In the relatively spacious clearing within the woods, guided by the voice of the girl in his mind and after repeated corrections, Leon had finally completed etching the interlocking Demon Runes and runes on the cleared and leveled dirt.
He did as instructed, embedding small fragments of various rock ores into the grooves of the Array's Demon Runes, strictly adhering to the required amounts and spacing, and then filling each rune indentation evenly with ground green stone powder.
The structure of the Array had two layers: the inner layer was the nested double Array ritual core, and the outer layer's circular patterns marked the boundary of the containment ritual. According to the girl's voice, to increase capture efficiency, the Array should ideally cover as large an area and have as many nested structures as possible. However, due to the severely limited substitute materials currently available and the lack of a true Mage to preside over the ceremony on site, this ten-meter-diameter circle was already the maximum extent that could maintain the Array.
Treading lightly through the gaps between the runes and Demon Runes, Leon moved to the center of the Array core and first made sure not to leave footprints that could destroy the integrity of the Array.
He had previously asked the girl's voice whether such exposed etching on the dirt could be easily damaged.
The answer was affirmative. A qualified Mage would have more robust and solid means of inscribing Arrays, but of course, Leon currently could not achieve such professionalism and had to make do.
However, she reassured Leon not to worry too much. Once the ceremony began, she would channel Chaotic Energy through the entire Array, and by then, the solidified structure of the Array would not fear trampling.
Although it could still be easily broken by other Spellcasters using Magic Power, they were currently facing threats neither from mindless Ghosts nor from the not particularly intelligent Angry Demon, which possessed and controlled a mere mortal, Lokhak, who would have no knowledge of how to disrupt Magic Power and destroy the Array.
Standing in the center of the Array, Leon called out to his companion waiting outside the Array.
Azeryan, marveling at the mysterious and complex patterns on the ground, carefully stepped over the lines upon hearing Leon's instruction and walked over to Leon's side, handing him the small wooden cage he was holding.
Leon took the so-called "Earth Vein Spirit Lamp," a name full of fantasy, but similarly limited by the materials at hand, this device he had crafted under the girl's guidance by hand was quite unprepossessing in appearance.
The making process involved using a certain special ore found at the foot of the mountain as the core, wrapped in mud clay, and then carving a bunch of small runes on the wet clay shell, culminating in placing it into a wooden cage fashioned from specific types of tree branches. This simple Spirit Lamp was hardly more complex than the mud play of children in the fields.
Of course, before being infused with Magic Power, it had no function; it was just a pile of rocks, mud, and tree branches, equivalent to trash. To transform it into a "Pathfinder" that could guide them out of the Cursed Land, it still needed the soul of an intelligent being as its wick.
Setting the Earth Vein Spirit Lamp into the dirt pit at the Array's core, Leon tore another piece of cloth from his battered hemp trousers and covered it to ensure that the dirt wouldn't seep in and ruin the runes inside the Spirit Lamp, and then he filled in the pit.
Rising up, he borrowed a long dagger from Azeryan. Spreading his left palm, he placed the long dagger across it.
As it came to the crucial moment, he couldn't help feeling a bit uneasy as he confirmed with the girl's voice again, "Though asking now might be a bit embarrassing, couldn't I just poke a hole on my finger... must I cut open my palm?"
Leon didn't know what others thought, but at least for him, slicing his own flesh felт more queasy than being stabbed by someone else.
"Stop talking nonsense. If you knew how to use Magic Power, you wouldn't even need to shed blood for this step. Don't worry, I'll help you stop the bleeding," the girl's voice chuckled.
Seeing Leon holding the dagger with a pained expression and hesitating, Azeryan suggested, "Do you need fresh blood? If so, just cut my hand."
Leon awkwardly smiled at him, declining his partner's kind offer, "No need, it has to be my blood."
Initiating the ceremony required not only etching the Array and chanting spells but also the most basic drive of Magic Power. Leon of course couldn't use Magic Power, so he had to build a bridge connecting his body and the Array with fresh blood for the mysterious entity within him, who would then take over and sustain the Array with what was known as "Chaotic Energy."
It was just shedding some blood, and as a grown man, he wasn't afraid of small wounds. If he wasn't scared of death, why fear a little pain?
Biting his teeth, Leon steeled his mind and swiftly slashed with the dagger!
First, his palm felt cool, then it warmed, and the signals of pain rapidly traveled to his brain... Pain, pain, pain!
Grimacing, Leon clenched his left hand, tossing the dagger back to Azeryan. He let the blood from his continuously bleeding left hand drip toward the center of the Array, staining the underlying core Demon Rune red.
Taking a deep breath to endure the pain, he loudly chanted the invocation for the summoning ceremony:
(In Ancient Lorelette Language) "In the name of Yin Nie, abide by the decrees of the Dead Sea of the eternal frozen origins..."
