South Tivian, Bishop Square.
On the turbulent New Year's Eve, under the dark night sky, in the alleyways around Bishop Square, a simple spirit summoning ritual was underway when it encountered an unexpected factor.
"It's not just you, Teacher, who is summoning this spirit... Are there others also performing a spirit summoning ritual, calling out to that spirit?"
Looking at Naifnis, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground, possessed by Uta's split soul, Kapak asked. Naifnis slowly nodded and muttered in a Vicissitudes voice.
"Yes, I have found the newly deceased spirit named Barret Despenser in the Nether River. However, when I found him, I discovered that he was being connected and pulled by another force. That force is attempting to bring him to a certain place in the manifest world. This is a sign of being summoned."
Looking forward with clouded eyes, Naifnis, possessed by Uta's split soul, said leisurely. Her words were heard by Dorothy's Corpse Puppet, Brandon, who was beside her. Dorothy's brows furrowed slightly.
'Barret's spirit is currently being summoned by others? Who is performing the ritual to summon his soul? The Royal Family or the An Yin Bureau? No... it shouldn't be them. They just received the news of the Royal Family's assassination and shouldn't have the time to collect mediums and prepare Extraordinaries so quickly. This summoning targeting Barret's soul started before us. The other party might have started summoning as soon as Barret died.
'So... the summoner should be someone from the Eight-Pointed Nest side. If their purpose in assassinating Barret was because his research on the mirror moon statue touched upon their secrets, then simply killing him is not enough. The soul must also be destroyed. Otherwise, if the An Yin Bureau summons Barret afterward and obtains some key information about the mirror moon statue from his mouth, the An Yin Bureau will inevitably place more importance on the research of the mirror moon statue, which would greatly reduce the effect of this assassination.
'Therefore, before assassinating Barret, the Eight-Pointed Nest should have prepared a spirit summoning ritual targeting Barret somewhere. As soon as Barret died, they would perform the summoning. After the soul is summoned, whether they seal it in a Corpse Coffin or refine it directly, it would make it impossible for the An Yin Bureau to summon him later, thus completing their plan to thoroughly silence him.'
Squatting on the street corner with her knees hugged, Dorothy pondered in her heart with furrowed brows. As a large-scale society, the Eight-Pointed Nest definitely has its own "Silent" Extraordinaries to provide spirit summoning services. From the information obtained from Kapak earlier, it is also known that Sado and the others were tricked by a native named Banu into coming here to help the Eight-Pointed Nest carry out terrorist attacks, and Banu was previously confirmed to be a member of the Netherworld Coffin Society. Therefore, the possibility of cooperation between the Eight-Pointed Nest and the Netherworld Coffin Society in this matter is still quite high. In that case, the Netherworld side might also provide spirit summoning services for the Eight-Pointed Nest.
Based on this analysis, Dorothy knew that this summoning should be a follow-up to the Eight-Pointed Nest's assassination plan for Duke Barret, carefully prepared and carried out immediately after Barret's death.
"Captain, may I ask what state Barret's soul is currently in? If someone summoned him before us, will his soul be snatched away by them?"
Dorothy had Brandon ask Naifnis, who was possessed by Uta. Naifnis let out a sigh of relief and slowly replied.
"No... When souls are being summoned simultaneously, they will follow the side with the stronger pulling force, not whoever started first. The strength of this pulling force is mainly determined by two factors: the relevance and completeness of the medium, and the quality of the summoner himself.
"I can feel it, and analyze that the medium used in the other ritual summoning this spirit is much more complete and powerful than the one I am using. However, the quality of the person presiding over that ritual is at most that of an ordinary Shaman, far inferior to me. Therefore, the pulling force we are exerting on that spirit is currently in a state of balance. He cannot summon that spirit over, and neither can I.
"If I were performing the spirit summoning ritual in my true form, even with just this much medium, he would not be able to compete with me, a Great Shaman. But unfortunately, the one performing the ritual now is merely a young girl possessed by a split soul of mine."
Uta, possessing Naifnis, spoke slowly to Brandon. Listening to his words, Dorothy first felt relieved, glad that Barret's soul had not been irretrievably lost due to the Eight-Pointed Nest summoning him first. Then she began to think about how to break the current stalemate.
"Captain, how should we defeat the other party now and summon Barret's soul to our side?"
