I woke up inside the dilapidated temple. There were a couple of obvious reasons that made that conclusion clear. For one, I was rather high up and looking over the rest of the neighbourhood, and the only building with a second floor I had come across was the temple. For another, instead of a wall, I had a giant window.
Or rather, the wall itself was missing entirely, leaving my room completely open to the elements. Dilapidated was probably an understatement.
The bed was more of a pallet when I got to my feet. I had trouble believing what I was lying on was an actual mattress and—
"Holy shit," I muttered.
Groggy though I was after waking up, I was still alert enough to remember my real objective. So, I'd taken a peek at my status and the countdown wasn't twenty-one hours any longer. It had gone all the way down to thirteen hours. Had I literally been conked out for eight hours straight?
I cursed under my breath. Time was running out faster and faster. I needed to find a solution now.
That was when I noticed something was wrong with my chest too. I couldn't see anything off, but it felt like I had fractures spiking out of the centre of my ribcage. Like, literal cracks. It was on the edge of painful. Like if I moved wrong, I'd somehow break space itself inside my chest and that'd be it for me.
Suffice it to say, it did not help my panic go down.
I took a few deep breaths and focused. At least the sensation of mana exhaustion was gone. No more cloying hollowness.
A quick look around revealed a plate of food and a glass of water. My stomach growled. Huh. These people were really nice for a bunch of folks willing to kidnap innocent people from a different world before ritually sacrificing them.
The food itself looked like biscuits, though they were chewier than I was expecting. Hopefully, they weren't made with foreign ingredients that this world's inhabitants were used to but would make my stomach rebel. Oh, I supposed I also had to hope there weren't pathogen that people here had acclimatized to.
I had already gone through my Joan of Arc re-enactment. Experiencing my own smallpox epidemic was something I dearly hoped to avoid.
Quickly chugging down the water, I headed out. If this was a temple, then surely there would be a store of information about the cult somewhere. I just had to find it and hope I could decipher just enough to give me a good idea on how to go about acquiring Sacrifice. If I could understand spoken words here and there, maybe it would be the same for written words too.
The real question was how I would go about finding said treasure trove of knowledge. There couldn't be a library here, could there? Somehow, I doubted very much I'd discover a whole room full of books and shelves in a temple.
I sneaked out. There wasn't anyone in the hallway. I had no internal map or much to go off, so I picked the right at random and started down the hallway.
Only to meet a floating ball of light coming down the other direction.
"Uh…" I came to a halt. There was an indescribable sensation of sentience and life from the glimmering orb as it hovered in front of me. "Hello. I'm an honoured guest of, uh, your leader. Yes."
The orb of light bobbed and weaved in front of me. I got the distinct sensation that I was being evaluated somehow. It didn't speak though, and I wasn't sure if I was relieved or not that a sentient ball of radiance couldn't talk.
"Do you happen to know the way to the library?" I asked. "If there is one, that is. Somewhere I can get more information about the cu—uh, this whole organization."
I spread my hands around to indicate the temple and everything within it.
The orb floated closer to me. I felt warmer as the sensation of scrutiny intensified. The ball of light grew a lot brighter, then began hovering with a lot more zippiness. It was excited for some reason. I had the fleeting thought of the orb being able to sense my Path or Core or something like that before it took off.
"Hey, don't rush off," I called after it, following as fast as I could.
Was it leading me where I needed to go, or was I about to end up in the middle of a bunch of cultists—assuming there were more of them than the three I'd seen so far? Just in case the latter occurred, I'd need some way of convincing them to call their old leader. Or better yet, Aurier. He would stick up for me since he had brought me here, right?
The floating orb led me through another short hallway, past a couple of doors, before finally coming to a stop before a smaller door. It bobbed in front of the handle before phasing right through.
I turned the handle and entered a lavatory.
The orb weaved around, happy to have led me to the toilet for some reason.
"This is not a library," I said, raising my eyebrow at the sentient ball of light.
