Chapter 179 Transformation Ritual

The transformation ceremony of the God's Punishment Army is the knowledge that the Pope must master. When Mayne received the God's Punishment Book from His Majesty O'Brien a year ago, it was equivalent to obtaining the succession qualification of the next Pope. ≥Ba≯One Novel Network ≤﹤＜≦﹤≦﹤﹤﹤﹤﹤≦≦

Mayne has already memorized the contents of the book by heart. A God's Punishment Army needs to sacrifice the life of a witch, fuse her blood with the God's Stone of Retaliation, and then inject it into the Judgment Army. This set of rituals has been improved several times in the hundreds of years of use, but the essence has not changed - the witch is the upper limit of the number of God's Punishment Army, and the will of the Judgment Army is the key to the success rate of transformation.

After reading this classic, he finally understood why the church takes in so many underage girls every year. Witches appeared without warning. Before the magic power gathered, they were no different from normal people. And once the magic power starts to gather, their bodies, organs, and blood will all be changed. So in addition to expanding the scale of breeding, there is no other way.

This is also the reason why he agrees with Heather's statement—everything they have done is extremely evil, every high-ranking person has blood on their hands, and they have slaughtered more witches than any executioner. But in order to defeat the devil and avoid the destruction of mankind, they must continue to do so.

Only the victors are eligible to receive God's favor.

...

The two judges were lying on the transformation platform. Mayne knew them. They were Darion from the advance battalion and Tucker Thor from the Holy City Guard. The latter was also a presiding judge.

Both were smiling, but the Bishop could still see the tension in their tensed muscles and clenched fists. He patted the shoulders of the two, "Relax, I believe you can do it."

"My lord, will it be all right to just endure the pain?" Darion couldn't help asking.

"That's right, just make it through," Mayne said with a smile, "Your name is Darion, right?"

"You still remember my name." He said excitedly.

"Of course, you are a member of the advance battalion. You participated in last year's defense of Hermes. The captain is...Alesia, am I right?"

"That's right," Darion nodded repeatedly, "Our team suffered heavy casualties in a battle, and half of the team members died at the hands of hybrid evil beasts. At that time, I thought, it would be great if I had the ability to kill all those deformed bastards. So, my lord, I want to become the God's Punishment Army!"

"Becoming strong to protect your comrades-in-arms is very good," Mayne encouraged, and then he looked at the judge, "What about you? Tucker Thor, why did you decide to transform into the God's Punishment Army? "

"In order to defend the new holy city, my lord," he said firmly, "the priests said that the evil beasts will become stronger and stronger every year in the future. Last time they touched the wall of the holy city, if it weren't for the God's Punishment Army , the cathedral may have been destroyed. I also want to be a strong shield against evil beasts and a spear that pierces through enemies."

"Very good, you are all the pride of the church," Mayne followed the steps explained in the classics, and used conversation to dissolve their tension and fear. Seeing that their emotions gradually became high, he waved his hand to signal the ceremony to continue.

The guards stepped forward and blindfolded the two, and firmly fixed the limbs on the transformation platform with bracelets and anklets. Then the witch was carried in and laid flat between the two.

As a witch raised by the church, she spent most of her life in the monastery of the old holy city. After awakening, she would be sent to the secret area to be used as materials to wait for transformation. The day before the sacrifice, she had been flooded with dream water—a herbal brew of dormen fern and winter flowers—to ensure that no noise during the ritual would wake her up.

"Number, age?"

"No. 1, eighteen years old." The guard replied.

This was a routine inquiry, and only the blood of an adult witch was enough to meet the needs of transforming two God's Punishment Army at the same time. After confirming again against the witch roster, Mayne announced the start of the ceremony.

A delicate silver needle was inserted into the witch's arm, and the reddish-brown blood flowed out from the leather tube wrapped behind the silver needle and gathered into the crystal basin under her body. The bottom of the basin was covered with a layer of light blue God's Stone of Retaliation, the blood gradually soaked through the stone, and finally filled the entire basin.

Soon, God's Stone of Retaliation changed. Through the side of the basin, it can be seen that the blue stone is absorbing the blood. About half an hour later, the stone gradually melted and disappeared, and the muddy blood became crystal clear, and the color also changed from reddish brown to sky blue.

