The Truth of Magic - Chapter 183
183 Ritualistic talent
when he saw andy and four other people suddenly appear in front of him, zhao xu was a little surprised.
Zhao Xu had cast this spell in the final scroll before, and he knew that this spell would only allow the caster to see the specific course of history.
just like when he cast a detection spell, only he, the caster, could see the specific aura.
!!
The fact that they were still able to see this scene was naturally because Reyan had cast an illusion to show what he saw.
Just as Zhao Xu had expected, the five of them finally reached the side of the stream and were about to step on a stone block to cross it when the four young men suddenly looked terrified and knelt down on the ground, unable to move.
as for the man named andy, he had a ferocious expression on his face as he went forward to end his former companions one by one.
One of them was the slightly chubby man who had tried to invite Zhao Xu to visit him, and his father was the Secretary of the Mistra government office. He suddenly started running away with a terrified expression on his face.
However, the other party had only run a few steps before his entire body froze like a statue.
it was as if a binding spell had been cast.
zhao xu couldn’t help but frown when he saw this.
This effect was naturally released by the devil that possessed Andy.
generally, stronger monsters had special abilities, supernatural abilities, and spell-like abilities in addition to their own characteristics.
For example, the blazing God’s servant that Zhao Xu had transformed into before had the ability to cast spells like a level 19 priest, but it also had spell-like abilities.
these spell-like abilities all corresponded to spells of the same name, and even non-wizards could cast them. however, there was a limit to the frequency of use. for example, it could be used at will, once a day, once a year, and so on.
For example, the level 20 pit fiend that Reyan had mentioned before had the ability to cast a spell-like ability, the level 9 spell ” wish. however, it could only be cast once a year.
pit fiends didn’t have the ability to teleport to another world. if they wanted to reach arthur’s main material plane, they could only use the once-a-year wish spell to simulate a teleportation to reach arthur.
However, this also meant that the other party’s main body could only return after a year when the ability of this kind of spell was restored.
this also indicated that the demon that possessed andy had a spell-like ability similar to the immobilization spell.
The lowest level of the immobilization spell was naturally a level two divine spell for priests, and also a level three arcane spell for Wizards, “human immobilization spell. the higher level ones were the level seven arcana “group human hold” and the level nine arcana “group monster hold “.
in the end, andy completed a simple killing ritual and escaped to the other side of the stream with his body covered in blood.
After showing the scene, Reyan had also obtained the information of Andy’s portrait. He cast the level 8 arcane spell ‘position perception’ again on the spot.
When Reyan finished casting his spell, he had a grave expression on his face.
After a while, Reyan raised his eyebrows and looked at Zhao Xu. do you have any speculations? “he asked.
Zhao Xu was deep in thought. the most common demons that have the ability to freeze their targets are the spike demons with a challenge level 11 and the pit fiends with a challenge level 20.
as the devil had maintained andy’s human form from the beginning to the end and did not transform into his original form, it was impossible to judge from his appearance.
“then guess which one?” Reyan continued to ask.
“pit fiend.” zhao xu said with a slightly hesitant expression.
“hmm, congratulations, you’re right. based on the traces left at the scene, as well as the feedback from our people in mystra, the other party is a pit fiend.” reyan laughed.
“and he’s a pit fiend with a pretty high rank. he intentionally killed those four people just now to use a ritual to cover up his tracks.” reyan said.
when he heard this, zhao xu’s eyes also looked past the stream and into the terrifyingly dark depths of the forest.
The shrubbery swayed from time to time in the night breeze, as if the pit fiend was standing there and watching them.
zhao xu’s expression was also very serious.
a devil who could possess a special ritual and even resist detection meant that he was definitely not a nobody in the inferno.
This meant that his opponent was not only at 18HD. He might even have evolved his life dice or had a professional level.
an ordinary pit fiend could cast several kinds of magic abilities at will every day, one of which was the seventh-circle spell, blasphemy, which had a powerful negative effect and an instant death effect.
this spell didn’t take into account the target’s constitution. the effect of the spell was determined by the difference in health dice between the caster and the target.
For example, Zhao Xu was only at Level 3, which meant that he had three Hit Dice, which was 3HD. Compared to his opponent’s Hit Dice, which was at least 18HD, the difference was more than 10HD.
And in blasphemy’s effect, the difference in HD was zero, which meant that the user would be stunned, just like when Zhao Xu used Swift burst earlier.