Unlike during previous practice sessions, where he merely recited: the moment Leon spoke the first line of the spell aloud, he felt as if something within him began to flow, slowly moving from his wounded left hand toward the ground below.
That peculiar flowing sensation was similar to when he had cast Isa's Arrow that day, but it did not drain his strength to the point of fainting as it had last time.
(Ancient Lorelette Language) "...All spirits of shadow heed my command, you who traverse the sleepless dust swiftly return here..."
As Leon chanted, within the ten-meter diameter circular Array, pieces of rock ore embedded in the ground burst forth with faint glimmers of light in a mysterious order, and every Array node crackled crisply, as though the sound of crystals shattering was ceaseless.
Azeryan watched the miraculous scene before him with a mix of astonishment and curiosity, feeling as though he were amidst the mysterious unknown recorded in books. Although he knew of the existence of Spellcasters, he had never witnessed the release of magic until he met Leon.
(Ancient Lorelette Language) "...With my body and spirit as the guide, I call upon the wandering souls, I shall grant you release from disharmony's bonds, I shall grant your souls a resting place of peaceful sleep..."
At the center where Leon stood, the buried Earth Vein Spirit Lamp suddenly flared up, a crimson light of blood spreading along the demon runes etched on the ground, converging until with his chants, the entire Array's pattern filled up, shrouding the whole Array in bloody light.
Gusts of sinister wind, arising from nowhere, violently swayed the surrounding treetops, and standing beside Leon, Azeryan increasingly felt the chill surrounding them intensifying, causing him to shudder as though he were in an icehouse.
After slowly reciting the spell, the red glow emanating from the demonic runes on the ground gradually dimmed, and Leon let out a long sigh, his body relaxing.
He could no longer hear the girl's voice; according to her, she was now using the remaining power to maintain the ritual, and whatever came next, Leon would have to face alone.
"Is it done?" Azeryan nervously clutching a long dagger, asked.
"Yes, hopefully it'll draw the Demon possessing Lokhak soon," Leon nodded in response. He didn't know where his possessed friend was currently wandering, and now he and Azeryan had no choice but to wait like sitting ducks.
Bending down, Leon picked up a crudely made wooden spear from the ground, somewhat nostalgic for the pitchfork he had discarded earlier.
...Thus they quietly crouched within the Array, as time blurred little by little.
Suddenly, they heard sounds, and both, already highly alert, turned towards the direction of the rustling bushes.
Leon stood up, spear in hand, ready for combat, his left hand wrapped in cloth, feeling less pain amidst the crisis of survival.
Azeryan gripped his dagger and slightly distanced himself from Leon, ready to coordinate an attack on the enemy together.
Finally, the slow-moving figure pushing through the underbrush revealed itself, and the tense youths could finally discern its form.
Unfortunately, it was not Lokhak's figure.
It was a massive and strong canine, but its body was dry and blackened. Leon did not mistake it for a wolf because its wide and short ferocious teeth resembled those of a Rottweiler from Earth's past, though it was much larger, at least twice the size.
Its fur had long since fallen off, and its skull was hollowed out deeply, its skin stretched taut over an enormous skeletal frame and grotesquely muscled body still visible beneath.
In the eye sockets of the giant dog, where its flesh eyes had once been, now glowed a sinister dark red light.
Just one look at this undead hunting hound made Leon involuntarily tense up his entire body, as even with the dog's body dried up and withered, it still looked far more fierce than any ordinary wolf.
"A Duwana War Dog?! Leon, these dogs are extremely fierce; they could bite through iron armor! I mean... they definitely could have while alive..." Azeryan broke out in a cold sweat, recognizing this distinctive and valuable war beast.
This was a prized War Beast from the western part of the Orland Kingdom, a symbol of the Rahman Family of Duwana, valuable enough to rival a warhorse, ferocious to the extent that not even two or three soldiers could subdue it together. If it knocked you down, its maw full of fangs could easily tear a person into ragdoll shreds.
Leon's gaze never left the large deceased dog, his only weapon a makeshift wooden spear, hardly adequate, naturally not wanting to clash with such a formidable War Beast head-on. The girl's voice had said that undead beings like living corpses might lose their intellect from life but would retain their strength in this spirit-like field where natural decay was absent.
He immediately decided, "Slowly back away, lead it to the trap."
Just as Leon finished speaking, the ghastly undead war dog opened its cavernous mouth, its soul seemingly retaining its hunting instincts from life, intending to roar and intimidate its foes. However, from its withered throat, only a disturbing, dry rasping sound like a broken bellows emerged.
Leon, not grouping together with Azeryan, each backed towards separate pits they had prepared in the Array.
The war dog, now a living corpse, showed no signs of probing its prey. It abruptly leaned forward, charging at unbelievable speed towards Leon, the nearest target.