Blood covenant requires a sacrifice of one’s very life, but out of the death of two or more parties a single new life emerges. Death leading to new life is a prime characteristic of blood covenant. The death, of course, is a sacrificial death of self not a death as in the end of your time on earth. In Old Covenant times, it was accomplished by the substitutionary death of an animal. The death of the animal represented the death of the individuals making the covenant. Since the covenanting parties consider themselves to be dead to a life of living for themselves, they vow to live a new life, each for the other. This mutual agreement of trust, safety, protection and peace creates an eternal bond between them. They are said to be blood brothers. In the Bible, they are called friends.