Chen Chuan and the Federation Officer followed the priest farther up the path, soon passing the God-Viewing Chamber that stood to one side.
On his previous visit, Chen Chuan had met the Great Priest here and had been unable to proceed farther up. This had not been a sign of disrespect on her part. Normally, only Kavatua's Great Chieftain and members of the Priest Group could perform daily rites at the Great Temple of Hatikan. Anyone else wishing to enter had to wait for certain festivals.
Now, however, the two of them had been invited inside, because the region beyond the Rift was the only place available for their battle.
The higher they climbed, the more keenly they felt the temple's grandeur.
Hatikan was the earliest temple built by the First People, and remained the largest temple complex in the world. A structure occupying the summit of a majestic mountain range had scarcely had an equal in ancient times, and would probably never have one in the future.
Thousands of years of uninterrupted construction and expansion had made this building nothing short of a miracle.
The two reached the end of the stairs and stepped onto the plaza before the gates. Thanks to the steep incline, sights hidden from below now came into view.
Two rows of massive sacrificial pillars dedicated to nature spirits stood on either side. The pair's powerful minds allowed them to see the nature spirits perched upon them with ease.
These spirits might originally have been nothing more than living creatures with a little mental power, but long years of worship had shaped them into the mythical beings people imagined, granting them distinctive intelligence and personalities of their own.
They noticed the two men approaching from below, and the instant the pair looked toward them, their