Witch, don't be so lazy

Kunda didn't finish his words at that time, and only briefly mentioned the Holy Spirit and the armor ceremony, but Anko guessed that he gave him the hilt of the sword and asked him to take it to the statue on the giant tower, most likely for this plan.

As Anke thought about it, his eyes fell on the hilt of the sword in his hand.

This thing is actually quite big, it feels like the handle of a giant sword, very heavy. Her strength is not enough, so she has to use telekinesis to assist.

But unexpectedly, this thing was of gorgeous palace style, with a light gold hollow carved cross handguard, three glazed gems inlaid in the middle, and a series of strange patterns painted on it.

Well, maybe it’s words, hard to say, but it’s definitely not a curse pattern.

"Xiaoqiu, do you know what to do next? The city lord didn't seem to tell me what to do after we reach the top of the tower?"

An Ke looked at the snowballs floating in the air. There was a whole tribe of snowballs in the lord's mansion, but except for the leader, the rest were collectively called "ball cubs" by the Lord of Kunda City.

The one now should be the one that accompanied Anke to storage room No. 2 before. It seems to like sticking to her very much and just now followed her very actively.

Snowball shook his head blankly, and then suddenly cried "Woo woo".

Without being reminded, An Ke also noticed the abnormality of the hilt.

Like sand, or like peeling off silk threads, bits of cold light floated out from the hilt, forming a nearly three-meter-long red-gold straight sword with a huge blade, and then suddenly collapsed and merged into the sculpture above.

An Ke looked at his empty palms, then at the motionless giant sword sculpture in front of him, and couldn't help but mutter:

"What on earth is this? Is it Sutur's former weapon? It looks quite similar to the statue, but also resembles his soul form. Could it be a part of his soul? There's no movement here. Why did the city lord send me here?"

It was clearly a very quiet whisper, but suddenly a voice came from the side.

"[Flame Demon's Fallen Light], a super-level spell created by Sutur, is both magic and his weapon, and it also serves as the direction of his life's transformation.

"Its normal form is a giant flaming sword the size of the one just mentioned. It's rumored that if it were to be unleashed at full power, an endless raging fire and fierce wind would soar into the sky, tearing apart mountains and steaming rivers dry."

The wild Momo appeared again and successfully scared the little girl.

She even reached out and grabbed the snowball in the air, scaring the snowball so much that it kept shaking.

"The flames scorched the earth, and the molten remains cooled in the cold wind, transforming into pieces of limestone. This gave rise to the Limestone Forest northwest of Arthda City. Even more famous is the Ash Rift, stretching over ten kilometers between Arthda City and Red Leaf Town. It was there that Sutur battled the giant Rock Mountain Dragon for a day and a night, ultimately achieving his feat of slaying the dragon."

"Hasn't Little An heard of the relevant stories? Sutur is a great hero of the North and South. Whether it's school textbooks or folk fairy tales and legends, he's almost always there."

An Ke stared at the elusive Momo, puffed out her cheeks to express her dissatisfaction, and then nodded.

"Of course I've heard of it. In the bard's poems, everyone called it the Dragon Slayer Sword, and in the academy, it was called the Fire Giant Sword. It never had a formal name. I didn't know it was magic either. I thought it was just a forged, oversized weapon."

"Those two theories are actually correct. Surtur's inspiration for creating the [Flame Demon's Fallen Sinful Star] came from two swords from the Giant Kingdom: Dusk Blade Levatin and Dragon Serpent Fallen Head Hepermonk. It will likely share some of the characteristics of these two objects."

Momo patiently explained, "The former is the infamous Demonic Sword of Destruction. When it's wielded, the entire sky is illuminated with endless flames, as if the entire world were falling into the final twilight. In mythology, the first Giant King used this demonic sword to end the Age of Gods."

"The latter specifically targets beings with powerful vitality and immortality. The so-called Dragon Snake Headfall refers to the giants' successful use of it to bury the ancient serpent Veles—Oh, little Anke may not have heard of Veles. According to some ancient texts, he was once the ruler of the earth, the oldest master of the abyss, and one of the three ancient gods worshipped by the elves."

