Chapter 100 Spell Card: Shadow Cloak

Aiwass didn't expect that Yulia would react so strongly after he returned home after only being at school for a week.

But Yulia's will was strong and resolute. After meeting Aiwass, she wouldn't let him leave, clinging to him constantly, asking him to tell her about the people he met and the things he encountered at school. Her reasons were also very reasonable, leaving Aiwass speechless.

Yulia asked him, "Is school such a dangerous place? Why did my brother encounter two assassination attempts in just one week?"

What she said was so right that Aiwass didn't know how to explain it for a moment.

Aiwass had no choice but to sit by her bed and talk to Yulia about what had happened throughout the week.

As she spoke, Yulia couldn't help but yawn slightly.

Yulia's biological clock is comparable to that of an elementary school student. She can only stay up late when she's reading or studying, and usually has to get ready for bed around 9 o'clock.

Yulia has a very good brain, but she usually can't go out, so she can only read books quietly at home.

Like Aiwass, who was obsessed with demonology but had a talent for devotion, Yulia was also interested in and talented in the occult, but her focus was more on astrology, alchemy, and preservation—her talent for alchemy was much higher than Aiwass's.

Although Moriarty Manor contained numerous occult books, the nine paths were not balanced. The Path of Beauty, the Path of Transcendence, and the Path of Twilight all contained little occult knowledge, while the Path of Balance, the Path of Wisdom, and the Path of Authority contained much more.

Especially the Path of Balance... Old Moriarty seemed to be a transcendent of the Path of Balance, but he had never demonstrated alchemy in front of his adopted children. Therefore, Aiwass did not know his specific level.

——If it weren't for the phantom demon living in her body that delayed Yulia and prevented her from going to school normally, perhaps Yulia would have skipped grades and become Aiwass's senior.

But even so, Yulia still longed for school.

One of the reasons Aiwass had decided not to go to college was because Yulia envied him so much—she clearly would have gotten much higher grades than Aiwass if she had gone to school. This made Aiwass feel a bit distressed at the time, so he simply decided not to go to school and stayed home to study with her.

And now, Aiwass has returned with his college experiences.

Of course, Yulia didn't want to sleep, so she sat under the quilt, trying hard to chat with Aiwass for a while.

But seeing his sister was a little sleepy, Aiwass used the lullaby he'd learned from Isabel and easily lulled her, despite her fluttering eyelids, to sleep. Aiwass wasn't at the Path of Beauty level, so his lullaby didn't possess any mystical power. Yulia was truly lulled to sleep by his gentle singing.

Last night, Aiwass had only intended to check on Yulia's health, to see if the Flame-Butterfly had awakened. Instead, Yulia detained him. He also enjoyed this relaxing exchange. The sense of peace he felt while being with his family relaxed his frayed nerves.

Edward's seal was in good condition, and the card Aiwass had given Yulia to cultivate was gradually regaining some spirituality. If nothing unexpected happened, the Flame-Butterfly should have recovered by this time next week—by then, Aiwass could begin preparing to seal it.

But he didn't intend to seal it before he advanced beyond the Tao.

Because the Flame-Rebellious Butterfly is a phantom demon dedicated to the path of Taoism, with pure fire attributes and no trace of darkness.

Although both the seal and the summoning originated from rituals of the Transcendent Path, its inherent power belonged to the Path of Devotion. Therefore, this was a power that Aiwass could wield openly as a priest, a power that could be displayed publicly. It was also a trump card Aiwass could use openly and publicly—in stark contrast to the shameful Shadow Fiend.

Therefore, it is best for Aiwas's other identity to not use this power in the advancement ceremony, as this may cause a leak.

Sealing the Flame-Bearing Butterfly before advancing would only cause trouble for himself. The Crescent Moon Ritual was already difficult, and Aiwass was cautious, not wanting to add unnecessary difficulty to himself.

If Yulia's condition was not good, Aiwass would have forced the seal despite the greatly increased difficulty. But since the seal was in good condition now, he could wait until it was advanced before sealing it.

Next Sunday night, the Transcendent Path Ceremony will take place. The day after the advancement is complete, Aiwass will seal the Rebellious Flame Butterfly that night.

