“—The nine are complete. I am within.” Young Master Eivass chanted in a low voice. Lily echoed Young Master Eivass’s chant and followed his movements. He picked up the rope and strangled the bird; he picked up the hammer and shattered the mirror; he picked up the nail and, with the hammer, drove it into the deer’s heart. He used the candle to ignite the effigy, allowing it to melt slightly; he then cut his own finger and soaked the black salt in his blood; he stabbed the mouse with the black ritual knife; he drove a nail through the horse’s phallus from tip to end; he pried open the oyster and dripped his own blood into it. Young Master Eivass did not touch the snake, while Lily did not touch the mouse. She pinned the frozen snake to the ground with a nail and used the ritual knife to skin the snake. However, Young Master Eivass’s snake remained motionless, coiled quietly in place; Lily’s mouse, on the other hand, raised its head, its eyes gleaming with human-like vitality.
“Apart from me, eight are dead.” They spoke in unison.
The next moment, eight clusters of dark red flames erupted, igniting the ritual array and bathing it in a red glow. The ritual was successful.
I overslept a bit… This chapter is 3,600 words. I’m taking half a day off today to rest. I won’t take time off after the dungeon part! It’s amazing that the cat can write nearly 4,000 words even when taking time off (hands on hips). I’ll also organize the outline for tomorrow! Although the cat knows you like to wait for chapters to be “fattened up,” don’t kill the cat! Remember to set up custom notifications when the chapters are ready (pleading mournfully).
