The Righteous Player(s)

Chapter 45: Ritual: Communicate The Venerated Skeleton

Before Annan entered this advanced dungeon instance, he had never thought of the biggest gain of this dungeon instance…

… were these banned books available in Amos’s study.

Due to time constraints, Annan first glanced through the “Dangerous Faith and Deities” and quickly found the entry about the Venerated Skeleton.

Then he learned this information:

“The Venerated Skeleton is a new false deity that appeared in the Third Age. A lot of information has been lost due to the change of epochs. But what can be learned from archaeology is that the Venerated Skeleton had a friendly relationship with the protector of January, the deity of death and earth, upright deity “Bone Burying Grandma; at least to the Fourth Age, which is the previous era.”

“In the Fifth Age, the Venerated Skeleton was somehow alienated from the Bone Burying Church and other upright deities. It was even denounced as an evil deity. In the main church situated in the United Kingdom, Elegant Elder had issued an order to disband the false deity churches, forcing the Venerated Skeleton believers to go underground.

“According to the author’s investigation, it may be because the Venerated Skeleton is related to the collapse of the Great Barrier at the beginning of this epoch…”

This information was something Annan could not find from his senior.

Especially the “Third Age” and “Fifth Age” chronological records, Annan had never encountered them before. The statement about the Great Barrier was also vague.

Annan read this and couldn’t help but turn to the title page.

Then, he saw the author’s name.

A Déjà vu name…

“Grinznuha·Chilly Austere.”

Annan said the somewhat convoluted name twice and remembered it in his heart.

This did not seem to be Annan’s father, the name of the current Grand Duke. Was it his uncle or grandfather?

He didn’t ponder upon it too long and just turned the book back to that page.

Annan quickly found the Venerated Skeleton’s ritual because it was marked with a wavy line:

“The Venerated Skeleton’s ritual involves death, mystery, concealment, and art. Therefore, it is necessary to avoid January protected by the Bone Burying Grandma, February protected by Mysterious Lady, and April protected by the Elegant Elder.

“If it is a long-term ritual, it is recommended to proceed in May and cut off during January. But if it is a short-term loan of power, then March is still fine. April 1st is a suitable ending date. The Elegant Elder protects the artist. The protector can use the Holy Light of the Elegant Elder to cut off the ritual connection with the Venerated Skeleton. This is a technique to break free from the ritual shackles.

“The Venerated Skeleton’s ritual is deceptive. Every time the ritual is performed, the price will gradually increase. Once dependence is formed, the ritual performer will undoubtedly die.

“No matter what kind of power you prayed from the Venerated Skeleton, usually the first time is almost free. But, at the second time, he will ask you to pay ‘half your conscience’ or ‘friendship from now on.’ This is a trap: You must choose the former because the latter means that the person holding the ritual will be disgusted by everyone for no reason. To eliminate this state, they must perform a third ritual that is useless…

“In the third ritual, the Venerated Skeleton will require the ritual performer to ‘swallow a certain part of a person’s body’ or ‘left with half of the lifespan,’ which is still a trap. Because what he needs is not the latter half of the lifespan but the first half. In addition, it is calculated based on the maximum life span, disregarding the disease factor and disaster factor.

“Because of the previous requirement, both the ‘person’ and the ‘part’ are designated by the Venerated Skeleton and are usually fatal. Therefore, it is recommended to sever ties with parents and children permanently, divorce from the current husband or wife, and use the silver ritual knife to wound all friends and lovers, at least with blood on the blade. It’s a gesture to break ties and sever any connection.

“After that, you need to find a suitable victim for a ritual marriage three months before the start of the ritual and be inseparable from the victim within three months. This way, you can deviate from the original sacrifice goal. But the best choice is still not to carry out the second and third rituals. The Venerated Skeleton is a generous false deity. You only gain benefit if you only perform the first ritual.

“The author suggests: We should be content with what we have.”

The author warned.

That was the end of information that the book could provide about Venerated Skeleton. Looking at the content and knowledge in it, it was a knowledge hidden from the public’s eye.

Annan frowned slightly.

He remembered the part where he coughed out ‘a particular body part’ when he was in the gallery previously.

It was an emerald green eyeball.

Those are Elle’s eyes.

Didn’t Amos hold a sacrifice transfer ritual? Did he conduct a third ritual with the Venerated Skeleton?

But from Elle’s diary, it was apparent that his relationship with Elle was very close. He couldn’t let Elle be selected by ritual.

With this question, Annan opened “Ritual Wikipedia.”

This book operated like a glossary manner, providing searches for keywords. Annan searched one by one according to the keywords of “death,” “mystery,” “concealment,” and “art.” But all his efforts were to no avail. The entire glossary went foggy. He could only browse a few rituals.

Annan originally wanted to use his strong memory to note down the ritual in this book forcefully. However, the ritual information operated the same as the one Klaus passed to Annan previously-he could not remember it just by memorizing the words.

This knowledge carries a weight by itself-

After Annan tried to understand the first ritual in the realm of death [Killing Curse on Living Thing], he gradually lost consciousness.

When he woke up again, he suddenly realized that nearly fifteen minutes had passed. When he retrieved and looked through the Venerated Skeleton’s information previously, it didn’t take so much time in total.

Annan immediately realized that this was a trap. As long as he was occupied with other rituals, he did not have time to investigate the truth. As long as his mission failed, these memories would be deleted.

So, Annan did not hesitate and continued to read the critical part. In the end, he found the ritual belonging to the Venerated Skeleton in the entry on the field of “art”:

He lost consciousness again. This time, when he lost consciousness, the system’s text appeared before his eyes:

[Establishing communication with deity – the Venerated Skeleton.]

[Ritual requirements: Black bull tailbone, ram horns, complete ribs of boar died of natural death, palette/carving knife/string/pen (core sacrifice) that have been used for at least ten years, the artwork fragment which the ritual performer created (destruction shall not exceed three days).]

[Requirement for the ritual performer: Those engaged in the art profession who are not younger than 30 years old.]

[Ritual benefit: Blessings related to profession, generally physical gifts.]

[Bearing Curse(s): Nightmare and whisper.]

[Nightmare and whisper (persistent curse): Before the ritual connection is cut off, the ritual person will fall into nightmares from time to time at night and will occasionally hear voices from unknown sources during the day.]

“I see.”

Annan regained consciousness and realized that more than twenty minutes had passed this time.

He muttered in a low volume and noted the second ritual he read today.

“Elle, Elle…Hehe…”

But just as he was about to open the third book, he suddenly heard a woman’s chuckle or, rather, sneer.

The light in the study suddenly became dim. Wonderous colorful smoke slowly rose.

“What the fuck are you laughing at?”

Annan gave an ‘elegant’ reply immediately.

Without hesitation, he picked up the kitchen knife in his hand and threw it in the direction where the laughter came from.

The laughter instantly turned into a painful scream:

“Ah!“

The smoke dissipated instantly.

Annan (Elle) immediately saw that it was a painting. It was a portrait that was initially hung opposite her, motionless and smiling gently at her.

At this moment, a kitchen knife pierced in the center of the painting, while the woman in the painting looked at Annan angrily.

The blood flowed down the kitchen knife slowly.