A Sorcerer's Journey - Chapter 68
Chapter 68: A Hoax
Bump!
The little girl kneeled suddenly, followed by Violent Bear and the other knights. Grimm had disguised himself as Cobra, so he also dropped to his knees.
“Devil Lord. I’d like to give you 100 souls in the hope that you’ll pull off your sorcery and conceal my energy waves. This way, your most loyal servant would be able to collect more souls,” the little girl stuttered in a respectful voice as if to say she’d dedicate everything to the Devil Lord. Afterwards, the girl threw the several black stones she had gathered into the mirror.
The mirror rippled like fluid mercury, and ten minutes later, these stones had merged into it.
“Nice tribute! Your wish will be realized then!” The Devil Lord sounded delighted.
As the Lord’s voice died away, a pure, wondrous energy appeared around the little girl and started flowing into her body slowly.
The girl became ecstatic and intoxicated. She couldn’t help but murmur something, her face blushing.
A short while later, the negative energy circling the girl had been hidden, at least hidden perfectly in the eyes of Grimm, who was a sorcerer student.
“Thank you Devil Lord for such a generous award!”
The girl looked down, and confirmed the absence of her negative energy. She then kneeled again before the Devil Lord in the mirror.
As Grimm followed suit and fell on his knees again, he was quickly analyzing what this so-called Devil Lord was.
Actually, he was just a creature residing in a foreign world. Through some unknown means, he had connected to the sorcerer world and had been instigating these innocent children here to collect human souls, which seemed to be the unique properties of the sorcerer world to him.
This scene reminded Grimm of a legendary novel he had once read in his childhood.
In the book, these devils seduced humans to commit sins by promising them great power in return; these humans ended up with their souls being eaten by the devils. And the process involved the important ‘Devil Pact’.
At the time, Grimm felt perplexed about what to do next. He thought:
‘This foreign world creature is powerful to have imposed his will on the sorcerer world. But this will transfer has been hindered somewhat by world’s physical forces, and it’s hard for him to even pick up a few stones. Apparently, this Devil’s projected will can’t exercise much power, neither can the black sorcerer guards. Then, should I do something now?’
Grimm hesitated for a long time and finally gave up on this idea.
On one hand, it was Grimm’s first time encountering a foreign land creature carrying out his will in the sorcerer world, the process of which he had little knowledge about. So, rash actions would not be suggested since it was unclear how the Lord had achieved this transfer.
On the other, what would Grimm get even if he targeted the Devil Lord? What he would gain might be negatively proportioned to what he would have to pay.
In effect, Grimm had a better choice to go with. He had decided to leave this complex matter to his mentor Peranos after returning to Black Isotta. This, in his opinion, was beyond a student’s ability to deal with!
Having thought about this, Grimm caught up to the little girl, who was on her way out of the hall.
Suddenly, something happened.
“Wait!”
Devil Lord in the mirror made a strange sound. The group turned about and found his blue eyes were glowing brighter and were dwelling on “Cobra”. He seemed to have discovered something special in him.
“You! Yes, you! Your soul’s life information is different. Come closer!” In his rapturous voice, Devil Lord urged Grimm to come forward to him.
“Me?” replied Grimm with astonishment.
“Hurry up, go!” The little girl looked excited and urged, “The Devil Lord wants you. This is an honor thousands of people have been crying for!”
The girl pushed the already stunned “Cobra” forward, and Grimm was now facing the mirror less than a meter away.
A deafening sound was heard as if a fire had gone off and then it went silent. A short while later, a delighted voice said, “A fantastic soul! A great soul!”
The Devil Lord then continued his murmuring with the kind of excitement that could only be seen when a gourmet had tasted some rare delicacy or a lecher had come across a gorgeous beauty.
Meanwhile, amazement filled Grimm’s eyes. He seemed to have discovered something special about Devil Lord, too. Desires were burning in Grimm’s mind, and even with his ability to conceal feelings, his face was displaying great possessiveness.
“A motivator! It would work perfectly to activate my Fire Element Sorcery Matrix. It matches so wonderfully. This is simply a miracle! I’m gonna get it from this foreign land creature. I’m definitely gonna get it!” Grimm had gone frenzied. For him, this creature was now a treasure!
If it had not been the fact that Grimm didn’t have sufficient power, he’d absolutely capture this element creature right now and throw him into his lab at all costs, even if the cost would be to invade this creature’s world.
The next moment, these two people who harbored evil ideas exchanged eye contact.
