Before making the much-anticipated statement, Nafiz glanced briefly over everyone in the room.

"The Soul Binding Technique is a magic that can be used by descendants of the leader of the Black Lily Clan. The user traps the soul of the victim he killed by torturing it in a pearl bead, allowing the person who is the target of the spell to swallow it.

The conversation was interrupted for a short time when Niko, who was listening to him with great attention, shattered the head of the chair he was grasping in anger as soon as the word pearl beads came to mind, a memory from the old days. The gray-haired man was trembling with his eyes looking at a fixed point.

"The soul that enters a body of flesh and blood, while wildly exploiting the life force, imposes the tortures on the owner of the body it is hosted before he dies. The parasitic spirit does not stop until the owner of the body dies and is free; the person who is the target of the spell loses his mental and physical health day by day."

Contrary to her habit, Nafız did not speak in a single breath. She gave a pause between each sentence, respecting the reopened wounds of the people in the room. On the last of these intermissions, Fernandez shouted in rebellion against his brother's plight.

''Who? Who can do this evil to my kind and merciful sister?

Nafiz had previously indicated the source of the magic, but the City Lord lived a solitary life. When he was mixed in with people, he was in front of everyone's eyes.

"How long does it take for the person who is the target of the technique to die?"

When the gray-haired man asked the question, the air he emitted was the aura of a murderer ready to kill at any moment.

"At best, a lunar anniversary!"

"It must be so!" Niko said with a stern face that he had never shown in front of his daughter before.

Nafız understood that the man had solved something, but she was not in a position to question anyone right now.

"There is something that is bothering me. If the magic kills its target within a month, Eftelya can't be sick because of this!"

Marcos was right; from a coherent point of view, no one could argue otherwise. Looking at the young man, Nafiz was amazed by his reasoning ability. He could think sharply even in such a turbulent environment.

"Even the mention of this vile technique has blinded your mind, and you have forgotten what Eftelya had just spoken, right?"

Looking into the eyes of the young girl, Nafiz continued, seeing the courage there.

"Maria understood that the child she was carrying in her womb was also a victim of magic. From the sacrifices she made until her birth, she knew that she had to do something bigger. As long as they were tied with the umbilical cord, the parasitic spirit would not rest without exploiting her daughter's body as well."

Before Nafız began to speak, she had received Eftelya's silent approval. She had no intention of staying quiet until she had made everything clear.

"The selfless mother made her plan and at the time of birth bound her soul as a parasitic soul that would live in her daughter's body. In this way, the evil spirit that had sucked the life force of the mother's body was liberated before it could enter Eftelya's body.

It was clear what had happened, and the young girl's silence was a kind of confirmation of what was said. Eftelya couldn't survive for such a long time otherwise.

Voices from upstairs interrupted the quiet atmosphere. Nafiz raised her head and said, "We have to hurry, or it may be too late for treatment!"

When she opened the door of the crowded bedroom, climbing the stairs in the form of herself in the front and Niko with his daughter on his back in the back, they saw a person struggling in the middle of the empty room. This hand-tied person was the leader of Eftelya's bodyguards before.

"How many times am I going to tell you to be quieter?"

Nafız snapped his blood-red leather whip in the face of the man on the ground before he could finish his sentence. After this blow, the former bodyguard leader would faint, and the blood flowing from the deep cleft in his face would wet the floor.

"Eftelya, I need some of your blood. Will you allow me?"

"Of course, as much as you want!"

As the fragile girl who spent her days in melancholy looked at him with brave eyes, the Blood God dagger made a small cut on her arm.

"No matter what happens, you will not step inside the circle I will draw soon. I warn you, no matter what you see, do not move!"

She decorated the space between the two circles with various symbols using her blood and spoke to the audience in amazement.

"The same warning applies to you, don't move from where you are!"

Ritual preparations were drawing to a close. In the middle of the triangular shape with a circle at each end was an eight-pointed star. Although Nafız drew the triangle and the star in the middle with the blood of the old guard commander, she used the blood of Mora for her circle and the symbols between the rings.

Although those in the room could not understand the meaning of this, the sacrifice made by the female orc was enormous. Carrying the guard leader to where she would stand, Nafız slowly entered the circle that belonged to her and said, "We're starting!"

Niko, Fernandez, and their son Marcos could hear their heartbeats with their ears at these moments too. Soon after, the symbols where Eftelya was located began to shine; the young girl had risen three inches from the ground, unconscious. A voice echoed in her ear as her daughter's condition was causing the gray-haired man to panic.

"Don't move from where you are!"

Nafiz cut both palms simultaneously with her daggers and put them on the lines leading to the circles at the other ends. The young girl cried out and, the transparent smoke from her mouth was drawn towards the eight-pointed star in the middle.

Everyone was holding their breath as the slowly forming fog took on the image of a woman. This woman was Maria, so Nafız's theory was correct, but why was the look in her eyes so heartbreakingly cruel? The parasitic spirit inside Eftelya had been forced to leave the body she was attached to; she was looking for a life force.

The spirit, whose existence was endangered, unconsciously headed for the place where the person she had been staying for many years. The young girl lay unconscious on the floor, making her the perfect target for the evil spirit.

''I do not think so!''

As Nafiz roared in anger, Maria's unconscious soul had almost reached its intended destination. Nafiz, who shattered the symbols between the two circles surrounding Eftelya, formed a shield of blood surrounding the girl.

Everything happened at once, the rapidly approaching spirit slammed into the shield, and with a heart-wrenching wail, it turned its gaze to Nafiz.

"I'm giving you two options. Either you get into the body of the member of the clan that is enjoying this torture, or we can bet on which of us will die first!"

Nafız might have looked like she was bluffing, but everything she said was true. To protect the shield surrounding the young girl and to continue the ritual, she had to use her blood power with each breath. The cure Mora found was a double-edged sword.

Even if the evil spirit was swept out of the victim, it was impossible to destroy it without risking her life. Therefore, she made up her mind to include members of the Black Lily Clan in the ritual. It gave the soul a choice; a body to exploit its life force to the end without a struggle. And a body among those who put him in this state.

Even if the soul was acting unconsciously, it could sense where the danger of death came from more intensely. As she slowly crept up next to the man lying on the ground, she was on guard to avoid any possible attack herself. When she was a breath away, she couldn't help herself anymore and entered her body through the open mouth of the bodyguard.

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I have no hope. This was the end. Nothing can change anymore; there is no need.

Sabahattin Ali