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***Edited by Kronost***
The streets of Beland were pitch black, and the nightly downpour showed no sign of stopping. Aina turned onto another street, passing through a dark alley. A dozen people in black walked out without warning. She was startled, then she noticed these people were led by a high priest of the Order.
The old man had a chilling aura in the rain, sending a chill through her bare skin.
“Come here”
He first led Aina through the alley and stared intently at the object in her hand, the wrinkles on his face stretched out.
“A gift from the gods! It has been a long time, hundreds of years since the last one.”
This ‘cup’ belonged to the Lord of Ashes, who gives his own food as a reward for the devout. According to ancient legends, burning blood was an extinct element in the world. When the Lord of Ashes lived here, it had been his food, and it had powers that were beyond human comprehension.
Aina was still afraid, but she immediately held up the divine object like a treasure and said expectantly, “High priest…”
The high priest stared at the little girl, somewhat surprised that she had not fallen into madness, and ran away, and at the same time annoyed at her recklessness.
Beland is the capital of Nolan, where the Bureau of Devil Defense headquarters is located. There were still investigators patrolling at night during the heavy rain. And if they come across them, the divine object that has been scarce for hundreds of years will be lost.
‘What a stupid little thing.’
The high priest looked at the little girl sharply, his cloudy eyes like a hook, but he did not blame her, “Don’t be afraid, tell me what happened?”
Aina nodded, and she excitedly told him what she had seen and heard about the arrival of the Lord of Ashes, his oracle and gift. The high priest felt incredible, listening to the little girl’s story.
‘God, has come?’
Historically, the Lord of Ashes has only been recorded twice. Each of which had brought drastic changes in the world, the fall of cities, the collapse of nations. If what she said was true, it would be the third time the Lord of the Ashes descends, and his presence is bound to disrupt everything. The world was about to undergo drastic changes.
‘This little one, was everything she said true? Something does not feel right.’
The high priest’s cloudy eyes glanced down, his heart put a big question mark, and he coaxed: “Very good, Aina. You have contributed a lot.”
She was filled with joy when the high priest praised her. But she suddenly found that the high priest was staring at her in silence. So, she unconsciously retreated a few steps and lowered her head. She did not understand what the meaningful gaze meant.
‘Is the high priest not pleased?’
The container carrying the blood-colored lava was neither large nor small, just like an ordinary coffee cup. But it contained power that had never been seen in three hundred years. Taking a deep breath, the high priest knelt on the ground, his trembling hands reaching to take the container of blood-colored lava from Aina’s hands.
There was a record that a heretical sect in a small eastern town used the blood of gods as a medical method. Causing miracles, saving many people, and eventually creating heretic-fake gods.
The Chaos Embers Order also contains records of making ‘Child of God’ by injecting ‘Burning Blood.’ He said to himself, “We can use similar ideas to create a real son of god.”
Holding the container, the priest slowly rose and looked at Aina, his eyes gradually growing hot, causing Aina to step back in fear.
The right candidate was clear, and she would be the first one to undergo the operation.
Nine out of ten operations to make the Child of God could lead to death, but the high priest did not care about her life or death.
He did not believe that God would give an oracle “She must live.” After all, no one knows the Lord of Ashes better than him.
The ‘oracles’ she said were probably made up by her. After all, the Lord of Ashes is a powerful existence that is difficult for humans to understand and has nothing to do with good and evil. It was impossible to pay special attention to a specific person.
Like how- humans would not single out an ant and order other ants to protect it.
The senior priest knew the ’cause and effect’ of her thought. The motive was simple. She wants to survive and improve her status in the Order.
‘It is really a little thing with a lot of thought.’
Aina puts her hands around her chest, her little head tilted up in confusion, her burgundy pupils like shining gems.
‘What is going to happen to me in the future?’
She was not entirely aware of her future, but she still had little expectation of hoping to live in the outside world. She had contributed to the Order.
‘I want to grow up.’
A little joy sprouted from the bottom of her heart. She thanked the Lord of Ashes from the bottom of her heart for giving her the opportunity to change her life.
The senior priest pondered slightly, staring at the coffee cup-shaped container in his hand. “What should I do with the divine object? It is a sacred relic.”
It was a precious sacred artifact. It must be hidden and passed down from generation to generation as the noblest relic of the sect so that the strongest fighters and their descendants can guard it forever.
…………
Under the command of the high priest, Aina had to go to another stronghold sect in Beland. She put on a black coat. The coat was too big for her petite frame. In the end, a small part was dragged to the ground.
She hesitantly walked out of the alley with two men wearing a black cassock(1). They stood in front of her and behind her.
In the middle of the rainstorm, she followed the black-clad people through the deserted streets for half an hour to a remote villa.
The door slowly opened, and a middle-aged man with blond hair showed half of his face and stared at Aina standing in the middle for a while. Aina lowered her head subconsciously.
“Come in.”
The five people entered the villa together. Her heart began pounding. She glanced around curiously, looking at the large house, which seemed to be half the size of the orphanage.
It looked different from the orphanage and the church. The furniture and structure of this house were quite beautiful. Aina carefully surveyed the surroundings and suddenly had an unrealistic fantasy in her heart.
