Chapter Twenty: Summoning Ceremony

  On the European continent, within the Federal Republic of Germany, in the deep mountains of the north at midnight, the weather was extremely bad. The sky was filled with thick dark clouds that had completely shrouded the surrounding area in darkness, only occasionally illuminated by massive lightning flashes in the air.

  In this remote mountainous region, there is an ancient altar of the ancient Germanic people. At this late hour, a group of figures clad in black robes are gathered here, holding some sort of religious ritual despite the foul weather.

  However, the fact that they are holding a religious ritual at this time shows that these people are not orthodox religious believers. They are actually a small cult organization called "Dark Ring" in this area. This cult organization worships the seven deadly sins of Catholicism as its main belief, thinking that human seven deadly sins are the most powerful forces. They often hold various rituals to summon the gates of hell, but so far none have been successful.

  The cult leader who presided over the summoning of the Gates of Hell ritual, named Matthias, was a university professor who enjoyed studying various religious knowledge and ancient sacrificial activities.

  He stumbled upon an ancient summoning notebook of unknown era in a old room by chance, and under the drive of curiosity, Madias started to study this notebook slowly.

  As the research went deeper, Madias slowly discovered that the legendary demons and other creatures might have actually existed in the real world. The notes also detailed how to open the gates of hell and how humans could obtain dark powers from it.

  Thus, the former university professor slowly began to organize a small cult organization called Dark Ring in secret. With his own ability, this sect already has twenty-seven followers. These members are mainly several prostitutes, several seriously ill townspeople and a group of young people who have abandoned their faith.

  In the previous few summoning rituals they held, none of them were successful, but as the cult leader, Matthias did not give up. Instead, he continued to search for other methods in that ancient notebook and collected various information online and in libraries, preparing to hold another summoning ritual.

  Just recently, the cult leader inadvertently picked up a mysterious small golden pyramid-shaped object that had an extremely powerful absorption property. In Madias, who lacked a strong summoning medium, immediately decided to use this object of unknown origin in his prepared summoning ritual.

  Madias chose a night with dark clouds covering the sky, and brought all his followers to this ancient altar on the mountain, where he drew a magic circle on the ground for the summoning ritual, and arranged various tools needed for the ceremony. Then he slowly began to recite the incantation of the magic circle from that notebook.

  When he finished reciting the entire spell that he had read countless times, the small golden pyramid used as a summoning medium was already floating in mid-air.

  Matthias and his followers, who had discovered this apparition, immediately began to prepare for jubilation, as this was an unusual phenomenon that appeared after they had performed so many summoning rituals.

  This means that their ritual was actually effective, but before they could even start cheering, strange changes began to occur in the sky.

  The thick thunderclouds in the sky began to appear with loud thunder, and huge lightning flashed through the clouds. As the mysterious metal pyramid object emitted visible waves of weak fluctuations, the thunderclouds above the altar began to change, and the continuous lightning made Matthias and his twenty or so followers who were performing the ritual below the altar feel an indescribable fear.

  Madias forced himself to appear calm on the surface, and he laughed loudly at his followers, "Oh, my loyal followers! Look, our summoning ritual has finally succeeded, the gates of hell are about to open, and we will soon be able to obtain great power from the darkness. We will become the strongest people in this world, come, let us pray together, and offer our most sincere prayers to the Great Dark Ring Magic Array."

  Under Madias' inflammatory words, the cultists who were originally trembling with fear at the terrifying supernatural phenomenon in front of them all knelt around the altar magic circle and began to chant prayers with all their might.

  A bolt of lightning in the sky suddenly struck this ancient altar located in the mountains. From a distance, it seemed as if all the lightning in the sky was gathering and continuously falling towards the altar.

  If things had gone normally, Madias and his crazy followers would have been dead for sure, being at the center of such a dense lightning strike. It wouldn't be strange even if they were blown to smithereens. But this group of fugitives, who were right in the middle of the lightning strike, didn't get annihilated by the exceptionally dense and terrifying destructive lightning. They just had their eyes tightly shut due to the intense lightning flashes.

  At this time, all the lightning in the sky was absorbed by a mysterious small golden pyramid floating in the air, but the golden pyramid seemed to be still unsatisfied. The lightning in the sky didn't seem to want to stop either, and it continued to fall down continuously, violating natural common sense.

  Ordinary lightning produces about 1 billion watts of electricity, while super lightning produces at least 1000 billion watts. However, the lightning that has been striking the altar for more than five minutes now is countless. During this time, it's impossible to calculate how much energy the golden pyramid has absorbed.

