After dinner, Raphael observed the street below from the window for a while. Finding nothing unusual, he arranged for Mark and Carter to take turns watching over Audrey.
Mark had already prepared a room for rest.
Raphael returned to his room first. The room prepared for him contained a bed and a lounge chair.
He reclined on the lounge chair and used his Spirituality to inspect his progress. The potions for both 'Lunatic' and 'Criminal' had nearly finished digesting.
This kidnapping of Backlund's most dazzling gem was not only extremely mad, but also a meticulously planned crime, allowing both Sequences' potions to digest quite well.
Raphael yawned. Regardless of whether Susie was still present, he closed his eyes and began to rest.
Although no battle had occurred during today's operation, he had remained highly alert, ready to flee or burn all reason in a desperate fight at any moment. After several hours, he was rather tired and fell asleep within moments.
However, even in his dreams, his Spirituality maintained a certain level of vigilance. Should any emergency arise, he could wake immediately...
Suddenly, in his sleep, Raphael felt his Spirit Body being drawn by some force. After a brief moment of confusion, he seemed to regain a measure of lucidity, struggling hazily against that force in his semi-conscious state.
However, the more he resisted, the more he felt his Spirit Body uncontrollably detach from his physical body, flying toward an unknown destination.
Raphael tried desperately to open his eyes, but his vision refused to return.
It seemed like a second or two passed, yet also like several minutes, before he heard a chanting incantation in his ear.
Immediately after, Raphael finally 'opened his eyes' and could see. He first breathed a slight sigh of relief, then immediately swept his gaze across his surroundings.
He seemed to have found himself in a dim, damp cavern. The cavern was vast, resembling an underground plaza with many traces of artificial modification.
Roughly at the cavern's center was a circular altar. Directly in front of it stood what seemed to be a chief priest wearing wide-sleeved robes, chanting an incantation toward the altar with a solemn expression, accompanied by dance-like movements.
Around the altar knelt seven other priests, prostrating themselves devoutly on the ground, echoing the chief priest's chant.
On the altar itself was a wooden chair. A man was bound to it with iron chains. This man had hollow bone needles inserted all over his body, and the altar was covered in blood, as if these needles had drained him completely.
Only after seeing all this did Raphael fully awaken. Just listening to the chanted incantation, he thought it was a decent chorus. But seeing the bloody scene on the altar changed everything... it immediately made him realize this was a bloody ritual, and the man in the chair was the sacrifice.
The next second, Raphael realized he had actually been summoned through this bloody ritual.
He was in a spirit-like state, but seemingly more concealed than an ordinary spirit. At the very least, the chief priest and other priests around the altar hadn't detected him...
At this moment, the incantation seemed to reach a critical point. The chief priest's voice grew louder, his movements faster.
Raphael found the pronunciation somewhat familiar but didn't have time to ponder it. Suddenly, he felt a powerful downward force. His Spirit Body uncontrollably drifted toward the man chained to the wooden chair in the center of the altar.
Realizing struggle was futile, Raphael stopped struggling and allowed the ritual to manipulate him.
Having already become a Beyonder, he felt no fear toward such inexplicable occurrences, only confusion about which fool had summoned him, a mere Sequence 8?
Theoretically speaking, such summoning rituals should call forth powerful and mysterious entities.
Within a few breaths, as Raphael anticipated, his Spirit Body sank into the body of the man on the altar.
Then...
'F*ck!' He actually felt pain.
Then he saw the bone spikes sticking out of 'his' own legs and abdomen.
His spirit fit this body remarkably well, moving as fluidly as if commanding his own flesh.
"It succeeded!" The chief priest in wide-sleeved robes exclaimed with delight upon seeing the man on the altar stir slightly.
Raphael raised his head weakly. He finally realized that the language they spoke was actually quite similar to the Chinese he remembered!
It wasn't standard Mandarin, but he could understand it. He then noticed the robes worn by his summoners also resembled the ancient clothing from his memories.
This discovery surprised Raphael. When he had first arrived in the cave, he had assumed it was the language and clothing of the Southern Continent.
He had heard that the indigenous languages of the Southern Continent belonged to a different language family from those of the Northern Continent nations, with significant cultural differences as well.
At this moment, the chief priest directly ahead knelt before Raphael, "We pay homage to the Demon Monarch!"
Raphael's mouth was agape. He could confirm they were indeed speaking Chinese!
'Was I summoned back to my homeland?' He couldn't help but inwardly complain: 'This transmigration experience is terrible! I was close to fully digesting the Sequence 8 potion in Loen and was finally about to gain some decent abilities, and now I'm back?'
He then looked at the chief priest before him.
The corner of Raphael's mouth twitched: 'In this situation, I obviously need to pretend to be a powerful and mysterious entity! Otherwise, who knows how these people might deal with me.'
He cleared his throat and asked, "Who are you…" it was only as he spoke that Raphael realized his voice was extremely hoarse and weak, "...Why have you summoned this Monarch?"
The chief priest kept his head lowered. "This humble one is Chen Qingzhi, branch leader of the Jizhou Province branch of the 'Shadow Cottage'. We beseech the Demon Monarch to lend us assistance."
The several priests around the altar also didn't dare breathe heavily, lying prostrate on the ground in silence.
"Oh?" Raphael spoke with a deliberately aged tone, "What difficulty have you encountered?"
He had no idea what the Shadow Cottage was, but phrasing it this way left no room for suspicion.
The chief priest, Qingzhi, said, "The Qi Sect plans to secretly massacre us disciples of the Blood Sect! We plead the Demon Monarch for aid."
Raphael thought to himself: 'I wish I could help, but I'm powerless...'
However, to understand the current situation, he still put on a grand display, looking around as if assessing the environment. Then he said, "I am not a Demon Monarch of this realm. Nor do I know if the Blood Sect and Qi Sect here are the same as those I know of. Explain everything, and elaborate on your specific conflict..." He curved the corner of his mouth into a slight smile, adding, "Do not assume this Demon Monarch is omniscient and omnipotent."
...
{T/N: The name 'Demon Monarch' can also be interpreted as 'Devil Monarch', but I refrained from doing so since that's one of Farbauti's titles...}