Shepherd Tantra

Chapter 146 Shepherding: Shadow Essence

When the art of shepherding is on the path of devotion, it manifests itself in prayer and sacrifice.

But when this mystic art is used with power beyond the path, it becomes a ritual—

The ritual circle was carved on the ground by Aiwass and Lily again.But different from the previous ones, this time the eight-pointed star array did not engrave the names of any nine-pillar gods, but filled with Aiwass's name and its various variants in different languages.

They prepared a glass of good wine in the middle of the night and soaked the cinnamon in it.After soaking for half an hour, boil it over low heat and remove the cinnamon.

After that, Lily put in the most important element.

It was an amethyst carved into an eight-sided die by Aiwass.

Amethyst is the guardian stone of the Beyond.Because it balances the incongruous parts of various rituals, the core art of transcending the path is ritual.

The ritual, which was almost completed but failed due to a subtle imbalance, can take effect normally after being coordinated by the amethyst...that is, to increase the fault tolerance of the ritual.

Pastoral law is a taboo, just like letting the water flow backwards and keep the fire burning forever.Without the use of amethyst for balancing, the ritual part of it is bound to fail.

After the amethyst eight-sided dice was put in, Lily let the wine cool down naturally.Wait until the liquor cools down to room temperature, the ceremony can begin.

Lily half-kneeled in front of Aiwass, and Aiwass sat on a chair with a back, and the chair was placed in the ritual circle.

He stepped on the ground with both feet, and the Shadow Fiend spontaneously flowed into Aiwass' body.This made Aiwass pale and cold all over, and a faint black smoke radiated from his body.His eyes were also completely filled with black mist, and his hands seemed to be wearing black silk gloves - the limbs and seven orifices were the most easily exposed parts of the devil.

"I am your shepherd, and I will keep you from want."

Aiwass said softly.

As he spoke, he took out the ritual knife that was used to feed the Shadow Demon.

He cut his own finger with a knife blade, and wrote his first name without surname on Lily's forehead with his bloody index finger.And Lily looked up at Aiwass the whole time, as if praying for a gift.

After writing down the short name, Aiwass let the blood flow down.A little breath of the Shadow Demon poured into the blood, making the drop of blood extra thick and dark.There was even a sour smell like rotten wood.

But Lily lowered her head and raised the glass of wine for the ceremony with both hands.

Amethyst is a symbol of Dionysus, but it also means loyalty and love.This also represents the other two characteristics of Transcendence—rebellion and contract.

"Here, I give you grace, hope, and bliss."

Aiwass dripped his blood into the wine, and the voice that coincided with that of Shadow Demon announced: "Nothing in return."

Lily raised her head and drank the wine in one gulp.Put the eight-sided dice in the wine together in your mouth.

Then, she put the wine glass at Aiwass' feet.Carefully spit out the eight-sided dice in his mouth.

If the ritual is successful, it will only show the number 8 at this time, regardless of the probability of rolling the other side.

8 means infinity and endlessness, circulation and transcendence.It is also the holy number that symbolizes the snake father.

Sure enough, the dice rolled in the wine glass, and then lay down.The sloping face was engraved with the number 8, and it seemed to both Aiwass and Lily that it was lying on the ground.So it looks more like "infinite".

The moment the dice stopped, an infinite black mark suddenly appeared under the feet of Aiwass and Lily.The two rings encircled him and Lily respectively.

Aiwass' dark attribute mana flowed crazily, and the shadow demon also overflowed from Aiwass in an instant, flowed to Lily, and then flowed back again.

After about a few seconds, as Aiwass' mana bottomed out, the amount of black mist surrounding the two became balanced.

And Aiwass clearly felt that there was one more person at the end of the contract between himself and Shadow Demon—the relationship between Lily and Shadow Demon became extremely close, as if they were half of each other.Lily's authority belongs to Shadow Demon, and Shadow Demon's authority belongs to herself.

——It's like buying the "family version" of Shadow Demon, and then sharing its children's rights with Lily.

"The ceremony was a success."

Aiwass replied happily.

"About half of the power has been divided."

Without waiting for Aiwass to ask, Shadow Demon returned to Chloe's voice, and said softly: "But if you give me some more, you can add it back slowly..."

"Where's Lily?"

Aiwass asked his maid.

Lily lowered her head, feeling the extra shadowy breath in her body.Like ink falling into water, she instantly became blurred and dissipated in the material world.Another moment condensed back as if time went back.

She raised her head, her tone full of joy: "The relationship between me and the shadow has suddenly become so close! I feel like I can sneak into the shadow now!"

"of course."

The Shadow Fiend's voice became a little harsh for some reason: "You are now half a Shadow Fiend, but all the skills that the Shadow Fiend possesses need to be practiced from scratch. But if you can fully exert your power, you will be like It is a shadow demon who has obtained a material body...don't disappoint the master's gift."

In fact, the shadow demon was also surprised by the mystery of this shepherding method.It's just that in front of Aiwass and Lily, it doesn't want to make too much fuss.So although it was surprised, it acted like it should be taken for granted.

After the ceremony was established, there was a mysterious and strong connection between Shadow Demon and Lily.

It originally thought that what Aiwass took away was only a part of its power, and it needed to be supplemented by Lily after it was exhausted.But it's not - a more apt metaphor would be that it consumed half of its own power to add a racial talent to Lily.

