"The punishment of a ritual tended toward erasure."
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Iver propped one hand beneath the Book of Law and spoke leisurely. "Like a priest's punishment of the undead, also known as 'dispel.' The word originally meant banishment, because people believed corpses were impure and could potentially give birth to undead. Killing a sinner couldn't completely end that evil—it had to be made to disappear forever."
The Book of Law floated above Iver's palm. He aimed his other hand at the open pages, and an extremely complex array began to hover on its own.
The rituals stored within meant Iver no longer needed to carve a complicated ritual array into the ground; the book could provide one itself. It also provided the "first" ritual... In other words, every time Iver performed the first ritual recorded in the Book of Law, he needed no materials.
At present, Iver had obtained five rituals in total.
He decided to use one of them to execute Wolfram and eliminate the hidden danger once and for all.
"So, I'm going to erase you completely, Wolfram."
Iver declared, "And you'll agree to it yourself."
Wolfram's face flushed red under the force of gravity, while his silent eyes were filled with mockery.
"Don't rush," Iver said leisurely. "Listen to me—
"—Do you believe in your own will and courage?"
At that, he glanced at Merlin.
Seeing Merlin's keen interest, Iver knew that Merlin had already figured out which ritual this was.
So Iver directly announced, "This is a ritual personally designed by the Great Sage. He left one final path for mortals who could possess no wisdom yet still wished to obtain it—a way for those who had nothing but courage to gain wisdom.
"I will blind your right eye, sever your right hand, and