Chapter 931: Chapter 298: Survivor Syndrome

Clearly.

The girl’s struggle had obviously angered the Earl.

Or perhaps it was because the Earl deemed her moral bottom line not low enough, her descent not deep enough, so he eliminated her.

Or maybe, irritated by Viscount Conley’s fussing around here, the Earl chose to vent his anger on the poor girl… It was even possible he simply wanted to give Viscount Conley a warning.

And yet Viscount Conley remained relentless.

After all, Count Dorn had no record of ever killing a Son of the Moon, which was the basis for his cooperation with them.

Viscount Conley knew that the other party would not break this rule with him–because he was not worth it.

Hence, Viscount Conley was fearless.

What Viscount Conley did not know was that through some means, Count Dorn had learned he was caught in a scheme of the Red Chancellor–the false peace was about to end, so Count Dorn had simply locked him up.

…But who told him?

Thinking of this, Aleister’s eyes flickered with thought.

“—-Are you free now, Mirror Demon?”

Aleister chose to directly ask Count Dorn’s “butler”: “Who told Count Dorn that he was targeted by Count Leipzig and the others?”

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“It was Lady Anna Kingsford, sir.”

The mirror next to her suddenly darkened, billowing with black mist.

The Mirror Demon immediately provided a very precise answer.

Aleister was very familiar with that name–because she was the wife of her foster father.

Or should it be ex-wife? She was not certain whether they had divorced… but in any case, she was Freya’s biological mother.

If that was the angle, it was likely that Viscount Conley’s coming here to deliver himself was actually prompted by Count Leipzig…

…Never mind, whether it be Leipzig, the Red Chancellor, or Kingsford–

If they dare provoke me, they’ll all be killed.

Aleister lightly skipped over the unnecessary thoughts for now.

Indeed, she now had the confidence to make everyone step aside for her when she transgressed.

Aleister approached the massive bed teeming with dense souls, pondering for a while before identifying the one female soul with a relatively clearer appearance from among those with varying degrees of blur.

“Mirror Demon, don’t leave just yet–”

Aleister again instructed: “Bring me some rotten wine, and also Mother Serpent’s blood.”

A deep voice rose from the mirror: “My former master hasn’t completely perished; I still need to wait a bit–What you said is Harmonizing Spirit Medicine, right? The master here has a finished product of Harmonizing Spirit Ointment, a fine product of an alchemical workshop.”

Saying this, a small silver round box that looked like a skincare product appeared in front of Aleister.

Aleister unscrewed it to find that it indeed contained prepared Harmonizing Spirit Ointment. It looked like a yellowish-brown grease with a faint scent of earth.

After all, she didn’t have direct contact with souls–though Transcendent power from the Path could allow Aleister to touch souls directly, her strength was too overpowering for these fragile souls, inadvertently annihilating them. Just as the temperature of the human body and its microbes could be fatal to some fragile species of flora and fauna.

She must weaken herself with the isolation and nurturing powers of the Harmonizing Spirit Ointment before daring to touch the other soul. The rotten wine mixed with Mother Serpent’s blood was a simple “Harmonizing Spirit Medicine.” If a normal person drank this medicine, they would easily become possessed by evil spirits.

Aleister took a little bit and rubbed it between her hands.

Looking at the silently wailing soul, she sighed without a sound: “You should really be thankful for your luck…

“…If it had been yesterday, there was absolutely no chance for you to return to your own body.”

—-One of the traits of the Path of Transcendence is the Defying Pact.

No Transcenders would earnestly follow a pact, just like Demons always try to break contracts, to harm their own Contractors; just like these Contractors, after growing up, would become slave masters brutally controlling their own demons.

Aleister was no exception.

Originally, Aiwass, when faced with excessively transcendental thoughts, would subconsciously be wary of straying from the Path, thereby restraining his own inner impulses. But with Aleister alone, she simply could not restrain this instinct. The feeling was akin to a smoker’s craving for nicotine, an alcoholic’s craving for liquor, or a sweet tooth’s craving for sugar.

