Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2156: Chapter 2157: Altar

At the end was an uncovered door. Inside the door was darkness, with nothing visible, only the ceaseless creeping of death permeating like a ghostly wind howling in the ears.

Frode closed his eyes, soul force vibrating at his brow, waves imperceptible to the naked eye rippling outward.

After a while, Frode opened his eyes and said, "The exact situation inside is unclear, but there’s no soul residue and no signs of living beings."

After confirming there was neither a living presence nor an undead threat, Frode and Angel stepped through the door.

The eerie death energy inside was even denser. Even without any energy driving it, the sounds of ghostly wails emerged unbidden by the ear, as if numerous resentful spirits were softly whispering.

Angel was unaffected, but Frode’s brow kept twitching, displaying a look of strained endurance.

Seeing this, Angel took a step forward, and with the fall of his step, an invisible spiritual force field enveloped around him and Frode.

Under the protection of the spiritual force field, Frode finally breathed a sigh of relief: "This must be Lady Cilla’s resting place, with the lingering resentment energy, extremely concentrated. Just standing here ignites the accumulated death energy in my soul."

If not for Angel’s protection, Frode wouldn’t last long here. Once too much resentment energy is absorbed, he has but one outcome—corruption.

"So it seems, this place might be more suitable for practicing soul tricks than Star Lake Castle," Angel muttered while extending his hand, a bright orb slowly rising from his palm.

The orb ascended above their heads, its brilliant light dispelling the darkness and illuminating the surroundings.

This was the advanced version of the Light Spell, the Light Splendor trick.

Under the illumination of the Light Splendor trick, they could now clearly see the area within a dozen meters around them. Within the light’s range, there seemed nothing special, the ground was unusually flat, with obvious polishing marks, it was artificially made.

Directly ahead of them, at the edge of the illuminated area, a faintly visible staircase could be seen.

"It seems, this place is even larger than I imagined," Angel murmured, as ten orbs created by the Light Splendor trick floated from his palm with a gentle flick, the orbs flying off in all directions.

The pitch-black cavern lit up as if a skylight had been opened, even the deepest dark corners replaced by light.

When the light thoroughly replaced the darkness, they finally saw the scene within the immense cavern.

The cavern was extremely vast, able to easily accommodate two or three Star Lake Castles. The entire cavern was incredibly flat, directly ahead was something akin to an altar high platform, and around the altar were numerous orderly rectangular stone platforms, along the cavern’s edge, every few meters there was a small black cavern, besides these, there were no other artificial marks.

Frode frowned tightly as he looked around, finally fixing his gaze on the high platform.

"This high platform..." Frode pointed at the altar-like high platform, "The death energy on it is extremely concentrated, almost tangible."

No need for Frode to mention it, Angel had already perceived it.

Although to the naked eye, it appeared as if nothing was on the high platform, the aura of death, decay, and silence was strikingly apparent. It could even be said that all the death energy in the cavern emanated from the high platform, that place was... the source.

"This place feels strange, let’s first split up and see if there’s anything to discover. Later, we’ll go to the high platform," Angel didn’t immediately investigate the source of the death energy on the high platform but intended to first explore the cavern’s conditions with Frode separately.

Frode nodded; he too was puzzled by this cavern—why was there such a cavern here, who built it? For what purpose?

Angel cast a spiritual force field on Frode, then went to the left side of the high platform, while Frode proceeded to the right.

Angel first used spiritual force to sense that the only things worth investigating on the left were those rectangular stone platforms, as well as the small caverns at the edge of the cave.

He walked to the edge of a rectangular stone platform.

These rectangular stone platforms jutted directly from the ground, both in height and shape, appearing like workbenches in a laboratory.

And on top of the rectangular stone platforms, objects were placed like on a workbench.

A skeleton.

To be precise, a partial human skeleton.

It was a left hand skeleton, completely dried up, under the wash of concentrated death energy, the skeleton showed fragile cracks, likely to crumble at the slightest touch.

Angel examined through both visual and spiritual perspectives, noticing traces of energy permeation when the left hand skeleton was alive. However, he couldn’t be certain, for he hadn’t fully mastered wizard applicable skeletal knowledge; he might consult Frode later.

With no other findings, Angel moved to another rectangular stone platform.

Like the previous one, this had a partial skeleton, though smaller, it was a right hand skeletal hand.

From the hand bones, the joints were distinct, not missing, also showing traces of past energy permeation.

Angel recalled the previous left hand, seemingly larger than this right hand skeletal hand, suggesting they didn’t belong to the same person.

Subsequently, Angel went to other rectangular stone platforms, each had partial skeletons, of different body parts, some even non-human.

After examining the rectangular stone platforms, Angel went to the small caverns carved into the cave wall.

He had previously probed the small caverns with spiritual force, now he was here to confirm once more.

After checking, Angel confirmed it was consistent with the spiritual perception: the small caverns weren’t large, only about two meters deep, and each contained a complete human skeleton in a sitting position.

Angel surveyed the cavern, discovering these small caverns spaced every few meters, totaling three hundred and sixty.

Each cavern had a human skeleton posed in the same sitting position.

This was definitely not normal.

Angel seemingly thought of something, his eyes suddenly turning dim, silently pacing back to the central high platform.

Not long after, Frode approached as well.

Frode: "The stone platforms all have fragmented skeletons, including human, humanoid races, and some species not of this plane. I feel, possibly some Transcendent conducted secret research here. Because all the skeletons showed traces of energy use in life, they were likely not mortals."

Frode’s assessment was much like Angel’s thoughts. Angel pondered for a moment: "If it was indeed a Transcendent’s secret research, humans and humanoids appearing here would indeed be normal. However, seeing otherworldly creatures’ bones here reminds me of a certain group."

