Chapter 924 924. Ritual
A huge, ethereal snake formed at the center of the formation, and it began to struggle as soon as it realized that it could move.
Invisible boundaries kept the Snake"s will confined inside the lines of the formation, but they wouldn"t hold for long if Noah let it act freely.
Thirty-seven had taken inspiration from the work with the living weapons to create that version of the Body-inscription spell. Still, he couldn"t focus on the st.u.r.diness of the formation since it had multiple features that were absent in the original ability.
After all, there was no Beast Core at that time. Noah would need to link that will with the body made of higher energy directly inside the formation if he wanted to meet the requirements necessary for the creation of a tattoo.
That was an essential procedure to create a connection between the Blood Companion and Noah"s mind. Thirty-seven had to sacrifice the st.u.r.diness of his formation to add those features.
Noah looked at the struggling will and summoned a series of ethereal swords that pierced the Snake multiple times and forced it to calm down. However, he could still see an intense hatred in its eyes.
Thirty-seven"s version of the spell didn"t require a complete subjugation to work. The main issue was that Noah wouldn"t use the blood of the creature during the ritual, so there had to be some collaboration in the procedure.
Of course, Noah could keep attacking the will until almost nothing of the Snake was left, but that would only hurt the final product. The will would have lost most of its instincts by that point, making it unsuitable for controlling the new body.
Noah spread his consciousness inside the formation and tried to use his pride to make the will comply with his needs. Yet, the Albino Snake had been a creature at the peak of the fifth rank. Noah"s dignity as a beast wasn"t enough to make it kneel.
The will soon started to struggle to break free again, and Noah felt forced to unleash another series of ethereal swords to calm it down.
It soon became evident that a normal display of power wouldn"t work since the Snake began to throw itself at the invisible barriers after a few instants.
With his pride and experience in mental battles being useless, Noah felt that he had only one approach that could convince the Snake to follow through the ritual without turning it into nothing more than dense mental energy.
Noah focused on his ambition and released a roar at the sky that expressed all his desire to cultivate.
The air became tense after his roar, but the Snake became interested in the intense emotion that Noah had shown. All of a sudden, Noah had become interesting in the eyes of the will.
"I will reach the stars," Noah said with words mixed with roars when he saw that the will was looking at him. "You can decide whether to disperse or follow me."
There was a limit to how much the will understood of his words. Its focus was on the meaning carried by the roars and on the captivating ambition that Noah was capable of releasing.
Magical beasts didn"t ponder about their existence in their lives. They just followed their instincts and grew more potent as a natural consequence of their hunger.
They had never felt the ambition to reach higher stages. They had never dreamt about the higher ranks in the same way as the cultivators.
The Snake could only wander in the intense ambition that Noah"s consciousness carried. It was an addicting feeling. It was as if the will had finally found a meaning behind the countless hunts to appease its hunger.
It must be said that the Snake could only relate to Noah"s consciousness because he was a hybrid. His thoughts and emotions carried aspects that magical beasts could understand.
There was no explicit agreement. At some point, the formation sensed the Snake"s willingness to follow Noah, and its lines shone with a brighter light.
That was a signal for Noah. It meant that the ritual was ready to enter the last phase.
Noah stepped inside the formation and took out the condensed body that he had built in the separate dimension. The black orb started to float inside the light, and a gentle pressure pushed both the dark matter and the will toward Noah.
The orb and the will fused while they converged toward Noah"s chest. The ghostly figure of the Snake disappeared when it entered the ma.s.s of dark matter, but even that vanished once it reached his skin.
Noah suddenly felt pressure coming from the inside of his mental sphere. His focus immediately went over the sea, where he saw that the ghostly figure of the Albino Snake was slowly forming next to the Kesier Runes.
A connection formed too. It wasn"t a link as intense as that with the Demonic Sword, but he could feel part of the Snake"s instincts and feelings through it.
After all, the Snake was technically alive. Its will had only suffered some slight damage. Its new body lived too, even if it belonged to a new species made by unique materials.
Noah could sense its confusion now, but that was a normal reaction to its new body. The Snake used to have a light apt.i.tude too, so the contrast that it felt was even more significant than expected.
A sharp pain began to spread from his chest as the will became used to the new body. Black lines started to form on his skin and take the shape of a snake as the two completed their fusion.
The drawing didn"t stop there though. A pair of large and feathered wings soon appeared on its back, and two claws formed on its sides.
Even someone with only basic knowledge in the magical beasts" field would notice that something was off about that drawing. The snake depicted on Noah"s chest seemed to have features that belonged to multiple magical creatures rather than on a single species.
A couple of curved horns appeared on the sides of its head too before the light of the formation vanished.
Noah couldn"t help but smile when he felt a familiar pressure inside his mind. It had been a long time since he last had a Blood Companion, and sensing its presence was rea.s.suring.
The lines of the formation retracted inside the piece of leather, and Noah stored it before standing up and a.n.a.lyzing his new tattoo.
His body wasn"t bleeding, but it still needed some care. However, Noah could only think about testing his new Blood Companion now.
"Let"s see," Noah thought as he focused on his connection with the Snake. "I guess I"ll go with Snore. It"s a fitting name."
A deep hiss resounded in the area when Noah thought that, and dense black smoke came out of his chest to take the form of a ma.s.sive figure.
A more than one hundred meters long, winged snake formed right in front of him and turned to give an annoyed glance at its Master.