  Just as Matthias and his followers were about to give up, the lightning in the sky gradually stopped disappearing. This group of lucky guys felt that the lightning had stopped and couldn't help but look up at the ancient altar in front of them. But what appeared before their eyes was a scene that would be etched in their memory forever.

  With the golden pyramid floating above the altar as its center, the surrounding space gradually appeared and formed a circular spatial rift. In that circular spatial rift, a stock of obvious supernatural power was constantly pouring into this world from another world on the other side of the rift.

  And Madias and his followers felt at this time the dark mysterious power that was gathering around the altar.

  Matias was now clearly ecstatic, almost to the point of madness. He had actually succeeded in opening the gates of hell. The method recorded on that ancient notebook was not wrong at all.

  He immediately raised the ancient dark ring amulet in his hand, and loudly shouted to the crowd of followers who were shocked by the powerful dark power that had appeared in front of the altar: "Everyone, don't be stunned, now follow me and raise your dark ring amulets, loudly recite the spell to absorb magic, the dark powers in front of the altar are our rewards for this summoning. That is our power, come on, act now·······"

  A crowd of followers, after their leader let out a loud roar, immediately raised the pure silver amulets in their hands and frantically followed their leader in front of them, loudly chanting that mysterious incantation.

  The dark power that was gathering in front of the altar, under the cultists' incantations, began to rapidly surge into the dark rings they held in their hands, and then slowly entered their own bodies through the transmission of the rings.

  As the dark power continued to flow into their bodies, the people on site also began to undergo obvious changes. First, it was the older cultists, including Matthias, the leader of the cult, whose white hair gradually turned golden again, and their aging faces gradually regained a youthful appearance. At the same time, everyone felt that their bodies were filled with strength, and those who had been uncomfortable before now felt extremely well.

  Having tasted the sweetness, Matthias and his followers began to absorb the pure dark magic around the altar even more desperately. This power was so wonderful that they were now completely enchanted by it, a feeling that could not be described in words.

  At this moment, a change occurred. From the other end of the spatial fissure, a terrifying roar suddenly came, and with the sound, the speed at which Madias and others' protective symbols absorbed dark energy began to slow down significantly.

  Matthias saw the situation and immediately knew what had happened. The ancient notebook recorded that using this summoning magic to open the gates of hell, in order to seize the dark power used by the devil to build a bridge to this world, was an extremely dangerous thing. The ferocious devils would not lightly watch as the dark magic from hell was taken away for nothing.

  The demons have now discovered the trickery of Madias and his companions, they are controlling the flow of magic while also pulling back the thick and pure dark magic that has gathered around the altar, preparing to cut off the actions of those vile thieves who dared to steal their magic.

  Madias, who had already felt the benefits of these powerful dark forces, would not let go so easily. He turned to his followers and said: "My loyal followers, the devil now wants to take back the dark power here, but we absolutely will not agree. These powers belong to our Dark Ring Sect, no one can take away our power. Now everyone come with me to chant the great demon spell, let's defend the fruits of our labor!"

  Upon hearing the Master's stirring words, all the disciples began to chant in unison, loudly reciting that strange incantation. As the crowd's unified voices rose in praise, the magical powers that had just begun to retreat back into the altar started flowing towards the protective charms held by the people.

  After the discovery of this situation, a terrifying roar began to emanate continuously from the spatial rift above the altar. At the same time, a powerful absorption ability began to appear from another world, and the absorbing power of Madias' amulet was locked in a stalemate.

  As two different worlds' forces continued to pull each other, the space above the altar began to shake violently.

  Matias saw that the situation was not right, and immediately led his followers in a frantic sprint down the mountain. Anyway, they had already obtained the dark power they needed, and it was better to leave the altar as soon as possible. Because he had already felt that the space there had begun to become unstable.

  As expected, just after Madias and his followers had run down the mountain, a huge beam of light suddenly burst out from the position of the altar on the mountain, instantly blowing away the thick dark clouds in the sky and shooting directly into outer space.

  Standing at the foot of the mountain, Madias gazed up at the massive column of light for a moment before turning around without hesitation and leading his followers, who had also acquired dark powers like him, to quickly walk into the forest, gradually disappearing from this sensitive area where strange phenomena appeared.

  On this night, many Europeans saw the massive beam of light that shot up to the sky. Many people were instantly captivated by the magnificent sight, but they probably wouldn't have thought that this beautiful halo would bring such terrible things to this world...

  After the light pillar disappeared, in the center of the altar that had been completely destroyed, a dark red claw full of spiritual fragments suddenly appeared out of thin air. At the same time, far away from Earth in outer space, a group of small meteorites were attracted by the beam of light that burst into space, and flew towards the unprepared Earth at high speed.