The process of summoning Roland went far more smoothly than Aleister had imagined.
In the Kabbalah worldview he knew best, the world was divided into four worlds.
To summon something from outside the world, even with coordinates as clear as the Contract, Aleister had been prepared to sacrifice the Windowless Building.
As a temple painstakingly constructed by Aleister, this building not only sustained his life but also held an indispensable place in his plans.
But Aleister believed Roland was worth that expenditure.
Besides, to pull an unknown life-form from beyond the four worlds through the infinite phases, such a price could already be considered quite a bargain.
However, when Roland truly invaded the phases, events still took a turn Aleister had not anticipated.
"The Sephirah of the four worlds spontaneously formed a path?"
Throughout his former career as a magician, both the cabal he belonged to and his personal preferences had been steeped in Kabbalah thought.
The most important element of all was the Tree of Life.
It spanned the four worlds and the phases, connecting the material realm through the Sephirah as its nodes to describe a path into the domain of God.
The Sephirah followed the numerical order from one to ten, from the Crown to Malkuth.
Put simply, the Tree of Life divided God, angels, and human souls into ten pyramid-like ranks.
This rule also conveyed the meaning that "the human domain extends only from here to here; beyond that lies the domain of God, which must never be trespassed upon."
Under these circumstances, the numbers of humans and angels remained constant, and neither could become the other.
The lightning-shaped path formed by these ten Sephirah was called the Path of the Flame Sword, representing the gradual evolution of divinity from the Crown to Malkuth.
A magician's