Aiwass knew he would be able to participate in the investigation even before he received authorization from the Surveillance Bureau.
If all went as expected, he could even conduct an independent investigation without being closely monitored by Haiyina Inspector, participating directly as an 'assistant to the Surveillance Bureau'.
On one hand, it was his adoptive father's influence, and on the other, the Surveillance Bureau, bound by the rules of its superiors, was very welcoming of outside help ever since Mr. Sherlock, 'Detectives' who now run their own agencies and are hired or consulted by the Surveillance Bureau have even become a profession.
If the investigation went poorly, it would be attributed to the hired Detective's lack of ability, at least avoiding severe internal accountability; if everything went smoothly, it would be credited to the Surveillance Bureau's correct guidance, at least counting as an achievement and securing a stable share of benefits.
Although Haina was a genuine Inspector, Aiwass understood the Surveillance Bureau far better than she did.
Aiwass had his reasons for being so proactive in participating in this investigation.
That was revenge and silencing.
The two versions of the story Aiwass had told the Surveillance Bureau earlier were actually both false. Or rather, neither was entirely true.
He was indeed a participant in the ritual, and he did know those two Demon Scholars.
But he was also indeed a sacrifice for the ritual.
Because those two Demon Scholars were actually Aiwass's 'pen pals'.
Aiwass had been very interested in forbidden knowledge since he was a child. The more mysterious techniques were forbidden by the Avalon Kingdom, the more excited he became when researching them.
For example, ritual magic from the Transcendence Path, and Preservation from the Twilight Path.
The former is a basic ability of Demon Scholars, and one of the professions extended from the latter is Necromancer. Just by the name, it doesn't sound like a good thing.
Such forbidden knowledge only had a small overview in his adoptive father's study. Possessing forbidden books, even in a knight's family, was a serious crime punishable by imprisonment. But after reading the overview, Little Aivas, at the time, became even more eager.
He fanatically bought some ritual materials, and without mastering any Otherworlders knowledge or mysterious techniques, he tried to perform rituals purely based on speculation and imagination.
This, of course, would fail.
The core secret of this world is 'knowledge'.
The nine great paths corresponding to the nine types of mystical techniques all require corresponding knowledge to master them conversely, as long as one masters the corresponding knowledge, even if one's personal strength is low, one can gain Otherworlders power far beyond one's true ability. Almost every piece of forbidden knowledge is the foundation of a school of thought. In this situation, it is impossible to buy reliable 'skill books' on the market.
Then, on Aiwass's sixteenth birthday, a secret society of Demon Scholars called 'Noble Red' suddenly contacted him.
Aiwass was very cautious at first. But the other party sent him several handwritten copies of forbidden books with the letter, all containing knowledge of demons and demonic rituals.
Although they were all small rituals no different from parlor tricks such as causing someone to grow boils, healing minor wounds, making someone drowsy, or making someone a bit unlucky. They seemed useless, but they were all real and accurate Otherworlders rituals!
After Aiwass tried them one by one, he became very excited. So he became pen pals with the other party, and often exchanged knowledge of Demon Scholar, and the other party also regarded themselves as Aiwass's friend. They often chatted about emotional life and trivial matters in daily life.
At first, Aiwass still held a bit of caution.
However, two years passed quietly like that.
Aiwass thought that if the other party wanted to deceive him, they would have done so long ago. The value of the hidden knowledge they had given him was already quite high although Aiwass, who had never been to the black market, didn't know how much this knowledge could sell for, even if the quality wasn't top-notch, the quantity alone was already a lot.
What kind of swindler would operate for so long and invest so much just to deceive one person?
This was neither reasonable nor logical. Nor did it conform to maximizing profit.
So Aiwass gradually relaxed his guard and truly regarded this pen pal as a kindred spirit he had never met.
A few days ago, the other party claimed they had something to do in the capital and wanted to meet Aiwass.
Aiwass believed the other party without hesitation or suspicion.
This was the lie he told the Inspector. Because 'Aiwass' was not abducted; he went willingly.
They were a man and a woman, both dressed in red and with shaved heads. The man looked forty or fifty, and the woman was about twenty. Besides being mentor and apprentice, they were also lovers.
He enthusiastically treated his 'two friends' to a meal, and then the middle-aged man offered to let Aiwass witness, and even personally participate in, a real demon summoning ritual Aiwass excitedly agreed.
