Elsewhere, men and women gathered in the temple's main hall, standing or sitting, every face marked by a grief that could be plainly read.
Not far away, screams and cries boiled up from the sacrificial pit, accompanied by the teeth-grinding scrape of bones rubbing together. Though death had never truly befallen them, the shadow it carried when it descended had enveloped them all.
Every one of them knew clearly that the sacrificial pit was being filled by the deaths of innocents. Only by offering enough sacrifices could this Instance possibly come to an end.
Yu Su could not stop crying. Between sobs, she muttered to herself, "Why is this happening? I want to go down the mountain. I want to go home..."
After a full day and night, under the effect of the "turning back into a child" mechanism, her mind had regressed to that of a twelve-year-old. Compared to the other Players, she was completely and utterly a child.
Li Yunyang gripped her shoulders tightly to keep her from rashly rushing out of the temple gates and causing needless casualties. She remained silent, unable to offer any words of comfort.
Before today, like many members of the Nine Provinces Guild, she had revered Fu Jue as a "savior." The thought that he would make the decision to "sacrifice the few to save the many" was something they could never have imagined.
But she had to admit that this was the only way. This Instance had been divided into more than one time-space, and no one could be sure what choices the Players in the other time-spaces would make. Only by completing the sacrifice as quickly as possible and seizing the initiative could they prevent the future world from falling into the hands of lunatics like the Church of the