Chapter 1121: Section 1122 Summoning Ritual
However, the result took them by surprise.
Apart from a portion of the outer thin clouds being swayed by the wind, the raincloud as a whole remained almost unmoved within the strong gusts.
Rivetta, who was manipulating the Wind Element, naturally knew the situation best.
The Wind Element could flaunt its power outside the raincloud, but as soon as it merged with the raincloud, she would instantly lose control over it, as if a membrane was blocking her command of the Wind Element.
Therefore, no matter how fierce the wind was, it could only affect the very outer layer of thin clouds; once it entered the interior, the violent wind was no longer a concern.
The raincloud, seemingly without any anchor, just floated there, but they could find no way to deal with it.
All the Wizards had ugly expressions on their faces.
“Drip-drop, drip-drop,” weird noises came from the raincloud, as if mocking their overconfidence.
Rivetta’s expression kept changing; although her main purpose for coming to the frontlines was to dig up some major news, she was very clear that discovering news was one thing, and whether she could bring it back alive was another.
Glory and loss are shared by all. If she wanted to survive by all means, she necessary had to figure out how to eradicate these great Demons.
Rivetta’s strength was modest, and there wasn’t much she could do. But when it came to gathering intelligence, she had her own methods.
With that in mind, Rivetta temporarily gave up controlling the powers of the Wind System and secretly set up a Summoning Ritual instead.
This Summoning Ritual was clearly one Rivetta often used—it was set up very quickly, and most of the spell materials were even pre-prepared. When a flash of cyan-black light flickered and vanished, a nearly transparent sylph appeared in front of Rivetta, amidst the hazy apparition.
The shape of the sylph was somewhat human-like, but in truth, she was not a humanoid life form but an Elemental Creature. Her outline flickered in and out of visibility, looking like a spirit’s glow on the verge of shattering into the void.
“Be my eyes, and help me investigate the situation within that raincloud,” Rivetta swiftly commanded.
The sylph looked back at the raincloud, which was firmly still despite the fierce winds, her expression vaguely showing a trace of puzzlement: “Strange… very strange…”
The newly born sylph was low in intelligence, with expressive abilities at best comparable to a two or three-year-old baby. Rivetta rarely heard the sylph speak; she didn’t expect that today, the sylph would speak out of the ordinary.
“This raincloud is very strange?” Rivetta asked, simplifying the meaning of her words.
The sylph nodded.
Just as Rivetta wanted to ask how strange the raincloud was, the sylph looked perplexed—clearly, it was difficult for her limited intelligence to understand Rivetta’s meaning.
“Never mind, we’ll see once you take a look,” Rivetta sighed lightly, and the cyan-black light appeared on her hand again. The Summoning Ritual was yet unfinished, and a uttered phrase remained: I will observe the myriad disturbances and changes through your primary consciousness.
As the incantation was spoken, the sylph transformed into nothingness and then merged into the surrounding wild wind. Following its direction, she drifted into the raincloud.
After the sylph entered the raincloud, Rivetta immediately felt that she had lost control over the sylph.
If it were a normal summoning spell, this would likely be equivalent to the summoned being dying, spell failure, or even backlash. But what Rivetta used was not a normal summoning spell but a Summoning Ritual.
Rivetta glanced at the back of her hand, where there was a strange pattern resembling a Magical Energy Array. At this moment, the casting material known as the “sacrifice” in the rituals had not yet completely dissipated, indicating the Summoning Ritual was still ongoing.
However, the sacrifice was being depleted at a swift pace, at least six times faster than usual.
It would run out shortly.
Rivetta quickly recited the necessary phrases, connecting to the sylph’s senses through the ritual.
A bizarre sensation suddenly enveloped Rivetta.
It was as if her consciousness, soul, and senses were all bound by a layer of water, and the sylph was doing her best to struggle free of this confinement. No matter what she did, she couldn’t break free.
Rivetta mentally signaled the sylph without ceasing: “Stop struggling, be my eyes, just look around.”
But the sylph was no ordinary Wind Element; the moment she became an Elemental Life, she understood the concept of “life and death.”
Rivetta’s method wasn’t a summoning spell, so she couldn’t command the sylph forcibly. The sylph’s anxiety about self-preservation clearly outweighed Rivetta’s hints, leading to the current stalemate.
“Be my eyes, just let me see the surroundings and I will end the Summoning Ritual, sending you back to your original world,” Rivetta said, resorting to a method of enticement after her suggestions failed.
The sylph’s intelligence was not high, but she knew that once the ritual ended, she would immediately leave this place.
After pondering for a while, the light wind banshee agreed to Rivetta. She stopped struggling, allowing the water membrane to continuously compress her space, lending her eyes to Rivetta.
In an instant, Rivetta saw the images in the rainclouds.
