Night Owl was still a bit absentminded today. Even the miraculous Teleportation Portal couldn’t pique his interest. Because of what happened last night, he was feeling rather frustrated.
Saphire finally agreed to help him contact a powerful Demon God, but summoning this Demon God was no easy task. Saphire first taught him an extrely complex Array, which Night Owl took so effort to morize. During the drawing process, the Summoning Ritual failed due to various incorrect strengths.
When the Magic Array finally succeeded, there were problems during the ditation communication. No matter how hard he tried, ditation couldn’t succeed, let alone contacting the Hell Dinsion.
Saphire repeatedly emphasized that he needed to concentrate. Night Owl swore he was truly concentrating, but apart from so "buzzing" noise, he heard nothing else.
If there were no sounds at all, Night Owl might suspect a problem with the thod. But when he focused to the extre, he indeed heard echoes from Hell, and even vaguely saw scenes of Hell. Yet he just couldn’t establish contact with the powerful beings in the Hell Dinsion.
Faced with such a situation, Saphire began to suspect that he might not be suited to contract this Demon God. Because only those without talent would repeatedly summon and ditate but not receive any response.
No talent? How could it be! Night Owl was almost exploding with anger. He was the most evil among all the Batn, how could he possibly not have talent?!
But sotis he would feel guilty too. Saphire also told him: Evil was just one standard, or rather a basic standard. And evil cos in many forms, whether his kind matches the taste of Hell’s Master is also hard to say.
Night Owl was extrely unwilling to accept this. If he hadn’t witnessed the power of Hell’s Master firsthand, it might have been different. But the powerful image of phisto appearing in the Magic Forest left a very deep impression on him. Even the Supre Magician had to personally intervene to expel his avatar. How powerful would his true form be?
Night Owl had repeatedly lost against the Primary Universe Batman. What he wanted most now was to redeem himself, preferably by stepping firmly on the Primary Universe Batman’s head. He could already imagine it: the Primary Universe Batman only contracted an ordinary Minor Demon, while he beca the Angel Envoy of Hell’s Master and then publicly crushed the Primary Universe Batman in front of all the Batn.
Moreover, he had another sense of crisis. Although he was very evil, Arkham Batman’s coldness and cruelty were not beneath him. If he didn’t seize this opportunity, Hell’s Master might not choose him. He must act fast to reverse the current situation.
So even if Saphire hinted at him to "not put all his eggs in one basket," Night Owl refused to believe it. But the more he refused to believe, the less progress he made. Now he was both angry and doubting life.
Little did Night Owl know, Shiller had long conspired with phisto. As long as phisto didn’t respond, he would never hear an answer in his lifeti.
Night Owl had calculated everything but didn’t account for the fact that the inability to contact phisto wasn’t his fault, but phisto’s. If he had switched to another Demon God, perhaps he wouldn’t have been so miserable.
But actually, it wouldn’t work either because the magical school was isolated from the outside world. The students inside had no way to contact any external Demon Gods and could only choose from the few within the school. Under Shiller’s constant temptation and hints, Night Owl evidently planned to hang himself on this tree.
If he were a bit more rational and thought beyond the current situation, he would realize: all the mages in the school who could use magic had contractual objects. If Saphire’s recomndation of phisto didn’t work, then why not ask other professors for recomndations?
Other Batn had already started doing so. Since they completed the grade leap and began teaching contract-related content, the Batn had been openly and secretly inquiring about which Demon God each professor had contracted. They heard so nas, like Great Shadow Xeseon, Dark Lord Dormammu, Lord of the Crimson Dinsion Setorak, Trinity Vishanti, and so on.
Though they all didn’t sound very righteous, the professors also emphasized: what kind of character a Demon God has and what kind of character you have are two different things. Even if you contracted the Dark Lord, you could still use this energy to do good. At most, this power is more suited for fighting than healing. But isn’t fighting evil also promoting justice?
After various professors’ introductions, the popular Demon Gods were Great Shadow Xeseon and Trinity Vishanti. Great Shadow was favored because Professor Wanda guaranteed he wouldn’t go astray, and Vishanti was popular because it was the contract object of The Ancient One, the previous — and historically strongest — Supre Magician.
As for phisto, he wasn’t very popular among the Batn. Because he was a well-known mythical figure, the Batn usually avoided such roles.
But the more it was this way, the more Night Owl wanted to contract phisto to prove himself. The more anxious he beca, the less phisto responded. After a few days of this, he finally fainted in one of the classes.
