Chapter 125: The Summoned General
"Grace us with your presence! Lord Vero!"
The staff of Verati began to vibrate from the sheer volume of mana in the air, and in the next moment, the jewel sitting at the top of the staff erupted into a million pieces! Hildegard’s body began to glow, and the magic circle around the altar also glowed with red light!
Mirio sensed that something drastic was about to happen, and he immediately grabbed the girl beside him and took off into the sky!
WOOSH!
Mirio watched the ritual from a distance, and he saw as the magic circles continued to grow even more!
WOOSH!
But suddenly, another figure flashed through the air and headed down towards the ritual, and Mirio’s eyes widened when he saw the sheer speed that they were using! The figure dived through the flames and slammed their fist into the Minotaur’s nose before grabbing the staff of Verati, and Mirio was shocked when he saw that it was the librarian from their school, Percy!
’How in the world did he move that fast?’
Percy lifted the staff up and frowned when he saw the broken jewel. Percy grabbed the Minotaur and brought him up.
"Stop this ritual right now."
The minotaur only laughed in response!
"It’s too late! You’re too late! It’s done! If you move her now, then we’ll all die!"
Percy turned to look at Hildegard’s body, and he saw that there were multiple runes carved on her skin that were glowing with an intense red light! Percy studied the runes rapidly, and it didn’t even take one minute for him to realise that the Minotaur was right. They had drawn a life-sharing rune on Hildegard’s body, and it was already in the final stage. If Percy moved her now, then she would definitely die.
Percy clicked his tongue as the rune grew blindingly bright, and in the next moment, the world exploded!
KA-BOOM!
A massive surge of Hellfire began to travel from the center of the city and spread out towards the sides rapidly! All the houses and people who were unlucky enough to be caught in the flames were immediately consumed, and at this rate, it wouldn’t be long before the flames completely erased their city and travelled towards the rest of the kingdom!
"It’s Hellfire! Run!"
"What’s going on!? Are we under attack!?"
"Somebody help! My house is on fire!"
"Help!"
There were screams and shouts echoing from all around the city as people tried desperately to get away from the flames, but there were many who weren’t lucky enough, and the flames consumed them immediately!
[Verdant Ice Prison]!
But before the flames could travel too far, a wave of ice suddenly burst to life around the city and formed a perfect circle around the city center! The ice prevented the fire from going any further, and people were able to finally grab their loved ones and run as far as they could! Percy looked out over the city from high in the sky, and he made sure that the fires weren’t spreading anymore before he turned back towards the ritual.
In the center of the city, the flames had completely consumed everything around the altar, and the ritual circle carved around the altar transformed from a simple rune into a portal that glowed with an ominous light!
Percy narrowed his eyes when he felt the intense surge of mana rising from deep inside the portal, and Percy immediately knew that there was something coming from the other side!
’Babe! What’s going on over there? I can feel a lot of mana building up.’
Rita sent a mental message to Percy with a worried tone, and Percy told her that there was a summoning ritual going on.
’They’re using Hildegard as a catalyst to bring something from the other side. I’ll take care of the summons. I need you to look out for the people around the city and make sure they don’t get caught up in this.’
Rita accepted her order quickly and immediately went to help out the people around the city, and Percy turned his attention back towards the portal. The life-sharing rune was something that Percy had only seen once before a long time ago. That was when Percy had been fighting against a demonic tribe on another world that consistently brought back the soul of their founder in new bodies to keep the founder immortal. It was a twisted ritual that took away someone’s body and forced another person’s soul into it. But it was also very rare to see anyone using this rune because there were a lot of criteria that needed to be fulfilled in order to activate it.
One of the most important criteria was that the magical energy of the person being used had to be identical to the magical energy of the person being resurrected! It wasn’t that difficult to get matching magic energies if the person being resurrected had a simple affinity like fire or water. But when it came to the most complex affinities like [Hellfire], it was a lot more difficult to find anyone with that affinity!
And that is why Percy had a feeling that he knew exactly who was being brought back by this ritual. Percy folded his hands and allowed himself to float in the sky grimly as he waited for the ritual to be completed. It was dangerous to interfere with a Life Sharing ritual because cutting the life link before it was complete would automatically destroy the soul of whoever was being used as the vessel. It was better to simply allow the soul to possess the body fully, and only after it was completed would Percy be able to do something about it.
DOON!
An intense surge of mana shot through the air as the portal grew even brighter, and Percy watched as a smoky, intangible substance began to float out from within the portal and fly towards Hildegard’s body. The smoke wrapped itself around Hildegard, and Hildegard immediately began to float off the ground as her face twisted in anguish! The smoke flew across Hildegard’s chest and moved up to her mouth before it began to slither its way into her body like some sort of snake!
Hildegard twisted and shook as her body was slowly taken over by the foreign entity, but since Hildegard’s mana was so similar to that person who was being summoned, the possession did not prove difficult, and Hildegard suddenly jolted as the smoke slithered fully into her body! Another intense surge of mana flew across the air, and the large Minotaur standing on the ground just outside the ritual portal took a few steps back to avoid getting thrown to the ground.
Hildegard’s body floated up into the air and her long tail swayed around calmly as she slowly opened her eyes to reveal deep red irises. Hildegard’s body had not changed much at all, but the soul inside her was completely different now! The new soul looked down at Hildegard’s hands with a curious expression on their face, and they slowly gained a large smile as they realised exactly what had happened! They were possessing someone else’s body!
"Hahaha! Someone brought me back to life! How fitting!"
Hildegard laughed in excitement, and she looked down as a loud voice called out to her!
"My Lord! Is that you!?"