Ashes Of Deep Sea Chapter 425

Chapter 425: Chapter 427 Sacrifice Chapter 425: Chapter 427 Sacrifice Hiss–
Vicious spikes pierced through flesh, leaving another meaningless, severe wound on a body already riddled with scars. The whispers and roars by her side suddenly became excited. Those sacrilegious creatures seemed proud of their successful strike, emitting a nauseating clamor.

Agatha raised her hand, using her staff to fend off a heretic covered in bone spurs, who had almost entirely lost its human form. By her ear, there was a crisp, grating sound of snapping.

She was taken aback by the sound for less than a second, then realized it was the sound of her combat staff breaking.

The weapon she had carried for many years had broken, in the face of endless enemies, it had held up until the last step.

“You've done well, Gatekeeper Miss,” that annoying, pretentious voice spoke up again, “As a sacrifice, proper preparation helps the ritual's effect, but too much exertion is not good.”

Holding the already broken staff, Agatha slowly lifted her head, dry blood allowing her to open only one eye, through which she could finally see the scene in this hall.

The eerie shadowy atmosphere had faded, revealing the center of the sewer, thoroughly transformed into a place of worship. The walls and the corridors in all directions were covered with filthy, desecrated symbols and marks of corrosion, resembling some sort of stalactites or dried branches, covering the ceiling above. In the front hall's ground, there was a huge “pool”–
What was once the ground was now a vast corroded pit, overflowing with pitch-black mud-like viscous substance, slowly churning, sending out wave after wave of nauseating squirming sounds.

Numerous Frost City-State heretics surrounded this hall, along with the Profound Demons associated with them. They hovered like a swarm of insects around a foul-smelling pot, murmuring prayers and mad roars toward the pool of pitch-black mud in the center of the hall, which, amidst the noisy prayers, became increasingly full and active.

This was a sacrificial scene, they were waiting for the final offering, and the “offering” in the minds of these fanatics was the Gatekeeper of the Frost City-State.

They had replicated another Gatekeeper before this, and now that Gatekeeper was also arriving at a sacrificial ceremony site.

“The actions you thought were free will, were simply progressing towards a predetermined stage. Don't you think there's a certain… beauty in this arrangement?”

In the center of that pool of black mud, a young man with golden blonde hair spread his arms towards Agatha. His face was still handsome, yet his entire lower half had transformed into a swollen, squirming mass, clearly extended and morphed from the mud pool itself, taking on a human form in a repulsive manner.

“Alright, the time is almost up, you've gotten used to the environment here. Step forward now, the moment of sacrifice has arrived.”

Around the edge of the mud pool, a limb-like tentacle slowly rose. It grew from the mud, its end gradually forming into a dagger-like hard, sharp structure.

This life-taking sacrificial tentacle slowly moved towards Agatha.

Agatha just quietly watched it, then suddenly murmured, “Almost… to this spot…”
She slowly reached towards her chest.

But in the next second, her action suddenly halted.

At that moment, she lost control over her body.

“I know you want to do something… something not in our plans.”

In her abruptly dulling senses, she heard the voice of the blond young man from across, she exerted all her strength trying to lift her head, only able to see a glimpse of him in her peripheral vision.

“But unfortunately, to prevent the sacrifice from going out of control, we have been preparing 'safety measures' from the start–didn't you realize? Along your journey here, you eliminated so many replicas, even several of my incarnations. All this… was only to bind you bit by bit to this mirrored city.

“Do you think you're increasingly able to sense the location of this sanctuary? Feel more distinctly the scent of us 'heretics'? Have you ever wondered why you feel these changes?

“It's simple, before you arrived here, you were already one of us, ma'am.”

Agatha finally lifted her head, and in front of her, the sharp spike was inch by inch approaching her heart, while her body still couldn't move.

Now, she finally understood the sense of inconsistency she had felt all along, and realized why these heretics had futilely sent so many expendable minions to engage in a “war of attrition” against her.

Everything, was for a subtly pervasive corruption.

