Chapter 320 Summoning Object If it were still in Cordu Village, faced with this kind of thing, Lumian would probably pick up the invitation letter, find the end of the month, go to the "Different" dance hall with a playful attitude, play a big prank, and return all the scares he had just received. But now, having gained some understanding of the world of mysticism and having experienced many anomalies, he flicked his finger, causing a red spark to fly out and land on the black cardboard. In the rapidly expanding firelight, Lumian, holding a carbide lamp, left the quarry cave and walked towards the nearest underground Trier exit. On the way, he doubted this and that, and felt that the moss on the rock wall, the insects in the darkness, and the invisible things in the air had all turned into Monitor's eyes, staring at him motionlessly. This couldn't even be called an illusion, but it made Lumian's mind extremely tense and his heart beat violently. The only thing that comforted him was that Thermopylae did not speak, did not show any anxiety or worry, and the problem did not seem to be serious. A quarter of an hour later, Lumian climbed up the steel stairs and reached the ground. When the clear sunlight penetrated the blue sky and white clouds and shone on his face, he felt like he was finally alive. Phew, no wonder the “Magician” lady said that we should try to live in the sunshine of Trier... Lumian turned off the calcium carbide lamp, identified his location, and returned to White Coat Street. After entering the safe house, the first thing he did was to summon the messenger of the "Magician" lady to tell the holder of the Major Arcana card about the subsequent developments.

The reply from Ms. Magician was very simple: “Well done, away from the ‘different’ cabaret. "Mr. Fool's Time Angel will pay attention to this matter." Mr. Fool's "Angel of Time" would pay attention to the problems of the "Different" dance hall? There really is an "Angel of Time"... The angels believed by the scammers in the "Different" dance hall and Mr. Fool's "Angel of Time" have some degree of connection, or hatred? Lumian thought for a while, but couldn't figure out the specific situation. He temporarily relaxed his mind, fell on the bed, and used sleep to restore his mental and spiritual state. At noon, Lumian casually ate two meat pies, drank a glass of apple sour wine, sat down at the table, and carefully looked through the "Index of Spirit World Creatures". As he read quite quickly, he used a black absorbent pen to circle the targets that he felt were appropriate on the paper from time to time. It took Lumian more than an hour to preliminarily select fifty or sixty spiritual creatures with relatively suitable abilities and low levels of danger. He took out the manuscripts according to the marked pages and began to conduct detailed research. He read for a while, then rested for a while. By the evening, he had finally read through the corresponding manuscript, mastered the knowledge contained in it, and made his final choice: The first is the "abscessed hand". This spiritual creature once left a legend in the central and southern regions - it was summoned by some occult enthusiasts and strangled everyone present. According to on-site records, the deceased were distributed in different places in the woods. Except for those who died first in the hunter's cabin, the time of death of the others was almost exactly the same. This shows that after the "abscessed hand" strangled one person to death, it immediately appeared in front of another target and pinched his neck. Judging from the images presented by dream divination, it was a blue-black severed hand that had rotted to the point of swelling and oozing pus. It would always suddenly appear in front of the victim, break his neck within two or three seconds, and then flash to another victim, even if the two were separated by several hundred meters. It is based on this characteristic of the "swollen severed hand" that Lumian believes that it has a strong ability to "travel through the spirit world." As for its danger level, according to the description of the "magician" lady, it can only be considered as average, and it will be restrained by the power of the summoning ritual itself. However, the holder of the Major Arcana card also specially marked a sentence: "It seems to be a part of a living organism." If there are broken hands, will there be broken legs, heads, torsos, and internal organs? What will happen if they meet each other? If they are reassembled, what will they become? Lumian recalled the process of looking through the index before, and did not find similar creatures. After all, he mainly browsed the abilities, characteristics, and danger levels, and did not pay attention to the corresponding names. Of course, there is another possibility, that is, the remaining part of "Swelling and Broken Hand" belongs to the "Powerful" and "Dangerous" categories and has not been read by Franka, Janna and "Knowledge Rabbit". If the "Swelling and Broken Hand" does not have the "spiritual travel" ability that Lumian expected or requires a price he cannot afford to pay in order to sign the contract, he has several other alternatives. As for the ability to disguise, the spiritual creature he favored was the "Headless Bride": Its legend takes place in the Kingdom of Hagati on the southern continent, and its prototype is a girl who eloped with her lover.

