Three months passed by like the wind, never stopping for anyone or anything. Cate spent all this time in the dark hall with Galeazzo and the twins, Svyatoslav and Agrafena. The twins were still tied up in opposite corners of the hall, and Galeazzo remained bound to the floor, completely helpless with his fate having been removed from his hands. Over the past three months, the twins came to learn of true horror.
Svyatoslav and Agrafena were powerful vampires who had lived for at least a thousand years, and yet they were shaken by what they were seeing. Cate began chanting three months ago and she was still casting the same spell to this day. The magic circle she had carved into the floor constantly glowed with power, making the air thick with danger and promise.
Through all this time, Galeazzo never stopped screaming. The moment Cate uttered the first word of her spell, Galeazzo felt pain move over his body, but it was still tolerable. He gritted his teeth and handled it like a man.
"I will not give you the pleasure," he had thought at the time. This determination and willpower to overcome his foe was powerful, but it only lasted a few minutes before Galeazzo could no longer handle the pain. He let out a scream that shattered the glass in the hall and burst the eardrums of all present, including his own.
Through this, Cate never stopped chanting, even when she could not hear what she was saying and blood made its way down her angelic face. Cate chanted her spell, making her intent known to the world and the realms of magic that held everything together.
For Galeazzo, the pain grew with each passing second. He felt his body being boiled and frozen at the same time. He felt his hair being pulled out one at a time and, at the same time, he felt as though he was the most powerful he had ever been. After a week of this, Galeazzo began feeling as though his soul was being ripped out of his body, to be forever lost to a darkness like never before seen.
He roared in pain and resisted this horror with everything he had. He cried out for help and soon, he begged for mercy. He promised riches and even offered handsome men to Cate. If only he knew that Cate was like most men in this regard. When all his offers fell on deaf ears, Galeazzo began promising a revenge like never before. He colorfully described what he would do to Cate. For a few moments, this fantasy managed to hide Galeazzo from his pain. Just like all avoidance techniques, it was short-lived, and Galeazzo fell deeper into the pits of despair.
After a month, Svyatoslav noticed that something was very wrong. Cate had constantly been using her magic for thirty days straight.
"She should have exhausted her magic by now. No magician, even a sorcerer, could have so much magic. It is impossible," the vampire cried out. His sister looked at him with reproach, as though she was telling him to shut up in hopes that Cate would forget about their presence. She could see the agony their friend was going through and wanted no part of it.
Cate did not explain her power. She just ignored the comments and even increased the amount of magic she was using. The walls that made up the hall trembled from the power, but this was only the beginning. Cate continued, and it had been three months since she began. Galeazzo had screamed so much that he began coughing up blood. He now only managed to produce wheezing sounds similar to those produced by a headless chicken allowed to run around even though there was no hope of it ever returning to life.
Cate continued, and in the sixth month, Galeazzo finally went completely silent. He was not dead, but anyone who saw his current state would feel that death was better than this. Cate finally smiled when she saw this. This was a good sign that her spell was actually working as intended. She had not expected the process to take so long, but she was too happy to care about such minor details.
Bang.
A wave of power was suddenly released from the center of the circle where Galeazzo was tied up. A ball of grey energy appeared above him.
"God have mercy on our sin-filled souls," Agrafena said as she made the symbol of a cross.
"It is his soul. She has ripped Gal's soul right out of his body," Svyatoslav said with astonishment.
"That is impossible. Only a god can come in contact with the soul of a mortal. There is no way for her to achieve something like this. Even though I have not read much about the matter, I am sure that this cannot be Galeazzo's soul," Agrafena argued.
"She must be a herald to a very powerful god. She is using the little divine power given to her. This is how she has managed to cast a spell that directly deals with her enemies' souls," the twins said at the same time.
Cate opened her arms wide and the ball of grey energy moved to her like a child being welcomed home. The soul slammed into Cate's chest and entered her body. Cate just closed her eyes once more. Now that the soul was inside her, she would have more control over what needed to be done. She sat down and continued chanting.
A year came and went before Cate finally completed her task. When Galeazzo next walked out of the dark hall where he had been imprisoned and tortured for over a year, he was a completely new person. When Ion saw him a few minutes later, he fell to his knees.
"Congratulations to the Wandering Master for having created her first avatar," Ion said along with the men behind him.
It turned out that Cate had been transforming Galeazzo into a puppet of hers. There were many spells in the world, but there were even more spells yet to be created. Cate was one of the few magicians with enough understanding of magic to create more than a handful of spells.