Dorothy continued to have Brandon ask, and Uta, possessing Naifnis, quickly replied.
"This is simple, we only need to increase the pulling force. However, it is best to do this quickly. Although this wisp of my split soul has a higher status than the other party, it is ultimately just a split soul and cannot last for too long against him."
Naifnis said so, and after hearing her words, Dorothy began to seriously consider ways to increase the pulling force. According to Uta's previous words, the pulling force on the soul in a spirit summoning ritual is mainly determined by the medium and the ritual host. According to the current situation, it is probably difficult to improve on the ritual host side, so they can only start from the medium.
Mediums are divided into material mediums and information mediums. In terms of material mediums, Dorothy herself used Barret's newly deceased blood, which, according to Kapak, is an excellent material medium. To improve it, she would probably have to move Barret's entire corpse, but that is impossible. Blue Weave Street No. 1 is now sealed off, and a large number of official Extraordinaries are about to arrive. Moving Barret's corpse at this time would be too risky.
Therefore, the best thing to obtain is information mediums. Currently, in terms of information mediums, Dorothy only knows Barret's name and time of death. If she could know more, she might be able to break the current balanced state.
But the problem is... how can she get more information about Barret?
Dorothy thought about this in her heart. Soon after, she had some ideas. Squatting on the street corner, she began to close her eyes and contact Vanya through prayer.
...
In the chaotic hall of Blue Weave Street No. 1, Vanya was currently directing her medical team and the remaining guards to clear the scene and treat the severely injured but not yet dead casualties. Suddenly, she again felt Dorothy's words appear out of thin air in her mind, and was slightly startled.
'Miss Dorothy, do you want new information about Duke Barret now? It seems their work is not finished yet...'
Standing still, Vanya thought this in her heart, but she quickly recovered and began to act according to Dorothy's suggestion.
"Everyone, who among you are the Princess's guards? Who are the Duke's guards? I have something I need to ask you."
Vanya spoke to the surrounding guards. The Princess's and Duke's guards were not completely wiped out. Besides the few close bodyguards who were very close to the location where the strong wind erupted, many of the remaining guards who were farther away from the eruption site and those who were not on the eruption floor were only severely injured. Now most of them were gathered together to receive Vanya's treatment.
As soon as Vanya finished speaking, several injured people lying on stretchers on the ground who were not yet unconscious raised their hands and stated their affiliation. One guard wrapped in bandages spoke tremblingly.
"Sister... what do you want to ask us?"
Listening to the injured guard's words, Vanya continued to explain.
"It's like this. Since the Church's better medical team will arrive soon, I need to do some preliminary preparations for their treatment. To better administer medication to everyone, I need to understand some basic physical conditions of the injured, including the Princess, mainly regarding age, and medical history.
"In addition, because we may need to assist the An Yin Bureau with preliminary examinations of the bodies later, for convenience, we also need to understand the basic situation of the deceased. The deceased are mainly the Duke and his close attendants to him and the Princess. They are your colleagues and those you served. To facilitate the subsequent work, please cooperate with us to understand the situation."
With a gentle tone, Vanya spoke to the injured people before her. Before the main forces of the Church and the An Yin Bureau arrived, Vanya was currently the medical leader and the highest official commander here. Therefore, the injured Duke's and Princess's guards began to cooperate with her in registering the basic information of the injured and deceased. Since Vanya's reason was sufficiently legitimate, her actions did not arouse any suspicion.
After all, it is perfectly normal for a doctor to ask a patient their name, age, and physical condition... It is also perfectly normal for a forensic doctor to ask the people around the deceased about the deceased's specific physical condition and age.
Just like that, Vanya collected information among the injured guards. After a short while, she obtained key information about Duke Barret from the injured Duke's guards: Duke Barret's age.
After collecting the age information, Vanya immediately prayed silently in her heart, praying to Aka, and praying the information she had obtained to Dorothy.
...
In the cold wind of the alley, Dorothy, sitting with her knees hugged, shivered as she calculated in her heart after receiving Vanya's information.
"Hiss... Ba, Barret's age is 64. He held his 64th birthday banquet on August 12th last year. Today is the first day of the Light Calendar 1360, and last year was 1359, so his birth date is August 12th, Light Calendar 1295..."
