Knight and Wand

Chapter 348: Groping Summoning
In the afternoon, the tranquility of the outskirts of Avalon Castle was broken by teams of fully armed steel-armored knights.

Hundreds of Lion-Wing Knights and Raven-Wing Knights blocked the outskirts of the forest after the Lord of the Knights entered the dense forest to prevent anyone from disturbing them.

The Death Claw hovered in the sky, its sharp eagle eyes monitoring every move around it. The griffin's might was so great that not even a bird in the surrounding area dared to approach.

Located in the layers of guards, Leon waited for Corvis to put the materials in place, then immediately urged Gungnir to cast the spell.

The alchemical solution in the center of the clearing instantly spread out under the control of the caster, engraving the complex magic patterns of the summoning ritual on the ground.

He shook the magic wand lightly, causing the liquid metal-like solution to solidify. Corvis, who was assisting at the side, immediately raised his hand, floated up various symbols and personal belongings of Count Elliver's past, and placed them into the magic pattern nodes of the ceremony.

The pseudo-thorn blade is placed in the center.

The dagger that Elifuer used in the past, his old clothes, his seal ring, and even the love ribbon he once gave to Lady Adeline were all classified according to their symbolic attributes and placed in specific locations.

The following items used as the basis for the ceremony were all borrowed from Lady Adelina when I visited her early in the morning.

The process of asking for the money back went very smoothly. Adeline used the excuse of using Count Elliver's personal belongings to cast magic to search for his whereabouts. When she heard that there was a possibility of finding her husband, she was instantly ecstatic. Without any hesitation, she moved out all the old things of her husband that she could find around her.

Leon selected the most important symbols and even dissuaded Adelina from her excited plan to send someone to Achesburg to find more things.

The other party was so excited about missing him that Leon's mood became heavy at the moment.

Hope everything goes well.
Looking at the summoning ceremony that was ready, Leon pulled out an empty black Neti card from his pocket, slowly and attentively chanted the spell, and began the fourth summoning of the dead souls after Garron, Canis, and Callisto.

The magic energy in the body rises, and the magic patterns emit brilliant light.

Amid the turbulent winds and clouds, the surrounding daytime environment gradually became chaotic in Leon's perception, like spilled ink. The familiar feeling of soul falling came again, and his consciousness seemed to penetrate the curtain of the material world and fall into the bottomless abyss.
However, it was unclear whether a long time had passed or just a moment had passed. This time, without even seeing the terrifying and indescribable giant in the void, Leon's consciousness gradually regained its perception of the reality before his eyes.

The light of the summoning circle in front of me has gone out.

The already solidified magic pattern turned into alchemical solution again, rising and evaporating in the repeated high temperatures.

The fake thorn sword that served as the basis of the ceremony and many of the earl's old belongings still lay there unchanged.

Failed.
This was the first time he failed in summoning.

It wasn't that something went wrong in the casting process, but the traction of the ritual basis made it impossible to find any trace of the target.

Leon put away the seal holding the Neti card and looked at the crystal card surface surrounded by white mist, which was still empty in his hand.

According to David, who witnessed the last scene of his father's death in battle, Earl had undoubtedly suffered a fatal wound that was impossible to survive.

But when they followed the direction of the relics and fell into the Dead Sea, their soul could not be found.

According to the theory of magic, even if the soul is broken, there should be some fragments in the Dead Sea.

Does this mean that Earl Elliver is not dead yet?

At least for now his soul has not sunk into the Dead Sea.

People were killed, but they didn't die.

Then Elifer's situation is either that his soul is trapped in the mortal world by some kind of magic.

Or, he has been transformed into the same kind by those vampire-like undead spirits.

Leon couldn't help but pinch his brows.

Whether it's dying in battle, having your soul imprisoned, or becoming a vampire, it's not a good thing.

But now it can be confirmed that continuing to track the whereabouts of "Baron Charleman" and his vampire army to the south is definitely not in vain.

He walked forward thoughtfully, and together with Corvis, he retrieved Earl Earl's old belongings and put them away again, but he was not in a hurry to leave.

In addition to Earlliver, Leon has other ghosts he wants to try to summon.

As for the soldiers who knew about Canis's death, he still remembered the promise he made when he incorporated those warriors into the guards.

These guards followed him through battles all the way until they died heroically on the hellish battlefield of Rolandar, living up to their oath of allegiance.