But after he spent over an hour setting up the ritual, he suddenly realized something when he looked at the ritual platform.
Doesn't summoning a demon require expensive materials?
It was then that he belatedly realized that by personally setting up the ritual platform, he had inadvertently become a 'willing sacrifice'. At the same time, as a student of the Royal Law University's Seminary, Aiwass would be able to become a priest before graduation.
Although he hadn't truly embarked on the Path of Otherworlders, he had already taken the first step towards the Devotion Path.
This was reflected on his character sheet: he already had a Level 1 Priest profession. Once the experience for the 'Basic Prayer' foundational skill was maxed out, Aiwass would be able to raise his Priest profession to Level 2 and master his first Devotion Path characteristic.
He had, of course, happily told his pen pals about this although 'Priest' wasn't as interesting as 'Demon Scholar', it was still an Otherworlders profession. Being able to embark on the Path of Otherworlders and possess Otherworlders abilities was better than having none.
More importantly, priests are also a respected profession in Avalon.
The symbol of the Dedication Path is light, protection, and candles. This is a Path of self-Dedication for others and ideals; one can only grow stronger by sincerely practicing this philosophy. Therefore, all professions extending from the Dedication Path are Otherworlders professions with bright futures and recognized by people.
Thus, as a 'willingly sacrificed 'Dedication' believer', Aiwass became a sacrifice of extremely high specifications.
It was only then, facing the crisis of death, that Aiwass recalled his past life's memories. He recognized the demon's species one step ahead and successfully signed a contract with it.
He manipulated the Shadow Demon to launch a surprise attack, killing the middle-aged man, the Demon Scholar who was the 'mentor', who was in a state of shock. But the woman, the apprentice, was still alive.
If she had fled a little slower, she would have been killed by Aiwass; but if she had dared to turn back and look, she could have killed Aiwass instead.
Just barely.
Aiwass sighed.
He was just barely about to be sacrificed and silenced by that man; and he was just barely about to be killed by that woman.
Betrayed, deceived, murdered.
Genuine anger resonated within Aiwass. He unhesitatingly decided to retaliate.
Not to mention, this woman very likely saw Aiwass's letter.
This meant that once she was captured, she might expose Aiwass no, she definitely would expose him.
His adoptive father's stance was unclear now, but even just for himself, he had to silence her before the Surveillance Bureau caught her.
However, Aiwass also did not intend to expose his identity as a Demon Scholar just to kill the other party.
He had a way.
After waking up yesterday, Aiwass's first reaction was to try a simple ritual that the original 'Aiwass' did not know and only appeared in the late game. After using that ritual to replenish his life force, which had been drained as a sacrifice, Aiwass basically confirmed the hidden knowledge he knew was also useful in this world.
Aiwass's profession in the game was not a Demon Scholar of the Transcendence Path... but an Enlightener of the Devotion Path.
That was a pure support profession capable of greatly enhancing teammates' strength, with a small amount of healing and crowd control abilities.
But now, when he had to challenge those world-ending crises alone, such a weak profession wouldn't work.
Because an Enlightener cannot benefit from his own Enhancement. Or rather, most professions of the Dedication Path cannot benefit from their own Enhancement, protection, or healing skills.
However, Enlightener can be a sub-profession. After all, Aiwass's public identity is a Priest of the Dedication Path. Changing to an Enlightener can also be prepared in advance, and he is also extremely familiar with the necessary Path characteristics needed to advance to this profession.
And to solve those crises, his main profession must have sufficiently strong solo combat power.
Considering that he could also be an Enlightener, the answer was simple.
That was the 'Aiwass' from version 0, who advanced to 'Great Beast Master' after mastering the power of Phantom Demon.
That was a late-game profession, further advanced from Great Sin Scholar.
After defeating the immortal Phantom Demon, one could extract their essence and turn them into one's summoned beasts, which were the 'Great Beast' of six attributes.
Although only one 'Great Beast' could exist at a time, it could be switched to the Great Beast most suitable for handling the current situation, and then enhanced by using support cards, equipment cards, and field cards made from the extracted powers of other 'Great Beast'.
And most importantly, this summoned beast was counted as a 'teammate'.
Not only was its output far greater than the main body, but it could also receive all types of buffs given by teammates.
In game terms, this profession had the highest 'buff efficiency'.