Rivetta saw the huge Nitotipu, the two blood cocoons floating behind Nitotipu, and also Yadasai and Komodo… Just as Rivetta wanted to keep looking, a voice echoed in her ears.
“Pitter-patter.”
Rivetta looked up, and all she saw in her view was a big mouth full of sharp teeth.
With a snap, her vision went dark.
Rivetta was ejected from the consciousness of the light wind banshee, and after a moment of daze, Rivetta suddenly felt a burning sensation on the back of her hand. Looking down, she saw that the summoning ritual had failed, revealing a strange blue-black mark.
The failure of the ritual meant that the light wind banshee had died. And that blue-black mark was the backlash of the failed ritual, a curse mark. According to the scripture prepared for the ritual, the size of the curse could be determined.
The significance of this curse was the inability to use elemental powers for a short period, which was a curse that could be either significant or minor.
Now was not the time to pay attention to this curse, as Rivetta somberly retreated back onto the floating ice. As soon as she landed, Rivetta immediately approached the front of the floating ice, “Monty, Your Excellency, I have seen the situation within the rainclouds.”
Rivetta did not mention that she had used the summoning ritual—though Ritual Studies was not as vigorously targeted by members of the Extreme Sect like Inscription Studies, it was never the mainstream of the Southern Domain. Rivetta had received some inheritance of Ritual Studies, which was her own secret, and she did not wish to advertise it too much.
Rivetta simply stated that she had seen the situation within the rainclouds using a special method.
Rivetta briefly described what she saw, focusing particularly on the two blood cocoons, “The blood cocoons were positioned behind Nitotipu, with Komodo and Yadasai beside them, seemingly accelerating the hatching of the cocoons. Now, the color of the cocoons is becoming fainter, and the time of their hatching is drawing near, which will be highly detrimental to us.”
Monty nodded his head and was about to reply when suddenly screams came from a distance.
They realized that a violent wind had suddenly struck from within the rainclouds, wilder than the winds they had previously created together. It had blown all the assembled wizards into disarray.
Fortunately, these wizards were all part of the Wind Sequence, and although the wind was fierce, it caused them little damage.
But this counterattack allowed the observative to notice something peculiar.
Nitotipu was an ocean demon and clearly wouldn’t possess such wind system powers. Among those inside, Yadasai, who focused on physical prowess, and Komodo, a fire system demon—even if they could borrow wind force, it was absolutely impossible for them to reach True Knowledge Level wind’s power.
So where did this wind’s force come from? It seemed there was only one answer, that it came from the hands of the wizards themselves.
When their wind’s force entered the rainclouds earlier, they lost control of it. Perhaps it wasn’t completely out of control but was seized by Nitotipu, even being rebounded.
Monty gazed at the rainclouds with contemplation in his eyes. After a moment of silence, he turned to Rivetta, “What do you think, what secret does that raincloud hide?”
Rivetta recalled the feeling of being constrained that came from the light wind banshee.
From beginning to end, it was as if everything was shackled. Even though the light wind banshee had no physical form and was merely a nascent wind elemental life, it was so constrained that it couldn’t move.
Shackles, compression, and suffocation, the space getting smaller and smaller… What was this feeling?
Rivetta kept mulling over it, and suddenly a spark of insight floated through her mind, “Repulsion! Yes, that’s it, repulsion!”
“That raincloud seems to repel all external forces. It’s like a natural domain field, allowing only Nitotipu’s power to exist.” Rivetta spoke more and more fluently, and following this train of thought, she came up with a possibility, “Domain! It’s much like the power of a domain. Could it be that the raincloud is actually a type of water system domain?”
A domain is essentially a Law Domain. When one’s strength reaches the level of a third-tier True Knowledge Wizard, they begin to come into contact with Law Domains. By the time they are a Half-step Legend, they will have a basic concept of the construction of Law Domains. Although the domain is not yet fully constructed, they can already start to utilize related powers.
“If Nitotipu can use a domain, it must at least be a Demon Lord,” Monty shook his head, “It may bear a resemblance to a domain, but if it really were one, Kanter and Samantha would not have been able to hold on for so long.”
“If it’s not a domain, then why does Nitotipu seem nearly invincible within it?” Rivetta asked, puzzled.
Monty did not answer but looked towards Sanders who was silent, “What do you think the situation could be?”
Sanders: “Based on what we’ve seen, Nitotipu’s strength has already far surpassed the limits of a great demon. With the power it has shown, it could completely crush us, but it hasn’t done so.”
“Your meaning is that Nitotipu’s power is limited, only within the raincloud? But that raincloud is like a shell; if we can’t break in, there’s nothing we can do,” Rivetta said.
Sanders: “The strength of a great demon has its limits, but Nitotipu exceeds this limit by a lot. This situation means either its talent is extraordinary with an extremely high limit, or…this power is not originating from Nitotipu itself.”
Monty nodded, “You mean…”
“That raincloud, perhaps, is not its own power.”