299 Chapter 299: Underground (2/2)
”Doesn't look like it, to be honest.” Principal Porter laughed. ”Honestly, we have too little information or intelligence regarding the Blood Slaughter Sect, so we cannot even begin to guess at what their motives for claiming the tomb site could be. Captain Brent might have raised a likely possibility, but with all due respect to him, he is only looking from a monetary or pragmatic point of view. The Blood Slaughter Sect might not necessarily be looking for technological relics or treasure to sell on the black market.”
”That's true,” I agreed with a shrug. ”But I'm not sure what else they could possibly be looking for. Knowledge? But they don't strike me as scholars…and their actions don't certainly match those of people searching for knowledge or historical information. Why the hell would you kill other people and hoard the knowledge for yourself? What use is that?”
”Hah! Don't put such barbarians in the same vein as us!” Principal Porter actually scoffed at my speculation. ”They certainly aren't academics like us, resorting to violence and visiting destruction upon the tomb's premises without any consideration. Do you know how much damage your battles from several days ago did to the site? Lots of priceless monuments and historical clues gone in just the matter of minutes!”
”Sorry about that…”
”No, no. I don't mean to blame you. It's not your fault. If anything, we're grateful.” Porter waved my apology away. ”We understand the necessity and the nature of these enemies. If you didn't stop them, they would have murdered all of us and plundered the tomb for themselves. That would have been worse than losing a few important historical clues.”
Well, I could certainly see that, but…
”In any case, from their wanton destruction, we can see that they are not interested in gaining any historical knowledge from the tomb at all,” Porter explained patiently. He also smiled. ”And they aren't concerned with accidentally wrecking whatever treasure they plan to steal if that was their goal…which is why I doubt that their motive is anything so monetary.”
”Huh…so why…?”
My mind blanked out, and I couldn't think of another reason why the Blood Slaughter Sect would come here.
Porter laughed. ”Come on, I know you're smarter than that. Here's a clue. What we found under the tomb was something that was more akin to…a temple. Not a research facility, not a treasure room filled with gold, but a religious site that bore idols and statues dedicated to certain…deities. Altars and shrines…places of worship.”
I immediately understood what Porter was getting at, and swallowed uneasily.
”Religion. They want this place because their sect belongs to some sort of cult…a cult that built the temple that housed this tomb? So they want to take it back for their cult now?”
”That is very likely.” Porter nodded. ”At least that's the conclusion I came to after conducting a preliminary investigation of the small portion of the temple beneath the tomb.” His smile widened. ”And yes, that's but a small portion of the temple. A single chamber out of hundreds. From diagrams and texts scribbled over the walls, it appears that the actual temple is much larger…the ancients built an almost city-sized temple underground before the entire place was swallowed up by swamps and Mother Nature during the Dark Age.”
”That's…” I gulped and then cocked my head. ”Have you told Captain Brent yet?”
Porter grimaced. ”Yeah. But the captain being a mercenary and professional soldier…he didn't take me seriously. He told me to dig harder, says there's probably something else hidden underneath the temple. Even though what we've unearthed so far points to the contrary.”
”Oh well…” I raised a hand. ”For what it's worth, I believe you.”
”Thank you.” Porter beamed. ”I knew you would, as a fellow scholar. Now, if you would please come with me…I would like your perspective on this.”
”My perspective? I'm not sure it'll be helpful…”
”I'll be the judge on that. Besides, we've exhausted our ideas and run to a dead end, so I'm hoping you can inject something new…something fresh into the discussion. Ah…I should explain from the beginning.” Porter looked sheepish. ”Basically, none of us could identify the religion or cult that built the temple. There are several…disturbing diagrams, but we have trouble deciphering them. They look weird. In addition, they have been giving our graduate students and even several of the professors nightmares.”
”Eh? If you guys don't know what they are, how would I…?”
”Can't hurt to take a look and try, right?”
I supposed Porter had a point. Besides, I was curious as to what sort of temple existed underneath the tomb. In ancient Japan, Shinto regarded death as polluting, and it was unusual for shrines to ever commemorate the dead or serve as burial grounds. Before Buddhism became a major influence, Emperors moved entire capitals whenever their predecessors died, for fear of pollution, and this continued on until the Nara period in the early 6th century. I wasn't as well-versed in other temples and religions because I majored in Japanese stuff, but even in ancient China, I didn't recall anybody building a tomb on top of a temple. That said, temples did serve as sacred sites to house the urns of the cremated dead, to enshrine them in tablets for descendants to pay their respects to their late relatives, so it wasn't all that unusual.
However, since Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and most other major religions continued to exist even in the 31st century (what? they had existed for thousands of years prior to the 21st century, why was it unusual for them to continue existing another thousand years later?), if this was a religion that Porter and his archaeological team couldn't identify, then they must bee a very odd one indeed.
I followed Porter down into the inner tomb chamber where the coffins were kept. Most of the dead were gone by now, having decomposed and were reduced to nothing, not even bones. The expedition had dug through the center, which revealed a hole that granted access to the level below.
”Here. we have a…”
Porter was about to hand me a harness, which was hooked to a pulley to allow the archaeologists to safely descend into the level below, but I ignored him and just jumped down, using physical reinforcement spells to soften my landing.
Porter shook his head, and muttered something about me taking after my adopted father, but he slipped on the harness and allowed the team above to slowly lower him. While he did, I surveyed the area and my jaw dropped.
I found that I did indeed recognize the motifs, diagrams and illustrations splayed across the walls in blood-red ink somewhat, but not because they belonged to any real religion that I knew. Instead, they belonged to a fictitious cult that I read about in a fictional universe that I often engaged in tabletop gameplay.
The eight-pointed star. The daemons with horns, hooves and blazing swords, illustrated in red skin. The chalices overflowing with blood. Greater daemons with wings, axes and whips, towering over their smaller brethren. The swirling masses of berserk humans tearing into each other, their faces frozen in enraged howls and ectasy as they sought to butcher each other and spill as much blood as possible.
”Blood for the Blood God,” I murmured in utter disbelief. ”This can't be right…”
”Blood God? What is that?” Porter demanded as his feet touched the ground, and he unstrapped his harness to approach me. I turned to him frantically.
”We should evacuate the entire area and leave right now. I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.”
”What the hell are you talking about?!” Porter grabbed my shoulders. ”Start speaking some sense, young man!”
I gestured to the gigantic two-headed dragon with blood-red scales that was depicted in the middle mural, the largest and most imposing illustration that dwarfed even the bellowing greater daemons with wings.
”That's the Blood God,” I whispered, almost unable to find my voice. ”And if the Blood Slaughter Sect successfully summons him to our dimension, we're all doomed.”