Chapter 244: Evil Ritual
Bretwen is a subordinate village northwest of Boshi City, only a few dozen miles away from Boshi City.
This place was once a famous fruit and vegetable town. From a modern perspective, Brettwen could be considered a vegetable and fruit planting base.
Just as most big cities have to rely on surrounding towns to supply fruits, vegetables and melons, Boshi City has always relied on Bretwin to provide a richer and more balanced food combination.
Of course, this vegetable base not only supplies Boshi City, but also the army.
A hundred miles southwest of Bretwen is the most solid military fortress of the Bacchus Empire, Fort Lela.
This fortress originally controlled the important roads leading to Siyuan City and Boshi City, so there have always been a large number of soldiers stationed there.
Similar to the Seven Forks Fortress in the Sarleon Kingdom, this purely military fortress has no residents, so the supply of materials depends entirely on the nearby villages and towns. Bretwen is mainly responsible for providing vegetables, fruits and other food.
But when the lord led his team to Bretwen, this place did not look like a fruit and vegetable town at all.
Large tracts of vegetable fields and orchards are abandoned and no one cares about them. Most winter fruits, such as oranges, have already ripened, but no one picks them, so they are left to rot under the trees.
Most of the vegetables in the vegetable garden have rotted in the ground.
Some melon sheds still have frames, the buckets hanging on the frames are still there, and the farm tools leaning against the trees are still there.
But no residents were seen.
Anson was not found in the village either.
The whole village was dead silent, and there was really not even a dog to be seen.
But the problem is that this place doesn't look like a place of chaos and disorder. There is no blood or corpses on the ground, and there are no messy objects discarded in the village.
"What's going on with this place? If there was a disaster, it shouldn't be so neat and tidy, right? The way it is now... it makes me feel even more uneasy."
Li Ang raised his head and looked around - there was indeed no living creature to be seen, not even a bird.
This is obviously very abnormal. The ground is full of ripe fruits and vegetables that have fallen to the ground. It is impossible for birds and animals not to come and eat them.
Moreover, even if all the people here ran away, they would at least take their daily tools with them. Those farm tools leaning against the trees did not look like they were thrown away casually, but rather that no one had taken them away at all.
"Sir, there seems to be a temple over there... something seems amiss."
Klose pointed to a relatively tall stone house in the village near the lake.
The house was large, with a crude statue of the goddess Damia on the roof.
It was indeed a temple. A vegetable and fruit growing base like Brettwyn would naturally worship the goddess of harvest.
Klose said the temple looked wrong, mainly because it had no doors or windows.
In other words, all the doors and windows were closed neatly. They must have been built with stones and re-painted with lime.
How could a temple have closed doors and windows?
Li Ang waved his hand and asked his brothers to surround the temple.
Klose went forward and listened against the wall: "No sound..."
Then he sniffed: "But there is a strong smell of blood... There is something wrong here."
"Here! Look...look in the water!"
Sigismund suddenly cried out.
The temple was built close to the lake, and the road on the side of the house extends to a small wooden pier toward the lake.
The pier is very small and should only be used to moor small barges traveling on the lake, just like the inland piers behind Changhe Town. It is estimated that vegetables, fruits and melons can be transported directly to Boshi City by small boats from here.
Sigismund was visiting at the dock at this time.
At this time, the lake water near the pier was reddish brown!
Moreover, there were numerous carcasses of birds, mice and other small animals floating on the water, and there were also quite a few carcasses of fish.
No wonder there were no birds. All the birds died in the lake!
The lake water behind this temple is all reddish-brown.
Only when a large amount of plasma is precipitated in the lake water will the lake surface be dyed this color.
Sigismund drew his sword and stared into the water, then walked slowly along the pier to the back of the temple. He followed the sword and pointed at a crack in the stone behind the temple: "The blood... is flowing out from there!"
"Brothers, cover your noses... Send a few people to Bozhi City to tell General Cleon that it is best not to drink the water from Lake Sava during this period. The blood may be poisonous..."
"Come on, let's break down this house and see..."
Li Ang took a few steps back and put on a mask. After thinking about it, he felt uneasy, so he simply put on the helmet mask as well, and then signaled the strong men of the Silver Hand to work.
