It was currently the middle of the night, when the moon was at its peak. At the same time, 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, deadly serpent.
The more Ray tried to free himself from the spell, the tighter the tendrils curled around him.
Despite his pain, he could barely make a sound, as his screams were instantly cut off by the magic circle underneath him, preventing anyone outside the hall from hearing his voice.
Actually, no one could hear him screaming, except the few individuals who were currently in the hall with him.
Each of these individuals was a member of the kingdom's elite warriors party, and as such, they were tasked with getting rid of the greatest threat the kingdom had ever faced.
And who else could such a threat be?
They were none other than the Demons.
And if there were demons in this world, it meant that there was also a demon lord.
But since the demon lord was too strong for these brave individuals to handle on their own, they all knew that certain measures had to be implemented.
As such, Ray was the perfect sacrifice to ensure the implementation of their selfish desires.
Standing in front of the magic circle was a young man called Aldric.
Aldric had golden hair and a smile which might have been termed perfect on someone else, but which looked ominous on him.
Ray noticed his presence and called out to him while he was still trying to free himself from the binding spell.
"Aldric!!! What is the meaning of this?"
Aldric stepped closer and his evil grin grew wider as he spread his arms wide.
"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 to have been chosen for this grand occasion."
"What nonsense are you blabbering about? This is not funny!! Let me go!!!" Ray yelled as he glared at Aldric and the rest of his party members who were 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 walked towards the center of the hall, a magic circle appeared beneath his feet, then chains and dark magic wrapped themselves around him, pinning him to the ground.
This had caught him by surprise and right now, he was so confused as to why and what his party members wanted to achieve by 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's attire.
Her name was Elise Reinhardt and right now, her hands were clasped in a praying gesture as holy light radiated from her body, making her look like an angel descended from heaven.
Her silver colored hair and violet eyes made her look even more ethereal, 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 to strengthen Lord Aldric's ascension. Even the Goddess herself has given us her blessings in carrying out our task."
Ray became silent the moment he heard Elise mention 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 in her as well.
But right after joining Aldric's party, Ray had stopped believing in the goddess.
In fact, he doubted she even existed, especially after witnessing what her believers were capable of doing.
Focusing on more pressing issues, Ray noticed the mage of the party, who was standing next to Elise.
His name was Viktor Cross and he was currently holding an open tome as his fingers traced the glowing magical texts that formed the magic circle.
He wasn't smiling nor was he frowning. Instead, he blankly glanced at the runic text inscribed on the magic circle.
As a mage, Viktor was a hardcore fanatic about anything related to magic and spellcasting, so he always found it fascinating to see that the spell was behaving the way he had intended it to.
Viktor had never really been close to Ray despite both of them being party members.
In fact, he had never seen Ray as a human being, to begin with. So this was more like a magical experiment to him, with Ray being the very first guinea pig to try out the 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. He tried as much as he could to break free, but the more he struggled, the more the dark magic held him to the ground like iron chains.
"P-Please. This is wrong. Stop this…" He pleaded helplessly, and no one acknowledged him.
Meanwhile, the fourth party member in the room was leaning against the wall with a bored look on his face.
His name was Gareth Finch and he was a Ranger.
He didn't care about the fact that the rest of his teammates were about to use Ray as a sacrifice for their selfish interests.
All he cared about was for them to get started and finish the sacrifice as soon as possible.
He simply wanted to witness it for himself to see if Aldric would really become stronger if everything went according to plan.
"How much longer am I going to have to stay here? I have better things to do, than watch a peasant die, you know."
Unlike Ray who had been born a commoner, every other member of the elite warrior party was either a noble or an individual from high-ranking households, and every single one of them couldn't care less about peasants and commoners.
"Patience, my dear friend," Viktor said before continuing. "The forbidden spell requires patience and precision. If we rush it, the spell might go wrong and things won't go according to plan."
"Whatever. Let's get this done once and for all."