"Carabits," Frode softly concurred.

The Carabits especially loved researching creatures, particularly those from other worlds.

Angel nodded, "Perhaps it’s a Carabit wizard conducting experiments here."

Frode: "That’s possible, but from the looks of it, this place has been abandoned for a long time, and there’s no trace of the experimenter, so it’s hard to confirm this guess."

Angel nodded, the skeleton on the stone platform offered no more information for now, and could only be set aside temporarily.

Angel: "What I’m most concerned about are the skeletons in those small caverns."

Frode recalled for a moment, shivering slightly, "Those skeletons are all intact but arranged in the same cross-legged sitting posture, which gives me the creeps."

After a pause, Frode curiously asked, "Why does Your Excellency care about those skeletons?"

Angel pondered for a moment, "Each small cavern is at the same distance, the inside is the same size, the skeletons are also human, and they are posed the same way. Everything follows a uniform regulation. This reminds me of..."

Angel hesitated for a moment before revealing the word in his heart: "Ceremony."

Ceremony. Frode mouthed the word softly. Ritual Studies hasn’t been hunted down by the Extreme Sect in the Southern Domain like Inscription Studies, so he’s heard of it, but seldom encountered it.

However, he knew that almost all sacrifices have more or less to do with Ritual Studies. Some schools even believe that Ritual Studies, like Inscription Studies, originates from Demon Gods, though Ritual Studies stemmed from the sacrifice ceremonies between Demon Gods and their followers.

"I once encountered the Pray-Eat Ritual at Anada, and later learned some basics of Ritual Studies from Greya." Angel recalled some ceremonial content Greya had taught, "Before becoming a master of rituals, Ritual Studies seldom had freedom; everything must be done according to ritual patterns."

"And ritual patterns in Ritual Studies are strict rigid regulations. For example, in a sacrifice ceremony, the position of the offerer must be dispersed within ten times the distance of the offering; each offerer must be three meters apart, and paired offerer positions must form a 90-degree angle..."

"Because of these regulations, the ceremony can proceed completely. The presence of small caverns here, in my view, is lines of absolute strict regulations."

After hearing Angel’s explanation, Frode also understood why Angel would value the small caverns.

If it’s just a ceremony, it’s not much. But unfortunately, this ceremony used human bones in its ritual pattern.

No matter whether this ceremony sacrificed the living or the dead, it represents a sacrificial type of ceremony.

A sacrifice surely has a target, and using humans as offerings typically targets Demon Gods, Evil Gods, magical creatures with divinity that feed on humans, or otherworldly powers hostile to humans.

Otherwise, there’s no need to use humans as offerings.

And these, whether Demon Gods, Evil Gods, or otherworld entities, are not easy to deal with and are all objects of great concern in the Wizards’ Realm.

The appearance of such a sacrificial ceremony here indeed needs attention.

"Since the ritual pattern is made of human bones," Angel looked back at the nearby high platform, "then this platform is undoubtedly an altar."

"As for whom this sacrificial ceremony is dedicated to, we can find out by going up; there must be clues there."

With that, Angel took the lead and ascended the altar’s steps.

With each step he took, Angel could feel the dead essence assault the spiritual power field more and more fiercely.

However, although the dead essence here was very dense, it was uncontrolled, only mindlessly crashing, and didn’t cause any damage to the spiritual power field.

The steps total thirty-six, which exactly corresponds to the number of small caverns, once again proving the ceremonial regulation.

When they reached the altar’s top, what greeted their eyes was a white bone altar constructed using the deceased’s skeleton.

The bone altar held nothing, but the dead essence here was the densest.

Angel guessed that Lady Cilla might have stayed on the altar before, which is why the dead essence and undead aura were so heavy here.

Frode circled the altar but didn’t see anything unusual, meaning their only chance of finding clues lay in the white bone altar.

But at first glance, this white bone altar also reveals no clues; there’s nothing there, and the altar is immaculately white without any patterns.

Angel reached out and touched the white bone altar.

When the cold feedback reached his fingertips, Angel’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"This white bone altar has no energy remnants left." Angel said slowly.

The white bone altar is constructed from the deceased’s remains, which in the Wizards’ Realm are considered semi-finished demonic materials and must contain Transcendent properties.

But now, the deceased’s remains have become mundane, lacking any Transcendent properties, which means...

"The ceremony has already taken place."

Since the ceremony has already been held, what exactly was it? Was the ceremony a success or failure? Why was Lady Cilla here?

As Frode swirled with questions, Angel forcefully shattered the white bone altar with a swift hand move.

With a rustling sound, the bone altar crumbled into pieces, scattering across the ground.

As the bone altar broke, the ground at the altar’s top was revealed.

"Look, there’s a symbol here!" Frode looked down to find a peculiar symbol evidently carved out by humans at the center of the ground beneath the bone altar.

Angel discovered this symbol using spiritual power after confirming there were no energy residues left in the bone altar. That’s why he shattered the altar, revealing the symbol.

A symbol Angel had never seen before.

It was very orderly, divisible into three parts. The outermost part was a concentric circle, within which was a standard ritual hexagon. Inside the hexagon was a symmetrical meandering symbol.

This symbol looked like two symmetrical, curved worms, and upon careful inspection, imprinted in the mind, it seemed to come alive, writhing and twisting.

"Although this symbol doesn’t show any Transcendent signs, it subtly connects to the surrounding dead essence." Angel sighed, "Unfortunately, I’ve never seen this symbol."

The symbol inside the hexagon was evidently the key clue, perhaps directly pointing to the sacrifice’s object.

Angel turned his gaze to Frode on the opposite side to see if he recognized it.

Frode shook his head, "I haven’t seen it either. But it doesn’t matter if we haven’t seen it; we can always call for outside help..."