Zhao Xu was slightly stunned when he saw Andy and four other people suddenly appearing in front of him.
Zhao Xu, who had cast this spell in the final scroll space, knew that this spell only allowed the caster to see the specific historical process.
Just like when he casts "detection magic", only he, the caster, can see the specific aura.
And now they can still see this scene. Naturally, Leian used illusions at the same time to show what he saw.
The result was as Zhao Xu expected. The five people finally reached the stream and were about to step on the stone pier when they suddenly looked frightened and fell to their knees on the ground, unable to move.
The man named Andy, with a ferocious look on his face, went up to kill his former partners one by one.
Among them, the slightly fat man who had tried to invite Zhao Xu to visit, whose father was the secretary of the Mystra Government Affairs Office, suddenly ran away with a frightened look on his face.
It's just that the opponent didn't take a few steps, and his whole body was frozen like a statue.
It was like a binding spell was cast alive.
Seeing this scene, Zhao Xu couldn't help but frown.
This effect is naturally the ability released by the devil possessing Andy.
Generally, more powerful monsters, in addition to their own characteristics, also have special abilities, supernatural abilities, and spell-like abilities.
Like the target of Zhao Xu's transformation, the Blazing God, which itself has the spell-casting ability of a level 19 priest, but also has spell-like abilities.
These spell-like abilities correspond to spells of the same name, and can be cast by non-mages themselves. There are only restrictions on the frequency of use, such as it can be used at will, once a day, once a year, etc.
Like the level 20 Hell Fiend mentioned by Leian before, it has the ability to cast spell-like spells - the ninth level spell "Prayer", but it can only be cast once a year.
The Hell Fiend does not have the ability to teleport to other worlds. If he thinks about Arthur's main material plane, he can only use the "wishes" that happen once a year to simulate teleportation to other worlds to reach Arthur.
But this also means that the opponent's body cannot go back until such magical abilities are restored after a year.
This also shows that the devil possessing Andy has spell-like abilities similar to immobilization.
The lowest level of immobilization spells is naturally the "Human Immobilization Technique" of the priest's second-level divine spell and the mage's third-level arcane spell. The more advanced ones are the seventh-level arcane "Group Human Immobilization Technique" and the ninth-level arcane "Group Monster Immobilization Technique".
In the end, after Andy completed a simple killing and sacrificial ritual, he fled to the other side of the stream with blood all over his body.
After showing this scene, Leian also obtained Andy's portrait information, and he once again used the eight-ring arcane spell of "perceiving position" on the spot.
Until Leian finished casting his spell, he had a solemn look on his face.
After a while, Leian raised his eyebrows, looked at Zhao Xu, and asked, "Do you have any guesses?"
Zhao Xu was lost in thought, "Among the devils with immobilization spell-like abilities, the most common ones are the Spike Demon with a challenge level of 11, and the Hell Fiend with a challenge level of 20."
Because the devil maintained Andy's human form from beginning to end and did not transform into its original form, it was impossible to judge from its appearance.
"Then which one do you think it is?" Leian continued to ask.
"Demon Refining in Deep Hell." Zhao Xu said with a slightly hesitant look.
"Well, congratulations, you got the answer right. Judging from the remaining traces at the scene and the feedback from our staff in Mystra, the other party is the 'Abyssal Demon'." Leian said with a smile.
"And he is also a 'Phantom Demon' with a high level of status. He just killed those four people specifically to cover up his subsequent traces through a ritual." Leian said.
Hearing this, Zhao Xu's eyes crossed the stream and looked into the terrifyingly dark depths of the forest ahead.
The bushes swayed gently with the night wind from time to time, as if it was the "Phantom Fiend" standing there staring at them.
And Zhao Xu also had a heavy expression.
Being able to have special rituals that are even enough to resist the devil who senses his location, it can be said that he is definitely not a nameless person in purgatory.
This means that the opponent is not just 18 HD, but may even be a strong person who has evolved Hit Dice or has a professional level.
An ordinary "Phenomena" can freely cast several types of spells every day, including the seventh-level spell with powerful negative effects and instant death effects - "blasphemous words".
This spell does not take into account the target's physical factors, but simply determines the spell's effect based on the difference in hit dice between the caster and the recipient.
For example, Zhao Xu only has level 3, which means three life dice, or 3 HD. Compared with the opponent's life dice, which is at least 18 HD, the difference is more than 10 HD.
As for the spell effect of Blasphemous Words, the HD gap is zero, which means that it will fall into a dizzy state, just like Zhao Xu's previous Swift Burst.