Because the Enhancements provided by the cards were all noble, mechanism-based buffs such as three-speed, armor penetration, poison, burning, evasion, and spell penetration, but no damage increase buffs. This perfectly avoided being diluted by the various damage increase buffs from Enlightener, the most mainstream support.
However, after summoning the 'Great Beast', the main body would not receive attack buffs, so the main body's output would be somewhat weak.
However, during a burst cycle, a Great Beast Master can temporarily merge with a summoned and enhanced Great Beast, thereby unleashing extremely powerful strength.
With an Enlightener assisting a Great Beast Master, Aiwass can enhance his summoned beasts as "teammates." Moreover, he won't lose the social benefits that come with his overt identity as a clergyman, and he can also switch to summoned beasts that counter different enemies, giving him a very high Upper limit.
Under the worst-case scenario where only he can confront the BOSS, this profession combination might not have the highest burst damage under ideal conditions, but it is definitely the strongest in terms of overall performance and adaptability.
The ability to extract the power of a Phantom Demon and use tarot cards as materials to create Phantasmagoric Cards comes from the prerequisite profession, Great Sin Scholar.
A Great Sin Scholar can obtain corresponding ritual knowledge after thoroughly researching and analyzing a Phantom Demon which cards can be printed from this Phantom Demon, and what materials and rituals are needed. Once this knowledge is known, even a Demon Scholar can prepare them in advance.
The most important prerequisite for advancing to a Great Beast Master is to use the Great Sin Scholar's ability to create six blank cards of different attributes, each sealing a Phantom Demon of the corresponding attribute.
Then, repeatedly defeat Phantom Demons of the same attribute as experience material to fully level up these six Phantom Demons.
According to Aiwass's memory, a fire-attributed Phantom Demon exists within Yulia.
It is precisely to sustain that Phantom Demon that her body is so weak.
That Phantom Demon will claim Yulia's life once it fully develops. To save her, one must directly confront that infantile Phantom Demon; and Phantom Demons are immortal and indestructible… This means that conventional methods cannot save Yulia. At most, one can only delay the Phantom Demon's awakening and loss of control.
A Great Beast Master is different.
If Aiwass can successfully create a "blank card" with enough capacity to contain the Phantom Demon within Yulia, he can directly draw out the consciousness of the Phantom Demon within Yulia.
This way, not only can Yulia survive, but he can also prepare the advancement materials for the Great Beast Master in advance!
And Yulia can also incidentally gain the residual energy of the Phantom Demon making this unstable and dangerous power stable and capable of growth, thus also embarking on the Path of Otherworlders!
The foundation of all this is that the card-making ritual in Aiwass's memory is reliable and feasible.
He had already tested other rituals before, and the ritual knowledge from the game is indeed usable!
However, the creation of Phantasmagoric Cards still needs to be verified once more, because the Great Sin Scholar is a profession that only appeared after the Fallen Angel's descent.
Now, with it being two full versions earlier, Aiwass is not sure if this ritual can already be performed.
So he needs to experiment.
As long as Aiwass can successfully create any Phantasmagoric Card as a Demon Scholar, it will immediately confirm that this system is still viable at present!
This way, he will gain another type of power unrelated to the Demon Scholar.
His own revenge and silencing operations will proceed smoothly.
Yulia will also be saved!
Even the destruction of Avalon might not be irreversible
as long as he can successfully create his first card.
Currently, Aiwass is still too weak. The only Otherworlder existence he controls that is close to a Phantom Demon is the Shadow Demon.
And the only card that can be made by extracting a Shadow Demon is "The Moon."
To create a "Moon Card," regardless of the strength of the power sealed within it, it requires a nail from the forehead of a criminal undergoing the death by a thousand cuts, and three ancient ropes from a gallows as materials.
Aiwass sat solemnly at his desk and took out a slightly blackened tarot card from a jade box.
These tarot cards were among a large collection of mysterious items Aiwass bought when he was fanatically worshipping various rituals, but they are now perfectly usable for creating the Great Beast Master's Phantasmagoric Cards.
The tarot card depicted a moon with two tall towers on either side. Below the moon, a wolf and a dog were barking madly at it. In the very center, at the bottom of the image, a lobster crawled out of a river, looking up at the sky in confusion.
This is [The Moon]. In tarot divination, The Moon card symbolizes confusion, stagnation, and unease.
