Holden held a saw in both hands, while the two girls gripped their wooden clubs tightly.
A battle was about to break out.
"It's you!"
"You damned fools, do you have any idea what you've done?"
"Go back into the forest immediately, then die in the order of prostitute → fool → athlete → scholar → virgin. There's still time to set everything right!"
As the middle-aged man in the suit spoke, he pointed in sequence at Julia, Martin, Curt, Holden, and Dana.
His tone and attitude were utterly domineering.
It was as if he had already decided their fates, and they had no choice but to comply—or else they would be betraying the entire world.
"I know," Martin said.
"And I also know that we won't die. You will—and not in the sacrifice zone, not in a way that completes the ritual."
Martin swept his hand forward. The mouthparts in his palm lashed out like laser whips, cutting every staff member in the corridor—including the five substitute sacrificial staff—cleanly in half.
"Ahh, my legs! My body!"
"Help! Save me!"
"You foolish bastard, do you know what you've done? If the sacrifices don't die in order, the evil god will destroy our world! Do you think you'll be fine just because you escaped?"
The middle-aged leader, his abdomen severed and his organs spilling across the floor, still had a breath left in him. Coughing up blood, he cursed at them.
"Martin, is what he said true?" Dana asked in alarm.
Holden and Julia were equally stunned.
They had not believed any of this before, but seeing that these people were about to die and still clung so stubbornly to that claim, they started to believe it.
And once they did, their first thought was to complete the sacrificial ritual.
Of