Sharpen one's Claws chapter 28

William, after creating these new 50 Lycans, began to realize that it was getting harder to create new Lycans through these rituals; it was as if something in him was not enough.

According to the books, this form of ritual he used was one of the forms of blood magic, but unlike that, which required many sacrifices, the ritual that William used was an adaptation that would use his strength and his spirit.

It was a very obscure idea; few books touched on the spirit, most of them making mention of using'spirit to connect to something' and with that to change something in the real world. With various forms of rituals, the most commonly used for'spirit connection' would be in relation to something they called 'gods'.

The understanding of the gods was even more obscure; they were cited as something that reminded the 'living spirits that had manifestation' in the world; the greatest current example for these gods would be in relation to R'hllor, the 'Lord of Light' or 'Red God' as he is called in Westeros, who would be an ancient entity that fights against the 'Great Other' who would be the god of ice and death.

But in the end, they would both be the manifestation of a 'Spirit over matter'. Already,  the ritual was the opposite; the soul of the individual was used as material to then affect the spirit, each individual having a different spiritual force, which was directly linked to his soul. William thought it was something like the concept of'mana', but at the same time it was not. Unlike the mana that would recover, the force of the soul was constant; only with a stronger soul could the amount that could be used grow.

The problem was that it was very difficult to strengthen the soul; it was much easier to create a bond with a "Manifested Spirit" or a God, as you choose to call them, and being your follower or summoner, you could use them as a means to replace the use of ritual; it would be something like a spiritual magician using the strength of his contracted spirit to use magic.

Both forms of performing this ritual or accessing'magic'' had their benefits; the rituals focused more on the body of the individual or on solid items; the use of summons extends to the manipulation; and the use of an 'Elemental' power may be the power to use fire, ice, healing magic, or even resurrection.

One of the main factors for you to use these forms of magic was having a minimally strong soul and having access to the form of the ritual, which would be some symbols like the runic or ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, depending on the function of the ritual you want. The runes were used for solid items, and the hieroglyphics on individuals.

Already in the summons, you would need to agree with the manifestations of the spirit, such as being a worshiper of fire and life. In order to be minimally 'worthy' of receiving some ability to manifest the power of R'hllor, the closer to your 'teachings' the greater the amount of your power could be used.

It would be something like a priestess using the power of her Lord's fire to summon the will of that being, usually using songs that try to attract the will of the spirit.

Already in the ritual, as a rule, he should make some symbols and then use his blood for confirmation, but things were always complicated. In the ritual, you never knew if you could achieve your goal. This happens because you did not know how much soul strength remained until you were with all your 'busy', and William felt that he had already occupied a large part of his power; perhaps his limit was just over 1200 with luck near 1500; he was not sure.

The means to use more power as a'spiritual magician' or priest was approaching the manifestation of his god, the will. For the users of rituals, it took time; with the years, their souls grew larger and more things they would be able to do. Perhaps there were other means, but for now it was just the one William knew.

But as a benefit of being the Great Lycan Patriarch, with the strengthening of the souls of his followers, his soul grew stronger; however, the increase was slow, but at least it would always be there.

Luckily, he did not need to worry about those created by 'natural' means, but to update his followers, he needed them to be spiritually strong, so being one of his requirements to update, he discovered when he went to try to pass some Lycans to Tier 2 and could not, causing him to read the books again and, with that, understood this need.

For those Lycans created by other Tier 3, well, there are only 2 currently, one being Chis and another being Lilith; they needed to depend on their own soul forces.

The Lycans were special units; unfortunately, they would not be what else would exist in their army.

Maybe it was not a good idea to do Immaculate in Lycans; after all, they were already excellent soldiers, even without that power. But, now that it was obvious that Lycans would not be done at all times, many normal soldiers would be raised.

Leaving these thoughts aside, William was organizing some plans with Lillith about the next actions to control Lorath's trade. With one stroke of the pen, they could steal the region's monopoly and weaken its opponents.

"Sir, the profits are growing; our stores are not currently being interfered with by the oligarchs, but when we are fat, they will attack us." Lillith was standing, her clothes were a little too revealing, a yellow dress with several openings that accentuated her curves, the length was medium near the knees, one could say it was short, but it was something sophisticated, however, a little vulgar because of her curves. This outfit made her tanned brown skin have an irresistible charm. It was simply impossible for William not to steal some looks; she did not mind being looked at, but William tried to avoid it; it was a lack of respect with his subordinate after all.

"So the ideal was to expand quickly and grow to the point where we could stop them, so I recommend that we follow the plans I showed you earlier." Lillith continued to try to give more weight to her ideas, and what would those be?

Well, it was much more necessary these days to weaken his opponents. Lycans could not be generated at any time; he needed to protect his strength. The ideal was to get one with one blow to drag the leaders of this region down and steal his soldiers for him.

"Murder, eh..." William wondered if it was ideal for the moment, but he decided to leave it to her; the talents she possessed gave him that confidence.

"We'll follow your plans; you can do it the way you think it should be done." William decided this way: trusting the talents was something that many leaders did, and he needed to start doing it or nothing would be done. With many responsibilities on himself, things would just take longer.

"Thank you, Will, Lord, for the trust." Lillith was immensely happy with William's gesture of trust and almost went to him to embrace him.

Even a strong woman, in those times when it was rare to find anyone who trusted her, was inevitably happy and excited by her Lord's trust.

William nodded and looked at his military leaders, Chis and Dakak.

"Prepare some of the best men for the operations Lillith chooses; make things happen in the best way possible." William gave his order, got up, and left.

Since he was already ambitious, why not strengthen himself to the point where he could dominate this entire Essos region? Surely he wanted, after Lorath, if he had time, to conquer Braavos, then Pentos, Norvos, Myr, and so on.

Maybe one day all of Essos will be his. But many plans should be made.

At first, naval and commercial control should develop, and with Lorath as a base, everything would be on track.

Today, some intrigues have been prepared. It would be much easier to control a place without leaders, wouldn't it?

With that, plans for commercial expansion, encouraged by assassinations in due course, were planned. The blood of the Magistrates would dye the earth red.

William was also thinking of a way for Emilly to turn into a Lycan, and he could not risk losing his soul 'capacity' before making those specials for him stronger.

Perhaps in the near future he should go after the red priestesses, try to know more about that "Lord of Light", see the benefits he could get from this information, maybe find a way to make his soul grow, or perhaps use other magic.