Chapter 41 – The Ritual (II)

When the energy of Aiden and Lia reached to the sealed stone in Aiden’s forehead, the ritual finally began.

Lia, having already experimented it, knew about the dangers of realizing the ritual, and though Aiden had repeatedly assured her about the risk this time being lesser that with her, she could not completely erase her worries.

After all, in the worst case, Aiden could end disabled or dead.

Things related to the soul were delicate to such degree.

To be sincere, she didn’t agree completely with Aiden desire to realize the experiment, after all, though she survived it, she knew about the thousands of souls that failed before her.

But at the end, she knew that it was perhaps Aiden only hope.

She didn’t have the heart to stop it.

The only thing she can do, is to make sure that everything goes in the best possible direction and that the level of risk is the least possible.

But even with it, she decided that in the moment when she notice something wrong, she was going to stop the ritual.

No matter if Aiden didn’t agree with it.

… Or even if he ends hating her.

At the end, Aiden security is above everything for her.

Such is the size of her love for him.

I can only wish you luck, young master…

… And for fate to be in your side…

Aiden felt a slight pain in his head.

Trying to look around, he found that he was unable of sensing his body. His eyes were unable of seeing anything and around him was only darkness.

Instead worrying, Aiden was happy once he understood it. After all, it could be considered one of the more fundamental parts of the process. He knew that in this moment he was inside his “sea of consciousness”.

The sea of consciousness was also known like mind’s space, and was considered for many like one of the most fundamental parts of every being. Many people theorized that it was directly related to the soul, and that the mental strength of someone was in part responsible for the strength of the soul.

Normally, only a spirit sage is able of acceding directly to his sea of consciousness and it was impossible for someone of Aiden’s strength to do it, but the different runes inscribed around the array were responsible of making it possible. Without them, leaving alone creating an artificial spirit, he wouldn’t have been able of even making contact with the soul sealed in the stone.

Luckily, Aiden was a bit knowledgeable about runes from his studies in his past home. It, combined with the knowledge from Lia about the ritual performed in the installations of God’s Hand, was more of less enough to create the array he is currently using.

Sensing his surroundings, he was able of noticing the state of his mind’s space. Apparently, he was currently in what he supposed was his soul. It was shining with a soft white glow. In comparison, the rest of his consciousness was empty with only darkness in his surroundings.

From his knowledge, it was the normal state of the consciousness for someone below the spirit mutating stage (Spirit Sage). The only difference between individuals below this stage normally tend to be the size and glow of the ‘soul’.

Calming himself after observing his surroundings, Aiden began to prepare his mind for the next part of the ritual. According to Lia, after appearing in his sea of consciousness, the soul trapped inside the sealed stone would appear a few minutes later, and this would be the most important part of the ritual.

The procedure of the ritual could be considered simple. It only consisted of entering to the sea of consciousness, adjusting the state of the mind, assimilating with the foreign soul and eliminating any sliver of consciousness left in it, before proceeding to guide the new soul to become in a spirit.

But precisely in its simplicity was where the complexity of the ritual rest. The process of assimilating another soul was very delicate, where a simple mistake was enough to cause irreparable damage. Many of the runes drawn in the ground and Aiden body had the purpose of easing the process, but even with it, the dangers were enough to scare even the most courageous warrior.

Fortunately, like Aiden thought, his soul was pretty strong compared with many people in his age and cultivation level. The many situations experimented in his childhood were enough to grant him a determination stronger than his peers.

Though even with it, he must be careful of no making a mistake.

When his mind was prepared for the next part of the ritual, Aiden felt a disturbance in a corner of the mind space. Trying sensing for the origin of it, he was able of detecting a strange cloud of mist appearing inside him.

The cloud was smaller than the white glow that represented him, though it looked more condensed and a certain ferocity surrounded it. Different from Aiden, the cloud was shining dimly, like a candle about be extinguished, giving the impression that the strength inside of it was slowly waning.

Observing more carefully, Aiden noticed the faint figure of a tiger inside the cloud of mist. It was the remaining consciousness inside the sealed soul. According to Aiden investigations, the soul inside the stone belonged at a demonic beast known like Sabretooth Tiger. This kind of demonic beasts have cultivations at the peak of spirit awakening at most, and there are not records of any member of such species breaking through the bloodline shackles.

However, compared to normal sabretooth tigers, the strength of the one inside the stone was something weak, at around of the initial stages of core-fusing. Aiden speculated that the reason of it was because the “seed of calamity” absorbed great part of the energy inside it.

But such situation made it easier for Aiden to assimilate the soul. After all, compared with a soul at the peak of Spirit Awakening, a soul at the initial core-fusing was surely many times weaker.

Sensing the soul wandering around his mind space, Aiden resolved himself to begin with the second part of the ritual. After all, the demonic cores supplying energy at the ritual were only enough to support it for around six hours, and he wasn’t sure about the amount of time necessary in the process of fusion.

Closing to the foreign soul, Aiden tried sending a tendril of his own soul to connect with it following Lia instructions. The sliver of Aiden’s soul extended slowly towards the cloud of mist. Strangely, different from Lia words, it didn’t show any extreme reaction against Aiden when they connected.

Aiden slowly brought the cloud of mist near his own soul, then, using the tendril of his soul, he began to attack the faint tiger shadow inside the mist.

The attack was very awkward, showing the lack of familiarity of Aiden with everything related to the soul, but even so, it was enough to cause damage.

This time, the cloud had a reaction. But contrary to Lia words, the cloud of mist didn’t try retaliate. In the contrary, it only did a futile effort to defend against the invasion of the tendril without success. Aiden concluded that the reason was probably due the seed of calamity consuming too much of the energy present in the sealed soul, benefiting him at the end.

For an hour, Aiden attacked while the cloud of mist defended with all its strength. But finally, due to the difference in their strengths, Aiden was able of erasing the last sliver of consciousness hidden inside the soul successfully.

Joyful, he began the process of assimilating the two souls together. Following Lia advise, he used his own soul like the main body and tried making the second soul the support of it. Like it, the process continued for almost four hours.

After all that time, Aiden finally felt the two souls fusing completely. Aiden knew that this part was the last step in the ritual. He must leave a mark inside the tiger soul, so it can be recognized like his.

But in the moment when he moved his consciousness towards the cloud of mist, something happened.

The silhouette of the tiger that disappeared before, appeared again this time even more lifelike, and without giving to Aiden a opportunity to react, attacked him.