Chapter Thirty-Five: Rituals

"Day 1346 since beginning of study:

"Blood, more blood! I need it, I can feel it, I'm so close, just a bit more. As of recently all of my rituals have been failures, but I feel it, just a bit more and it'll be a success."

"Day 1532 since beginning of study:

"I'm such a fool, I've been doing it all wrong this whole time. The dwarven heads and the intestines shouldn't be together in the middle circle! Can't believe it took me so long, it's always there I find the flaws!"

"Day 1533 since beginning of study:

"Good news, I fixed the flaw, bad news, more emerged!"

"Day 1600 since beginning of study:

"More changes, lalala, I'm great. So instead of just getting rid of the intestines I need to replace them with something, blood in particular."

""Day 1700 since beginning of study:

"Success, I succeeded, I'm so happy! It only took the life of five-hundred-thousand dwarven children, a small price to pay for this beauty.

"The ritual is called "Immolation Lineage"; Of Five Offsprings. Its effect is simple, enhancing the person who uses the ritual, strengthening their attunement with earth and nature, absorbing the purest blood there is, the dwarven one.

"You want to make a twelve meter wide circle, by digging of course, like a trench. Inside the circle there will be five circles. Four of the circles will be placed like a square inside the big circle. It's very important that the carved up path of the big circle doesn't connect with the smaller ones. There will be a carved up x going from all the four circles, with the last circle in the middle of them. In other words the middle of the x. Now listen carefully, the trench will work as a river! Pour the blood of five children dwarves into the trench and it will flow naturally into the x and surround the five connecting circles! Place the five heads of said children in the middle circle. On the circle to the left forward, place the five left arms of said dwarves, to the right the right arms of said dwarves. To the right of the right arms place their left legs and to the right of the left legs, you place the right legs! It is important you don't mess this up!

"Now for the final part, remember the intestines, well turns out they're supposed to be in the outer circle. Which order and what not doesn't matter, just make sure all the intestines of all five of them are there! With this comes the hardest part. Carve a miniversion of the ritual and place your hand in it. Then with a thin, thin line, only a centimeter deep and wide connect the mini ritual to the actual one. When all is done, stab your hand with an obsidian knife into the mini ritual and enjoy the benefits."

With each word Jasmine read, she became more and more horrified. The intriguing, interesting new magic she found wasn't as glorious as she thought. Instead it was crude and cruel, something only someone giving up on themselves would use.

Despite all that, Jasmine continued reading. Many pages were missing and only about a ninth of the diary was with her, but it was enough. She learned how to use dwarves in rituals in the most cruel ways. Why the mage of this diary was so obsessed with them, she did not know.

"Greetings future disciple, I'm about to make history! For thousands of years, I Sable Marth, creator of Black Rituals, had theorized that there's a fifth continent! But today this shall not be a theory. For I created it!

"The Lunar Ritual":

"When the two moons meet the sun, one shall be sacrificed! First you need £4 dskhvb rjfi"

The words became a blur for Jasmine and Jantyr, there was nothing there, like the words had been scribbled out, so Jasmine turned to the next page.

"With this, the ritual is complete my dear disciple; now you may ask, what will this do? Great question, through the ritual I will connect all five continents to one another, through sacrificing one of our moons, a small sacrifice for the greater good."

"Hahaha, disciple, I was right, I Sable Marth have become the first Dark Magician, making a contract with the sapient species of the continent known as Oblivion. Power, so much power, with this I, no we can rule the world, you and I!"

Those were the last words from the Dark Magician known as Sable Marth.

Jasmine sat in silence, contemplating what she just read. "Does this mean Sable Marth is the creator of Dark Magicians and also the first one?" she asked Jantyr.

"So it seems, but how come there's no mention of him, ever? We know of "Black Death" who destroyed a whole country, "Sokuty" hailed as the strongest Dark Magician of all time. But Sable Marth, I've never heard of him, not once!" Jantyr said.

"Me neither!" Jasmine said and closed her book. She walked back to the bookshelf she took the diary from and placed it back.

Afterwards Jasmine walked back and opened her diary, inside the tattoo. Like always it released an eerily glow, when summoned. Wasting no time to open the diary she searched for a mention of Sable Marth. It reads as follows.

"My master, Sable Marth! In his honor. I, a commoner, have claimed his last name, from now on I shall go under the name Vesh Marth, second coming of the first dark lord!

"He is truly marvelous and his strength is tremendous. The spell casted on his diary keeps all who's not worthy away, through this method he's kept the diary safe for over twenty thousand years.

"The diary I've read doesn't tell me about how he became a dark magician, it goes over what he does after. Apparently he made three diaries and spread them all over the world, into three different towers! I was just lucky my tower, with all those fools happened to have one!"

After that Jasmine stopped reading, as Vesh Marth went on a tantrum about the tower, nothing else.

"Proceed with caution Jasmine, we don't know what the future might hold for us!" Jantyr warned.

"I know, but I feel myself growing closer to the truth." Jasmine said. She started reading again and accidentally stumbled upon the page.

"Black Rituals" it consisted of hundreds of different rituals about enhancing oneself with magic. How to infuse the essence of another being into one self and such.

In the end Jasmine stopped reading and returned the diary to her tattoo. Then she left the library altogether.