Maybe my voice was a little too sharp because it stopped its zipping motion and actually dimmed a bit, almost like it felt chagrined.
I took solace in the fact that at least the bathroom didn't smell terrible—in fact, it didn't even look like it got used often, if I was being honest—and modified my tone. "Can you please take me to where I can find more information? Or maybe help me find a map, so I can find my own way around?"
Gleaming a little brighter again at my request, the orb resolutely led me out. I followed it again, seeing and hearing nobody along the way.
We reached a section where the wall was broken, and the orb just floated right through to keep continuing onwards on the floor beneath.
"I can't make that jump," I said. It was at least twelve feet to the ground floor and I did not have tuck-and-roll experience.
Or could I make that jump…?
I focused on channelling Gravity again. Once again, instead of adding weight to myself, I wanted to lessen it. If I could become as light as a feather, I could just float down, right?
The buzzing sensation of power threaded through me once again. But with it came the echo of a deep ache. Not the emptiness I had felt when I had used up too much mana on that carriage, but a shadow of that sensation. Like a lingering, metaphysical warning not to repeat that experience.
Alright, got it. I would do well not to strain my body by overusing mana. Annoying that even if my mana core was gathering a ton of mana, my body could only channel so much in a given time
Whatever. I focused on my Aspect. Gravity. I needed it to modify my weight. I needed to become lighter.
Purple threads of power emerged from me once again, caging me in just as they had before. And just like before, they grew thicker and darker, turning black and heavy as I focused. A familiar sensation of increasing mass weighed me down.
"Not what I wanted…" I muttered. Talking was a little harder when my jaw and tongue were a lot heavier than normal.
I let go of it all, returning to my normal state. Then I tried again, concentrating very specifically on my Aspect's ability to reduce the effect of gravity, not increase it. I was more than sure it would be capable of it. So why wasn't it working? No matter how I thought and concentrated, Infusion could only ever add to my weight. Nothing besides that.
The sensation of making progress was there, but I just hadn't reached the breakthrough or whatever I needed. Kind of a bummer.
I sighed. "Yeah, no. I'm not making that jump."
The orb hesitated. It had been waiting patiently for me all this while. I got the feeling that it was seeking to return, although why it didn't just float back the way it had jumped was beyond me. Maybe those things couldn't float too high off whatever floor they were on? Whatever the case, the orb blinked at me, before zipping off in another direction.
Sighing, I went left. Again, at random. If I could leave a review for this temple, I would remember to state quirky but ineffective tour guide.
Although, I probably ought to amend that. Before I reached the end of the corridor, the glimmering sphere reappeared. We met at a large door, and before I could greet my guide, it turned and phased through the door.
Feeling a slight surge of hope, I turned the handle and went in.
Hmm. The room was the largest I had encountered in the temple, and the strangest thing was that all its walls were solid and intact. It didn't take me long to recognize the place. There was the altar in the centre, braziers at every wall, a little raised platform at one end.
Yep. This had to be a ritual room. Probably where they sacrificed things like goats. The stuff that didn't need a sensational volcano-top execution that my fortunate self had received.
For all that the room itself and the offerings on the altar were rather fascinating, they weren't exactly illuminating in the way I wanted. Since I didn't know the first thing about acquiring Sacrifice, I had a feeling just nabbing something from the altar and setting it alight in one of the braziers—which weren't lit anyway—wasn't going to work.
Nevertheless, my eyes did linger on the wide assortment of tributes. I spotted a doll, food that hadn't rotted yet, what looked like someone's writing on unbound pages, and more.
Still, none of that was going to help me get Sacrifice. I was about to turn and leave, when the door opened behind me and the floating orb. In walked the old man, a quizzical look on his face.
"* *** ********* where *** *** ****," he said.
He didn't sound angry or anything like that. If anything, I thought I heard a slight relief.
"I was looking around," I said.
