Angela waved her hand, swallowing up the space itself and transforming it into nectar.
This miracle clearly has nothing to do with the attributes of "wind" and "life" that she has demonstrated in the past.
Abigail was even more horrified. Like Hayden, she was essentially a "shaman," and thus saw through the true nature of this act, unable to help but shout out, "You stole the divine power of the Peacock King!?"
“Hmm, it’s not misappropriation.” Angela frowned. “This should be considered… requisition.”
requisition!?
"And the master should be able to do something similar."
Even more frightening, Angela hadn't finished speaking when...
“Although you cannot ‘requisition’ the power of the peacock, you and Miss Karen have a special connection. If you simply want to ‘borrow’ the power of a friend, there must be a way to do so.”
After she finished speaking, she turned and looked at Abigail.
"I don't know how to teach you, Master, since I've never been good at teaching... But perhaps Miss Abigail has a way to guide you?"
079: Friends are magic
"I must be crazy."
Abigail couldn't help but complain,
Why should I teach you to do this kind of thing?
Why should she have to do whatever this crazy doll Angela wants her to do?
But she dared not not do it.
It was truly a tragic situation, but Abigail didn't have many options. Angela was right beside her, tilting her head and watching, making it impossible for her to say she didn't want to.
First, what if Abigail directly refused, saying she didn't want to teach Hayden magic?
Hayden, well, he'll probably settle things honestly. He's actually quite easy to talk to, Abigail had already realized that.
But what will Angela do to her?
Without a doubt, Abigail had no idea what was going to happen to her. And that's what's most terrifying.
Even the gods, high above all, were relatively known to Abigail. The circumstances under which they would become angry, and how they would punish those who angered them, could all be summarized and analyzed. Even the gods could be psychologically profiled; their personalities and styles of action could be deduced. This is precisely why so-called witchcraft exists.
However, Angela was someone she knew almost nothing about.
What will happen to Abigail if she angers Angela?
To be slapped to death by this strange doll? Or tormented by pain beyond her imagination? These might be considered relatively good outcomes. What the Dark Witch truly fears is—what if Angela reaches out and pokes her, injecting a surge of goodwill into her, and then she too becomes Hayden's happy companion?
Although it's hard to believe, it's not impossible.
Of course, the formidable Dark Witch has no interest in being at the mercy of others. She strives for survival and will do whatever it takes—that's Abigail's nature.
This crazy wind-up doll is really going too far. So, let's strike first and take care of Angela before she's completely at our mercy! All Abigail has to do is cast a time-space magic attack on her without her noticing—and then, Abigail will definitely get shoved to pieces by Angela's fingers!
It seems best to abandon the hardline approach.
Besides, the idea of using spacetime magic to fight a terrifying monster that can tear through space and devour the foundations of reality is flawed in itself! Moreover, Abigail is not a specialist in combat, so even if she catches someone off guard, she probably won't be able to win.
However, she is, after all, a great witch over four hundred years old. Since she doesn't specialize in combat, why not use some witch's charm magic on Hayden and force-feed him a love potion? Angela is completely obedient to Hayden; if we can control Hayden first, dealing with Angela won't be difficult, right?
The problem is, for Angela, who can "requisition" the power of the Peacock King, such bewitching magic would probably be destroyed with a single poke of her finger. Then, grabbing Abigail and force-feeding her a large bottle of love potion—it's not impossible, is it?
How strange. Why couldn't Abigail have foreseen this unexpected ending?
"Miss Abigail."
But then Angela spoke up again.
"If your host learns from you how to leverage the power of friends through communication, it should also help you develop the aging techniques you need. What do you think?"
噫
So, as the three of them walked from the Black Witch's office to the bar's underground workshop, with Hayden leading the way, Abigail took the opportunity to lower her voice and ask Angela alone, "You could have just asked me to teach that idiot, why did you deliberately wave the aging spell in front of me like a carrot? What exactly do you want?"
To put it more bluntly, this question is essentially, "Who are you? What do you really want?"
But Angela tilted her head and gave an unexpected answer: "If I don't give you the benefits you deserve, the master will be unhappy. Besides, if there are no benefits, you won't want to be friends with the master."
What's wrong with this doll's thought process?!
On the other hand, Abigail also realized that what she said was indeed true. Given the terrifying circumstances of not knowing what Angela was capable of, Hayden only needed to offer Abigail some benefits, which would be enough to make her close her eyes and accept her fate.
