Chapter 232

• I finally got to the file that contained all the detailed information about the artifacts she needed in order to perform her ritual. It went on to explain in depth the significance of each artifact and why it played a crucial role in the process. These weren’t just meaningless objects. Each one had a purpose, a connection to something much larger than I originally thought, and the energy tied to them seemed ancient and incredibly powerful.
• Out of all of them, I only recognized one statue. It was the statue of the naked woman with the snake wrapped around her body. That one stood out because I had seen it before in an old book that mentioned dark rituals and forbidden magic. The others, however, were unfamiliar to me. I hadn’t seen anything like them in all my previous research or experience. Their shapes were strange, and the carvings on their surfaces looked like symbols I couldn’t immediately place. After that, I kept reading to understand what specific role each of these artifacts played in the ritual itself. The more I read, the clearer it became that the ritual was complicated and deeply dangerous.
• I knew then that if I could get to even one of the artifacts during the ritual, if I could touch it or disrupt its placement, I might be able to bring the entire process to a halt. That alone would be enough to stop what she was trying to achieve. But as tempting as that idea was, I also knew that it wouldn’t solve the problem we had with Lilith. It might interrupt the ritual, but all it would really do was enrage a very powerful, vengeful deity who would stop at nothing to punish anyone who interfered. She would come after me and anyone who helped me with a fury that none of us would be prepared for.