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Chapter 356: A Prophecy of Crisis! Raven's First Arrival on Earth!
Tony returned to Kamar-Taj once more. Wong, Mordo, and the others were waiting for him, holding Stephen and Nicodemus in custody.
Oh, and there was also a terrified half-blood vampire—the last vampire on Earth who wasn't truly a vampire.
Tony glanced at the deeply bowed heads of Stephen and Nicodemus, sighed, and pulled over a table. He swept all the books off it with one motion and then plopped himself down on top.
Mordo and Wong raised their eyebrows but said nothing.
Stephen and the others, however, jumped in fright.
"Stephen, you should have told me. The repercussions of resurrection magic are too great. You shouldn't have acted alone, and you certainly shouldn't have stolen the Book of Vishanti."
Tony looked at the three of them and spoke softly.
"But even if I had told you, would you have agreed to let me resurrect my brother? Even if you agreed, Wong and Mordo would never have allowed it! They would have tried to persuade me: 'This will cause chaos in Earth's magic community!' 'This is meddling with the dead!' In the end, I would have been left like a fool, not even knowing the cause of my brother's death!"
"And do you know now?"
"I do... it was... vampires..." Stephen's voice was low with emotion. He glanced at his terrified brother and gritted his teeth. "I am willing to pay any price, I'm only asking you to help him return to normal!"
Stephen knew all too well how cruel this man before him could be toward vampires.
"It's too late. There's nothing I can do either. Do you really think a spell like resurrection, which inverts reality and the World of the Dead, is simple? Did you really think you could succeed perfectly just by relying on your magical talent and the power of the Book of Vishanti?"
Tony shook his head and said, "This kind of magic first requires gathering the deceased's soul. You were lucky. Using the power of the Book of Vishanti, you managed to reassemble the soul matter that had dissipated into countless particles back into a complete soul. But you also failed. You botched the most critical step—using the soul to mirror reality, reverse-engineering the body's state to reconstruct it."
"When you reverse-mirrored reality, you directly mirrored his condition at the moment of death. Therefore, the body you created was already one infected by the vampire virus."
"Then I'll just mirror it again!" Stephen said hastily.
Mordo could no longer contain himself and roared from the side, "I taught you the relationship between the body and the soul! The genetic factors and original DNA within the body influence the formation of the soul! With your current level of magic, how could you possibly reverse such a change!"
Wong couldn't help but add, "It is too late now. His body is a vampire's body, and the moment it was formed, it had an irreversible effect on his soul—at least, no change is possible until he becomes a Level Seven True God."
Stephen was stunned. He slumped powerlessly to the floor, his face ashen and his lips trembling. After a long moment, he looked at his brother, Victor, with whom he had shared his whole life. The joy of his brother's revival had vanished, replaced by a bitter sorrow. "I'm the one who harmed you..."
Victor was very young, and if not for his deathly pale, bloodless complexion, he would have looked even younger. He let out a miserable laugh. "My resurrection was a mistake..."
"Sorcerer Supreme, I beg you, please let them go! They are innocent! It was Lisen! Lisen was the one who instigated me to steal the Book of Vishanti!" Nicodemus swallowed hard and spoke with great difficulty.
Tony's seated form exerted a terrifying pressure on him.
"Very well. You must pay the price for your mistakes. Then you can go die," Tony said, his face devoid of expression, his voice cold.
"No, no! It has nothing to do with him! It was me! Dammit, Nicodemus, get out of here! This never had anything to do with you!" Stephen's face changed drastically. Gritting his teeth, he knocked his assistant to the ground with a single punch and yelled.
The sacred hall descended into chaos, filled with wails and the sounds of people scrambling to take responsibility.
A faint smile touched the corner of Tony's mouth before vanishing instantly, unnoticed by anyone.
He exchanged a glance with Mordo and Wong, and they all saw the satisfaction in each other's eyes.
A person can be a bastard, but as long as they can take responsibility, they're an acceptable bastard. Conversely, if a person's first reaction after making a mistake is to shift the blame, then they are a bastard, through and through.
This might not matter much in the mortal world, but in the world of the supernatural, it was a glaring issue.
For an organization like Kamar-Taj, Earth's Guardian Organization, it was a fatal flaw.
Mordo remained silent, his face a mask of fury. He cast a spell, throwing them all into the prison. Then, he returned the Book of Vishanti to the library and concealed it with space magic.
"What about that Victor? Vampires are easily controlled by their bloodlust, losing all sanity," Wong said with some concern.
"We'll observe him periodically. Give him the blood of rabbits and other animals. He's only a half-blood vampire; his humanity should still hold sway. If he can control himself, there won't be a problem."
Tony waved his hand dismissively. He wasn't really worried about Victor; after all, this was the infamous Blood Baron... That level of willpower was quite reliable. Still, it was prudent to observe him for a while first.
