Shade cupped the scattered soil in both hands and softly spoke as he cast the thaumaturgy:
"May the earth be with you and me."
His hands parted, and the soil spilled from his palms, yet it did not fall into the snow in the cold wind.
It gathered spontaneously in the air, then formed a small clay cup. Its base was round, its slender stem consisted of four standing figures raising their hands toward the center together, and its bowl had an opening nearly as wide as its base.
Cups of this shape were generally used in mysticism for sacrifices and rituals. Most so-called "Holy Grails" were made in this form as well.
The soil-formed "Holy Grail" faced upward. As Shade cast the spell, the cup slowly descended until it sank through the snow and into the earth. Only highly perceptive Ring Arcanists could see the earth-yellow aura erupting like a fountain from where the cup had fallen. Within a few breaths, it covered the ground of the entire estate.
"Oh!"
Throughout this process, Shade maintained the spell. Just as the information he had received when acquiring the thaumaturgy last night had indicated, it consumed spirit energy at an alarming rate. In fact, aside from Mystic Lock, most of Shade's thaumaturgies and sorceries had never consumed so much spirit energy at once. Fortunately, his spirit energy recovered extremely quickly, and its upper limit seemed different from that of an ordinary Fifth-Ring Arcanist.
He even suspected that anyone other than himself would need to use this thaumaturgy repeatedly over several sessions to completely purify the estate. The process would likely take quite some time. Looking at it that way, there was indeed a reason why the man in the Emerald Dream had believed Shade was well suited to this power.
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