Before making the eagerly awaited explanation, Nafız wandered her gaze over everyone in the room for a short while.
"The Soul Binding Technique is a spell that can be used by people descending from the leader of the Black Lily Clan. The user traps the soul of the victim they tortured to death inside a pearl bead and makes the target of the spell swallow it."
Among those listening to her with rapt attention, the conversation was cut short for a while when Niko shattered the head of the armchair he gripped in anger. The moment the pearl bead was mentioned, a memory from the old days came to the gray-haired man's mind, and he was trembling while staring at a fixed point.
"While the soul entering a body of flesh and bone madly drains its life force, it imposes the tortures it suffered before dying on the owner of the host body. The parasitic soul does not stop until the owner of the body dies and it becomes free; the person targeted by the spell loses their mental and physical health day by day."
Contrary to her usual habit, Nafız didn't speak in one breath, respecting the reopened wounds of the people in the room by pausing between every sentence. In the last of these pauses, Fernandez shouted, rebelling against the situation his sister was subjected to.
"Who? Who could do this evil to my kind and merciful sister?"
Nafız had stated the source of the spell before, but the City Lord lived an isolated life. The times he mingled with people were moments when he was in front of everyone's eyes.
"How long does it take for the person targeted by the technique to close their eyes to life?"
When the gray-haired man asked the question, the air he emitted was the aura of a killer ready to kill at any moment.
"At best, one moon cycle!"
Niko said, "It must be so!" with a harsh face he had never shown next to his daughter before.
Nafız understood that the man had figured some things out, but right now she wasn't in a position to interrogate anyone.
"There is something bothering my mind. If the spell kills its target within a moon cycle, it's impossible for Eftelya to be sick for this reason!"
Marcos was right; no one could claim otherwise with a consistent perspective. Nafız admired the young man's reasoning ability while looking at him; he could think sharply even in such a turbulent environment.
"Even the mention of the name of this malicious technique blinded your mind, and you forgot the words Eftelya spoke just a moment ago, didn't you?"
Looking into the young girl's eyes and seeing courage there, Nafız continued.
"Maria realized that the child she carried in her womb was also a victim of the spell. She knew she had to make a greater sacrifice than those she made until the birth. As long as they were connected by the umbilical cord, the parasitic soul would not find peace without draining her daughter's body too."
Nafız had received Eftelya's silent approval before starting to speak. She had no intention of keeping quiet without clarifying everything.
"The self-sacrificing mother made her plan, and at the moment of birth, she bound her own soul as a parasitic soul that would live in her daughter's body. In this way, the malicious soul sucking the life force of the mother's body achieved its freedom without being able to enter Eftelya's body."
What happened was clear; the young girl's silence also meant confirming what was said in a way. Otherwise, it was impossible for Eftelya to continue her life for such a long time.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Sounds coming from the upper floor interrupted the silent environment. Nafız lifted her head up and said, "We must be quick, otherwise it might be too late for treatment!"
When the crowd, climbing the stairs with herself in front and Niko carrying his daughter on his back behind, opened the door of the bedroom, they saw a person struggling in the middle of the empty room. This human, whose hands and feet were tied, was the person who was formerly the leader of Eftelya's bodyguards.
"How many more times will I tell you to be quiet!"
Before finishing her words, Nafız cracked her blood-red leather whip on the face of the man on the ground. After this blow, the former bodyguard leader would faint, and the blood flowing from the deep gash formed on his face would wet the floor.
"Eftelya, I need some of your blood. Will you allow it?"
"Of course, as much as you want!"
While the fragile girl spending her days in melancholy looked at her with brave eyes, the Blood God opened a small cut on her arm with her dagger.
"No matter what happens, you will not step out of the circle I will draw in a moment. I warn you, whatever you see, do not move!"
After completing the circle with the young girl's blood, Nafız drew another one on the outside with the blood of the man lying unconscious on the ground. Decorating the space between the two circles with various symbols using her own blood, she turned to those watching what was happening with amazement and spoke.
"The same warning applies to you too; do not move from where you are!"
Ritual preparations were nearing the end. In the middle of a triangle shape with a circle at each end, there was an eight-pointed star. Although Nafız drew the triangle and the star in its middle with the blood of the former bodyguard commander, she used Mora's blood for her own circle and the symbols between the rings.
Even if those in the room couldn't comprehend the meaning of this, the sacrifice the female orc made was enormous. Nafız, carrying the bodyguard leader to the place where he would stand, entered the circle belonging to her with slow steps and said, "We are starting!"
Niko, Fernandez, and his son Marcos could hear their heartbeats with their ears at these moments. Shortly after, the symbols where Eftelya was located began to shine, and the young girl rose three spans from the ground in an unconscious state.
Just as his daughter's state drove the gray-haired man to panic, a voice echoed in his ear.
"Don't you dare move from where you are!"
Nafız, cutting both her palms with her daggers at the same time, placed them on the lines going to the circles at the other ends. The young girl screamed, and the transparent smoke coming out of her mouth was pulled towards the eight-pointed star in the middle.
When the slowly forming mist took the appearance of a woman, everyone was watching the events holding their breath. This woman was Maria; so Nafız's theory was correct, but why were the looks in her eyes ruthless enough to freeze one inside? The parasitic soul inside Eftelya had been forced to leave the body it was bound to; it was looking for a life force.
The soul, whose existence was endangered, unconsciously headed towards the place where the person it inhabited for many years was located. The young girl lay unconscious on the ground; this situation made her a perfect target for the malicious soul.
"I don't think so!"
When Nafız roared with fury, Maria's unconscious soul had almost reached the place it aimed for. Nafız, shattering the symbols between the two circles surrounding Eftelya, created a shield of blood surrounding the girl.
Everything happened in an instant; the rapidly approaching soul hit the shield and turned its gaze to Nafız accompanied by a heart-wrenching wail.
"I offer you two options. Either you enter the body of the member of the clan who deemed this torture proper, or we engage in a bet on which of us will die first!"
Nafız might have seemed to be bluffing, but everything she said was true. She had to use blood power with every breath to protect the shield surrounding the young girl and maintain the ritual. This treatment Mora found was a double-edged sword.
Even if she pulled the malicious soul out of the victim, it wasn't possible to destroy it without endangering her life. Therefore, she thought of including members of the Black Lily Clan in the ritual. She was offering the soul an option, a body whose life force it would drain to the end without struggling. Moreover, a body from among those who put it in this state.
Even if the soul was moving unconsciously, it could sense where the danger of death came from more intensely. When it slowly glided to the side of the man lying on the ground, it didn't let its guard down to protect itself from attacks that might come. When it came to a breath's distance, it couldn't hold itself back anymore and entered the bodyguard's body through his open mouth.