The Ritual of the Banquet Master

When a sacred object is sealed, it will not reveal any obvious characteristics of its path.

Minister Griffiths clearly hasn't finished unsealing it yet, otherwise Lily should have been able to "drop" it from the corpse.

Therefore, it's not surprising that the Arbitration Hall, the Inspectorate, and the Bureau of Supervision investigated three times without finding anything—after all, no one dares to touch a sacred image casually. They probably wouldn't even dare to touch it.

Although the number of the Nine Pillar Gods and the Celestial Officials is limited, the number of Apostles is not small.

The Nine Pillars God Church allows the worship of all current Nine Pillar Gods and their apostles, and does not restrict faith in the Nine Pillar Gods Masters and their apostles. Only the dwarves' practice of conducting formal sacrificial rites or even initiating sacrifices against the Celestial Masters and their apostles is considered illegal.

With so many apostles, who knows which one is legitimate and which one is illegal? Perhaps an unassuming icon is actually the mortal manifestation of the Celestial Master or even one of the Nine Pillar Gods, or even an incarnation they once used! For example, placing an icon from the time of Arthur, the Silver Crowned Dragon, in a room, and then placing an icon of the Bear Angel at a higher position, level with another icon of one of the Nine Pillar Gods, would undoubtedly be blasphemy. Furthermore, if one doesn't have a deep understanding of religious doctrine, they might mistake Arthur for one of the knights under the Silver Crowned Dragon's command, and thus throw away both the Arthur and Bear Angel icons.

No matter how you handle it, it's easy for something serious to happen.

Therefore, according to procedure, such matters are usually handled by professionals from the Nine Pillars God Church.

Now, Iver came in under this pretext to take a look—there's no doubt he's a professional.

Searching for Evidence is easy, and even if there is no evidence, it doesn't matter. Iver knew this, and so did Ligeia.

Iver first had a big meal with Lily and Ligeia at Griffiths Manor, filling himself up and drinking a lot of alcohol until he smelled of it.

As night fell, Iver instructed Ligeia to seal all the doors and windows and draw the curtains. This created an artificially dim environment, allowing only a sliver of moonlight to fall upon the statue.

Then he instructed Ligeia and Lily to retreat to a distance and remain on guard.

Ligeia was clearly very interested in this as well.

She had previously discovered that Iver was deeply knowledgeable in religion and Ritual Studies. At least, he was capable of presiding over a major ceremony like "Moulting Rebirth," something an ordinary pastor certainly couldn't do.

Under the watchful eyes of Ligeia and Lily, the alcohol-smelling Iver solemnly lit a candle, sprinkled a pinch of Black Pearl Powder in front of the statue, and then removed all his clothes in the candlelight, standing in the moonlight—this was a necessary step of the ritual, and the process had to be witnessed by multiple opposite-sex witnesses throughout.

Two people is already the minimum.

The best candidates Iver could choose were Ligeia, who was practically old enough to be his grandmother, and Lily, whom he knew too well.

There are many ways to unseal a sacred relic. One can use complex rituals to forcibly unseal it, or one can directly summon the apostle himself to do so. In folk tales of knights, when Brave obtains a holy sword and gains its approval, it is essentially the knight himself who perceives and acknowledges the Brave's perseverance and courage, thus completing the unsealing.

In the game, it would be a relatively straightforward unsealing quest.

However, as long as you can receive this quest from the Apostle himself, it's considered a preliminary unlock. At least this item itself can be used and equipped; it's just that the equipment attributes and set attributes haven't been fully unlocked.

In other words, Iver now only needs to summon Sister Sasha in person.

This was something that Minister Griffiths, as Law Mage and Blood Mage, could not do, but it was easy for Iver, as a priest.

Iver took out a glass of excellent red wine—which he had also taken from Griffiths's house. Because it was of the highest quality, Iver deliberately did not drink it, but left it for Sister Sasha.

Then, Iver bit his left middle finger and injected a drop of blood along with two points of Light Attribute magic into the wine.

