"There it is, the christened path." Duke said as he slowly raised his head over some low white bushes.
"I'm finally here," he added, totally forgotten he had tagged Aaron long.
The night seemed to get colder with every passing minute.But this wasn't a problem for Duke, the problem was the few hours he's got to perform the ritual before the midnight gets to meet him again, if not it will be over– the Anti-ascension would bring his ruin.
Aaron who was behind Duke the whole time struggled to keep up with the slow and unsteady pace of Duke. And throughout the stalking exercise Aaron had noticed Duke with a piece of paper which he held close to his face almost every minute even up until now.
"Was it a map?" Aaron said to himself, "he won't even allow me be of any help. Tch! so self centered, at least I could be of help in reading the map and this whole journey would have been less stressful... but who cares now, we're finally here."
This time Aaron came a little bit closer to Duke noticing he was more engrossed in the paper unlike before.
"Are we not in the right place? or did you read the map wrongly?" Aaron asked.
"Map?" Duke replied, quite uncertain of Aaron's questions. "I'm not with a map you dumbass, i am with... Oh! you think am with a map all this while? No!" Duke laughed.
"So what's the point of you looking at a piece of paper almost every minute if it's not a map" Aaron asked as he waited for an explanation.
"Stupid you! this is the paper with the instructions written by my father; I just kept memorising them so I don't faulter."
Is Duke stupid? Aaron wondered.
"But why almost every minute? I mean now we're here we could just follow the instructions, it's written on a paper, it's not gonna get lost or something." Aaron retorted.
"look here Aaron, you might never understand. My life depends on it, don't you get it?"
"Of course i know but we almost caught the attention of some persons because of your slow and unsteady movement. At least don't make me feel excluded."
"Aaron, you're too loud" Duke said as he gestured to Aaron to keep it down.
"Ok ok fine." Aaron responded almost quietly.
Duke carefully took out some items from the little purse strapped around his waist. He never wanted to use a bag pack so as not to attract eyes from anybody. I mean why would a kid carry a bag pack at such a time of the night– it would raise suspicions.
4 rectangular shaped mirrors, each the size of a mobile phone. The characters inscribed on both sides of the mirrors was not something any human could read; it was out of this world. Then he brought out another item– a little container with a name branded on it– white water.
"Ok, this are the items needed for now, but how am I supposed to understand all this instructions?" Duke mumbled to himself although he hoped Aaron was listening.
Duke had done nothing but memorised the instructions without understanding how to go about it, and that was the perfect time for Aaron to show his worth. He felt like he was excluded from everything.
"Hey Duke," Aaron called politely. "would you let me take a look?"
"Y...yeah" Duke answered. "But if the paper gets thorn I'll smash your brain." he threatened.
Aaron ignored Duke and proceeded to read the instructions. His eyes went for the first letters neatly placed at the top of the paper, not wanting to miss any detail.
The handwriting of duke's father was really nice, this Aaron smiled to as he read through. Aaron had to wonder why the government never gave the DSorg a chance, after all such information would be beneficial to the people.
After reading the instructions, he asked himself what role he had to play here. The instructions clearly states the one marked by the midnight is needed physically during the ritual inorder to dissolve the curse. And an individual marked twice by the midnight cannot escape the wrath of Death.
"Hey Aaron," Duke called. And without waiting for a reply he continued. "I know you might have read the instructions... now you can tell you're not supposed to be the one here."
"So why didn't you tell me ever since so I could find a way to bring my brother, and you knew fully well that if the so called midnight meets anyone twice, it's their doom." Aaron's voice was getting loud and quite emotional.
"I should have told you earlier, but I wasn't sure you could bring your brother, so I decided to have you come with me, because I was so scared of doing all this alone."
"If I could bring myself what could possibly stop me from tagging my brother along huh?" Aaron asked sympathetically.
"Hey don't shout at me. My dad will be back home soon, so I plead with you, let's get on with this ritual and quickly meet up with him before midnight, i am sure he has a solution for your brother."
Aaron had no choice but to follow Duke's words, squeezing the paper, chewing it any throwing it at Duke's face won't ease things up. He thought about others now, if his brother was marked by the midnight, what about Mika, did the midnight mark him too? But right now if things work out as planned he could only save his brother.
Aaron skipped the part of the instructions that had to do with the blah blah blah of the midnight and it's markings and began reading out the Instructions meant for the ritual.
"First, find a convenient place at the christened path..." Aaron read out.
There they stood right in before the christened path– it was a large abandoned route to the outskirts of Omi city, a place meant for about 4 trains to run at once. So after they found a good spot, Aaron continued to read out the rest of the instructions.
"Now make a compass point, consisting of North, South , East and West. The distance between the North and South must be seven foot and the same goes for the distance between the East and West."
Both Duke and Aaron's eyes met, they both knew the process might take a long stressful time to get over with.
"After which you are to bury each inscribed mirrors partly vertically at each compass point. And at the middle of the compass point– the line of symmetry, the mograi stone should be buried right there." Aaron stopped reading and looked at Duke with an expression on his face, then he asked.
"What's a mograi stone?"
"Oh I remember." Duke said searching his purse, "I left out one item, it's the stone. So we're gonna like plant it at the middle of the compass point eh?"
"I think so, and one of the last thing your father noted was for us to use the white water stored in the container to water the compass point where the stone is buried, and then wait for a couple of minutes for the creature mograi to appear..." Aaron explained.
With the help of Aaron, the set up for the ritual was completed. They eventually buried the mograi stone or so to say planted the stone at the middle of the compass point (symmetrical point) and watered the stone with the white water.
Few seconds after watering the stone, a dim white glow shown from the line of the compass points to all the inscribed mirrors. The mograi stone although buried could be seen to glow every 2 minutes and after over 17 minutes of patience, it began glowing rapidly and eventually came to a pause and almost immediately a long flash of light emerged brightly from the compass point.
Aaron and Duke initially saw nothing but the bright light, but that wasn't all. The ritual they had just done was performed perfectly and there it was– the MOGRAI – a bizarre looking creature devoid of any beauty...
Aaron and Duke stared at the MOGRAI in suspense; not sure of what to say. Their thoughts running wild, the ritual, did they make a mistake?
...sthgisnI ...edosipE txeN