บท 23: Organization

As Ethan left the abandoned building sealed from his rituals, he briefly heaved a sigh of relief. 'That was very dangerous. If I hadn't used the ritual to offer sacrifices to the Abyss, I might have died from that guy's use of that ring.'

Ethan had put a total of three ritualistic spells in place during his preparations.

One of them was a sealing spell that would immediately seal the whole building from the outside world, interfering with divination and any attempt of entering or leaving.

The second one was a protection spell that would activate when he said the necessary incantation in ancient Hermes, protecting him from most damage directed at him.

While the third one was the most powerful, but dangerous one. It was a ritual he received from the knowledge of Sullivus that could contact the Abyss, sending sacrifices to the place for any devils that heard the request.

Ethan had not used the ritual in its original form, he changed the necessary parts that would contact other devils so that it would just send the sacrifice to a random part of the Abyss.

However, even when altered, the ritual was still very dangerous. This was because the whole place was being controlled by an evil god.

Ethan didn't know that before receiving Sullivus memories, but there was a powerful entity known as Devil Monarch Farbauti in the Abyss.

He was the king of all devils and controlled the place, taking it as his own divine kingdom. However, Farbauti had been corrupted by a strange entity after turning the Abyss into his divine kingdom; he was even fighting such corruption right at this moment.

The entity that corrupted Farbauti was called- "Mother Tree of Desire."

Sullivus didn't know much about this hidden entity, he just knew it was very powerful and could corrupt even the ancient god Farbauti.

That's why contacting the Abyss was very dangerous right now, as any connection to the place might have been directly felt by the powerful entity.

'The good thing is that the ritual I used would establish a very weak sacrificial connection with the place. So weak, it was like a drop of water in an ocean filled with tsunamis.' After leaving Willowgate street, Ethan went back to his house in North Borough.

That ritual to contact the Abyss required sacrifices even before it took effect, as they were needed to even allow for the ritual to begin.

Ethan had used the twenty or so tramps as sacrifices at the time. First turning them into monstrosities, before allowing them to be killed and finally initiating the sacrificial process.

It was the actual target that began the ritualistic process by killing those monstrous creatures.

…

When he got home, Ethan sat at his leather sofa and started to use divination to ascertain the effects of the two Sealed Artifacts he now possessed.

The first one was the black broadsword: It had the power to change its shape to many different weapons, and its wielder would have a Grandmaster level of proficiency in all of them. It could also change its weight at will, exert powerful pressure naturally, and have a sharpness of varying degrees.

It had the negative effect that its wielder would become obsessed with learning new martial arts with all kinds of weapons. Such obsession could even evolve into an addiction of stupendous proportions, making the wielder forsake everything, even their own lives, for new weapons and martial mastery.

The second artifact was the black ring engraved with a bluish-red sapphire: It had the power to record up to eighteen Low Sequence Beyonder powers, five Mid-Sequence ones, and two demigod level powers. Every power could only be used once.

After long uses of it, the wielder would start to easily get lost and not be able to control his own spirituality with ease. If all the powers recorded were used in a single go, it was possible for the wielder to get so lost he would never be able to return to his place of origin. As long as you used the artifact, you would hear painful ravings during the full moon, easily leading to a loss of control.

'For a Devil to actually dare use this artifact… was he truly mentally ill?' Devil's were extremely corrupted existences, that's why it would be incredibly easy to lose control as one.

For a Devil to use an artifact that would make them more easily lose control during full moons? It was pure suicide.

Ethan stopped analyzing the artifacts he received and went to take a bath. After that, he clothed himself in another set of luxurious black clothes and left his house.

…

Aurora Order's underground market, Alchemist's Hut.

Ethan looked at the young, masked teen in front of him and said with his cold voice, "The target has been dealt with."

The youngster looked at him with unsurprised smiling eyes and said, "As I predicted. Since you're here to tell me this, I imagine you want something, correct?"

Ethan's voice was still calm and emotionless as he replied, "I want to buy more ingredients from you. I'm here to give you the list directly."

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I can't sell ingredients for you anymore…" The youngster's eyes showed a hint of disappointment as he said that.

Ethan was confused for a half a second before understanding the reason.

No organization would allow for the youngster to keep selling Sequence 8 and 7 ingredients to a random customer like he did. Every organization had a limited number of such resources after all.

So it could be said the tall teen in front of him was going against the rules by selling him so many important ingredients.

