“This is… a ring? And it looks like it’s about to break.”
Kolin examined the object on Laine’s finger carefully. It was indeed a ring, looking utterly ordinary and not particularly valuable. The only things hinting it wasn’t as simple as it seemed were its placement on the ring finger and the web of cracks covering its entire surface.
Kolin withdrew his gaze from the ring and looked at Laine with a questioning expression, hoping the other man would explain properly.
Laine didn’t dawdle. He took off the ring, placed it in his palm, and immediately began explaining. “This ring is something I came across by chance and spent a fortune on when I was still a merchant. It’s also one of the reasons I ended up bankrupt. If I hadn’t bought this, I wouldn’t have been left without funds after my business failed…”
As he spoke, Laine seemed to sink into painful memories. But now wasn’t the time to listen to tales of past suffering; Kolin and the others had urgent matters to attend to. Fortunately, Laine snapped out of it quickly and continued explaining the ring in his hand.
“This ring is called the Sacrifice Ring. It seems to be a relic from ancient times, rare in this era. So, even though it’s a one-time-use item, the price was outrageously high. Its effect is simple: when the wearer is about to die, it transfers the fatal injury to itself. However, this effect isn’t instantaneous; it requires a certain delay to fully trigger. I managed to fool the one who attacked me precisely because of the Sacrifice Ring’s delayed activation mechanism.”
Laine paused here briefly. After explaining how he was attacked, he continued talking about his physical condition.
“As for why my body ended up like this… the Sacrifice Ring consumes the wearer’s mana to preserve their life until the injury transfer is complete. If mana is insufficient, it consumes other things, like fat, blood, and so on.”
Laine touched his face, which, though it had regained a bit of color, still looked very pale, and gave a bitter smile.
“I didn’t expect the transfer time to be so slow; it nearly drained me dry. Luckily, I was on the heavier side, otherwise I might not have survived long enough to come back and see you all.”
After sighing for a moment, Laine put the ring in his hand away again. Though it was unclear why he was keeping an already expended Sacrifice Ring, Kolin and the others’ minds were no longer on that.
As for the ancient relic Laine called the Sacrifice Ring, while Liyami and the others weren’t familiar with it, Kolin had heard of such things.
He’d heard that certain high-ranking members of the royal family in the Kingdom, such as the King, wore similar rings. From that perspective, Laine’s story seemed credible.
And if that was the case, then the half-faced maiden who attacked Laine was likely the culprit behind the Missing Persons Incident they were looking for. That powerful Demon Executive.
Thinking this, Kolin couldn’t help but feel a headache coming on. While it was good to have obtained information about the culprit, the information they had was far too little! Now they only knew the culprit’s general appearance and a few magical abilities. They had no idea of her current location, what other powerful magical abilities she might possess, and they didn’t even know how to continue tracking her.
Kolin looked with a headache at the dried blood on the ground and the gradually dissipating magic traces. While there were traces of the maiden’s mana lingering nearby, Kolin was no expert in trace tracking! And especially not mana traces!
Usually, Hifny handled such things, but the problem was, not only was Hifny not with them, they couldn’t even contact her, let alone get her help.
Thus, Kolin and the others found themselves in a very awkward situation. They had some information on the culprit, but couldn’t continue the pursuit, left to wait uselessly where they were.
This wouldn’t do! They still didn’t know Laura’s situation! If they arrived too late and something happened to them because of it… They had to find that maiden quickly!
Kolin frowned deeply, racking his brain for any method that could allow them to simply and efficiently continue tracking the culprit. But if such a method existed, Kolin would have used it already.
Just as Kolin was getting frantic with worry, Eleanor suddenly raised her hand.
“…Let me offer a prayer. It’s better than doing nothing right now.”
Hearing this, Kolin hesitated slightly but agreed to Eleanor’s proposal. They truly had no other options at the moment. While the “Holy Light Guidance” Eleanor might receive through prayer wasn’t guaranteed to help them, they could only try it now.
Eleanor’s prayer this time was swift, with many parts simplified. Clearly, she was also anxious about Laura’s situation. The question was whether simplifying the prayer process would also reduce its final effect.
While Eleanor prayed, Liyami carefully examined the area where the maiden who attacked Laine had lingered.
From Laine’s description, it seemed the other party could also merge with shadows and control them. But the other party’s shadow manipulation was clearly different from Liyami’s. After all, Laine described eerie figures, which was not the same as Liyami’s appearance when merging with shadows.
While Liyami considered the possibility that Laine had embellished, after questioning him, she received a firm denial. This only made Liyami more confused.
Why use the form of an eerie figure to move? Couldn’t it be made smaller? Like Liyami, who could merge into a small patch of shadow and move, or directly into someone’s shadow. Why insist on the shape of an eerie figure?
Based on Liyami’s experience, there were only two possibilities for this situation. One was that the user was extremely unskilled, unable to easily and freely control the shadow’s form, leaving it to change randomly. The second was that the user had no way to change the form of the shadow they were in, forced to move while merged in that specific shape.
Judging from Laine’s account, Liyami felt it definitely wasn’t the first case. After all, that half-faced maiden clearly possessed strong magical abilities and wouldn’t make such a beginner-level mistake.
That left only the second possibility: being forced to maintain that shadow shape without being able to change it. But if that was the case, then the shadow magic used by that half-faced maiden was certainly different from what Liyami used. After all, Liyami didn’t turn into any eerie figures.
But if that was true, then Liyami had to be even more vigilant. As one of the strongest assassins of the Shadow Secret Society, she wouldn’t claim to master all shadow magic, but she was at least familiar with the vast majority (though there weren’t many shadow magics to begin with). And this situation the other party was in… Liyami had never heard of any shadow magic that worked like that.
Aside from the possibility that Liyami simply hadn’t seen enough, the only other explanation was that what the other party used wasn’t shadow magic at all, but some other kind of magic.
Thinking this, Liyami hurriedly told Kolin, who was waiting for Eleanor to finish her prayer.