It's currently in the middle of the night, and the moon was at its peak, but right now, a bright magic circle could be seen glowing brightly in the dark hall of a castle.
At the center of the magic circle, a young man could be seen struggling as tendrils of dark magic wrapped around him like a long and deadly serpent.
The more Ray tried to free himself from the spell, the more tighter it curled around him, but his screams were instantly cut off by the spell of the magic circle underneath him, which prevented anyone from outside the hall hearing his voice right now.
Actually, no one could hear him screaming, aside from the few individuals who were currently in the hall with him.
Each of these individuals were a member of the elite warrior party of the kingdom, and as such, they were tasked with getting rid of the greatest threat the kingdom had ever faced.
And who else would such a threat be?
They were none other than the demons.
And if there were demons in this world, then there was a demon lord as well.
But since the demon lord was currently too strong for these brave individuals to handle, every single member knew certain actions had to be implemented.
And as such, Ray was the perfect sacrifice for their selfish interests.
Right now, standing in front of the magic circle was a young man called Aldric.
Aldric had golden colored hair and a perfect smile that looked ominous right now, rather than charming.
Ray noticed his presence and he called out to him, while still trying to free himself from the binding spell of the magic circle.
"Aldric!!! What is the meaning of this?"
Aldric stepped closer and his evil grin grew wider as he spreads his arms wide while saying.
"Thank you so much Ray."
"What the fuck are you thanking me for?"
"I'm talking about your sacrifice for a greater cause, of course."
"Sacrifice?"
"Indeed. Thanks to you, I'm one step closer to becoming a god, so you should be proud and honored for being chosen on this grand occasion."
"This is not funny!! Let me go!!!" Ray yelled as he glared at Aldric and the rest of his party members standing around the magic circle as well.
Just a few minutes ago, Ray had been asked to attend a group meeting but to his surprise, the moment he stepped into the center of the hall, a magic circle appeared beneath his feet, with chains and dark magic wrapping around him and pinning him to the ground.
So this caught him by surprise and right now, he was so confused as to why and what his party members aimed to achieve behind their sudden action of binding him to a magic circle.
Ray gritted his teeth and his gaze slowly turned toward the rest of his party members, starting with a female dressed in a Saint attire.
Her name was Elise Reinhardt and right now, she had her hands clasped in a praying gesture as holy light radiated from her body, allowing her to look like an angel descended from heaven...
Her silver colored hair and violet colored eyes made her look even more astonishing, but Ray had never really been attracted to this annoying female.
"Do not be afraid of what we're about to do to you because your life force will perfectly help us in strengthening Lord Aldric's ascension. Even the Goddess herself has given us her blessings in carrying out our task."
Ray turned silent the moment he heard Elise mentioning the goddess.
For centuries, the Goddess had been an important figure in many individuals' lives, be it a commoner or a noble and Ray had been a strong believer of her as well.
But right after he joined Aldric's party, Ray had stopped believing in the goddess.
In fact, he doubted if she even existed after witnessing what her believers were capable of doing.
Pushing such thoughts away for now, Ray noticed the mage of the party, standing next to Elise.
His name was Viktor Cross and right now, the mage was holding an opened tome as his fingers traced the glowing magical texts that formed the magic circle.
He wasn't smiling and neither was he frowning. All he did was glance at the runic text inscribed on the magic circle.
As a mage, Viktor was an hardcore fanatic on anything related to magic and spellcasting, so he sincerely found it fascinating to see how the spell was behaving as he had intended it to.
Viktor had never really been close to Ray despite being party members.
In fact, he had never really seen Ray as a human to begin with, so this was more like a science experiment to him, with Ray being his very first guinea pig to try out this forbidden dark magic.
"Fascinating, the spell has already begun draining his soul. I wonder how long he has before his life force is completely sucked out."
Ray tried to move once again and he tried to break free as well, but the more he struggled, the more the dark magic spell held him to the ground like iron chains wrapped around him.
"P-Please. This is wrong. Stop this....." He pleased but no one answered.
Meanwhile, the third party member in the room currently leaned against the wall with a bored look on his face.
His name was Gareth Finch and he was a Ranger as well.
He didn't really care about the fact that the rest of his teammates were about to use Ray as a sacrifice of their own selfish interests.
All he cared about was for it to get started and finished as soon as possible.
He simply wanted to witness it for himself and if Aldric would really become stronger if everything goes according to plan.
" How much longer am I going to have to stay here? I have better things to do you know, than to watch a peasant die."
Unlike Ray who had been born as a commoner, every other member of the elite warrior party were nobles or individuals born from high ranking households, and each of everyone of them care little about peasants and commoners.
"Patience, my true friend.," Viktor said as he continued. "The forbidden spell requires patience and precision. If we rush, the spell might go wrong and things won't go according to plan."
"Whatever. Let's just get this done with once and for all."