What did she lose? Nothing more than the pride of being forced to do things her way by the mad puppet. The benefits she gained were substantial: the smuggling route allowed her to earn money, and Hayden's friendship and the progress of the age-enhancing potion's development were both crucial. Abigail's only complaint was being so meticulously organized by Angela.
It was as if she were facing... another god.
Hayden, however, failed to notice what Abigail was feeling uneasy about. Even as he entered her studio, Hayden remained hesitant about leveraging sympathetic connection.
As a versatile and all-around wizard, Hayden naturally knew that borrowing power through sympathetic magic was perfectly normal. He used such magic frequently. He could use cowhide and eagle feathers to cast spells that borrowed power from the concepts of animals. He could even use the names of the dead Old Gods and knew how to exploit the last remnants of their power.
However, this is completely different from drawing power from a living god who can respond and react normally.
"Besides, Karen isn't a god; she's just an elf."
Angela did not answer. She only knew that it was indeed possible, but she didn't know how to teach Hayden to do it.
So Abigail explained, "Ordinary elves can't have their power borrowed, but that young lady is a relative of the Roc. Their race has a history of being worshipped by ancient people in the Middle East."
From the very beginning of ancient human civilization, battling demons and monsters was a part of life. In the Sumerian and Babylonian regions of West Asia, demons and monsters have been rampant since ancient times. People therefore used various spells and magic to try to resist the invasion of evil monsters and avoid being harmed by them.
These esoteric magical knowledges were rarely recorded in writing; only a small number of traveling scholars left behind such accounts: Ancient desert tribes inhabiting Persia, to ward off attacks from spirits, often wore amulets of mysterious guardian deities, praying for their protection. These guardian deities were skilled in magic and flight, often appearing as winged birds, and were not spirits but physical beings capable of shapeshifting. Under normal circumstances, they behaved like wild beasts, showing neither particular friendliness nor hostility towards humans.
These guardian spirits (geni) exist between the gods and mortals. Because they are winged birds, they dwell in the high heavens. The gods do not directly contact mortals, so they convey their will to humankind through these winged spirits. Humans, in turn, worship these guardian spirits, periodically offering blood sacrifices and making pacts with them to express gratitude for past help and to pray for future protection.
Winged spirits are divine messengers who can transform into birds and convey messages between gods and mortals. Such myths and legends of bird messengers are not limited to ancient West Asia and the Middle East; they exist all over the world.
Hayden was certainly aware of this kind of knowledge. In fact, the word "angela" he used when naming Angela was something Hayden himself found in ancient mythological texts from that region; it was a name for a similar magical creature.
probably.
"But can Kallen really be that strong? Can she really reach the level of 'god' in terms of the overall concept?"
Regardless, Hayden remained highly skeptical.
"How will you know if you don't try? Magical experiments are meant to take a lot of time to try and fail before you can succeed."
Abigail wasn't entirely sure either. She also doubted whether Hayden could actually borrow power from Karen, but since Angela had said so, she certainly wouldn't dare to directly disagree, right?
"Just give it a try anyway. Good luck!"
So they started working on it in the Black Witch's underground workshop.
What are you fiddling with?
Of course, it's about creating a ceremony!
The rituals of witchcraft are originally "made up" according to fixed rules.
"The most important key to the magic of communicating with and borrowing power from the gods is the symbolic connection between you and the object of your power. To put it more extremely, it lies in how well you know the other person, how much you can offer related to them, and how you connect them in a ritual."
Abigail sat in a chair in the studio, gesturing and pointing.
"Time, place, words, images, objects, and actions that can symbolize your relationship can all be used as keys to borrow power. If you really have such a good relationship with that young lady, you can definitely make it up yourself, right?"
Holy crap. This little witch, all that "cheer up" stuff, she's just sitting there talking without a care in the world.
Hayden squatted on the studio floor, drawing the base of a magic ring with chalk while deep in thought.
Fortunately, Abigail was also afraid that if she just sat and watched, Angela might chop her up. So she took out several magical rituals she had used to borrow power from the new god and gave them to Hayden as a reference. It was like giving someone a few lines of code and asking them to write a new program based on them. Whether it was difficult or not is another matter, but it's generally not something that can be done immediately.
However, Hayden had actually done something similar.
Six months ago, during the [Mars] incident, he hastily created a magical ritual for Alastor in the middle of the battle, following the format of ancient Egyptian magic rituals and ancient Indian incantations, to allow Alastor to reincarnate by connecting with the ley lines. However, such a hastily put-together ritual naturally had significant side effects, to the point that Alastor is still sealed within the Dragon Balls.
