The One Rejected by Hell

A minute passed.

Zhang Ye did not feel any special power at all. The scene of magic overflowing everywhere that he had imagined never appeared. He even wondered whether he had mispronounced some word.

But that was impossible. He could not control those languages at all; they had been spoken entirely on instinct. There was no possibility of him "mispronouncing" them.

Five minutes passed.

Pietro and Kara stood quietly beside the altar, still looking forward to seeing Zhang Ye cast magic for the first time.

Neither of them knew much about magic, so they had no idea whether this situation was normal. Though they both found it strange, since Zhang Ye had said nothing, they could only assume it was normal for now. They just did not know how much longer it would take for the magic to be released.

Zhang Ye stood silently for quite a while. Once he confirmed that there truly was not the slightest trace of supernatural power at work nearby, he felt like an idiot. He made no unnecessary movements, merely tilting his head slowly to look at the uneasy John.

The atmosphere in the lair suddenly turned heavy, making John extremely nervous. Especially after he noticed Zhang Ye’s gaze, the unease in his heart instantly peaked.

"D-Don’t look at me! I don’t know why either!" John shrieked in terror as Zhang Ye’s gaze swept over him.

"I hope you can give me an explanation, John," Zhang Ye said evenly, making it impossible to tell what he was feeling. That only placed even greater psychological pressure on John.

"I really don’t know. This should have been impossible!" John irritably clawed at his hair, then hurried to the altar and carefully inspected every step to see if he had made a mistake somewhere.

"There’s no problem here. Everything was done according to the proper procedure. How could something like this happen? Could something have happened in the Hell Dimension? That’s impossible too. If the Lords of Hell were making any major moves, there’s no way I wouldn’t have heard about it."

The more John checked, the less he could control his trembling body. He had never imagined that such a simple sacrificial spell could fail. What he feared most now was Zhang Ye being in a bad mood and chopping him up to feed to dogs.

"Impossible… impossible."

Watching John’s nervous state, Zhang Ye frowned. A guess arose in his mind. "John, stop checking. Whether there was a mistake in the procedure or not, won’t you find out if you try it yourself?"

"Huh?!" John looked at Zhang Ye cautiously, unable to see the expression beneath his mask. "Please believe me, I absolutely had no intention of deceiving you."

"I believe you." Zhang Ye stepped down from the altar and nodded his chin toward John. "So go try it. If you fail too, then it proves there is a problem with this spell or the Hell Dimension. If you succeed, then…"

Zhang Ye did not continue, but everyone present understood what he meant.

John paused for a moment before nodding heavily. He did not know what he was feeling as he took the parchment, then walked toward the altar under the gazes of Zhang Ye and the other two, looking back with every step.

Very soon, John entered a caster’s state. As a wizard who had practiced magic for a long time, he was thoroughly familiar with the process.

Zhang Ye and the other two said nothing, merely watching John recite those illogical words. But unlike when Zhang Ye had done it, as John reached the latter half of the incantation, the candles on the altar suddenly began burning fiercely. Moreover, their flames all turned an eerie blue.

At the sight, Pietro and Kara could not help turning to look at Zhang Ye, seemingly curious why the exact same procedure had produced such completely different results.

Zhang Ye was equally helpless. Across two lifetimes, this was his first time casting the legendary magic, yet it had ended in failure. It was as if the altar itself were targeting him.

What happened afterward was exactly as everyone expected. The sacrificial spell succeeded. Using magical energy stolen from the Hell Dimension, John not only cast a levitation spell, but even cast Winds of Calamity once more.

This proved that the sacrificial spell should have worked and that no step had gone wrong. But that only made things stranger. Why had a spell that should have succeeded failed? This was magic that even a child could cast successfully.

John stood silently atop the altar, at a complete loss as he looked down at Zhang Ye. Zhang Ye did not understand, and neither did he.

It was as if…

It was as if the Hell Dimension simply would not allow Zhang Ye to steal magical power!

There was nothing wrong with the altar procedure, and nothing wrong with the incantation. That left only one possibility: the problem was Zhang Ye himself. He could not connect with the dimension of the Hell Dimension—or rather, that dimension had shut him out, making him unable even to secretly steal magical power.

With that thought, the look in John’s eyes as he watched Zhang Ye became even more fearful. He could not imagine what kind of being could make the Hell Dimension refuse to open its doors to him. This was something even some Black Wizards of ancient times had been unable to accomplish.

If John had initially only been somewhat curious about Zhang Ye and the others’ origins, he now no longer dared entertain even the slightest thought of investigating them. Such beings were far beyond what he could hope to pry into.

"So the problem is probably me, right?" Zhang Ye said helplessly. "Since it’s a sacrificial spell, the incantation should open a passage connecting to the Hell Dimension. But I couldn’t even do that, much less steal power from that dimension."

"…Most likely. Forgive my bluntness, but in all my years, I have never encountered an existence like you. The Hell Dimension has unilaterally expelled you, making it impossible for you to open that passage by any means. It is something I would never have even dared imagine." John lowered his head deeply.

Zhang Ye sighed. He did not know why this had happened. The only thing special about him was probably his identity as a transmigrator. Other than that, he could not think of any reason the Hell Dimension would reject him. After all, he had never even met those Lords of Hell.

However, Zhang Ye had not been idle. At the instant John cast the sacrificial spell and opened the passage, though it lasted less than a second, Zhang Ye had successfully left an anchor on the other side.

This was something Zhang Ye had instructed Miss Minutes to do before John began casting. It had originally been only an attempt, yet it had actually succeeded. Miss Minutes had used 6% of her battery to leave a traversable dimensional anchor in the Hell Dimension.

At that moment, John spoke again. "But I still have another way. Since the Hell Dimension rejects you, we can communicate with other dimensions. I know a friend who has a deep understanding of the Hell Dimension and other dimensions. She even signed a master-servant contract with a beholder!"

Seemingly afraid that Zhang Ye would get angry, John decided to share the risk, following the principle that it was better for someone else to die than himself. Looking at Zhang Ye and the other two, he hurriedly continued.

"I would be more than willing to take you to find her. I believe she can definitely help you master the wondrous power of magic. After all, you know, I’m a vampire. My understanding of magic is nowhere near that of a real wizard."

"Oh?" Zhang Ye’s interest was rekindled.