But if the difference is more than 10 HD, it will be wiped out on the spot, without even the most basic immunity from the instant death spell.
So if Zhao Xu had rashly gone to the other party to argue with him, and if the other party had no intention of hiding it, he would have killed him instantly with a spell.
"They have finished collecting information, now go over and take a look?" Leian suggested at this time.
Zhao Xu also nodded. This was not a detective scene after all, so at first he did not head forward to join in the fun.
Even before Leian and others arrived, he never took a step forward in order to avoid being cursed or even destroying the scene.
At this moment, Zhao Xu finally observed closely that Andy, who was possessed by the devil, used the blood of four innocent victims to draw a simple ritual circle on the ground.
At this time, a middle-aged mage who had just been collecting description information here and was an old-looking mage who belonged to the magic guard came forward and was about to briefly report their analysis results to Leian.
However, Leian gently waved his hand to stop the other party from speaking.
"Is this a counter-prophecy ritual?"
Although Zhao Xu didn't recognize the effect of the ritual itself, he was no longer Wu Xia Amon at this moment, and he had some idea of the rune marks used in some rituals.
For example, in summoning rituals, the runes involving planes, teleportation, coordinates, energy transfer, etc. are definitely used more.
The ritual in front of me used a lot of detection and positioning runes. But this does not mean that it is a prophetic ceremony.
On the contrary, the layout of the ceremony presents an inverted star palace pattern, which is a typical anti-prophetic layout.
"That's right." Lei An verified Zhao Xu's judgment.
The mage who was about to report couldn't help but look at Zhao Xu in surprise.
At first, Zhao Xu's shining cloak with meteor trajectory threads had attracted his attention. Later, when he saw the archbishop's badge on the other person, he didn't ask any more questions.
But now it seems that at this age, the other party actually studies rituals? It stands to reason that the mages of Mystra do not study much about the ritual itself.
Only some senior mages who are dedicated to studying rituals will know something about this aspect.
Combined with Captain Lei An's courtesy towards the other party, the magic guard guessed that Zhao Xu must be an expert in rituals.
At this time, Zhao Xu was staring at the magic circle on the ground and deep in thought.
Then he took out the spell notebook again, and by manipulating his own consciousness, he copied a crude sketch of the ritual circle in front of him on the note.
This shocked the "spell guard" who recognized the other party's actions. Generally, most scenes involving demons and demon killings are strictly sealed to prevent demons and their power from leaking out and causing panic.
This was the first time in so many years that he saw someone show off like this, and he directly copied the content of the scene in front of them.
At this time, Leian had noticed the look on his subordinate's face and explained: "He is our future team member, so this time the information will be shared with him."
At this moment, Zhao Xu was already in a state of distraction. He took out a copy of "Details of One Hundred Rituals" that he borrowed from the Legend Library, and then turned to a certain page. It was obvious that he had read it before and was impressed by it.
Zhao Xu had stayed up late to read this book before, and then read the "Teleportation Ritual: Hrothgar's Journey" based on the recommendation in the book.
In the legendary library, he stayed up late into the night reading various rituals, with all kinds of ritual symbols flying around in his mind.
Even coming out to protect the twenty mages this time can be said to be a relaxing trip for Zhao Xu.
Suddenly, Zhao Xu's eyes fell directly on a certain key node in the ceremony, and the spell notes in his hand suddenly appeared like ripples on a calm lake at that location.
Slowly, that location also enlarged on the note.
Zhao Xu knew that the ceremony was incomplete.
In fact, the ceremony does not need to be complete.
It's just that the "deep hell refining demon" has the ability to make the incomplete rituals exert their own abilities, relying on their own spirituality to make up for it.
Zhao Xu began to reconstruct the missing key link in the ceremony in his mind.
Just like after a vase broke into a dozen pieces, Zhao Xu had to rely on only half of the fragments to visualize the original intact vase.
In the process of thinking, Zhao Xu's eyes fell on the body bag that had been restrained.
Suddenly, my heart shook, and some unspeakable thoughts emerged throughout my body.
"The 'Deep Hell Fiend' must be centered here and hiding around. This killing scene is the center of the ritual."
Zhao Xu asserted on the spot.
At this time, Leian also looked at him with a somewhat incredulous expression.
Could this kid have read similar cases before and deliberately pretended to deceive him
However, Leian immediately denied his guess.
Those files are still hidden in the Rose Cross Library.
At this moment, Lei An couldn't help but look at Zhao Xu seriously.
(End of chapter)