Thinking this, Ethan's disappointment was evident in his posture. As the young teen saw that, he once again replied, this time with his signature enthusiasm, "But you know what? I could still sell some ingredients if you joined us!

Ethan looked at him for a second before replying, "I don't have an interest in joining any organizations."

"But think about it! You are a mysticism researcher, correct? We from the Alchemist's Hut are also mysticism researchers! We could offer you as many ingredients as you wanted if you joined us!!"

The youngster was even more enthusiastic than he ever was before, like a salesman desperately trying to sell his last product.

"What kind of organization… What is the purpose of your organization?" Ethan asked this question with an answer already in mind.

"As I said, we are researchers of all matters related to mysticism, this branch is specifically related to potions and different kinds of ingredients."

"Branch?

"Yes! Our Alchemist's Hut is just a branch from another organization!!"

With the teen in front of him becoming more and more enthused, Ethan couldn't help but think of the implications his words possessed.

'If the Alchemist's Hut is just a branch of another organization, how powerful is that organization specifically?'

After a few seconds of thought, he opened his mouth to say, "If I join… Will I have to do any missions or work? Like what you do here?"

"Well, if you want to! But don't worry, as long as you share some of your research with the other members, no one will ask you to do anything."

'But I have no research…' While thinking that, Ethan began seriously considering his next actions.

'I need to advance all Sequence 8 Pathways before becoming a Sequence 6, this means that advancing without any help will become impossibly difficult from this point forward.'

'And if I join this organization by pretending I'm some kind of mysticism researcher, getting all the ingredients and formulas that I need will become incredibly easy.'

Having thought to this point, he said, "And how would I join this organization?"

"You have proved your worth by taking care of that Devil! As long as you agree, I can take you to our headquarters to become a member!"

Ethan thought for some more seconds before slowly nodding.

"Perfect!!! Having such an experienced researcher like you will be a great addition to our Alchemist's Hut!" The youngster's voice seemed to reach impossible heights, his enthusiasm as deep as the seas.

As Ethan pondered if his decision was the correct one, he saw the young teen take out a bluish-silver crest that was filled with hundreds of different runes and symbols.

"This is the key all members receive to be able to reach the headquarters!" The bluish-silver crest was like a jumbled mess of too many words of hundreds of different languages.

Looking at the crest, Ethan couldn't understand any of the runic circles engraved on it, he couldn't even understand what use it would have.

"With this key, all members can access the headquarters from anyplace on the planet! As long as it isn't sealed, of course!"

As he heard that, Ethan couldn't help but wonder how the crest could achieve such a thing, 'Is it enchanted with the powers of a Traveler?'

With the knowledge he received from Sullivus, he understood almost all Pathways up to Sequence 5, only a handful he could understand up to Sequence 6 only.

He kept looking at the crest and tried to understand how it worked, but the young teen was faster and started explaining things to him, "I imagine you would think it has the power to achieve a Door of Teleportation effect through the spirit world, correct?"

He still had the ability to predict Ethan's behavior with ease, "However, you would be wrong. The kind of effect it creates is completely different."

As he said that, he gestured for Ethan to follow him. Ethan started walking and soon followed the young teen out of the underground market, returning to Backlund once again.

He looked at Ethan and calmly said, "It would be disrespectful to the Aurora Order to use the key while inside."

Ethan kept following the teen and soon came to a medium-sized terrace house in Hillston Borough. Going inside, Ethan realized this was most probably the young teen's house.

'Is he far too self-confident or purely insane?' To bring a random person to one's house, one that he had actually found in an underground market even, was madness.

He walked inside and kept talking to Ethan, "This is just one of my residences, I don't mind showing it to you."

Having spoken like reading Ethan's mind, the young teen walked up to the living room and sat on the sofa, gesturing for Ethan to do the same.

After Ethan sat down, the young teen put the bluish-silver crest atop the coffee table and said, "I'll recite the incantation to activate the key, you may do so after me."

Ethan, with certain levels of suspicion, slightly nodded. With that, the teen started speaking in ancient Feysac:

"High Council;

"I implore in my name! Hear my plea! Send me to your kingdom!"

As the teen said that, the bluish-silver crest shone with a strong blue light, firing a beam of energy at the youth. Ethan, relying on his spiritual perception, could see that the teen's Spirit Body had left his Ether Body.

He thought for many seconds, divined the danger ahead and even analyzed the crest for some more time, before finally saying the same words as the teen.

And with this, his Spirit Body also left his Ether Body, traveling through a world of infinitely stacked colors.