Dungeon Raider System
Chapter 661 - 661: Nefarious ceremony Part 2

Atsa looked at Uriel like he was wrong in the head, it was the kind of gaze Uriel knew too well as even his friends looked at him that way from time to time, but there was something else in the old man's eyes, something Uriel couldn't understand until Atsa spoke.

"Why would you expect a god to be trapped in a place like this?" The emotion leaking through Atsa's voice was unmistakably pity.

"Because according to native American tribes there should be at least two gods in this dungeon. At first I thought they were the white and black clouds a friend of mine saw in the first world, but then I met Father of horrors and I just assumed he was the evil god of this world. Then that leaves only the good one, right?" Uriel finished with a questioning look.

"You are too naive, child," Atsa shook his head and spoke in a condescending manner that got on Uriel's nerves. "I've been telling you all this time what is trapped inside this place, it's the ancient enemy. Pure evil incarnate that knows nothing but destruction and murder, it feeds on the blood and flesh of people and it won't stop unless it's sated."

"You say so, but it just doesn't make sense. In every culture there's a balance to the powers of creation and destruction. Because if there isn't..."

"Because without balance, humanity can't survive." Atsa finished Uriel's sentence.

"So, I'm guessing we need to stop this ceremony, rite or whatever. Right?" Uriel looked at Atsa who simply shrugged.

"This is something I have never seen. I don't know what these people are doing and it intrigues me, but I don't like what they are doing to my ancestors." Atsa pointed at the stone pillars surrounding the throne by puckering his lips, which was the only way to point at something in his culture without being rude.

"You said before you needed my help, but you don't tell me what we need to do. You said you don't know how does the machine work, but you still brought me here. If you really want my help, you need to at least tell me what are we doing here."

"Concealing ourselves in the middle of the crowd was a good start. The best way to hide a tree is in the middle of a forest. Unfortunately, what we should do and what we can do are two entirely different things. We should stop this ceremony, but I'm afraid that we won't be capable of such a feat. Not even the heroes from the old times could have faced so many warriors by themselves.

If only I was a thousand years younger." Atsa sighed.

"Would that really make a difference? If you were younger would you be able to take on this many hunters at once?" Uriel asked deeply impressed by the old man. Facing just one elemental squad was difficult due to them being able to unlock different skills related to their respective elements, but when they gathered in such numbers it wasn't just a matter of their individual prowess.

Uriel experienced what they could do if they joined forces when he fought against Bella. She was powerful by herself and would have been a challenge no matter the circumstances, but Uriel was able to see the magnitude of the storm the society conjured back then and didn't want to face something similar ever again.

Especially when considering that now he was absolutely surrounded with no way out in an enclosed area filled to the brim with flux energy. The least he could expect if only a fraction of that power was directed at him was to be disintegrated on the spot.

"No, it would not make a difference, but I would have definitely married a woman from your tribe. They were all beautiful and strong, just my type." Atsa looked at a distance far beyond the walls with longing.

"Tsk, you really are just a perverted old geezer." Uriel scoffed.

"One should not laugh about the dirt on someone's clothes when covered in mud." Atsa said in the same tone he would use to lecture a child.

Uriel would have loved to rebuke, but the truth of the matter was that his eyes did linger on the cultist's cleavage far too longer than it was polite. Besides, even though the chanting around them muffled their voice, they were surrounded by hunters whose senses were far sharper than those of regular humans and they took a risk each time they spoke.

The only thing that reassured Uriel was that he knew all those present had exclusively elemental manipulation traits, which meant there was no one with supernatural hearing or sight. This allowed him to hide in plain sight and watch first hand how did the ceremony proceed.

There were a few different artifacts displayed in front of the crowd: a chalice, a sword, something similar to a wooden stick and other miscellaneous items that didn't have anything in common with each other.

Of all those, the ones that drew his attention the most was the chalice. It was a plain looking golden chalice, but what was interesting about it was its function. A cultist filled it with blood taken from a blood pack, most likely the ones they collected from the people they exiled, then passed on the chalice to the cultist beside him.

The second cultist would lift the chalice above his head, then pour its content beneath the throne without ever stop his malevolent chant. As soon as the blood touched the ground it would sizzle and boil as it consumed anything it touched like a powerful acid.

The process was then repeated over and over, which made Uriel understand that the machine he saw had to be located beneath the throne and the most likely cause for part of the chamber being red hot was the blood being poured on it.

"It seems their chanting is meant to infuse as much flux energy in the chalice as they can, then it turns blood into an acid that's capable of destroying even the dungeon. Something that was believed to be impossible." Uriel gasped as he tried to remember if he had heard of any culture performing a similar ceremony.

"You are in part correct, but it's not an acid. That cup isn't just a decoration, it's an amazing device that can enhance the life essence of anything that's poured inside of it. For instance, if you put boiled water in it nothing will happen, but if it contains fresh water it will multiply the life force of the organisms within, causing them to reproduce at a faster rate.

It was given to a woman as a betrothal gift, but she declined the offer and still kept it for herself."

"First, it's a chalice and second, how do you know so much about it?" The fact that Atsa was being so specific made Uriel both doubt and believe him at the same time.

"It's a cup, I know it because it's my cup!" Atsa replied with a frown forcing Uriel to bite his tongue to hold his laughter, but his impulse to laugh at Atsa's misery died when a thought emerged in Uriel's mind.

"Saying that life essence can be enhanced by an artifact is the same as saying it's synthetic. I didn't think much about it at the time, but we visited a synthetic food factory where the animals were mutated. Do you think your cup could have been involved somehow?" Uriel asked.

"No, it's impossible. I only lost the cup recently, but that synthetic food is no food at all. You should not eat that." Atsa angrily declared.

"Why? Is it dangerous?" Uriel asked intrigued by Atsa's sudden mood shift.

"It's not dangerous, it's taboo." He said as though that explained everything, but Uriel's curiosity drove him to insist.

"I grew up on nothing but synthetic food and before you say something, it's not like I had a choice. It was either that or dying of hunger, so I went with that. If you know something about it, I would really like to know." Uriel took notice of Atsa's disgusted grimace when he mentioned he grew up eating only synthetic food, yet insisted.

"This is not an ancient tradition, it's common sense. You should not eat your own." Atsa scoffed.

It was then that everything came together and Uriel finally understood why was synthetic food called like that despite it being made of animals. Mutated, disgusting, pitiful animals, but animals nonetheless.

Back when Uriel was in high school a persistent feeling on the back of his head made him suspect that the reason why synthetic food was called like that was to hide it's disgusting origin. After all, with so many cryptids scouring the land it wasn't that the city could afford having any farmlands.

Back then he assumed that the worst case scenario was that so much food being produced in a city without farmlands had to be related with the fact that when people died they weren't buried but 'cremated' and the most likely explanation was that they fed animals with human remains.

Needless to say it disgusted him and only ate what was necessary to survive. But when Atsa said that, Uriel realized the truth was even worse than that. The cattle had been somehow infused with human life essence.

It may not sound as nasty as eating raw human flesh was, but it was actually way worse. It meant that there had to be living humans whose life force was being harvested in a manner much similar to that of what the society did when they forcibly drew force from the inhabitants of the dungeon.