"The time has come."
Her voice was no longer cold, carrying a certain inhuman resonance.
"Prepare to welcome the birth of the new day."
The black-robed woman's voice carried a hint of unnoticeable helplessness.
No one noticed.
All the priests knelt down simultaneously, their foreheads pressed tightly against the ground. The Scepter Priest trembled as he offered up the Crystal Box, and the black-robed woman sliced open her wrist with a Bone Knife. At the moment the blood dripped, the brazier in the entire Temple District burst into flames, blue-white fire shot ten meters high into the sky, forming a giant inverted human shape against the nightfall.
The night wind suddenly changed direction, carrying the strange incense wafting from the inner sanctum. The Raven's vision began to distort, its avian instincts going haywire with alarms. Ian made a snap decision to spread his wings and fly away, catching one last glimpse of the black-robed woman pushing the creature inside the Crystal Box towards the altar. At that moment, under the moonlight, it unfolded its body.
Ian recognized its true form—some kind of embryo forged from the Doomsday Volcano in the Misty Illusion Realm. Since he had seen it before, Ian was able to clearly discern this aura.
The blood-colored patterns on the temple floor all lit up.
The priests' chanting turned into anguished screams, their shadows began to split on the walls as if a second existence was breaking away from their flesh. Meanwhile, on the highest dome, an unknown star alignment emerged—seven stars forcibly formed into a pupil shape, coldly observing this blasphemous ritual.
However.
No gods descended to stop it.
The ritual continued.
It seemed as if it was nurturing the embryo.
The surface of the Nai River suddenly began to ripple without wind, the sound of waves crashing against the shore echoed like a muffled heartbeat. The entire city of Memphis trembled in its slumber, yet no one dared wake up to investigate. Only the Raven, flapping its wings towards the distance, knew that the true darkness did not come from the night sky, but from some being about to be born, cloaked in the sun's attire.
At this moment.
The embryo on the altar violently quivered.
The golden web-like patterns on its surface exploded with a blinding light. This light flowed onto the ground like liquid gold but immediately solidified into a viscous black substance the moment it touched the stone slab.
These shadows twisted and writhed, gradually standing up to form various shapes defying common logic—a three-legged humanoid, a sphere covered in spikes, fog-shaped monsters continuously splitting and reforming.
The black-robed woman raised her arms, runes frantically coursed beneath her skin.
"Go forth, reclaim the sustenance you need!"
In response, the group of shadows emitted a high-pitched screech, the sound akin to glass shattering within a skull. They pounced on the living tied by chains surrounding the altar—dozens of ragged-clad civilians, their mouths sealed by a Spell, only able to utter despairing murmurs from their noses. The foremost shadow suddenly enveloped a young man's head.
Behold.
His body instantly shriveled, his skin visibly turned gray and cracked, finally becoming a skeleton covered by thin skin. The shadow, having feasted, visibly solidified, its surface emitting a sickly pearl sheen—the shadow was extracting the essence of human life, their existence's foundation.
Then feeding it back to the embryo.
"Not enough! Still far from enough!"
The Scepter Priest madly clawed at his bleeding forehead.
"The embryo needs more Essence of Life!"
The shadows grew agitated. They pushed and tore at each other, like a pack of starving hyenas. Due to the insufficient number of living people to share, many shadows also surged out of the temple.
They flowed like a black torrent towards each exit of the temple. The statues of Patronus carved on the stone pillars closed their eyes as they passed, seemingly unable to bear witnessing the impending atrocity.
Perhaps the rumors within the city were not unfounded.
Night descends.
Indeed, something emerges to begin hunting humans.