The Petite Dungeon Explorer 74 The Ritual Pt.3

The image of the inverted cross was present. So was the image of the two snakes. However, at this point, the snake to the left had begun to consume the other snake. Blood began to drip from the snake to the right.

Also, at the top of her neck, there was a number that was burned into her neck. It was in a language that I was not familiar with though. But I knew that it was a numerical symbol.

"The first woman didn't have that," I point out.

Odd and the woman both look towards her neck and begin to examine the symbol.

"Call for the Commander. I want priests and scribes. We need to take down the symbols. We'll probably find more on some of the other women," Odd tells the blonde guard.

She nods her head and quickly takes off looking for the Commander from earlier.

"What does that symbol mean?" I ask him.

He looks away from her neck and back towards me. His green eyes are flickering between curiosity and disgust.

"It's a holy symbol. Or father an unholy symbol. It's from the ancient language. You must be younger than I a.s.sumed," he says seriously till the end.

I grit my teeth and don't respond to the jab.

"What does it mean?" I ask him.

He continues walking towards the next woman. The darkness of the night was being combated by the light of torches. More and more people were setting up torches so that we could see what was happening.

I didn't need them, since, I could see in the dark.

"That particular symbol is a number. That number represents death. That all is the language of the profane G.o.d that dominion is over death and the unholy," he explains.

Arriving at the next woman, it was a branding that showed the progression of what had happened on the back of the two other women. However, she didn't have anything burned into her neck this time.

But the image that was in front of her was different from the branding. The line that reached from her fingertip was connected to a symbol. The lines also ran up onto the statue that was dripping blood. It touched the bottom of the G.o.ddess's feet.

We continue onwards.

"You seem to know a lot about all this," I say.

He doesn't turn to look at me. He inspects the tenth woman. So far, we had seen three others that had a symbol burned into their necks.

"Are you suspecting me?" He asks with a small laugh.

I raise an eyebrow. Although, he was not the first person that came to mind. He knew a lot about the woman and knew to look for the brandings. But anyone might have opened their clothing up to check for other things.

However, the fact that he knew what the language meant and had an a.s.sumption about what this ritual was for… Lead me to suspect him a little.

"I wouldn't explicitly say that. However, it's convenient that you know about all this!" I tell him simply.

He pauses.

"It would be a little suspicious wouldn't it?" He mumbles to himself.

We stood in front of a woman's body as he looks towards me. His eyes are br.i.m.m.i.n.g with pain. But that quickly vanishes.

"I've just seen something very similar to all of this," he says smiling.

I pause.

"What do you mean?" I ask sliding the weight and shifting my position.

He does not seem alarmed even though it sounds like he just admitted that he did it.

"Well I survived a similar ritual to this is all," he tells me.

My mind crumbles and I shift out of my defensive stance. Did he do that intentionally?

"Does that mean you have seen this exact ritual done another time?" I press him.

He continues walking and we move onto the next body. At this point, the images had a strong depiction of a story that represented the birth of evil to them.

The snake to the left had completely consumed the other snake on the right at this point. We are halfway around the circle and at the back of the statue looking at the wings of the G.o.ddess. It seems that the snake after consuming the other was beginning to give birth to something from the pit of its stomach.

"Not the exact ritual. But something that was similar to this. It wasn't as elaborate as this one. It was simple but the women were prostrated in the same way and they desecrated our image of the G.o.ddess in a similar way," he continues with his inspection.

I could not open my mouth to give a response. What did one say to that? I'm sure that the experience was traumatizing for him on some level.

We began to move faster through the women. Slowly the images on their back formed a rough story in my mind.

The story that was burned into their backs continues on after the bloating of the serpent. The serpent was slowly beginning to split in half. The body of a man was starting to emerge from the serpent.

With the appearance of the man the inverted cross was also being sucked into the forming of the man's body. The man had an ominous feeling to him. Although, the only thing that I could see from him was a silhouette.

We soon came to the back of the last woman that was next to the woman that we started with. The image that was on her back was the culmination of the whole story that had been laid out for us to view.

The image of the man surrounded by a h.o.a.rd of followers appeared. He was standing in the middle of all the followers with his arms outstretched and spiny wings stretched out from his back to encompa.s.s all of his followers.

Though the face of the man was not visible from the image on her back it was safe to a.s.sume that it was the face of the man burned onto my own chest currently.

At the base of her neck was a symbol that looked like something I knew! It was a crown that had a weird symbol behind it.

This must be the symbol for the black G.o.d himself!

I open my mouth and then close looking towards Odd.

He stood at the back of the woman and just looked at it. As if he was burning the image into his mind.

"Is this calling him forth?" I ask him.

"…"

He doesn't say anything. Standing up from his squatting position he rubs a hand through his hair. The look in his eyes is as cold as steel. A rage burned within his eyes.

"It probably is something similar to that. I'd wager that it is designed to extensively block out the G.o.ddess," he states simply.

"What do you mean by that?" I ask.

He turns and looks towards me with a sad smile on his face.

"It means that the power and protection that are generally provided by the G.o.ddess statues and Temples become powerless. Imagine that you have a fire, but you pour water down it dossing the flame. That what has been done to this whole city," he says.

It seems like I was going from difficult to h.e.l.l mode…quicker and quicker.

"Is it possible to restore the G.o.ddess Protection?"

He leans back and looks towards the bloodied statue of the G.o.ddess.

The two women are being removed from the wings.

"This isn't something that can be simply washed away. It's like a stain… it will take a while to remove. We can't wash it away in a night. The h.o.a.rd of goblins will descend in this city and with the blessing of their profane G.o.d at their backs," he says reaching out and tapping my head.

Although, he said all that his face didn't look concerned too much. It looks resolved! He was bubbling with a different emotion…

Rage!

"You said you have seen this before! You know how to survive this!" I say.

"My survival was at the price of running and running!" He explains rather deadpan.

I felt my blood chill.

No one said anything about staving off the destruction of a city. I was just here to wipe out a h.o.a.rd of goblins!