Steam Age: I Fight Against Divine Authority with Otherworldly Tales

Chapter 97 A Special Ritual

On the dimly lit street, a broken kerosene lamp lay on the ground, a small flame flickering.

The figure standing behind the flames was Victor Hamilton. Faced with Suren's provocation, he simply sighed and said, "Sometimes being too perceptive isn't a good thing."

However, Suren was not idle either. When Victor spoke, Suren had already raised his arm and activated his secret technique.

A shadowy tentacle arrived in an instant and entered Victor's consciousness. Victor instantly felt that his "source knowledge" was somewhat sluggish, and the node in his mind belonging to "forced exchange" turned gray. He lost control of it!

However, Victor was only surprised for a moment before regaining his composure. He quickly raised his right hand, and two refined alchemical bombs flew towards Suren.

However, two earthen walls rose from the stone road, blocking the trajectory of the alchemical bomb.

As the alchemical bomb struck the earthen wall, a deafening explosion rang out, rubble scattered everywhere, leaving only the broken earthen wall behind.

At that moment, a shadow appeared behind Victor, and a dark arc flashed across the face, about to slit Victor's throat.

Victor nimbly sidestepped, and with a perfectly executed movement, braced himself with one hand on the ground, performing a side somersault to create distance.

Etherine was relentless and took a step forward to engage Victor in combat.

But at that moment, an orange light flashed from Victor's hand, and with a "whoosh," Etherine leaned back and narrowly dodged the invisible blade of energy in front of her.

The orange light in Victor's hand reappeared, as if he wanted to continue the pursuit.

At that moment, two gunshots rang out, and Victor hurriedly ducked, barely dodging Suren's shot.

At that moment, Victor slapped his waist with his right hand and snapped his fingers with his left. The air in front of him distorted, and he vanished completely.

The flames from the kerosene lamps had gone out, plunging the entire street into darkness.

Even more strangely, the surrounding sounds seemed to be half swallowed up, and not a sound could be heard at all.

Without hesitation, the "Tears of Ellie" on his chest flashed, and a ball of flame spread around him, illuminating his surroundings.

He carefully observed his surroundings, remaining calm, and began to analyze the information Victor had just revealed.

'Victor Hamilton is already at the orange-yellow rank, but judging from his performance, he is still an Awakened.'

"He's clearly just an 'equivalent exchange' superhuman, yet he can fight Etherin with sheer physical strength. He must have paid some kind of price beforehand..."

"Moreover, he can attack with wind blades and even conceal himself simply by relying on matter conversion. I underestimated the strength of those with the ability of equivalent exchange."

Suren pondered inwardly, a sense of感慨 creeping over him: 'Indeed, there are differences even among extraordinary individuals. Even among those who engage in equivalent exchange, this Victor is on a completely different level from Edmund.'

As Suren pondered, the surroundings remained quiet, with only Suren's shadow flickering in the firelight.

Although Victor was nowhere to be found, the feeling of having his life force drained remained, and even the flesh and blood in Suren's arm were writhing, as if trying to detach from his body.

Just as Suren was about to do something, a sudden change occurred!

A sharp hissing sound rang out, and an invisible blade of energy pierced through Suren's chest!

At that moment, two meters behind Suren, the air distorted, revealing Victor's figure, his hands emitting an orange-yellow light.

To Victor's surprise, Suren, who had been pierced by the air blade, did not bleed at all.

"Oh no!"

A thought flashed through his mind, but before Victor could react, a cold light appeared beneath his feet, and then an ice spike pierced his calf, blood gushing from the wound.

What horrified Victor even more was that a row of disgusting white buds were growing from the wound, constantly devouring his life force.

He endured the excruciating pain and forcibly pulled his leg out. Just as he was about to twist the air again, two black arcs of light flashed past behind him, splattering two brilliant sprays of blood on his back.

He stepped back and landed right on a puddle. Before he could react, a revolver was pressed against the back of his head.

"How did he get behind me! What is this Karen...?"

This was Victor's last thought.

With Victor's death, the surrounding tranquility vanished instantly, allowing Suren and Etherine to return to the noisy world.

And that eerie feeling of losing life force also disappeared.

Looking at Victor's corpse in front of her, Suren couldn't help but sigh, "It's a good thing you were here, otherwise it would have been quite difficult for me to kill him by myself."

"Of course, that's assuming we don't use the evil spirit in the mirror," Suren silently added in his mind.

