Chapter 210
Sevenfold Sacrifice
The requirements for the Mutilation Ritual were a bit troublesome… but the Ring Heavenly Envoy and the Butterfly Heavenly Envoy were Heavenly Envoys, not Pillar Gods, after all.
The ritual to summon them didn’t require precisely chosen incenses, crystals, or statues for now. It was simply “If you have something to say, say it. Don’t ask if they’re there”—just write down all your requests clearly in one go.
Under Eivass’s command and assistance, Meg chose a circular Large Ritual Array.
She clearly and accurately wrote her request in Elven Language within the inner circle: “I now need to borrow the power of the Butterfly Heavenly Envoy to complete the Mutilation Ritual and resist aging. If you are willing to help me with this, then I will embark on an unceasing Path of Transcendence, and the chosen path of transcendence will be ‘Transcending Self.'”
Then, she drew an inner ritual circle to separate this part of the text from the outer circle.
Afterward, she carved a perfect Ouroboros pattern within it, a symbol like “∞.” In the center of the symbol, a giant floor-length mirror was to be placed, dividing the infinite pattern exactly in half but without severing the outer ritual circle.
Subsequently, on the inner edge of the second ritual circle, outside the ∞, thirty-six Disc names were to be written to serve as witnesses to the ritual. Above each name, a different butterfly or butterfly specimen was to be placed.
Then, following the order of carving the ∞ pattern, starting from the point of origin, seven special items were to be placed along the outer circumference of the symbol.
“—Seven items that can represent your entire life up to this point. They must contain a certain meaning, symbolize your past, and be cherished and loved by you. The more you value them, the higher the success rate of the ritual.”
Eivass reminded her, “It’s best if they are turning points in your life… but the ritual will destroy these items, so you need to be prepared.”
“Yes, I brought them. I specifically went home just to find these things,” Meg sighed, her usually deafeningly loud voice reduced to a normal conversational tone.
Her words also became much clearer: “Fortunately, I’m sentimental about the past, so I didn’t throw those things away…”
As she spoke, she walked to the outside of the ritual. From the bag she carried, she took out the items one by one.
“I can’t find the earliest things anymore. They might have been lost during a few house moves.”
Meg said with a hint of nostalgia, “This is the earliest thing I could find…”
As she spoke, she took out a slightly tarnished but not overtly rusted pocket watch made of copper.
“What is this?” Eivass asked somewhat doubtfully.
“…This should count as my first love.”
Meg sighed, “Unlike you, I wasn’t born on Glass Island. I grew up in a small village and only moved to town in high school.”
It sounded a bit like Senior Haina, Eivass thought.
She had also gone to town in middle school, having lived in Eagle Cape Village before that.
“After I graduated, I was accepted into Royal Law University. My boyfriend at the time gave me a pocket watch. His grandfather was a watchmaker. He gave it to him as a gift, and he gave it to me.”
“‘Watches must be very expensive on Glass Island…’ But when I arrived on Glass Island, I found that there were clock towers everywhere.”
Meg said softly, placing it at the starting point.
“It represents me leaving the place where I was born, leaving those who loved me, and coming to Glass Island alone.”
The old woman’s gaze softened, and her voice became as steady and gentle as a normal elderly person’s.
The second item was her graduation certificate from Royal Law University.
Seeing Eivass’s curious gaze, Meg generously opened the certificate for him to see.
Department of Personal Tactics, School of Public Order and Law, Major in Inspection.
Meg. Graduated in 1828.
This was the first time Eivass had learned Ms. Meg’s real name—he had just realized that Meg wasn’t her surname, but her given name.
It was now 1898, meaning… this was a diploma from seventy years ago. At that time, Her Majesty the Queen might still have been babbling.
Could Ms. Meg be close to ninety years old now?
She looked so young and vibrant, yet she was over a decade older than Her Majesty the Queen, who was lying in her sickbed…
The third item was a beautiful pure gold ring inlaid with a fingernail-sized sliver of ruby.
“This is my wedding ring… it’s also a supernatural item that can quickly heal injuries,” Meg said softly. “It’s also the last thing my husband left me.”
“When we got married, we had nothing. But he said he had to give me something to prove our relationship… so he gave me his best supernatural item.”