The next second, the sharp spike pierced her heart without delay.

In the mud pool, the blond heretic abruptly raised his hands, and as the Gatekeeper's heart was pierced, he uttered an ecstatic prayer: “The offering is presented! The life of this Saint will serve as the first step for the arrival of our Lord's kingdom! Cry in the name of the Saint, welcome the promised day!”

In an instant, all the heretics in the hall cried out, those deformed and horrific figures symbiotic with demons fell into ecstasy, madly shouting the name of the Profound Saint, while some waved their daggers and frantically slit their flesh, their blood pouring into the surging black mud in the center of the hall–even the demons beside them fell into a frenzy, emitting a variety of crazed and chaotic howls!

However, amid those crazed and chaotic howls, the black substance in the pool of mud only surged violently for a few seconds before gradually returning to calm.

The blond heretic at the center of the “pool” finally sensed something was off, snapping out of his ecstasy. He stared bewildered at the now calming pool and then turned his gaze toward the spike that pierced the Saint's heart and looked towards the gatekeeper standing at the edge of the sacrificial ground.

The gatekeeper, scarred and pale-faced.

“…You have no life?!” The fanatic finally lost his poise and elegance, pointing at Agatha in absolute astonishment, “You… why are you a corpse?!”

Agatha looked at him calmly, a smile finally appearing on her lips at this moment.

“Although I had not figured out your ultimate goal, as a gatekeeper, how could I not notice the discordant changes in my own body…”

As she spoke, she slowly raised her arm, feeling her body gradually returning to her control, seemingly due to the ineffectiveness of the sacrificial ritual.

“Once I realized you wanted to lure me to this assembly, and sensed that this might be some sort of life-demanding sacrificial ceremony, I did one thing…”

She slowly gripped the spike that had pierced her heart, her fingers gradually tightening while wisps of green flames flowed between her fingers, seeping into the spike.

She looked up, gazing at the heretics in the pool of mud.

“All heretic sacrifices are based on blood–I drained my own.”

“You… do you realize what you've done!?” The fanatic's eyes were wide with fury, his fingers trembling violently as he pointed at Agatha, “You… this…”

“No worries, it's a minor matter,” Agatha smiled and shook her head, more flames escaping from her fingers, “As long as the sparks reach…”

“What did yo–”
Before the heretic in the pool of mud could finish speaking, another deafening boom suddenly came from the other end of the assembly hall, a cataclysmic noise instantly destroying the last vestige of the sacrificial rite–
A large door at the back of the assembly hall, along with a huge section of the adjacent wall, was completely blown away by high explosives!

“Boom!!”

Earth and stone crumbled; cement flew; fragments of the door and countless mingled black eerie substances rushed into the hall like shrapnel, blasting the heretics closest to the door away on the spot, with other remaining heretics exclaiming–
“They've breached the door!”

“Impossible! They haven't been able to break through for decades… How could a group of phantoms possibly break their own cycle!?”

In the center of the pool of mud, the blond cult leader turned in shock towards the direction of the explosion. But before he could make out those figures bursting through from across the Thorn Gate, a towering green firelight surged up at the edge of his field of view.

He shifted his gaze and saw the offerings that were supposed to be dedicated to the Profound Saint now enveloped in flames, fiercely burning in a terrifying spectral flame!

The moment the door at the back of the assembly hall was blown open, Agatha finally broke free from the control of the sacrificial ritual and in that exceedingly brief moment, she ignited the spark.

Her fuel was herself.

Spiritual Fire ascended!

In a vision suddenly filled with dim green flames, Agatha saw a big hole where the opposite wall of the “pool” had collapsed, a group of figures looking like sailors, bodies ablaze with green flames similar to her own, storming into the hall.

The flames on their bodies resonated intensely with the fire she herself had ignited.

Agatha began to smile.

Knowledge flooded her mind; she now understood.

In the blaze, she slowly spread her arms, lifting them upward as if in welcome.

“The fire has been lit.”

Chapter end

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