"Amitabha, I have never experienced such a repulsive wave of disgust in my entire life," Amare muttered as her eyes twitched with strain at trying to control her expression and her desire to vomit. "Now I want to go ho."
"…I'm afraid not." Rui clasped her hand. "If you think I'm going to this place alone, you're out of your mind, dear Amare."
She pouted before heaving a relenting sigh. "Fine, let's go. But we're sky-walking. I refuse to set foot on the ground."
"Agreed."
The two of them held hands as they carefully avoided the blood while heading to the Blood Cult's expansive cult pavilion.
The Blood Valley itself had been so eye-drawingly disgusting that they forgot to even focus on the cult pavilion.
The Blood Cult's headquarters was, well, strange.
It was a single, vastly expansive multi-story pavilion that stretched for nearly a thousand kiloters in each direction. Rui could sense an underground floor to the pavilion in addition, although they didn't do as good a job shielding it from his senses as the Nest of Terra did.
The pavilion border walls were especially eerie.
From the cliff where Rui and Amare were standing, they appeared to be reddish white in color, almost pink.
Yet, the closer they got to the distant Blood Pavilion, the more they realized that it was actually a white wall in its color.
The reddish hue it appeared to have from a distance was rely due to an endless number of bloody hand prints on the otherwise pristine white wall.
Amare curled her mouth in disgust. "Is that also…?"
Rui nodded with a grim expression.
"Human blood. Furthermore, the blood of each handprint is unique, aning that they extracted blood from as many people as there are handprints on the expansive wall.
There were billions of handprints.
"This nation…" A quivering whisper escaped her. "I am surprised it is still allowed to exist."
"I'm sure there are many who would rather see it gone, but unfortunately, the Blood Cult is too strong to be destroyed."
Might made right, in this world. They drew closer and closer to Blood Pavilion, the base of the Blood Cult, before finally arriving at the massive gates at the entry of the nation.
RUMBLE…
The massive gates to the Blood Cult opened, revealing a vast and expansive pavilion that stretched as far as the eyes could see.
Imdiately at the entrance, several hooded figures were cloaked in blood-red cloaks and hoods.
It was like a cultist attire rged into a Martial attire.
His eyes sharpened as he felt powerful a powerful Sage-level aura from hooded figure at the very front.
The man slowly lowered his hood, revealing his face.
"…Blood Lord Vrukshus." Rui recognized the man imdiately.
He had been the one to represent his cult at the Human Summit.
He was the strongest Martial Sage of the Blood Cult and, thus, the head of the Blood Cult after its Transcendent, the Blood God, departed from the cult.
Everything about the powerful Martial Sage left Rui uneasy.
His skin was, well, eerily reddish.
Like he was flushed with a fever.
His eerie eyes followed suit, with blood-red pupils and bloodshot eyeballs as though he had burst a vessel in his eyes from the sheer greed that occupied them. It was a sickening kind of greed.
He looked at Rui like he was a piece of at, the dark greed in his eyes eagerly washing over Rui.
He didn't so much as shift his gaze towards Amare, uncaring of her presence and her existence.
A grueso smile erged on his face, sending chills across Rui's skin.
"Welco to the Blood Cult, esteed Dawnbringer," his tone was sinister.
He didn't even bother hiding the glee he experienced at finally beholding the Dawnbringer before him.
"I have been waiting a long, long ti for your arrival."
His smile was eerily dark.
Rui vaguely felt a… strange kind of danger.
The Martial Sage observed him with a strange kind of lust before snapping his fingers.
Two of the hooded figures erged with two trays with a small bowl on each of them, extending them to Rui and Amare.
In each bowl was an ounce of blood.
The Blood Lord simply smiled eerily. "Drink."
An expression of disgust appeared on Amare's face.
"It's not poison," Blood Lord Vrukshus assured them. "If I wanted to kill you, it would be effortless. I would not go out of my way with such a tedious thod of harming you. You may or may not know this, but due to the… extre nature of our experints, the environnt of Blood Valley and the Blood Pavilion you see behind is hazardous for life, even with your Martial Bodies. Only we, who have lived here our entire lives, possess the antibodies and compounds in our blood so as not to be adversely affected. You will need to consu that blood periodically to ensure that you do not experience lapses in your health."
Rui narrowed his eyes.
"…Might I ask whose blood this is?"
His eerie smile widened.
"Mine, of course."
"…"
Rui felt like vomiting.
"You should feel honored," the Blood Lord's voice was chilling. "My blood is the closest to that of a god in our entire cult. I have ensured that you will get only the finest, as worthy of soone like you, Dawnbringer."
Rui debated whether he ought to smack the tray away and run away from the Blood Cult. They hadn't even entered the Blood Cult and Rui had already been grossed out.
But he gritted his teeth and swiftly consud the blood with an ashen expression while Amare widened her eyes with shock.
It tasted like, well, blood.
He felt sick after consuming it.
Amare clenched her fists before following suit, gagging on the gross taste of a sickened expression.
"Now then, allow to welco you to the Blood Cult once more." He smiled strangely. "I hope you enjoy our stay at our powerful and magnificent cult. I think... we will have a good ti together."
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