NOVEL NEXT Book 9 - The Deal - Chapter 46
The seal was finished.
The outline of it anyway. My nerves were jittery and buzzing from being under the constant Tier Seven <Second Wind> buff, but it was done. And it looked… mostly the same.
"Is it going to work?" I looked over at the ivory Goddess.
Klix was frowning as she inspected the outline of the seal. "It should be good enough."
The way she said 'good enough' didn't inspire much confidence, but considering that it was the first time that I'd done something like this, good enough was hopefully better than a normal first try.
"You can burn it away now?" I motioned at the dark gray mark on Astrid's golden skin.
"Not quite…" Klix started mumbling something under her breath.
The air got charged with magic, my tongue began to tingle as she completed the spell.
"What was that?" I clicked my tongue. Even the air smelled different. I couldn't place it exactly, but it was almost like outside during a hot, dry summer day.
"Just setting up." Klix touched the outline and the blue markings began to shine. She looked at me. "Okay, this is where it's going to get…" She looked back at the outline. "Tricky."
"What..?!"
Klix grabbed my hand and pulled me back over next to Astrid. "You're going to have to keep the seal from breaking."
Considering she was about to burn away the excess and was going to have to overpower the old seal almost instantly, I had very little faith that I was going to be able to hold anything together that she was about to attack.
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"I'm not strong enough to do that!" I ran a little bit of mana through my hand to try to emphasize my point. "You can spit more magic than my strongest spell!"
Klix closed her eyes and sighed. "It's not about power right now. What I'm going to be targeting is what doesn't belong. All you have to do is highlight what belongs there."
"I don't get it." I looked down at Astrid. Her face had slightly contorted like she was in pain. "How can I do that?!"
"LOOK!" Klix growled as she jabbed one of her fingernails into the palm of my right hand, then pushed it onto the outline, smearing my black blood over Astrid's heart. "The reason why these seals work so well is because the magic takes root once the recipient pledges to accept you. The demons didn't get her to pledge loyalty to them, in fact, the seals they had placed on them were put there against their will. All you have to do is convince her to accept you and help your seal take root."
"She's unconscious!" I swallowed as I realized what she was saying. "You want me to go in there."
"You have a talent for mental magic that I've never seen in someone so young. Your ability to bridge into other's minds is on a level that most Gods would be jealous of and it's honestly frightening to think about what you'll be able to do once you take a city." Klix nodded at the unconscious woman. "Once you get her oath, I need you to hold it together. She should hide herself with you in there to minimize the risk that this will do to her soul."
My chest felt tight as I tried to process what she was saying and the implications.
"What happens if I can't?" My confidence in my abilities wasn't very high mainly due to how little experience I had with them.
Klix looked at me like I'd asked a stupid question. "If you don't, they both die." She nodded at my hand. "Hurry up."
I knew that we were on a clock that we hadn't realized was quite so short, but I would have preferred to take a break before jumping straight in. Though I had a feeling that part of Klix's eagerness was coming from her not having much of an active role all night and finally getting to the part where she got to start destroying things.
I didn't want to chance misreading her urgency though. If things were dire, then trying to argue for a little extra time would be precious moments we wouldn't have to lose. So I tried to calm myself and began pushing my mind towards the outline of the seal.
"Siphon."