Seeing how careful the lord was, the tough men followed suit and took protective measures before starting to swing their hammers.
Equipping them with hammers really worked, and they were put to use so quickly...
This long-handled iron hammer is quite useful for hitting stones - the main function of the eight-pound long-handled hammer when not in combat is to hit stones or nail wooden stakes.
A group of strong men surrounded the temple and banged on it, but the walls of the temple seemed extremely solid. It was not until one wall was knocked so hard that it deformed inward that a big hole was finally opened in the house.
Moreover, after the wall was broken, the bricks and stones actually fell outwards.
Then, the whole group of people took several steps back.
Several broken corpses fell out of the big hole along with the bricks and stones, bringing out a pool of sticky blood.
It was impossible to see inside the temple through the hole, because countless corpses were piled up to form the inner wall. The corpses covered the freshly knocked holes like bricks and stones, and it was unknown how high the pile was.
No wonder it couldn't be knocked down. There were obviously piles of corpses inside supporting the surrounding walls.
Even with masks on, the stench still made everyone's scalp tingle.
"...Tear down all the walls. Brothers, wrap yourselves up well and don't let the blood from the corpses get on you."
Li Ang managed not to vomit with great difficulty. He retreated to a distance and waved his hand to signal everyone to come forward together.
Hundreds of sledgehammers were swung together.
The temple was filled with... corpses.
The skin of most of the corpses had festered and was constantly oozing sticky red pus, making them look like corpses infected with the Red Death.
But it was definitely not the doctors or plague exorcists of the Order of the Radiant Cross who sealed the bodies inside - the plague exorcists would burn the bodies of all the infected people and would never pile up so many corpses in the house.
This looks more like an evil ritual.
Because all the corpses were naked, they were piled up against the walls of the temple on all four sides, more than three meters high.
In the middle of the temple is a square pool...
It was a pool of blood, a pool of blood four meters square.
The sticky black blood has filled the entire blood pool. Perhaps due to the vibration from the sledgehammer's impact just now, the plasma is now shaking slightly.
There was a four-pointed star-shaped platform floating in the middle of the pool, swaying slowly in the blood pool. On the four-pointed star-shaped platform, a person was tied with iron chains.
In other words, he was tying up a broken body that barely looked like a human. After all, no one knew whether it was still a human being.
The chest and abdomen of that body were torn open, with two huge gaps, one horizontal and one vertical, running through the entire body in a cross shape. Large pieces of skin and flesh on the chest and abdomen were deliberately pulled apart and rolled over, making the gaps in the chest and abdomen take on the shape of a four-pointed star.
Almost all the internal organs are exposed.
This is an altar, a poisonous blood altar built with the blood of countless Red Death patients.
Leon and Sigismund looked at each other and blurted out at the same time: "Castro!"
Yes, this is what the powerful gladiator who died at the hands of Wendy once experienced!
Li Ang originally thought that as long as he killed the Snake Worship Cult army, most of the problems would be solved... But now it seems that the threat of the Snake Worship Cult is not over yet...
"This evil ritual must have used thousands of corpses... but this guy who was cut open looks dead!"
Klose said with a frown.
Since the temple was full of corpses and sticky blood, no one went in to touch it for fear of contracting the Red Death.
But it can be seen from the outside that the body on the four-pointed star must be dead.
After all, the heart was exposed, and at the moment there was no movement at all, and there was no sign of it resuming beating.
"What a good eye... Nine hundred and ninety-nine bodies of adult men and the body of a chosen one... that's exactly one thousand people."
A harsh and strange voice suddenly took over Klose's words.
The voice was so sharp that it was hard to tell whether it was a man or a woman. It just felt like it suddenly appeared next to my ear.
A group of people turned around and looked around, but didn't see anyone.
Leon and Klose drew their swords immediately. They were familiar with the situation where a sound suddenly appeared but no one was seen - they had seen this kind of vocalization technique from the three prophets, and it was very similar to the sound of the three prophets reciting sacrificial texts.
"Haha... maybe you are the perfect chosen body of God... what a strong warrior..."