“Sometimes I wonder… did they fail to slay the dragon because they lacked this ring? I often couldn’t sleep, and when I did sleep, it was nightmares. Sometimes, when I was alone, I cried like a little girl. Looking back now, it’s truly nostalgic.”
“I was twenty-five then. I was widowed on the first day of our marriage.”
The fourth item was a broken sword in an Elven style. Eivass recognized at a glance that it was identical to Senior Haina’s sword.
The fifth item was a collar. The outer circumference of the collar was inscribed with “Herb. Danai.”
“This is my Gryphon’s collar. It symbolizes my joining and leaving the Inspection Bureau,” Meg said softly. “|After its death in service, I refused the honor of receiving a medal and becoming a Knight, and left the Inspection Bureau… I went to the Court of Justice. After all, although I am not a true Law Master, I can still use Law Spells. And I’m much better at it than a freshly graduated university student.”
“At this point, I was thirty-six years old. I thought that the most glorious, healthiest, and strongest period of my life was over, and what remained was just a slow burnout. Like a cigarette, I had reached the butt. If I didn’t throw it away, it would burn my fingers.”
“I was lost for a long time, but in the end, I believed… everything I had experienced was because I wasn’t strong enough.”
“If I were strong enough, he wouldn’t have died; if I were strong enough, Herb wouldn’t have died. So I…”
She chuckled at this point and said honestly, “I used my position to sneak a peek at the Grimoire.”
“It was very dangerous, and I nearly died several times. But I always felt that even if I died on the path of pursuing the Way, it would be better than rotting away in the archives. So I persevered in the end.”
The sixth item was a green dragon scale.
It was emerald green and pure, like jade, but somewhat withered, resembling a sliced and dried melon rind.
“This is proof that I slew a dragon. That year, I was 45.”
And the last item—
Meg took off her necklace.
It was an incredibly ordinary-looking silver necklace, simply hanging an Avalon triangular pendant.
“I originally wanted to become a Grand Guardian. But the Grand Guardian needs their own Gryphon, otherwise, it’s hard to get to the scene immediately. And my personality is restless, I can’t sit still, it’s not suitable for peeking into the mirror daily with Avalon’s Eye… So, eventually, I became the Grand Arbitrator.”
“And after I succeeded as Grand Arbitrator, Sophia gave me this gift. It looks very similar to Avalon’s Eye, and its most precious aspect is…”
At this point, Meg paused slightly, “It was personally crafted by Sophia.”
She placed the last item in the final position of the infinite ring. It also abutted the first position.
Finally, Meg stood steadily within one of the circles of the ∞ symbol, looked at herself in the mirror, and cut open her wrists, letting her blood stain the ∞-shaped groove.
As the blood flowed slowly from the groove and filled it, Eivass, standing outside the ritual circle, began to chant the ritual:
“Sacrificing seven memories, farewell to the past!
“We respectfully invite the Ring Heavenly Envoy, the Ouroboros Heavenly Envoy, the Infinite Heavenly Envoy to descend—”
As Eivass chanted, the seven items were ignited one by one, turning into seven balls of ethereal purple flames.
They flew up, each cluster disappearing into the mirror, forming a circular pattern. When the last ball of fire disappeared into the mirror, the mirror turned purple, and Meg and the flames within vanished.
In a deep purple ocean, a giant, eternal ring of gold and black appeared.
From this side, it seemed stationary. But if one focused on a single point, they could see it constantly rotating.
Then Meg began to state her request, “I pray for the power to shed and ascend, for the miracle of rebirth!
“I will Transcend Self, and my steps will never cease—”
After she finished, the Elven script sandwiched between the two ritual circles lit up, emitting a faint glow.
Immediately afterward, the colossal Ouroboros made a rumbling sound and changed—it twisted its body, also forming an ∞-like pattern.
Meg felt a searing pain on her tongue. The ∞ symbol was branded onto her tongue, signifying the contract was sealed.
The power of the Ring Heavenly Envoy surged from the mirror, and the blood on the ground turned into a purple, transparent liquid. On the other side of the mirror, in the other circle of the ∞ pattern, the liquids surged and formed a giant egg.
At this moment, Eivass continued his chant appropriately, “We respectfully invite the Butterfly Heavenly Envoy!
“The Heavenly Envoy of Transformation and Appearance, the Heavenly Envoy of Old Death and New Life—”
The second chapter will be around 2 AM, meow~
