Chapter 154 Ritual And Sacrifice

Evening, same day, demon-controlled territory at the Human Continent, 8th Floor of the Tower.

It didn't take long for Samiel and Yvriane to arrive at the demon-controlled territory of the Human Continent. From then, they headed towards the Southern Area of the Human Continent because, in the south, the biggest cities of the Human Brotherhood were located.

And thus, they were chosen by Samiel to be his target in carrying out the ritual to create Eldritch Spawns. The journey would take several hours at best, and Samiel took with him the scouting cat Nefertari because she could prove herself t be very useful this time.

During the time he was carrying out the ritual, she would be scouting the area, in case the city he chose was to be approached by another part and disrupt the ritual. While presently, his cat familiar was enjoying being carried in his arms because she was too lazy to fly and not to mention about walking.

She was pretty much a spoiled cat, but Samiel liked to hold her, especially when she was cuddly and all licky. During that time, they were walking by foot through the territories controlled by the Demon territories and, subsequently, the Human controlled ones; they were talking about some things, mainly just casually chatting about some things.

From time to time, Samiel talked about his time on Earth; for some reason, Yvraine was pretty interested in his time on Earth, something which Samiel didn't really much understand because he never had many good memories about that world.

"How far are we from the targetted destination?"

Yvraine asked after both of them were already walking for several hours; clearly, she was already becoming bored as hell from the journey because they were just endlessly walking or running, depending on the terrain and conditions.

"Qririth should be around three hours away if we are running at our top speed."

Samiel stated that both of them were at the Bronze-Tier, though Yvraine was higher Level-wise, Samiel was stronger overall. Still, if both of them were going at their top speed, they could reach their destination, which was Qririth, within three and a half hours, probably.

Samiel chose the city for specific purposes. Mainly because it wasn't that deep in the Human controlled territory, and yet at the same time, it was a huge city, with a population numbering of several million because it was a city designated for living.

And most importantly, there were not any significant protections around the city. From the information he bought from The Guild, there were only some basic wards, and of course, because he was conducting a ritual, the garrison troops were not of his concern because they lacked any skilled Magic Caster.

"This city is one of the best places to carry out the Spawn Creation ritual because there are not any significant magical defenses around the city itself. The Human Brotherhood didn't have enough resources to create protective wards around all of their holds, so they prioritized their Fortresses, Regional Capitals, Industrial and Military Cities. In contrast, residential cities got only some superficial wards that could be deactivated by me with little to no effort."

Samiel explained why he had chosen the Qririth as his preferred destination to take the vacation and create a few Eldritch Spawns. The wards that were around the Qririth were so simple that even Samiel, who had just started grasping the Basics of the Warding Magic, and in truth, wasn't even Basic Magician in the Warding Magic, could deactivate, as they were really only some superficial ones and at the same time were of really poor quality.

"And with the lack of Caster-oriented Professions or people adept in Magic, they won't spend those they have to protect some city where, technically speaking, nothing of eye-catching significant isn't yet their most important resource is, though that itself is for discussion."

Yvraine finished as he caught up on where he was going with his train of thoughts. With the current state of the Human Brotherhood, they stood in front of choice, and they chose to protect the things that were crucial for the war effort.

And while the population was the backbone of any nation; it was very questionable if they managed to survive at all, so their choices on what to defend and how were totally understandable. Soon enough, after several hours of walking, they finally saw the panorama of Qririth City, which was an enormous city on its own.

Its population was around several million, and it was considered one of the biggest residential cities across the Human Continent. Right now, Samiel had much work to do because the city was much bigger than he initially thought, and he needed to at first deactivate the wards and then lay the ritual.

"Now come on, lazy cat... go and scout the city for me."

Samiel stated theatrically as he literarily threw out Nefertari like a bird, as she flapped her wings in anger and screeched at Samiel for ruining her nap. Unfortunately for her, there was nothing she could do about this, as her master commanded, and she wanted a lot of food from him.

And thus, Nefertari flew high above the Qririth and scouted the area just as her master instructed. While she was grumpy about being thrown out from the comfortable embrace, she knew that after completing the task, she would get a lot of snacks from her master, so she was eager to finish the task.

She saw that there were not many guards aside from the standardized City Guard that was present in each city, and she of course, focused on searching Wizards, Sorcerers or Warlocks, basically the Casters who could prove to be difficult, but as per her master's predictions, there were none.

So after the next ten minutes, after her scouting role was properly finished, and she collected all the valuable information perfectly. Then she returned back to her master, as she landed on his shoulder and started speaking with him through their telepathic connection.

'Hooman, there are only a few hundred of Guards, with the strongest being Bronze-Tier Captains. None of the Casters or any people whom I would sense to be a threat to the ritual itself. There are only some very inferior Basic Wards in the place, with Wardstones being placed in three Guardian Towards together, creating a triangular shape.'

Nefertari reported while Samiel scratched her behind her ears, as she purred loudly, enjoying her master's attention, while Samiel then looked at the Qririth while squinting his eyes.

"We need to disable the Wards at first... there are only Basic Wards in the place, according to Nefertari, and three Wardstones located in the three Guardian Towers across the city."

It was a pretty smart move to place the Wardstone at the Guardian Towers of the City Guard because they would be places that are hardly reachable for most people, but fortunately for Samiel, it wasn't that much of a problem.

"Or we could probably use them to our advantage in the end."

Smaiel then contemplated, as he instantly remembered the one passage that he read in the book about the Basics of the Warding Magic that he got his hands on through Hall Master Menuhyutt Faulhaber.

"Do you mean reprogramming the Wards?"