Actually, it couldn’t exactly be said he fainted from anger. His rib injury hadn’t healed completely before, and then he went out to take exams, attend classes during the day, and train extra at night. The fact that he lasted until now was proof of his extraordinary talent.
But this incident turned out to be a blessing in disguise. During his coma, Night Owl vaguely heard a voice calling his na. He saw Hell’s flas, the charred ashes, the cries and wails of living beings, and those blood-red eyes deep in Hell.
Night Owl suddenly sat up. At the mont he opened his eyes, both his whites and pupils were covered in blood-red. Yet he seed oblivious and weakly collapsed back onto the bed.
A pair of hands waved in front of him.
"Are you okay?" Schiller’s voice rang in his ears.
Night Owl’s eyes snapped wide open, but the recent experience felt like a dream. The only difference was that the injury on his chest no longer hurt. Yet he couldn’t be sure if it was because Schiller had given him painkillers or if sothing truly extraordinary had happened.
"You..." Night Owl had just said one word when he realized his throat was extrely hoarse. Shiller poured him a glass of water. Night Owl drank a full glass, and felt much better.
But soon he realized his throat was very painful. No matter what he said, there was a burning sensation. And whenever his attention waned, hellish visions flashed before his eyes.
Although Night Owl was not afraid of those scenes of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, their constant appearance did affect his ntal state. He sat there, drinking two or three glasses of water, still unable to relieve the symptoms in his throat.
Shiller examined him and then shook his head, saying, "Your throat isn’t inflad. I suspect this might be a physical manifestation of anxiety. Should I prescribe so dication to soothe your mind?"
Night Owl was about to nod, then realized and shook his head vigorously, saying, "No need."
He knew that the so-called ntal soothing was just to make him sleepy and go to bed. But he couldn’t sleep now; he needed to concentrate and figure out what was happening.
That night, even though Night Owl felt weak all over and his throat still hurt, he persisted in going to the Magic Forest and t Saphire, explaining his situation.
"It seems I should congratulate you." Shiller said coldly, "He now has another loyal servant."
"Are you saying I’ve completed the contract?"
"Not yet. You’ve only contacted Morpheus, but you must pass his test."
"Test?"
"Yes, didn’t you say your throat hurts? I also experienced this when I first made the contract with him. It’s the result of his power gradually manifesting in you. If you can’t endure it, you won’t be able to accept more power."
Shiller wasn’t making things up. Mages do experience such symptoms: when first contracting a Demon God, the power’s attributes manifest in them. For instance, powers with fire and ash attributes make them very parched, while ice attributes make them feel cold. This is actually because the human body isn’t adapted to this foreign energy, resulting in an immune response that typically resolves in two or three days.
Now, due to the spiritual energy recovery of the Nine Major Kingdoms, this doesn’t usually happen. But there are exceptions: when both parties are novices—a human contracting a Demon God for the first ti and vice versa, it’s easy to mishandle the control.
But Morpheus doesn’t have these problems. The symptoms on Night Owl are purely Morpheus ssing with him.
"What should I do next?" Night Owl asked.
"Ignore these unpleasant symptoms and continue attempting to ditate and contact him until you can hear a complete sentence, then ask him for strength."
Shiller wasn’t deceiving him. For a period, humans contracted Demon Gods this way, though it was roughly during the tribal era. Even the Middle Ages were more civilized compared to this.
Night Owl had no choice but to endure the discomfort and continue attempting to contact Morpheus. Occasionally, Morpheus responded with a word or two, but it was always fragnted. Night Owl didn’t gain any power from him.
Until Shiller heard from Stark that the Primary Universe Batman and his group had made a breakthrough in the study of magic energy compression. They seed to have delved deeply into the suspension ring, gaining inspiration from its construction, compressing the magic energy in gemstones to the extre, turning the gemstones into very dangerous magic bombs.
Since it already looked dangerous, and Stark’s ch showed that its energy readings seed even more dangerous, no one dared to detonate it in a test, only able to speculate on its considerable power based on principles.
That night, Night Owl suddenly heard soone calling his na in a dream. This ti, he finally heard the voice clearly and could communicate with the other party.
"Who are you?" Night Owl asked, suppressing his excitent.
"I am Morpheus, Lord of the Hell Dinsion. Why do you call upon ?"
"Great Morpheus, I need power!" Night Owl gritted his teeth, "I need the strength to put them all under my feet!"
"I admire your anger and greed. Sign a contract with , beco my envoy—bring hellfire to the World!"
User Comments
0 comments from readers