Chapter 357: Evil Ritual
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue scuttled forward in the cave. They had gone around several corners and gone through larger caverns. Judging from the direction they were moving in and their distance of travel, Hao Ren could roughly calculate that they were somewhere beneath the mountain at the south of Dragonspine Ridge.
There were obvious clues of human presence in the cave. Torches and lamps on the walls could be seen distance apart. But, the flickering lights did not help with poor visibility in the dark cavern. They only made the atmosphere even more creepy. Cold breeze blew out from the depths of the cavern; sometimes strong, sometimes weak, as if warning the intruders to turn back. In a previous cavern, Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue saw some stools as well as tables made of stone, which were strewn everywhere. They looked quite ancient and had a very different style from furniture in the Kingdom of Holletta. They seem to be remnants from the unknown past.
The deeper they went, the more tense the atmosphere became. Nangong Wuyue could not help but thread the dark cavern by holding on to Hao Ren. The BOSS siren was no more. She now looked meek and scared almost like the cat back at home, Rollie...
Suddenly, Hao Ren saw an iron door that was left ajar right ahead. His steps instinctively came to a halt as a human voice was heard behind the iron door. "Wait a second, someone's in there!" he exclaimed quietly.
Nangong Wuyue crept up to Hao Ren and took a peek behind the iron door.
What they saw surprised them as there was a large stone chamber behind the door. The stone chamber was almost as large as your typical hall. It was square, almost 10 m x 10 m and its walls were covered in the faint, red glow of crystals. Large braziers with fire illuminating from them filled the air with a depressingly dark-red light. The walls had reliefs and texts, depicting various strange creatures, which roamed the earth. In each corner, there was a statue of a black, faceless figure wielding a sword. Twisted symbols were carved on them and they looked horrific with a touch of madness. Right in the middle of the chamber was an altar, where a group of people in red and black robes were performing a religious ritual. Among them was a tall man in a black-red mask, who appeared to be the priest of this mysterious religious ceremony.
The altar was almost circular. It was bowl-shaped with curvy grooves extending down to the floor. On the floor were all kinds of strange patterns. Hao Ren observed everything carefully. He saw dark-red liquid spewing out from the patterned floor and flowing upwards into the bowl of the altar, defying the law of gravity.
Nangong Wuyue tugged on his sleeve, gesturing at the altar telling him that the dark-red liquid was the very signal which she had been tracing.
That's right. That was the bodies of the disappeared sentries which had been dissolved into pool of blood by the evil ritual.
As the ritual was coming to an end, the man in the mask raised his hands and chanted in a low but inspiring tone of voice, "Brothers and sisters! The goddess is watching us. She has listened to our devout prayer and taken comfort in our sincere offerings. We are hereby listening to her true teachings, clearing up our cloudy minds, and looking upon to the goddess from the sinful world to be one step closer to her glory..."
All the men in black robes knelt in front of the altar and looked up. They were men and women, young and old. Some had their inner clothing visible underneath their black robes which suggested they were either wealthy or of soldiers. They had their fanatical eyes affixed to the man in the mask, who was exuding a magical aura.
"What we hear, what we say, what we do, and what we believe are the will of the true goddess. We are the first borns who have awakened from ignorance; the wise and the brave who have woken up from the lies..." The hands of the man in the mask remained spread out in the air as he continued to recite some scripture or impromptu statement. "We act in accordance to the will of the goddess to save the people from the hypocrisy of the Disciples of Glory..."
"We will reclaim the power and authority of the goddess, which the wicked have stolen, and we will devote it all back to the goddess. We will punish the sinners who have deceived the goddess and lay bare their sins to the world. We will save those who have been deceived by this illusion and lift them out of this filthy world into the kingdom of God..."
"We will redeem our debts, the sins of thousands of years with our flesh and blood to prove our devotion..."
After the man in the mask recited the crazy statements with a strange tone of voice, he took out a dagger from underneath his robe!
The ones in black robes, who were still kneeling on the ground took out their own daggers and raised them in the air as they chanted, "We will redeem it with our flesh and blood to prove our devotion..."
Immediately after, the cult followers stabbed themselves in the arm. Blood was splashing out, but they continued to shout, "We will redeem it with our flesh and blood to prove our devotion!" It was as if they did not feel any pain.
They bowed face down and their blood flowed down from their arms onto the patterned floor before flowing up to the altar and into the dark, bloody mix. The altar began to emanate a golden glow as if it was receiving the blessings of the goddess. The believers turned hysterical. Some began self-mutilating. "Redeem with our flesh and blood! Prove our devotion!"
"The goddess has heard you! She will reward you!" The man in the mask shouted in an inspiring voice before dipping a dark-red wand into the altar. The surging blood instantly gave out a hissing sound, red mist rose from the altar and permeated the bodies of the black-robed men. Then they bowed and thanked their goddess for the blessing before pulling up their sleeves revealing their arms. The stab wound on their arms were gone miraculously.
The black-robed man in the mask nodded in satisfaction. He said, "The healing of your wound is proof of the goddess' recognition of you, and the hypocrisy and lies of the Disciples of Glory. They stole the power of God and now we have taken it back. Let us offer our sacrifice with the purest flesh and blood to our Lord to purify the filth on this evil land tonight."
When the man in the mask finished speaking, two of the followers got to their feet, and took a crate out from a corner of the chamber.
The moment they opened the wooden box and reached into it, Hao Ren became wide-eyed.
It was a child, sleeping soundly in the crate!
This was the purest flesh and blood they were talking about, the offering they were going to "return" to their goddess—they were performing a human sacrifice!
The man in the mask placed the child who looked barely four on the altar. He raised his dagger and his wand, and recited fervently. "The almighty goddess of creation, you are the origin of all lives, you are the alpha, and you are the first flesh and blood of all souls! You are the purest origin of chaos! Your loyal and humble servant hereby offers you the purest fresh and blood, and returns the clean being unpolluted by the world to you! In the name of return, please give..."
Suddenly a shout was heard before the dagger came down on the child. "Give my foot!"
The door of the secret chamber was flung away. The distored iron door was sent flying, hitting a few cults on its course followed by a flash of blue light sweeping through the air toward the man in the mask. The latter raised his dagger in self-defense. But the blue light manoeuvered around the dagger and smashed the face of the cult leader, sending him flying back at least 10 m out!
"Meet the guided brick!" Hao Ren yanked out an alloy giant stick—a purported construction material— from the dimensional pocket before swaggering forward. "So it was you guys who were causing the troubles all this while!"