Chapter 4: Chapter 4: "The Visitor from the Past"
Damian was exhausted and being haunted by the event that happened the previous night. The door Bell rang and he was startled, "who's there?!!", he shouted but the door Bell won't stop ringing, he walked downstairs to check who was at the doorstep. The stranger kept ringing the doorbell, Damian got the the door and locked through the peephole, there was a mysterious woman at the doorstep. a stranger who claims to be an old friend of Damian's grandfather, Damian is immediately suspicious. Why would someone from his grandfather's past suddenly arrive, and why now? Yet, there's a strange familiarity to her presence, as if he's seen her in an old family photo or read her name in the journals. Despite his misgivings, he lets her in, but still he was curious because she looks no older than 30. Her clothes are slightly outdated, and she carries a leather-bound journal that seems strikingly similar to Damian's grandfather's alchemical texts. At the sight of the journal on her hand Damian felt a sigh of relief as he believes she might be telling the truth, "my name is Nerrisa", she said beaming with confidence. As they talked, Nerrisa reveals that she was once an apprentice to Damian's grandfather, he was a great teacher and also a profound alchemist, but that was not the issue that brought her back to the mansion,She felt a sign and as such she came to the mansion to investigate. She notices signs of the ritual Damian performed and she became more vigilant, Nerrisa warns Damian that he has unleashed a great evil which is more dangerous than he realizes, she educates him further about the entity that he unleashed. The entity unleashed is called a Tenebris Malum, an entity that forms when someone tries to use alchemy to defy death. Nerrisa explains that a Tenebris Malum is born from both life and death, feeding on life force and memory to grow stronger. Due to this fact, the creatures connection to Damian means it will continue to haunt him, draining his energy untill it has enough strength to fully enter the world of the living. Damian had no choice but to trust Nerrisa because she was the only person whom actually understands how alchemy works, just as he begins to trust Nerrisa, she reveals a shocking secret to Damian, she's not entirely alive, she's caught in the borderline of life and death. Damian was wondering if she had done something to herself that made her become what she is now but she unlocks more secrets to Damian. Many years back, Nerrisa was helping Damian's grandfather with his forbidden experiments, during this experiment she was caught in a catastrophic alchemical mishap and died. Damian's grandfather tired to resurrect her using the same ritual which Damian had attempted with the dog, which tethered her soul to the world, allowing her to wander but never fully alive.
Since then Nerrisa has been searching for a way to escape her half life existence. She now asks Damian for help with his grandfather's final, abandoned ritual, which will completely grant her freedom. Damian is now motionless, the path his about to take is dangerous, if he goes against the entity inorder to save Nerrisa, he might end up being killed, but if he helps the entity and ignores Nerrisa's offer, he will never fully understand alchemy and his grandfather's journal will still be a mystery to him, these thoughts made Damian speechless as he looks at Nerrisa for minutes without saying a word. Clearly understand the situation which Damian is currently in, Nerrisa leaves him be, as he had to think carefully on which side he'll fall lend a helping hand. The next Nerrisa was in the lab and Damian walked up to her, he told her, confidently that he'll help her but in return she must promise to help him banish the entity before it consumes him, Nerrisa agreed. Nerrisa starts to uncover secrets hidden in his grandfather's journal, as Damian listens, it dawns on him that the Tenebris Malum that is hunting him is more than a random entity, this entity is connected to his grandfather. The forbidden ritual that caused Nerrisa to be the way she is was not the first attempt, his grandfather had tried this ritual multiple times, binding restless spirits to various vessels in hopes of overcoming death. The Tenebris Malum is likely one of these failed attempts, it's a fragment of his grandfather's own soul that went horribly wrong, filled with the combined rage and pain. As Nerrisa began to educate Damian and together they began to research his grandfather's work, they later realize that if this Tenebris Malum is indeed connected to his grandfather, it might also know the deepest, darkest secrets of alchemy, these secrets could spell disaster if unleashed. Damian was in a dangerous position as he wish to complete his grandfather's ritual which will be at a cost. This ritual has the potential to banish the entity but the cost is too daring, the ritual requires something precious to Damian , for Damian the ritual will cost him his his eye and his right foot, while for Nerrisa it will cost her nothing as her life was already lingering away.
In the dim light of the library, Damian and Nerrisa sat across from each other, a thick, ancient tome open between them. The flickering candlelight cast long shadows across the pages, and Nerrisa's face looked both beautiful and haunted, her features half-hidden in the darkness. Her hands traced the delicate alchemical symbols scrawled in the book, her voice a whisper that almost felt like a prayer. Nerrisa opened the journal and ready to take the incantation for the rituals,
"Are you ready?" Narrisa asked, her voice soft yet sharp. She looked up, her eyes steady, glinting with a strange light that made Damian uneasy.
Damian swallowed, feeling his heart hammering against his ribs. His recent failures weighed heavily on him, but Narrisa presence was oddly reassuring. He nodded, inhaling deeply. "Yes. What do we need to do first?"
Narrisa drew a small vial of dark, viscous liquid from her coat, placing it gently on the table between them. "This is a mixture of myrrh and iron dust, used to anchor the spirit to a temporary vessel. You'll need to repeat these words exactly as I say them to call forth the entity without allowing it to slip free." she began to recite a spell in a language that Damian has never heard of in his life, but he has seen fragments of this spells written in his grandfather's journal, laced with sounds that felt unnatural in his mouth. Each pronunciation felt like an invocation, a ripple of power, as though the words themselves were somehow alive.
Damian repeated after her, his voice uneven, stumbling over the strange words:
"Ignis spirat, ignis moritur, redeat umbra in somnum aeternum…"
Narrisa's hand reached out to correct his posture, placing her fingers lightly under his chin to steady his voice. "Do not rush it!!!, She said to Damian. Each word must be a bridge between our world and the spirit's realm. You have to mean it!!.
She then dipped her finger into the vial, smearing a line of the liquid across his wrist, the cold substance feeling like ice against his skin. "Repeat after me. This time, slower."
"Ego sum portae, in umbram iter…" Damian whispered, his voice stronger this time, feeling each word settle like a weight in the room.
As they repeated the spell together, a hush seemed to fall over the library, as though the very walls were listening. The air grew thick, charged with a tension that prickled Damian's skin. Narrisa's gaze never wavered, her focus razor-sharp, her voice carrying a strange resonance.
The candles flickered wildly, and the shadows deepened, stretching toward the alchemical circle they'd traced on the floor. Damian's heart quickened. He realized this was more than a rehearsal, this was an actual summoning, a test to see if they could channel the entity without losing control.
Narrisa's voice grew louder, taking on a commanding tone that echoed through the room.
"Audi me, mortis umbra, et responde vocanti…"
Damian felt the cold seep into his bones, the words dragging at his energy as though the darkness itself was pulling him in. But he forced himself to continue, matching Narrisa's pace, until the spell finally came to a close. The room fell silent, the candlelight steadying, but the feeling of something just out of sight lingered in the room, like a presence hovering at the edge of the shadows.
Narrisa released a breath, a faint smile playing on her lips. "You still have alot to learn boy, she said to Damian. But remember, this was only practice." Her eyes met his, intense and unsettling. "When we attempt the true ritual, the spirit won't simply linger. It will want something, We have to be ready to contain it, or it will consume us both."
Damian nodded, but deep down he was afraid . As he looked down at the alchemical symbols, still faintly glowing from the spell's energy, he realized how much he was risking and how lit
tle control he truly had.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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