Luca thought about Noctiel for a few more minutes, but he couldn't glean anything at all from the information he had.
Right now, all he knew was that Noctiel was the one who orchestrated the whole demon summoning to encourage the Count, which also meant he had some relationship with the demon known as Pestewind.
The greatest evidence for that was the fact that the Count said Noctiel's face was constantly covered in miasma and shadows, which was exactly like Pestewind.
He would have acted if he knew any more information.
"I need some spells from the school of Astromancy," he muttered in vague realization.
In fact, he needed many more spells. Luckily for him, the Count seemed to have solved that problem for him.
The journal contained five spell models in total. It wasn't a particularly huge amount, but it was large for Initiate standards. Even with that, Luca held the lingering suspicion that Count D'Escoli hadn't recorded everything in his journal.
The spells went as follows:
Lightning Whip — 0 Degree Elemental Spell — 2-star
Casting Catalysts: Stormglass
Carrion Stag — 0 Degree Summoning-Necromancy Spell — 3-star
Casting Catalysts: A shard of stag's antler
Starpath Eyes — 0 Degree Divination Spell — 5-star
Casting Catalysts: Starmetal dust, caster's blood
Astral Pressure — 0 Degree Astromancy Spell — 9-star
Casting Catalysts: Sky Tyrant's feather
Rust Hand — 0 Degree Alchemy Spell — 3-star
Casting Catalysts: A vial of rust
****
The spells were everything he needed in his arsenal at the moment.
Each one only needed one or two catalysts to be used, unlike the spells he got from Crowley's textbook. This only supported his theory that Crowley had put those outdated spell models in there intentionally.
Lightning Whip was self-explanatory, as it allowed him to create a whip made of lightning. It would add another element to his already fierce attack capabilities.
The next was Carrion Stag, which was apparently a hybrid Summoning-Necromancy spell.
Crowley's book didn't mention Necromancy at all, but Luca had heard of it. There was probably no citizen of the Empire who hadn't heard what Necromancy was. It was the act of tampering with the dead and trying to fight death, which was considered a capital offense by the Church.
Carrion Stag summoned a skeletal stag, which could attack opponents.
Oddly enough, he didn't find the idea of necromancy very alarming compared to demon summoning.
The difference was that he would have control of the beings he brought back to life, while demons were unpredictable and harder to control, which he didn't like.
The next was called Starpath Eyes, which was rather unique. It was similar to the Scry spell since they were both Divination spells. The Starpath Eyes would allow the user's eyes to see the future somewhat.
"It's not actually seeing the future, but seeing all the possible paths the future can be."
Luca instantly decided that this spell was one of the first he would try. He'd been at a major disadvantage, especially since he didn't have any Divination spells yet.
'It would be ideal if I could use Starpath Eyes to find out general conclusions, and Scry to find out specific outcomes.'
The next spell was an Astromancy spell, which allowed him to call upon a wave of pressure that surrounded him. The wave could be done in short bursts, or it could be perpetual.
Rust Hand was the last spell on the list, and it was perhaps the easiest to cast and to understand. It simply allowed him to rust metals with a single touch.
All the spells mixed together would complement each other perfectly, and Luca could already feel a fighting style arising in his mind after seeing each.
Aside from the spell models, the journal also contained two very elaborate rituals. The first one was the one used to summon Pestewind, while the second one was similar but entirely different.
His brows furrowed a little as he stared at the instructions for the ritual, which weren't any different from rituals like the Binding Pact and the one to summon Pestewind, but it was what was being summoned here.
This was a hybrid Astromancy-Summoning ritual, and the goal? It was to summon one of the immensely powerful Astral entities known as the Astral Intelligences.
These Astral Intelligences were the spirits of the planets in Astromancy. Each planet corresponded to a different astral entity.
Anytime one cast an Astromancy spell, they were calling on the powers and positions of those beings.
The Count mentioned that he got the ritual from a wandering mage. This was around the same time he started getting desperate for a means to advance into the next rank. Luca still wasn't sure what it meant to break through. The Count mentioned a barrier, but that could mean anything.
Count Marvin was trying to summon the Astral Intelligence related to the planet Mercury, who was called Astaphaios.
"Astaphaios. Where have I heard that before?"
It was a name so unique that he wouldn't be able to forget it even if he tried. He mulled over it for a while, and soon he remembered.
During his awakening, there were voices that whispered constantly in his ears. They started as single voices until they overlapped and became more or less just yells that nearly drove him to the brink of madness.
And one of those names was Astaphaios, the spirit of Mercury and the Keeper of Secrets.
"Mercury again."
Crowley's words flashed by his memory instantly.
"Child born under the star of Mercury."
That was Luca. And here he was, seeing Mercury again.
Everything seemed to be connected, constantly converging in on each other. However, this only steeled Luca's resolve to learn more about magic and gain power.
"In any case…" he muttered, trailing his fingers against the sophisticated strokes of ink, "It seems like the ritual obviously failed. You can't call upon the Astral beings the same way as demons. They don't seem to respond."
Still, his eyes lingered on the ritual for a bit longer. He grabbed his quill and wrote it on his own piece of animal-hide parchment.
The next bit of information he took note of was potion recipes. Those were actually a major part of the book. Despite all his intelligence, it was likely that the Count wasn't a talented mage, so he substituted his lack of talent by making use of potions.
There were several for speed, defense, and increased strength. And they each had multiple ingredients needed, most of which Luca had never even heard of.
It could only be described as great luck that Count D'Escoli was active in the local mage gatherings. There were about five recorded in the journal, and Luca bet he would be able to get some good stuff from there.
His lips curled into a small smirk.
"Hopefully the Count isn't doing so bad in hell."