Chapter 1178
Dispelling Curses with Void Power
Ancient Kingdom of Anxi, Rock Cell City.
Two days had passed since the three demons were sent back.
During this time, Eivass’s convoy did not enter Rock Cell City, but continued to wait outside the city. Eivass, along with several Ritualists, entered the city to research the ritual. He also brought Sherlock to help them cast Spell Defense against the curse.
Although the Troll Shaman who continuously used “Curse Nova: Petrify” as the ritual array’s core had been killed by Eivass—incidentally, Eivass had also named this skill, as he didn’t know its actual name—the activated curse still lingered.
As the core of the ritual, the Troll Shaman’s soul had been almost burned out. In fact, even if Eivass hadn’t intervened, it probably would have burned out on its own after a period of time… say, a week or two, leading to his complete death and disintegration into ashes. Eivass killing him was a true release, allowing his soul to enter the Dream Realm. It was better to reincarnate with shattered information fragments than for his body and soul to be completely annihilated. Moreover, some Heavenly Envoy might take an interest in him.
The three Ritualists were waiting there to take on business, but they were also tasked with guarding the Troll Shaman to prevent him from being killed prematurely before his soul burned out.
—Since the enemy didn’t want him dead, Eivass was determined to make him die.
It was precisely because the Troll Shaman died prematurely that the ritual was suddenly interrupted before its complete completion. If the ritual had been allowed to finish according to its original plan, the petrified state would have become permanent. It was because the ritual was interrupted that there was a possibility for these petrified people to be rescued by conventional means.
Although Eivass could turn into a Sin Eater Beast, forcibly resurrect the Troll Shaman to seek revenge, or dispel the petrification of everyone in the city… he ultimately did not resort to such a shortcut. On one hand, he had Isabel by his side, so he was not alone and uninhibited. On the other hand, Eivass was also deliberately guarding against the influence of his Path, suppressing the depth of his Path of Devotion by intentionally refraining from overly devoted actions, thus trying to balance his Path Power. Furthermore, the significance of these matters was not high. After all, it was unlikely for this Fourth Tier Ritualist to successfully exact revenge on a Sixth Tier fellow Path user, and Eivass could not be sure he wasn’t truly brainwashed… If it was just to show an attitude, the three Ritualists who turned into demons were enough.
The petrification curse within the city was no longer difficult to dispel after the array’s core was broken. After Eivass, Zhu Tang, and Ibn studied it for two days, they found the ritual’s vulnerability.
This curse ritual had two cores. One was the Troll Shaman killed by Eivass. He was the primary core, used to continuously mobilize the power stored in the ritual, transform it, and condense it into Curse Nova to cover the entire city with the petrification curse. In addition to this, there was another core—the fundamental basis of the ritual, which was the signed transaction stone tablet.
The theory behind this ritual was simple. It utilized the traditions of Anxi to regard the “city” as the property of the Lord, and further, as an extension of the Lord’s self. When the other party “agreed” to sign the contract, it was equivalent to ceding property in the master’s name, taking responsibility for one’s own words and actions in one’s own name, thus achieving a closed loop that did not require secondary verification.
The power of this petrification was not provided by the Lord of Heaven City. It truly came from Amber. What the Lord did was simply pay the price for communicating with Amber in advance, thereby leveraging Amber’s power… allowing the will of the contracting party to reach Amber directly. Just by signing a name, one could borrow the power of a Pillar God—this was indeed a genius ritual.
Simultaneously, through the contract, he ensured that the power supplier and the signatory of the contract did not communicate with each other. And by using the Troll Shaman as the ritual’s core, he transformed this originally gentle, interruptible Amber power that slowly solidified the entire environment into a violent, instantaneous attack, a petrification curse that could actively counter the priority of Extraordinary Power, and was a special attack targeting the living… to make the realization method “instantaneous.” Because the signatory of the contract was completely petrified at the first moment, he himself could not veto this method of operation. And since he also did not say he wanted to stop, Amber would continuously output power until everything was completely solidified. Even if the Troll Shaman, as the power converter, was damaged, as long as the signatory of the ritual did not object, Amber would not reclaim the power that had already been output.
—If it were a different Pillar God, such an operation would certainly be impossible. Even if the situation wasn’t understood immediately, as long as someone prayed or complained, they would know what was happening.
But Amber happened to be in slumber, her Authority automatically running like a machine… The Lord of Heaven City had found the bug in this “divine authority auto-run system.”
“From a Ritualist’s perspective, he is indeed a genius,” Zhu Tang praised. “And daring—that is the highest compliment for a ‘wizard’.”
“If it were someone else, this curse would indeed be difficult to dispel,” Eivass sighed. “After all, he had transformed pure Amber power into Amber’s curse.”
The original buff had become a debuff, so both resistance and dispelling required a Seventh Tier priority confrontation, acting as the ritual’s initiator.
—But besides Eivass and Grey, how many people in the world possessing dispelling abilities could hold Seventh Tier priority?
However, this particular trick did not stump Eivass. Because when dealing with the Church’s Amber Calamity, Eivass had already previewed this lesson—the essence of this matter was similar to, yet opposite of, the spirits’ Amber. Adler voluntarily made the other party want to dispel the state, requiring them to confront him, while the principle of Amber was not to confront, becoming an undispellable buff.
But whether it was a buff or a debuff, Eivass happened to have the ability to dispel them.
That was Sin Thorns.
Eivass had discovered back then that the fruits borne by Sin Thorns could dispel and heal the Amber state. That was essentially a power to dismantle blessings, dispelling the blessings from the Amber Heavenly Envoy. Now, Eivass had transformed into a Sin Eater Beast and extracted a large amount of Sin Thorns. He used these Sin Thorns to set up a new ritual… allowing the power of Sin Thorns to enter the body of everyone in the city. This was equivalent to attacking them with Sin Thorns, triggering their ability to “seal Extraordinary Power,” which could forcibly dispel this curse.
It was just that Eivass, through the ritual, had transformed this “attack” into a “blessing,” so he would not confront any power other than the curse. Thus, this ritual would not truly harm those people with the power of Sin Thorns, thereby dissolving their professional levels—although Eivass could indeed do so.
This was precisely the inspiration Adler gave Eivass. The same ritual theory, merely inverted, could often become the principle for dispelling the other party. Of course, Eivass had also worried… after all, Sin Thorns were very likely a power from the Void. But he ultimately abandoned his worries.
—Power has no good or bad. As long as it can be used, it’s fine.
Then, as the ritual began to operate…
The entire petrified city was covered with black, shadow-like Void thorns.
And the dim yellow petrified marks began to be gradually dispelled and melted within the area of influence of those Sin Thorns.
(End of Chapter)
