Although they had decided to begin the ritual, such an enormous ritual was not something that could simply be activated on a whim.
The Federation's blockade and purges had not been entirely ineffective. In its most complete form, this ritual should have been continuous; once preparations were sufficient, they would only need to stand at the very center and activate it according to the prescribed steps.
But now, they did not have such conditions, nor could they activate the ritual too conspicuously. After all, at the geographical center of the Federation lay the capital. The capital had more [Lamp]-attribute Transcendents than anywhere else, was under tighter security, and was far more dangerous. Even drawing the array in a dark corner of the capital had been an exceedingly difficult task that took a long time.
Thankfully, the plan had gone smoothly thanks to the cover provided by high-ranking believers hidden among the capital's "human" population.
They also had to thank the fact that the Transcendent awakening had not been around for long. Humanity's methods of identifying Fanatics were too crude, allowing high-ranking believers with the [Disguise] ability to remain safely among humans.
Now, following their Lord's guidance, they had slightly altered the ritual for activating the array and planned thirteen activation points. As long as the key array positions at those thirteen locations were activated one by one in sequence, this massive array spanning the entire Federation would be fully activated.
They had long since prepared for this. Once they had gathered all the "sacrifices" needed to activate the ritual, they returned to that dark, damp, cold tomb.
Ordinary gems could not fulfill His words. Naturally, what the believers had prepared was the flesh, blood, and organs of Transcendents.
Beyond that, nearly a hundred believers gradually entered the not-so-small tomb. All