Chapter 153
Summoning the Butterfly of Paradox Flames
To Eivass’s surprise, the two girls, Isabel and Yulia, who usually kept to themselves, got along quite well after meeting.
Though he wasn’t sure how much of it was acting, they quickly became inseparable after their first encounter. Lily also joined them, and they chatted happily together.
Eivass simply sat on the side, nodding occasionally and interjecting a few words to show he was listening.
With their pleasant conversation, it was only natural for Yulia to leave with Isabel.
Although Isabel had already grasped Eivass’s plan when he was drawing for her earlier, Eivass reminded her again just in case: if he went missing, she shouldn’t worry too much and should not pursue him.
For some reason, Isabel’s mood improved after hearing this.
After Yulia left with Isabel, Eivass stood up from his wheelchair and began setting up some defensive rituals in his house.
Although he had the Shadow Demon as a fallback, Eivass intended to fight back. As long as extraordinary power was used, traces of the Path could be detected. If there were no traces of the Path of Devotion here, only the traces of the Transcendent Path left by the Shadow Demon, Eivass’s plan would have a loophole.
Ideally, Eivass should annihilate them using only the power of the Path of Devotion. This would make his supposed disappearance and abduction by a Shadow Demon, which he had no prior information about, logically sound.
Since Eivass intended to have the Shadow Demon intervene, having traces of the Transcendent Path remaining in his house was perfectly normal. He just needed to destroy these rituals before he left.
This was precisely why Eivass could use the rituals for defense and counterattack during this assault—after all, those who attacked him would be killed by him.
This was also a form of natural elimination.
This was also Eivass’s first “prepared battle” as a Demon Scholar.
His first preparation was a countermeasure against curses.
There were four Demon Scholars among the attackers. Although their levels weren’t high, they were at least Third Tier, which meant they might possess curse abilities.
Without a medium, a curse cast from afar would be very difficult. They could only curse the entire house, and the intensity wouldn’t be too strong.
In such a situation, gem jewelry could be used to guide curses.
Eivass adorned himself with sapphire jewelry. Then, he burned black sage on the ground, using the ashes to draw an “8” with an open top on the floor.
At the circular part, Eivass left a lock of his hair, winding it around a sapphire ring. In the opening, he placed many obsidian stones.
High-quality sapphires could resist curses, while obsidian could attract them.
This way, curses without a specific target would automatically flow towards the most susceptible objects.
When a house or an area was affected by untargeted curses, the elderly and young children were usually the first to be affected, followed by the infirm.
Before that, one might feel a slight sense of incongruity—for example, mice and cockroaches in the house dying inexplicably, and the chirping of insects in the yard gradually disappearing, leading to silence.
Avalon people knew very little about curses, but Star Antimony people knew more. Star Antimony nobles would place some obsidian statues in their homes to attract weaker curses to the statues. Cursed obsidian statues could then be used to expel evil spirits.
Next, Eivass began making preparations for assassination countermeasures.
Although theoretically, as Demon Scholars, they should use supernatural abilities to attack Eivass…
There was no rule stating Demon Scholars couldn’t carry guns.
Eivass could counter their spells and block the demons they summoned, but he couldn’t dodge bullets. Thus, Eivass used ritual magic to protect himself.
This would make Eivass’s figure hazy and ethereal. Even if he stood still, his image would constantly change randomly around him. This would make it difficult to target him with projectile spells or gunshots, effectively preventing sneak attacks from the shadows.
Then came “Life Storage.” Eivass spent another two hours performing a complex ritual, transferring about a third of his life force into a red apple. He then used Fire Worship Magic to heal himself.
This way, when Eivass was injured, he could immediately reclaim his life force by destroying the apple.
After that came the Butterfly of Paradox Flames.
Once he paid the mana required to summon the butterfly and fed it some blood using the Shepherd’s Method, Eivass could perform another prayer to restore his mana.
This was Eivass’s first time summoning the Butterfly of Paradox Flames… To be honest, he was still a little nervous.
“Butterfly of Paradox Flames…”
Eivass whispered the invocation.
Between his right thumb and forefinger, a pure red card materialized out of thin air. It was etched with a butterfly pattern in black lines.
