From Blood Mage to Styx Ancestor

Chapter 60 The Book of Demons, the Evil Shotgun, Strange Events in the Town

Thanks to his excellent driving skills and prophetic magic, Mordi navigated the journey without any major incidents.

That is, it almost crashed into Optimus Prime coming from the opposite direction, and almost hit several huge moose.

"Why are there so many moose in this godforsaken place?"

He narrowly avoided a moose that was facing him, then pulled over to the side of the road and looked in the direction the moose had come from.

Despite possessing dark vision, he could only see a blurry black shadow in the distance.

This dark shadow stretched endlessly, like a wall of despair blocking the end of the road.

Modi knew that it was the entrance to the town of Korwick, which the locals called the "Black Forest."

"This Black Forest is huge... there must be a lot of weird stuff inside."

Before even stepping into the forest, he sensed the intense evil power emanating from it, which made his bloodline unusually active.

Perhaps the moose sensed something, which is why they left the forest.

I wonder which is more sinister, the Black Forest or the Lord of the Demon Tower.

He glanced at the time; there were still more than five hours until dawn. He decided to head to Orlando first and enter the Black Forest when it got light.

Running into the Black Forest at night is obviously suicidal. He's not one of those suicidal horror movie protagonists, so of course he'll wait until daytime to go in.

After driving for less than half an hour, he arrived at a remote town called Orlando.

There were very few streetlights in the town, and the streets were pitch black. The townspeople obviously didn't have much of a nightlife, and none of the houses on either side had their lights on.

After wandering around the streets for a while, Modi finally spotted a house with its lights still on.

Standing at the door of the house was a middle-aged man dressed like a sheriff. He had come out to take a look after hearing the car.

"Who are you? What are you doing in this remote town so late at night?"

The sheriff spoke first, his hand on his holster and his eyes filled with wariness.

Modi got out of the car, still dressed as a hunter, a look that puzzled the sheriff.

"As you can see, I am a hunter, and I plan to go into the Black Forest to hunt."

He looked up at the dark night sky, inadvertently revealing his investigator badge.

"But going into the Black Forest now is no different from courting death, so I plan to stay here for the night and go in at dawn."

With the help of the dim light, the sheriff saw a corner of his badge that was showing and immediately realized his true identity.

He removed his hand from the holster and breathed a sigh of relief.

"I can offer you a place to stay, please come in."

As Modi entered the house, he glanced warily outside a few times, closed the door, and his expression softened.

"Sorry, there have been a lot of strange things happening in town lately, so I have to be careful."

"It's okay, I understand. Caution is an investigator's passport."

Modi shook hands with him and introduced himself:

"My name is Mormontes, you should have heard my name from up there."

“David Carlisle,” the sheriff nodded, “I was instructed by headquarters earlier to provide you with all the assistance I could.”

"Could you tell me what you have here?"

"Some intelligence on surveillance of the Black Forest, a batch of supernatural items of unknown use, oh, and my favorite thing."

As he spoke, he took a heavy box from under the cabinet.

Upon opening the box, a well-maintained double-barreled shotgun lay quietly inside.

"It's in pretty good condition, but... with such a large caliber, are you planning to use this gun to shoot elephants?"

Stroking its stock, Modi couldn't help but become somewhat interested in the gun.

"Elephants? Of course not. I only use them to deal with some wild animals that run out of the Black Forest."

As you know, things have been very strange in the Black Forest lately; many animals have come out.

"That's true," Mordy nodded. "Can I take this with me?"

"Go ahead," David said without refusing, "Anyway, everything will be reimbursed by headquarters."

Holding the double-barreled shotgun in his hand, he simply scanned it with his spiritual sense and understood its structure.

The concepts of magical mechanical dynamics came to mind, and he felt an irresistible urge to try them out. A plan gradually became clear in his mind.

Suppressing his inner thoughts, he asked again:

"What other extraordinary items do you have?"

"It's too much trouble to explain. You'll know once you come with me to the warehouse."

David led the way, taking him to the outpost's warehouse.

The warehouse displays more than a dozen extraordinary items, each packaged in a specially made box.

The boxes were either decorated with strange symbols or had pages from the Bible pasted on them.

After glancing at the talismans and pages used for sealing, Modi thought to himself:

"It seems that the Vatican and other powers do indeed possess extraordinary abilities, but we don't know the extent to which they can achieve them."

"All the extraordinary items are here. Take a look and tell me if you need anything," David said.

He didn't stand on ceremony and started looking at the instructions on the boxes, one item after another.

[A voodoo doll, a product of Voodoo, contains the soul of a Voodoo sorcerer.]

"Voodoo? Interesting, this is getting irritating."