In a sense, there is a kind of kinship between them—some kind of connection that is closer than the demon's possession.

...like being a mother.

Lily vaguely felt that the Shadow Demon, who was a little scared before, became intimate now.

She even vaguely sensed the shadow demon's thoughts and ideas.

For example, now, the shadow demon is a little confused about the power of the shepherd law.

So Lily said to Shadow Demon intimately: "I feel like I can bear your existence..."

As Lily spoke, she lightly pressed a finger on Aiwass' shadow.

Immediately afterwards, the Shadow Demon flowed from the shadow cast by that finger into Lily's shadow, and hid safely.It is even more stable than under the shadow of Aiwass - at least there is no situation where Aiwass is motionless and his shadow keeps shaking.

"Is it really okay?"

Aiwass was a little surprised.

"Not too far, and not too long."

Shadow Demon's voice came from under Lily: "And I feel that when Lily is here, I don't seem to be able to exert my full strength..."

"You can do an experiment first. Go out with Lily to see how far you can go and how much power you can exert."

Aiwass said, and stood up from the chair: "I will pack the things in the house first. If you see Oswald, you can also tell him the good news of Yulia's recovery."

At this moment, his shadow finally did not tremble.It was as if he had returned to a normal person.

Lily nodded, and left without a sound with the Shadow Demon.

After the Shadow Demon left, Aiwass sighed with emotion in a low voice: "I finally feel the touch of the cashmere carpet again..."

This was the first time since Aiwass recovered the memory of his previous life, he stood and walked normally.

When he usually stands and walks, no matter what ground he walks on, he always feels that he is stepping on some kind of elastic and soft ground.In fact, it was the body of the Shadow Demon.

When Shadow Demon stepped on it, it felt like soft rubber.

The advantage is that Aiwass can run normally on rough roads-maybe even on swamps or sandy ground.The downside is that it's really uncomfortable to step on.

It's even vaguely sticky... like half a bottle of Coke has been sprinkled on the rubber floor.

That is because Aiwass was wearing cloth shoes for priests, not leather shoes or boots.At least not too clingy.

Aiwass sighed a few words, and then began to tidy up the ceremony skillfully.

This night, he has cleaned up the ceremony field three times in a row... Aiwass is even thinking now, why don't he make a room like the basement that no one goes to, and just transform it into a ceremony room?Of course, my own bedroom is definitely not good, because the smell is too strong.

Now Aiwass can vaguely smell a bloody smell like killing a chicken.He didn't even know where the smell was coming from, because the room had been exposed to blood so many times in one night.Even the floor may have been soaked with blood.

If the luminol reagent is sprayed, Aiwass' bedroom will probably be as bright as a slaughterhouse.

When the Shadow Fiend comes back, let it roam the ground and corrode the blood.

…It’s just an inexplicably subtle feeling like letting a puppy deal with dropped food scraps.

In order not to wake Yulia, Aiwass moved very lightly.He quickly cleaned up the ceremony field, and a shadow quickly flowed across the ground, submerging into his own shadow.

After a while, Lily also came back to report.

"It should be able to reach Master Edward's room at the farthest. If it is farther away, it will automatically go back. But when Miss Shadow Demon is here, she can only spread out five or six steps."

Child-mother router, right?Aiwass complained in his heart.

Besides, why are you Miss?

Is it because of Chloe's voice that he recognizes the Shadow Demon, who has no fixed shape and gender, as a woman?

Forget it, it doesn't matter.Aiwass didn't bother to correct Lily.

"If you can reach Edward... that means the radius is about 50 meters, and Lily's five or six steps are only about three meters..."

Aiwass whispered.

With a radius of three meters, in fact, the Shadow Demon can at most play the role of a bodyguard, and it cannot exert too much destructive power.But on the other hand, this feature can also be used to let Shadow Demon follow Lily to explore the way outside.

Because without the "Venue Card: Shadow Vault", Shadow Fiend would be restrained.

It can only appear on the shadow of Aiwass itself, and the attached shadow cannot enter.Otherwise, if it's at night, it can go anywhere.

For example, when Aiwass is standing under a corner, the Shadow Fiend cannot move from the shadow cast by the corner; when Aiwass is with other people, it cannot enter other people's shadows.

That's why Shadow Demon spread out the shadow field like a creep blanket to directly expand the size of Aiwass' shadow.

But now Lily can also be used as a temporary carrier for Shadow Fiend.

If there is a radius of three meters, Lily can basically use the skills that Aiwass used in the ceremony before.

In a sense, it is equivalent to increasing Lily's offensive ability in a disguised form!

And Aiwass also realized that this has one of the biggest benefits——

"Let Lily raise her hand."

Aiwass said to Shadow Demon from the bottom of his heart.

He wanted to do an experiment.

Sure enough, after about two seconds, Lily raised her hand inexplicably.

Aiwass's eyes lit up, it's really good!
If Shadow Fiend is his contractor and Lily is Shadow Fiend's contractor... then Aiwass can use Shadow Fiend as a transfer station to give precise orders to Lily remotely without even opening his mouth!

From the looks of it, it looks like slightly delayed telepathy.Or……

This is squad voice!
　Thanks to the lord with black eyes~Thank you boss~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)