433 C433. The Ritual Begins

After taking a moment to regain her composure, Athena turned around and knelt before the shadow from which she had just emerged. The shadow seemed to have gained liquid properties as her hands sank into the pool of darkness.

Before long, she began pulling out similar-sized pure black figures, one after the other, dragging them into a pile beside her.

However, as these figures gained color and shape, they remained motionless, almost as though they were life-size dolls or corpses. Upon closer inspection, these corpses were of young girls of similar age and stature, all clad in simple white nightgowns with identical magic circles cut onto their bare chests.

After extracting around 50 bodies from the pool of darkness and forming a small pile to the side, she finally ceased her efforts as the shadows before her returned to normal.