The Human Skin Book: A book with a cover made of human skin, of unknown origin, containing records of evil witchcraft.

"Evil sorcery? Take a look... Can't even the most basic apprentice-level spell achieve this effect? ​​It requires a blood sacrifice to activate; it's utterly useless."

【...】

After browsing around, Modi examined all the artifacts in the warehouse, but he only considered three items to be useful.

One possibility is a Voodoo doll, inside which the sorcerer's soul might be able to teach him Voodoo magic.

The second item is a vial of demon blood, which is said to have been collected from a summoned demon.

Finally, there is a spirit summoning table, which can be used in certain rituals and can also enhance the ability to summon spirits to some extent.

Of course, the most important thing is not the spirit table, but the three books hidden in its compartment.

"Why are three forbidden books about demons here? Shouldn't such dangerous items be sent back to headquarters immediately?"

Mordy flipped through the first book, which explained how to summon demons.

The other two books correspond to the demon's seal and an overview, respectively.

Unlike demons in the traditional sense, the demons recorded in these three books are actually extradimensional beings, most of whom are hostile to humans.

"These three books? Oh, I acquired these three books some time ago."

I just reported this to headquarters, but for some reason, they haven't sent anyone to retrieve it yet; it's like they're tied up with other things.

David then pointed to the demon blood on his hand and said:

"When I was retrieving these three books and that séance table, I also killed a summoned demon along the way. This vial of blood was also collected at that time."

In just three minutes, Modi had flipped through half of the thick first book.

He couldn't bear to watch the rest, or rather, he wasn't able to continue watching.

Flipping through books that contain forbidden knowledge requires a great deal of mental effort.

In other words, it means the sanity value drops.

Considering he still had other tasks to complete, he couldn't afford to waste all his energy on this.

"There's actually a fourth book in this set, am I right?" he suddenly asked.

The three books correspond to the summoning of demons, the runes, and the overview, but one book is missing that explains how to counter and imprison demons.

It's important to know that ancient magicians didn't have much of a sense of contractual obligation.

Even if the summoned demons fulfill the terms of the contract, they will not obediently hand over their souls.

Instead, they will use various means to coerce and torture demons, forcing them to submit obediently.

This event is also recorded in "The Lesser Key of Solomon".

David nodded.

"You're right. According to a necromancer, there should be a fourth book in this series, which corresponds to the imprisonment of demons."

Unfortunately, the book was destroyed in an accident, presumably related to the demon that escaped.

"I see." Mordy sighed regretfully. "It's a pity we can't see how the ancient sorcerers threatened the demons."

Since that's the case, when it comes to summoning demons, he has no choice but to use some more direct methods.

"Let's go out. I still need to make some preparations for the mission."

After finding some tools and parts at the base, Modi began modifying the double-barreled shotgun.

First, the entire gun is cleansed to prevent it from being contaminated during the modification process.

Then he disassembled it completely, replaced some of the parts with the magical mechanical devices he brought, and enchanted them with the death energy of the Styx.

"Blood Flame, Cursed Fire, Durability, Sound Absorption Barrier..."

Finally, put them back in and engrave runes on the stock to enhance its close-range combat capabilities.

"It's done."

A flash of magical light swept across the shotgun; if it was an ordinary shotgun before, it had now become an evil weapon.

An evil artifact called [Dragon Flame].

The Styx's deathly aura has tainted it with a deep evil; if the person wielding this gun is not Mordi, the wielder will be cursed.

The only thing that can make it obey commands is its evil creator.

Gripping the butt of the Dragon Flame gun tightly, Modi had a sudden thought. He stepped out of the house and, without thinking, sprayed the gun into the street.

A flash of light illuminated the deep darkness, revealing the monster lurking within.

"ah--"

The terrifying screams echoed throughout the town, waking many residents from their sleep.

"Tsk, the 'sound-absorbing barrier' can only eliminate the sound of gunfire, but it can't eliminate the enemy's howls."

Modi reloaded his gun, raised it again, and fired, completely obliterating the monster that had turned into a pillar of fire.

The wailing stopped abruptly. Sheriff David, who had rushed over upon hearing the noise, saw the scene and immediately asked what had happened.

"As you can see, I killed a monster."

David looked toward the spot illuminated by the firelight, only to find that the light vanished in an instant, and darkness once again swallowed the street.

There were no monster corpses on the street, only scorch marks left by the dragon's flames that had swept across it.

It was as if all of this had just been their illusion.

"Disappeared?"

Modi raised an eyebrow and looked at David again.

"I remember you said there have been a lot of strange things happening in town lately. It seems we need to re-examine this issue."

He always felt like he was being watched, and this feeling was probably not unfounded.