Yarra's Adventure Notes-Chapter 1462 - 248 Sacrifice

"That’s right, I’ve said it before, it’s actually quite simple if you really want to do it, isn’t that true?" Outside the temple in the Undead Capital, Lina stood at the top of the tall stone steps in front of the temple entrance, facing the empty, wide square, and said to Shiela beside her, "As long as your faith is devout enough, and you grasp some special techniques, it’s easy to become a channel for communication, gathering the Power of Faith through your own belief as a medium, and then offering it directly to the Deity. Of course, there are risks involved; when serving as a conduit, if you’re not careful, and the power you receive is slightly too much and isn’t quickly transmitted to the Deity, you can be blown apart by the enormous energy. That’s why, in the beginning, I asked you to operate in small amounts each time, fearing that you might make a mistake, but you’ve adapted quickly and can now normally lead a large prayer ceremony."

Indeed, the square was empty of people, but not devoid of objects, the highest Totem Column in the square had been covered up and ceased to be used, replaced by a bone altar built in a short time near the temple. The round altar was about one meter high with a diameter of five meters. At the four cardinal directions of the altar, a human skull was placed, adding a sinister aura to the entire altar. Aside from that, the altar was reasonably normal; above it in the air, one could clearly sense an enormous mass of invisible energy slowly revolving, and with every second, more energy joined the mass from all directions.

"This altar is really hard to get used to," Lina muttered, with her arms crossed over her chest and hands rubbing her arms, "It always feels like I’m doing something bad."

"Uh, is this kind of altar really normal?" The other girls who could only watch from behind Lina and Shiela, not too far away, were uneasy. Catherine, looking down at the sinister altar below, wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and said with a wry smile, "No matter how you look at it, this seems like something very evil, is it really appropriate to hold a ceremony with this?"

"Don’t make trouble, Big Sister," scolded the priestess girl as she gave her sister a look and explained, "Although it seems quite evil, this is actually a standard altar for the God of Death. Just as the altar of our Lord would require soil from the four cardinal directions, the altar of the God of Death also uses symbols of death as a medium, and the skulls of sentient beings just so happen to be the best representative of death. Of course, these mediums don’t need to be fresh skulls; skulls of beings dead for a long time also work, as long as the skull remains intact. So, this isn’t an evil altar, just... uh, more special."

"Well, I don’t quite understand," said Catherine with a bitter smile, scratching her head, "But, does this mean we’ve fulfilled our agreement with Pannis? Somehow, it feels like we haven’t really done much."

"This is sufficient, although it is somewhat different from what Pannis initially thought," Lina pointed at the altar and said, "Making a divine statue is a lengthy task that can’t be completed immediately, so according to his original plan, we were to hold a large prayer without any facility and then teach Shiela and the others how to lead the transfer of the Power of Faith. However, he thought too simply. If large prayers were that easy, temples wouldn’t bother to expend resources to build statues everywhere. So, I improved his plan a bit, made an altar, and through another method, we can transfer the Power of Faith to Lady Nellie. This way, it’s a bit easier to operate, and there’s less wastage of the Power of Faith than during a large prayer. The only downside is that essentially, this is a sacrifice, so the altar is rendered useless after one use, unlike statues that can be used for an extended period."

"But why do I have to lead the ceremony?" asked Shiela, puzzled, "Wouldn’t it be better if Luscia officiated? She is the Archbishop of our master, after all."

"Uh, if I were to..." Luscia, who had been downsized and was standing with the other leaders and girls from the adventure team, momentarily lost her words. The leaders were unaware of the real situation and did not know that Luscia was not actually a follower of Nellie, and thus incapable of performing the duties of an Archbishop. But at that moment, it was not appropriate to explain, leaving her unsure how to answer the question. If Luscia still had a physical body, she would probably be breaking out in a cold sweat by now.

"I told you just now, this is essentially a sacrifice," Lina interrupted Luscia’s attempt to explain, answering naturally, "This is the work that priests should be responsible for, not archbishops. Archbishops are in charge of preaching and praying, while priests preside over the ceremonies. Although in some special cases they can take over each other’s duties, it’s better to have clear divisions of labor unless it’s necessary."

"Hm?" The girls blinked peculiarly at the serious-faced Lina. Clearly, she had already thought out how to explain it to Luscia when she chose to use the altar, and only in this way could she so easily avoid putting Luscia in an embarrassing situation. From this way of handling things, the girls seemed to see the shadow of someone else. After all, before Pannis arrived, the priestess girl never considered taking into account everything around her to spare all her friends from discomfort.

Of course, Sheila would never guess the girls’ thoughts. She just smiled wryly and said, "But I am not a priest."

"You weren’t before, but you are now," Lina declared authoritatively, then slapped her thigh and exclaimed discontentedly, "It’s all because of you lot, none of you knows how to run a church properly. You don’t even have a single priest and only one archbishop. My goodness, I can hardly believe it, your faith has actually lasted for decades, it’s unbelievable, truly unbelievable."

"Uh, we’re really sorry," a group of Undead leaders apologized awkwardly in response to Lina’s roar. Their faith was absolutely genuine, so they couldn’t refute Lina’s reproach and could only respond with embarrassed, wry smiles.

"But it’ll be better from now on," Lina sighed and said, "I’ll tell you how to make divine statues. Of course, the premise is..."

The priestess girl exchanged a glance with Sheila beside her and didn’t finish the rest of her sentence. But those in the know naturally understood her unspoken meaning. The premise is that, after all this is over, Lady Nellie would still exist, right?

"Someone’s coming," Saen suddenly stepped forward, making a rattling noise. Sheila, frowning, translated, "Saen says the creature that has breached into this world has already arrived outside the city and is rushing here."

"That was fast," the girls exchanged looks, "How could it be so fast?"