The creators of tarot cards came from the prophets of the Adaptation Path. These prophets disdained the astrologers, who also belonged to the Adaptation Path, comparing them to dogs barking at the moon because all prophets agreed that the future could never be precisely predicted, while astrologers tried to create a sufficiently complex, precise, and all-predicting "Grand Unified Star Chart."
This behavior was considered very ridiculous by the prophets. It was like a dog barking at the moon, trying to understand what it represented. But this precisely exposed their ignorance and fearlessness.
Aiwass held his breath, becoming extremely cautious.
Because he had smeared mercury on the "Moon" of that tarot card. He used it as a medium to inject three points of his dark attribute mana yesterday.
Currently, Aiwass's dark attribute mana pool has a maximum capacity of only three points.
And creating even the most basic, weakest card requires at least five points. Regardless of how strong the card is, the other materials used are the same; the only difference is the amount of gemstone powder.
…Although creating such a weak card is somewhat wasteful of materials, it is more important to succeed at least once to verify its feasibility.
Moreover, it is at least a reusable magic scroll. Once the card is made, it only requires one-tenth of the mana to activate it, with less than one point counting as zero. The only restriction is that only one card made from the same type of tarot card can be used per day. That is to say, if Aiwass uses this Moon card, he cannot use other Moon cards on the same day.
But that doesn't matter.
If he doesn't need it later, he can sell it or give it away a portable spell scroll that doesn't require mana to activate and recharges automatically every day will surely fetch a good price. From this perspective, these ritual materials cannot be considered wasted.
Aiwass had already injected his three points of dark attribute mana into the card yesterday. Because of this, the card was slightly blackened; this was not an illusion, but rather it was indeed faintly absorbing the surrounding light. If placed under sunlight and compared with surrounding objects, it might be more obvious.
Now, Aiwass's mana pool was fully replenished.
He gently touched the mercury-smeared Moon again, slowly injecting all three points of his dark attribute mana. A card made with six points of mana would be slightly stronger than one made with five points.
"What a pity…"
Aiwass sighed softly: "Let's make one first. For the remaining three, I'll wait until I have more mana later."
Once the card was infused with the minimum five points, the ritual was immediately activated. If it wasn't made immediately, it would become useless after an hour. Otherwise, Aiwass could even accumulate mana day by day, hoarding it for ten days, to create a "Field Card: Shadow Cellar" that requires thirty points of mana to make.
He could actually inject one more point today, and then start making it tomorrow with seven mana points.
But cards made with five to ten mana points are all the weakest "Enchantment Card: Shadow Blade." Accumulating a bit more won't cause a qualitative change… So it's better to gain an extra day.
Thinking this, he used a hammer to forcefully nail the rusty nail into the tarot card.
With a screech, the card emitted an odd, acidic sound. It was as if Aiwass was not nailing into a card, but into someone's skull.
Next, he looped the three ropes. From three angles, he looped them around the nail. The other three ends of the ropes were then nailed with ordinary nails to three "Sword" cards.
The next moment, the ropes suddenly inflated and expanded. Although they were only hung on a nail, they seemed to be wrapped around someone's neck, and the three ropes suddenly formed a circle instead of a "V."
Aiwass then evenly sprinkled the pre-ground black pearl powder onto the tarot card. The "Moon" card belongs to the domain of the Way of Love. Black pearls are the guardian gems of the Way of Love and can be used to attract the attention of the pillar god of the Way of Love, Hengwo.
Just a glance, even a fleeting one was enough to imbue the card with spirituality.
After completing what he needed to do, Aiwass remained still and calm.
The shadow beneath him floated up like wisps of smoke and merged into the card. The drawing on the tarot card constantly changed, as if another artist was painting over it.
When the changes in the image ceased, the nail slowly melted away, transforming into a new "Moon." Two of the three ropes integrated into two new "Black Towers," becoming two dog-headed figures holding scepters. The remaining rope replaced the original lobster's position, turning into a black scarab beetle.
The card automatically floated up and flew into Aiwass's hand.
Its attributes automatically appeared in his eyes:
[Enchantment: Shadow Blade (Moon)]
[Required: Dark 0]
[Instant, Contact, Immediate Effect]
[Effect: Temporarily grants the target "weapon" shadow, cutting, and corrosive attributes, treating it as an Otherworlder weapon. Lasts one minute (+20%)]
It's done.
Aiwass thought.