Melissa glanced nervously around the room, her mother giving her an encouraging smile. She took a deep breath, steeling herself. She started chanting words of power, her magic flowing into the magic circle, and it expanded from the center of the circle toward the edge. The runes started to glow one after the other as her mana flowed out toward the edges of the circles where Simon, Nessyra, Riseth, and Alistair stood. Alistair felt the draw of the circle and let his mana flow out of his body in a controlled manner as his body initially resisted the ritual's attempt to feed on his mana. A cold-biting aura with a taste of ozone started to fill the room. The cold emanated from the center of the circle, where his sister shivered under the biting cold but maintained her chant with slightly clattering teeth.

The Clan had spent a lot of time searching for as high-tier materials as they could, and Melissa had refined them in a lengthy process, priming them to increase their quality as much as possible. One after the other, the treasures, like ice crystals and ice cores, started to glow and disintegrate before their eyes, turning into what Alistair recognized as essences. Both he and Riseth exchanged glances and stopped their breathing techniques so as not to interfere with the essences within the circle.

As the ritual progressed, she eventually finished her chant. The room turned cold and was filled with a white fog with swirling flakes of snow obscuring everyone's vision slightly. Being part of the circle, Alistair could still see his sister clearly despite the snow. The magic in the circle flowed like a river towards her. The floor around her froze, and as he watched, Melissa's skin turned deathly pale, and her straight, long blond hair turned progressively white from the root as the essences continued to imbue themselves into her body. She grimaced as her body changed both internally and externally. She visibly grew slightly in height, and her ears grew slightly elongated and pointed, not dissimilar to some of the half-elves he had seen. Alistair observed the process with keen interest, but he wasn't the only one, as everyone observed as best they could in the snowstorm, not only the changes to her body but also the flow of magic. Eventually, magic slowly ran its course, and Alistair felt the demand for his mana lessen. Her visual transformations had stopped, and Alistair could sense and see that the ritual had been a success. Melissa let out a breath that contained visible cold before opening her eyes and smiling at everyone present.

"It worked. I am officially an Ice Witch," She said with a slightly shaky voice.

Her mother rushed to her side, hugging her. Now noticeably smaller than her daughter, she had previously been the same size. He could see Melissa's nervousness flow out of her body as she returned the hug.

"Your body is so cold," Juliana commented, stepping back to examine her daughter more closely.

Melissa chuckled as she studied herself in the mirror summoned by Alistair. "This hair color will take some time to get used to, but at least it doesn't make me look old," she remarked, running her fingers through her hair.

"Let it go," Alistair hummed playfully. His sister's eyes widened in realization before she shot him a glare. "Don't you dare!" she snapped, eliciting laughter from the others as their mother facepalmed, even with her low pop cultural literacy understanding of the reference.

Simon struggled to stifle his laughter while Riseth and Nessyra both exchanged puzzled glances. Alistair refrained from explaining as his sister narrowed her eyes at him with a warning glare.

"What? You were such a big fan when you were little," Alistair defended himself.

"You waited for me to commit before making that joke, didn't you?" She accused, her tone a mix of amusement and exasperation.

"I plead the Fifth," Alistair retorted.

"We are not even American!" Melissa quipped back.

They continued to joke back and forth until the earlier tension was long forgotten. Eventually, they made their way to the second ritual circle with a similar setup. Still, this time, the materials had been exchanged for a wild mixture of different space-related treasures and cores. It had taken them quite a bit longer to obtain many of those. Alistair almost lamented the loss of some of the treasures as they had provided him with useful essences like teleportation and Space. However, improving his family's growth and potential was more than worth the sacrifice in his book.

His mother initiated the ritual with her chant. However, Alistair immediately noticed the difference as her words of power were much different and lacked the cold undertone, which made them feel almost inspiring. Alistair could feel the draw again and let his magic flow, and as soon as he did, the room grew dark, all light being extinguished. Alistair felt the void treasures disintegrate and fill the room first. He could still see due to his conceptual awareness but suspected most others were struggling as he heard them whispering all around him.

Within the circle, the runes lit up one after the other, providing sparse lighting to the room before the treasures within started to disintegrate, and the room was plunged into the darkness of the void again. After a brief moment, the darkness itself seemed to transform, giving rise to celestial phenomena that danced around his mother. Stars, nebulas, suns, moons, and other more astral phenomena enveloped her body. Though the magic surrounding her illuminated the room, its brilliance obscured the details of her transformation as the concepts were slowly absorbed into her body. As the glow died down and the light returned, Alistair got his first good look at his mother.