In the cold wind, Dorothy calculated Barret's birth date. This date is very likely to be accurate, because with the strength Barret displayed, he is not the type of Extraordinary who can have a long lifespan.
To be assassinated in this manner, Barret's rank as an Extraordinary would not exceed Chalk. Dorothy understands that the Chalk rank is not enough to greatly extend one's lifespan. The several-hundred-year-old age monsters Dorothy currently knows are only Aldrich and Deer Skull, a disabled Golden and a Scarlet, and Beverly, a Clockwork person of unknown strength.
Based on Dorothy's current Extraordinary experience, she can judge that without any special methods, Extraordinaries below Chalk should not live much longer than ordinary people, while those who reach Scarlet seem to be able to live for several hundred years. The leap from Chalk to Scarlet seems to be a relatively large one.
After calculating the date, Dorothy quickly controlled Brandon to inform Naifnis.
"Captain, I have more information mediums..."
In the alley, Brandon spoke to Naifnis, who was in a state of possession by Uta's split soul. The other party nodded slightly after hearing the new information medium and began to raise her hand, reciting the Spirit Seal Language incantation again, using the new information medium to strengthen the spirit summoning ritual, and the effect was immediate.
"Very good, the summoner who was resisting me can no longer withstand my power. That spirit has been successfully pulled by me. Wait a moment, he will appear soon."
After finishing the new incantation, Naifnis said in a Vicissitudes voice. Listening to her words, Dorothy breathed a sigh of relief and began to wait patiently for the result of the spirit summoning.
After another three or four minutes, accompanied by a cold wind blowing through the alley, a blurry phantom gradually appeared in the center of the spirit summoning array, becoming increasingly clear.
Before long, Barret's pale, translucent spirit body appeared in the center of the array. His face was blank, he was wearing the formal attire he wore at the New Year's party, and there were knife wounds all over his body. There was a deep cut on his neck, just as he looked before he died.
"I have summoned the spirit you wanted for you. If you have any questions, just ask. I will use an edict to make him answer you, so don't worry about not being able to get answers.
"But you'd better ask quickly. The summoner who was previously confronting me has not given up on summoning and is still interfering with me. I'm afraid I can't last long with just this split soul." Naifnis, possessed by Uta, said so. After hearing her words, Dorothy's spirits lifted, and she had Brandon say gratefully.
"Thank you, Captain."
After thanking her, Brandon faced Barret's spirit in the array, who had a blank expression, and asked.
"Duke, I heard you were researching the mirror moon statue?"
"Yes." Barret's spirit answered simply, and Brandon continued to ask.
"How is your research progressing? Are there any important results?"
"Of course. Based on the clues provided by the An Yin Bureau, I visited all the mirror moon statues under their control and became deeply interested in these statues of the Goddess spread throughout Prit. Later, in order to investigate the relationship between this statue and Prit, I entered the Royal Forbidden Library in Moonmist Palace and searched through various documents. I first started with..."
"Stop for a moment, you don't need to say too much, just tell me one thing. Is that Mirror Moon Goddess the pure color main god of the'Shadow' domain? If so, do you have Her Holy Emblem in your possession?"
Dorothy had Brandon interrupt Barret's spirit. When she saw that Barret's spirit was about to start answering like an academic report, she suddenly realized that asking directly about the research results would cause the other party to start a lengthy discourse, so she immediately stopped him and instead asked the key question she needed.
After all, Uta was currently only using a wisp of a split soul to possess and summon, and the summoning time was limited. Moreover, if Barret directly talked about the results, it would inevitably involve knowledge of Spirit Sight. Dorothy herself didn't mind listening to Spirit Sight knowledge directly, but Uta couldn't bear it.
After being interrupted by Brandon and re-asked, Barret's spirit paused slightly, and then continued to answer.
"In my research, it is almost certain that this Goddess, who once had great influence in Prit, had a powerful sect in the Third Era that studied the'Shadow' domain. This sect had a master-subordinate deity structure very similar to the Shining Light Church, and the Mirror Moon Goddess is undoubtedly the main god of the'Shadow' domain.
"As for Her Holy Emblem, I have also researched it. When I excavated the ruins in the Razor Mountain, I unearthed an item suspected to be the Holy Emblem of the Mirror Moon Goddess, and this item is now in the research secret room of my mansion."