Chapter 27: The Demon Oil Painting

Chapter 27: The Demon Oil Painting

Port Pritz, inside a warehouse currently being rebuilt.

After several days, Fors once again saw her teacher, Dorian Gray Abraham.

“Are you ready?” Dorian asked in a low voice.

During their previous meeting, he had already told Fors the ritual requirements for Sequence 4 of the Apprentice pathway, Secrets Sorcerer, so that she could make preparations in advance.

“More or less… It should be enough…” Fors answered without much confidence.

Comparatively speaking, the advancement ritual for Secrets Sorcerer was fairly simple. But this “simple” was the opposite of “complicated,” not the opposite of “difficult.” As far as Fors was concerned, she would rather have exchanged it for something else.

The ritual required the one advancing to seal a demigod-level creature with clear hostility. The less external assistance used, the better the ritual’s effect. As for the target’s own status, as long as it was not below demigod level, it was acceptable and would not substantially affect the ritual.

Hearing his student’s answer, Dorian nodded lightly.

“More or less is enough. For a Sequence 5 Beyonder who relies purely on herself, that ritual truly is too difficult. Seeking appropriate help is necessary, but you must grasp the degree well. You cannot exceed the corresponding boundary, or the ritual will certainly fail.”

The advice he had given Fors earlier was that she should only borrow one Grade 1 Sealed Artifact. It would be best if she did not even invite help at the level of a Saint.

Fors spoke somewhat vaguely.

“I only plan to make one wish to Mr. Fool—a wish to increase the success rate after I drink the potion. This is closer to obtaining good luck when consuming the potion, rather than receiving protection while sealing that demigod creature.

“Aside from that, I’ll use the painting you mentioned, Teacher.”

That painting was not the Grade 0 Sealed Artifact, Picture Scroll of God, but a Grade 1 Sealed Artifact belonging to the Abraham family, called the Demon Oil Painting.

During the Fourth Epoch, in the age when quite a few members of the Abraham family were still advancing to Sequence 4, Secrets Sorcerer, they had created that “oil painting” for the purpose of sealing corresponding demigod-level creatures.

However, after suffering an attack from the Aurora Order and losing many materials, Dorian Gray was not entirely clear how many terrifying creatures the Demon Oil Painting still sealed. He could only be certain that there were still some, and more than one.

His original plan had been to release one thoroughly mad demigod-level creature from the Demon Oil Painting, a creature that acted purely on instinct, and use it as his student’s ritual target. This was far easier than dealing with a rational and intelligent Saint, and it fully satisfied the ritual’s requirements. However, he had not expected Fors to prepare to directly borrow the Demon Oil Painting.

Dorian frowned slightly and reminded her,

“The Demon Oil Painting itself only has the effects of imprisonment and sealing. It does not possess the ability to actively influence a target. In other words, you must put the demigod-level creature into the Demon Oil Painting by yourself.”

Fors nodded, indicating that she knew this point.

“Teacher, you said before that my own Record ability does not count as external help.”

“Yes.” Dorian Gray gave a very definite reply.

If one’s own Record ability counted as external help, then almost no Traveler would be able to advance. After all, Record was the core ability of the Apprentice pathway before the demigod stage. If it were “invalidated,” Fors would practically be left only with abilities related to running, running, and running, making it very difficult for her to do anything to an enemy.

“In theory, that is true. But the demigod-level abilities you can record amount to four or five kinds at most…” Dorian said, still not very reassured.

Before he finished, he thought of Mr. Fool and His Blessed, and his heart settled a little.

“If they are combined well, it isn’t impossible to succeed. It’s only a mad creature that relies on instinct,” Fors said, both persuading her teacher and persuading herself.

Dorian nodded almost imperceptibly and said nothing more. He immediately summoned his contracted creature, Marmos, who loved music, retrieved the main and supplementary ingredients for Secrets Sorcerer, and prepared a bottle of Secrets Sorcerer potion on the spot for his student.

“If you cannot complete the seal, do not force yourself to drink it. Even if the potion and glass bottle fuse together and become a Sealed Artifact, you can pray to Mr. Fool and have it restored into a Beyonder characteristic,” Dorian reminded her, still somewhat worried, before handing the potion to Fors.

Inside the glass bottle, layer upon layer of starlight rippled, as if the Milky Way high in the sky had been gathered into the potion.

“Mm.” Fors nodded heavily, showing that she absolutely would not worry about wasting the potion.

She had already prepared a contingency plan in advance. If the demigod-level creature she released could not be sealed, she would immediately teleport away, make a wish to Mr. Fool, and ask Him to handle it.

Dorian then took an oil painting from the suitcase in his hand. It depicted one abstract, incomprehensible pattern after another. Merely looking at them for a while could make one dizzy, nauseous, and spiritually weak.

This was the Demon Oil Painting, which sealed an unknown number of terrifying creatures.

“If you successfully advance, I have only one request.” Holding the Demon Oil Painting, Dorian solemnly said to Fors, “On the night of a full moon, listen to what Mr. Door is truly saying, and ask Him why He is doing this.”