For transcendents of a single Path, the characteristics of their Path are too distinct–in such a way that Aleister strongly wanted to defy the “pact signed between Aiwass and the Silver-Crowned Dragon.”

Because now Aleister had become a Great Sin Scholar. In other words, the Sin of Heaven’s Scorn no longer had any effect on her. Even the Fallen Celestial Marshal could not stop her ascent… She herself had been branded with the sin of pride during her ascension.

Under these circumstances, Aleister thought of the pact that Aiwass and the Silver-Crowned Dragon had once signed.

“–I swear, I will not use the life and carcasses of my kin as my ritual materials and offerings.”

“–I will never embark on that irreversible path of depravity.”

Previously, when Aleister first experienced lifedrain, she felt a strong unease.

Because the purely dedicated will of Aiwass was indeed very likely to choose self-sacrifice during the merger, thus allowing Aleister to become the dominant personality, and it was highly probable.

–But that was something Aleister could absolutely not accept.

Without Aiwass, what would Isabel do? What about Avalon? They knew Aiwass, not Aleister… The so-called “Aleister” was just a residue built on lies. Without Aiwass, they would have to start over with many of their endeavors… That was completely a choice without any benefit.

Moreover, it was equivalent to a form of “charity,” a sort of “bondage”–

It was a fate she could never accept.

Aleister was genuinely fearful of Aiwass falling ill.

Mainly because she knew herself all too well–Aiwass was truly likely to fall ill.

“Survivor’s Syndrome,” or perhaps Survivorship Syndrome. This was a psychological disorder of Aiwass. When faced with the decision to sacrifice himself to save others, he would do so without hesitation. Not based on morality, but based on a “sense of relief.”

Thus, she wanted to destroy the pact with the Silver-Crowned Dragon so that her half of the pact would break. By falling into corruption and defilement, she would force Aiwass to choose to return to death with himself as the dominant personality.

Now Aleister was not a priest, and logically her prayers should have been ineffective… And in fact, Aleister never intended for the prayers to work.

The corpses she prepared were to act as batteries for the power of Dusk.

A crow plus a skull is called the “Caput Mortuum” in alchemy. This term has the meaning of skull and residue, and it also refers to the leftovers after distillation or sublimation, a process corresponding to the “nigredo” in Alchemy. By shattering the mixture and obtaining the primal substance, it allows the material to die and gives rise to the foundation for rebirth.

This process was enough to obtain strength.

–The result was that Amber responded to her summons before any strength was even drawn out.

This implied that Aleister and Aiwass were very likely the same person in the mystic arts. At least, that’s how the Pillar God saw it.

Thus, Aleister summoned the Silver-Crowned Dragon again, to let It judge for herself whether she had broken the oath. To prevent the seal from going wrong, she also specially prepared the true words of sealing–“Everything arises from water, and all return to water.”

These were the sacred words of Thales, an apostle of the Great Sage, narrating the mystery of “Thales’ Water Theory.” It was a categorical denial of the fundamental nature of the Demon of Winter’s notion that “all things will meet their end in the winter,” a true piece of demonological knowledge.

But similarly–without utilizing the power contained in those words, the Silver-Crowned Dragon took the initiative to help Aleister destroy the residual consciousness of the Demon of Winter and sealed it into a card.

Afterwards, Aleister discovered with complex emotions that the oath between her and the Silver-Crowned Dragon had not been broken.

In other words, she had still not committed the grand sin of defying heaven.

…The problem was fucking even bigger!

That meant Aleister’s self-perception was not human at all!

But she did not see herself as a Son of the Moon either.

There was only one answer then.

She saw herself merely as a puppet, a tool, an extension of Aiwass–or in other words, a shadow destined to be discarded.

“…So we are the same after all.”

Aleister smiled with relief.

–She was indeed Aiwass as well.

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