Damian originally wanted to appear calm and let this woman witness his manly spirit. However, he had underestimated the power of this spell and overestimated the limits his six-year-old body could endure.
It felt like something was wriggling inside his blood vessels, itching like crazy. Between his bones and skin, it felt like a sharp knife was squeezing through, bringing intense pain. These two extreme sensations constantly assaulted his central nervous system.
He lasted barely a minute before double vision blurred his sight, and a roaring sound filled his ears. Having already undergone some basic training from the League of Assassins, he knew clearly that there was nothing in front of him and no loud noise beside his ears. It was all just his vision and hearing malfunctioning because his brain was overloaded with information.
Closing his eyes, he tried hard to block out the surrounding noise, recalling the methods Ra's al Ghul had taught him. He attempted to focus his mind and concentrate on the present.
"If you can't hold on, tell me!" With his eyes closed, Damian faintly heard Thea's voice. Afraid it was an auditory hallucination, he opened one eye to look, only to see Thea rapidly flipping through a thick book with a black cover.
Seeming to sense his gaze, Thea even waved at him.
This guy... has she never done this before? This so-called 'Opening the Bloodline'... she hasn't tried it on anyone else, has she? Is she using me as a guinea pig? Watching Thea's serious expression as she flipped through the book, Damian couldn't help but harbor such suspicions.
Naturally, this was Thea's first time casting this spell. After all, where would she find someone with a dormant bloodline in modern society? Damian's aptitude could be considered just barely passable. With someone's help, he could enter this door; without help, as he got older, he'd just have to settle for being an ordinary warrior.
His aptitude was a bit lacking, and the magic circle Thea drew was too intense in its effects. The combination of the two meant that even Damian, whose willpower was considered firm, was about to crumble after just over a minute.
Seeing Damian still gritting his teeth and holding on for dear life, Thea feared something might happen to him. Following the method in the book, she reduced the mana output of the magic circle.
"Phew..." Damian let out a long breath. The numb, itching sensation disappeared, leaving only the piercing, bone-deep pain. Enduring a single type of sensation was much easier. His brows remained tightly furrowed, but his clenched jaw finally relaxed.
At this moment, Thea's lazy voice reached his ears again. "Feeling a bit better? The mana output from the array has been reduced by half, but the ritual time has been extended by double. It will probably last about three hours!"
Three hours! Damian, who was closing his eyes and trying hard to endure the pain, almost jumped up. If it were ten or fifteen minutes, he could hold on, but three hours... The thought of giving up had just surfaced in his mind when he squashed it. He, Damian Wayne, would not admit defeat, nor could he. What others could do, he would do too. A massive opportunity was right in front of him. Thinking of Ra's al Ghul's hundreds of years of eager expectation... isn't it just three hours?! Endure it!
Time passed slowly. Damian didn't know how long it had been, but he suddenly realized he wasn't hurting as much anymore. Was his body numb? He focused and felt it carefully. That was a factor, but more importantly, his physique was improving rapidly!
Stronger! No one knew how much Damian yearned for this word in his heart. Growing up without his father by his side, surrounded only by a mother filled with resentment and an old man everyone called the Demon's Head, Damian had set a goal for himself since he could remember: to be powerful, to have strength, to not let others arbitrarily interfere with his destiny.
Although the change was slow, with every minute and second, he could feel his heart beating with more force and his bones becoming tougher. His physical constitution was climbing rapidly. In the past, it might have taken ten or a hundred times the effort to exchange for this tiny bit of improvement. Today, just sitting here, he could gain power. This was the power of magic!
He couldn't help but sneak another peek at Thea. Our young miss had no patience to watch him grit his teeth; at this moment, she was propping up her chin, eyes closed, resting her mind.
Damian swallowed back the words at the tip of his tongue. This guy probably doesn't care about my gratitude. But to be able to fight Grandfather for so long relying only on martial arts... I couldn't tell... she's actually pretty tough.
Thea hadn't fallen asleep. She had been secretly observing Damian in the magic circle the whole time. After all, this was Batman's son. Pretending to sleep was just because she feared trouble. Earning the gratitude of a six-year-old brat? What use was that?
The pain finally ended. Next came the numbness and itching. Damian, whose physical constitution had now improved significantly, had anticipated this. He didn't panic but buried his head and toughed it out.
It felt like thousands of bugs were crawling inside his blood vessels. That so-called "refreshing" sensation was definitely not something an ordinary person could endure. Damian wished the earlier pain would come back to replace the itching. Unfortunately, he knew this was a necessary process. To become stronger, he continued to endure.
After an unknown amount of time, he finally heard Thea speak. "Rest for a bit. Prepare for the next stage." Her voice sounded like music from heaven. Damian looked as if he had been fished out of water; his short black hair was plastered to his forehead. A trace of stubbornness could still be seen in his blue eyes, but his hands couldn't stop trembling.
Thea used Mage Hand to lift him out of the magic circle. "The body enhancement phase has passed. The next stage is the formal condensation of the bloodline. You will encounter massive blood loss. So that you don't end up crippled in the future, go to the side and move around. Adjust your physical condition."
Damian gasped for air in big gulps, trying hard to calm his breathing. Before long, he felt the difference in his body compared to before. The most significant change was that he had grown taller. Secondly, his vision reached further, and his hearing was sharper.
He threw a few punches and kicks. The most obvious feeling was that his strength and speed were much greater. It wasn't in vain for the suffering and misery he endured these past three hours.
Moving around for a while, he gradually mastered his new strength. He performed a few backflips; his movements were agile and light. Although he could do this before, it was far less effortless than now.
"Recovered enough? Then let's continue." After getting his consent, Thea placed him back into the magic circle. They began the second step, which was also the most critical stage: bloodline purification.
Previously, the light of the magic circle was a pale black; now, it turned light red.
Initially, Damian didn't feel any difference. But soon, a wave of weakness washed over his heart. Having some understanding of human anatomy, he knew this was what Thea called the bloodline purification phase. A large amount of blood was being artificially consumed. The magic circle would help him extract the most essential part of his blood. This was the starting point of walking the path of the arcane.
Different from the previous stage of gritting teeth and enduring, Damian now had to deal with endless weakness. His face grew paler and paler as his blood drained away rapidly. He had to fight to stay awake and not faint from excessive blood loss.