Re-Carnated

Awaking, they felt refreshed. Now, as they had been able to use expell once, they now felt that they were ready to pursue the ritual further.

They now opened the notebook again. After looking at the scroll for a while, and its vague images, they had new praise for the diagrams providing apt information in the journal.

They ignored their inability to understand the text in the notebook, and instead focused on the diagrams. There were two things they had to prepare, the energy being put into the altar, and the sigil they had to put onto the wall.

Luckily, they now had figured out how to use expell, being able to hopefully put energy into the pedestal. 

As for the sigil on the wall, they had to copy the sigil that was in the notebook.

It would have to be large, covering the direct area in front of the altar. It would be on the wall with the engraving with the hooded guy doing the strange arm configurations.

As for the appearance of the sigil, it was relatively simple. It consisted of a large circle, with a diagonal line going through it. The line splits the circle into a portion consisting of two thirds, the other portion taking up the remaining third. Out of the sectioning line, three perpendicular lines emerged, facing into the section occupying two thirds.

They contemplated what to paint it with. As they couldn't read the text regarding what to write it in, they just decided to use whatever they could find. 

They returned to their pile of assorted objects. They initially thought that they would use the blood from the remains of the beast, that seeming appropriately cult-ritual-y. However, the blood was all dried up, so that didn't seem to be a valid approach.

Looking through their items, they settled on the torch. The torch, having an everlasting orange glow, must have some kind of ash on it. They rubbed it against the wall, and sure enough, black ash came off the end, but not that much. 

They realized that they would have to use all of the torches in the third room to paint the sigil on the wall. 

They used the first torch that they had to start it off, then they went into the third room. 

Seeing as they had to knock off the brackets, they brought the rough rock.

Clink clink clink clink clink

They knocked off the five other brackets, now having five more torches at their disposal to create the sigil. They kept their handheld light, as they didn't feel like giving up their most useful light source.

[five additional torches obtained]

They now grabbed the torches in turn, sliding them over the stone wall, leaving a trail of black ash over the stone. After rubbing the torches to their limits on the wall, they were able to completely depict the sigil on the wall.

[ritual sigil completed]

They now got ready for their most difficult part of the ritual, recreating their expell. 

They felt nervous about it, especially regarding the result of the ritual.

Looking through the images regarding what would happen during the ritual, it looked vaguely painful, seeing vast amounts of energy being ripped out of the person in the picture, and being put into the sigil in the wall. 

It seemed that the ritual would result in some kind of object being created, the end step depicting a strange artifact emerging from the altar.

They got ready, clutching the stone that had only failed them against the chest, they were ready to tackle the ritual. This would hopefully assist them greatly. 

They breathed, getting ready.

They concentrated.

[activated full body inspell]

They then swiftly moved to charging their left hand

[activated isolated inspell in left hand]

[after 5 seconds left hand charged to capacity]

They now gripped the stone in their left hand, feeling the rough edges digging in. It felt easier for them to forge the connection between their hand and the rock now

[mana flow to conduit activated]

Now, they stood in front of the altar. The cold stone now feeling like it was almost speaking to them. They prepared, and shot their energy into the rock, trying to overload the husk.

[rock at capacity of mana]

"One more push...."

They then forced the last of their energy into the rock, pushing the energy out of it.

As before, a line of red light exited from the rock. This time, instead of dissolving into the air, it seemed to latch onto the altar, forging a line from their hand, through the stone, and into the altar.

By now, they had exceeded their previous record of holding their inspell. But this was no thanks to some kind of effort they were putting in. The altar was dragging the energy to it, not allowing them to stop the flow of energy.

Spell-thirst was starting to overwhelm them, they were nearing the threshold where they would be close to passing out.

Pain was starting to enter their body. They were clearly being stretched beyond their abilities as a magic user. It was clear that this ritual was meant for someone with a mastery of their mana.

But something inside of them persisted. Out of force of will, they forced their fleshy, meager, horrible body of meat awake, maintaining their concentration. Then, a beam of white light came out of the altar.

The beam of light shot over to the sigil, slowly going over each element of the symbol, lighting it up. 

The light from the lit up sigil then reflected back, filling their eyes with a blinding light, but they stayed steady.

The altar was shaking, something forming out of the light of the sigil on top of it.

Sheeeeee

A high pitched noise filled their ears before it all stopped, the lights, the energy flow, all of it. 

Before they lost themselves to their weakness for what felt like the hundredth time, they saw on the altar the token depicted in the notebook. 

They had completed the ritual, promptly passing out afterwards.

[ritual completed]

[keystone of the dungeon created]