Hearing the prayer, Ivan's Spirituality sensed something ominous, as if an invisible hand had clenched around it.
Every syllable of the prayer echoed deep within his consciousness, carrying an ancient quality, much like when he had first broken through with the power of faith.
He had no time to think it over. As the villa's front door was just about to close, he slipped inside without a sound.
The warm air inside, scented with burning wood and spices from the fireplace, enveloped him, but it couldn't dispel the chill seeping from the prayer.
Ivan drifted up the spiral staircase and toward the end of the second-floor hallway. A wooden door carved with roses stood slightly ajar, a faint light spilling through the gap.
By now, he couldn't care less about gentlemanly conduct. He went straight through the gap and into Diana's bedroom.
The room was elegant and cozy. Golden vines adorned the pale blue wallpaper, and several pots of blooming white roses sat on the windowsill.
A bright gas lamp on the desk illuminated Diana, who was leaning over it.
She had already changed out of her elaborate dress. Her simple, clean white nightgown made her look even livelier, and her long golden hair spilled over her shoulders, with a few mischievous strands falling across the desk.
Diana held a fountain pen in her right hand and rested her left lightly on a thick old book. Its pages were yellowed, and its writing consisted of symbols Ivan had never seen before.
Her long eyelashes cast faint shadows on her cheeks. Several sheets of letter paper were scattered across the desk, bearing a few lines of elegant Rheinish script. It seemed she was trying to translate the mysterious symbols.
As she translated, Diana murmured to herself:
"This ritual doesn't seem to do anything. I don't feel any extraordinary power descending..."
"Just as I thought, the legends are all lies. Even this Book of Rituals is no different."
"Ritual magic?" Ivan drifted closer and looked at the words Diana had translated.
"Great Lord of All Spirits.
"Please hear our prayers.
"With Your eyes, see through falsehood. With Your tongue, lick the lies. With Your claws, tear apart the pact. With Your heart, devour faith.
"Please let Your power descend upon us..."
Diana had translated the text into a series of obscure prayers.
Seeing it, Ivan felt as if a hammer had struck him. The shock was just like the first time Gais had received a revelation from him.
"Is the Lord of All Spirits a real god?"
Unwilling to give up, he looked at the ancient pages. The writing had grown blurred with age.
"Uh... I can't read it, but this book looks pretty old."
Could I really have guessed right? Is the Lord of All Spirits actually an ancient god? But... can't someone else have the same name as me?
Ivan laughed wryly to himself, trying to mask his unease with the joke.
But his true feelings were complicated. He didn't know what borrowing this being's name would bring him, or where that familiar feeling from the ancient prayer came from.
He hovered above Diana, watching her every move intently.
The girl turned the pages lightly, only to find that the writing farther on was impossible to make out. The prayer she had just translated was the only passage in the entire book that remained legible.
She shook her head, put down her pen, and suddenly stood up.
"Ow! What was that?"
Something blocked Diana as she rose, and she fell backward onto the floor. She covered her forehead with both hands, her eyes full of confusion.
She was certain she had bumped into something soft and springy, but when she looked up, there was nothing in the air.
Ivan's heart sank. He'd been so absorbed in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed Diana moving. She had run straight into him.
The maid downstairs heard Diana cry out and hurried upstairs to help her to her feet.
"Miss Diana, are you all right? Did you hurt yourself?"
Fortunately, the floor was covered with a velvet carpet, and little Diana hadn't been hurt. Otherwise, the maids would have been scolded by the mayor.
"I'm fine, I'm fine. I just felt..."
"Felt what?" the maid asked with concern.
Diana's words seemed to catch in her throat. Her azure eyes flickered, and she quickly changed her story.
"It's nothing. I just tripped. You don't need to worry about me. Go take care of something else!"
"Miss Diana, you need to be more careful from now on. What if you hurt yourself?"
After the maid left, Diana closed the bedroom door and locked it again. Then she couldn't contain her excitement and cried out in a hushed voice:
"Did the Lord of All Spirits get summoned by me?!"
"I knew it! If I prayed devoutly enough, day after day, You'd answer me eventually!"
Just moments earlier, when Diana was about to say that she had bumped into something invisible, Ivan had interrupted her at the last second through their faith connection.
Part of the reason was that he didn't want more people noticing him. But more than that, he wanted to use Diana to learn about this Book of Rituals.
"That's right. You've done well, child."
Ivan used his usual line, hoping to coax some answers out of the girl first.
"You called upon my name. What is it you seek?"
At this further response, the girl's feet, clad in pale yellow stockings, couldn't help bouncing. As if afraid of making too much noise, she quickly flopped onto the bed.
This probably isn't an evil god who wants souls or lives. Otherwise, I would have offended Him the moment I called upon His name.
Only now did Diana realize how lucky she was, relieved that nothing sinister had answered her call to this hidden being.
"I never thought the legends were true. There really are ancient, hidden gods. If that's the case, then extraordinary powers must be real too."
She gathered her thoughts, then said outright, "I... I, I want to gain extraordinary powers!"
Ivan was taken aback. The vague, mysterious answers he'd prepared were useless now.
This girl—she's gone straight to the point and revealed what she really wants.
Shouldn't she be saying something polite first, like praising my greatness or asking me to show her the way...?
"Of course you can. But nothing in this world is given freely. There must be some price to pay."
"So what can you offer me?"
Ivan adopted a grand, mysterious tone, hoping to frighten Diana into backing down.
Diana didn't seem to have expected this hidden being to grant her request, then ask her to name her price.
She pondered for a moment, tilting her little head to one side as her eyes darted about, full of mischief.
"What can I offer... Uh, Gold Pounds, Gold Pounds, or more Gold Pounds."
"I'd like to know what You need, great Lord of All Spirits. It surely can't be such vulgar money."
She tossed the question back to Ivan. She wasn't willing to offer up anything she had, such as her life.
Diana's pretty quick. She knows to ask what I want. But she's not that clever—why couldn't an ancient god need Gold Pounds? What narrow-minded thinking.
"Heh. I've always been willing to help people with dreams.
"As long as you become one of my devout followers and regularly donate some Gold Pounds to the church, I can grant you an extraordinary ability and let you step into the supernatural world."
He gazed silently at Diana, seated on the bed, waiting for her reply.
But Diana's brows furrowed, and her eyes filled with wariness.
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