Etherine nodded slightly. Victor's combat awareness was indeed among the strongest she had ever seen. She sighed and said:

"Unfortunately, those in the orange-yellow tier can easily enter the rank of Agent with just a little effort. If he were an Agent, the two of us might..."

Suddenly, Suren thought of Leonard, who had also reached the orange-yellow level, and asked in confusion, "The black-haired girl who was with you before was also at the orange-yellow level. Doesn't that mean that through her sharing, you can cultivate a large number of orange-yellow superhumans?"

But Suren knew this was impossible, because if it were possible, then the Etherin in front of him wouldn't only be a Blue-tier.

"The essence of extraordinary power is borrowing; that's what Teacher Elisa told me."

Etherine paused, a hint of confusion on her face: "According to the teacher, one must fully understand the principle of borrowing in order to enter the Orange-Yellow realm. And that feeling is so mysterious and profound that those who enter the Orange-Yellow realm cannot describe it in words; they can only comprehend it themselves."

"Borrow?" Suren felt as if she had grasped some of the truth, but she couldn't understand the meaning behind it.

"Wait a minute, if that's really the case, then why could Leonard advance to the Orange-Yellow rank through the manuscript? Is it simply because he's a genius?"

Suren pondered to himself, but couldn't come up with any clues.

Looking at the pensive Suren, Aiselin asked in confusion, "Compared to that, your abilities are even stranger, aren't they? Illusion, spatial teleportation, and powerful misdirection abilities—it's like a patchwork of many extraordinary abilities. I've never seen so many different domains of abilities in a single extraordinary being."

"And what was that tentacle-like shadow you had before?"

Suren shrugged, not intending to answer Etherine's questions, and instead squatted down to begin examining Victor's body.

"I knew it."

Etherine sighed helplessly, feeling rather annoyed.

Suren smiled inwardly, finding Etherine's reaction quite amusing.

The shadowy tentacles and the illusion of Suren being pierced were both secret techniques created by Suren through [Secret Manifestation].

[Core Secret: To maintain absolute rule, the Church has systematically eliminated alien races, locked down technology, and erased all historical traces that could potentially shake divine authority since its founding → Secret Level: B] This secret corresponds to the former and can seal one of the abilities of superhumans or demons.

The latter was created through secret knowledge related to the evil spirit in the mirror; it was simply a mirror image clone.

"Unfortunately, those shadow tentacles could only target and seal abilities I was aware of. If I didn't have a deep understanding of the superhumans I was exchanging favors with, I would have had to rely on luck to randomly seal one ability, and it would most likely be ineffective against superhumans stronger than me."

Suren muttered to himself, his hands never stopping.

Victor didn't have any valuables on him, not even many gold pounds.

He only had a pocket watch and the "bridge of the dead" that formed after his death.

Suren carefully examined the pocket watch, which should be the item Victor used to create the Tranquil Realm. Unfortunately, it seemed to be damaged due to excessive use.

Suren offered the "Bridge of the Dead" to Etherine, since he already had Edmund's Bridge of the Dead. As awakened beings who were both exchanging equivalents, the effects of the bridges of the dead were the same.

Aiselin didn't stand on ceremony and put away the spirit bridge. She looked at Victor's corpse and said with some doubt, "Why did this mayor attack us? And he's a superhuman who engages in equivalent exchange, so why does he have the ability to extract life force?"

"First, he didn't want us to continue investigating and expose his secrets. Second, he killed Billy Slade, and not knowing if I knew the truth, he didn't dare gamble, so he had to act." Suren snorted coldly, took a torch from his ring, lit it with Ellie's Tear, and illuminated the dim street. "I reckon Henry and the others have been attacked as well."

"Didn't you say that was made by old Tom?" Etherine asked, somewhat puzzled.

Suren shrugged, then looked at Etherine seriously and said, "Oh, I was just kidding. Old Tom was just an accomplice."

Upon hearing this, Aiselin was furious. She raised her hand, thought for a moment, and then lowered it, only able to express her protest with a cold snort.

Suren didn't take it seriously. He raised his torch, walked to the statue, and solemnly said to the sculpture of Hamilton's ancestor, "As for the source of that power that causes life to fade, that is it."

Seeing that Etherine was still somewhat puzzled, Suren handed her the torch and then took out Edmund's "Spirit Bridge," which had already been purified by the "Evil in the Mirror."

After being promoted to Awakener, Suren's tolerance for corruption has increased. Including the corruption accumulated before, Suren can still cast "Mirror Demon" about ten times, which greatly improves his margin for error.