I hedged my bets. What better a store of information was there than the leader of this entire establishment? Especially one who was kind enough to leave me food and water, after placing me in a bed to sleep off my mana exhaustion?
Then there was the part of me screaming that this was literally the guy who had led my Sacrifice not that long ago.
The duality of it was starting to make my head hurt. Go figure, people weren't black and white. What an enlightening realization.
He approached us, his eyes lingering on the way the floating orb of light got closer to me, shining brighter in my vicinity. The old man scratched the cap of short hair on his head before seeming to come to a decision, his eyes lighting up with new purpose.
"* ***** Aurier ******* **** Sacrifice ******** ******," he said. "* **** *** **** ********** **** ** what ** ******, *** come **** **."
I recognized some encouraging words there, plus the name of the young cultist who had led me to the temple.
"Do you… know I'm looking for how to get Sacrifice too?" I asked.
The old man understood enough to nod. Then he beckoned me with one hand before leading the way out. Crossing fingers internally, I followed.
We went higher up the temple, taking some stairs that cracked as we walked and made me fear I would fall through if I stepped wrong. The old cult leader took me to what had to be his office. There was a desk, a shelf with memorabilia, his own personal altar at one wall, and another section of the room entirely dedicated to a large tapestry emblazoned with a sun.
Mostly, I recognized the symbol of the golden-white circle with the silver rays coming out of it. Just like on the old man's robes and belt, just like I had seen in the ritual room below.
The old man led me to the balcony, from where he looked over the surrounding neighbourhood. "**** ** ** **** *** ***** want, Ross?"
I blinked. So Aurier had told him my name. I followed his gaze, finding that unlike the last time I had seen it, there were more lights now. Even a few people, milling about in the distance. "Want, huh?" I glanced at the glimmering that had followed, now resting almost against me like an overbright shoulder angel. "I want to learn to use Sacrifice."
There was probably more I could have said about what I really wanted, but I had to prioritize what I needed for now.
The old man considered for a moment, eyes once again lingering on the orb of light basically on top of me. "*** **** **** ** ****** one ** us."
He bid me to wait, before going back to his office. Moments later, after I had figured out his last sentence more or less, he returned with a goblet filled with sloshing red liquid. Thankfully, it looked more like wine than blood.
He placed a hand over his heart, took a small sip, and chanted. It was the same as before.
"O Power ******* ** *** Beyond."
"Flame **** ******* *** and ***** **** ******* Life."
"** *** ** Come ** *** Hallowed ****."
"*** **** Unto *** **** Sacrifice."
I was starting to understand what they were all about. The symbol, the mentions of Flame and Life.
He offered the goblet to me, and I recognized the one word he said. "Us."
It wasn't the first time he had said it. I saw what he meant. If I wanted Sacrifice, I'd need to become one of them. A cultist. A real one. That potentially had a lot of consequences I couldn't see just then, but I wanted to test Sacrifice. I wanted the feeling of fractures in my chest gone.
So I took the goblet and sipped the wine. It wasn't bad, honestly. Especially since my stomach wasn't empty. As I drank, I closed my eyes and tried to focus. Repeating the chant wasn't going to work as I didn't even know most of the words. But I concentrated on the feeling of being in the temple, replaying the images of everything I had experienced so far.
The cultists and their chanting. Being bound to a stake. Fires swimming closer, smoke drowning me alive. Being Sacrificed.
I really did want that Aspect. And if this was the way to get it, then I was all in.
[ Path Unlocked!
Meagre connection via earlier Sacrifice has been deemed satisfactory. Lingering traces of Divine Blessing considered sufficient evidence of sincere Fervour.
New Path: Path of the Acolyte [Iron I]
Starting Aspect: […]
New Path Attribute: Fervour [Iron I] ]
I returned the goblet as I finished reading the blue screen full of words. "I… think I'm one of you now."
The old man smiled, eyes glimmering almost as much as the light orb on my shoulder.