"These are just ancient myths, so it's impossible to tell how much truth there is in them. But these two swords must be real, or at least they once existed."

"Rumor has it that the Dusk Blade, Levatin, shattered after the Age of Gods ended. The remaining fragments were enshrined in the Giant Kingdom until they somehow ended up in the hands of Heaven, where they were reforged and transformed into the Angel King's Sword of Judgment... Although the Church has never acknowledged this, they haven't denied it either."

"The fate of Hepermonk, the Fallen Dragon Snake, was similar. It's said that it survived until the eve of the Giant Kingdom's demise. The Giants once used this weapon to suppress Dragon Island. If the last Giant King still had Hepermonk in his hands when the Chaos Dragon attacked the Giant Kingdom, the outcome might have been different."

"But unfortunately, due to the interference of the Old Empire, it is very likely that Evening Star Evanga personally stole this mythical weapon, sounding the final death knell for the giants."

"Of course, for the North, the most compelling evidence is that Surtur once reached historical fragments of the Giant Kingdom during his spiritual journey and was incredibly fortunate to come into contact with the projections of these two swords. Leveraging this connection and his unique spiritual talents, he was able to create the Flame Demon's Fallen Star."

...This can be considered an adventure. Anyone who can become a high-level magician, in addition to the invaluable talent and hard work, naturally has good luck. They have more or less experienced some things that are different from ordinary people.

An Ke pursed her lips and asked, "Is this how Sutur was able to fight the Rock Mountain Dragon alone? Because his own magic is extremely powerful, and it also has the Undying Slash and Anti-Dragon Special Attack?"

After all, after Sutur killed the fourth-level dragon alone, he still had the energy to assist other extraordinary wizards in a three-on-five round-robin battle with the Southern Monster Alliance. His record was really outrageous.

But once you know the extraordinary origin of his magic, it suddenly starts to make sense.

"Hmm? Is the Undying Slash a flashback to the Slashing of the Undying? And that Dragon Attack pair, Anko's description is so interesting~"

Momo blinked and replied, "That's pretty much the reason, but powerful magic doesn't come without a price. The reason Sutur was so seriously injured that it was irreparable was not only because he was deliberately targeted by those fourth-level monsters, but also because of the backlash caused by his excessive magic."

"When the Tower Council decided to give him the flesh and blood of the Chaos Wrath Dragon, they clearly took into account the characteristics of Surtur's magic. If it were another mage, even with external assistance, they probably wouldn't be able to fight the Wrath Dragon's corruption day after day."

"Unfortunately, the gap in rank is still too great. Furthermore, Sutur's [Flame Demon's Fallen Light] only gained a few of the characteristics of the two mythical weapons. Otherwise, he could truly achieve self-purification and use the Chaos Dragon's flesh and blood as a treasure for healing and strengthening."

"But this can also be considered a round of training and cultivation. According to the original plan, Sutur can further improve his magic through the confrontation with the Chaos Wicked Dragon, including being demoted from the fourth rank to the third rank and then back to the fourth rank. This process is also necessary, just like the reforging of a weapon, transforming towards the Dragon Snake Fallen Head, Hepermonk. This can not only heal injuries, but also increase the possibility of becoming a Legend."

"And if everything went smoothly, and Surtur could have successfully perfected his magic, his descendants who shared his burden of contamination would have also benefited. The Arthda family would have become the only family in the North capable of transcending the dragon's contamination and cultivating. Unfortunately, things dragged on for too long. Seeing that he was about to die of old age, he thought that the blessings would be for the younger generations. Some people started to have thoughts that they absolutely shouldn't have had. Furthermore, the Well of Silence intervened, and the Tower and Black Rock City were facing numerous crises at the time. They had no time to pay attention to this side, and things slowly fell apart."