He infused his mana into it.
Then, a stream-like flame flowed from the center of the card. This startled Eivass, and he instinctively let go.
The butterfly card hovered in mid-air, spewing roaring flames, forming four fiery wings. The burning aura, strong enough to distort vision, rushed over.
The flame streams condensed into four transparent butterfly wings with a gradient from red to deep red, then to purplish-red and black. They looked tragic like a sunset. They also resembled flames gradually burning from the outer edge, with the outermost part already turning into pure black ash.
The butterfly wings, when fully spread, had a width of nearly two meters.
And in the center of the butterfly wings was a little girl, who looked about eighty centimeters tall.
Her appearance had about a fifty percent resemblance to Yulia, but she was clearly younger. Her hair was the opposite of Yulia’s, black like burnt ash, but styled exactly like Yulia’s.
However, because she was much shorter than Yulia, her long hair, which would have reached Yulia’s waist, now reached her ankles.
Her pupils were also red, but not the warm, candy-like red of Yulia’s. Instead, they were a dull, lifeless dark red, like dried blood. The parts other than the iris were not human white, but a matte black.
The Butterfly of Paradox Flames wore a black gauze dress like a widow’s, the hem of which was faintly burning, like embers. It fluttered along with her long hair, stirred by the evaporating heat.
The style was black and red. Burning fire and residual embers. Sunset and night.
This was the impression the Butterfly of Paradox Flames gave Eivass.
She looked as if she hadn’t woken up, appearing very sleepy. The Butterfly of Paradox Flames hovered quietly in the air, and after a while, her gaze focused, and she quietly looked at Eivass.
Eivass was also a little nervous.
Theoretically, he should be able to perfectly control his great beasts, but this was, after all, his first great beast.
“Do you know who I am, Butterfly of Paradox Flames?”
Eivass asked softly.
“…Brother.”
The Butterfly of Paradox Flames let out a hoarse yet gentle whisper, completely different from Yulia’s voice: “I remember you.
“You said I wouldn’t die…
“I survived, Brother.”
Her voice was like a sick little girl, unable to properly vocalize, with a raspy tone, like a whisper when telling a fairy tale to soothe a child to sleep.
Her appearance wasn’t drastically different from Eivass’s impression of the Butterfly of Paradox Flames.
In the normal version, the Butterfly of Paradox Flames, a dungeon BOSS, was a giant butterfly. In its center was Yulia, whose body was cracked like porcelain.
However, players later fought two other versions of the Butterfly of Paradox Flames at levels fifty and eighty.
These were not plot events that actually happened but possibilities constructed from imagination. It was theorized that players didn’t fight the Butterfly of Paradox Flames again, but rather, after telling their stories to an NPC, the NPC, through a degree of dramatic exaggeration, constructed “epic battle stories.”
The level fifty version was where Yulia didn’t hold back and unleashed the full combat power of the Butterfly of Paradox Flames—the “possibility of Yulia not having Eivass in her party.”
The level eighty version was the possibility of the Butterfly of Paradox Flames hatching and developing into its complete form. It was a limited-time raid event.
That version of the Butterfly of Paradox Flames had such black hair and crimson eyes.
But unlike the little butterfly now, that version was mature, like a Yulia in her late twenties or early thirties. She wore a black dress burning with fierce flames, and her butterfly wings were more ornate. Its mechanics had become more complex, its frequency greatly increased, and it had gained many new skills.
Eivass hoped the Butterfly of Paradox Flames would grow to that extent in the future…
“Shrink first, little butterfly. It’s too hot like this…”
Eivass said softly, “Show me your follower form.”
The Butterfly of Paradox Flames did not reply.
She merely ignited a flame—when the flames completely dissipated, she turned into a real butterfly.
It looked like a dancing falling leaf, or a spark of fire shaped like a butterfly.
It was enveloped in golden-red flames, and it gently fluttered onto Eivass’s palm. Eivass slowly closed his hands, and it neither dodged nor hid. Even when his hands were fully closed, Eivass didn’t feel like he had touched anything or crushed anything.
It was as if it were just an illusion.
It was not hot, but warm.
There will be a second chapter today, which should be finished and posted around 2 PM.