"I'm going to hunt down Lisen. I will kill him," Mordo said, his face grim and his voice cold.
Tony was noncommittal. That Lisen had fled in a panic the moment Mordo and Wong appeared. He was just a minor character. Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that Lisen could lead them to the extremist Black Adam, the Ancient One and Tony would have dealt with him long ago.
"Let's talk about real business..." Tony waved his hand and said in a heavy tone, "The magic arrays detected the appearance of an other-dimension demon in Gotham City?"
"And a very dense demonic aura. This demon's bloodline is extremely pure," Mordo stated coldly.
"Have you made contact?"
At the mention of Gotham, Tony's brow furrowed. Anything that happened in that city involving a demonic aura required the utmost attention.
Wong replied in a low voice, "According to the message from Constantine, it's... a very young girl. And she's being ostracized by the sorcerers in Gotham City."
"A little girl?" Mordo scoffed.
He was in charge of the magic arrays and knew perfectly well how frightening their reaction had been when that demon first arrived on Earth, and how potent its aura was.
And now someone was telling him it was a little girl?
Besides, could a message from Con really be trusted? You never knew how that bastard was trying to screw people over.
"What's her name?"
"Raven."
Tony heaved a long sigh. As expected, nothing connected to the damned city of Gotham was ever simple.
However, if it was Raven, at least she was harmless to Earth. If Tony wasn't mistaken, this foolish girl had rashly run to Earth to ask for help. She wanted to gather a team to fight her father.
Although Tony had long been mentally prepared for this, when the day finally came, he still felt a sense of helplessness.
Raven. Gotham. When these two words were linked, it signified a major event that threatened the survival of the entire universe.
Because Raven's mother was a native of Gotham...
When Raven secretly left the Agalas Sanctuary and came to Earth for the first time, it meant a universe-level catastrophe was not far off.
This was a frantic and dangerous signal. Raven's first arrival on Earth was for two reasons: one, to see the world her mother had lived in before the final ritual began, and two, to seek reinforcements and find reliable allies.
This foolish girl had no idea what a terrifying monster her father was, naively believing that she could fight Trigon just by bringing some ability users from Earth back to the Agalas Sanctuary.
This was her first arrival on Earth, a prophecy of the crisis. It proved, at least, that there was still a little time. But if she were to arrive on Earth a second time...
Then everything would be over.
(end of chapter)
Tony returned to Kamar-Taj once more. Wong, Mordo, and the others were waiting for him, holding Stephen and Nicodemus in custody.
Oh, and there was also a terrified half-blood vampire—the last vampire on Earth who wasn't truly a vampire.
Tony glanced at the deeply bowed heads of Stephen and Nicodemus, sighed, and pulled over a table. He swept all the books off it with one motion and then plopped himself down on top.
Mordo and Wong raised their eyebrows but said nothing.
Stephen and the others, however, jumped in fright.
"Stephen, you should have told me. The repercussions of resurrection magic are too great. You shouldn't have acted alone, and you certainly shouldn't have stolen the Book of Vishanti."
Tony looked at the three of them and spoke softly.
"But even if I had told you, would you have agreed to let me resurrect my brother? Even if you agreed, Wong and Mordo would never have allowed it! They would have tried to persuade me: 'This will cause chaos in Earth's magic community!' 'This is meddling with the dead!' In the end, I would have been left like a fool, not even knowing the cause of my brother's death!"
"And do you know now?"
"I do... it was... vampires..." Stephen's voice was low with emotion. He glanced at his terrified brother and gritted his teeth. "I am willing to pay any price, I'm only asking you to help him return to normal!"
Stephen knew all too well how cruel this man before him could be toward vampires.
"It's too late. There's nothing I can do either. Do you really think a spell like resurrection, which inverts reality and the World of the Dead, is simple? Did you really think you could succeed perfectly just by relying on your magical talent and the power of the Book of Vishanti?"
Tony shook his head and said, "This kind of magic first requires gathering the deceased's soul. You were lucky. Using the power of the Book of Vishanti, you managed to reassemble the soul matter that had dissipated into countless particles back into a complete soul. But you also failed. You botched the most critical step—using the soul to mirror reality, reverse-engineering the body's state to reconstruct it."
"When you reverse-mirrored reality, you directly mirrored his condition at the moment of death. Therefore, the body you created was already one infected by the vampire virus."
"Then I'll just mirror it again!" Stephen said hastily.
Mordo could no longer contain himself and roared from the side, "I taught you the relationship between the body and the soul! The genetic factors and original DNA within the body influence the formation of the soul! With your current level of magic, how could you possibly reverse such a change!"