Momo paused. "Momo also just found out about this. Amo actually hid the information in the cleansing array that connects to the earth veins. If Momo didn't pay attention, she would have missed it. Don't you think so, Xiaohui?"

"...If you didn't even notice the earth vein formation, then Momo, you're probably going to get scolded."

Little Gray wagged his tail.

Anke's attention was focused on the series of information above. She was stunned for a while and finally digested it after a long time.

No wonder Sutur's soul takes the form of a giant sword, no wonder he can kill dragons of the same level, no wonder the fifth "Guardian of the Earth" wants to apply for the flesh and blood of the "Chaos Dragon" for treatment, and the Tower also agrees.

So that's how it is. It seems that the above experiment was not done randomly, but something went wrong in the middle.

Although the Well of Silence seemed unaware of so much of the inside story, they still destroyed the original plan with their strong enthusiasm and abundant trouble-making abilities.

"Sister Momo, I'm glad to see you're back safely. Does that mean the Apostle of the Well of Silence..."

"He ran away, but I'm not sure if he has completely given up. He might still be wandering around somewhere."

Momo pouted. "It's been a huge scene, and the underground is in chaos. Momo just helped suppress the Skeleton Dragon's movements with the earth vein array, and then he was forced out by Kunda. He was busy comforting Sutur and playing a lullaby without any distinction, and he ignored Momo at all."

She squeezed the snowball hard a few times, not sure if she was having fun or expressing her dissatisfaction with Kunda.

Anyway, Xuetuanzi struggled desperately and escaped from the clutches of the devil with great difficulty, then hurriedly hid behind Anke. He dared not say anything and could only show an aggrieved look.

Anke touched Snowball's head to comfort her, but she didn't dare to condemn the evil Momo, for fear of being subjected to a smooth combo of face pinching and high-lifting windmills. She could only cough and change the subject.

"Sister Momo, is there something you want to do at the top of the tower?"

"Hmm? No, I just came here to chat with Little Anke. Now, besides Kunda and Momo, the only one in Asda City who knows about Sutur's situation is Little Anke."

...So you were bored and had a strong desire to chat. No wonder you chatted so much just now, more active than ever before. Oh, it could also be the influence of the earth vein formation just now?

Enke hesitated to speak, suppressing her desire to complain, and asked curiously:

"I thought Sister Momo was concerned about the third option. I guess I'm right. Bringing the hilt of the sword to this statue, is this part of the Holy Spirit ritual, or the armor ceremony?"

"Hmm... whatever, let's just say it's all. Regarding the preparations before launching, that plan... has a lot of problems."

Chapter 126 Choice

As the tallest building in Arthda City, the top of the tower offers a wide view.

Looking up, you can see the bright moon and the sky dotted with stars; looking down, you can see the bustling city and rolling hills.

The scenery was nice, but Anke had no time to appreciate it. He just frowned as Momo spoke.

"If Surtur is to successfully fuse and ascend without losing control, it must eliminate the pollution from the Chaos Wicked Dragon and the negative energy erosion from the Well of Silence. Winterbone City chose to accept the erosion, but tampered with the contracted party. Then, they used the dracolich's necromancy and a large amount of negative energy to eliminate the pollution. Black Rock City's method is simpler and more drastic. As long as they can call upon enough leyline energy, the so-called pollution and erosion will be nothing in the face of the vast and heavy earth. In any case, they will become a hollow shell with a lost mind."

"However, the third solution is different. It chooses to use two rituals to solve the problems separately—the Armor Ritual to resolve the Chaos Dragon's pollution, and the Holy Spirit Ritual to deal with the erosion of the Well of Silence. As the number of steps increases, the difficulty and variables also increase. At the same time, both rituals have some flaws."

Momo originally planned to just briefly explain it, but she noticed that Anke seemed to be very focused, so she thought about it and patiently explained it.

"I'd like to state this in advance. Momo has only taken the introductory course on esoteric rituals at the academy. The information left in the leyline array only focuses on how to cleanse with leyline energy. It doesn't cover these two rituals in detail. Momo can only share her own understanding."

