The bloody array pulsed once, and every corpse moved.
A shoulder was dragged across the ground. A heel turned. Nine hundred and ninety-nine bodies shifted until their chests rested over the waiting inscriptions.
Tarvak began struggling again.
Simon watched the blood beneath the nearest body crawl upward against its weight.
"Take off your shirt," Lilith said.
He looked at her.
"The inscriptions must reach your skin. And put the sword inside your heart, where it belongs."
Simon willed the Chaos Blade to shrink. It became a narrow black streak and sank into his chest, settling within the Chaos Flame inside his Infernal Heart.
He removed what remained of his shirt. The Chaos Wraps stayed around his arms.
"Now stand there."
Lilith indicated toward the smallest circle. Simon lowered himself into it, his bare chest exposed to the cold drifting over the ground.
"Cross your legs. Palms upward. Once the blood touches you, do not leave that circle."
"What happens if I move?"
