The sky over the city of Nikz was not particularly beautiful, displaying gray clouds everywhere while raindrops poured down over the streets and houses of the vampiric capital.
Without any sign of discouragement or complaint, Tom calmly walked the path toward the Cathedral of the Blind One, letting the droplets of water falling from the sky soak his dark hair, brown skin, and grayish jacket.
The morning hour and the torrential rain kept most people away from the streets, and every now and then Tom crossed paths with a carriage.
Turning the final corner of the route, a courageous figure stood against the wind brought by the rainfall. He wore a green robe with golden details at the edges, his brown hair was messy, yet even that could not take away the serene look carried by his olive-colored eyes.
"Father Abel?" As he approached, Tom managed to identify the person.
"Tom. Please, come in, I was waiting for you."
Replied the middle-aged man as he opened the temple doors and extended his hand, indicating that the young man should enter.
Sheltering themselves from the rain inside the cathedral, the priest and the mercenary cleaned their feet on a floor cloth previously left there for that purpose, and while walking toward the benches, Abel offered Tom a face towel to dry the raindrops.
As Tom had expected, the environment was empty.
"You knew I would come?" Tom asked while rubbing the towel across the contours of his face.
"I had faith, but the Lord placed it in my heart that you would come today, so I waited patiently."
"Ah." Tom nodded positively, though internally he thought that was complete nonsense.
He handed the towel back to the priest, and the latter also dried his own face.
"Come with me." The priest indicated.
The two then headed toward the magnificent marble statue covered entirely by a veil, making it impossible to distinguish the figure's gender, while one of its hands was raised upward holding a scale made entirely of gold.
However, they did not stop there. Passing beyond and behind it, the priest pushed against the wall and revealed a secret door behind the statue representing the Blind One.
Seems like a pretty cool place for a secret passage.
Descending a poorly lit staircase, they soon arrived at a room where a bronze altar rested, illuminated by candles of various colors.
Yeah… doesn't seem so cool anymore, honestly it's kinda creepy.
Tom quickly changed his opinion after taking in the full view of the place.
"Is this where I'm going to perform the divine channeling ritual?"
He asked the priest.
"Yes. But before that…"
The priest touched Tom's shoulder, suggesting he sit in front of the bronze altar. The structure was as tall as a newborn child. allowing Tom to continue seeing over it even while seated. The religious authority then sat on the opposite side of the altar.
"Father Abel, I'm already an ascendant."
Tom anticipated what Abel would probably ask, since earlier, when he had been inside the confessional, the priest had implied that Tom was there to try becoming an ascendant. Which was not the case.
The priest looked thoughtfully at Tom, but the serene expression on his face did not change.
"Then you wish to make contact with your Superior?"
He opened his mouth to answer "yes," until a thought that had briefly crossed his mind earlier during breakfast returned, and this time Tom followed it through completely.
Wait, Veyrael is already my Superior, and I've already spoken with Him. Wouldn't it be redundant for me to perform this ritual to contact Him?
Without realizing it, Tom already possessed the answers the ritual was supposedly meant to give him. So then… why exactly was he here?
Noticing his own hesitation and the seconds of silence, Tom quickly said something that came to mind to fill the "empty space" in the conversation.
"Father, isn't it problematic for you to help an ascendant — in this case, help me talk to a god who isn't the Blind One, especially since we're inside His temple?"
Subtly, Abel smiled.
"Excellent question young man. In truth, it may seem problematic, however, all priests, bishops, and elders of the orthodox churches are taught to respect and not belittle any and every divine figure. For even if it is not the One we revere, they are still beings of great power and authority, far above us mortals. So no, in principle there is no problem with me helping you, even as a faithful minister of the Blind One. And I have a strong intuition that the Blind One is not your Superior."
He cleared his throat before continuing.
"The only issue would be if your Superior were a divinity in opposition to the orthodox deities. In that case, I would not be able to help you conduct the ritual. Have you understood everything so far?"
"Yeah, I understood. I just still don't understand how the divine channeling ritual works."
Internally Tom was now only stretching out the conversation while thinking of an excuse to refuse doing the ritual.
Maintaining both seriousness and serenity in his expression, the priest spoke again.
"We mortals have a limited capacity to comprehend the immense power of the divinities, however They bless us with Their kindness, mercy, knowledge, and sometimes, power."
"And the ones blessed with power are the ascendants?" Tom concluded.
"Yes. The point is that the gods rarely draw near to us, therefore we are the ones who must go to Them. And the easiest and safest way to do so is, as the ritual's very name says, to create a channel to the divinities. We do this through an inscription accompanied by ornaments and dedications capable of drawing the attention of the divinities. And these inscriptions are the critiques."
At the same time as he explained, Abel held one of the candles and turned it, letting the melting wax drip in such a way that it formed a semicircle on the surface of the bronze altar with the hot liquid.
"The recommended caution is that since your own essence will be used to establish the connection, it means the other side can affect you, or even take your life should the part receiving the call wish to do so."
Yeah, not summoning evil gods or demons with the ritual is basically the obvious way to stay alive.
"Now then, may we proceed?"
Man…
Not seeing much of a choice, Tom agreed.
"Do you know your Superior's critic?"
Tom pressed his lips together at the question. Because that was the main point that held back his impulse to perform a divine channeling ritual on his own after reading about the subject in the d'Kallivyeski library.
All he did was shake his head negatively.
Ugh!
Abel could not avoid letting out a sigh loaded with boredom.
"Since you do not know your Superior's critic, we can use the so-called 'general critic,' but as a religious minister I am obligated to warn you that this will open a channel to any entity. Which brings the possibility that your Superior will not be the One to answer you; in fact, it brings the risk that some ill-intentioned entity may respond instead."
For a moment, Tom's thought was to give up on the idea.
Calm down. I can do the ritual, see the result, and even if things go wrong and, I dunno, a demon answers me, I could still activate the teleportation mark and appear in the Moonlight HQ in one second, right? Am I right? Or because it's an entity above the mortal world could it block my teleportation?
But my teleportation is also a power that comes from a divinity.
"You can proceed with the general critic."
Showing slight dissatisfaction, the priest then "wet" his finger in the melting wax of one of the candles and below the semicircle line began writing letters following the curve of the shape. After finishing the writing, he then drew the outer border of the semicircle, leaving the letters enclosed between the lines.
Even with his finger touching the hot object, the priest at no point showed pain or suffering from the temperature.
Straining a little to read the upside-down letters, Tom observed the inscription.
"CHTSPR"
With a voice firm yet humble, Abel declared: "I, Abel, faithful minister of the Blind One, respectfully invoke Those who dwell above the mortal world and call for the response of the Superiors to this summons through the divine channeling ritual!"
Immediately the entire drawing and inscription made upon the altar's surface burst into flames, displaying a ghostly glow, yet without consuming the material.
Damn.
"I made the call, now you need to establish the first path of the channel, then we wait for a Superior to respond. You know about hods and how to manipulate them, don't you?"
If it's like when I activated the recording globe, then yeah, I know.
Blinking rapidly twice in succession, Tom activated his hods vision.
In front of him, the entire altar looked like a mass of vibrant and enchanting light, almost like a star in combustion.
As the seconds passed, the glow diminished since the hods sustaining the brightness of the symbol on the altar were dissipating due to nobody supplying additional "energy" to them.
Without wasting more time, Tom brought his hands close to the altar, feeling his hods being attracted and then sucked into the glowing mass, prolonging its brilliance.
In less than ten seconds, the glow softened and became stable. Tom deactivated his hods vision when an ethereal and dissonant voice echoed throughout the small room.
"Which mortal seeks to communicate with the Superior?"