However, if the difference was more than 10HD, then the player would be killed on the spot. They wouldn’t even be immune to the most basic instant death spell.
so, if zhao xu had rashly gone up to him and tried to reason with him, and if he didn’t try to hide it anymore, he would have been killed instantly with a spell.
they’ve finished collecting information. Should we go over and take a look now? ” Reyan suggested.
Zhao Xu nodded. This wasn’t the crime scene of a famous detective, so he didn’t go ahead and join in the fun.
Before Reyan and the others arrived, he didn’t even take a step forward to avoid being cursed or destroying the scene.
At this moment, Zhao Xu was finally able to get a closer look at Andy, who had been possessed by the demon. He was using the blood of four innocent people to draw a simple ritual circle on the ground.
At this moment, an old-looking middle-aged mage who was a Magic guard who had just been collecting and describing information came forward and was about to give Reyan a brief report of the results of their analysis.
however, reyan waved his hand gently and stopped him from speaking.
“Is this a ritual to counter the prophecy?”
even though zhao xu didn’t recognize the effects of the ritual itself, he was no longer a weakling, so he had a rough idea of the runes and imprints that some of the rituals would use.
for example, the summoning ritual would definitely use runes that involved planes, teleportation, coordinates, and energy transmission.
the ritual in front of him used many runes for detection and positioning. However, this did not mean that it was a prophecy ritual.
on the contrary, the layout of the ceremony was in the style of the fallen star palace, a typical anti-prophecy layout.
“that’s right.” reyan verified zhao xu’s guess.
the wizard who was just about to make his report couldn’t help but look at zhao xu in surprise.
at first, the cloak that zhao xu was wearing had already caught his attention, and when he saw the archbishop’s badge on zhao xu, he didn’t ask any questions.
but now, it seemed that the other party had studied rituals at this age? it was reasonable to say that the mages of mystra didn’t have much knowledge of rituals.
Only a few experienced mages who were dedicated to researching rituals would know a little about this.
Combined with Captain Reyan’s courteous treatment of Zhao Xu, this Magic guard guessed that Zhao Xu was definitely an expert in rituals.
at this moment, zhao xu was staring at the magic circle on the ground and was deep in thought.
then, he took out the magic notebook again. by controlling his consciousness, he copied the simple sketch of the ritual circle in front of him on the notebook.
The magic guard, who recognized the other party’s movements, was shocked. usually, such scenes involving demons and devils were strictly sealed off to prevent the power of demons and devils from leaking out and causing panic.
this was the first time he had seen someone show off like this in so many years. he directly copied the content of the scene in front of rose cross.
reyan noticed his subordinate’s expression, so he explained, ” ” he’s our future team member, so we’ll share the information with him. ”
At this moment, Zhao Xu had already sunk into a state of complete focus. He took out a book, “a detailed guide to a hundred rituals “, which he had borrowed from the library of legends, and turned to one of the pages. It was obvious that he had read it before and felt something in his heart.
zhao xu had stayed up all night to read this book before he followed the book’s recommendation to read teleportation ritual: the journey of heroscia.
In the library of legends, he had stayed up late into the night to read all kinds of rituals. Even his mind was filled with all kinds of ritual symbols flying around.
in fact, this trip to protect those 20 wizards could be considered a relaxing trip for zhao xu.
suddenly, zhao xu’s eyes fell on a certain key point in the ritual. the spell notebook in his hand suddenly started rippling like a calm lake in that position.
Slowly, that position was enlarged on the notebook.
zhao xu knew that the ritual wasn’t complete.
In fact, the ritual did not need to be complete.
It was just that the pit fiends had the ability to make the incomplete ritual work as well, so they had to rely on their own spirituality to make up for the lack of power.
meanwhile, zhao xu was trying to piece together the missing part of the ritual in his mind.
it was like a vase that had broken into ten or so pieces, and zhao xu had to use the remaining half of the broken pieces to visualize the original vase.
Just as he was thinking about this, Zhao Xu’s eyes fell on the body bag that had already been put away.
Suddenly, his heart trembled, and some indescribable thoughts emerged in his body.
“the pit fiend must be hiding around here. the scene of the massacre will be the center of the ritual.”
zhao xu said.
Reyan also looked at him in disbelief.
could it be that this kid had read similar cases before and was deliberately putting on an act to deceive him?
however, reyan immediately denied his own guess.
The files were still hidden in the archive of Rose Cross.
At this moment, Reyan couldn’t help but look at Zhao Xu with a serious expression.