Spell Card: Shadow Cloak

Iver hadn't expected that Yulia's reaction would be so strong after he had only been at school for a week and returned home.

But Yulia's will was strong and unwavering. Once she saw Iver, she wouldn't let Iver leave, clinging to him and demanding he tell her about the people he'd met and the things that had happened at school. Her reasons were perfectly valid, leaving Iver speechless—

Yulia asked him, "Is school such a dangerous place? Why did my brother encounter two assassination attempts in just one week of school?"

She was absolutely right; Iver didn't know how to explain it for a moment.

Iver had no choice but to sit by her bedside and talk to Yulia about everything that had happened that week.

As she spoke, Yulia couldn't help but yawn softly.

Yulia's biological clock is comparable to that of an elementary school student. She can only stay up late when she's reading or studying; normally, she needs to get ready for bed around nine o'clock.

Yulia is very intelligent. She usually doesn't go out, so she can only stay at home and read books quietly by herself.

Like Iver, who was obsessed with demonology but also had a talent for the Dedication Path, Yulia was also interested in and gifted in the mystical. However, her attention was more focused on astrology, alchemy, and preservation—of which she was far more talented than Iver in alchemy.

Although there are many occult books in the Moriarty Manor, the Nine Great Paths are not balanced. The occult knowledge of the Path of Beauty, the Path of Transcendence, and the Path of Twilight is almost non-existent, while the Equilibrium Path, the Path of Wisdom, and the Path of Authority are quite abundant.

Especially the Equilibrium Path... Old Moriarty seemed to be a transcendent being of the Equilibrium Path, but he had never demonstrated alchemy in front of his adopted children. Therefore, Iver did not know his exact level.

—If it weren't for the phantom demon residing in her body that prevented Yulia from attending school normally, perhaps Yulia could have skipped grades and become Iver's senior.

Even so, Yulia still longed for school.

One of the reasons Iver decided not to go to university was because Yulia envied him too much—even though Iver would have gotten much better grades if she had gone to school. This made Iver feel a little sorry for her. So he simply stayed home and studied with her instead of going to school.

Now, Iver has returned with his experiences from university.

Yulia certainly didn't want to sleep. She sat in bed, forcing herself to stay awake and chat with Iver a little longer.

Seeing that his younger sister was a little sleepy, Iver easily lulled Yulia to sleep with a lullaby he had learned from Isabel. Iver didn't have any levels of the Path of Beauty, so his lullaby didn't possess any mystical power. Yulia truly fell asleep to his gentle singing.

Last night, Iver had only intended to check on Yulia's condition and see if the Paradox Flame Butterfly had awakened. However, Yulia kept him there, and he quite enjoyed this peaceful interaction. It gave him a sense of tranquility, like being with family, allowing his tense nerves to relax.

Edward's seal is in good condition, and the cards that Iver entrusted to Yulia for nurturing are gradually developing some sentience. If all goes well, the Paradox Flame Butterfly should recover by this time next week—and then Iver can begin preparing for its sealing.

However, he does not intend to seal it before he advances Path of Transcendence.

Because the Paradox Flame Butterfly is a phantom demon Dedication Path, possessing pure fire attributes and without a trace of darkness.

Although both sealing and summoning originate from rituals that Path of Transcendence, their inherent power belongs to the Dedication Path. Therefore, this is a power that Iver, as a priest, can use openly and can use in public, and it is also a trump card that Iver can use openly and legitimately in front of others—completely opposite to the shadow demon, which is kept secret.

Therefore, it is best not to use this power in the advancement ritual for Iver's other identity Path of Transcendence, as this could lead to a leak.

Therefore, sealing the Paradox Flame Butterfly before advancing would only create trouble for oneself. The New Moon Ritual is already difficult, Iver is cautious and doesn't want to add unnecessary difficulty for himself.

If Yulia's condition is not good, Iver will forcefully seal her, even at a significantly increased difficulty. But since the seal is currently in good condition, it can wait until she advances before sealing her again.

Next Sunday night is the Promotion Ritual that Path of Transcendence. The day after the advancement is completed, Iver will seal away the Paradox Flame Butterfly that night.

