The Speedrun Manual of Miss Witch - Chapter 251

“Ciel.”

Ciel slightly nodded.

“You are sufficiently qualified, Your Excellency Ciel.”

Erigma nodded. She no longer had any notion of belittling the other party. Instead, she placed Ciel on a more equal footing. “I am willing to hear about the cooperation… Is it about researching the Other Side?”

“Rather than cooperation, I prefer to call this an exchange.”

Ciel looked at the empty eye sockets beneath the Pope’s steel mask.

“I want you to exchange Forte’s life with me for something.”

Forte’s life?!

The soul fire in Erigma’s eye sockets flickered. A metallic buzzing sound directly came from within the armor.

“Impossible. Please mind your words. It’s impossible for me to pretend I haven’t heard this, Your Excellency Ciel.”

One must know that the current Church of the God of Order has a close cooperative relationship with Forte. This concerns whether the Church of the God of Order can completely push out the Church of the Savior Goddess and become the sole state religion of Ansu.

Moreover, they also have a collaborative research project on the Other Side with Forte. They must borrow Forte’s connections to help them conduct their secret research.

In the Pope’s opinion, no matter what the conditions were, it was impossible for her to create any rift with Forte. Her interests were almost tied to Forte’s.

Unless… the price the other party offered was…

Ciel slowly turned her head, looked at the mural behind her, smiled, pointed at it, and said, “Do you… want to summon It?”

Ciel withdrew her hand and looked back at the Pope before her, saying meaningfully, “I can give you the method to summon It.”

Her words once again caused the Pope before her to fall silent.

The other party had presented a blood ritual array identical to the Other Side node, the highest secret of the Church of the God of Order, and had even drawn a portrait of that entity.

But just as Erigma thought… these weren’t completely secret—at least those Saints, Saintesses, or candidates of the church had seen these things to some extent before they died.

She couldn’t guarantee that the other party hadn’t obtained the corpse or remains of some Saint or Saintess somewhere and, using mystical means, obtained their memories from the remains.

Moreover, as far as Erigma knew, there was one candidate Saintess who had explored the Other Side and was still alive, having luckily avoided several secret apprehensions.

“How can you prove that you truly have the blood ritual array to summon It?”

After contemplating for a long time, Erigma looked at the young girl before her and asked directly.

This question from the other party seemed to have also been within Ciel’s expectations for a long time.

She looked at Erigma before her and said, “If you don’t mind, can I borrow a finger from you?”

A finger?

Mysticism and transcendents indeed have many abilities and methods that can harm the main body or even the mind through physical remains, but Erigma seemed unconcerned about this.

Because her body was not her own.

Compared to one of her fingers, she was more interested in knowing how Ciel could prove the matter of summoning an Other Side creature.

Crack——

Pope Erigma directly reached out and forcefully broke off one of her steel index fingers, tossing it to the young girl opposite her.

Ciel reached out and steadily caught the finger. Even though Ciel’s strength was far beyond ordinary people now, she could still feel the considerable weight of that finger.

Ciel held the finger in her left hand and reached out with her right hand towards Tara behind her. Tara also understood and handed her a ritual carving knife.

Holding the carving knife, she directly cut her left index finger.

Spiritual Summoning.

As scarlet blood flowed from Ciel’s index finger, it immediately stretched into threads of blood, wrapping around the steel finger she held in her left hand.

A blood ritual array quickly formed before Ciel.

Having used the blood ritual array to summon Little Left multiple times within a day, Ciel was already quite skilled.

Little Left, the diligent model, was also quite cooperative. It had even impatiently extended a finger before the blood ritual array was fully formed. In the depths of Ciel’s mind, Little Left’s hoarse calls continuously echoed—repeatedly saying the phrase “Lord Ciel.”

It seemed to have practiced this phrase quite effectively.

Only when the terrifying left hand, which stood taller than Ciel, appeared before the everyone did Henry and the Pope finally show a slight wavering.

This is… the aura of the pure Other Side… This is a genuine Other Side creature!

The Pope was the quickest to react. She directly raised her hand and swung it towards the door. Burning molten iron splashed towards the door. Large amounts of molten iron spread, almost completely sealing off the entire private prayer room. Not a single trace of the aura could break through the seal and get out.

If the aura of the Other Side were to spread within the Holy See of the Church of the God of Order, many stationed “Crown Guards” would be affected.

After the area was sealed off, the Pope looked at the terrifying Other Side creature crouched before her, with its back to her. That creature raised a withered finger and placed it on the red-haired young girl’s left hand.

From the abyss-like opening in its palm, between its lipless, sharp teeth, came a phantom, chilling hiss that seized the heart.

“Lord… Ciel…”

“You’ve worked hard.”

Ciel gently stroked Little Left’s somewhat rough fingertips, her voice soft.

Little Left had been quite cooperative today, appearing multiple times. It was indeed a bit tiring.

However, she didn’t know if it was because it had eaten a “Crown Guard” finger, but the fingernail part of Little Left was now flashing with a silver metallic sheen. It looked even sharper and tougher.

“Barehanded…”

A metallic buzzing sound came from within Erigma’s armor.

This young girl before me… created an Other Side portal with her bare hands? And even summoned an Other Side creature from within?!

The most crucial part was that the Other Side creature seemed extremely familiar with the young girl before her—this was a scene Erigma had never witnessed throughout hundreds of years of researching the Other Side.

How could there be an Other Side creature that wasn’t aggressive towards humans? And even possessed such a high level of self-awareness?!

Weren’t all Other Side creatures inherently bloodthirsty and terrifying existences? Their mere presence was enough to cause low-level transcendents and ordinary people to suffer mental breakdowns. But the Other Side creature before her was actually addressing that young girl as… Lord?