The Devil Lord initiated a conversation. “Are you craving for greater power? With it, you could readily destroy those who have bullied you!”
Grimm was exalted on hearing this. It was the exact words that had been used by the devils in the book to seduce people, and now it was being used in reality.
Bump!
Grimm prostrated on the ground. He then crawled slowly towards the screen, displaying repulsive desires and yearning on his face, as the loyal servants depicted in the biographical novels would do.
As Grimm had arrived at the mirror, he cried, “I am! I want power! I do. Dear Devil Lord, can you teach me how to gain great power?”
Grimm’s mimicry was vivid. He looked a lot like the novel heroes who were mad about greater power.
The Devil Lord seemed to have expected this, and his soul waved pleasantly.
“Give me your soul when you die, and I will pass on to you the great power! My disciples tell me that your world is ruled by a class composed of arrogant sorcerers, isn’t it? I don’t know how exactly their power is graded, but the power I’m giving you is no weaker than the power of a corresponding sorcerer level.”
The Devil Lord continued with his seduction.
“No weaker than sorcerers’ power level? Knowing so little about the sorcerer world? Fearless is indeed based on ignorance!” Grimm became relieved now.
Grimm maintained his debased expressions and said gratefully, “What’s the use of my soul if I’m dead? I’m willing to give you my soul, but how can I deliver it to you?”
Grimm kept on his longing, excited expressions, and a voice was roaring in his head. “Say the Devil Pact! Say the words!”
“You’ll be all set once you sign the Devil Pact.” A thrilled voice came off from the screen.
Grimm was contented on hearing the Devil Lord say the word “pact” as he had expected.
For the next half an hourglass, the mirror was in a constant flux, like flowing mercury. A leather paper belonging to some unknown creature was squeezing its way out of the mirror, and it should be the Devil Pact depicted in those legendary stories.
In biographical novels, all signers of the Devil Pact would gain great power in a short period of time, but would end up with horrible deaths, and after that, their souls would be served as food for these devils.
All in all, this pact was a miraculous, yet cursed item, and had been commonly used by the villains.
The moment this pact finally broke off from the mirror, Grimm caught sight of a ball of black flame throbbing on it. Grimm guessed that it was its blood, tantamount to humans’.
“Sign this pact, and you’ll…”
Before the Devil Lord had finished talking, a loud sound thundered, and immediately, sounds of glass shattering were heard at every corner of the hall.
Everybody—the little girl, the knights, and the guards who had come to check what was going on— were all shocked to their very core. The next moment, they rubbed their eyes and squinted at the broken pieces of the huge mirror.
They then shifted their gaze to Grimm. They had no idea why this lucky guy—being favored by Devil Lord—would do such a thing as break the mirror. At one point, they thought they had been under an illusion.
Grimm retracted his fist and picked up the pack on the ground.
At this time, a strong energy wave came off from the shattered pieces, and then, an angry voice thundered, “What have you done?! Don’t you want power?!”
Grimm snorted. “You stupid foreign land creature! You know nothing about sorcerers’ power! How dare you collect innocent humans’ souls in the sorcerer world! I’ll report this to my mentor!”
“You sinister, insidious human! You’ve just deceived the Dark Destroyer Infernal God! I’ve memorized your soul’s life information and the coordinates of your world. I’ll invade it and find you. Your soul would be then enclosed in the foul, squalid pig’s belly forever. And I’ ll…”
The Dark Destroyer Infernal God’s roar coming from the broken mirror was discontinued suddenly. Without the mirror, his will transfer couldn’t be sustained for long.
“An invasion against the sorcerer World?” Grimm laughed boisterously, wondering which remote place did this ignorant fool come from.
In the bigger, endless world, there should be civilizations capable of invading the sorcerer world. However, it had merely encountered two civilizations in its history, let alone one that was powerful enough to invade!
Since this Lord was able to project his will onto the sorcerer world, it could be concluded that his world was not that far away. But there were definitely no other civilizations around the sorcerer world. Otherwise, there would be no peace.
Besides, the sorcerer world was always the initiator of an invasion, not vice versa!
However, the Dark Destroyer Infernal God’s remarks did remind Grimm of something. He picked up a piece of the broken glass and stuck it into his robe.
‘Perhaps, his world’s coordinates might have been recorded in this,’ Grimm thought.
With a loud crash, Grimm had produced the Eternal Flame for his protection and rushed out of this underground palace.
The constitution-building mission was now over.
