That night, after hiring a wagon to transport the timber and the wooden racks to the foot of a leeward hill in the suburbs, Angel set up his own burner at the stake, opened the small wooden box that kept out the spirit, and carefully counted the extraordinary properties and spiritual materials inside.

Confirming that everything was correct, she looked at Crane beside her, who was holding the amethyst suspended from the gold chain in his left hand, and the chain was turning rapidly counterclockwise, indicating that the answer to his divination—that the promotion would be safely passed—was no.

Before buying wood and ordering a burner at the stake, Crane learned about the promotion ceremony of the "Witch of Pain" from Angel, and he has kept that expression ever since.

"A quick counterclockwise rotation indicates a strong negative answer, and your promotion ceremony is very dangerous, and there is a high probability of failure."

Moving his gaze from Amethyst to Angel's purple eyes, Klein said slowly.

"But now is the best time, after which we will leave the port of Plitz by boat, where it is impossible to set up a burn at the stake, and the situation at the destination of Baiam is unknown, and it may be even more dangerous there."

Angel replied with a smile, opening the wooden box he had brought, taking out the materials and utensils and starting to prepare his potion.

"Moreover, didn't you confirm the correctness of the potion recipe and the ritual itself in your previous divination? The danger is in terms of the manner of the ritual, and how can it not be dangerous to be burned by fire? ”

She carefully poured 50 ml of blood from a seriously ill patient and 30 ml of blood from a flower-faced bat into a small iron pot, allowing them to submerge the tip of the two-tailed black snake's tail inside, and finally used a dropper to add 10 drops of Blue Zhen Eucalyptus essential oil to the pot, so that the pot was filled with a strange smell of fishy smell mixed with fragrance.

Finally, she unraveled the bullet box sealed by the Spirit Wall, took out the extraordinary properties of Pain, and slid the dark green crystal from the edge of the pot into the dark red liquid.

The dark red liquid began to bubble up one after another, and soon stirred up like a boil, and the ominous dark red gradually receded, and finally the change stopped, forming a small pot of dark green, as if it had produced a moss-like stagnant water liquid.

What a weird color, did this really work...... With some hesitation, Angel pulled out a penny coin and did a simple divination himself, getting the information that the "pain" potion had been successfully configured.

Klein, who was on the side, also confirmed it with the pendulum method.

She was relieved to transfer the dark green potion to a specially purchased glass bottle that could withstand the heat, then put away the other utensils and placed them a little further away from the stake.

After doing all this, she began to take off her clothes, folded them one by one and put them on the wooden box, after all, it was not really burned at the stake, and she had to go back to the port later, and she could not burn all the clothes on her body.

Klein took out his pocket watch in his left hand and held the lantern in his right hand, looking at Angel's gradually exposed white skin, and he didn't know where to look for a while.

It wasn't until the latter took off the last of his underwear and walked slowly to the stake that he took a deep breath and followed, his gaze chasing Angel's unusually poignant silhouette in the crimson moonlight.

"Let's get started."

Angel stood on top of a rudimentary wooden frame, surrounded by dry, flammable wood, and she didn't ask Klein to help tie herself up, because according to her understanding, the purpose of the ritual was not to "burn at the stake", but to reduce the probability of losing control with the help of severe pain.

Besides, the binding is to prevent the victim from escaping, and I will not run...... She thought crankily as she watched as Crane walked over to the wooden frame, holding up the lantern, his face obscured in the shadow of his top hat.

"If you can't hold on, ......," he commanded in a low voice, but he stopped in the middle of speaking, and as extraordinary beings, both of them knew that once the ritual began, once the potion was entered, it would either be promoted or die on the spot...... Or turn into a monster without consciousness, and the latter is something Angel can't accept.

That's why she arranged the promotion ceremony in the suburbs, so as to avoid the fire from spreading to the buildings in the city, and also to allow Klein to solve the problem as soon as she gets out of control, so as not to hurt the innocent.

Under Angel's resolute gaze, Crane took a few steps back, threw the lantern on the pile of wood next to the wooden frame, and snapped his fingers, and the flame in the lamp burst into flames before it hit the ground, igniting the whale oil that had been spilled on the wood.

The crevices between the dry wood sucked up enough grease and were instantly ignited by the heat, and the thick smoke enveloped Angel standing above before the flames, obscuring her vision and darkness as far as her eyes could see.

Then, starting from the toes, the stinging pain of the flame licking quickly passed up from the legs, through the body, to the brain, Angel gritted her teeth, and took a gentle breath, the smoke accompanied by the hot air poured into the trachea, into the lungs, the strong stimulation made her cough, but because of this, she inhaled more hot air.

cough - cough -

She coughed briefly but violently, holding the rose necklace on her chest in one hand, the only magical item she was carrying at the moment, and the glass bottle containing the potion in the other, carefully holding it in the palm of her hand to prevent the liquid inside from spilling out as her body shook violently.