Now, it is time for me, as the lord, to fulfill my promise to my loyal and brave subordinates.

Corvis poured another portion of alchemical solution on the ground, then walked back to Leon and pointed out the golden eye between his eyebrows. He then grasped his master's wrist and injected the vast chaos magic power into Leon's body.

With his magic power replenished again, Leon pulled himself together and cast the spell again to open the ritual magic pattern on the open space.

Akao turned around and placed the armor and weapons used by a fallen guard into the magic circle. Along with the relics, the coffin containing his body also floated into the ceremony.

After Leon was ready, he began another summoning.

In the clearing in the dense forest, bursts of light reappeared.

However, after the spell lasted for a long time, the magic light gradually went out.

Leon opened his eyes with cold sweat on his head, frowning and staring at the empty cards in his hand.

Failed again.

But this attempt was very different from the one that summoned Count Elliver.

Leon already felt that he had clearly fallen into the depths of the Sea of ​​Nothingness. But apart from the countless resentful souls that rushed towards his consciousness and approached him actively, he was unable to find the soul that the ritual was pointing to.

Is it that the reputation of the Guards is still not enough to leave a mark in the River of Time?
Are their names still not spread deeply and far enough?
Leon thought about it and there seemed to be no other reason.

Although the Crusader Knight followed him in the final battle of the Cursed Realm and became famous.

Over the past year, he has also spent a lot of money to hire a large number of poets to compile poems and stories, and to go around singing the heroic deeds of the victims in their fight against the undead army and demons.

But no matter how much publicity was created and how much fame was spread, the number of Crusade Knights sacrificed was still too great.

Although their heroic deeds are admirable, it is obviously a pipe dream to expect every one of their names to be deeply remembered by most people in the world.

Perhaps in their respective hometowns, the locals will remember the deeds of the local holy war knights.

But the reputation of a village or a town is cruel. No matter how well remembered by the elders of the hometown now, it will still be submerged in the waves of the River of Time in the future. Maybe before the Undead War, a knight who was already famous for his bravery might be summoned individually like Canis.

But even though his guards of ordinary origin grew rapidly in battle after battle, their brilliance was still too short-lived.

Before those guards could create their own legends, they died in the brutal bloody battle.

Leon shook his head helplessly.

The reason why the young master of the Wolf family was able to succeed was not only because his bravery was able to spread his reputation in the North-South War in Mamore County, but probably also because the opponent's souls were too resentful. Otherwise, it would be extremely difficult to be captured by the ritual.

Moreover, no matter how much weight and actual impact it has, the name of an individual hero is ultimately easier to remember than that of a collective hero.

People can remember a few vivid names, but it is impossible to remember the name of every person who made a collective sacrifice.

It is hard to say what the consequences would be if more than five or six people were killed, let alone the scale of an entire army was sacrificed.

The most that can be remembered is what they represent.
Suddenly he hissed, and Leon put his fingers on his chin.

The collective represented?
collective?

The holy war army.
Holy War Knight?

A flash of inspiration.

Leon's divergent imagination gave him new ideas instantly.

The soul of a single Crusade Knight, an individual who was not well-known before the war, did not leave a deep enough mark in the world.

But the Crusade Knights, as a group that puts an end to the Undead War, are very loud.

In particular, every "Church Knight" who survives the war can continue to spread this glorious title and reputation.

Can the Neti card directly summon and hold multiple heroic spirits?
like
It seems that the manuscript left by Ms. Aphrodite didn't say that it was not allowed, right?

After two unsuccessful summoning attempts, Leon destroyed all traces of the spell and led his troops back to Castle Avalon.

After asking the knights to return the coffin of the fallen guards to the Cemetery of Heroes, he went to Lady Adeline and returned Count Elliver's old belongings.

For the time being, he tried to comfort her in a tactful way. He found traces that Earl might still be alive. After all, Leon did not rush to tell her that the other party might have been transformed into a non-human being.

Before actually finding and confirming the whereabouts and situation of Count Thornflower, Leon didn't want to see this lady crying all day long, no matter whether she had vaguely guessed something.

After leaving Adelina's residence, Leon thought about how to try out his previous ideas.

Targeting the famous group of "Holy War Knights", he used the Neti Card to summon multiple souls that made up the name of the Holy War Knights at once.

