I spent the next week designing the ritual. I also got to know the staff and some people from our town. We settled in relatively quickly. It even started feeling like home. Then again, it might have been the people who surrounded me. Any place where Lucy was, was home.

Shani was enthusiastically helping with the ritual. While the focus was on Mantus' body we would involve blood from other creatures. Shani was leading hunting trips into the forest and collecting materials.

The dryads were really excited and I did not want to disappoint them. So I pulled out all the stops. I even asked Josef to help. Alchemy might come in handy and he liked working with magical creatures.

I also searched my inventory. I still had a lot of things in there but was there anything for a dryad empowering ritual? Sadly the inventory did not come with a proper search function. Was there any quest, or event, that could have helped?

Lily's weapon came from a sakura event. But was there any prize that involved actual trees? Oh wait! There was a magical seed that you could grow for player housing. I had never bothered. But what would a seed do? The dryads already had trees. Unless I could harvest the magic inside…

It took me another week to get everything ready. It involved a lot of devour magic testing. My spell was somewhat creepy but observing it more, I was able to recreate a part of it with runes. The day of the ritual was a big event and turned into a festival of sorts.

The population seemed fond of their dryad protectors and were excited for the town's future. Of course the ritual itself would be performed inside the castle. But the town was filled with food stands and people had gathered around the dryad trees inside the town, hoping to see a show.

I had drawn a ritual circle around Ash's tree. The tree itself was also covered in runes. It was growing inside the castle in an area we designated as a garden. Right now it was mostly filled with grass but we would plant more things in the future. Mantus' body was placed next to the tree, the event seed was on top of his body. Josef had prepared a potion we poured at the base of Ash's tree.

Then came the blood. Shani had collected a lot. I had painted some runes on every dryad's tree with it. They were outside of the ritual circle but connected to Ash with their root network. The runes should help them absorb more mana. Even more blood was used to drench the entire area inside the ritual. I was not sure how much that would help but Shani insisted.

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As the ritual began I unleashed my aura. I covered the whole town in a gentle storm. I kept the lightning in the sky. There was a small breeze and some gentle rain. I poured my desire to feed the trees into my aura. Lucy joined me, unleashing her own aura.

I would provide 4 tier 9 spell slots, Lucy would provide 2. It was a lot of power. The ritual would devour the magic from the offerings and divert it into Ash and the grove. I had done some testing and I was fairly confident in my calculations.

Lilith watched with interest. She was not participating but I allowed her to watch. All of our maid knights were present as well.

Shani declared herself Mistress of Ceremonies and offered every maid knight a goblet with blood.

"Um, what is that?" I asked.

"Hehehe, that is a proper drink!" Shani declared.

I scratched my head and looked at Lily. "You are all going to just drink blood?"

"Josef has altered it, my lady. It contains alcohol as well. The blood is from some of the monsters Shani has hunted, it should help make the drink more potent." Lily explained.

Well, if it was not raw blood… I had eaten monster parts and magical creatures could certainly add good flavours.

Shani floated into the centre of the ritual. "Greetings. I, the cutest elemental there is, shall guide everyone through this ritual!" Shani said, with a magically enhanced voice. It could be heard all around town.

"Today you bear witness to the power of the Lady of Storms! Today the storm will embrace this city! It will feed the land and its people. Today the dryads shall conclude their transformation! They shall become the eternal protectors of these lands!" Shani shouted.

So far her speech was good. It allowed me to focus on my magic. I grabbed Lucy's hand and both of us began to focus on the circle. We began to feed it the magic to activate the process.

"TODAY THEY WILL FEAST ON THE BLOOD OF OUR ENEMIES! EVERYONE WHO STANDS AGAINST US SHALL BE DEVOURED! TODAY THE MAIDS OF THE STORM SHALL FEAST ON BLOOD!" Shani shouted.

All the maids consumed their drink at that moment. Then the circle glowed. All the runes shone in bright red. A dark purple smoke emerged and began to eat the corpse and the seed. Then the smoke floated to Ash's tree. It settled near the roots and was sucked into them.

Ash gasped and fell to her knees. I could feel magic surging inside our bond. But it was not just the dryads who were affected. I stared in wonder at our knights. Even Lily was starting to breathe hard. Our entire bond network had been filled with magic.

The dryads had all changed when they became maid knights. But now their changes went even further. More red or purple streaks. Changes in the color of their skin. And most interestingly, their trees grew. All over the city you could see them rise by 5 to 10 metres.

But something else happened inside our bond. We had a connection to the plane of air. It was stronger than ever but it was no longer the only one. I could feel another one forming. It was small and felt wet. Did we build a connection to the plane of water? Water was part of a storm, so I guess it made sense.

I felt my own power tingling, almost purring. Somehow the strengthened bond helped me as well. I looked around. Shani's body was developing bright red streaks from her ears all over her skin. Then I looked at Lucy. Her entire body was suddenly glowing. She went down on her knees.

I immediately grabbed her, to stop her from falling. Before I could ask what was wrong I got my answer. Another tail grew right before my eyes.

I grinned. Best ritual ever.

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