"First, there's the armor-donning ceremony. This isn't an orthodox armor-donning ritual, so some adjustments have been made. However, the method and final result are similar. That is, by reproducing behaviors that correspond to higher-level beings and have far-reaching consequences, the ritual gains power and achieves the corresponding results."

"Using Surtur as an example, his ritual probably corresponds to the giant's use of the fallen dragon-snake Hepermonk to slay the ancient serpent Veres. Surtur refers to the giant, his soul form refers to Hepermonk, and the Chaos Dragon's contamination refers to Veres."

"But in order for the ritual to be successfully completed and achieve its goal of eliminating the pollution, he must also perform an action that sufficiently corresponds to both the ancient deeds and the purpose. This is a triple echo, and at the same time, the action must have far-reaching impact."

Momo paused and held up a finger. "Theoretically, Sutur has already done it."

Following the direction of her finger, Anke saw the magnificent statue standing on the top of the tower.

The long sword thrust straight down, and the ferocious dragon crawled on the ground and howled.

An Ke understood immediately: "The great hero who pioneered the south successfully killed the giant dragon of the Rock Mountain with the Dragon Slaying Sword. This is indeed a well-known and far-reaching event."

The correspondence of the sword bearer is simple, Sutur - Sutur or someone else - giant;

The sword's correspondence is very clear, the Dragon Slayer Sword or [Flame Demon's Fallen Sinful Star] - the soul form of Surtur's greatsword - Dragon Snake Fallen Head Hepermonk, there is a strong connection between the three;

The same goes for the corresponding killings. There are also some weak connections between the Rock Dragon, the Pollution of the Chaos Dragon, and the Ancient Serpent Veles.

It is precisely because of the responses listed above that the adjusted armor-donning ceremony is satisfied, which led to the idea of ​​this plan.

"But it's clearly not enough, otherwise Sutur wouldn't be tainted by the evil dragon right now. This is partly because the dragon-slaying event occurred before the ceremony, and partly because the connection between the dragon and snake chain isn't tight enough. It needs another, more relevant event."

Momo shrugged, showing a helpless expression.

"So things became very complicated. First of all, it was difficult to find a target that met the requirements. Moreover, Sutur's poor condition didn't allow him to move around freely, let alone complete the task."

"Then there's the Holy Spirit Ritual. You should have heard of the Holy Spirit. The Church is best at cultivating these twisted and powerful creatures. They are constantly shaped through faith. They don't care about death or self. They have become a symbol, a useful tool."

"The true Holy Spirit Ritual is a secret of the Church, and other forces are almost unable to meddle with it. The one we are preparing now is just an imitation and cannot obtain the characteristics of a true Holy Spirit. However, it is more than enough to transform Sutur into a Holy Spirit and eliminate the erosion of the Well of Silence. Of course, the premise is that the ritual can be successfully initiated."

Momo spread her hands. "You should be able to tell. Since it involves the Holy Spirit, it's obviously inseparable from faith. But the North is not the Papal States. We don't have such fanatical worship here. Even if there is, it is mostly directed towards the Tower, not Sutur."

"Although he has been quite famous in the South for a long time, without long-term and fanatical faith, it is hard to say whether the accumulation of shallow beliefs alone is enough to complete the ceremony."

"I hope it's enough. It would be best if there were some excess, so that it could even assist in the armor-donning ceremony. Look at the statue above. It's a vessel for belief, and it's also a hint, a symbol, and a prayer."

"Think about it. This statue represents the past, reflecting Sutur's deeds of slaying the giant rock dragon. But it also points to the future. You haven't forgotten what happened underground, right? The giant sword hangs high in the sky, and the skeletal dragon lies on the ground. When the giant sword falls, it will perfectly correspond to the phenomenon depicted in the statue, symbolizing that Sutur has eliminated the pollution and successfully completed the fusion."

I don't know how serious it is.