—But next week, Iver needs to deal with those people from the Noble Red Society first.

Using Greater Demon to assassinate him in public, or even seemingly attacking Sherlock... they might come back a second time, or use other means to attack Iver.

So Iver directly upgraded his Demon Scholar class from level six to level nine, and his Dark Attribute Mana pool also increased to nine points:

Demon Scholar LV9: [Demon Knowledge- Level 2 (97%)], [Basic Ritual - Level 2 (0%)], [Demon Contract - Level 3 (80%)], [Shepherding) - Level 2 (0%)

The levels of "Demon Knowledge" and "Demon Contract" can be temporarily capped; after advancing, they can be increased by two levels directly. As long as Iver stops reading the book on Demon Knowledge, this skill will stop increasing—while as long as he uses the power of the Shadow Fiend, the level of Demon Contract will slowly increase.

Following the same steps he took to create the "Enchanted Card: Shadow Blade," Iver returned to his room and prepared an unactivated Tarot Card with four mana points stored within it. He then immediately went to sleep, planning to get up early the next day to replenish his mana and create the card directly.

He is now planning to make a new "moon" card.

Only one Phantom Demon Card created from the same Tarot Card can be used per day. The Shadow Fiend is not a Greater Phantom Demon; it is only compatible with the Moon Tarot Card, while Greater Phantom Demon have multiple possibilities. This means that if a new card extracted from the Shadow Fiend is used, the old "Shadow Blade" cannot be used that day.

But Iver is increasingly feeling that the Shadow Blade may not be able to handle all situations—for example, Shadow Blade became meaningless when fighting the Deformed Limb Demon.

Iver only slept for seven hours before getting up. Seven hours of sleep was enough to fully restore his mana.

It was 5:30 a. m., and the first thing Iver did after getting up was to go to the table to get the half-finished Phantom Demon Card he had made.

Iver hammered the rusty nail into the card with a creaking sound—this was Iver's third card, including the Blank Card. He was gradually becoming more skilled at it.

Both methods use Shadow Fiends to create Moon Cards, so the initial steps are exactly the same. The only difference is the final infusion of mana, resulting in completely different attributes for the resulting Phantom Demon Card.

Ten or more points of Dark Attribute Mana can be used to create the "Spell Card: Shadow Cloak", twenty or more points can create the "Spell Card: Shadow Impact", and thirty points can create the "Field Card: Shadow Cellar".

— [Shadow Cellar] is the most useful card for Shadow Fiend. It can temporarily transform the surrounding space into a closed, shadowy area, forcibly creating a home field where there are no large shadows. Inside the "Shadow Cellar", even the holy light summoned by Illumination Spell will become extremely dim, and all non-mystical light sources such as torches, candles, and lamps will be extinguished.

Within this area, Shadow Fiend can move at incredible speed, mimic freely, and gain continuous bonuses to all attributes, no longer bound by Iver's shadow. It's essentially entering a burst state.

Therefore, once Iver can create the "Field Card: Shadow Cellar", he will basically stop using Shadow Blade. This will likely be possible when his Demon Scholar reaches level 19.

Iver isn't a true Great Sin Scholar, capable of directly turning wild phantoms into Phantom Demon Card. Right now, Iver can only bully the shadow demons he's contracted with. Since he only has one chance a day, he can put aside the skills he can acquire through normal class abilities.

"Shadow Impact" is a purely offensive spell; it has no other effect besides dealing damage.

However, other spells can also be used to deal damage, even Shadow Blade combined with a pistol might work. Its advantage lies in its instant cast... but this advantage only becomes apparent after accumulating a large number of different Tarot Card. That way, Iver can flip over several different Phantom Demon Card in an instant, unleashing a beautiful burst of damage.

However, in Avalon, Iver dared not use such pure shadow power to blast people; while in the ritual, Iver could directly make the Shadow Fiend take action - so the 20-point "Shadow Impact" was not as useful as the "Shadow Cloak" made with 10 points of mana.

It could even be said that even though Shadow Cellar provides a significant boost to Shadow Fiend... in PVP, the card slot for "Moon" should still be reserved for Shadow Cloak.

