"It's no use, Westcott," said Mathers as if he could not hold back any longer. "Magicians are not the type of person who will be accepted by the masses. And yet we continue to leave our mark on history. This is a path we all travel down, is it not? Westcott, your behavior actually proves that that young Aleister Crowley here is walking down the Golden path just like we once did."
"Are you suggesting someone who showed no sign of understanding the arrangement of our GD tarot can skip straight past visions and accomplish a summoning using a Telesma-level ceremony? Mathers, if we want to avoid losing this promising young man, we should put a stop to this ceremony right this instant. Or barring that, we should at least prepare an exorcising sword in preparation for when he inevitably loses control of the dark forces."
"Oh, don't be so sure. If he was someone of such common talents, do you think an eccentric on my level would fall for him and work to win him over to my side?"
The conversation came to a stop.
That was due to the explosion-like roar that came from the floor.
It was invisible, but something like a powerful mass of wind raged around them.
Westcott was of course the one whose eyes widened.
"You fool!! I told you he would lose control of the dark forces!"
Westcott quickly pulled away the tablecloth that bore the magic circle drawn in pigeon's blood, but the same pattern had been scorched onto the ceremonial ground's floor. It was inorganic, but it had such persistence. It was like something invisible had stuck its hand through the gap of a partially opened door and was trying to force it the rest of the way open.
"Help me with this, Mathers. We need to buy enough time to contact Blythe Road and have them bring over the treasure!!"
"No, not yet!! Ha ha!! This is where things get interesting!!"
Mathers spread his arms wide as if to welcome it.
Then something changed.
The wind did not calm down, but it gained clear directionality. It wrapped around in a fierce whirlwind as if to contain itself within the magic circle scorched onto the floor. Thanks to that, it maintained the intensity of its power, but it was compact and stable. A formless being was held within the circle and trapped like a fairy tale demon. The stage was set and it would have to answer any of the magic user's commands.
It was like a gas light that could only burn within its glass container and would be snuffed out at the turn of the knob.
"What…? What happened!? He had clearly lost control!!"
"You're looking at this in the old way, Westcott. You seem to view the world as 10 spheres plus the invisible Da'at connected by 22 lines, but that Sephiroth is but one side of the world. Aleister Crowley here has recalculated the world using the completely opposite tree."
"The Qliphoth…? You mean the upside-down tree with a demon's name engraved in each imaginary Sephirah!?"
"With enough knowledge and consideration, negative power can be changed into words with which to describe the world. What you saw as a failure was the starting point of success for this youngster. You can search for the stairway up to heaven if you like, but you can also learn the formula by investigating the hole down to hell. Just as reading Dante's Divine Comedy as a bedtime story will make the children tremble in fear. You just have to put in the effort to not turn out the same yourself."
Get the hell out of here.
Dude, To Aru was ONCE decently known here in hardcore circles and that fucking died when they barely released shit of the series until later on. And no, it appearing in VS. topics here and there doesn't make it popular.
