14 The Forbidden Ritual

"Okay, so what were you talking about earlier?" Jinx asked as he sat crossed legged on the ground.

After bidding farewell to Elizabeth, Jinx and his brothers made their way back to the storage closet. It was apparent that Josh and the others wanted to keep what their conversation as private as possible which made him question what they were about to discuss.

"We may have a way to grant not only you but the five of us a way to use the rarest type of magic, Combat Magic!!" Josh said this excitedly as he held up a book titled "Combat Magic- The Banned Ritual".

"The Banned Ritual?" Jinx said questioningly as he took from Josh's hand. "So in other words everything we're about to do is forbidden....explains why we're back in the supply closet. Where'd you guys find this?"

"It was just laying there in the bathroom," Blaster replied. "We figured someone left it there by accident and we helped ourselves to it. We all decided as a group that it was a necessary action as, if we succeed, it'll increase our chances of survival."

Jinx shook his head in amazement. "So your saying that someone just FORGOT a book containing a FORBIDDEN ritual in the bathroom? Yeah sure I buy it..... ..so did you guys already read it?" He tossed the book into the center of the group.

"Yeah, I finished it around an hour ago," Henry replied. Henry was by far the fastest reader of the entire group and was also the only one with almost perfect recall. "Not gonna lie though, I can tell why this was banned. Its not exactly just anyone can pull off."

"Why's that?" Jinx asked, his curiosity peeked. He was starting to get into it as the thought of a rare magic was too enticing to pass up.

"Firstly, the success rate is only around 10% and if you fail then you'll undoubtedly die," Henry said, his voice taking on a serious tone as he looked at Jinx. "The reason for this is that the ritual itself is used to draw out someone's latent potential. The bigger the potential, the more pain you'll feel. This is why its forbidden as 90% of people die from the excruciating pain the ceremony causes."

The room was deathly silent as Henry continued explaining, no one making a sound. "In order for the ritual to work, one must have a high pain tolerance and will of iron as you survive the onslaught of pain. The pain is basically the spell reconfiguring your body and forcing it release all of your latent potential so you can use it whenever you want. Once complete the user will have full control over the magic within his body as well as increased strength, speed, stamina and so on."

"Is that all?" Jinx asked. "You didn't exactly explain how you guys factor into all of this. How does me going through this ritual give you guys the Combat Magic?"

"Well the book says that if others do the ritual together, itll give the pain to them as well. In other words we'll recieve a fraction of your pain for just a fraction of our potential combat magic." Henry reached behind him and pulled out the chalk he had had in his hand earlier. "We asked the maids to hand us certain materials. Though they did ask what we wanted them for, we didn't give them a straight answer. We have all the things we need to go through with the ritual."

"All we need is your command," Jack said with a small smile. "If we didn't think you could do it then we wouldn't have bothered asking. Your the one whose most qualified to learn this magic. We all believe in you!!"

"Your will is like diamond and due to your years of bad luck your pain tolerance couldn't be higher. Its like this was made for you." Blaster also gave him some motivational words and though they were cheesy, Jinx could tell that they all meant what they said.

"Okay, then what do we have to do Henry? Lets do this. It sounds kinda fun...except for the pain part of course." Jinx stood up and gave them a thumbs up. "Lets learn ourselves some combat magic."

Henry and the others nodded as they all stood up from where they were sitting. They all had determined looks on their faces as if they were headed into battle against a formidable enemy.

"Okay lets get started," Henry said as he kneeled back down onto the floor. "The first step is to draw a really big pentagram onto the ground. It has to be near perfect so I'll be doing this part myself. No offence but you guys all have sloppy handwriting....all left handed people do."

Henry didn't see it but all five of the brothers raised their middle fingers at him. However, they couldn't deny Henry's words as he was correct about one thing. His ability to write neatly and draw was far better than all of them.

After a few minutes of drawing on the floor, the image of a star inside of a circle came together. It looked perfect down to the last line and Jinx couldn't help but admire the straight lines that Henry had drawn as he couldnt find a single flaw anywhere.

"Alright, the next step is to light the candles and place them on each point of the star." Henry lifted up one of his candles and a box of matches. "Each brother, not including Jinx, grab a candle and a match. Light it up and set it on the point."

All the brothers followed Henry's words to the letter, using the match and matchbox to light their candles before setting it down onto the stars point. Everything had to be perfect or it wouldn't work so even though it wasn't hard, the process was a bit time consuming.

"Okay, now we're approaching the final part of the preparations." Henry walked over to the light switch and flicked it off. "Now we just need Jinx to step into the center of the star."

It was at this point that Jinx felt a bit hesitant about going through with the ritual but it wasn't because he was scared. It was because, after looking at the pentagram in the dark with the candles flickering eerily, it gave off a sort of satanic ritual vibe. It made him feel off for some reason and he was hesitant about stepping inside of it.

However, he ended up doing it. He didn't want to look like a wimp in front of the brothers that held him in such high regards. They believed he could do this so he wasnt about to chicken out when they had already made the preparations.

"Okay, now what?" Jinx asked as he turned to face his brothers afternhe had stepped into the center of the star. "Whats next Henry?"

"Now each person step in front of the candle into one of the spaces inside of the star." Henry showed them what he meant and the rest followed after. "Okay, now that everythings ready we can start. Brace yourself for pain as after we chant the single verse the book says the pain will commense and will get get worse the longer it goes. Itll only stop after a full hour has passed so we just need to hold out until then."

Everyone nodded, each brother having an expression of determination, a sign that they had already prepared themselves for what lay ahead. Henry then told them the words they had to chant and that all of them, excluding Jinx, had to say the chant simultaneously. in order for it to work.

"Heu spirituum reserare nostri potential dampnas"

The chant was repeated three times and Jinx wasn't entirely sure about the words said but he swore it was Latin.

"Well.....whats supposed to happen now?" Jinx was a bit confused as to what was suposed to happen as the brothers had already finished their chanting. "Did you guys do it .....ahhhhhhhhhhrrrghhhh!!!" Jinx clutched sunk to his knees as pain began radiating throughout his whole body.

It was just so sudden as one minute it wasn't there and the next minute it wasnt. What was more was the fact that it was getting even worse. The pain was like a raging fire that Jinkx could hardly bare, hardly able to grasp logical thought as everything was overcome by the sheer agony coursing through his body.

His vision began to grow blurry and as it was already pretty dark, he wasn't able to see anything except the outline of his brothers who had also collapsed onto the ground. He felt himself slipping into the darkness but he tried to hold on.

Seconds seemed to take hours, minutes seemed like days. The pain made everything distorted and he couldn't even tell if he was alive or dead though he didnt really care as he just wanted the pain to end.

Jinx eventually faded into unconsciousness, the blackness engulfing him entirely as the pain began to fade.