Are all those who are burned at the stake choked to death...... As soon as such a thought flashed through her mind, the smoke in front of her was replaced by more violent flames, and the strand of blonde hair hanging down from her bangs was instantly ignited by the high temperature, and disappeared in the face of sparks.

After that, the pain from the heat and burning suddenly spread throughout her body.

"Woo......"

Angel had just squeezed out a whimper from her lips before she swallowed it back into her stomach.

No...... Makes Klein worried......

She pursed her lips, closed her eyes, resisted the urge to summon cold ice to extinguish the flames, squatted down on the narrow wooden frame, reducing the area of contact between herself and the flames, the rose necklace on her chest tried to repair the burns on all parts of her body, especially the surface of the skin, but the fresh tissue that had just grown was swallowed by the flames in the next second, and the new lungs were scorched by the high temperature before she could catch a breath, but the strong stimulation was transmitted to Angel's brain through the nerves, leaving only one word left in her brain.

Pain!

Surrounded by flames and pain, Angel curled up tightly, estimating the time of the ceremony.

Perhaps it was the hearing loss from the heat, and the "crackling" sound of burning wood in her ears had disappeared at some point, which made Angel lose her grasp of time.

Knowing that she couldn't wait any longer, she brought the equally hot glass bottle to her lips and drank the potion in one gulp.

A cold touch flowed from her mouth into her abdomen, making her feel a little refreshed as she persisted in the flames, but the next second, the chill turned into an even more violent heat wave, which began to burn her limbs from the inside of her body.

"Boom-"

The burning stake collapsed, Angel felt light, and the sharp pain in her body suddenly disappeared, as if the previous burning was just a dream scene.

She opened her eyes in confusion, and found that the spirit had broken away from her body and floated above the fire as she had last forcibly taken an extraordinary trait promotion in the Eastern Side.

Below, all the hair was lost, and the blackened body slowly stood up from the flames, opened his eyes, and his expressionless face turned to the side and clenched his pocket watch, and Crane, who had a tense face, stretched out a hand.

The latter, with a look of surprise on his face, took a step forward, as if trying to pull Angel out of the fire, but gritted his teeth and forcibly held back.

No, that's not what I thought!

Angel in the air suddenly found that the eyes of his "body" were not purple, but rich black, as if they were being smoked in the flames.

She recalled the feeling of her last promotion, and soon regained the pain of her body's transmission to the spirit, and with the help of this heart-wrenching feeling, she quickly controlled the spirit that had gradually ascended, almost leaving the scene of the burning at the stake, and returned to the body below.

Having seized the initiative of her body, she immediately withdrew her hand that stretched out the flames, wrapped it around herself, knelt in the scorched ashes, felt the temperature of the flames that kept licking her body, and kept this pain firmly in her heart.

……

Anxiously watching the minute hand of the pocket watch reach its predetermined position, Crane quickly kicked over the bucket next to him, and the icy river water flowed onto the fire, completely extinguishing the already small flames, and the curled up and charred body in the ashes slowly fell.

With a heart-wrenching pain in his chest, he hurriedly took off his trench coat, rushed to Angel's side in two steps, carefully wrapped her, and carried out the shimmering ashes, and laid them on the clean ground beside him, with his head resting in his arms.

"Angel?"

He called softly, realizing that his voice had shifted slightly due to nervousness.

"Angel!"

Repeating it again, he became more and more panicked inside.

The person in his arms moved slowly, and with difficulty opened his eyelids, which were almost glued together, and the cloudy eyes inside gradually became clear, and the purple pupils revealed a calm, not crazy, look.

At least not the worst-case scenario...... Crane breathed a sigh of relief and gently lifted her up, allowing Angel to sit on his trench coat with his own strength.

“……”

She opened her mouth to say a word, but in an instant she frowned, stretched out the charred skin on the surface and peeled off, and the hand that gradually began to grow new tissue caressed her neck.

"It's okay, don't talk." Klein comforted Angel, whose vocal cords were damaged in the flames, took out the healing potion that had been prepared for her, and helped her drink it, speeding up the effect of the "Rose Necklace" to repair her injuries.

Under the crimson moonlight, Angel's body gradually faded away from scorched black as if by miracle, and the new skin had a hint of ruddyness, as if it could be blown away.

She also slowly regained her strength, got up from the ground on her own, moved the joints of her limbs, and felt the joy of surviving the flames and the new changes after her promotion.

"Wait...... Why is my hair so short? ”

Angel suddenly found that her long pale blonde hair, which had originally grown to her waist, had regrown under the effect of the rose necklace, but it had stopped growing at the shoulders, leaving only about one-third of its original length, and her face that had just been revealed became a little ugly.

"Isn't there going to be something wrong with this chain?"

She touched the magical item on her chest and muttered.

This sentence made Klein, who had been straining his face, also smile, he slowly hugged Angel, who survived the ceremony, felt her stiff body in his arms, and said with a smile:

"It's okay, it's cute too."

"It's okay, it's long and cute."

(End of chapter)