The new day began almost identically to the previous one. Except that early in the morning, Shiro went to the forest, saying he wanted to take a walk and practice his new magic. No one objected, as he frequently went there, and it was difficult to forbid him anything; he was too stubborn.
Shiro walked through the forest, his hand pierced by several dozen threads woven from golden light, all pointing in one direction, as if trying to turn his hand into a blade. Shiro decided to touch one of them, but it broke without offering any resistance, the shards falling and almost instantly disappearing.
Then he turned his attention to the path, not getting too distracted from maintaining the threads on his hand; he needed to concentrate to keep them in existence.
After walking about a kilometer deeper into the forest, he noticed several fallen trees and an open, stone platform. Shiro ran up to it and examined what was on it.
The entire platform was about 3 meters in size, someone's magic had created a perfectly smooth stone here, and it was covered with a pattern of runes. The pattern was extremely complex, and the number of runes was simply incredible; they were everywhere.
And there were chains. Chains on which there was also a huge number of very small runes, as if they had been scratched with a small needle, leaving no empty space, and the ends of the chains were embedded in the stone.
The entire pattern seemed to emanate from the places where they were embedded. The runes radiated from the chains, forming spell words and intertwining with each other. It all looked more like a work of art than any ritual of unknown power.
Shiro stared at the entire pattern with its myriad of runes and whispered with a voice full of awe, "A soul rune?"
That's what they called a separate type of rune, carved on a person's body and soul, gaining unique power but paying a price for it. This ritual also used myriads of runes and chains, so Shiro made such an assumption.
Shiro began to examine all the runes with admiration on his face. He knew what these runes and chains were for.
They were necessary to weaken and bring a person's soul so close to the body that it could be wounded by an ordinary blade just like a physical body. And also to feed the soul rune so that it could start working and bring as few consequences as possible for the person; if there was no feeding, the rune could even kill.
Shiro examined the entire pattern without saying a word. He simply couldn't, but his mind was in chaos.
'Who could have done this? How many were there? How strong were they? How long did it take them to create all this? When was all this done? How much mana was required for this? What rune was carved on the person's body? And if they were carved on the bodies of several, then on how many? What price did the one who carved the rune on himself pay? Can what they left still be used? Why was the ritual performed in the wilderness of the forest?'
The pattern of runes was incredibly beautiful and complex; it mesmerized and amazed, making Shiro's head spin.
However, over time, he began to have doubts. Doubts that this was a soul rune ritual. Shiro didn't know much about it, but he knew how it was conducted and what was needed for it.
Shiro stood up.
"These runes...and chains...they are different..."
Not what they should be. They are much more powerful than they should be. Even too much. Shiro felt his mana tremble, as if afraid of these chains when he was near them. The runes, however, created a completely different pattern than needed for a soul rune.
In that case, the conclusion is only one. This was a different ritual, an unknown, extremely powerful ritual. Shiro knew the meaning of quite a few runes from his mother. And because many runes were related to the soul and mind, it was easy to conclude the nature of the ritual.
If Shiro had been a master in the study of runes and rituals, he could have deciphered the pattern and found out exactly which ritual was performed. But he was just a very curious child and understood little.
After a long time examining the pattern with myriads of runes, his head began to ache. He stepped away from the stone platform and sat down by the nearest tree.
Finally, Shiro managed to put his thoughts in order. Golden threads appeared on his hand again, and then he began to think about what to do with this find.
'I need to find out what this ritual does. It's unlikely that I will be able to decipher it, but what if I try to activate it?'
It was a dangerous idea, but Shiro was too curious. His fear of the ritual was only comforted by the fact that his maximum mana reserve was unlikely to be enough to fully power the ritual. So why not try?
In the end, fear overcame curiosity, and Shiro did not activate the ritual...at least not now.