Chapter 83: Erik’s Ritual

Unknown Location

October, 31st, 1045

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Erik was completing sixty-three years of life today. Selena and him had a small celebration party early in the day where just personal friends were invited to it. Mening, not a lot of people had come. Today would be the day that Erik would do his ritual to evolve. One of the requisites for the ritual was that it had to be started on the birthday of the person starting it, and for Erik, it was on All Hallows Eve.

He was now naked in the middle of a platform of cut stone. Around him, only grass for kilometers with some small groves here and there. Selena was with him at a safe distance from the stone platform. Erik had tried to assure her that everything was alright and that everything would be okay, but his wife was stubborn and insisted on being near during the ritual.

Erik then started his preparations for the ritual. In a bowl made of stone, Erik started by mixing oil and charcoal dust to create black ink. During the mixing, Erik made a cut in his finger and dripped in the mixture some drops of his blood. He continued mixing the black ink while saturating the black ink with his magic. After the mixing was done and the black ink was very homogen, Erik took a brush made of a unicorn's tail's hair and gently dipped it in the black ink. He then took the brush and started to draw on the cut stone platform with it. But different from the usual rituals, the drawings were not complex at all, they were very… simplistic in nature. Seven concentric circles, with each one adding one meter to the diameter of the last one, and an hexagon inside the outermost circle. All of this was drawn using the mixed black ink while pumping magic on it.

As Erik finished the drawings, he levitated the bowl with the leftover of ink and the brush outside the circle. He then sat in the center of the innermost circle on his knees and closed his eyes while raising both hands to the sides.

"Mother Magic, creator of all. Hear the plea of this son of yours that wants to advance."

Erik chanted loudly while pumping his magic and intent in his words. As he finished the chant, the outermost circle of the drawings and the Hexagon started to glow in a black and red light.

"Mother Magic, creator of all. Hear the plea of this son of yours that wants to advance."

Erik intoned once again without losing his concentration and the second outermost circle lit up in the same black and red glow.

"Mother Magic, creator of all. Hear the plea of this son of yours that wants to advance."

Erik chanted for a third time, lighting up the third circle. Selena, who was nervously watching all of this from outside, noted that the climate around them was changing too. The previously clean starry sky was now full of clouds. Only the application of a spell to help see in the dark allowed her to continue seeing Erik in the center of the cut stone platform.

"Mother Magic, creator of all. Hear the plea of this son of yours that wants to advance."

Erik chanted for a fourth time, lighting up the fourth circle and making the wind start to build up speed.

"Mother Magic, creator of all. Hear the plea of this son of yours that wants to advance."

Erik chanted for a fifth time, lighting up the fifth circle and making the clouds above start to take a circular pattern similar to the drawings of the stone cut platform, just on a much larger scale.

"Mother Magic, creator of all. Hear the plea of this son of yours that wants to advance."

Erik chanted for a sixth time, lighting up the sixth circle and making the circular patterns on the clouds even more defined.

"Mother Magic, creator of all. Hear the plea of this son of yours that wants to advance. Come and judge his worth!"

Erik chanted for the seventh and final time, adding an extra line at the end. When the seventh chant was done, the seventh circle lightened up and the circular patterns that could be easily distinguished on the clouds started to move in different directions. As the final line, the summoning one, was said the strong winds suddenly changed directions and went up, piercing a hole in the clouds right on the center of the spinning rings' formations, showing the clear starry night sky through it that coincidently, or not, was right above the stone cut platform where Erik was.

It was them that Selena felt something. Something very pure, something very primal, something very… powerful had arrived and was there with them. The feeling that she was having right now was that she was small. A grain of sand in the middle of a gigantic desert. So small, so insignificant but at the same time with so much potential. Then, the next thing that she knew, everything was back to normal. Selena felt that the winds had calmed down to their normal speeds of the highlands. She looked up and saw that the clouds, that were before covering the sky, were dissipating now. Whatever had come and caused that fenomena was now gone. Selena then looked at the cut-stone platform and started to panic. On it laid the naked form of Erik.

"Erik!"

Selena yelled and started to run to where her husband was laying. She quickly went up the platform and kneeled by the side of Erik.

"Come on, honey. Don't leave me alone…"

Selena said in desperation and then casted a diagnosis spell on Erik. The results made her let out a sigh of relief.

*sigh*

He was just unconscious and severely drained of mana. Selena then took Erik's body and turned it so he was lying on his back. What she saw then put her face into a state of shock. Erik seemed… younger. She meant, they both looked much younger than their real ages, the sixties range, but it was thirty-five years old looks, not twenty-five like Erik was now. Selena slowly started to touch Erik's face with her hand, admiring the results of the ritual. At least it was what she supposed it was.

"You did it, my love~"

Selena said in a low and tender voice full of love. But it was then that she was shook out of her state by the warning going out on her head. The alarm and proximity wards that they both had put up before the ritual had alerted her of an incoming teleportation. It would be there in fifteen seconds, so Selena had to work fast. And she did thanks to their preparation.

