9 Ritual room 4.2

The bishop used every means he knew. Injecting mana, infusing mana, pouring mana on the baby's body. He even created new ones. Transferring his own mana, manipulating raw mana into the baby.

After three days with no success, he finally left the room, leaving the baby alone. "Hey, you!" Outside the room, a passing priest was suddenly called. "Yes bishop?" He knew the voice of the bishop like every priest should. "Unless I say otherwise, no one will enter this room. Go get one of the boys. I need to vent my anger on something." "Right away!" The priest ran while shouting.

After one whole week, the bishop went to the room again. It was the same as before, the headless elf and the baby on the table. If it was outside, Andro's body would be decomposed and surrounded by flies, but the bishop used a spell to separate the room from the rest of the world.

"I have contacted the pope. I must say little one, you are one out of millions. If this doesn't work, then the Saint in person will come here. Start praying for it to work, because I don't want that woman in my temple..." He stepped over Andro's body and stopped an inch away from the table.

He took a piece of paper from his white robes. It was a complex chant for a mana infusion ritual. From the looks of it, the bishop called in some favors from some old and important people to get it. The paper looked like it would crumble at any moment. He cleared his trout and stood upright.

"Ura, the great goddess of light, the most bright among the twelve, lend this sinner a little of your power so that this mortal can surpass, for just a moment, its own limitations... I beg, Ura! Please! Let this lowly one achieve a higher realm!" When he finished the chant, all the light in the room darkened little by little, and the text on the paper started glowing.

The bishop didn't even breathe in expectation. After ten minutes, the text flow from the paper to the baby. "Thank Ura! This lowly one doesn't deserve your compassion!" Forming a circle over the baby, the words started rotating midair. The bishop took three steps back.

The baby had something like a shell covering him. He had a dark grey color. With the light coming from the words, the shell started cracking. The cracking sound filled the room. The circle floating above the baby began to descend. The closer it got, the more the sound of something breaking become more evident.

The floating chant swayed a couple of times before suddenly stopping. The cracking sounds stopped as well. The bishop leaned forward. "...that's it?" The chant gravitated the baby for some time, and after three complete movements, the chant dissipated. The baby shell was cracked, but far from breaking apart.

Slowly, the light inside the room started to come back. The twisted face of the bishop was little by little becoming visible. He stood there, dumbfounded. (How an ancient chant didn't work? The baby is so powerful that even the chant is powerless against it? Probably not... Maybe he is already dead? He is breathing, so he is probably alive. What could it be!?)

He left the room after failing to come up with an explanation.