The middle finger symbolizes ether, while the left middle finger represents light. Mana infused into this non-mana-storing material is easily and rapidly lost. Therefore, Iver immediately drank half of the Blood Wine and poured the other half onto the icon.

Soon, the black silk covering the statue was soaked with blood and wine.

As the icon itself began to emit a slightly intoxicating aura, it also started to faintly shimmer with a dark golden light.

At the same time, Iver began to chant. "I solemnly call upon you, Soloist of the Triad! God of the Sacred Number, God of Death and Rebirth, God of Enduring Ignorance— Constant Self as the moon!"

As Iver chanted, an extremely strong fragrance suddenly emanated from his body.

Like the finest roast meat and the most exquisite wine, Lily and Ligeia, watching from afar, felt an intense attraction. Had they not already eaten their fill, they would likely have been overwhelmed by their ravenous appetites, their reason crushed.

A dark red light shone in Iver's pupils, and cold sweat poured down his back, the liquid as pale red as fine wine.

"I beg you to descend into the moonlight! I am Iver Moriarty! I am the sweetest fruit, the strongest wine."

"Please peel back the skin and drink your fill. I will stand alone in the moonlight and dance alone among the thorns."

"Please, Constant Self and his apostles, answer me—"

Iver prayed, "Give me desire and Blood Energy!"

Prayer to the Constant Self has multiple directions, just as the Path of Love has multiple branches, such as the Blood Domain and the Shadow Domain. And since Iver was praying in a state of satiated hunger and intoxication, and he specifically requested a response from the Feast Master, then at this moment, only the Feast Master could respond to him.

Because Sister Sasha was not a true apostle, the sacrifice could not be directly directed at her.

But the host could see Iver praying before the icon of Sister Sasha, and thus knew that Iver was not looking for Him. So he would send Sister Sasha herself.

As expected.

Iver immediately felt dizzy, fell forward, and lost consciousness.

Lily instinctively rushed over to help Iver up.

But she stopped after only a few steps.

The statue in front of Iver suddenly shone with a dazzling crimson light—and in the next moment, a semi-transparent nun exuding a gentle aura emerged from it, embracing the swaying Iver directly in her arms.

—It wasn't a spirit-summoning gesture, but rather the true form descending directly!

She wore a black silk Eye Mask, black silk gloves, and was also wrapped in a heavy nun's habit.

She gently embraced Iver and straightened his head.

She then gently stroked his head, from the back of his head down to the back of his neck. A crimson glow flowed into Iver's body along with her touch.

Immediately afterwards, Iver was vaguely awakened.

He was "awakened" by the urge to suffocate.

He felt his mind was clear, his Blood Energy surging and boiling—he felt like he'd taken a stimulant, full of energy and desire, the veins on his scalp and neck bulging and throbbing. His rationality, however, had noticeably weakened; his thinking speed and composure had significantly decreased. This was temporary fatigue, and it would take about a day to recover.

His entire body turned bright red, like the cheeks of someone extremely shy; or perhaps it could be described as as if he had opened the Eight Gates of the Divine Realm. With his abundant blood and energy surging rapidly, Iver's muscles bulged, and he even experienced a noticeable physiological reaction. Fortunately, he had his back to Lily and the others, so at least no one would see anything impolite.

The moment Iver opened his eyes, Sister Sasha vanished as if in a hallucination.

The only ones who could confirm that she was not hallucinating were Ligeia and Lily, who were watching from the sidelines! This is why this ritual must have witnesses—without witnesses, Iver would only have a dream, and upon waking, aside from temporarily depleting his rationality to restore his Blood Energy to its peak as much as possible, there would be no other effect.

But at this moment...

Where the nun disappeared, on that holy statue... a pure white butterfly was dancing alone.

Under the moonlight, it reflects a pure and holy white radiance.

Only a beam of moonlight streamed into the room, reflecting countless butterfly-like moonlight shadows on the walls, making it look like a swarm of butterflies dancing together.