Chapter 43: The Ritual

  Felix's tornado was enormous and influenced the atmosphere of the entire moon. Even Justinian, being very far from the adept of the Mountain of Research and Development, was impressed by the energy being released from him.

  'So this is what the process of Foundation Stabilization looks like...'

  The power he had sought for months, the power for his revenge, was finally within his grasp.

  In the tornado of the dimension's golden child, however, he felt primarily pain and loss. Emotions he knew all too well from recent weeks, and he guessed where they came from.

  He didn't want to speak aloud the thought that had been on the tip of his tongue in recent weeks. A thought concerning the first female devil peer he had met in the dimension. A thought that someone like Felix wouldn't accuse her without reason.

  Now, seeing how the scream of the adept's soul tore through the lunar sky, the dark clouds looming in his heart only swelled.

  'I have to stabilize my foundation, the sooner, the better.'

  His horn was about sixty percent full, and clenching his hands into fists, he set off in search of a large cluster of lunar beasts.

  Unlike Felix, he knew nothing about the legendary creatures that provided the most energy, but the sheer quantity of more common species killed in masses quickly allowed him to replenish his losses.

  Focusing with all his might on accelerating his progress, he failed to notice a well-hidden presence that had been following him for some time.

  In the VIP boxes on the Mountain of Mists, the atmosphere was thick with disbelief and whispers. Magic screens, suspended in the air, showed Felix's raging cyclone with crystal clarity. Crowds of devils, enjoying fine liquor, were vividly watching the entire competition.

  "How is Felix even participating in this ritual? Not even a week ago, Greedius broke him like a matchstick!" shouted one of the nobles, almost choking on a roasted leg.

  "What did you expect? He's one of our best talents; Boruta probably patched him up himself just so he could participate!" replied another, more versed in gossip. "But his feat is still..."

  "Quiet down! Look!" a third interrupted them. "Maleficius's adept is also close! Her horn is almost full!"

  On another part of the screen, Septima could be seen, exterminating a pack of demonic wolves with cold precision. Her movements emanated power and pragmatism, and each subsequent step brought death.

  "That new representative adept from Greedius, Belisara... she's also worth watching," someone from the crowd muttered, pointing to another image. The she-devil, using her spectral cuts and scattering bombs in the area, was exterminating the nearby shadow creatures with great speed. Her horn was filling up only slightly slower than Justinian's.

  What relatively few devils paid attention to, however, was the fact that the Grim Judge was being followed by a presence unnoticed by the human.

  Justinian rushed into a wide ravine, its walls climbing tens of meters high. The air here was heavier, saturated with the smell of ozone and raw magical energy.

  From the dark nooks and crannies of the rock, creatures he hadn't seen before began to crawl out—shadows of strange, giant scorpions and burly figures with many arms.

  'This should be enough to fill the horn,' he calculated quickly, looking at what he had already managed to gather.

  The fight proved to be exhausting.

  Each scorpion he defeated exploded with dark energy, and the strange, multi-armed figures cooperated well, often cornering him in unfavorable positions.

  Soon, however, only two shadow beasts remained to be eliminated. He was preparing for the final blow when someone behind him coughed lightly.

  "Hmm?"

  The boy only had time to turn when a powerful slash of concentrated energy plunged into his chest, wounding him deeply!

  The force of the attack was so powerful that it threw him back many meters as his throat filled with blood. The two remaining shadow beasts, also caught in the attack, were erased from this world, leaving behind remnants of energy.

  "Leaving so soon?"

  Justinian landed unsteadily on his feet, blood seeping horridly from his chest.

  The earlier attack had been so fast that he hadn't even had time to summon Totius. And now, he was in his opponent's grasp.

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  Despite his weakness and the almost deathly pallor on his face, he twisted his lips into a grimace full of rage.

  "Shedim!"

  The devil he had known as the ruler of Ukuun just laughed.

  "Did you see that? Did you?! A perfect entrance! A perfect angle! No one, absolutely no one, performs a surprise attack better than me!"

  The Orange Prince marveled at his own genius, gesticulating wildly as if addressing an invisible audience.

  "That was the best surprise attack in the history of all attacks in the 66th dimension! They should write about it in the papers!"

  "You..."

  Justinian managed to croak before the devil unceremoniously cut him off.

  "Me? I always win. Even if false rumors say otherwise."

  Shedim Medaiash wagged a finger with a serious expression.

  "I offered you a great deal. All you had to do was stick to it, and we both would have been rich. Well, maybe I would have been richer than you, but you still would have come out ahead. But you preferred to ruin yourself, it's pure madness!"

  The Orange Prince looked genuinely disappointed by the stupidity of the human who had previously rejected his magnificent offer.

  He slowly approached Justinian, who was calculating his options. The moment the boy tried to spring up from the ground to flee at top speed, the devil simply preempted him and smacked him on the head.