——But next week, Aiwass will have to deal with those people from the Noble Red Society first.

They used higher-level demons to assassinate him in public, and even suspected of attacking Sherlock... Maybe they will come a second time, or use other means to attack Aiwass.

So Aiwass directly upgraded his Demonologist class from level 6 to level 9, and his dark attribute mana pool also became 9 points:

Demonologist LV9: [Demonology - Level 2 (97%)], [Basic Ritual - Level 2 (0%)], [Demon Contract - Level 3 (80%)], [Shepherding (Essence) - Level 2 (0%)]

The levels of "Demonology" and "Demon Contract" can be slightly delayed, and can be directly increased by two levels after promotion. As long as Aiwass stops reading the Demonology book, this skill will not continue to increase - and as long as he uses the power of the Shadow Demon, the level of Demon Contract will slowly increase.

Following the same process he'd used to create "Enchantment Card: Shadow Blade," Aiwass returned to his room and prepared an unactivated tarot card with four mana points stored. He then immediately went to bed, planning to wake up early the next morning to replenish his mana and then proceed directly to create the card.

He now plans to create a new "Moon" card.

Only one Phantom card created from the same Tarot deck can be used in a single day. However, Shadow Fiend is not a higher-level Phantom; it is only compatible with the Moon Tarot card, while higher-level Phantoms have multiple possibilities. This means that if a new card extracted from Shadow Fiend is used, the old "Shadow Blade" cannot be used that day.

But Aiwass now feels more and more that the Shadow Blade may not be able to handle all situations - for example, when fighting against the deformed limb demon before, the Shadow Blade became meaningless.

Aiwass woke up after only seven hours of sleep. Seven hours of sleep was enough to restore his mana to full.

It was half past five. The first thing Aiwas did when he got up was to go to the table and pick up the half-finished phantom card he had made.

Aiwass hammered the rusty nail into the card, making a sour creaking sound. Including the blank card, this was Aiwass's third card. He was gradually becoming proficient in it.

Since both Moon cards are made with Shadow Fiend, the previous steps are exactly the same. However, the final mana injection is different, resulting in completely different attributes for the resulting Phantom Fiend card.

Ten points or more of dark attribute mana can be used to create a "Spell Card: Shadow Cloak", twenty points or more can be used to create a "Spell Card: Shadow Blast", and thirty points can be used to create a "Field Card: Shadow Cellar".

Shadow Vault is the most useful card for Shadow Fiends. It temporarily transforms the surrounding space into an enclosed, shadow-filled area, forcing a dominant position in areas where shadows are scarce. Within the Shadow Vault, even the Holy Light summoned by Illuminate becomes extremely dim, extinguishing all non-mystical light sources, including torches, candles, and lamps.

In this area, Shadow Fiends can move at high speed, mimic their forms freely, and gain continuous bonuses to all attributes, without being bound by Aiwass's shadow. This is equivalent to entering a burst state.

Therefore, once Aiwass can craft the "Venue Card: Shadow Vault", he will basically not use Shadow Blade. This can only be achieved when his Demonologist reaches level 19.

After all, Aiwass wasn't a true Sin Scholar, capable of directly transforming wild Phantoms into Phantom Cards. Currently, Aiwass could only bully the Shadow Fiends he'd contracted with. Since there was only one chance per day, he could forgo any skills he could acquire through normal class abilities.

"Shadow Blast" is a pure killing spell with no other effects except damage.

For pure damage, other spells can also do the trick, even Shadow Blade combined with a pistol isn't ineffective. Its advantage lies in its instantaneous cast... and this advantage only becomes apparent after a large number of different tarot cards are drawn. That way, Aiwass can instantly reveal several different Phantom cards, creating a beautiful, hands-off burst.

But in Avalon, Aiwass did not dare to use this pure shadow power to attack people; and in the ceremony, Aiwass could directly let the shadow demon take action - so the twenty-point "Shadow Blast" was not as useful as the "Shadow Cloak" made with ten mana points.

It can even be said that even though Shadow Pit greatly benefits Shadow Fiend... in PVP, the card slot for "Moon" still has to be reserved for Shadow Cloak.

