Chapter 42 – The Ritual (III)

As the old man of Heavens’ Net said, Aiden and Lia were truly naïve.

After all, how can it to be possible for a pair of youngsters, no matter how genius they are, to surpass an entire organization composite from the most brilliant minds in all the world?

Though the ideas of Aiden and the knowledge of Lia were fabulous, it was far from enough to do something that the many genius in God’s Hand were unable to do.

How could it to be possible for the members of God’s Hand not to think about reducing the strength of the beast soul or adding a few runes to control the fusion with the soul?

The truth is, among the thousands of failed experiments of the organization, many of them touched upon such topics.

So, for Aiden and Lia to attempt an experiment to use a demonic beast soul like mold for a spirit was simply the product of their excessive overconfidence, or perhaps, they underestimating the difficulty of creating a spirit from zero.

Even worse, the ritual they were attempting was in itself mistaken, and it was almost impossible for it to create a spirit.

Yes, the second soul inside Lia, at the end, was not a spirit.

For that reason, when something went wrong in the ritual, instead of something unexpected, it could better to be described like the product of a pair of children playing with something way beyond them.

Aiden felt a terrible pain in the moment when the soul of the sabretooth tiger attacked him.

The pain was almost enough to make him unconscious. If it was not because he experienced something even worse when his spirit was pulled from him, then he probably would have passed out immediately after the beast attacked.

But fortunately, the pain that Aiden endured that time allowed him to maintain his mind clear. Not just it, from that unfortunate day, Aiden mental strength had augmented exponentially. Aiden mental strength was many times greater that someone of his age and cultivation realm for now.

Thanks to it, when the beast attacked, he wasn’t completely helpless.

But it didn’t make the situation better though.

When the beast soul saw that its attack wasn’t enough to end its enemy, it didn’t doubt before attacking again. Aiden, completely defenseless, could only try to move the tendrils of his soul to defend awkwardly, but it was far from enough to defend against the attack.

Feeling the pain attacking his mind once again, Aiden howled tragically and did his utmost to resist the voice inside him wishing for rest.

Instead, he tried search for some method to retaliate. In his desperation, he tried moving the tendrils of his soul to attack like before, only to fail to cause significant damage.

Scared, Aiden could only wish for his soul to retreat, but at the end, the cloud of mist was waiting for this opportunity for too long. How can be possible for it to waste it?

Pouncing again against Aiden, the soul of the sabretooth tiger opened his mouth intent in causing a lethal injury. Aiden, seeing the death before him, tried retaliate with all his strength, and ordered the tendrils to attack.

The beast, conscious of the tendrils lack of power, thought of ignoring it like before and end its prey once and for all.

But unexpectedly, the tendrils this time were able to injure it.

A sliver of saber intent surrounded the tendrils of souls and attacked against the tiger. The beast soul, caught unprepared, was cut by the sharp saber energy present in Aiden soul.

With an expression of pain, both the beast and Aiden made surprised expression seeing the situation, finding it unexpected the nature of the change.

But immediately, the expression of Aiden changed at one of excitement and the beast’s changed to caution.

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Moving slowly, the tiger inside the cloud of mist rested his gaze against Aiden while Aiden tried filling his soul with saber intent. The stalemate continued for a few seconds, until when the beast was unable to wait any more and attacked again.

Aiden, seeing the coming attack, moved the tendrils to attack using the saber intent present in his soul and moved too.

This time, the saber intent contained in the tendrils was even greater that before, but the beast, already prepared, was able to avoid or stop them with ease. For a time, the pair of human and beast continued their fierce fight inside Aiden sea of consciousness.

But at the end, the beast soul was an existence with greater strength and experience inside a soul realm.

Even though Aiden was somehow able of retaliating using the saber intent in his soul, bit to bit, he was being injured.

And at the rate the things were going, even if he didn’t finish devoured for the beast, it would be impossible for him retain his complete mental faculties.

…

“AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

“Young Master!!!”

When Aiden cried for the first time, Lia immediately knew that something was wrong.