Selena quickly activated a timed special ward for five seconds, took Erik in her arms and activated her special port-key, one that would send them directly to their bedroom in Hogwarts. As the port-key sucked her and Erik away, the five seconds were up and a series of things happened at the same time. The discarded bowl with the rest of the mixture of ink and blood went up in white hot flames, reducing everything in it to ashes in seconds. The brush that together with it was consumed by the white hot flames too. The drawings on the cut-stone platform had already been consumed by the ritual and had left nothing behind, but even so, the entire platform was consumed by white hot flames, erasing any trace of who was there. Even the traces of magic were consumed. The Alarm and Proximity wards crumbled too when the temporary ward stones went up on white hot flames. The last action of the white hot flames before the time was up was snuffing themselves, erasing completely any proof that could link Selena and Erik to the location.

As the fifteen seconds passed, three magic circles started to materialize around ten meters in the air. The three of them would be identical if not for one of the three being made of a slightly less bright yellow that had some traces of black in it. The three circles finished forming and with three bright lights, three people appeared in the middle of motes of light.

One of the three individuals was flying in the air with the help of his white wings. Other one was flying in the air with the help of his golden wings. And the last one was flying with the help of his black wings. The three of them looked at each other and recognition was shown on their faces.

"Azazel, why am I not surprised to see you here?"

The individual with golden wings said with a melodical masculine voice to the individual that had black wings. The man who addressed Azazel was tall, had long blonde hair that was freely flowing through his back and shoulders, and had soft green eyes. His face was… pretty? His face was as androginous as one could get. He was wearing long white robes that had details in red and gold with a heavy looking pauldron made of some sort of golden material with some details in silver. Above his head a golden halo was floating.

"Oh…? If it isn't Michael? And the prettiest Angel in Heaven is here too! Hello, Gabriel."

The individual with black wings, identified as Azazel, said. Azazel was a tall man too. He had short black hair with the front bangs blonde. His eyes were of a deep wine red and he sported a short black goatee with no other facial hair. Azazel was wearing some long black robes.

"Hi, Azazel. It is good to see you."

The individual with white wings, now identified as Gabriel, replied to Azazel. Gabriel had very long blonde hair that flowed freely over her back and shoulders, with sparkly green eyes. She was pretty. Really pretty. And definitely deserved the title that was given to her by Azazel. Gabriel was wearing some scanty white robes that left no space for one to imagine the size of her boobs. They were huge. Melon sized huge.

"Gabriel! What are you doing out of Heaven?!"

Michael asked in shock. His sister, Gabriel, was, probably, the most innocent angel to ever exist. And he and his other brothers planned to keep it that way.

"I'm here because I sensed the same type of magic that emanated from Father, Brother, which I suppose is the reason that we all are here."

Gabriel said, replying to Michael while raising one of her perfect eyebrows. She loved her brother very much, but sometimes, he and the other could be a little too suffocating.

"Hahahaha! Yeah, show him who rules, Gabriel!"

Azazel said after laughing at the face that Michael was doing. The golden winged angel had a face of someone that had just eaten an egg and it was stuck in his throat. He really was not expecting that answer from his sister, Gabriel, who pointedly looked at Azazel with the same raised eyebrow, making the fallen angel stop his laugh.

"Er… So you guys felt the energy that resembles father too?"

Azazel asked, trying to change the subject as quickly as possible.

"Yes. And I doubt that we were the only factions that felt it."

Michael said, assuming a serious facade.

"But it is totally gone now."

Gabriel said and flew to the remains of the charred stone platform. Michael and Azazel flew to the same place too, following Gabriel's lead. She got close to the platform but didn't land on it. The heat that remained on the charred stone platform was still high. Gabriel then closed her eyes as if trying to feel something. A moment later, she let out a sigh and opened her eyes again.

"It gone. It is totally gone."

She said while looking around the place, searching for any visual clue that she could get.

"Yes. Whoever was here made an amazing job of erasing their presence before escaping."

Azazel said, adding to Gabriel's 'findings'.

"Any idea of what had happened here?"

Michael asked his 'ex-brother'. They could very well be enemies now, but they both had felt in their hearts when God died. It was a shock to both Angels, fallen or not. Azazel looked around and started to put the pieces together with the little clues that he had.

"If I would have to give it a shot, I would say, probably, a ritual had taken place here. The people who made it were prepared to a level that they were expecting others to come and investigate. That's how everything is so… clean. Even the fire used just before our arrival left no magic traces behind."

Azazel said to the two Angels. If Selena or Erik were to hear Azazel's deduction, they would applaud the fallen Angel.

*sigh*

Gabriel let out a sad sigh. She, probably from all the angels in Heaven, was the one who most missed their Father.

"We will discover with time what happened here. Anything that could let that kind of energy out will not stay hidden for too long."

Michael said, trying to comfort his sister.

"At least it was nothing evil in nature. That kind of thing tends to leave a mark that is more difficult to erase."

Azazel added while still looking around. He had flown to the side of the charred stone platform and was looking at two patches of carbonized grass and dirt. Soon, the trio were finished talking and discussing and transported themselves away. They had not talked much out of the subject of the aura. The last war was still too recent for them to talk amicably.

During the next three hours, various groups pertaining to different factions of the supernatural world appeared to do their own investigation, but no one discovered anything new that the first trio had not discussed already. While the wave was 'traveling' through the supernatural world, the perpetrators were soundly sleeping on their bed.

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