Once again the flame of sulfur was ignited. Its fire floated up the ground and weaved around the bucket of blood.
The thick blood was pulled upward, hovering freely in the air. From within it, tiny dots of shimmering nitrogen separated themselves from the blood.
With one hand, Siderius held the separation process while with the other hand he conducted the directing salt.
His two fingers pointed at the second seal and gestured for it to fly up. The Salt Seal lit up in blue and they mixed themselves with the gray wood ash.
The ash flew up and went inside the ball of sulfur flame, joining with the nitrogen from the blood and oxygen of the air.
Then Siderius clasped his two hands together. Immediately, the ball of flame completely enveloped the ingredients, trapping them inside the intense heat of sulfur.
Ashe watched from the side. She still kept her eyes on the forge but couldn’t help to occasionally look over to Siderius. His movement and concentration were hypnotized to witness.
Slowly, the blood inside changed color. It lost its dark red color and turned toward a mix of black and gray.
The process took only minutes and when the sulfur could not detect any nitrogen left in the blood, Siderius ended the alchemical reaction with a sign.
He split his clasped hand and directed the gray blood to land gently in the bucket again. The new white powder of saltpetre was isolated by the salt and contained inside a crystal ball.
The salt crystal was quite huge, almost the size of an adult’s head. Inside was at least a few kilograms of saltpetre, plenty enough for Siderius to use for a while.
Siderius then carefully placed the saltpetre in a wooden box.
One of the core ingredients to make the bomb was acquired. But there was still work to be done.
Siderius still needed to make the trigger for the projectiles.
To ensure the clay ball would explode upon contact, Siderius needed a substance volatile enough to ignite the black powder within. This substance had to have a high concentration of Fire element.
With the tools and materials Siderius currently had, the only viable trigger was the oil of vitriol, also known as acid sulfuric in the Alchemy Guild.
To make this, Siderius needed to burn the pyrite with the presence of oxygen. With this, instead of yielding the pure sulfur from before, he would acquire a vile gas that could be used to make a lesser version of the oil of vitriol.
From then, Siderius could slowly enhance this lesser version to the dangerous oil of vitriol that he knew so well.
The heat required to do this was far beyond a tiny amount of sulfur could produce. The forge was needed for this task.
Siderius continued the night helping Ashe firing the clay. They spent all night hardening the projectiles and finished everything just a bit shy before dawn.
To avoid the wandering eyes, Siderius extinguished the forge then left with Ashe before the sun came. The work could still be continued when everyone fell asleep again.
The first night was completed with the clay projectiles ready to be filled. Now Siderius only needed to make the remaining ingredients.
He and Ashe returned to George’s forge the very next night.
That night was the night for the oil of vitriol. The amount needed for the projectiles wasn’t much as the nature of the oil was violent enough. With three pieces of pyrite, Siderius could create the amount of oil he needed.
The process was similar to how he extracted sulfur but instead of trapping the pyrite in a vacuum space, Siderius allowed oxygen to be inside the salt barrier.
The new salt barrier was different from the old one. Due to the violent nature of his upcoming creation, a pure barrier wasn’t enough.
He needed something else that could withstand the process.
This was when Siderius added Grayground, the pure Earth element plant that he had discovered previously.
He drew two Alchemical Seal, one inside the other. The inner circle was drawn by salt while the outer circle was drawn by sulfur.
The pyrites were placed inside the inner circle. And the Grayground was placed inside the outer circle.
The salt wasn’t strong enough. To reinforce it, Siderius must channel the fortification nature of the Earth element inside the Grayground and transport it to the salt barrier.
That task could be completed by using a Sulfur Seal. This seal was called Element Extraction.
Siderius initiated the process with the dedicated Alchemical Signs.
First, the Sulfur Seal lit up and sucked all the Earth elements out of the Grayground.
Brown dust appeared on the surface of the plant and slowly flew up. It landed gently on the inner Salt Seal and changed it white color to a faint brown.
The Grayground withered and dissolved into ash after its main Element was gone.
Then, the Earth-infused salt lit up and formed a sphere of crystal to hold the pyrite. Along with the pyrite were the oxygen that Siderius directed from the air.
The next step was easy. Siderius and Ashe fired up the forge again and slid the crystallized pyrite into the fire pit.
This was a time consuming task as the reaction would need time to complete. Without anything else to do, Siderius kneeled down in front of the forge to establish his next Ring in the Nine Rings.
The second ring was called the Ring of Urge.
Ring of Sense separated the senses of the hunter and the beast, preventing the hunter’s senses from being overwhelmed or tricked by the beast psyche.
Urge was the primal behavior that every being had, even witch hunters. Thirst, hunger and mating.
The Ring of Urge locked the beast’s primal needs and prevented it from influencing the hunter.
The Ring of Urge had three signs.
The first sign raised the right hand, index finger and thumb straightened, pointing to the sky while the other three fingers bent. The palm must aim toward the face of the hunter.
The second sign was an easy sign. However, it could be a bit hard to remember. The sign had the left index finger drew three symbols on the back of the right hand. This update is available on noⅴelfire.net
The first symbol was a circle with one vertical line inside and a second slanted line going through the middle of the first line.
The second symbol was a square with the two similar lines inside.
The third symbol was a triangle shape with the similar two lines.
After each symbol was drawn, the back of Siderius’s hand glowed up with the respective symbols.
After the second sign, the symbols also appeared inside his mind space. They flew around the left wing of the owl.
The third sign involved both hands. The left hand straightened. The right hand stretched out the thumb, index and middle finger. Then the index and middle finger drew a circle around the wrist of the left hand. The sign ended with the right hand opened wide and slammed on the fictional circle he had drawn.
As Siderius did that, the symbols flew around the left wing of Fluffy and created a faint gold ring. The ring was big and floated around the owl. It spun as the symbols orbited non-stop.
In the Ring of Urge, Siderius’s mental energy represented the three symbols. As it moved around Fluffy’s wing, more mental energy would be exerted and went inside the faint gold ring.
Siderius mumbled the verse of the Ring of Urge:
"No thirst nor starved, nor craving’s fire
Shall take the heart of my desire."