Annad had never imagined, before he entered this advanced dungeon, that his greatest loot this ti...
...would actually co from the forbidden books he saw in Amos’ study.
Due to the ti constraints, Annan quickly skimd through the book "The Danger of Believing in These Gods," and swiftly found the entry about the Skeleton Lord.
Then, he learned the following intel:
"...The Skeleton Lord is a False God who erged in the Third Chronicle. Due to the transition of eras, much of the records have been lost. However, archaeological research suggests that at least in the Fourth Chronicle—the previous era—Skeleton Lord had a friendly relationship with the guardian of January, the True God ’Granny Burial,’ goddess of death and the earth."
"In the Fifth Chronicle, however, Skeleton Lord’s relationship with the Burial Church and other True Gods mysteriously deteriorated, even being denounced as an Evil God. The United Kingdom’s main church was forcefully dissolved by Yawen’s orders and had to go underground."
"According to the author’s investigation, this may be related to the grand barrier collapse event at the beginning of this Chronicle..."
This information was sothing Annan had never co across in his senior’s teachings.
Especially the Chrono-Law of the "Third Chronicle" and "Fifth Chronicle," which he had never seen before. The explanations about the grand barrier were also vague.
Upon reading this, Annan could not help but flip to the title page.
Then, he saw the author’s na.
A na that gave him a slight sense of déjà vu...
"...Grianznuha Rinfrost."
Annan repeated this sowhat tongue-twisting na a couple of tis, committing it to mory.
It did not seem to be the na of Annan’s father, the current Grand Duke... was it his uncle’s or grandfather’s?
He did not ponder too much but turned the book back to that page.
Annan quickly found the ritual of the Skeleton Lord—it was marked with a wavy line:
"The ritual domain of the Skeleton Lord involves death, mystery, concealnt, and the arts, therefore it’s necessary to avoid January, under the protection of Granny Burial, February, under the protection of the Lady of Mystery, and April, under the protection of Yawen.
"If it’s a long-term ritual, then May is recomnded, breaking ties with January. But if it’s a short-term borrowing of power, then March is also possible. The first of April is a good termination day, as Yawen is the protector of artists, and Yawen’s holy light can be used to sever the ritualistic connection ford with the Skeleton Lord. This is a trick to break free from the ritual’s shackles."
"Because the rituals of the Skeleton Lord are deceitful, each performance of the ritual gradually increases the price to be paid. Once dependency is ford, certain death is inevitable.
"No matter what kind of power is sought from the Skeleton Lord, the first ti is almost without any cost. But on the second occasion, he will demand ’half of your conscience’ or ’all future friendships,’ which is a trap: always choose the forr, because the latter ans that the one conducting the ritual will inexplicably be despised by everyone. To remove this state, they must conduct a third, utterly pointless ritual...
"In the third ritual, the Skeleton Lord will ask for ’the consumption of a certain body part of a person’ or ’the remaining half of your lifespan,’ still a trap. Because what he requires is not the latter half of your lifespan... but the first half, and that also based on the maximum lifespan, calculated without illness or calamity.
"Given that in the forr request, both ’person’ and ’part’ are designated by the Skeleton Lord, and usually prove fatal, it’s recomnded that before performing the ritual, the ritualist must sever ties forever with their parents and children, divorce their current spouse, and harm all friends and lovers with a silver ceremonial knife, making sure it draws blood, to show a complete severance of kinship and no further association."
"Afterward, three months before the ritual comnces, find a suitable sacrifice to ceremoniously marry and stay inseparable for three months. This way, the original sacrificial target can be diverted. But the best choice is still not to engage in the second and third rituals—the Skeleton Lord is a generous False God, and if only one ritual is perford, then one will most likely receive benefits only."
"The author suggests: one should be content."
The author warned thus.
The part about the Skeleton Lord in this book ends here. Just by looking at its contents and knowledge, one knows that this is knowledge that could never be made public.
Annan frowned slightly.
He rembered... the body part "he" had coughed up back in the gallery.
It was an erald green eyeball.
...Perhaps, that was Elle’s eye.
Did Amos conduct the third ritual with the Skeleton Lord without performing the sacrificial transfer ritual?
But from Elle’s diary, it was clear that their relationship was very close. He couldn’t possibly let Elle be chosen by the ritual...
With that doubt, Annan flipped open "The Complete Rituals".
This book was organized by domains as keywords, searchable in a way similar to a dictionary. Annan searched one by one for keywords like "death", "mystery", "hidden", and "art", but he could hardly see anything; the entire dictionary was foggy, with only a few rituals visible...
Annan had originally intended to use his powerful mory to forcibly rember the rituals in this book. However, these rituals’ information was like the ones Claus had passed on to Annan before and was not sothing that could be rembered by text alone.
This knowledge had weight—
As Annan attempted to understand the first ritual of the death domain, "Living Curse Killing", he gradually lost consciousness.
When he awoke, he suddenly realized that nearly fifteen minutes had passed—considering that it hadn’t taken him as long to search and browse through the information on the Skeleton Lord.
He imdiately realized it was a trap. As long as he was engrossed in looking at other rituals, he would have no ti to investigate the truth. And if he failed his mission, all these mories would be deleted...
So, without hesitation, Annan continued to flip through the pages. Finally, he found the Skeleton Lord’s ritual under the "art" domain:
He lost consciousness again... and this ti, as he did so, characters from the system erged before his eyes:
[True God Communication - Skeleton Lord]
[Ritual Requirent: Tailbone of a black bull, horn of a ram, complete ribs of a naturally deceased boar, a palette/carving knife/piano strings/pen used for at least ten years (core sacrifice), fragnts of an artwork created by the ritualist (must not be destroyed for more than three days)]
[Ritualist Requirent: Practitioner of the artistic profession, no younger than thirty years old]
[Ritual Reward: Blessing related to the profession, generally a tangible gift]
[Cursed With: Nightmares and Whispers]
[Nightmares and Whispers (Continuous Curse): Before the ritual connection is severed, the ritualist will periodically fall into nightmares at night and hear indeterminate whispers during the day]
"So that’s it..."
Annan ca back to consciousness, realizing that more than twenty minutes had passed this ti.
He murmured softly, noting down the second ritual he had seen that day.
"Elle, Elle... Heh heh..."
But just as he was about to open the third book, he suddenly heard a woman’s light laughter... or rather, sneering.
The light in the study suddenly dimd, and strange, multicolored smoke began to rise slowly.
"Laugh at your mother?"
Annan provided an elegant retort imdiately.
Without hesitation, he picked up the kitchen knife beside him and threw it in the direction of the laughter.
The laughter instantly turned into a pained scream:
"—Ah!!"
The smoke dispersed in an instant.
Annan imdiately saw that it was a portrait—previously hanging motionless across from him, smiling gently at him.
At that mont, a kitchen knife was precisely stabbed into the center of the portrait, and the woman in the painting was looking at Annan with furious anger.
Blood slowly dripped down the knife.
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