Soon, Iver finished creating the cards. Only the final step remained: to ask Constant Self to imbue the new Tarot Card with spirituality.

Unlike before, Iver is now a proper priest. He no longer needs to stand still and Constant Self for Heng to discover the ritual after sprinkling the Black Pearl Powder ... he can directly message this Pillar God of the Path of Love. This also prevents card creation failure.

"I beseech Constant Self, the God of Oneness of Sacred Number, the God of Death and Rebirth, the God Who Has Long Been Been in Ignorance— Constant Self, Like the Moon!"

A golden-red light shone in Iver's pupils as he held his hands above the Tarot Card, earnestly praying, "Give me love!"

—Is the boss there? Could you please take a look? It wasn't fully light yet, so Constant Self responded to the prayer quite quickly.

Soon, a gentle breeze stirred in the room. Enough to slightly lift the fallen leaves on the ground.

As the wind blew, the shadow beneath Iver was pulled out bit by bit, like strands of cotton candy being stretched.

"... What kind of power is this?! What's going on?"

The Shadow Fiend's astonished voice rang out beside Iver: "Why were you able to directly drain my power—"

It wanted to become human, but collapsed in an instant; it then mimicked a hunting dog, but the shadow that constituted its mimicry was also blown away by the cold wind—it kept boiling and evaporating on the ground.

What kind of technology is this? What kind of mysterious skill? The Shadow Demon didn't wake up when Iver made the Phantom Demon Card last time.

It only vaguely sensed that Iver had drawn a portion of its power. But because that portion of power was too weak, it didn't feel anything. Although it knew that there was a part of its own aura within that card, at that time, the Shadow Fiend didn't know how Iver had done it.

However, Iver did not use a wheelchair during this Card Making. Shadow Fiend was fully conscious and watched the entire event.

—It had never heard of Demon Scholar being able to directly extract the power of his contracted demon by invoking the Nine Pillar Gods!

Are you Demon Scholar or a priest? The Shadow Fiend quickly detected a familiar scent in that aura. "This is... the ritual of [Great Sin]?"

As a demon, it naturally knew this celestial being who governed almost all demons.

This ritual undoubtedly originates from the primordial beast—whose other name is the Fallen Angel. The God, revered by demons and referred to as "Great Sin," governs concepts such as depravity and sin.

In the Path of Transcendence, the Great Sin is at least among the top three levels of celestial beings, with only the Ouroboros able to surpass it. Because the Great Sin once raised the banner of rebellion against the Serpent Father and was subsequently defeated, almost all of its records in the Material Realm were erased by the Serpent Father's followers. It is only in the extremely profound Demon Knowledge that one can know a few words about the "Fallen Angel".

Shadow Demon then realized that Iver was not completely ignorant of the Fallen Angel —he had not simply promised to kill Fallen Angel in the future just because he heard their name and knew they were the angels who governed demons.

Iver not only has a good understanding of the Fallen Angel... but he can even use His rituals!

He's serious!

What a pure and arrogant desire for transcendence this is!

This excited and trembled the Shadow Demon, yet it also felt a profound unease—could a mortal truly defeat the Celestials? For the first time, the Shadow Demon genuinely worried about Iver's safety. Not out of loyalty, but out of fear that he was being too reckless, provoking an enemy he couldn't defeat and suffering a pointless defeat.

Transcendence is essentially rebellion, but rebellion is predicated on victory. Otherwise, it's just insurrection.

Shadow Fiend felt that about one-fifth of his power had been drained before the ritual finally stopped.

The card that looked almost exactly like "Shadow Blade" floated up and flew into Iver's hand.

Its attributes also came into view of Iver:

[Spell: Shadow Cloak (Moon)]

[Required: Dark 1]

[Immediate, contactless, and effective immediately]

[Effect: Knocks back all nearby targets, immediately removes any current status effects such as Seal, Freeze, Burn, Bind, and Petrify, and grants complete invisibility for one minute (+30%). This effect inflicts a curse on all hostile targets who are in your sight when your invisibility is broken, with an effect equivalent to "Blinding Curse".]