Chapter 381 Promotion in the Flame
That night, after hiring a freight carriage to transport the wood and wooden frames to the foot of a sheltered mountain in the suburbs, Angel personally built his own stake. He opened the exquisite little wooden box that could isolate spiritual energy and carefully counted the extraordinary characteristics and spiritual materials inside.
After confirming that everything was correct, she looked at Klein beside her. He had a serious expression on his face. In his left hand, he held an amethyst suspended from a gold chain. The chain was spinning rapidly counterclockwise, indicating that the answer to his divination—whether he could safely pass this promotion—was negative.
Before purchasing the wood and ordering the stake, Klein learned from Angel about the promotion ceremony of the Witch of Pain, and he has maintained this expression ever since.
"A rapid counterclockwise rotation indicates a strong negative response. Your promotion ceremony is extremely dangerous and has a high probability of failure."
Klein spoke slowly, his gaze shifting from Amethyst to Angel's purple eyes.
"But now is the perfect time. We'll be leaving Pritz Harbor by ship, and setting up a stake on board is impossible. Furthermore, the situation at our destination, Bayam, is unclear, and it might be even more dangerous there."
Angel replied with a smile, opened the wooden box he brought, took out the ingredients and utensils and began to prepare his own potion.
"Furthermore, didn't you confirm the correctness of the potion formula and the ritual itself in your previous divination? The danger lies in the method of the ritual. How can being burned by fire not be dangerous?"
She carefully poured 50 ml of a seriously ill patient's blood and 30 ml of a flower-faced bat's blood into the small iron pot, allowing them to submerge the tip of the double-tailed black snake's tail. Finally, she added 10 drops of Eucalyptus Radiata essential oil with a dropper, filling the pot with a unique aroma mixed with fishy and refreshing fragrance.
Finally, she unlocked the bullet box sealed with the spiritual wall, took out the extraordinary characteristic of "Pain", and slid the dark green crystal from the edge of the pot into the dark red liquid.
Bubbles of varying sizes began to emerge from the dark red liquid, and soon it began to boil. The ominous dark red gradually faded, and eventually the changes stopped, forming a small pot of dark green liquid, the color of stagnant water covered with moss.
What a strange color! Did it really work? Angel took out a penny hesitantly and did a simple divination himself, and got the information that the "Pain" potion had been successfully prepared.
Klein, who was standing by, also used the pendulum method to confirm.
Only then did she feel at ease as she transferred the dark green potion into a specially purchased glass bottle that could withstand high temperatures, then put away the other instruments and placed them a little further away from the stake.
After doing all this, she began to take off her clothes, folding them one by one and placing them on the wooden box. After all, it was not a real burning, and she had to return to the port later, so she couldn't burn all her clothes.
Klein took out his pocket watch with his left hand and held the lantern in his right hand. He looked at Angel's gradually exposed fair skin and didn't know where to focus his gaze.
It was not until the latter took off his last piece of underwear and slowly walked to the stake that he took a deep breath and followed, his eyes following Angel's unusually sad and beautiful outline in the crimson moonlight.
"Let's get started."
Angel stood on a crude wooden frame, surrounded by dry, flammable wood. She didn't let Klein help tie her up because, according to her understanding, the purpose of the ritual wasn't to be a "torture by fire," but to use intense pain to reduce the chance of losing control.
Besides, tying people up is to prevent them from escaping, and I won't run away... She thought to herself as she watched Klein walk to the wooden frame, holding up the lantern, his face dimmed by the shadow of his top hat.
"If you can't hold on, then..." He instructed in a low voice, but stopped midway. As Extraordinary people, they both knew that once the ceremony began and the potion was taken, they would either be promoted successfully or die on the spot... or turn into a mindless monster. The latter was something Angel could not accept.
This was also the reason why she had arranged the promotion ceremony in the suburbs. This would prevent the fire from spreading to urban buildings and allow Klein to resolve the problem immediately after she lost control, preventing innocent people from being harmed.
Under Angel's resolute gaze, Klein took a few steps back and threw the lantern onto the pile of wood next to the wooden rack. He snapped his fingers, and the flame in the lantern exploded before it hit the ground, igniting the whale oil that had spilled on the wood.
The cracks in the baked and dried wood absorbed enough grease and were instantly ignited by the high temperature. Thick smoke enveloped Angel, who was standing above, before the flames did, blocking her vision and making everything she saw dark.
Then, starting from the toes, the stinging pain of the flames quickly spread from the legs up, through the body, and reached the brain. Angel gritted her teeth and took a deep breath. The thick smoke and hot air rushed into her trachea and into her lungs. The strong stimulation made her cough, but she inhaled more hot air.
Cough—cough—
She coughed briefly but violently, holding the rose necklace on her chest with one hand - this was the only magical item she currently carried, and the other hand held the glass bottle containing the potion, carefully protecting it in her palm to prevent the liquid inside from spilling out when her body shook violently.
