Chapter 76: "Catalyst"

Chapter 76: "Catalyst"

I guess it's about time.

The destination of the stairs was a large space.

There are... signs of people. There were about six of them.

Without entering the space, I quietly peeked out from behind the stairs.

There were five black robes, which I have become familiar with recently... and what was that?

He is around 5 meters tall, I guess. His skin is pitch black and he has wings on his back.

Unlike the last time I saw it, its head is shaped more like a human's...and its chest is covered with human hair.

The head is almost human-like...and the upper body of a human grows out of the chest.

The rest of them are in ordinary black robes. One of them was carrying a strange, large iron cage-like object, but other than that, there was nothing of interest.

I wonder what's going on.

The demon seems to be well-controlled, so it seems to be tougher than the one I saw last time.

...I remember that demons can be killed by pulling out a magic stone from somewhere in their body, right?

I knew about that from the information I pulled out of Fatima.

What is needed to summon a demon....

A human being to serve as a catalyst.

A magic circle to summon the demon.

A magical stone as the core.

The quality of the catalyst depends on what Fatima calls "karma."

I looked into my memory and couldn't understand it at all, but it seems that sinners and people who have done many evil deeds have a lot of karma. It is literally karma.

Liard had also studied the subject, but her understanding of the subject was limited.

I found something similar in the knowledge of the Temple Knights.

It's part of the basic Gnostic philosophy.

Gnosis.

The basis of its teaching is "spirit" and "body."

The spirit is the pure essence of a person, and the body is the cradle in which the spirit is nurtured.

Now, how to nurture the spirit is "knowledge"...in short, it seems to be nurtured by learning.

It is not enough to know everything, but by accumulating "correct knowledge," according to them, "knowledge" is sublimated into "spiritual knowledge" and becomes nourishment to nurture the spirit.

On the other hand, if you accumulate "incorrect knowledge," your spirit will be defiled and corrupted.

In other words, "If you do good things, you will go to heaven, and if you do bad things, you will go to hell."

To be honest, if it were in Japan, I would just dismiss it with a "hmmm," but this is a world where unscientific occultism such as magic is very prevalent. It would be better to take it seriously to some extent.

...I've been saying "it seems" a lot since then, but even if I look into my memory, I can't come up with any proof.

I wonder why Gnostic people believe in it without any doubts, but I guess it's just the way it is, considering it's been imprinted on their minds since long ago. I was satisfied with that.

From here on, in my opinion, the "spirit" is the same as the "soul" that I am aware of.

However, I don't understand how the soul is affected by "spiritual knowledge" and "corruption".

I'm sure there will be opportunities to touch the soul in the future, so this is something that needs to be examined.

I digress a little, but I would say that a person suitable for a catalyst is a person with karma...a "corrupted" soul in the Gnostic sense of the word.

I have a feeling there's more to it than that, but I can't say at this point.

If I could take away the memories of those black robes, I might be able to find out something, but it will be difficult.

Next, the magic circle.

This one is easy to understand. All you have to do is write a combination of specific shapes and letters in a circle.

The size of the circle is proportional to the number of catalysts, and if multiple people are to be sacrificed, the size must be commensurate with the number of catalysts.Gét latest novel chapters on nov(e)lbj/n(.)c/om

Finally, the magic stone, which is the core.

It is necessary to fix the invoked demon, and without it, the demon cannot maintain its form even if it is invoked.

It seems that the quality of this stone also makes a difference in the demon invoked.

Well, I don't want to summon the demon myself at the moment, so that's not important.

Well, hiding won't help, so let's do it.

If there's nothing here, I'll check every suspicious well in town.

Start the magic at full power.

Explosion II deployed six at the same time.

Damage to the surroundings? Using a fire system in an enclosed space?

That's none of my business. The walls can't be broken by magic anyway, so just go all out.

I jump out of the shadows and fire at the same time.

Six directed blasts of fire and impact hit the black robes and the demon.

It's a good thing they noticed me as soon as I jumped out but it was too late.

A roar.

Fortunately or not, the self-destruct mechanism didn't seem to work, thanks to the fact that I made them all into charcoal.

Thanks to that, only the iron basket they were holding so carefully managed to survive the fire.

I picked it up and looked at the whole thing.

It was a basket, no matter how I looked at it. It looked like it was made of woven thin iron.

I tried to open it, but it was deformed by the heat, or perhaps it wouldn't open.

It was troublesome, so I put it on the ground and cast a magic spell on it.

The basket, hit by the wind, opened its mouth and revealed its contents.

When I saw what was inside...

"What is this?"

I let out such a dumb voice.

"I see... okay. You can step back."

"I understand. I'll leave you now."

I saw Iqbal leave the office, and I - Sherifa - let out a sigh.

I had ordered him to watch over the adventurer named Ro, whom I had just talked to, along with another subordinate, Mixon.

I had just received a report that there was nothing suspicious so far.

Rick had been suspicious of him, so he followed him, but so far nothing suspicious had turned up.

Maybe Rick was overreacting.

It was certainly suspicious, but the time of arrival was after the incident.

There is not enough evidence to conclude that he was one of the group.

It was certainly suspicious, and although it is not a compliment, if he was one of them, the investigation would have progressed quickly, so it is not that I did not have high hopes, but it seems my fears were unfounded.

Nevertheless....

It's been a long time since I've moved in earnest.

Why can't I find them?

Such thoughts swirl in my mind and my frustration grows.

The search for unused buildings in the city is almost over.

...And yet, Darzain's base has not been found.

Something is wrong. I think so, but I don't know what exactly is wrong.

--Can you think of any reason why the investigation is not progressing?

Suddenly, the adventurer's words pass through my mind.

The reason for the lack of progress? Could it simply be that they are cleverly hiding?

Why? Why are those words bothering me so much?

I feel something tugging at my throat.

I don't feel good. What is it? Something is wrong.

I sink deeper into my chair and concentrate on my thoughts.

Is there a reason... a reason I can't find... is something blocking me?

...If so, what....

I recall what we have done so far.

I recall the investigation policy, what we actually did, what happened, one by one....

"...... it's strange."

It is indeed strange.

The investigation is unnaturally concentrated on the outskirts of the city, even though the incident is taking place in the middle of the city.

As a result, nothing is being done and the number of victims is increasing.

And then, by coincidence, Rick and his friends, who are students, come across a kidnapping scene.

...This can only mean that we are being led to a place where there is nothing to be found...

Then who?

The first thing that came to mind was the person in command....

"That's ridiculous..."

I raise my voice involuntarily. It's impossible.

A Temple Knight...we who weave spiritual knowledge....

What are we going to do...? Confirmation...no, that's....

I can't think straight.

I scratched my head roughly and left the room.

...Let's take a little rest.

Let's take a nap and empty my head once and think about it.

I knew it was just putting it aside, but I had to do it.