The ritual to transform Murray could only be classified as a great success. I wasn't sure if it was because the guy was a superior specimen compared to the somewhat mediocre examples of humanity we had access to in Idiot-ville or thanks to the modifications inspired by the ritual I had been given by Lady Hecate and without additional tests, it would be difficult to say. But, at the end of the day, it didn't really matter whether he was special or if the ritual was special; either way, he was quite formidable. So formidable, in fact, that I felt somewhat compelled to make use of him, if only in a somewhat roundabout fashion.

A formidable specimen of a warrior like he was could be incredibly useful, though I doubted I'd be able to convince him to join my group, even if Lia remained behind. He seemed to be quite loyal to Jack, with Daniel and Samantha commanding his loyalty to a slightly lesser degree, meaning I would need to mentally coerce or manipulate him to take him in, so a different use had to be found. The simplest, or at least easiest to accomplish, way to make use of him was to follow an idea I had a few days prior and pass Sigmir's fighting style onto him. That way, Sigmir's name, her face and even her weapon and fighting style would take root in this world, hopefully forming a sympathetic connection to her soul, making the summoning of said soul easier, even if my idea didn't result in her apotheosis. For that, I would have to do much more than just spread her name and teachings across the world; I would have to actively proselytise, which I was unwilling to try.

The only question was how to pass on the style to him and, maybe more importantly, how to make sure it wasn't just he who would use it but as many people as possible. All of whom would have to be made aware that they were using a fighting style bestowed upon them by the grace of Sigmir of Mundus, though maybe calling her something else might be better, maybe Mountainbreaker Sigmir or possibly something referencing her bond with Ylva. Those were details I'd have to work out at some point, as they would define who my beloved would be known as in the future after I revived her. Those names and the reputation coming with them would be the first impression anyone would have, so I needed to be cautious, or I might turn my beloved into some sort of caricature.

"Say, Murray, do you want to try your new modifications out?" I asked after I was as certain as I could be that the procedure was completely successful.

"That would be a good idea, indeed" he nodded, his usual stoic mannerism completely unchanged by the ritual and the pain he had undergone. "Do you have a good way to accomplish that?"

"Why, yes, I do have an idea," I gave him a grin before stepping towards my tower's portal to the outside, "You will fight somebody you will be completely unable to harm, so don't worry about holding back, no matter what you do to the body, it'll be okay," I assured him, already knowing the risk of having him fight some other person. On the other hand, fighting a person would be the best way to get used to his new powers, so the only thing I needed to do was to make the body that would do the fighting.

A quick channelling of Overflow, a bit of drawing on the power continuously accumulating in the tower and Lady Hecate's shrine and the next moment, I could conjure a throne for myself with a wave of my hand before waving towards the open area in front of my tower. There, a large mass of Snow, Ice and Mist burst into existence, only to coalesce into a humanoid figure some eight feet tall, holding a massive weapon in hand. It was also clad in armour exactly as Sigmir had been after our visit with the dwarves, adding a bit of menace, even if the armour wasn't as strong as hers had been. This was just Hard Ice, with some normal Ice and Snow making up the body, all held together by copious amounts of Ice Magic.

For a moment, I had to clamp down on my emotions to keep them from flailing out of control as Sigmir's form, as it was carved into my heart, was created on Terra for the first time, crafted from Ice, Snow and a large amount of my magic. Sadly, there was no innate spark of life within her, no soul, nothing but an empty shell made of Ice, a figure depicting my beloved, but my beloved remained as far away and untouchable as she had always been.

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Keeping my emotions firmly under control, I used Ice Magic to animate and control the statue. An experimental mix of Darkness and Mind Magic modelled after the magic I usually used to control my scrying constructs shifted my senses to the area around the statue.

"Now, let us fight," Sigmir's voice, generated by Wind Magic, came from the statue, giving a fairly convincing illusion that it was speaking. At the same time, it levelled the Lok'nar in its hand towards Murray in challenge, making it fairly obvious what was going on.

Murray, to his credit, only raised a single eyebrow before moving towards the statute with his weapon in hand, ready to fight. In turn, I controlled the statue to advance, the Lok'nar spinning in its hands as I quickly familiarised myself with the operation, drawing upon literally hundreds of hours I spent in training and battle with Sigmir. I knew her fighting style and, beyond everything else, I knew her body, maybe better than she knew it herself. I certainly had managed to make it sing in ways I doubted she had ever dreamed about.

Pushing my raging emotions back under control, I focused on the statue, making sure that the outermost layer of it would be roughly as vulnerable as the flesh it represented would be, while the armoured parts roughly mirrored the strength of somewhat crude armour, giving Murray a fairly realistic target to fight. Similarly, the statue's movements, despite it being essentially a puppet controlled by my Ice Magic, were made to imitate Sigmir's movements as closely as possible without veering into some impossible acrobatics and stunts so Murray would be able to witness my beloved's style. Hopefully, he'd ask about it later, allowing me to push him in the direction I wanted him to jump.

For the first few minutes of the bout between the Sigmir statue and Murray, I kept things fairly simple, using the Lok'nar as one would a normal axe without pushing anything or using any of the fancier tricks I had seen Sigmir use. It was a warm-up, plain and simple, though for me, it was more of an exercise to perfect the control I was using.

Murray was the one kicking things up a notch, drawing upon his new enchantment to increase his speed and power, to which I reacted somewhat cheekily by surrounding the statue in a shimmering field of magic while using more power to control it, making its movements faster and stronger in turn. It was fairly similar to what Sigmir could have done around level fifty, using one of her boosting moves that drew upon her bond with Ylva, keeping Murray and the statue fairly equally matched when it came to attributes.

Only, I didn't just match him in attributes; I decided to let him see just how the heavy weapon in the statue's hands could be used and swiftly shifted the grip from an end one, holding the Lok'nar as one would an axe, to a middle one, where both blades of the axe could be used, sacrificing range for versatility.

The moment I did that, Murray was completely on the back foot. He had no real idea how to cope with the unpredictable movements of the Lok'nar. The two blades came at him from odd angles and with incredibly varied speeds, forcing him to react on instinct instead of understanding the flow of battle.

Within moments, the blunted edges of the Lok'nar scored one hit after another, not hard enough to bruise but with enough force to make him feel the impact and know that the strikes could have been crippling if not for my restraint and the blunted weapon. He quickly became desperate, trying to force the statue on the defensive by pushing his enchantment to the maximum, and I decided to let him have the attribute advantage. Instead of matching him, I focused purely on technique, parrying his blows away or catching them and letting their force be wasted. It was quite challenging; the enchantment gave him a fair advantage in raw power, but it didn't last all that long and soon he wasn't able to continue, his breathing laboured and his muscles shaking. In contrast, the statue had only a few minor chips, looking fairly pristine and making it obvious that Murray had lost.

Not on attributes but purely on technique. Now, I just had to sell him the idea of learning that style. And create some way to have him learn while I wasn't present.

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