World Occult Usage Guide

Chapter 185 Doris's Diary (Part 2)

In front of Lin An was a square altar.

It is about half a person tall, made of sedim wood, covered with glittering gold, surrounded by four gold borders and rings of the same material, and supported by two gold-plated sedim wood strips at the back.

The altar descends in a stepped fashion, with three levels. The top two levels are covered with purple ramskin, called the sacred tent, and are embroidered with a line of Deuteronomy inscription: "I have set up an altar on Mount Hibal."

The base was coated with holy oil, and the plaster that held the brass plates in place emitted a strong fragrance.

Lin An looked up and saw a giant cross appear behind the altar, its end reaching the ceiling of the container, perfectly aligned with a recess in the center of the altar for receiving libations.

If a cross is hung on a victim, this groove is where his blood is collected.

Seeing this, even the well-informed Bennett was stunned for a long time. He had managed the container for three years, but he had never imagined that it would hide such a big secret and truth.

“Oh, Mon dieu (My God)…”

Lin An wasn't that surprised; "Comers" was a synonym for miracles and the unknown.

At the same time, he also confirmed Doris's fifth ability—"Hidden Space".

She can use mysticism to hide objects from reality, placing them in another level of space, where their physical form cannot be easily seen unless certain conditions are met.

This was also her way of concealing her "Comers" energy field, so when Lin An first met her, he never suspected that Doris was a mystic.

"hiss……"

Joshua on the other side gasped. Lin An swept past the altar, and an even more shocking scene appeared inside the container.

A dining table covered with a white cloth appeared, set with silver plates, silver cutlery, and silver wine glasses and jugs, while the guests at the table waited for the food to be served.

Yes, someone actually sat down in the dining chair.

They were all young girls, naked, with fair skin and beautiful figures, each resembling Eve in the Garden of Eden or Venus in Sandro Botticelli's paintings. The only incongruity was that they had no hair.

There were exactly twelve girls, no more and no less, who struck poses and expressions reminiscent of "The Last Supper," their slender fingers forming a mysterious requiem.

No matter how beautiful and captivating their faces and bodies were, Lin An felt only a chill run down his spine, because they were monsters that Doris had shattered, stirred, and reassembled from fat, blood, and soul.

They are not dead, because they were never alive.

The lifelike young girls sit around the dining table, like a malicious work of Madame Tussauds wax museum, a perspective painting that stretches to the horizon.

"Teacher, what's going on?" Joshua asked in surprise. "Who are these people? And what task do I need to complete?"

"Isn't there an instruction manual? Bring it over."

Lin An pointed to the center of the table, and the girls took their seats one by one, leaving only the savior's seat empty.

It's clear that Doris has been sitting in that spot frequently for the past three years, simulating the scene when the ritual is completed.

A notebook, in place of the short-haired woman, lies quietly on the dining table.

Doris clearly hadn't expected anyone to break into her secret space, but just to be safe, Lin An instructed Joshua to pick up the notebook and hand it to him to make sure there were no traps.

Opening the notebook, delicate handwriting came into view, beginning with a short Latin poem.

Per istam sanctam unctionem,

Et suam piissimam misericordiam,

Adiuvet tell Dominus gratia,

Spirits sancti it appecatis liveratum,

Te salvet atque propitius allevet.
(By this sacred blessing,

May the infinitely merciful God,

With divine grace, I will have mercy on you.

Forgive your sins, save your soul.
(Granting you a new life, both in spirit and form.)
"New life...resurrection?"

Lin An fell into deep thought, for both "The Last Supper" and this line of poetry pointed to this theme.

He continued reading.

My family is like a complex machine, with each of its components operating in an orderly manner according to a predetermined track, never requiring anyone's attention; it has been doing this for thousands of years.

My grandparents, my parents, and my sisters were all used to following a schedule.

Most things are handled properly by specialists, and we just need to follow their lead.

I don't like this kind of life, and I'm unwilling to accept this fate where I can see the end from the beginning.

Doris only wrote a few words of complaint before getting straight to the point.

The first opportunity to escape came on my sixth birthday when my father took my sisters and me to visit the Valencia Cathedral in Ispani.

There stood a sacred object made of deep red agate, with a knob handle and two curved handles attached to a chalcedony cup, attracting many believers to come for pilgrimage.

It is said to be a sacrificial item made in Palestine or Egyptian workshops between the 2nd century BC and the 1st century AD.

The tour guide explained its background, which made me yearn to visit it.

When I was 18, after accepting my family's arrangement, I suddenly made my own demands. If they did not meet my demands, "the Mother of Desire" would go out of control, and those old fogies would have to compromise.

I was accepted into the University of Ann Arbor in Dietrich, far away from [Xion].

My life lately has been a mix of making a request to the cathedral to acquire the chalcedony cup and gathering necessary materials.

These pages bear the marks of time; they were written by Doris about three years ago. "Sure enough, Doris's plan involves that magical cup..." Lin An murmured to himself.

"What cup?" Joshua asked.

"The Holy Grail, the most coveted treasure in the history of the Western Continent. Many legends revolve around it, many wars have been fought over it, and many monks have spent their lives searching for its secrets."

“Oh, I heard that legend at the amusement park.” Joshua nodded. “Is it from Harry Potter or FGO?”

"It's the New Testament."

"Please enlighten me, teacher."