Looking the situation, she immediately comprehended the cause. Probably, the soul of the beast was trying to take possession of Aiden body.

Something like it was pretty common in the ritual. After all, it’s normal for any being to struggle knowing that it was going to be devoured.

But for the soul of a beast in the core-fusing stage, Lia thought that the recoil was too great.

After all, you must know that she fused with the soul of a demonic king when her mental strength was many times lesser than Aiden.

What Lia didn’t know was that, though the soul she fused was stronger than Aiden’s, it practically had its consciousness completely erased for the members of God’s Hand before the experiment. If it wasn’t because it was necessary for the soul to be “alive” before the fusion, they probably would have erased any trace of consciousness beforehand.

But even with it, Lia ended with two consciousness inside her soul, unable of eliminating the other completely.

If it wasn’t because the soul of the beast had a great compatibility with her, she probably would have died during the experiment, like all the other unfortunate children.

Aiden, for his part, was facing a beast soul in relatively perfect condition, and one that wasn’t close to being compatible with him. To be sincere, an act like that was nothing short of suicide.

Lia, noticing that Aiden’s situation was worsening, tried stopping the ritual immediately, but unexpectedly, in the moment when she came close to the array, an immense force repulsed her preventing her from interfering.

Apparently, the demonic beast knew what was happening and was smart enough to create countermeasures for the ones outside the array.

And though such barrier would have been unable of stopping a truly strong spirit user, it was more than enough for Lia.

“AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

“Young Master!!!” Shouted Lia again, seeing the pain intensifying in Aiden’s face. This time, traces of red began to appear in her eyes. Apparently, her second soul was prepared to act in the moment when Lia completely loses the control over her emotions.

“ARRRRRRGGGGGG!!!”

Aiden continued crying, his body convulsing. With the constantly worsening fight in the sea of consciousness, the expressions of pain in his face were more and more devastating.

“Young master!!!”

Lia released the threads from her sleeve. Filling them with all the energy possible for her, Lia used them to attack against the force separating her from Aiden. But lamentably, the nature of her powers wasn’t suited to frontal attacks.

At the end, she was unable of more than wasting a bit of the energy in the demonic beasts’ cores.

The expression in Lia’s face became darker and darker with every passing second; and Aiden body was convulsing terribly, apparently because his mind was already at the border of collapsing.

Traces of different colors began to appear in Lia’s hair, and her eyes began to take a bloody red color. She could hear strange whispers inside her mind, inciting her to lose the control. The growing despair because her incapability made something inside her restless.

But when she was about let “it” loose, something happened.

From Aiden pouch, the amulet that they found together with the sealed soul began to glow with a beautiful white. As if being attracted to something, it escaped for itself from the spatial equipment and floated in the air.

Immediately, a soothing energy filled the room. Lia felt the growing whispers in her mind becoming silent, as if afraid of something, and the pain present in Aiden face reduced considerably.

Then, with a warm glow, the amulet flew towards Aiden at an incredible speed before inserting itself in his chest, leaving a strange mark in it.

Immediately, a roar of unwillingness resounded and Lia seemingly saw the phantom of a frightened tiger being disintegrated for some strange force.

Then, calm returned to the face of Aiden.

The cloud of mist in his mind disintegrated completely, before fusing inside his soul and healing all the wounds left from the battle.

At the same time, the amulet sent a sliver of energy inside his soul, strengthening it greatly at a level where anyone would consider frightening.

After it, everything ended.

The glow faded completely from the amulet, leaving only the strange mark in Aiden’s chest.

Feeling the soothing sensation in his soul, he was unable of maintaining himself awake anymore. At the end, only a thought went through his mind.

So, at the end, I failed huh.

Then, everything darkened.

Lia, seeing it, sighed in relief; the strange changes in her body disappearing bit to bit.

Walking towards Aiden, she touched his face gently before carrying his body slowly in her arms.

Then, without worrying about the results of the ritual, she carried him towards his room.

And until the end, neither of them knew about the existence seeing the events of the room from a place far, far away.