Yvraine immediately caught on, as she was knowledgeable about many things, and she knew that Wards could be reprogrammed. It wasn't that hard if someone knew the exact procedure on how the reprogram Wards.

"Yes, from what Nefertari reported to me, the Wards are only some very basic ones, mainly the screening Wards and that's all. But, the Wardstones itself could be used as means to amplify the ritual effects. Also, their location in the Guardian Towers, which are relatively high, would right now only play to our advantage."

Samiel explained and Yvraine agreed with his reasoning and plan because this would greatly help the ritual. Not only would it strengthen the ritual itself because the Wardstones are powerful magical conducts, which are known to amplify any spells and mana, but Samiel also calculated the strengthening effect to be exactly 37,89% through the Architect's calculations.

Of course, another great benefit was that it would help to ensure that the ritual was safely carried out, and naturally, safely for Samiel, Yvraine and Nefertari, because if the ritual is disrupted, then the magical reaction would be extremely destructive and dangerous.

"Then, should we start?"

Samiel asked, as they then proceeded to sneak into the city. Fortunately, the screening wards that were laid through the city were trash and wouldn't be able to see through the Samiel's and Yvraien's means of concealing themselves, as they did it through Nefertari's Level 2 Ability Mirage.

They arrive at the first Guardian Tower within ten minutes, and due to a lack of people guarding the Towers or any kinds of defenses that would be able to stop them, be it magical or physical ones, they were able easily to enter the top of the first Guardian Tower where the Wardstone was placed.

"Now, let's check it up."

Samiel stated as he cast some spells on the Warstone; they were mainly the analyzing spells that soon enough transmitted all information to Samiel's mind as he frowned a little, thinking about the next course of action.

"The Wardstones are already tied to someone, probably to the City Lord... but the good news is that the person who was doing the binding, this is sloppily, and the connection is highly unstable, so I can probably break it, without damaging the Wards, while at the same time, the City Lord would suffer the backslash and it will take them some time, they realize it is due to the connection with the Wards was broken."

Samiel stated rather uncertainly because the probability of him breaking the Wards was 79,98%, so that was relatively high, but Samiel saw there was more than 20% chance of the procedure failing, so he was relatively cautious about this.

Yet, he conjured the Mana Strings and put his right hand directly at the Wardstone, and started breaking up the connection with the subtle usage of the Man Strings that were destroying the Runic Matrix, which was establishing the connection between the City Lord of Qririth and the Wardstone.

Samiel was carefully destroying the runic matrix all around until the Runic Matrix all around the Wardstone was destroyed, but of course, this was only one of three, and only after all three of them are destroyed would Samiel be able to sever the binding of the Wards to the City Lord of Qririth and use the Wardstone for his own purpose.

"Now we have one, two more to go."

He stated as Nefertari yawned, signaling everybody that she was sleepy and wanted to eat something before she went to sleep. Thus Samiel took out some snacks from his Dimensional Ring that he already had prepared for her and passed it to the Elder Wampus Cat, who took her rightful place on his shoulder.

Then they departed from the Guardian Tower and went to another one. The second one has located a good distance across the entire city, but fortunately, Samiel compensated for it with speed; he dissolved the Runic Matrix that was binding the Wardstones to the City Lord of Qririth.

And the third one was done even faster than the second one, as within one hour, all three of the Guardian Towers were done, and the Wardstones were now free for Samiel to use as he saw fit. When he was done with the thing, he activated the Rune, which he left engraved on all of the three Wardstones as he brought them under his control, and he started preparing the things he needed for the ritual around the third Wardstone.

Around each Wardstone, Samiel drew out on the ground and all around the room, a very complex Magic Circle, all writing in the R'Lyehian to build a foundation for the ritual to create Eldritch Spawns.

After the Magic Circle was done, he bit his finger and dropped a sole drop of his blood onto the Wardstone, as the Wardstone rapidly changed color from its previous average-looking stone color to crimson red, similar to that of the deepest shade of blood.

"Okey, it is ready; we need to leave the Qririth and activate the ritual from a safe distance, as this place will become a mess within the next half an hour or so."

Samiel stated that when the ritual was activated, then it would sweep everything that had Lifeforce in the diameter of the entire Qririth, and for sure, they wouldn't wish to be caught up there. If such an outcome happened, Samiel may be okey... probably because his heritage would protect him from the effects, but Yvraine and Nefertari would for sure die because this ritual was designated to reap all life, aside from that, which has Eldritch origin.

They left the Qririth unseen, as after several minutes when they left, the City Lord's Mansion was in a panic, because apparently, the City Lord had died from a heart attack. Samiel knew that if they called experienced Caster, he would be able to tell that he died from the magical backslash, but to the untrained eye, the symptoms of the Magical Backslash sometimes may not differ from that of the heart attack.

And Samiel doubted that the brutish Battle Mages that they had in the Qririth's City Guard would be able o recognize it at first glance and would probably need a lot more time in finding the real cause of death.

If one was dividing the Mages, be it Sorcerers, Wizards, Warlocks or Arcansits based on their usage and approach of the Magic, they could be easily differentiated through the terms of "Battle Mage" and "Scholar Mage".

Battle Mages were people of the Sorcerer, Wizard, Warlock or Arcanist Professions who used Magic mainly to fight, not like they understood it properly. Many looked at them like Warriors who had canes, wands, staff, staves or other precious artifacts instead of swords and spears.

Scholar Mages, while the name may be confusing, were not only people who had a very deep understanding of Magic but also innovated and invented new spells and so on. Due to this, they were incredibly powerful because they understood the fundamental principles of Magic itself, something that the Battle Mages never grasped.