Ritual
“Ready a ship and men. I’m going to leave immediately!” Since he had confirmed the location, Leylin would obviously go on a rescue mission immediately. Robin Hood and Ronald listened respectfully. Not long after, they had everything prepared…
A day later. Isabel had just met her life’s largest crisis in the rainforest.
“What… what the heck is this?” A powerful draconic aura spread out, and a few black monsters were burnt to ashes.
These black monsters had a strong, dark-red fog around them. They were shaped weirdly, as if formed of soil.
*Rustle… Rustle…* Even if it was burnt off by the flames, the dark red gas gathered once more to spawn more monsters.
“Damn it! They can’t die?” Karen used her dagger and pierced into a monster with three human heads, one each belonging to an elderly, a middle-aged man and a youth. However, the injuries quickly recovered and even swallowed her dagger. Sensing the immense danger, Karen could only abandon her weapon and leave.
“Only powerful attack spells or the explosion of qi from a high-ranked Professional can truly hurt them!” Isabel was now in her half-dragon form. Those fog creatures quickly evaded a powerful Dragon Breath, and that finally gave the two a path to retreat.
“I never thought that there would be such strange things in the forest!” Isabel gazed at the moon on the horizon. The moonlight, which should be bright, was now stained with a layer of purplish-red and looked incomparably evil.
Things had originally been going smoothly. After withdrawing from the rainforest, the attacks and searches of the natives had weakened, and she was even considering escape routes. But the night held a huge surprise for them.
“It’s like the whole forest turned into a ghost region!” Isabel looked alert. The danger here far exceeded her expectations.
“Hehe… play with me!” The forest seemed to change under the purplish-red moonlight, dark red fog filling the area. A large banyan tree twisted abruptly, and numerous vines turned into flexible arms that grabbed at Isabel. A baby’s face appeared on the trunk.
“Even my dragon aura is useless? What the hell is this?” The crimson Red Dragon Sword exploded with burning qi. The conical flames from Dragon’s Breath were launched unceasingly, causing the giant hands that formed webs to be ignited and fall off. This finally allowed Isabel to clear off an area to move into.
“Hehe… It doesn’t hurt at all!” The large banyan tree had pulled itself out of the soil, the many roots turned into countless tendrils. Dark red fog lingered, and the vines that had been cut off and burnt regrew.
“I won’t be able to hold on at this rate…” Glancing at the other side, where her subordinates were heavily injured, Isabel could not help but force a smile.
……
Many natives were gathered outside the rainforest, looking solemn. At their centre was a tremendous altar.
Twisted and evil runes, dark red in colour, were present around the altar. Blood plasma was smeared on it, and the droplets of blood that rolled downwards along the cracks of the stone made it look exceedingly terrifying.
Many of the natives now wore fancy feathers and hide. They kept chanting and praying to the altar. On the altar was the face of a young female native who seemed pure and holy. However, her eyes had lost all signs of life, and there was a large wound on her wrist.
Evidently, an extremely evil sacrifice was being done here, and the target was no known god, devil or demon.
The chief looked like a worthless person in imposing clothing to Special Envoy Agikikro. He glanced at the man and suddenly asked, “I never thought the enemy would enter this forest, that’s a great help for us. I wonder if this will affect us from getting our offerings?”
“Please do not worry! Our ancestors have carried out the sacrifice numerous times. There won’t be errors…” The native head could do as he pleased in his tribe, but he did not dare show any sign of negligence to the envoy of the empire. Droplets of sweat even appeared on his forehead.
“I’ve even invited our tribe’s great priest for the sake of success. With a group of powerful followers of another religion being the sacrifices, the effects will be much better than before. The number of offerings might even be several times more than usual!”
The native head had a flattering smile in his eyes, “When the time comes, I can gift you a few extra!”
“Thank you very much then!” At the thought of the miraculous effects of the product, Agigikro immediately revealed a smile.
Meanwhile, however, scorn flashed in his mind, ‘These darned swines who only roll around in the mud all day! If not for the offerings only appearing here and needing to be extracted with specific talents found in their tribe, the empire would long since have occupied this place!’
“It’s beginning!” The head called out. He naturally had no idea about how the envoy of the empire was scorning them.
“Hm?” Agigikro focused on the altar.
A layer of murky dark red fog shrouded the top of the forest, breaking through some boundary with the deaths of the pirates. It began to extend towards the altar, causing the chief to look delighted as the chants increased in volume.
Dark red fog continued to spread, like a huge beast that had opened its ferocious mouth. A lot of it gathered to form a large eight-clawed spider.
“Leave this place quickly!” The great priest was the first to run upon seeing this fog spider, fast and nimble. The other priests did the same.
“Ah…” “Save– …”
A few native guards that ran a little too slowly were swallowed by the fog. Before they could even complete a sentence, they collapsed and died. Their bodies withered in an instant as if they had lost all life energy.
The fog spider grew more vivid after swallowing all this life. It came to the altar, its terrifying, ferocious, and ugly mouth making contact with the girl.
*Ka-chak! Ka-chak!* With the fog spider’s work, the young native girl’s body made a few strange movements, like a puppet controlled with strings.
Upon noticing this, the great priest halted and that focused his attention on the altar unblinkingly, “Alright. The mighty Balulukulu has already taken in enough lives. It will no longer be dangerous.”
The purplish-red moon was at its most dazzling, practically a little sun. The fog spider seemed to have met its goal, and it dove into the orifices of the native girl.
*Gulu! Gulu!* The girl’s flat and smooth stomach strangely began to expand, and numerous warts began to move, as if a colony of mice was living under her skin.
“It’s a success!” The great priest cheered, and brought the other priests to the side of the altar. They flipped the girl over to reveal her stomach. She looked like a woman who was ten months pregnant, with a dark red tattoo in the shape of a spider on her fair back. It was like a living image, and very vivid.
“The grace of Balulukulu!” The great priest looked solemn as he took an obsidian knife from an apprentice and began some chants. After cutting his own forehead and thumb and smearing a few markings with blood, he placed the black blade at the swollen stomach of the girl. There was a cold glint in his eyes as blood spurted everywhere.
“Is this the sacrificial ceremony here? As heard from rumours, it’s very unusual!” After seeing something so bloody, Agigikro could still converse with the head next to him at ease.
“Hehe… this is the best method that my ancestors found after thousands of tries!” The head now had a prideful expression on his face, “Well then, envoy! Please accept my gift!”
With the chief’s nod, a priest took a golden circular plate and brought it over. On it were a few blood-red crystals the size of chicken eggs, still stained with blood and pus on the surface.
“Balulukulu’s crystals!” Agigikro’s eyes were fixed on the item on the plate, and he looked intoxicated.
This crystal was a specialty of the natives, only found on this island. If someone strong swallowed this, they would gain extraordinary strength provided they survived the aftereffects.
That was not all. The higher classes in the native empire had even found that burning these crystals produced a unique gas. It would give rise to an incomparable ecstasy, and was a luxurious item that the higher class enjoyed. It was extremely expensive.
“Being able to obtain this on this trip makes it worth it!” Agigikro looked impatient and nodded to a warrior to take the golden plate.
At this moment, however, an abrupt voice interrupted them.
“This really is good stuff. Can I take a look?” It was as if an invisible force pulled at things in the air. The blood-red crystals flew from the golden plate, entering the hands of a noble youth.
“Hm? Who is it? Take him down!” Having had such an important item stolen, Agigikro roared hysterically. Immediately after, many native warriors pounced forward.