  "We haven't finished our conversation yet. Do you take me for a fool? Do you think you're the only one who can attack with a slash and not get the same in return?"

  The devil clearly still remembered his fall in Ukuun, when the boy had struck him powerfully with his energy-charged artifact.

  Now, the tables had turned, and the young man felt a sense of mortal crisis overwhelm him.

  Meanwhile, in the observation boxes.

  The moment the Orange Prince appeared on the magic screen showing the bleeding Grim Judge, the devils in the stands erupted in ecstasy.

  "Yeees!" a collective cry spread, a mixture of shock and wild satisfaction.

  "PRINCE! PRINCE!" someone from the crowd even began to chant before his voice was drowned in a wave of loud applause.

  For many months, the devils had been waiting for the chance to see something like this. Until now, the terrible human who had tormented them in various ways had always won. But now, someone had appeared to stand up to him!

  "The Orange Prince is magnificent!"

  "He is the pride of our 66th hellish dimension!"

  The sight of Shedim standing near his victim with a confident expression was like honey to their success-starved hearts. Soon, he began to gesticulate and deliver his monologue, smiling broadly.

  Unfortunately, this soon proved to be a problem for the crowds...

  Back on the moon.

  The wound from the slash made it impossible for Justinian to fight on equal terms. It was deep enough to hinder the flow of energy in his body, which affected his combat abilities.

  Having no choice, he gritted his teeth and, calculating quickly, resorted to a different tactic.

  "Observers, listen! This is not the real Orange Prince!"

  He called out desperately, remembering what had happened during their clash in the capital of Redlandia.

  The orange-skinned devil, however, just laughed.

  "You talk and talk. You should be called Stupid Talkative Justinian. Or just Stupid Justinian. The observers off-moon can only see the image, without any actual sound."

  He shook his head before looking at the paling boy with a certain regret in his eyes.

  "Always stupid. Always a loser."

  In the devil's right hand, a ball of strange energy began to form, shimmering in dozens of different colors. The technique seemed very simple, almost universal, but it sent a cold shiver down the boy's spine!

  "This is Soulsearch, it allows one to read memories," the prince explained. "My own, magnificent techniques are too extraordinary to be shown at such a common spectacle. But your knowledge might still be useful to me."

  Shedim raised his hand, slowly moving it towards the young man's head.

  Justinian, finding himself in this dramatic predicament, had no intention of giving up. He focused the remnants of his will, ignoring the pain, and looked his opponent straight in the eye, unleashing all his murderous intent.

  The illusion of a terrible wound immediately struck the devil standing before him. But he... didn't even flinch!

  He just smiled wider.

  "Did you really think the same trick would work twice?"

  The hand with the ball of gray energy was getting closer and closer to Justinian's head. The boy was defenseless. In a final act of desperation, with nothing left to lose, he reached for a technique he still preferred to avoid.

  'Summoning of the Witness!'

  Before the prince, a split second before his attack reached its target, a translucent figure materialized. The Specter of Aldona Borowiak.

  A specter that attacked him without any delay!

  "What is this illusion?!"

  At first, he intended to ignore the specter, but after a moment, his eyes widened in shock. Although the incoming attack wasn't from someone on the verge of Foundation Stabilization, it still carried a significant threat.

  The gray ball of energy dissipated harmlessly as all his concentration focused on destroying the strange spirit.

  For Justinian, that moment was enough!

  Leaping to his feet, ignoring the tearing pain in his chest, he began to flee at full speed into the depths of the ravine. He soon heard the prince's furious roar behind him as, after defeating the specter, he gave chase, but it was already too late to catch the boy.

  That didn't mean, however, that he intended to stop there!

  The young man had barely reached the exit on the other side of the ravine when he felt the prince gathering energy for a second, deadly slash! The vibrations in the air alone were enough to tell that it was far more powerful than the first surprise attack.

  Shedim Medaiash had no intention of letting him escape!

  This time, however... Justinian had time to react.

  'Totius!'

  A moment before the attack struck and shattered the surrounding rocks, a barrier materialized around the boy, absorbing the blow. The surprised devil immediately began to gather energy for another, but it was too late.

  Justinian, focusing all his strength on a dramatic escape, left the ravine far behind, not looking back at all.

  He knew this was his only chance to survive, so he poured his entire cultivation base and even some of his life force into his escape, fearing that the powerful enemy would soon catch him.

  Only when, after an hour of such a chase, he collapsed exhausted at the bottom of a lunar canyon with no sign of his opponent, did he clench his fists and make a decision.

  In the distance, he could sense two powerful, raging tornadoes, one belonging to Felix. The other undoubtedly belonged to Septima.

  Justinian's eyes blazed, and around him, his own desperate vortex of energy began to form. The boy's Foundation Stabilization ritual had begun.