For Suren now, the corrosive effects of using the "Mirror Demon" to erase the Spirit Bridge's side effects are perfectly acceptable.

With one hand holding the Spirit Bridge and the other pressing against the statue, Suren pried open the power of the [Equivalent Exchange - Material Layer] within the Spirit Bridge.

"The speed of transformation is related to the level of understanding of this substance, so I can't, like Victor, freely convert gases or even control air pressure to create wind blades. However, simply transforming the physical form of the statue is quite simple."

After a moment's thought, Suren's hand glowed with a pale blue light, and the statue shattered into pieces, falling sparsely to the ground.

He swept away the dust with a gentle wave, revealing the ground that had been hidden by the statue.

Etherine held up her torch and looked closer, only to find that there was a Libra Church magic circle drawn on the ground!

Recalling Suren's earlier search for the statues, she couldn't help but exclaim, "Could it be that every single statue has a magic circle drawn beneath it?"

"If I'm not mistaken, that should be it."

As Suren responded, she rummaged through the rubble for something.

Immediately, his eyes lit up, and he took an item out of the rubble. When Etherine looked closely, she found it was a piece of amber, but its surface was already full of cracks, and it seemed that it would shatter at any moment.

Suren examined the amber before him carefully, then said with a cold laugh, "This is an extraordinary material! And its internal properties have been completely drained. I was right, someone in Verdu really did hold a massive, complex ritual!"

"You mean those people who went missing in Verdu before..." Etherine understood Suren's implied meaning.

Suren nodded, and said somewhat gravely, "I'm afraid those who have gone missing are the very materials for the ritual itself..."

Aiselin was somewhat shocked. She blurted out, "What was the purpose of sacrificing so many lives?"

Suren simply shook his head, but he already knew the answer in his heart—the Philosopher's Stone. However, he still had one question:

According to Professor De Went, isn't life devoid of observable value? If so, how can the ritual of equivalent exchange proceed?

"Perhaps there's a way to bypass value judgments? Or is the professor actually hiding something from me?"

Suren turned to look at the dead Victor and said softly:

"I'm afraid the so-called 'Bloody Mary' from 20 years ago was also a fake, just a smokescreen for the second ritual."

Perhaps due to the lack of extraordinary materials, or perhaps because Victor himself wasn't very proficient in this ritual, the life force extracted was limited to the flesh, resulting in an effect similar to Bloody Mary's murders.

Etherine was puzzled: "But what about Bloody Marys in other cities? Surely other cities aren't also performing similar rituals?"

"I'm not so sure about that. Maybe there really is such a thing as Bloody Mary." Suren sighed. The question raised by Aiselin was indeed a very obvious loophole, and he really couldn't explain it completely.

He put the items away, then took the torch from Athena's hand and said, "In any case, this is just my speculation. My supernatural abilities can only provide some vague images; I am not omniscient. The truth behind this matter may only be known to those involved."

Suren erased the magic circle beneath the statue and then used [Information Shackles] to mislead people about what happened during that time.

After confirming that he would not be tracked, he said nothing more, set Victor's body on fire, and then walked towards the inn with a torch in hand.

As Etherine watched Suren's series of actions, she couldn't help but admire his cautious and meticulous approach.

Suren's calmness, composure, and imaginative thinking during this incident also left a deep impression on her.

After all, being able to unravel a jumble of clues is quite impressive, regardless of one's actual ability to do so.

'This is probably why Mother wants him to join...' Etherine thought to herself.

At this moment, Suren had no idea what Etherine was thinking; many questions still lingered in his mind:

Was the Philosopher's Stone truly successfully forged in the ceremony of 863?

Why did Victor kill Billy?

What's hidden behind Bloody Mary?

……

The inn in Verdun.

When Suren and Etherine returned, the lobby on the first floor was in a mess, with the floor littered with debris, as if a battle had taken place.

Charles and Loft were sitting on benches in the corner, while Henry and other superhumans were resting against the wall, some of them with bruises.

Beside them, Old Tom and several of the restaurant's handymen, already tied up with ropes, were lying in a corner, their bodies still stained with blood.

Upon seeing the scene, Suren knew what had happened. He smiled and said, "Looks like things aren't going too well for you guys either."

"They're just a few third-rate prying eyes."

Henry responded to Suren with a smile, then said helplessly, "Fortunately, Ms. Cooper reminded us, otherwise, we might have lost several of our companions."

Upon hearing this, Suren turned to look at the blue-haired woman, who was quietly watching him, her amber eyes radiating an ambiguous light.