The most successful case of the Blood Forging ritual recorded in the Travers family history was that of a wizard named Sigurd. According to the text, Sigurd captured a Norwegian Ridgeback and used a massive amount of dragon blood, along with his own, to inscribe blood-vein sigils across his entire body, forming a powerful magical circuit.
Once the ritual was complete, he used the Imperius Curse to control the dragon, forcing it to constrict its own body, tightening its scales and muscles. Then, he bled the creature dry, bathing himself in its blood.
The result? Sigurd gained a nearly indestructible body, his skin as tough as dragonhide itself. Of course, his story didn’t end there. Drunk on his newfound power, Sigurd rampaged across the land, plundering resources and challenging authorities with impunity. His unbreakable defense made him a terror to wizards and Muggles alike. And then… he made a fatal mistake. He encountered Godric Gryffindor.
The Lion House founder, known for his love of battle and hatred of injustice, personally challenged Sigurd to a duel. According to the Travers records, their first battle ended in a draw. Gryffindor’s legendary sword couldn’t pierce Sigurd’s enchanted skin, but Sigurd, for all his defense, couldn’t defeat Gryffindor either. The two warriors clashed for hours before retreating, agreeing to fight again another day.
However, in between battles, Gryffindor discovered Sigurd’s weakness. During his blood ritual, a single leaf had stuck to Sigurd’s shoulder, preventing the dragon’s blood from fully infusing into that spot. This left him with one unprotected area, a vulnerable point in his otherwise impenetrable defense. In their second duel, Gryffindor exploited this flaw, striking at the exposed skin. Sigurd was slain, and the Sword of Gryffindor absorbed the properties of dragonhide, making it sharp enough to pierce even the toughest magical creatures.
Alex frowned as he read through the account. ‘This sounds exactly like the story of Sigurd and Fafnir from Norse mythology…’ Had history copied the legend? Or had the legend been inspired by real events?
Regardless, one thing was clear, the Blood Forging ritual was immensely powerful. But it was also highly dangerous. To complete the process, massive bloodletting was required, far beyond what any normal wizard could endure. If Tonks were the subject, she wouldn’t even survive the first step.
Alex set the book aside, deep in thought. "I need to test this ritual on something less… lethal." Rather than performing blood magic on Tonks, he decided to experiment on an animal first. His target? A Tebo warthog.
Tebo warthogs had naturally thick, durable skin, almost as tough as some low-tier magical beasts. If he could successfully transfer that trait onto another material, it would prove the concept without risking a living subject. His goal was to infuse ordinary cowhide with the Tebo’s resistance, essentially creating a magically enhanced leather.
The Tebo was a perfect test subject. It had strong magical properties. It had plenty of blood, making it durable for experimentation. And if things went wrong… well, the meat wouldn’t go to waste.
With a clear plan, Alex collected all necessary alchemical ingredients, tracked down a healthy Tebo warthog, and carefully extracted its blood and shaved off a few bristles. Then, he took a few drops of his own blood and hair, combined them with the other materials, and sealed everything inside a crystal vial.
The mixture was stored in darkness for a full week, just as the ritual required. Seven days later, when Alex retrieved the vial, he found that the liquid had turned completely transparent, exactly as the text had described. ‘It looks like ordinary water…’ But when he uncorked the bottle, he immediately encountered a problem. The volatilization rate was far higher than expected.
Within moments, the liquid began evaporating rapidly, far faster than the historical accounts had suggested. He barely started drawing the magic sigil when he noticed the bottle was already half-empty. Alex quickly sealed the vial, brows furrowing. "No wonder this ritual demands so much blood."
The extreme evaporation meant that far more liquid was needed just to complete a single sigil. If the first step alone required this much material loss, it explained why historical practitioners had to drain entire creatures to make it work. "I need a way to slow down the evaporation rate…" After some thought, Alex devised a practical solution, a specialized engraving tool.
Instead of manually dipping a brush into the liquid and wasting half of it, he designed a more efficient system. A crystal vial holder was attached directly to an engraving pen, allowing for seamless application. The vial would be sealed upside down, ensuring the liquid flowed directly into the engraving tip while minimizing exposure to air. Functioning like an ink feeder, this setup provided a controlled and precise output, preventing unnecessary waste and improving the accuracy of the inscription process.
Within a short time, he crafted the tool and tested it, and the results were promising. The volatilization rate was significantly reduced, and waste was minimized. "It’s a little heavy, but it works." Before proceeding with the final blood infusion step, Alex decided to analyze the sigil’s composition using a new set of alchemical tools he had recently developed.
He retrieved two specialized observation devices to aid in his analysis. The first was a metallic scope resembling a microscope, enhanced with magic to examine the flow of magic within physical objects. The second was a round-lensed magnifying glass, specifically designed to reveal hidden enchantments and magic engravings embedded within alchemical items. With these tools, he could study the intricate details of magical constructs with precision.
The scope had a stabilized stage and lens barrel, much like a Muggle microscope, but instead of an aperture, it had a solid metal carrier plate designed to channel magical energy. The magnifying glass, on the other hand, was more versatile, it could be used in real-time to analyze magic flow inside objects.
Both devices were part of Alex’s larger alchemy research initiative, tools that would allow him to decode hidden magical formations, study artifact enchantments, and even analyze spell structures within pre-existing magical objects. ‘With these, I’ll be able to see the actual flow of magic in blood-infused sigils…’
Moreover, these tools had a practical side benefit, they would allow him to discreetly analyze the enchantments on alchemical items being sold in stores. "Next time I visit an alchemy shop, I’ll be able to inspect their products in full detail." For now, though, his focus was on the sigil before him.
The microscope-like observer proved to be the most effective tool Alex had developed so far. It allowed him to penetrate the bodies of magical creatures and observe the internal flow of magic power. Unfortunately, while it could provide valuable visual data, it still lacked the ability to measure magic power quantitatively. If he could refine it further, he could potentially eliminate the need for blood-based magic measurement tools entirely. He had already used this device to study Tonks’ Metamorphmagus ability, which had led him to conclude that her transformations were rooted in bloodline magic rather than spell-based transfiguration.
Now, he turned his attention to the blood-refining ritual sigil he had inscribed on a piece of cowhide, using his scope to carefully analyze its structure. He noted which sections were core components of the ritual and which were redundant or inefficient.
*Check audiobook for free on Patreon