After a day had passed, everyone gathered once again before the small grave.
"Will it work? Will that child become a spirit?"
"I don't know either."
Facing Lis's question, Ciri shook her head, then knelt before the grave.
"But we'll know soon enough."
As she spoke, Ciri gazed at the grave before her and began to chant softly.
"I summon you with the power of blood, I beseech you in your name. Hear my call and rise, Tia!"
Along with Ciri's call, a faint glow soon appeared. Then a small, radiant figure flew out from the grave and arrived before them.
"Great, it worked... huh?"
Seeing the spirit before them, Lis and Maje initially revealed delighted expressions. However, once they got a clear look at the glowing creature as a whole, the joy on their faces stiffened considerably.
"Did it... work?"
"Didn't it fail?"
It was no wonder the two girls reacted that way, because the creature before them looked almost exactly like the Corpse Infant they had seen yesterday. Aside from its body, once wrapped in flesh and purplish-red muscle, having turned into a translucent glowing form, everything else was identical—the sharp tongue in its mouth, its razor-sharp teeth, and those ET-like eyes!
Was this a spirit? This was an evil ghost!!
"I thought it would be cuter after being purified..."
Lis stood there dumbfounded, unsure what to say. She had imagined that the baby originally could not have been so ugly, and since it had been purified into a spirit, it would probably become a tiny, adorable baby-like figure.
Instead... looking at the Household Spirit before her, Lis felt as if her entire worldview needed rebuilding.
"Take me to the one connected to you by blood."
However, Ciri was not as bewildered as the two girls. She called