133 Ranking Up

The clock struck one after midnight. The fragrant smell of lilac and balsamic aroma of Storax oil filled the dark office room that was lightened up only by a single votive candle. There were also four unlit orange candles placed in the form of a square, situated on each corner of a parchment that was laid on the wooden desk. Besides the parchment was a glass container with silver liquid in it. Graham Hymes was sitting down with his focus on the sigil in front of him.

The man wore a serious face that was illuminated by the gentle flame. There was no nervousness in his eyes; only conviction and a hint of excitement. He was breathing calmly, taking in as much air as he could with each inhalation. The detective's lips were curled slightly in a frown as he cut his wrist with the sharp dagger.

The cold metal made contact with his skin and with ease, the flesh was cut open. Pain came surging from the wound and red blood started pouring out to the ancient parchment below. Graham moved his hand systematically in order to redraw the sigil using his fresh blood. The floral scent of the oil helped him forget the pain from his wrist.

The sigil of the Deity of Cunningness and Transformation that he had to draw was rather complicated. Graham started from the outermost part, which was a square with two sides full of tiny twirls instead of straight lines. He gently and skillfully moved his hands over the scroll and let his blood rain down on it. The crimson liquid kept seeping into the sigil, however, making redrawing it more difficult.

After he finished drawing the outer part of the sigil with difficulty, he needed to draw the ankhs on the left and right sides of the 'square'. Graham again moved the cut part of his wrist over the section of the sigil he wanted to draw. Each flow of blood drained his energy, but he had been prepared for it; he had done a similar ritual twice already. The only difference this time was the parchment seemed to be absorbing much more of his blood.

Graham was done with the crosses so now he had to draw the upside-down cross and a pole at the top, before closing the sigil with two outer circles. He did it slowly, bearing with the loss of blood all the while. He gritted his teeth and once the sigil was complete, he covered the wound on his wrist. Only in a matter of seconds, the wound had closed and the scar began disappearing.

The sigil drawn in fresh blood emitted a sinister aura that Graham couldn't explain. Although he didn't feel any evil from it, there was still the ominous feeling that seemed to be drawing everything towards it. He carefully picked up the object that the member of the Pale Society left behind in his death and placed it in the center of the sigil.

He controlled his breathing and tried to recover some stamina before moving on. The Storax oil helped a lot in this process. The next step was not as difficult, so once he had recovered a little, he began right away. Graham picked up the candle that was already burning and used the flame to light up the orange candles one by one in the order of North, East, South, and then West.

Orange flames began burning from the wicks of the candles. Staring at them gave off a feeling of peace and tranquility. Graham's green eyes reflected the gentle flames as he was concentrating on them. He took a deep breath before continuing, for the next step of the ritual was the most painful.

The night was silent. The only sounds Graham could hear was the clock ticking and his heart beating. Slowly, he began the summoning chant.

"Thee I invoke, the One born from Fire,"

"Thou art the master of Memories,"

"Thou art the master of Transformation,"

"Thee, that teachest Falsity and Trickery,"

"Thee, that bringst Chaos and promotest Deceit,"

"Come thou forth, and accept my offering,"

"And grant me your power, worthy of thy name!"

The moment he finished the chant, the fresh blood on the scroll turned black and the sinister aura became much stronger and thicker. It quickly enveloped the whole area in its pitch-blackness that swallowed everything, including the lights from the candles.

Graham heightened all his senses but he felt no sensation. Even the chair he was sitting on seemed to have gone.

It felt suffocating.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, flames went out of the sigil and quickly spread around the darkness, creating a wall around him. With the flame, an intense feeling of pressure pushed him down to the ground. He couldn't fight back, but he knew what was coming.

Pain!

His head was suddenly pounding. It felt like something was shaking it very hard, causing the brain to disintegrate little by little. It felt a thousand times worse than the headache he usually got from overusing his abilities.

"Aaaaarrrghhh!!!!"

He shouted as hard as he could to help him bear with the agony. His two hands held his head as hard as he could.

Then, he smelled it. The calming aroma of the Storax oil penetrated the darkness and entered his nose. The balsamic scent helped him calm down, although it didn't nullify the pain.

Not long after, he felt that his brain had completely turned into mush, but strangely, he still had the ability to think and perceive pain. He knew it wasn't over.

What Graham had anticipated came after that. He felt two burning hands pinning his head to the ground while a burning iron was sawing it open.

Creak... creak... creak... creak...

He felt his skull being cut open slowly and his blood came pouring out.

Plop!

The cap of his skull finally came off, but the burning hands didn't let go of his head. It kept pressing him down to the ground, preventing Graham, who was in great pain, from moving around.

The brain juice came out of his skull along with the blood. After that, he felt something being placed there in place of his old brain. After the object was securely set, the cap of his skull was placed back and it magically healed.

He panted and gritted his teeth. Graham knew that the agony was not finished.

Suddenly, burning sharp knives sank into various parts of his body, including his face. The hot metal made an incision that was not deep, but it extended through the first layer of his skin. He felt the knife cutting the muscles and nerves on his face, which sent horrifying pain to his brain.

