The essence of magic rituals was the axle-ing of oneself, by performing axle rituals to become closer to certain entities with unique forces, one was able to borrow their powers.
The target of most axle rituals were the remnant elven Evil Gods, a smaller number targeted outer Evil Gods, while very specific few magical rituals targeted unique areas that resided within this world.
For example, the Unrepenting Abyss where the non-believers of Gods gathered after death.
According to the seven bibles, the souls of non-believers would come here to regret their decisions not to put their faith in Gods while they were alive.
And quite a few of the axle rituals that targeted the Unrepenting Abyss required the performer to be a non-believer as a prerequisite.
After that, a core spell casting component was the bone of a non-believer.
The Sun Shadow church had mandated that the death of all citizens be reported to them. They had also declared it forbidden for anyone to handle the bodies of the deceased on their own, even the place they were laid to rest must be the special burial ground set up by the church.
This was the same for people of other regions, where bodies of the deceased must be handled by a specific group of church experts.
For this reason, it was almost impossible to obtain any body parts of the dead, let alone bones from a non-believer. Most could only head into the sewers and hope to get lucky.
By using the bones of non-believers, one would be able to create a connection to dead souls within the Unrepenting Abyss and summon them. However, anyone who performed these rituals would then become afflicted with the non-believers' curse, never to be at peace and ultimately be plunged into the Unrepenting Abyss themselves.
Negary was highly interested in the Unrepenting Abyss, so he had conducted an investigation of this location's origin and legends.
There were legends of the Unrepenting Abyss in every corner, but this place originally wasn't called the Unrepenting Abyss, rather, it should have been called the Elven Heroic Spirit Burial Grounds.
There would always be casualties during conquers and invasions of other worlds, and the souls of brave elven warriors who lost their lives in battle would then be buried within this Elven Heroic Spirit Burial Grounds.
All those years ago, when the seven Righteous Gods invaded the Moon Tree world, the slumbering corpses within the Heroic Spirit Burial Grounds should have been awakened as well, only to be mercilessly suppressed and cursed by the seven Righteous Gods, thus becoming the final destination for all non-believers.
After a non-believer died, their [Origin] would simply head to where it should, while their remnant souls would be systematically absorbed into the Unrepenting Abyss. At this place, they would become dead souls, while the unrelenting elven spirits would continuously fight on, hunting and killing everything in their sights, including these dead souls.
This place had accumulated a great deal of hatred, grudge, and insanity over the years, gradually gaining its unique properties. It was said that this location was surrounded year-round by fog created by regret and enveloped in darkness created from despair. Every remaining bit of individuality would lose their way while traversing through this despair and regret.
Through the influence of the Hermit Order, Negary managed to collect quite a bit of bones from non-believers, which he used to create his Shade Attendants.
Their bodies were created by germs combined with the bones of non-believers, while their souls were created from an amalgamation of the near-insane remnant souls within the Unrepenting Abyss.
Within the Unrepenting Abyss, bones and bones, dead souls and dead souls, as well as bones and dead souls were locked in eternal chaotic combat, during which dead souls could consume one another, thus turning into the very definition of a berserk warrior.
At the same time, due to the environment of the Unrepenting Abyss, their souls gradually became mixed with the fog of regret and darkness of despair, which allowed them to meld perfectly into shadows and become incredibly hard to discover.
Normally, anyone who performed these rituals to summon dead souls from the Unrepenting Abyss, due to the nature of the axle ritual, would become corroded by the regret, despair, insanity, and unending will to fight contained within, which was the true nature of the aforementioned non-believers' curse.
However, as Katherine had witnessed, Negary's black mud-like soul could not be tainted or corrupted by these negative emotions at all. Instead, he had used them to form covenants with some of the dead souls.
Through the use of magic, Negary helped them escape the Unrepenting Abyss, while they agreed to become Shade Attendants, working for Negary.
The dead souls were also very unique in the sense that very few abilities could actually kill them, the majority of attacks could only chase them back into the Unrepenting Abyss, which made them virtually immortal.
Combined with Negary's viral bodies, they gained an impressive level of combative strength, not quite peerless, but definitely tough to deal with.
…
With a large amount of black fog, the feather-like Shade Attendants suddenly manifested in the middle of the two groups, then charged towards the barricade without any fears of death. Their 'deaths' would only mean that they would return to the Unrepenting Abyss, and if something could really kill them, that would be a form of release for these souls.
The majority of Negary's followers remained at this location, the third group was headed by Katherine, who wasted no time to break down the third gate. Although there were still knights and priests arriving from other posts to participate in the defense, this third gate was quickly failing.
〖 It seems people form the Reformist faction is a lot smarter, and a lot more ambitious than I had imagined 〗
Negary perfectly took his chance to clash the bone blade in his hand against the sword of an opposing knight, the bone blades began lightly vibrating with an inaudible noise through this clash.
The pupils of the opposing Red Sun Knight dilated and displayed a sense of confusion after hearing the vibrating noise. The bone blade then flashed upward, cleanly cutting through his head and helmet.
Ignoring the fallen corpse, Negary nimbly moved behind the fallen gate. At this point, most of the Sun Shadow church's forces had already been occupied, which made Negary's advance impossible for them to prevent.
As the power of Impurity and 'error' flowed through his body, the domain divine technique that the Sun Shadow church had set up for defense was crumbling bit by bit, while their priests were too busy taking care of the knights to do anything about it.
As Negary's body flashed forward, the bone blade in his hand shattered into countless tiny pieces that shot towards the priests. Like a domino reaction, it swiftly caused the collapse of the church's entire defensive formation. A large number of Shade Attendants and Hermit Order members immediately exerted their full power, especially Katherine who utilized all of her magical tools without any regard for their cost or value.
Negary soon made his way towards the entrance of a certain tunnel, while the people of the Sun Shadow church were completely helpless to stop him; a sense of fear and humiliation appeared in their minds as they watched Negary enter the internal area of the church.
As long as they had ever known, they had always been part of the church, priding themselves as the most powerful force in the entire region, while any other Evil Cult and organizations were nothing but sewer rats who sneakily crawled between their legs.
Other than the other Righteous God churches, they were supposed to be the most noble people who stood above all others. However, reality had slapped them so hard during this experience that their faces were completely swollen. An unknown organization that appeared out of nowhere had besieged all three of their defensive formations, crushing their sense of pride itself.
"Prepare to retreat, our goals have been reached" every member of the Hermit Order had excited expressions on their faces. The sense of accomplishment from successfully challenging authority was a 'high' unlike any other, granting them indescribable satisfaction. However, they did not let that victory completely muddle their minds.
One of the main reasons for their success this time was due to them taking advantage of a gap, which included a huge factor of luck. If they did not retreat right now and waited for the giant monster that was the church's entire system to start moving, once they had fully gathered their forces, the only outcome for the Hermit Order would be complete annihilation.
At the same time that the besieging battle was approaching success, another besieging battlefield was also entering its climax. However, the defensive side here was Birosius, while the besieging side was the Sun Shadow church.
Naturally, the vengeance-driven Chromie had also entered the nightscape of Lohr after receiving news of this.
