The Priests Sacrificed Their God

The ground began to tremble slightly as heavy trucks, tanks, and armored vehicles appeared on the horizon like a river of steel.

Two armored divisions, 21,456 men, plus 200 Royal Air Force fighter jets.

This included 317 tanks, over a hundred heavy artillery pieces, more than four hundred cannons, and a total of over two thousand cars and carriages.

This was the military force Wu Heng had mobilized over the past three days, and they had all arrived at the banks of the Ganges River.

"Report to the Commander-in-Chief, all personnel assembled, awaiting instructions."

"Aim at the target area and stand by."

As soon as the words fell, fighter jets streaked across the sky, emitting a series of roars.

The Hastur nest was dragged by heavy trucks and slowly appeared by the Ganges.

A 2,500-square-meter clearing had been leveled by the river, paved with wooden planks to form an altar, upon which stood 417 shrines.

Four hundred and seventeen goddess priestesses, dressed in gorgeous attire, stood at their respective stations. These were all the goddess priestesses that could be found in the west.

The priestesses began their preparations, burning incense, purifying their bodies, and calming their minds.

Attendants beside the wooden shrine poles rang the copper bells on the frames, and the crisp sound of ritual bells signaled the start of the ceremony.

Led by the chief priestess, the group of priestesses stood solemnly facing the Ganges, raising vessels filled with Ganges water in a gesture of worship with the most solemn expressions.

After the worship, the priestesses returned to their respective shrines, chanting and burning incense to the sound of the copper bells.

Cobra torches, chicken claws, copper bells, ritual lamps, peacock feathers, yak tails, and many other ritual objects were used in turn, dancing in an orderly fashion from the southeast, west, and north.

After each ritual object was waved, holy water and flowers were sprinkled into the Ganges.

Outside the altar, two thousand goddess believers pierced their tongues, cheeks, or arms with silver needles, hung iron hooks through the flesh of their backs, and walked barefoot over burning coals.

They expressed their faith in the god in this way, measuring their devotion by the degree of their pain and bleeding.

Wu Heng didn't know if their god liked it, but he was certain the Cenobites would definitely enjoy this method.

They circled the altar, showing off their faith to the crowd, hoping to receive the blessings of the gods.

As the ceremony reached its most solemn moment, all the priestesses stood up together, raised their arms toward the Ganges, and chanted in ancient Indian.

The chief priestess glanced at Wu Heng, and he understood.

"Bring the offering!" Wu Heng gestured toward the trucks.

Pushed slowly by four loaders, the Hastur nest was submerged entirely into the Ganges.

Seeing the offering pushed into the river, the priestesses chanted even louder.

Wu Heng had withheld some information from these priests, telling them only that it was an offering without specifying what it actually was.

These priests assumed it was a large dough cake, believing Wu Heng to be a devout believer for preparing such a sincere offering.

At this moment, all the soldiers received the order and began to shout loudly.

"Hastur is coming! Hastur is coming! Hastur is coming!"

The shouts echoed along the Ganges.

Upon hearing the name, the priestesses' expressions changed drastically; the chanting stopped completely, and they looked at Wu Heng in terror, some already beginning to flee toward the rear.

Bang! Bang! Two fleeing priests fell to the ground.

"Keep chanting!"

The soldiers supervising them from the armored vehicles pointed their guns at them and said coldly.

The chanting resumed, though the tone was much weaker and lower.

The flour on the surface of the nest began to wash away in the river water, revealing a scarlet skin that grew more vivid, as if it were about to drip blood.

The shriveled nest slowly began to swell, becoming round.

Countless hissing sounds came from within, and the surface constantly writhed and bulged, like a spider egg about to hatch countless small spiders.

The flowing Ganges seemed to have changed as well.

The river water gradually became silent, yet also turbulent, filled with an unsettling sense of contradiction.

It seemed as if waves of fierce aura were tracing back to this place from all directions along the river, making the hair of ordinary people stand on end!

The people present seemed to feel the change in the atmosphere; the soldiers looked focused, their arms tense, ready to press the launch button at any moment.

It's here! Someone exclaimed in surprise.

Splash!

Water sprayed everywhere as a figure rushed out from the bottom of the river, lunging straight at the Hastur nest.

It had a human-like, sturdy frame over four meters tall, a head like a withered toad, molten lava flowing within its abdomen, and a large purple mouth spitting flames.

"The Son of God!"

"It's Juchikanaan, the Son of God, Juchikanaan!"

Exclamations of shock came from the priests at the scene; their morale surged, and they all knelt in unison.

The soldiers held their breath, waiting quietly for Wu Heng to give the order to attack.

Wu Heng stood atop an armored vehicle beside the helicopter. The rotors were spinning; at the slightest sign of trouble, he would dash over and evacuate by air.

Juchikanaan ignored everyone present, using its fan-like hands tipped with sharp claws to tear at the Goddess Womb.

"Hastur!"

Juchikanaan let out a low, guttural roar in a strange cadence, the tone sounding somewhat like the rhotic suffix of "Hastur."

Flesh splattered and fascia snapped; the indestructible Goddess Womb was quickly torn open, revealing a bloody hole. Power of the same origin could indeed destroy the Goddess Womb.

Countless Hastur swarmed toward Juchikanaan like hatchling spiders emerging from their eggs.

Juchikanaan's belly swelled, and its massive purple maw snapped open, unleashing a torrent of flames that incinerated the swarms of Hastur into ash.

Yet, an endless stream of Hastur continued to pour out, desperate to bite Juchikanaan and transmit the rot curse to it.

While spewing flames, Juchikanaan continued to tear at the nest with both claws, widening the opening.

Pfft—whoosh!

At that moment, a figure actually pierced through the Goddess Womb from below, bursting out of the hole at the top amidst the mangled remains of Hastur and soaring into mid-air.

Another Son of God had arrived.

It stood over three meters tall, gaunt and blue-skinned, resembling a hairless fledgling bird with limbs like razor blades.

"Oh, God!"

The priests fell to their knees, shouting with tears streaming down their faces.

"Our God has returned!"

"It is Zhenluomensa! The ninth Son of God."

"Zhenluomensa, please forgive my transgressions!"

"This is a divine war! My God, it is all the fault of your followers; I am a sinner! I am a sinner!"

The priests had descended into total madness; some even began kowtowing toward the nest, prostrating themselves in worship.

This time, no soldiers stopped them, for everyone was gripping their rifles tightly, awaiting the Commander-in-Chief's orders. Only steel and gunfire could provide them with a sense of security.

"Commander-in-Chief!"

The four staff officers beside him exchanged glances and couldn't help but call out in unison.

"No rush. The timing isn't right yet."

Wu Heng's composure eased their frayed nerves. They had participated in hundreds of battles, large and small, but this was their first time fighting non-human entities.

Zhenluomensa and Juchikanaan began to coordinate; Juchikanaan held back the countless Hastur while Zhenluomensa spun like a top, frantically tearing apart the Hastur Nest.

The surface of the lake in the distance stirred once more. The river water surged into five-meter-high waves, as if a pod of whales were pushing from behind.

The massive waves slammed into the Hastur Nest, and nine more monsters appeared, each bearing grotesque features: snake heads, rotting faces, two heads, multiple limbs. It was nothing short of a freak show.

The Hastur Nest was torn in half in an instant, and no new Hastur emerged. However, the single remaining Hastur began to expand rapidly in size.

Three meters, five meters, seven meters, ten meters!