When she and her lover were getting married in private, they were found by her parents and family. Her brother killed her on the spot and cut off her head on the grounds that she had violated the sacred marriage and clan rules. This girl might have been special, or she might have come into contact with things related to the spiritual world while eloping. Therefore, under the catalysis of the pain, unwillingness, resentment, and malicious emotions before her death, she absorbed the power from the spiritual world and turned into a creature similar to an evil spirit. Dressed in a red wedding gown with gold patterns, it madly hunted and cursed its own clan, causing them to encounter all kinds of disasters in the next thirty years until their bloodline was cut off. Today, the "Headless Bride" is active in the spirit world. She will transform into different appearances, lure surrounding creatures and passing "travelers" to approach, and kill them. For the "arsonist", this is a target that can be dealt with under the protection of ritual. The alternative to "Headless Bride" is "Human Face Mantis": “This is a unique spiritual creature who was a playboy with great manners and looks when he was alive. “He is a teacher in the Sen area of ​​Honachis Province under the Republic of Intis, and is loved and sought after by ladies. “He had a literary talent, was good at writing poetry, and had a large number of lovers. “This kind of life continued until one lady’s spouse reported him to the church as a witch who used witchcraft to control his wife. "Investigators sent by the Church of the Eternal Sun questioned a large number of local men, and the answers they received were similar to the content of the report letter. However, most of these men did not know each other and had never had any contact with each other. "On the contrary, the ladies and girls all thought they were doing it voluntarily and tried their best to defend the playboy. "Amid the dissatisfaction of the local men, the trial ended quickly and the playboy was sent to the stake. "In a subsequent review, the authorities confirmed that Playboy was not a wizard, and all the accusations were based on collective jealousy and hatred. “It is said that there is an ‘instigator’ involved in this matter. "After the playboy died, he turned into a mantis with a human face in the spirit world. He hated everything and was good at transformation and hunting..." Lumian was quite moved by these two pieces of information. Having lived in the countryside for almost six years, he could indeed feel that the villagers were ignorant in some aspects. This also made him realize that not all spiritual creatures come from nature. Under special circumstances, dead humans can also be transformed into long-lasting spiritual creatures. This may be the reason why some places are haunted. After repeated consideration, Lumian gave up the "invisibility" and "hiding" abilities, leaving the last contract spot for the traits that can directly affect spirits. His two alternatives are "Thousand-Eyed Thing" and "Screaming Shadows". Both of these creatures are "natives" of the spirit world and only occasionally appear in certain terrifying dreams and the notes of real wizards. The "Thousand-Eyed Evil" is made up of pieces of flesh and blood oozing pink liquid, and each piece has an eye without eyelashes. When the figures are reflected in the black pupils of thousands of white eyeballs, no matter whether the target is a human, a beast, or a creature with only a spirit left, they will quickly fall asleep and enter a deep sleep. The Thousand-Eyed Thing is also related to dreams, and has been seen at the deepest and most frightening levels of recorded horror dreams. The "Screaming Shadows" are a large group of transparent shadows that blend together. They scream frequently, making creatures that approach them fall into a coma. Aside from the scream, they have all the qualities of a normal shadow. Lumian copied all the information about the potential targets onto new pieces of paper, folded them, and put them in his pocket. He stayed at the Breeze Ballroom for a while, and then left Market Avenue around ten o'clock in the evening, went around to Lister Wharf, and entered the two-story building he had burned down.

The fire here had long been put out, and the house was dark and empty. Lumian considered that this time he was asking Mr. Fool to witness the contract instead of the being named Fate, so he did not plan to go underground to summon him, in order to avoid running into those weird and dangerous scammers in the Different Dance Hall again. All he needed to do was to choose a relatively secluded place where no one was around. That way, even if something went wrong during the ritual and the summoned creatures got out of control, it would not affect the surroundings, allowing him to resolve the issue calmly. Lumian simply cleaned up the environment in a relatively intact room deep in the dark building and set up the altar. According to the knowledge of the "contracted person", he did not summon in the name of "self", but lit two additional candles symbolizing the gods. Mr. Fool will be the object of prayer and witness of this ceremony. After creating the "spiritual wall", lighting the candles, and dripping essential oils and hydrosols, Lumian did not rush to recite the spell, but took out an iron-gray military wine flask from the inside pocket of his brown jacket. The inside of the mouth of this military flask is inlaid with a thin rope added by Lumian, the other end of which is connected to the "decent" brooch sunk in the absinthe. This design ensures that Lumian can quickly and accurately remove the sealed object without having to pour out the wine to search for it or feel around inside with two fingers. Lumian hooked his index finger, and the gorse brooch was pulled up quickly. Red sparks flew out and broke the knot at the other end of the seal. Lumian put on the golden "respectable" brooch on his chest without hesitation. He felt that paying a price to sign a contract with spiritual creatures was itself a form of "bribery", and that "decency" might play a certain role in this scenario. After pinning the brooch, Lumian looked at the three candles burning quietly, took a deep breath, and prepared to perform the ceremony. (End of this chapter)