He didn't want to fight, and Thea couldn't force him to spar, so she shook her head and put away her weapon.
Neither of them mentioned the demon sword. For Ra's al Ghul, that sword brought more trouble than benefits. Getting it off his hands this way wasn't a bad thing.
"About Damian?" Ra's asked with a hint of unease. Logically speaking, Damian being discovered meant the mission was incomplete. According to the League of Assassins' customs, this was an absolute failure—the result would be either death or redoing the mission. Hence his question.
Thea thought about it carefully. "I will teach Damian. But the favor I owe the League is wiped clean." Thea didn't know how much Ra's knew about Malcolm's current situation, but anyone paying attention could easily figure out the relationship between the two. Moreover, Thea felt that the League's martial arts had given her the capital to rise in this chaotic world. Tracing it back to the source, that favor ultimately counted toward Ra's al Ghul.
"Good. It's settled then. I leave Damian in your hands." Ra's didn't hesitate after speaking; his tall, thin figure walked alone into the forest.
Thea stood still without moving. Three minutes passed before a small figure walked out from the other side of the woods. It was Damian Wayne. At this moment, the brat looked a bit embarrassed. "I really didn't know he followed me..."
Thea looked at him coldly. "I expected too much from you."
The thing Damian couldn't tolerate most in this life was people saying he wasn't good enough! Hearing Thea's words, he wanted to retort, but he ultimately lowered his head.
Little brat, quite the stubborn temper. Thea observed his reaction from the corner of her eye. To deal with this kind of brat, you had to use "wicked" methods—you had to make him tremble with fear just thinking about you. Batman's method of talking about life and ideals was pure nonsense.
"Forget it. I'll consider you passed this time. Your grandfather treats you pretty well," Thea remarked with a sigh. Ra's al Ghul's sexist ideology was particularly obvious here; if Damian had been a girl, Ra's probably wouldn't have spared him a second glance.
"Grandfather's body...?" Damian wanted to say something but didn't know how to phrase it.
Thea smacked him on the forehead. She had to admit, it felt pretty good. "Your grandfather's body is fine. If you don't succeed in learning magic, he'll still be alive long after you're dead!"
Damian didn't understand the issues involved. Did Ra's al Ghul not know he was bargaining with a tiger? Thea felt that even if he didn't know initially, he must have realized it after so many years. But getting on the pirate ship was easy; getting off was hard. Demonization was corroding his body and soul. Thea had no familial ties to him, so she wasn't about to stick her neck out for him. Trigon's power wasn't something just anyone could easily touch.
Leading Damian into the woods, she instructed him to sit cross-legged.
"Ra's al Ghul must have scavenged quite a few magical tomes over the years, but no matter who among you reads or studies them, you can't cultivate anything, right?" Thea sat on the ground as well, looking at the nervous Damian as she asked.
"Yes. Grandfather put in a tremendous amount of effort on this."
"We call this initial process 'Awakening the Bloodline.' First, you lacked the method. Second, you didn't have someone with mana to officiate it. Finally, and most critically, you don't possess much magical bloodline."
Speaking of this, Thea felt a bit sentimental. The Spirit Enlightenment Cup that Swamp Thing handed her was definitely a semi-divine artifact, and that tattered scroll had also replaced the mana modification source to a certain extent. Only through various strokes of luck did Thea achieve what she had today.
"How are you holding up? The bloodline awakening ritual will consume a large amount of your blood. If you faint, I can't guarantee success," Thea asked carelessly. The requirements for this path of magic were far too harsh. Some things had to be made clear. Damian at least had her guidance; his conditions were already far better than when she had stumbled into it purely by blind luck.
Damian answered quickly and resolutely, "I can do it. Even if I die, I won't faint."
"Even with severe pain, you cannot faint. Can you do it?"
"I can!"
"Losing one-fifth of your total blood volume while staying awake—can you persist?"
"I can!!"
"Good! Then I'll rest for a bit... fighting your grandfather for half the day exhausted me." After speaking, Thea leaped onto a nearby tree branch.
"Pfft!" Damian, whose blood was boiling with determination, was suddenly thrown off balance by her move. In his anxiety to say something, he almost bit his tongue.
Naturally, Thea wasn't so bored that she was just teasing a child. She was indeed a bit tired. Drawing a magic circle was mentally and physically draining work; better to let her clone do it.
A pure black shadow walked out of her body, quickly taking on her appearance and physique. The clone shot her a somewhat annoyed look before lowering its head to begin drawing the incredibly tedious magic circle.
Damian looked up at Thea in the tree, then turned to look at the clone drawing the circle. He had only caught a fleeting glimpse of her clone skill in Thea's office before, far from this close-range contact. The brat's mouth hung wide open, forgetting whatever he wanted to say earlier.
The Spirit Enlightenment Bloodline Array was both troublesome and tedious, with a singular purpose. Perhaps there were simplified versions, but Thea only knew this one recorded in the Constantine family magic book. It took the clone over an hour to finally complete it.
The clone instructed Damian, "Stay put."
"You can talk!" Damian was astonished. He had always assumed this was something like a robot, but the other party had expressions and could speak. This confused him a bit.
The clone didn't say more to him and quickly merged back into Thea's body.
Thea woke up leisurely at this moment. The clone's existence also drained her energy, but her recovery increased significantly in the night. Subtracting the cost and adding the recovery, her strength had recovered quite a bit.
She walked around the magic circle to inspect it, then took out her spellbook to compare the pattern against the diagrams inside. It was indeed error-free.
With her officiating, there was no need for any "ancestral trials." The mana for Damian's initial bloodline awakening would be provided by her, making it relatively much safer.
Pointing a finger at Damian, mana bound his movements, floating him into the exact center of the array.
"I'm starting." Thea casually set up a soundproof barrier. If someone passed by and heard him screaming, they might think she was abusing a child. That would be melodramatic.
Damian didn't care whether she was watching him or not; he clenched his fists tight and nodded heavily.
This spell was very archaic; many syllables required curling the tongue to pronounce. Thea's face was unusually serious. Coordinating her hand gestures, she chanted the incantation. Her voice spread through the air in the forest—before the old echoes faded, new sounds rose again.
Rising and falling, they formed a certain resonance. The forest was filled with an indescribable rhythm.
Fortunately, this wasn't combat. If her mental energy waned, she could take a brief rest. Thea had to rest three full times before finally completing the spell.
From a distance, she pointed her finger at a specific spot on the array. The entire magic circle seemed to trigger a hidden mechanism and gradually lit up.