Regardless of whether each of them is famous enough, at least as an army of heroes that ended the undead plague, the mark this group left on the world is undoubtedly extremely profound.

The question now is, what basis should be used to point to the Holy Knights?
Should I collect all the knights' relics and put them together for the summoning ceremony?
After discussing this idea with Corvis, Leon hurried to the Mage Tower and found the Neti card design drawings and experimental manuscripts that were originally compiled into a book and left by Ms. Aphrodite. When stacked up, they were as thick as a tome.

The two of them entered the library with the heavy manuscripts and began to look for magic books in related fields. They worked hard to study the feasibility of multiple summoning.

Seeing this, Leon and Akao worked day and night without leaving the tower, and Azerien and Lohak took turns to bring them food.

Another day passed. Leon, who was sleeping soundly on the sofa in front of Ms. Aphrodite's bedroom in the living area of ​​the Mage Tower, was suddenly awakened and startled.

Perhaps he was too tired from studying the magic book, or the environment in the magic tower was too safe, so he was not alert to anyone approaching during his sleep.

However, when he smelled the aroma of fish and meat, Leon looked up and saw Olivia carrying a basket of food, and he relaxed again.

"Just got back from Selva?"

He smiled and stretched, then immediately stood up and tried to hug and kiss his wife, but Olivia pressed her lips with her fingers.

"Brush your teeth first, otherwise I won't let you kiss me." Olivia said softly with a stern face, frowning and pretending to be disgusted.

Leon had no choice but to obey.

Although the ancient mage, Ms. Aphrodite, who had already left behind an extraordinary body, did not leave behind any daily necessities for ordinary people, fortunately, it was not the first time that Leon lived in the Mage Tower, and he had already placed some toiletries in the tower.

Although since he became a wizard, no bacteria could survive his high-temperature oral cleaning using heat elements, and sediment could be cleaned by spells, but the habit of brushing teeth was still retained. After all, he lived with Olivia every day, and it would be funny if he used spells to clean his mouth in front of her and was accidentally disturbed by the magic field, burning the inner wall of his mouth or breaking a few teeth.

After washing up, Leon called Corvis, who had gone to the library early, and went back to the second floor to have dinner.

"I just came back and heard from Azerien that you guys have been staying in the tower for two days. What are you researching?" Olivia leaned against Leon and asked curiously.

Leon planned to tell the girl.

".That magic card can revive all the holy war knights at once?" Olivia's eyes flickered when she heard it.

Although she knew how powerful the crystal cards in Leon's hands were, Olivia was still a little excited that they could allow so many brave warriors who had fought together to return to the world in one go.

Leon shook his head regretfully and took out the black Neti card from his pocket.

"Although I also want to save the lives of all the holy war knights, after the calculations and deductions that Corvis and I have made in the past few days, theoretically, Neti cards of this level of material cannot accommodate thousands of dead souls. After all, Neti cards are not just magical instruments that simply accommodate dead souls, but also have to reshape their spirits and existence."

Perhaps the silver Neti card with the Isua soul stone could be used to forge spirit bodies with cards of more than a thousand people? But now even Garron's cards cannot be repaired, so I can only think about it.

It is even unclear whether this idea of ​​summoning an organized heroic spirit can succeed.

While eating, Leon told Olivia about their research results of the past two days: “To carry out this attempt, too many messy ritual bases are useless. The relics of a single person cannot even summon a single dead soul, so it’s useless no matter how many there are.

Just like the directional sacrifice required to summon a single dead soul, a relic that can directly point to the concept of "Holy War Knight" shared by multiple dead souls in the world is needed."

"Shared concept?" Olivia thought for a moment, "For example, your flag?"

"My flag symbolizes the Pendragon army. If I only summon the knights who died in my battles, I might be able to try. But there is another more appropriate and clearer object. It symbolizes the concept of 'holy war knights' more profoundly and directly, and the success rate should be higher. But that thing is now in the possession of Baron Ivan."

After that, Leon put down his fork and said, "It's just right. The Knights have been resting for so long, we should go to Sobonitz Territory. David said that the undead in the south of Kantadar are killing each other now. I plan to take the elite troops to check the situation in the south. Before you come back, I failed to summon Earl Elliver, which means he may still be alive. Let's go and find out where the vampire army that attacked Kilmerton went."

(End of this chapter)