City Of Sin

101-117

Ceremony

Richard stood up and stretched his hands out to reach the three divine marks floating in the air. When his fingers came into contact with them, the mysterious power of the Eternal Dragon would take form as an appropriate blessing.

He first touched the hourglass formed by the devil skull. It cracked open, and the fine golden sand entered his body to form a complicated golden scripture that disappeared into him.

Richard felt a new mysterious force in his body, which filled his muscles with vigour. The meaning of the scripture surfaced in his consciousness: Divine blessing, Torrent of Life. In the next fifteen years, his body would not age.

This blessing was akin to prolonging one’s life by fifteen years. Humans in Norland only naturally experienced this at two stages in their lives— when they entered the saint realm, and once they entered the legendary realm. Apart from these, the only other way to prolong one’s life was through the blessings of the Eternal Dragon.

To prolong one’s life was the desire of all intelligent creatures, so the blessings of the sands of time were the most valuable of all. It was needless to emphasize the importance of life. Even during struggles for power, in eras of dazzling stars and brilliant heroes, many a time the easiest victory was outliving your opponents.

Richard had never expected to receive such a blessing in his first ceremony. He suppressed his elation, and reached for the second divine mark.

The second hourglass broke as well, the beads of golden sand becoming a ray of light that entered his body in the form of a scripture. Once again, he was given knowledge of the blessing: Divine Blessing, Unhurriedness. When he entered a lesser plane in the future that did not possess a Church of the Eternal Dragon, the timeflow there would jump to ten times Norland’s time. This effect would last for thirty years, but would not affect Norland or a higher plane.

Thinking about it, this was truly a divine gift. With it, he could enter another plane and war for ten years, but only a single year would pass in Norland. Although the flow of time varied in the myriad of planes, the differences were normally quite small. Unhurriedness actually gave him tenfold the time! Of course, one would still spend their life force in that lesser plane. Staying there for thirty years would age their body correspondingly. Only in tandem with Torrent of Life could one proceed ceaselessly with planar wars.

Although the first two blessings did not provide him with any battle prowess, life and time were the greatest blessings for humans.

Richard could barely control his excitement and glee as he once again reaching for that ball of light. He was extremely curious as to this mysterious blessing, but he did not harbour much hope. Mathematics told him that his good luck so far would not affect the third try.

However, even if this ball of light did not reveal any precious blessings, Richard would not be disappointed. Because his luck had already been good enough until now. However, the ball of light had completely absorbed most of the demon’s heart, so to claim that there were no expectations at all was impossible.

However, before Richard’s left hand could touch the ball of light, a ray of light suddenly flitted past the string of beast ivory on his hand. The largest piece in the centre suddenly flashed, absorbing that ray of light. It seemed to be set ablaze immediately, radiating golden flames of time that burned Richard’s hand in the process.