Book 6 Chapter 12.1 - Sacrifice
Xilur City relied heavily on the mountains it was built on, structures covering the entire mountain. They carried a typical new era style, practical looking, appearances uniform, making the most out of the resources given, from the distance looking like orderly trimmed shrubbery. The foothills' shape was quite strange, the slope from the foot of the mountains almost completely level, and then halfway up the mountain, it would suddenly become extremely steep, stabbing perfectly straight into the sky.
Apart from one side facing mountains, the other three sides of Xilur City were vast and desolate plateau and plains. In this open area, Sun God Temple built halfway up the mountain was undoubtedly the most eye-grabbing construct, the entirely red and gold building like a burning flame, perfectly visible even more more than ten kilometers away. From time to time, when the clouds of radiation opened up and sunlight cast down, reflecting off of Sun God Temple, it would look as if half the mountain peak was set on fire.
On the temple's top floor platform was the altar that offered sacrifices to the Sun God. Embedded at the center of the altar was a golden sphere that was several meters in diameter, symbolizing a supreme sun. In the past, for the sake of carrying this copper core, gold-plated totem up to the altar, it was unknown just how many hundreds of slaves died from fatigue. Meanwhile, during each year's great sacrifice, apart from the slaughtering of livestock, slaves were indispensable offerings as well.
Currently, a flame was raging on the altar, the tip of the flame continuously licking the golden sun on the altar, making it release scorching heat. This wasn't an ordinary flame, but one that maximized the reduction of heat loss due to radiation and convection, able to maintain a temperature in the thousands of degrees. Meanwhile, through special industrial methods, not only could the golden sun completely endure this type of temperature, even though its entire body was already burned dark red, it still didn't melt in the slightest, nor would its shape change because of the heat.
In front of the altar, the archbishop in thick red robes was currently jumping and hopping about, the pure gold long staff continuously spinning through the air, his mouth chanting something no one could understand loudly. In Sun God Temple's ceremony, only the archbishops would be taught this type of bizarre language. Its pronounciation was extremely difficult, many syllables not things humans' natural physiology was capable of producing, only sounds that could be produced after one changed the throat and nasal cavity through abilities. Only bishops who learned this language had a chance to become an archbishop, and then maybe even a red-robed archbishop. It was rumored that this was the Sun God's language, and the archbishops used it as an intermediary to pray to the Sun God, passing on the residents' will to the deity, and then hear the deity's instructions.
The staircase type altar was extremely grand, just the top floor alone a square area 49 meters on each side. Floor after floor extended outwards like a staircase below it, adding up to a total of thirty-six flights of stairs! Right now, every single floor had soldiers standing on it, their attire all different, the decorations of all different kinds as well. There were giant men with poleaxes reaching a hundred kilograms in weight, and there were also snipers with caliber modified rifles. The only similarity between them was that they all released a powerful aura.
On this enormous altar, the several hundred individuals were a bit disorderly as they scattered about on this staircase, but when all of these imposing figures stood together, it filled every corner of the staircase with cold killing intent. However, this great pressure was only limited to the staircase, unable to reach the top floor at all. At the top of the altar, was a completely different world.
Behind the archbishop stood a tall man in golden heavy armor. He had a grizzled and hard hair, engraved on his face the hardships of time, clearly not young anymore, but age didn't make him weak. Regardless of whether it was the scarlet cloak or the flame patterns engraved into the heavy armor, they all exuded a bloody and austere aura. Regardless of whether it was the cape or the patterns, they were all dyed with the blood of enemies! This was the empire's illustrious figure, the great duke who not even Murray dared act rudely before, Kanos!
Kanos carried a helmet in his left hand, right hand holding a heavy rectangular blade. As the archbishop's ancient and distant voice chanted, his eyes burned with raging battle intent, moreover becoming more and more fierce! It had already been more than a decade since the Red Duke encountered a worthy enemy. Right now, he was full of expectation towards this fella who could suddenly kill Murray!
The archbishop's chanting finally came to an end. He suddenly drew back his sleeve, extending his arm that was slender and shriveled like firewood, deeply inserting it into the altar's raging flame! In the blink of an eye, the archbishop already brought out a copper basin from within the flames, the outside of the copper basin engraved with strange symbols. The copper basin was similarly burned by the flames until it was a bit dark red, but the archbishop removed it from the fire as if it wasn't a big deal at all. His five chicken claw-like fingers released tss tss sounds, releasing a clear smoke, but it was as if he didn't feel any pain. A golden greasy liquid filled up a small half of the copper basin, and after burning for such a long time, the temperature should be extremely high, yet there wasn't any sign of burning, the surface still without any ripples.
This was Sun God Temple's sacred elixir that was created through secret methods, rumored to be blazing power from the sun's core. The most powerful warriors would drink this before a great battle, temporarily granting them great strength and endless courage. If their strength wasn't great enough, the individual lacking the qualifications, then drinking this sacred elixir would create a raging flame within their body, burning all of their inner organs into ashes. The sacred elixir was divided into three grades, the highest level sacred elixir a golden color, a small amount only obtainable when a red-robed archbishop prayed and offered sacrifices for a long time.
The archbishop raised the basin above his head, spun around three times in place, and only then did he hand it to the Red Duke. Kanos hung his helmet on the sword hilt, accepted the copper basin, and then drank a large mouthful. After swallowing it, he released a muffled grunt, a flush of redness immediately filling his face. He paused for a moment, and only then did he hand the copper plate to a man behind him whose face was covered in a beard. That was the duke's number one general. He accepted the copper basin, drank a mouthful, and then passed the still burning hot copper basin to the comrade beside him. Shortly afterwards, Duke Kanos' six valiant generals all drank the sacred elixir, thus handing the copper basin to the row of soldiers in dark red heavy armor behind them. There were thirty of these soldiers in total, these individuals not all that tall and sturdy, but a faint pressure was seeping out from their bodies. Their appearances were nearly identical, and if one only took a rough look at them, they might even pass off as brothers from a same mother. These soldiers were all Red Duke Kanos' bodyguards, already following the duke through many battles. Their strength already reached the level where they could drink a mouthful of the sacred elixir.
When the copper basin was passed into the bodyguards' hands, there was only a small half of the sacred elixir left, and the temperature of the basin already dropped considerably. However, when the first bodyguard accepted the copper basin, there was still a light tss sound coming from his hands, and the veins on his arm jumped from the pain. Meanwhile, when the Red Duke and seven generals grabbed the copper basin, even though clear smoke was continuously released from their hands, their expressions and bodies didn't display any changes. The Red Duke even waited a bit, letting the copper basin's temperature cool until it reached the point where the generals could handle it before handing it over.
When he saw the completely empty copper basin returned, the red-robed archbishop revealed a satisfied smile. When his face that was shriveled up like a skull produced a smile, it truly left one feeling a bit frightened. The red-robed archbishop respectfully returned the copper basin to the altar's flame, and then he walked over to Red Duke, raised his head, and said, "My old friend, the Sun God has just transmitted its worry and anger to me. Our enemy this time isn't simple, you must be careful. No amount of preparations is too much."