Even now, the members of the Abraham family still could not fully accept that the source of their curse came from their family ancestor. They felt Mr. Door might not understand the consequences caused by His “cry for help.”

They yearned to fully understand the truth of the entire matter.

“All right.” Facing her teacher’s request, Fors agreed without the slightest hesitation.

Then she took the Demon Oil Painting and teleported out of Port Pritz, arriving in the vast desert where no humans lived.

This way, even if something unexpected occurred during the ritual, she would have enough time to resolve it without affecting ordinary people.

After inspecting her surroundings and checking her preparations, Fors inserted the Demon Oil Painting into the ground.

She then clasped her hands, lowered her head, prayed to Mr. Fool, and made a wish that, after she consumed the potion, her chance of successfully advancing would increase.

Almost immediately, she saw illusory grayish-white fog, knowing that Mr. Fool had already responded.

After delaying for several seconds, Fors finally overcame herself, took out the herbal powder she had prepared in advance, and scattered it toward the Demon Oil Painting.

Then, using Jotun, she recited the incantation to unseal it.

This was an incantation that would release only one creature.

Silently, the drifting herbal powder all landed on the oil painting and, using one point as its center, began rapidly spinning.

Amid the rotation, the surface of the oil painting became illusory, as if a deep vortex had also appeared there.

Suddenly, a hand emerged from that “vortex.”

It was bluish-black, with many signs of decay.

It stretched out of the oil painting and into the outside world!

Fors’s body abruptly turned icy cold, as if she had fallen into the cracked surface of a frozen lake.

This made her mind clear, yet also seemed to deprive her of all sensation in her body. No matter how hard she tried to move her hands and feet, she could not succeed.

In that instant, Fors seemed to have returned to the state she often experienced when writing through the night and sleeping in the day. Back then, she frequently felt as if she had already awakened, only to find that she could not move at all, as though an invisible creature were pressing her down with deadly force.

Although the terrifying creature inside the Demon Oil Painting had yet to completely escape, merely relying on the influence of its divinity on the outside world had already robbed Fors of most of her power to resist. Once it fully left the oil painting, Fors might even lose control simply from looking directly at it.

In a certain sense, the gap between the two sides was unimaginably vast.

Gradually, Fors’s consciousness also blurred somewhat. She kept feeling that she had awakened, raised her arm, and moved her feet, only to realize in the next thought that it had merely been her own imagination. Her body grew colder and colder, and the sensation of being pinned down by an invisible creature became increasingly obvious.

Fortunately, she had a group of demigods who had provided her with information, allowing her to close her eyes in time and stop looking at the Demon Oil Painting. Otherwise, the consequences would have been unthinkable.

Using meditative techniques to maintain a certain degree of clarity, Fors began a countdown in her heart.

According to the hint Mr. World had given her, she knew that the terrifying creature would need five seconds to fully leave the Demon Oil Painting.

4… 3… 2… When only one second remained, an illusory book appeared in Fors’s eyes. It flipped rapidly, stopping on one of its pages.

1! The instant Fors finished the silent count, she abruptly opened her arms wide.

Around her, peach blossoms instantly drifted down, bright and colorful.

The bluish-black hand that was about to grab her neck suddenly moved away from her, blocked by a flourishing peach forest filled with blooming flowers and separated by a mountain at the end of the water within the forest. It could only attempt to reach outward from a small cave.

This was a fairy-tale magic Fors had Recorded from Madam Hermit.

It was called:

“The Source of Peach Blossoms!”

It could create an isolated barrier that was difficult to connect with from the outside world.

Seizing this opportunity, Fors, who had barely regained control of her body, took out a “Queen” chess piece from Roselle’s chess set from a hidden pocket and threw it toward the source of the peach blossoms, toward the cave through which the stream flowed.

This was another fairy-tale magic she had Recorded.

It was called:

“The Chess Game of Time!”

Its effect was to make the target’s movements slow, as though it had entered a region where the flow of time was different.

Pa. As the “Queen” piece landed, the bluish-black hand that was working hard to break through the Source of Peach Blossoms’ obstruction immediately changed from reaching outward to slowly writhing.

Fors did not even look at the effect. Using an invisible hand, she picked up the Demon Oil Painting inserted into the sand and pushed it toward the cave.

After only a one- or two-second interval, the bluish-black hand returned to normal. Its movements suddenly became extremely fast. It rushed straight out of the peach blossom source and crashed into the oil painting.

Amid a trembling of the painting, the terrifying creature pierced through its surface and fell inside.

Joy surged in Fors’s heart. Without hesitation, she recited the incantation again and closed the Demon Oil Painting’s outer seal.

Good thing that demigod creature had already been imprisoned until it lost control, leaving only madness and no wisdom… I wonder whether, after drinking the potion, I’ll directly hear Mr. Door’s cries… Fors, still mentally tense, took out the bottle of Secrets Sorcerer potion and poured it into her mouth.