Wong couldn't help but add, "It is too late now. His body is a vampire's body, and the moment it was formed, it had an irreversible effect on his soul—at least, no change is possible until he becomes a Level Seven True God."
Stephen was stunned. He slumped powerlessly to the floor, his face ashen and his lips trembling. After a long moment, he looked at his brother, Victor, with whom he had shared his whole life. The joy of his brother's revival had vanished, replaced by a bitter sorrow. "I'm the one who harmed you..."
Victor was very young, and if not for his deathly pale, bloodless complexion, he would have looked even younger. He let out a miserable laugh. "My resurrection was a mistake..."
"Sorcerer Supreme, I beg you, please let them go! They are innocent! It was Lisen! Lisen was the one who instigated me to steal the Book of Vishanti!" Nicodemus swallowed hard and spoke with great difficulty.
Tony's seated form exerted a terrifying pressure on him.
"Very well. You must pay the price for your mistakes. Then you can go die," Tony said, his face devoid of expression, his voice cold.
"No, no! It has nothing to do with him! It was me! Dammit, Nicodemus, get out of here! This never had anything to do with you!" Stephen's face changed drastically. Gritting his teeth, he knocked his assistant to the ground with a single punch and yelled.
The sacred hall descended into chaos, filled with wails and the sounds of people scrambling to take responsibility.
A faint smile touched the corner of Tony's mouth before vanishing instantly, unnoticed by anyone.
He exchanged a glance with Mordo and Wong, and they all saw the satisfaction in each other's eyes.
A person can be a bastard, but as long as they can take responsibility, they're an acceptable bastard. Conversely, if a person's first reaction after making a mistake is to shift the blame, then they are a bastard, through and through.
This might not matter much in the mortal world, but in the world of the supernatural, it was a glaring issue.
For an organization like Kamar-Taj, Earth's Guardian Organization, it was a fatal flaw.
Mordo remained silent, his face a mask of fury. He cast a spell, throwing them all into the prison. Then, he returned the Book of Vishanti to the library and concealed it with space magic.
"What about that Victor? Vampires are easily controlled by their bloodlust, losing all sanity," Wong said with some concern.
"We'll observe him periodically. Give him the blood of rabbits and other animals. He's only a half-blood vampire; his humanity should still hold sway. If he can control himself, there won't be a problem."
Tony waved his hand dismissively. He wasn't really worried about Victor; after all, this was the infamous Blood Baron... That level of willpower was quite reliable. Still, it was prudent to observe him for a while first.
"I'm going to hunt down Lisen. I will kill him," Mordo said, his face grim and his voice cold.
Tony was noncommittal. That Lisen had fled in a panic the moment Mordo and Wong appeared. He was just a minor character. Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that Lisen could lead them to the extremist Black Adam, the Ancient One and Tony would have dealt with him long ago.
"Let's talk about real business..." Tony waved his hand and said in a heavy tone, "The magic arrays detected the appearance of an other-dimension demon in Gotham City?"
"And a very dense demonic aura. This demon's bloodline is extremely pure," Mordo stated coldly.
"Have you made contact?"
At the mention of Gotham, Tony's brow furrowed. Anything that happened in that city involving a demonic aura required the utmost attention.
Wong replied in a low voice, "According to the message from Constantine, it's... a very young girl. And she's being ostracized by the sorcerers in Gotham City."
"A little girl?" Mordo scoffed.
He was in charge of the magic arrays and knew perfectly well how frightening their reaction had been when that demon first arrived on Earth, and how potent its aura was.
And now someone was telling him it was a little girl?
Besides, could a message from Con really be trusted? You never knew how that bastard was trying to screw people over.
"What's her name?"
"Raven."
Tony heaved a long sigh. As expected, nothing connected to the damned city of Gotham was ever simple.
However, if it was Raven, at least she was harmless to Earth. If Tony wasn't mistaken, this foolish girl had rashly run to Earth to ask for help. She wanted to gather a team to fight her father.
Although Tony had long been mentally prepared for this, when the day finally came, he still felt a sense of helplessness.
Raven. Gotham. When these two words were linked, it signified a major event that threatened the survival of the entire universe.
Because Raven's mother was a native of Gotham...
When Raven secretly left the Agalas Sanctuary and came to Earth for the first time, it meant a universe-level catastrophe was not far off.
This was a frantic and dangerous signal. Raven's first arrival on Earth was for two reasons: one, to see the world her mother had lived in before the final ritual began, and two, to seek reinforcements and find reliable allies.
This foolish girl had no idea what a terrifying monster her father was, naively believing that she could fight Trigon just by bringing some ability users from Earth back to the Agalas Sanctuary.
This was her first arrival on Earth, a prophecy of the crisis. It proved, at least, that there was still a little time. But if she were to arrive on Earth a second time...
Then everything would be over.
(end of chapter)
