166 The Blood Ritual Begins (1/2)

The clouds in the pure black sky were blood red with the reflection of the flames. Ashes flew in the hot wind. They rose into the sky and faded, vanishing. It was like fiery stars were rising gradually. The fire was at its climax.

On the street, the killing had reached fever pitch. In the fighting and attacking that had spread to every corner of the city, roars and wails rang in everyone’s ears.

An eerie and strange chill was in the air, but it was covered by the burning flames. The vague laughter and chanting snaking around everyone’s ears was replaced by the roars and screams, and then became too faint to hear.

Covered by layers of bricks, hundreds of meters underground, the glorious yet hoarse singing boomed like thunder. This was the final laboratory in the central security room.

The resounding singing and music echoed above the circular plaza. It rolled between the walls, rushed into the darkness above the dome and spread in all directions. The burning mercury flowed in the cracks between the bricks, forming secrete music notes and scores. The scores transformed quickly, warping like an asphyxiated snake.

”How sweet is the grace of god! Sinners as I have gone astray but have gone been led back, have gone blind but can now see again…” Above the designs, dozens of musicians clad in blood-red cloaks stood in the eye of the resonance. Their souls were connected as they sang the fallen hymn with fervor. Their eyes rolled as they chanted and sang. It was as if the song had ignited their nerves and they were immersed in the endless song.

It was a holy hymn and melody, but now, it was indescribably wild and ferocious. A tidal wave of aether rolled off their bodies, transforming into a hellish red light. Bursts of roars and rips came from thin air. It was as if the gate to hell was about to open and the demonic world would descend!

This was one of the twenty songs from the Codex Calixtinus. As an ancient record written by earlier saints, it was a treasure passed down through the generations of a certain sect.

Later, it was stolen by the followers of Satan during a war in the Dark World. Using Hyakume’s power, all twenty hymns were tainted and transformed into satanic hymns!

As they sang the hymn wildly, fresh blood poured out of thin air. It was an immeasurable amount of red, flowing and converging from all directions. It formed a surging river.

The red tide covered the dome, the earth, and everyone’s breaths; it overlapped and built up into an ocean of devastation. It was the blood that had been filtered and purified countless times—the vitality squeezed out of so many lives!

The tidal wave of blood surged in the air, seeming to create a giant vortex. Even the air around the vortex seemed to be warped.

”Red Eye, the Blood Path is about to be activated. Hurry up!” the masked Robin ordered outside the blood formation. He gazed at the light brewing inside the blood with fanatic eyes.

At the heart of the blood formation, the dark musician Red Eye consumed the immeasurable amount of vitality. The chanting leaving his mouth grew more and more hoarse yet shrill.

The vortex quaked.

Soon. It was soon!

The Blood Path would soon be activated!

The Robin chuckled and his figure melted into the darkness.

-

Boom! A burst of thunder boomed in the black clouds above the burning downtown. This was the natural phenomenon formed by the enormous flow of aether, but it was as if the gods above the clouds had been angered and were roaring.

A crack of lighting fell from the sky, hitting the tip of the Tower Bridge like a whip. The faces of the police turned white in fear. After the thunder ended, the sounds of crashing waves outside the city disappeared strangely, but the wind did not stop. The wind brought an eerie chill that made one’s scalp numb and body shiver.

The thunderstorm had arrived!