That strange voice sounded again.
"Who is playing tricks? Come out!"
Klose understood that the God-chosen body the voice was referring to seemed to be himself... After all, Klose was obviously the strongest among all.
He was extremely nervous now, and completely understood Amy's panic when she faced Mrs. Bella in Changhe Town.
Lady Bella was a heretic who worshipped the Dark Goddess, and the Doombringer had said at the time that Amy was the perfect vehicle for the Goddess.
And now, he encountered the altar of the Snake Cult, and he himself was said to be the perfect body chosen by God...
"Sir... I think the Snake Cult might have some connection with those heretics who worship the Dark Goddess... Their paths seem to have many similarities..."
Klose kept looking around and approached Leon cautiously.
"I think so too..."
The lord was also moving cautiously, constantly looking for the person who made the sound.
"Hehehe...Come on, find me and I'll tell you everything...Hmm?!"
The voice seemed to be teasing the Lord, but it stopped abruptly in the middle of the words and then fell completely silent.
"Sir! There is an army of the Bacchus Empire outside, and they are still a few miles away..."
Summer, who was on guard outside the village, ran in. Before he could finish his words, he saw a group of people around Leon standing guard with their backs to a room full of corpses.
He stopped talking, looked around, drew his sword and lowered his voice: "Sir, are there any enemies here?"
Li Ang rolled his eyes and suddenly yelled, "Don't run! Catch him!"
A large group of men looked around hurriedly, but they didn't see who Li Ang was asking them to catch.
In fact, the Lord is bluffing...
He wanted to try to see if he could trick the mysterious man into making some move.
But it didn't work.
Li Ang looked around again, then put down his sword: "I can't trick him, that bastard should be gone... Summer, what's the banner of the army outside?"
"It looks like the flag of Governor Kairos. My Lord, Governor Kairos should not be an enemy now, right?"
Summer asked uncertainly.
The ships and food previously sent to Mettenheim came from Governor Kairos. Although this was a transaction for Kairos, the people of Mettenheim actually had some feelings for Kairos and naturally did not want Kairos to become an enemy.
"Kailos...why is he here..."
Li Ang frowned, turned around and looked at the blood pool behind him, then shook his head: "Is he coming here to find this altar? We'd better hide first..."
…
"Kairos, I still can't believe that you would be controlled by the Snake Cult... I thought that anyone could join the Snake Cult, but you definitely wouldn't..."
Emperor Marius was sitting in a gorgeous prison cart at this time, whispering to Kairos who was riding a horse beside him.
The prisoner car was quite exquisite, and was even a rare luxury four-wheeled carriage with sofas for facing each other in the entire continent of Pendor. However, the windows were equipped with iron bars and the doors were locked.
If Leon saw this car, he would definitely recognize it - this was the carriage he "sold" to Governor Kairos last year.
"I did not join the Snake Cult... I know I cannot explain it, and perhaps I will never be able to forgive myself until I die, but I have to do this... I'm sorry, Your Majesty..."
Kairos looked a little haggard, his eyes were dull, and although he was only in his fifties, he looked like he was seventy.
Obviously, he himself has been suffering a lot in the past few days.
"Then tell me why you do this? Maybe I can help you!"
Emperor Marius still seemed to have not given up hope of solving the problem.
"You will soon find out... We are already here..."
Kairos looked at the village in front of him, stopped talking, and silently escorted Emperor Marius into the village.
“This…what’s going on! What’s going on!!”
As soon as he arrived in the village, Kailos saw from afar the temple with most of its walls knocked down. He suddenly panicked and rushed forward like a fly, but did not dare to enter the altar.
"It's over... it's all over... Antonius... my Antonius!"
He ran back and forth around the temple like a headless fly, then sat down on the ground and cried like an old farmer.
"Antonius? What happened to your son? Kairos... Tell me, what happened to you? What are the circumstances of these corpses here?"
Emperor Marius struggled left and right, broke free from the hands of the two soldiers who were holding his shoulders, looked at everything in the temple, then looked at Kairos who was sitting on the ground, his tightly twisted brows wrinkled into deep grooves.
