Chapter 40 – The Ritual (I)

The night passed silently in Aiden and Lia house.

When the first ray of the sun appeared, both of them unexpectedly found that they fell asleep in each other hands.

With a blushing face, Lia stood from Aiden thigs and went running towards the house. She only left a few words behind indicating that she was going to prepare everything.

Aiden smiled wryly noticing it, then, stretching his body to alleviate the pain in his legs caused by their sleeping position, he washed his face with a bit of water and stood in the courtyard.

Searching for his saber, he took it and looked fixedly, then, after thinking for a moment, he decided to practice for a bit with it.

Putting all the strength of his body in wielding the saber, Aiden dedicated all his concentration in his saber movements, trying to forget completely about his surroundings.

Different from his last few practices with the saber, Aiden didn’t try reaching to saber manifestation this time. Instead, he tried using the saber moves to forget about all the nervousness, excitement and fear in his mind caused by the ritual scheduled for today.

After half an hour practicing, Aiden feel his mind completely refreshed. Apparently, the practice with the saber was very helpful to calm him.

Aiden looked towards the saber that accompanied him for a long time and smiled while caressing its blade. Then, leaving out a heavy sigh, he sheathed it.

Washing his face once again, he turned towards the house after finishing his practice. Inside, he walked until the kitchen only to find a plate of food in the table together with a note from Lia, indicating that she also prepared the bath and was currently finishing preparing all the thing necessaries for the ritual.

Aiden smiled gratefully reading the note, then, while thinking about how good of a girl Lia was, he proceeded to eat the food with a small smile.

After eating breakfast, Aiden only waited for a second before walking towards the bath that Lia prepared. Then, taking off all his clothes, he entered to the bathtub and let his body relax.

The ritual was scheduled to begin before noon, around ten or eleven in the morning. Aiden decided to take advantage of the time until then to get his mind in the best condition possible.

Relaxing his body, Aiden closed his eyes inside the bathtub at the point where he was almost asleep, but after exactly half an hour, he opened them and stood up from the tub without hesitation.

Using a towel to wipe the water from his body, Aiden walked towards a basket laying in the ground and took a pair of trousers from there.

Putting them in his body, Aiden stretched his body once more and walked again towards the courtyard. Then, sitting in the ground, he crossed his legs to meditate.

Not using anything in his upper body, Aiden kept his state of meditation for a bit more of an hour. Then, feeling that his mental state was in the best possible condition, he stood up and walked inside after leaving behind a soft sigh.

With calm steps, he walked towards the same room where the procedure to open Lia’s meridians was realized. Then, after a bit of hesitation, he sighed again and entered after making his mind.

Once inside, he was able of noticing that the state of the room was different that when Lia opened his meridians. Almost everything the things in the room were gone. Only a small table was left standing in a corner.

A strange symbol was draw in the ground. The symbol consisted of six small circles interconnected with each other. Each circle was connected to the others through lines drawn in the ground. The lines were drawn with the blood of some beast, and it formed a hexagon with a grim appearance.

The core of demonic beasts was laying in the center of every circle, fulfilling the function of supplying with energy the array, and in the center of the array was square also draw with blood.

Some strange symbols were also drawn in the surroundings of the array. A normal people would have been unable of understating their meaning, but Aiden knew that most of them were related to energy and consciousness and were a very important component of the ritual.

Lia was crouched with a brush in her hand, making some adjustments to the array and confirming that everything was alright.

Hearing the steps coming from the entrance of the room, Lia raised her face and looked only to see Aiden entering with only a pair of trousers covering him. Blushing slightly, she gazed his well-toned body and spoke with a stutter.

“Y-Young master wait for a moment, I’m just about end here.”

Aiden nodded in silence and sat crosslegged in the ground. Then, calming his breath, he closed his eyes and began to meditate again.

Lia sighed looking it, but understating the reason of Aiden’s behavior, she reminded herself to concentrate and continued revising the drawing in the ground.

After a few minutes, she finally finished with her work. Then, standing up, she looked towards Aiden and awoke him from meditation.

“Young master, I already finished here.”

“Hmm.”

Opening his eyes, Aiden looked towards the different symbols draw in the ground, then, he stood and walked towards the center.

Lia went towards the table in a corner of the room. There, she took a bowl filled with medicinal paste and walked towards Aiden, then, reaching to him, she spoke with an unnoticeable blush.

“Young master, I’m going to begin.”

With only a nod, Aiden expressed that he was prepared. Lia, different from Aiden, could not stop the blush of expanding until her ears seeing his body. Calming her mind with a breath, she used the brush to move the medicinal paste in the bowl. Then, with a deep breath, she began to draw some lines and symbols in the upper body of Aiden.

Only after a few minutes, Aiden chest, arms and face were full of different drawings of many strange forms. Lia, after confirming that everything was done, stopped the brush and signaled to Aiden to begin.

Aiden opened his eyes and took a deep breath. Then, with a calm and resolute expression, he lied with the back in the ground and his head resting in the square drawn in the center of the array.

“Young master, you must be careful.”

With a worried face, Lia took the sealed soul from the pouch in the table and spoke to Aiden. He, with a serious expression, nodded strongly and closed his eyes.

Lia put the sealed stone in Aiden’s forehead, then, with a very worried expression, she moved her energy and activated it.

At the same time, Aiden moved all the energy in his body and guided it towards his forehead.

Now, there are no more way back.

Today, was the day when he was going to change his destiny.