An Ke was stunned when she heard this. She had never studied the relevant content and had no idea how many secrets of ritual magic were contained in it. Just based on these complicated correspondences and symbols, she felt that a lot of effort must have been put into the arrangement back then.

"However, unfortunately, even if there is enough faith, the Holy Spirit ritual always faces a big problem."

Just when An Ke was sighing, Momo unexpectedly poured a basin of cold water on her.

“Holy Spirits, Holy Spirits, they are followers of the Lord of the Dawn and the guardians of the Kingdom of Heaven. However, the rituals in the city of Asda lack this, which adds a lot of uncertainty to the success of the rituals.

"The Guardians of Heaven could perhaps be changed to Guardians of the Tower, but there are no gods in the North. Lady Adela is certainly an epic mage, on the same level as a god, but there are indeed some differences between the two."

"But finding another god isn't realistic. There might indeed be a sleeping god in the spirit world, but even if we find one, High Tower and Surtur might not be willing to become each other's followers. Not everyone is willing to follow a powerful being. Even if we really want to surrender, it would be better to go directly to Her Majesty Margaria. After all, she is one of High Tower's own."

Momo blinked. "That's it. Now you understand how many problems this plan has, right? But it's already the third most feasible method. Well, at least the third most economically viable method."

"..."

An Ke nodded blankly.

She didn't know what to say. She could see that the company was quite professional, but there were also some messy problems.

It was the same before. They had clearly sent specialists and silent guards to monitor at the beginning, but later they pulled people to fill in other battlefields. Otherwise, the Well of Silence might not be able to find a loophole... Well, that's not the case. After all, the other battlefields were a complete victory, and the White Walkers were almost all dead, so the Well of Silence had to hide.

Maybe it was really due to financial constraints, so they focused on using local materials, whether it was extracting earth veins, or the Holy Spirit and armor ceremony, or even the method of the hibernation city, they were all materials borrowed for free from the Well of Silence.

This can't be the only style in the North, right?

This is inconsistent with Miss Anke's image. She is no longer the poor girl she used to be... Although her wallet is empty, she just has no cash for the time being. She has a lot of valuable materials buried in the cliff, and the money from the Page family has not arrived yet.

An Ke was daydreaming when she suddenly felt her body lighten and her vision rise.

She lowered her head and looked at Momo who lifted her up in confusion.

What's going on? Is this?

My spirituality hasn't changed either?

Is the evil Momo going to bully the little girl again?

Before Anke could figure out how many times to secretly kick Momo this time, she heard a sigh.

"Hey, little Anke, do you think I should use the leyline energy... to cleanse Sutur?"

Momo raised her head and stared at Anke, with a rare conflicted expression on her face.

She must have been very conflicted, she even changed "Momo" to "I".

"What does Sister Momo think?"

Anke did not try to make any small moves or struggle, but asked seriously.

"I do not know either."

Momo sighed again. "If I cleanse him, it feels a bit too cruel. Turning him into a monster and then forcing him to do anything... I don't think this is a good idea. Even if Black Rock City gets a fourth-level puppet, the impact is too bad."

"After all, he was a hero who made great contributions and sacrifices. In the end, all his descendants are dead, and the city he built no longer exists. After all, too much earth energy has been drained away, and the land is likely so barren that even grass can't grow. Not to mention humans, I'm afraid even monsters won't want to stay in this area... If Sutur himself turns into a monster and leaves, there will be nothing left."

"But whether it's my personal opinion or the position of Black Rock City, I can't possibly agree with the Hibernation City's method. If Kunda decides to take action, I will definitely interfere. But I can't let Sutur ascend with pollution and erosion. That would result in a completely out-of-control monster. I can only stop him... Most likely, a battle will break out underground, or I will kill him with my own hands..."

"How annoying! Why did they assign me such a mission? Momo doesn't want to make such a difficult choice. Why doesn't the council make the decision themselves? Why do they have to make things difficult for Momo? What a bunch of bad guys...don't you agree?"

Momo stared at Anke, and when she didn't answer, she shook it twice more.

"... Stop shaking, I'm listening!"