"The Holy Grail is the cup used by the Messiah to hold wine at the Last Supper. The Gospel of Luke mentions that he shared this cup with his disciples, and that it was a covenant made with his blood. There are also versions that claim that the Holy Grail is the vessel used by Joseph of Arimathea to collect the blood of the crucified Savior."

"According to a later version of the story, Joseph was captured for collecting his blood. In order to escape his pursuers, Joseph traveled a long way to the Lion Islands, which led to the story of King Arthur and his knights searching for the Holy Grail."

"To this day, the image of the Holy Grail is not only an object of the Saviour Church, but also incorporates metaphorical elements from Celtic and Welsh mythology, becoming a cup with magical healing power in romance, capable of providing eternal youth or nourishment for life."

“But Ishmael, as the faithful guardian of the Savior, strictly continued the tradition of the Gospel of Luke, regarding the Holy Grail as a symbol of the ‘prelude to the resurrection,’ a covenant between the Savior on behalf of God and mankind, which can only be obtained by those who are pure in body and mind.”

"So, does the owner of this notebook want to be resurrected?" Joshua asked.

“The ‘resurrection’ here is a metaphor. To put it simply, drinking the Holy Grail represents washing away past sins, becoming a saint, and having one’s soul ascend to heaven…” Lin An smoothed the creases in his notebook. “It can also be considered a kind of rebirth, since the past has been reset.”

After flipping through a few more pages of her notes, Doris's plan became clear.

She spent a year and a half trading the Agate Grail with the Valencia Cathedral and building up her influence throughout Dietrich, waiting only for "Comers" to arrive.

Carlo Bennett was the first person to join her. It was the Wood Group that bailed him out, and through this connection, Bennett met Doris and became her subordinate.

Jonah Cardenas met Doris at a shareholders' meeting of the Wood Group and later became her vassal.

Doris only had records of the incomplete Holy Grail ritual. Through her relationship with the two, she conducted experiments on the ritual with some undocumented refugees and recorded the results each time. Finally, in October 2037, she perfected every step of the ritual.

[Saints' Ritual]

I must drink the blood of the Holy Grail in the presence of my twelve disciples.

All disciples must be women, otherwise the newborn will exhibit male characteristics... I don't want that.

They must be pure and innocent virgins, otherwise their evil thoughts will affect the saints in the ritual, driving them mad and increasing the probability of failure.

But such people are not easy to find, and they almost do not exist in modern society.

I decided to create it artificially.

Fat, soul, blood... the shattered human bodies were reassembled into beings that had never harbored a single evil thought, a total of 12 people.

Next, I need to meditate for seven days, bidding farewell to worldly troubles and sorrows, and sitting in the center of the table without a trace of regret, waiting for the blood of the Holy Grail to cleanse my entire body.

From now on, I will break free from the heavy shackles of [Xi Yong] and gain a complete and pure new life.

Finally, there are the sacrifices who provide the blood of the Holy Grail.

Since I will drink her life, her upper limit determines my future mystical archetype. She cannot be an awakened mystic, but an ordinary person still in the seed stage.

This offering is extremely difficult to find.

For the next ten years, or even longer, I don't want to be the lowest scum in the "Commerx" world; if that's the case, I'd rather just die.

Someone provided a clue pointing to an ancient, secretive family that was mysteriously destroyed in modern times...

The great mystic, Duke Vasilica Cesar Hughes.

There are few records about him, because in the past century, members of the Hughes family have died for all sorts of strange reasons, and the Duke himself died of old age two years ago.

I made a rare request to Xi Yong to investigate, but all I got was the ambiguous message that "that family is not the heir to an ancient dynasty".

I had no choice but to investigate on my own, and finally discovered that the Hughes family seemed to have some connection with the infamous "Black City," perhaps even belonging to its "vampire" faction...

Was their destruction due to the conflict between the Demon Party and the Camarilla?

The woman told me she knew the whereabouts of the Duke's last direct descendant, on the condition that I provide her with 12 undamaged golems and use the Canaanite magic of "Soul Exhilaration" to create chaos in the St. Anilof Foundation.

This isn't difficult; that damn brat has been bothering me for a long time!

Oh my god, she's his mother...

I long to sit down with him, have some coffee, and let him pat my head, but what difference does it make if I stay with the family? I am destined to ignite the night like Iost, burning through the sky; to become a free wildfire, an eternally soaring phoenix!
Holy Grail, grant me a body to traverse the stars and the sea!

Until I die, I will never be anyone else; I will only belong to myself.

"Dong-dong-dong-!"

The distant city hall struck five, the sound echoing across the docks of Dietrich.

The screech of brakes was heard, and someone opened the warehouse door.

After reading the notes, Lin An took a deep breath to calm his chaotic emotions and quickly entered a state of mental relaxation.

Sure enough, Doris arrived right on time.

She was accompanied not only by three mysterious figures and a dozen followers, but also by a... very familiar point of light.

Adria Hughes!

Lin An's pupils constricted. The sacrificial offering for the Doris ritual was none other than his mother!
Thank you to Fujianxishan, Cunzaijiang, Shangshensi Sizhang, Shuyou20200205024940599, Chuijuanzi de Hefeng, elona, ​​Gluttony_Gula, and Buzuzhanwu de Zha for the monthly tickets. Thank you all for your recommendation tickets and subscriptions.


(End of this chapter)