Chapter 13
"Man, fuck this shit. I'm done." Sirius finally lost his patience, having gone over the same few pages of notes for what felt like the hundredth time. He decided to try and figure out how some of the rituals in his family grimoire worked, starting with the simplest ones. He initially breezed through them, relying on his knowledge of runes, arithmancy, and how magic worked in general. He was in really high spirits when he moved on to attempt deciphering some of the more complicated rituals. That only served to make him more frustrated when after hours of work he seemed no closer to understanding the parts that troubled him.
Sirius had no issue comprehending the runes used to outline the rituals' purpose and, most of the time, even what ingredients were best suited for the task and why. What really stumped him was how the rituals interacted with one another.
His interest lay in rituals offering a permanent enhancement, not a temporary one. There was a reason why only a select few families or organizations were in possession of even a single working ritual set. The difficulty lay in fine-tuning and perfecting it. When creating a ritual for a person to undergo one had to take into consideration that person's characteristics. But with each ritual that person had undergone, the complexity of the adjustments one would have to make grew exponentially. The rituals often affected one another, and every previous ritual could change the outcome of any further ones. While dealing with temporary effects one could simply wait till they expire, or even if that was not an option, the impact would not be anywhere close to as severe.
There did not seem to be any real way to accurately predict how those interactions would go, at least not with any degree of certainty. The amount of data collected on the matter was simply not sufficient, and every interested party coveted any small amount of knowledge for themselves. This was not in any way a public undertaking, but more of a 'every man for themselves' situation. As such, making any real changes to an existing set as a lone individual would require an insane amount of trial and error. For someone who was not willing to go through years of experimentation and had no real interest in the subject, beyond benefiting from it, it was not really an appealing prospect. And so after barely a couple of days of study, Sirius decided that perfecting rituals was not his calling. He would have to take a calculated risk while trying to maximize his chances of success.
The Black family only possessed two permanent ritual sets, both fairly basic. The first was a singular set of three rituals - all meant to magnify the person's magic pool by sacrificing a person of a similar or higher power level. It supposedly gave the best results if done in combat, after a hard-won victory.
The other consisted of three sets of three rituals, each set requiring the person in question to select a trait of their choosing, which would be amplified three times for a creature killed in combat. The degree of improvement would depend on the selected being. Sirius only really considered the second one from the start, it seemed to have much more potential. It was designed for each kill to be completed on Samhain to maximize the impact of the magic. Sirius was okay with that, the benefits of having more time in between for preparation were many.
The reason for his earlier attempt at researching rituals in depth was not that he was dissatisfied with the size of the set. He simply wanted to repurpose it somewhat. When he first read it he immediately had a vision of what he wanted. When thinking about the three characteristics he wanted most he quickly settled on: endurance, speed, and power. The only other thing he considered was control, but he had this in spades thanks to his impressive occlumency and extensive practice, which should get a boost soon as well.
He failed to figure out the inner workings of the set, but, based on his research, Sirius was confident that the small changes he made would not cause any serious complications. He intended for each set to focus on an attribute, like in the original, but for each ritual to affect a different aspect of it.
He intended for his first set to focus on speed. To start with, a ritual to improve the speed of forming his magic, and his control over it. Next, physical reflexes and movement speed. And last, processing speed. It should help his intelligence, memory retention, awareness, and potentially much more, making sure his perception did not lack behind. This should enable him to apply his greater speed more effectively and ensure it would not impair his fine movement control.
Next would be endurance. The first would simply be meant to amplify his magic regeneration rate. He had a certain creature in mind that should boost him a significant degree in that regard. The second would affect his physical endurance, allowing him to withstand more physical strain before exhaustion, while also making him more durable. The third would be mental endurance, meant to help him withstand the mental strain. The latter two combined would hopefully reduce his need for rest even further.
Finally, power. The first would be magical power, providing him with a bigger magic pool and quicker magic output, enabling him to cast more powerful spells. Next was physical power, pretty self-explanatory, but probably the least useful one for a magic caster. As a former beater, however, he was quite excited about it nonetheless. Last but not least, is mental power. As confident as he was in the rune array he designed, he himself was not sure what the exact effects would be. He was certain it would amplify his abilities in mind arts and, in conjunction with previous enhancements, would probably make him somewhat immune to mental effects. The likes of the imperius, confundus charm, and a number of potions should pose no threat to him afterward, but beyond that, he could not really accurately predict what the effects could be. He fantasized about wandlessly tearing through people's mental shields like it was nothing, but that was pure speculation and probably too much to hope for.
Based on his hard-earned knowledge of rituals the risks should not be that high if he did everything in accordance to the plan. While everything could still go horribly wrong the chances of that happening were relatively low, some would even consider them negligible.
Sirius was somewhat reluctant to go through with something so potentially dangerous, while not being entirely clear on the mechanics of the process, but rationally he knew that the ritual plan was sound. The foundation of the ritual 3 by 3 - magic, body, and mind by speed, endurance, and power was as solid as could be. The rituals themselves were only meant to enhance what was already there, without making any unnatural changes, in a simple and straightforward manner. As such there was very little that could go wrong.
That was quite fortunate since Sirius wasn't sure if he could stop himself from going through with it regardless. In these past months, he had come to realize that he really hated the feeling of stagnation. He did not like falling into a routine, doing the same things over and over with nothing to keep his interest. Sirius wanted to experience new things, and the adrenaline coming from taking risks was something he was loath to pass up. It made reaping the rewards later on that much sweeter. That might make him something of a gambler, but he always made sure to stack the odds in his favor. He would never truly put his life on the line, especially when he was not in any way desperate, without believing he had things in the bag. He was a firm believer in a risk versus reward mindset, and any ratio of those he would consider was usually pretty low.
And the benefits from these rituals could be great. Life-changing. Sirius already had some creatures in mind and they were some of the most powerful in the wizarding world. They would not prove easy to defeat, of that Sirius was certain but his pride would never let him settle for anything less. With the prospect of fundamentally changing his very being made his resolution to take them on all the firmer.
Sirius was aiming for the spot amongst the most powerful wizards around the world. That was not something accomplished through sheer hard work and dedication, that was the grim reality. He would not work relentlessly for decades only to fall short before the likes of Dumbledore and Grindelwald, simply because he refused to take the shortcut when the opportunity was given.
His mind made up he started calculating the materials needed for the first ritual. When the time came he would be ready for his first hunt.
END
