Regnum Aetern: Dual Rebirth

Chapter 138: Fragment of Truth

"Bring the first sacrifice."

At the elderly man’s command, one of the cloaked figures stepped forward. They grabbed one of the individuals lying on the ground by their horn and dragged them towards the altar.

Meanwhile, the elderly man raised both his arms high and began chanting with a strange glint in his eyes.

"What was separated shall return all the same. Oh Lord! My Truth, I shall show my devotion to you with this humble offering! Please accept this sacrifice, for it has always been yours!"

The demon seemed to have just regained consciousness, much like Adrian, which was probably why she looked around in confusion as she was being dragged.

As the cloaked figure reached near the altar, they stopped some distance away and threw the demon forward. The elderly man also stepped back.

The demon’s body rolled forward and stopped right in front of the altar.

But what happened after that sent chills down Adrian’s spine.

The unknown object floating above the altar, producing a pure white light—The moment its light fell directly on the demon, something horrifying happened.

The same pure white light was suddenly sucked out of the demon’s body and got absorbed into the unknown object floating above the altar, making its illumination even brighter. The demon’s body, now sucked of that light, became a dried-up husk.

It had all happened so fast that the demon hadn’t even been able to scream.

Adrian’s eyes widened.

’What is...’

Everyone lying on the ground, bound in chains—those who had regained consciousness, at least—all widened their eyes in horror as they witnessed that sight. Their confusion turned into chaos as they began screaming and thrashing around.

"Ahhh! What is this place?! Who are you all?!!"

"T-that demon—she died just like that!!"

"No! Get me out of here! Remove these chains!!"

The quiet hall was suddenly filled with frantic screams and sounds of metal chains being strained.

Lying amidst that chaos, Adrian had a deep frown on his face.

’This... this is really bad.’

***

Standing in the corner of the underground ritual hall, Nelliel quietly watched the sacrifices as they screamed in panic and struggled to free themselves from the metal chains binding them.

Having seen this development so many times, she was no longer surprised.

One after another, the sacrifices were brought to the altar, turning into dried-up husks moments later. And with every new sacrifice, the panic and chaos among the remaining sacrifices intensified.

Her face slowly scrunched up in irritation as the noise of their screams became too much for her.

"Ugh, so loud."

Standing beside her, Uncle Rolf smiled at her mockingly and spoke in a haughty tone.

"Only this much is already too loud for you, huh? Heh, you feeble little girl."

His words made her face scrunch up even more.

"Shut it, ’old man,’ or your teeth might accidentally fall off."

Uncle Rolf’s mocking smile disappeared the moment he heard her comeback, causing her to grumble as usual.

"For the last damn time, I am not an old man!"

Nelliel’s lips unconsciously stretched into a light smile as she heard him grumble. She glanced at the screaming sacrifices once again and asked something that had been on her mind for a while now.

"Hey, ’old man,’ isn’t the number of sacrifices we are offering this time much higher than the sacrifices offered in the previous rituals?" She looked at the elderly man near the altar briefly. "Why did the prophet order us to capture so many of them this time?"

Having observed the ritual so many times, it was not hard to notice this detail. Of course, the Prophet must’ve had a reason. Still, Nelliel couldn’t help but be curious.

Uncle Rolf let out a dejected sigh.

"The reason is rather simple, Nell. It is because capturing sacrifices is slowly becoming harder. Those monsters were already after us, and now even the empire is sending parties to hunt us down. We have already sacrificed most of the weak beasts and monsters in the area, and we cannot capture the remaining ones since they are too strong. So the Prophet is planning to conduct these rituals less frequently."

’Oh...’

So they were now going to offer more sacrifices in every ritual so that the light of truth lasts longer before it begins to dim.

And she had also noticed the problems Uncle Rolf had mentioned. There were no monstrous beasts among the sacrifices this time since they were unable to capture any. Even the humanoid monsters of Feralscar were growing more careful of them, becoming harder to find and capture.

’We really were lucky to have found that stupid human child, or we might’ve—Uh?"

She noticed something strange.

While every other sacrifice was screaming in terror and thrashing around on the floor in a desperate attempt to escape, the human child they had captured was not showing even a hint of panic.

He was observing the ritual with a sharp, calculating gaze.

A frown appeared on her face as she continued observing him. His expressionless face really didn’t feel like the face of a child. Nelliel had always been called unusually mature for her age, but even she found the boy strange.

’Is he sick in the head? No, maybe he got so scared that he completely lost it...’

Well, it didn’t really matter what his deal was. He was going to become a sacrifice anyway.

Soon, it was the boy’s turn to be sacrificed. Nelliel watched intently since she was curious to see how he would react. But her frown deepened further as she continued observing.

Even as he was being dragged by his leg, his expressionless face remained the same.

She knew that he could use mana since she had seen him channel it moments before he was knocked out by Uncle Rolf and captured. So she had expected him to attack the believer using mana, but he showed no sign of doing that.

His gaze had sharpened further, and she could even feel that he had become more tense, but that was all.

’Maybe he really isn’t right in the head.’

Just like the previous sacrifices, the believer dragging him stopped some distance away and tossed him toward the altar like a bag. He rolled forward, stopping only when his back hit the altar.

Bathed in the pure white light, the boy hurriedly pointed his finger toward the source of light and began casting a spell. It was probably the same spell he had been trying to use on her back then.

Nelliel widened her eyes in realization.

Only now did she understand the boy’s intention. He must’ve realized that there was no point in trying to struggle, so he had been aiming to destroy the source of light from the start, which was the only way he would even have a remote chance of survival.

But...

’It’s useless.’

Before his spell could properly materialize, the mana condensed at the tip of his finger suddenly rippled and then dissipated on its own. The boy seemed somewhat shocked by this sudden development as he hurriedly tried to control the mana once again, but the mana simply refused to answer him.

Well, that was to be expected.

’After all, the source of the light is a fragment of our God.’

It was a fragment of the world’s truth. A fragment of the Progenitor of Life.