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The first and most striking feature were her eyes. Her former grey eyes had taken on the looks of a nebula filled with stars that subtly changed into complementary colors. The longer he observed, the more stunning they looked to behold. Much like her daughter, her ears had grown slightly pointed, but her height and hair color stayed the same blond, though Alistair could swear he could see her hair occasionally glitter when she moved. Her skin had slightly darkened but could be likened to a tan.

"What with that look? Is there something with my face?" She asked, slightly worried.

Alistair caught himself and re-summoned the mirror as his mother approached him.

"Sorry, no. Your eyes caught me off guard. They look stunning," his mother initially frowned before she looked into the mirror, inspecting herself as the others approached to take a closer look as well.

"I liked the old color, but this looks good, too, I suppose," she said hesitantly before getting really close to inspect them more closely.

Eventually, she ran her fingers through her hair, noticing the glitter as well. The next thing she noticed were the faint celestial markings along her collarbone and hands. Interestingly, they were very similar to some of Alistair's markings.

"Mom, did you become a Celestial witch or something else?" James eventually asked as his mother kept finding small changes.

"Oh, yes, sorry. Everything feels so new and strange. I barely recognize myself," she replied, her thoughts deep in contemplation as she examined her transformed self.

"But there's something odd. I feel more connected to everything. It's like I can almost sense everything around me. It feels... awkward," his mother added, her expression reflecting the perplexity of her newfound sensations.

Alistair realized what she was struggling with and gave her some of his insight. "Your affinity for space was already high; with your evolution, it is even more so. Space is all around us. You will probably want to create a detection skill to make it feel less awkward and more instinctual and controlled."

"I sometimes feel the same when I get hit by kinetic energy. It's a deeply familiar feeling, and you should be able to exert incredible control over it." He added after a short pause.

His mother looked at him thoughtfully before closing her eyes while standing perfectly still. Alistair could feel the space around them be filled with his mother's mana, not even flowing out of her body but just appearing all around them. Alistair stepped to the side and waved his hands as the rest of the group observed.

"I can actually feel that now." His mother said as she visibly concentrated.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" James asked as he lifted three fingers.

After a short pause, she answered, " Three; I think it could be four. It's a bit fuzzy and hard to make out."

Alistair recognized it as not just a good perception ability but also a great scouting ability and made sure to encourage her to develop it. He could also see how it would be a great additional layer for automated defensive skills as this ability could add another layer of external senses. He would even look into obtaining the skill himself later. Alistair turned to face his sister, who had observed the exchange with some interest. Her breath occasionally leaked out cold air with a slight fog. He presumed that it was a lack of control and that she would be able to rein it in once she improved the stat and got accustomed to her new body.

"I presume you got similar insights from your racial evolution?" Alistair asked his sister.

"Yes, but I don't feel connected to the space around me. It's more like receiving innate knowledge, like when I first picked up a skill at the initiation," she replied, which garnered a more understanding reaction from everyone in the room who had experienced it.

Nessyra clapped her hands to get everyone's attention. "We should all get some rest. Tomorrow is a big day, and we don't know when we'll be able to rest again," she announced.

Her words were the signal for most to leave and rest, as most of them had been working hard and skipping out on sleep. After advancing his grade and becoming a Nephilim, he needed even less sleep, and stress did not build up nearly as fast. Alistair had confided in Nessyra and Riseth, who had a similar experience to him. He decided to continue working on the augmentation of his kinetic storage ribs.

It had become a much more delicate issue than he had imagined, and he had to cleanse much of his work and start over. With the advancement of his Grade, his body could now take on more layers of essences. His first attempt had led to his ribs exploding in his chest after taking on too much kinetic energy and failing to regulate itself. After recovering, he noticed that he had made some mistakes during the intricate molding process. Learning from mistakes had helped him greatly to advance his understanding of body cultivation and molding and refinement processes. During the incident, he found out that his blood was now silver, not red anymore, which had shocked him initially. He had joked how Chinese censors would love what he had going on. However, it had done little to calm down Riseth, who demanded that all body modifications had to be tested thoroughly before they went out adventuring. Riseth had a similar issue when she first tried to mold her skin with ethereal essences.

Riseth had attempted to let a test swing from Alistair pass through her body. It had worked, but Alistair's poleaxe had been wrapped in her armor after the attack, leaving her standing naked in front of him. It had been a great learning experience as she had worked to refine essences into her armor, not just her weapons, using Alistair's experience and the manuals provided by her second topic as a base. His own technique was still a bit flawed but had been less noticeable as his body did not turn ethereal. They would use the rest of the day to see if they could make their respective skills click into place.