"You are the daughter of the peacock, a flying celestial being..."
So Hayden followed suit, taking a few peacock feathers as a catalyst (Abigail's medicine cabinet had everything), and while drawing with chalk in the magic circle, he tried to mutter improvised spells to infuse magic.
Then, with a loud "bang," the magic ring exploded, and the peacock feathers were charred black. Hayden, covered in soot, squatted on the floor, staring wide-eyed.
However, Abigail was surprised to see this: "It actually reacted!? Amazing!"
Clearly, not every elven god can truly have their power borrowed. Although there was such a mythological tradition in ancient times, even Abigail didn't initially believe it could actually happen.
What's the result now?
Even though Hayden has clearly been rejected, the divine power that triggered the explosion is still a rare miracle, at least proving that Karen does indeed have the divine power to respond.
Angela, who was watching from the side, frowned and said, "Master, I really don't understand Miss Karen's behavior."
Why?
"The ritual of drawing power from the gods is a summary of your understanding of that god. That's why witchcraft rituals involve speculation and analysis of the god's personality."
Abigail did offer some pointers at this point.
"Your spell is actually your understanding and summary of that young lady. And even I know that a sullen young lady like that obviously wouldn't want to be called the 'Flying Peacock Daughter'."
That makes sense.
Hayden simply plopped down on the floor, scribbling and thinking at the same time.
Powerful gods possess sufficiently complex information processing capabilities to consciously handle an enormous number of service requests simultaneously. However, Karen clearly lacked this ability. She was likely merely responding instinctively to Hayden's empathy, rather than consciously considering how to react.
In other words, Hayden is now figuring out how to deal with a drunk Karen... or something like that.
Anyway, conducting magical experiments is all about constantly trying things out, so let's try as many as possible.
Finally, just as Abigail started to get bored and even began to yawn, Hayden finished drawing a new magic circle on the ground and brought two pots of roses from her office to place inside the magic circle.
Then he opened his mouth and began to chant:
"You are a bird that has turned your back on the sky, and has fallen to the ground to walk with people."
“You once said that people can live without relying on the legacy of their ancestors. Destiny should be in the hands of one’s own actions.”
Before he finished speaking, the magic circle beneath Hayden's feet actually began to emit a faint green light, causing even Abigail to widen her eyes in surprise.
However, Hayden continued chanting:
“I am one who has walked with you, one who knows what you have done. I praise the flowers and dreams you have given to people. For you treat all people equally, whether they are poor or rich.”
“Brave and proud Lord of Flowers, your inspiration resonates in my heart. Accept my praise, and grant me the resilience and courage to stand firm in the wind and rain, just like a flower with deep roots.”
The magic actually started to work.
The green light began to take shape within the magic ring, forming a flower pattern in mid-air, spreading across Hayden's body, and finally disappearing.
Even so, Hayden could still feel a special power surging from within him. He could feel that he seemed to understand the so-called "wind direction," could see and even sense the direction of "force," and thus avoid their impact. He could feel a power welling up inside him, less like a fire of courage and more like a flower deeply rooted in a crack in the rock, fixing his will and allowing it to bloom as firmly as hope.
In terms of power, these are really not that strong.
But this was magic, a form of sorcery performed using divine power. The magic had actually succeeded, and now Hayden and Abigail's expressions had turned quite grim.
The success of this magic also meant that they had glimpsed some of the gods' family secrets.
"This is good news for you, Master."
Angela was actually quite happy.
"Haven't you always wanted to know what Miss Karen was thinking? Now you certainly know! If she didn't truly believe it, she wouldn't have instinctively responded to such a ceremony, would she?"
Hayden opened his mouth, then closed it, and thought about it carefully. Angela's words did seem to make some sense.
He now does know what Karen is thinking about certain things... but this seems to have brought even more problems.
"Has this young lady... become a little too strong without us even realizing it?"
Abigail put down her long pipe, frowned, and uttered the words Hayden was also thinking.
"Becoming so strong and wanting to be independent, this might cause trouble."
These concerns and speculations are exactly what Hayden was worried about.
080: Turning Point
How did Kallen become so strong without anyone noticing?
Hayden was certain that a year ago, Kallen wasn't that powerful, at least not powerful enough to become a source of divine power and magic like a god.
To put it bluntly, back then she was someone who would get stomach aches from the pressures of work and family, and was relatively emotionally fragile. How did she become like this a year later?
"How would I know? You should ask someone who knows her well, not an outsider like me, right?"