‘If she and her parents could live in this big house, even if it was only one day, it would be fine…’
There were already a dozen people in the villa, all wearing weird masks on their faces, mostly laughing ones.
They were all standing, and seemed to be waiting for a long time. When they saw the arrival of Aina, they immediately became excited and started asking questions.
“She is the one who is going to undergo a remodeling operation…”
“Is it true that God has come? What about the gift?”
“Did you see it with your own eyes or…”
All those present were a little unconvinced. After all, the little girl who was supposed to be a sacrifice was the only one who saw the arrival of God. One of the four men in black stepped forward and revealed a black iron kettle.
“Doctor Norn, the high priest needs you to perform an operation.”
The black-clothed man gently put the iron kettle on the table, solemnly put on white gloves on both hands, opened it with the utmost care, and slowly took out the thing placed inside.
A coffee cup-like container carried a blood-colored object like lava. The boiling power distorted even the surrounding space.
The people in the villa all held their breath and looked at the container greedily. Even if they felt dizzy, they would not let it go out of their sight.
After showing it for a few seconds, the man immediately put the container back into the kettle, quickly closed the lid, and screwed it three times until it was completely locked.
The man who opened the door was Dr. Norn. He took a deep breath, the color of pleasure fading and his voice sounding calm.
“It’s hard to imagine that the sacrifice this time was so successful… Why? What exactly is the reason for the success of the sacrifice? I thought that this day would never come,” Dr. Norn said as he approached Aina. He calmly reached out to touch her right eye. Then gently lifted the upper and lower eyelids, and carefully observed her burgundy(2) eyes, indifferently to the panic and pleas for mercy in it.
“Is it because of her hair and eyes? Does it mean that the Lord of Ashes likes ……”
The overly arrogant and rude action made Aina uncomfortable. She desperately wanted to step back, but her body did not dare to move. Dr. Norn let go of the little girl and looked at her condescendingly. “Just as the high priest said, let her be the Child of God.”
“The Child of God” was not the heir of God but a term used within the church. The way of becoming the “Child of God” in each sect was entirely different. The way that the Chaos Ember Order has been handed down was with the infusion of Burning Blood, which allows the chosen one’s body to mutate and gain power far beyond that of mortals.
People were whispering and talking. They seemed excited about the gift of God. Dr. Norn led Aina to the villa basement away from the crowd, along with the men in black carrying the iron kettle.
Aina looked around anxiously. In the dim space, there was only a little lamp on the large ceiling. And there were many medical instruments and objects in the surrounding cabinets that she could not identify at all.
“Take off your raincoat and lie down here.”
Dr. Norn has changed into his doctor’s white coat. He looked at Aina calmly and pointed his finger to an operating bed in the middle of the basement for patients. The children in the orphanage were all raised by the priests. She had long been accustomed to obedience since childhood.
But Aina did not immediately obey the middle-aged man’s instructions and only nodded slowly after a while. She took off her raincoat and lay down on the operating bed. Her hands and feet were immediately secured by iron rings. She was frightened, but she did not resist.
‘What will happen to me?’
‘What does it really mean to become a child of God?’
‘What plan does he have for her?’
‘The oracle of the Lord of Ashes was that she must live, and the high priest also knows this. Will she be okay?’
Aina looked around nervously. Dr. Norn gave her anesthesia, then walked to the workbench, turned his back to Aina, and carefully and calmly extracted the burning blood into the syringe.
‘It is like burning lava and blood.’
“I can’t believe it, this is a real thing, it’s so beautiful,” Dr. Norn couldn’t help but exclaim and then turned to the operating bed and stared at the little girl lying on it. The syringe in his hand was filled with lava-like burning blood. “Reconstructive surgery can actually be done in the church. Do you know why you are here?”
‘Remodeling?’ She did not understand and did not answer, just looked at the middle-aged man in confusion.
Dr. Norn did not hesitate and put the needle into Aina’s slender arm and slowly injected the burning blood.
“Because the people here want to see the burning blood, they are not just believers, but also funders of the cult.”
“Mortal bodies are always weak, dull, aging, dying, unsavory, and repulsive, and every one of us here wants to be a son of God.”
“You are lucky, you will be the first godchild of the Order, surpassing humanity earlier than all of us.”
‘To surpass humanity?’ Aina couldn’t understand his thoughts. ‘Isn’t the purpose of the Order to serve the Lord of Ashes?’
As the burning blood flowed through her thin veins, she immediately felt her body heat up. She frowned, closed her eyes, and became scared. “Nuh.”
The body was getting hotter and hotter, and this kind of heat gradually made her feel unbearable. But before she had time to say anything, the anesthetic that had been given long ago worked.
She fell asleep.
Dr. Norn stared at the sleeping little girl, and after a long time, a line of blood flowed from her closed eyes.
“Failed?”
Instead of giving up, Dr. Norn tried to keep the little girl alive by giving her many other drugs. More and more blood flowed out of her seven orifices even medicine could not stop it.
The signs of the little girl’s death were visible. Dr. Norn put down the medicine in his hand, shook his head with disappointment.
He turned and left the basement.
“It seems that you are not the chosen one.”