"Huh? What is that?"
Mater's eyes flashed red. He saw a thin red string coming from the spider reaching deeper into the sewer.
"Possession? Not quite. A type of control but not exactly possession."
Mater jumped onto the Dark Grimoire and followed the red string. It led him into a vast space in the sewer where all the pipes were leading to. In the middle was a hole containing all kinds of human waste.
Four large metal pins emerged from the waste pool with four chains leading down to the bottom.
"Same ritual… Same kind of chaos creation. David Rendell's death. The suicides of the Wilsons. And this. They are all the same people. Someone's trying to create as many wraiths as possible.
But why?"
Mater looked up to the ceiling. He saw the sunlight from above reaching down through the manholes.
Mater flew up and blew open the steel bars. He got up above the ground via one of the manholes.
"This is the construction site?!"
Mater looked around. It was the previous construction site that he and Selina had investigated. However, they didn't find anything weird about it.
"So that's why I couldn't find anything. The ritual is hidden underground. The construction site is simply a decoy."
Mater flew back down to the sewer. He floated around and examined the ritual pool once again.
"Same size and complexity as the ritual in David Rendell's house. The wraith beneath must at least be the same level as the bloodwraith or higher.
Can I defeat it?"
Bloodwraith was a level 5 supernatural being. When Mater faced it, he was level 1. He had become level 2 now but the chance of him beating something similar to the bloodwraith was still very low.
"I technically didn't defeat the bloodwraith. Rather, it was weakened by Selina's ward and then locked up because of the Page of Imprisonment. If I didn't seal it away, it had a high chance of killing me.
I can't count on Selina's ward either. She can't control it.
As tempting as it might be, leaving it alone will be a wiser choice now. Unless I can enslave the bloodwraith with the Submission Seal and have it fought for me.
I will need at least three more Chaos Stones to reach level 3 to do that."
Mater considered carefully. He gave up on waking the wraith. He didn't want to ask Selina for help either. She treated him well and he didn't want to put her in danger.
The black cat flew around and saw three other large tunnels leading away.
There were a total of four tunnels. One was covered in cobwebs, which was where he came from.
The other three.
One was covered in some green stinky slime.
One was covered in runic symbols on the wall.
The last was covered in a gray sticky membrane.
"Four tunnels. One was where the spider was. The other three… Could there be other creatures that are similar to it?"
Mater flashed the Chaos Eyes. He saw three red strings leading to the three tunnels. Chaos pumped from the other side through the red strings and delivered Chaos into the ritual in the middle.
"I see. The creatures are food. They are connected to this wraith. The stronger the creatures, the more powerful the wraith will be. I cut off its connection to the spider, lowering its source of Chaos.
By killing the other creatures, the wraith would lose all of its Chaos source. This can either wake it up early or stop it from being born.
Either way…"
Mater licked his small cat mouth, shaking his long white whiskers.
"If I eat those creatures, I will have enough Chaos to reach level 3. Then I can enslave the bloodwraith. With the bloodwraith help, I should be able to deal with this wraith underneath."
Mater flew into the tunnel with the stinky green slime. The smell of the substance caused his stomach to churn. Mater spotted some parts of the wall were corroded away because of the slime.
"This substance is highly toxic. Better avoid it all I can."
In the end of the slime tunnel, Mater saw a giant frog sleeping on its butt. It was a green frog with a layer of green slime all over its body. Underneath it was a pile of unknown animal corpses. Most of the corpses were corroded by its venomous green slime, only showing parts of the bone left.
"These don't look like human bones. The missing people aren't here."
Mater flew on top of the frog. He opened his mouth wide and conjured the purple Nether Sphere.
"Waky wake!" Mater shot two Nether Sphere at the top of the frog's head.
One Nether Sphere slammed onto the thick slime layer and spun in place. The second Nether Sphere slammed on the first one, pushing it downward and through the slime layer.
The Nether Sphere punched into the frog's head, leaving a dent on its skin.
The frog's eyes snapped open as its bellow echoed through the tunnel.
The frog jumped forward, slipping away from the Nether Sphere and preventing it from digging further down.
"Very intelligent."
Mater shot another two Nether Sphere at the frog when it just landed.
The frog spotted the spheres and opened its own mouth. A splash of green slime shot out and covered the Nether Sphere. The acidic slime corroded the Sphere. It wasn't powerful enough to neutralize Nether Shot but slowed the spell down significantly, allowing the frog to jump away.
"Tch. It can spit that thing!"
The frog opened its mouth in mid-air and shot out its long tongue at Mater.
The black cat rolled in the air, avoiding the elongated frog tongue that was covered in green slime. He countered the attack with two Nether Spheres, aiming at the frog's throat.
The Nether Sphere dug into its throat and drilled out flesh and blood.
The frog croaked deeply like a groan of pain. It retraced its tongue and spat out green slime to push the Nether Sphere out.
The frog gave up on using its tongue. Instead, it jumped at Mater, intending on using its huge body to crush Mater.
The black cat flew out of the way.
"I wonder if Desperation Scream can hurt it."
In mid-air, Mater screamed at the frog. The spell didn't push it away because it was too large. But the shockwave pushed the thick slime layer out of the way, creating an opening for Mater.
"Oh? Now it's my chance!"
Mater shot two Nether Spheres at the opening. The purple sphere of negative energy dug into the frog, creating two holes on it.
The frog landed on the ground, shaking the entire tunnel. It bellowed loudly because of the pain. Unfortunately, it couldn't dodge the attack this time, allowing the Nether Sphere to go inside its body.
The Nether Spheres were too small to create significant damage to the frog. But it was for sure hurt.
"Another thick skin bastard. No matter. I can chip you down slowly."