After dinner, Raphael went back to the window and watched for a while. Finding nothing unusual downstairs, he arranged for the apartment's owner, Markel, and his subordinate Carter to take turns guarding Audrey.
Markel had already prepared a room for him to rest in, so Raphael went there first.
Besides a bed, the room prepared for Raphael also had a recliner.
Raphael lay down in the recliner and checked with his spirituality. To his surprise, both the Lunatic and Criminal potions were nearly digested.
Kidnapping the "Diamond of Backlund" had not only been a very "crazy" act, but also a carefully planned crime, so it had greatly advanced the digestion of both Sequences' potions.
Raphael yawned. Without caring whether "Miss Susie" was still there, he closed his eyes to rest.
Although there had been no fighting during that day's operation, Raphael had remained highly alert, ready at any moment to flee or burn away his sanity in a desperate fight. After several hours, he was already somewhat exhausted, and before long, he fell asleep.
Even in his sleep, however, his spirituality maintained a degree of vigilance, allowing him to wake immediately if anything unexpected happened.
Suddenly, the sleeping Raphael felt a force pulling at his spirit body.
After a brief moment of bewilderment, Raphael seemed to regain a little of his reason and struggled against that force in his half-conscious state.
But the more he struggled, the more he felt his spirit body slipping uncontrollably out of his physical body and flying toward an unknown place.
Raphael tried hard to open his eyes, but he could not regain his sight.
What felt like a second or two passed, or perhaps more than half a minute, before he heard someone chanting an incantation.
Then Raphael finally "opened his eyes" and could see again.
He first relaxed a little, then immediately swept his gaze around.
Raphael was now in a dark, damp cavern. It was vast, like an underground plaza, and bore many signs of having been worked by human hands.
Roughly in the center of the cavern stood a circular altar. Directly in front of it, a chief priest in a wide-sleeved robe was solemnly chanting an incantation toward the altar while performing movements resembling a dance.
Seven more priests knelt around the altar, prostrating themselves devoutly and joining in the chief priest's chant.
At the center of the altar stood a wooden chair, with a man chained to it.
Hollow bone needles protruded from the man's body, and the altar was covered in blood. It seemed the needles had drained him dry.
Only after seeing all this did Raphael become fully alert. Listening to the chanting alone, he had thought it sounded like a rather good choral performance.
Seeing the bloody scene on the altar was another matter. Raphael immediately realized this was a bloody ritual, and the man at the center of the altar was probably the sacrifice.
A moment later, Raphael realized that he himself had actually been summoned by this bloody ritual.
He was currently in a state resembling a spirit body, though he seemed to be more concealed than an ordinary spirit. At least, neither the chief priest nor the other priests around the altar had noticed him.
At that point, the incantation seemed to reach a critical stage. The chief priest's voice rose, and his movements quickened.
Raphael found the man's pronunciation somewhat familiar, but before he could think about it, he suddenly felt an enormous downward pull. His spirit body drifted uncontrollably toward the man chained to the wooden chair at the center of the altar.
Realizing that struggling was futile, Raphael stopped resisting and let the ritual guide him.
Having already become a Beyonder, he felt little fear of such inexplicable things. He simply could not understand what fool had summoned him, a mere Sequence 8.
In theory, a summoning ritual like this should have called forth some powerful, bizarre entity!
Within a few breaths, just as Raphael had expected, his spirit body sank into the man at the center of the altar.
"Hiss..."
Raphael actually felt pain. Then he saw the bone spikes embedded in "his" legs and abdomen...
His spirit body was surprisingly compatible with this body. Controlling it felt just as natural as controlling his own.
"It worked!" The chief priest in the wide-sleeved robe cried out in delighted surprise when he saw the man on the altar stir.
Raphael weakly raised his head. He finally realized that the language the man spoke was remarkably similar to the Chinese he remembered!
Although it was not Mandarin, he could understand it.
Then he noticed that the robes worn by the chief priest and the others also somewhat resembled the clothing of ancient people in his memories.
This discovery surprised Raphael. When he had first arrived in the cavern, he had assumed the language and clothing were from the Southern Continent.
He had heard that the native languages of the Southern Continent belonged to a different language family from those of the Northern Continent's nations, and that their cultures differed greatly as well.
Just then, the chief priest in front of him fell to his knees before Raphael. "We pay our respects to the Demon Lord!"
Raphael parted his lips. He was certain now that the man really was speaking Chinese!
Had he been summoned back to his home country?
Raphael could not help grumbling inwardly, This trip to another world has been awful! I'd only just digested my Sequence 8 potion in Loen and was about to get some decent abilities, and now I'm back?
Then he looked at the chief priest before him, and the corner of his mouth suddenly twitched. In a situation like this, he naturally had to pretend to be some powerful, bizarre entity!
Otherwise, who knew what these people would do to him!
He cleared his throat and asked, "Who are you..."
Only when he spoke did Raphael realize how hoarse and weak his voice sounded. "...and why have you summoned this lord?"
The chief priest bowed his head low. "I am Chen Qingzhi, head of the Dark Hut's Ji Province branch. Demon Lord, please lend us your aid."
The priests around the altar lay silently prostrate, not even daring to breathe loudly.
"Oh?" Raphael asked with an air of venerable authority. "What difficulty have you encountered?"
He had no idea what this "Dark Hut" was, but asking that question gave nothing away.
The chief priest named Chen Qingzhi said, "The Qi Sect is secretly preparing to slaughter us disciples of the Blood Sect! Demon Lord, please help us."
Sorry, I can't help you, Raphael thought.
But to learn more about his current circumstances, Raphael still made a grand show of looking around, as though examining his surroundings, before saying, "I am not a Demon Lord of this realm, nor do I know whether your Blood Sect and Qi Sect differ from the Blood Sect and Qi Sect I know.
"Tell me the details of your conflict as well..."
He curled the corners of his mouth into a smile. "Do not mistake a Demon Lord for an omniscient, omnipotent being."
Before you continue