Ritual

The family were sleeping soundly but their bodies had been moved from their original places onto the floor around the main room of the house.

They had been moved to where the wooden flooring was beneath them and any slight dragging of their bodies could cause their skin damage from the friction created when they were being moved.

Azra struggled to move the adults the most but once they were all placed in different parts of the room, she had started to draw a strange runic circle in between them all.

More detail went into it as the imagine slowly started to match what had been shown within the book.

The animal blood that had been used to paint it had created a heavy bloody smell inside the room.

Once it was completed, the wrist of each of the family members were placed near the circle within a certain distance while Azra was stood near the middle.

Her hands were performing a series of hand seals one after another but it seemed like she was just practicing in preparation for what was to come.

Once Azra was more confident in herself, she had taken out a scalpel and walked towards each of them before slicing each of their hands.

The wound left behind was deep enough to draw blood and cause it to slowly come out but not big enough to spread around too much.

In the middle of the circle was Azra with two hands together then she started to chant in some strange way as her hand signs started to change into different signs.

The blood coming from each of the family members had slowly travelled closer towards the circle until Azra had already completed the same chant more than once.

It continued that way until the blood reached the edge of the circle then a strange scene took place.

Instead of disrupting the shape of the painted blood circle, the blood from outside had connected the bodies and the circle together as the blood started to travel around the edge of the circle.

The blood that was drained from the bodies had left them quicker than before just like they were being drained from them by the circle and the actions of Azra.

Their bodies slowly dried up and became increasingly pale until no more life seemed to be contained within them.

All that remained was several dried up bodies that looked similar to mummies but that was not the most strange thing within the room.

The blood had gathered in a very large amount and circled around the circle which was a very high amount then once Azra had made a gesture to point towards her own face, the blood travelled towards her like it seemed to want to swallow up up.

Her body was about to be engulfed by the blood but the blood had suddenly been sucked towards where Azra had pointed towards.

Each tiny drop of blood disappeared once it touched her skin like she was absorbing it all into herself.

Once everything was gone, Azra finally spoke once again. "With this.. I am no longer Azra Dash. From now on, I will just use the alias Ash if I absolutely have to."

Her eyes were a little blurry at first but had slowly adjusted, there were tiny light spots that was visible to her that had lingered around the house.

A tiny ball shaped creature was among them that had been able to take shape. "So these must be the spirits. Though these only look like forming or newly formed spirits that lack any ability to do anything to the normal world. They are kinda cute?"

There was a strange feeling within her that was not there before and it was not just that, there was some other thing that was closely connected to her that if triggered, she felt that she could use it right away.

The strange energy that was only a minuscule had been drained away once she tested it then her own face and body had begun to change slightly.

It happened so naturally like it had always been a part of herself and it was a very strange feeling for herself but once she looked in the nearby mirror, Ash was shocked by her appearance.

Her body shape other features and face were no longer the same as they were a minute ago and they perfectly matched the daughter of the family that she had just sacrificed. "Ha..haha..Hahahaha. The ritual was successful."

She watched as her face and bodies changed back to its original state just like she had magically transformed from one person to another. "Now I truly have no family left in this world.

In order to gain something great, great sacrifices must be made. They just happened to be what was required so I should thank them for living on until now. What I have done is unforgivable but it is not like they did not deserve this kind of ending even a little bit."

Ash shrugged and started to take out some flammable alcoholic drinks then soaked the dead bodies and the room in it. "Why bother trying to make up excuses for myself now.. it does not really matter what they had done, this was all just done to gain this power in the end."

The flames slowly spread within the house shortly after which had destroyed the floor that was used as part of the ritual along with the bodies that lay around it.

Ash had already jumped over the wall once again and used the cover of the trees and the darkness to hide her presence as she ran away from the village.

It was not too long before the fire had spread enough to destroy the bodies and spread to other rooms, it eventually caught the attention of others outside who tried to call for help.

By the time the bodies were found after the fire was put out, the damage done was already too severe that even the falling debris had caused the dead bodies to be even harder to recognise by those people that knew the family.

Ash was already outside of the village and got on a bus by the time everything had settled down and people had arrived to assist with the fire and the investigation that would follow.