Soon, Aiwass had finished the deck. The only step left was to ask Hengwo to imbue the new tarot cards with spirituality.

Unlike before, Aiwass was now a full-fledged priest. He no longer had to sit there in awe after sprinkling the black pearl powder, silently waiting for Heng to discover this ritual... He could simply tap the Pillar of Love through the window. This would also prevent card crafting failures.

"I worship Hengwo, the God whose holy number is one, the God who gives birth after death, the God who sees the long-awaited and the blind—Hengwo, like the moon!"

A golden-red light shone in Aiwas's pupils. He placed his hands on the tarot cards and prayed earnestly, "Please give me love!"

——Is the boss here? Can you take a look?

It was not yet fully light, so I responded to the prayer quite quickly.

Soon, a gentle breeze started to blow through the room, enough to slightly lift the dead leaves on the ground.

As the wind blew, the shadow under Aiwass was pulled out bit by bit like a piece of marshmallow.

"...What kind of power is this?! What's going on?"

The Shadow Demon's stunned voice rang out beside Aiwass: "Why can you directly drain my power——"

It wanted to become a human, but collapsed in an instant; it tried to mimic a hound, but then the shadow that constituted its mimicry was blown away by the gloomy wind - it kept boiling and evaporating on the ground.

What kind of technology is this? What kind of mysterious art is this?

The last time Aiwass made the phantom card, the shadow demon did not wake up.

It only vaguely sensed that Aiwass had drained some of its power. But because that power was so weak, it didn't feel anything. Although it knew that the card contained a part of its own aura, the Shadow Fiend didn't know how Aiwass had done it.

But this time, Aiwass was not in a wheelchair during the card making process. Shadow Fiend was fully awake and watched the entire process.

——It had never heard that a demon scholar could directly extract the power of his contracted demon by praying to the Nine Pillars of God!

Are you a demonologist or a priest?

Soon, Shadow Demon caught a familiar smell from this breath:

"Is this... a ritual of [mortal sin]?"

As a demon, it certainly knew this celestial being who governed almost all demons.

This ritual undoubtedly came from the primordial beast—His other name was the Fallen Angel. Feared by demons as the Great Sin, he was the Angel who governed concepts like corruption and sin.

Sin is at least a top-three Celestial Official on the Path of Transcendence, with only Ouroboros to surpass him. Because Sin once rebelled against the Serpent Father and was subsequently defeated, his records in the material world have been largely erased by the Serpent Father's followers. Only fragments of the "Fallen Angel" can be found in the profound lore of demonology.

Only then did Shadow Fiend realize that Aiwass was not completely ignorant of the Fallen Angel - he did not just hear the name and know that it was the Angel who governed the demons, and then promised it that he would kill the Fallen Angel in the future.

Not only does Aiwass have sufficient knowledge of the Fallen Angels... he can even use his rituals!

——He is serious!

What a pure and arrogant desire for transcendence!

This made the Shadow Demon excited and trembling, but also made him feel extremely uneasy - is it really possible for a mortal to defeat Tiansi?

For the first time, Shadow Fiend genuinely worried about Aiwass's safety. It wasn't out of loyalty, but rather that he was afraid he would be too reckless, provoke an enemy he couldn't defeat, and suffer a meaningless defeat.

The essence of transcendence is rebellion, but the premise of rebellion is victory. Otherwise, it is just rebellion.

The Shadow Demon felt that almost one-fifth of his power had been drained away before the ritual finally stopped.

The card that looked almost identical to Shadow Blade floated up by itself and landed in Aiwas's hand.

Its attributes also emerged before Aiwass's eyes:

[Spell: Shadow Cloak (Moon)]

[Necessary: ​​Dark 1]

【Instant, contactless, effective immediately】

[Effect: Knocks back all surrounding targets, immediately freeing you from any seal, freeze, burn, bind, or petrification, and entering complete invisibility for one minute (+30%). When this invisibility is broken, a curse is placed on all hostile targets that are in sight of you, with an effect equivalent to the "Blinding Curse."]

(End of this chapter)