Were all those who were burned at the stake choked to death? As soon as this thought flashed through her mind, the thick smoke in front of her was replaced by an even more intense flame. A strand of blonde hair hanging down from her bangs was instantly ignited by the high temperature and disappeared with sparks.
After that, the pain caused by the high temperature burning suddenly spread throughout her body.
"Woo..."
Angel barely managed a whimper before she swallowed it back into her stomach.
I can't... let Klein worry...
She pursed her lips, closed her eyes, and resisted the urge to summon ice to extinguish the flames. She squatted down on the narrow wooden frame to reduce her contact area with the flames. The rose necklace on her chest tried to repair various parts of her body, especially the burns on the surface of her skin, but the fresh tissue that had just grown was swallowed by the flames in the next second. The new lungs were scorched by the high temperature before they could even take a breath. Only the intense stimulation was transmitted to Angel's brain through the nerves, leaving only one word in her mind.
pain!
Surrounded by flames and severe pain, Angel curled up tightly, estimating the time of the ceremony.
Perhaps his hearing was damaged by the high temperature, the crackling sound of burning wood beside his ear had disappeared at some point, causing Angel to lose track of time.
Knowing she couldn't wait any longer, she brought the equally scorching hot glass bottle to her lips and drank the potion in one gulp.
A cold touch flowed from her mouth into her abdomen, making her feel a little refreshed as she persisted in the flames. But the next second, the chill turned into an even more violent heat wave, burning her limbs from the inside out.
"boom--"
The burning stake collapsed with a loud bang, and Angel felt his body lighten. The severe pain in his body suddenly disappeared, as if the previous burning at the stake was just a scene in a dream.
She opened her eyes in confusion and found that, just like the last time she forcibly used the Beyonder characteristics to advance in the East District, her spirit had left her body and was floating above the fire.
Below, a hairless, charred body slowly rose from the flames, opened its eyes, and turned its expressionless face to the side. Klein, clutching his pocket watch tightly with a tense expression, extended a hand.
The latter looked surprised and took a step forward, as if wanting to pull Angel out of the fire, but he gritted his teeth and forced himself to hold back.
No, that's not what I thought!
Angel in the air suddenly discovered that the eyes of his "body" that opened were not purple, but a deep black, as if they were black after being corroded by flames.
She recalled the feeling of her last promotion, and soon felt the pain transmitted from her body to her spirit again. With the help of this heart-wrenching feeling, she quickly controlled her spirit, which was gradually rising and almost leaving the scene of the burning, and returned to her body below.
Taking control of her body, she immediately retracted the hand that was extending out into the flames, hugged herself, and knelt in the charred ashes, feeling the temperature of the flames that kept licking her body, and remembering this pain firmly in her heart.
…
Anxiously watching the minute hand of his pocket watch reach the predetermined position, Klein quickly kicked over the bucket beside him. The cold river water flowed onto the fire, completely extinguishing the already dwindling flames. The curled-up, charred body in the ashes slowly fell to the ground.
He felt a sharp pain in his chest and quickly took off his windbreaker. He rushed to Angel's side in two steps, wrapped her up carefully, took out the ashes that were sparkling with sparks of fire, placed them on the clean ground beside him, and rested her head in his arms.
"Angel?"
He called softly, and found that his voice was a little distorted due to nervousness.
"Angel!"
He repeated it again, and became increasingly panicked.
The person in his arms moved slowly, and with difficulty opened his eyelids that were almost stuck together. The cloudy eyes gradually became clear, and his purple pupils revealed calmness, not madness.
At least it wasn't the worst case scenario... Klein breathed a sigh of relief and gently helped her up, allowing Angel to use his strength to sit on the windbreaker.
“…”
She opened her mouth to say something, but immediately frowned, and stroked her neck with her hand, whose charred skin had fallen off and new tissue was gradually growing.
"It's okay, don't talk." Klein comforted Angel, whose vocal cords were damaged in the flames. He took out the healing potion he had prepared long ago and helped her drink it, speeding up the effect of the "Rose Necklace" to repair her injuries.
Under the crimson moonlight, Angel's body gradually faded away from the blackened color as if by a miracle, and the new skin had a hint of redness, and seemed to be as delicate as a baby's.
She slowly regained her strength, got up from the ground on her own, moved her limbs, and felt the joy of surviving the flames and the new changes after her promotion.
"Wait... why is my hair so short?"
Angel suddenly discovered that although his waist-length light golden hair had grown again due to the rose necklace, it stopped growing at his shoulders, leaving only about one-third of its original length. His face, which had just shown joy, instantly became a little ugly.
"Is there something wrong with this necklace?"
She murmured as she touched the magical object on her chest.
This sentence made Klein, who had been stern all the time, smile. He slowly hugged Angel, who had survived the ritual, and felt her body stiffen in his arms. He smiled and said:
"It's okay, short ones are cute too."
"It's okay, long ones are cute too."
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