Slowly, burning hands ripped the skin on his face violently, which gave him an indescribable amount of agony. He could feel his skin slowly being peeled off starting from his face all the way to his body. The numerous cuts all over him made the skin come off easily.

He was being skinned alive!

His nerve endings were being ripped apart one by one. His blood began pouring from every part of his body. The pain was unbearable, but Graham had to remain conscious through all of that.

"Aaaarghh!!!!"

He could only scream as loud as he could. Section by section of his skin was being peeled like an orange. The nerves that were torn to shreds sent a train of agony throughout his being.

Once his body was completely skinless, he felt cold. He had completely gone numb to any sensation except the cold.

It felt like forever to him before suddenly a warm layer of fresh skin was placed on his exposed body. The skin came in contact with his nerves and sent a stinging pain to his brain for a second before it subsided. The process was repeated for his whole body until he got a completely new layer of skin.

Pant... pant...

Graham knew that what he was experiencing was on a spiritual level, not physical. However, everything was as real as it could be. Although no scar would be left behind, the memory of what he had gone through would linger forever.

Once the process was done, slowly, the wall of fire receded, and the darkness got sucked by the contract scroll on the desk. Graham, who was originally sitting in the armchair, was now lying on the floor. The shirt he was wearing was full of sweat, but there was no bloodstain.

Graham tried to control his breathing and got up from the floor right away. The ritual had not been finished, so he had to end it properly. He blew out the candles one by one in reverse order from when he lit them. After that, he rolled the parchment and focused on the silver liquid on the desk.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order the mercury to seal the scroll!"

The liquid inside the glass container flowed to the air and then wrapped itself around the rolled parchment on the desk, sealing it. Once it was sealed, the scroll burst into flames and the ashes entered Graham through his nostrils. There was a weak smile on his face despite the strange sensation.

His contract ritual with a President was successful!

Finally, he could relax. Graham sat in his chair and leaned back to rest. The pain that he had just experienced was greater than anything he had ever felt. It was even more pain888ful than his first two rituals.

"Val, I did it!" he said. There was relief in his tone and a hint of pride.

"This way, we can find the president scroll for you and we can protect ourselves better."

Graham stared at the ceiling in the dark office that was illuminated by the light of a single candle. His mind was focused on the abilities he had just received from the Deity, as well as the way his body now felt.

"Val, I feel slightly more powerful now and my body feels lighter. And as usual, after every ritual, I feel that a part of me is missing, but I cannot pinpoint what exactly," he paused. "I just hope it is not my humanity," he said jokingly.

He then focused back on his new abilities and analyzed them.

"I'm a Guile now, Val. As a Guile, I have the ability to plant thoughts in someone's mind. But it will take time before the thoughts fully manifest. It's not suitable in direct combat unless I am sure I can survive that long,"

"I've seen this ability being used before when Luuk suddenly tried to commit suicide while fighting the members of the Pale Society. However, this ability can easily be removed if it's detected soon enough," he said while stroking his chin.

"It seems that I can use this ability on myself to remove negative effects, as was shown by that man. It's a pretty fascinating ability I must say, Val. I am sure I can find many more ways to utilize it," he said with eyes full of excitement.

"Let's call this ability Implant because I implant thoughts into the mind. Now, besides Implant, I can also read memories. It will make Implant even scarier because the false memory or thought I put into my enemy's brain will be very subtle,"

"However, Val, the main use of memory reading is for the Transformation ability that I have also received. We'll call it just that. After reading someone's memory, I can transform into a person in their memory with matching characteristics including the smell. The rest will be up to my acting ability, though. Right now, I can only store the appearance of a maximum of three people and I will need to make room if I want a new one. I'm sure the limit will be increased once I've pleased the Deity,"

"The limit to my Guile abilities is ten per day as usual. But hear me out, Val. I've now become much stronger in terms of my previous abilities! My Fire Divinator abilities can be used for up to fifty times per day! That's just like unlimited unless I truly become a fortune teller. Not to mention my divination is now much more powerful. My Supersight also enables me to see farther in the distance."

"Besides that, my Mouth abilities can be used for up to twenty-five times a day now, and without chanting! I feel like a whole new person now, Val. Now I don't have to think twice if I need to clean the house using Order. I can just do it easily. It's also the same for my Fire Manipulation. I can probably call myself the master of fire now!" he said proudly.

"Not to mention my Séance ability has now also improved as well as my ghost perception. I should probably use it more often now. Who knows what those lingering spirits might bring us, Val,"

"Let's do experiment tonight, Val. I can't wait to use my new and improved abilities. Since the condition for reset is sleeping at night, not waiting for midnight, I can use up all of the abilities and have them reset once we wake up tomorrow morning," he said excitedly.

Graham got up from the chair and looked at his coat that was hanging from the coat rack.

"I order you to come here!"

He issued an Order without chanting the Deity's name and the coat magically shot at him. Graham skillfully caught it and put the coat on. He wore a meaningful smile on his face.