These operations seem simple, but after tens of thousands of trials, a complete and reliable set of steps was obtained. For example, the blood volume estimation of witches with different ages and body shapes, the production of silver needles and leather tubes, which part of the body to insert to drain blood, and which part to insert for blood transfusion, as well as the quality and weight of God's Stone of Retaliation, etc... It is recorded in detail in the ancient books The previous failed experiments and improvements are explained, and the general principle of transformation is also explained.

After the witch's body is transformed by magic power, its blood has the ability to strengthen organs and tendons. If it is used directly, it will only kill the blood recipient instantly. The God's Stone of Retaliation must be soaked in the witch's blood to dissolve the "unexplained power" before it can be injected into the body of the transformer—even so, this blood will damage the mind of a person and make him gradually lose his emotions and intellect, and in the end only instinct and partly a strong will remain. The surviving God's Punishment Army's enhancement level is equivalent to that of ordinary people, and even when they do not wear the God's Stone of Retaliation, they can also have the effect of banning magic.

It has to be said that this is a wonderful combination. The blood of a witch can kill humans, and swallowing the God's Stone of Retaliation can also kill people. However, the combination of the two can minimize this adverse effect .

When the blue liquid slowly flowed into the bodies of the two judges along the leather tube, the veins on their arms and necks suddenly popped up, and their expressions were ferocious, as if they were enduring great pain. Darion was the first to shout out. He struggled on the stage, clenched and opened his fingers, but he couldn't move his hands and feet. After a while, a thin layer of sweat broke out all over his body.

Tucker was not much better either, he let out low growls, a trace of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth, and his whole body twitched.

The liquid level in the crystal basin dropped slowly, and when it was about to bottom out, Darion's voice had turned into a cry. He yelled out words of unknown meaning, his skin opened and dissolved, and white smoke rose from his body. Judging from the description in the classics, his transformation was basically on the verge of failure. When Mayne was hesitant to observe again, the Pope pressed his shoulder from behind, "Enough, let him be free."

A guard stepped forward, drew out his dagger, stabbed Dareon cleanly in the neck, and twisted the hilt violently, ending his pain.

After an unbearable wait, Tucker Thor's convulsions subsided, his breathing gradually stabilized, and his skin transitioned from rosy to light blue. Mayne knew that he had survived the transformation ceremony.

One person succeeded and the other failed. Such a result made the Lord sigh. In just two quarters of an hour, the Church lost a pious Judgment Army, and at the same time wasted half of the witch's blood.

However, there are still sixty Judgment Army waiting to be transformed, so he has to let the ceremony continue.

...

When the ceremony was completed, Mayne almost couldn't stand anymore, he staggered off the stage, and sat leaning against the wall of the hall almost in disgrace.

The Pope slowly walked over and stood in front of him, "To be honest, your performance surprised me, son. When I presided over the ceremony for the first time, it was much worse than you. I was exactly forty-five that year The strong smell of blood made me spit it out on the ceremony stage, almost wasting a whole basin of blood. The previous pope even gave me a severe beating, but after the pumping, he then ordered me to go back to the stage , continue to preside over the ceremony."

"..." Mayne opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say.

"So, don't think about anything, go back and rest for a day."

"Yes, Your Majesty." The bishop took a deep breath, and when he knelt down to salute and was about to leave, he suddenly remembered the purpose of coming, "By the way, you asked me to come to the secret area for..."

"Oh, look at my memory," O'Brien shook his head mockingly, "I came to you to give you a new poison developed by the agency."

"Poison?" In the secret area of ​​the organ, there are institutions that specialize in the research of God's Stone of Retaliation, such as dispelling cold pills, fluorescent stones, mad chemical drugs, etc., and will be distributed to the bishop for use after they have results. But I have never heard that they are involved in poisons. In Mayne's impression, this should be what alchemists are good at.

"I heard from them that this result was obtained by accident." The Pope said slowly. "As long as it is sprinkled on the rotting corpse, it can take effect on the surrounding people for a long time. It does not have to be poured into the mouth like ordinary poison. Without a special antidote, it is basically impossible to cure. You can ask Master Crow's Eye for details. It may come in handy in the battle of the Four Kingdoms."

Mayne immediately thought of Broken Tooth Castle, which could not be attacked for a long time, and the unpleasant stalemate in Graycastle. He suppressed his joy, and saluted again: "If this poison is really as effective as Master Crow's Eye said, then it can really help me a lot." (To be continued.)