Chapter 244
The ritual offered to the Serpent King had been performed countless times before, but this ritual was different in scale.
Dozens of Vormi carried heavy altars along with various objects and decorations.
Flowers and fruits that had been obtained with difficulty in the cold weather were preciously preserved,
And stones soaked in plant oil that gave off pleasant fragrances were made to fill boxes.
During the period of preparing for the ritual, the snake-people felt the joy of performing familiar tasks according to procedure.
The ritual for the Serpent King was one of the events where all snake-people could forget their worries and troubles, if only temporarily.
However, even amid this, there was a snake-person absorbed in other thoughts.
[What use is all this?]
He was one of the snake-people who had met the descendant of the extinct race.
Also, he was the snake-person who had first met that descendant. However, since the descendant's departure, he had been suffering from extreme loneliness and severe skepticism.
-We perished like that.
The faint trembling of the air's resonance still had not been forgotten.
The descendant of the extinct race - judging by that intelligent being's method of communication,
The race he had belonged to must have possessed a level of civilized consciousness that was not at all inferior compared to the current snake-people.
Yet they had not been able to avoid extinction due to cold.
To the snake-person, this felt exactly like a prophecy of their own future.
The same future befalling a race that was so similar.
If there was any difference, it was only the timing of when they would perish.
The snake-person had been researching drugs that could control Vormi behavior when he suddenly stopped his hands that had been proceeding with test preparations.
Everything was useless.
The extinction of the snake-people was already as good as decided, so there was no point in being absorbed in changing Vormi behavior.
He left the laboratory and passed by snake-people busily moving around the burrows.
The snake-people couldn't hide their excited emotions and were opening their mouths wide, revealing their sharp teeth.
However, he couldn't blend into that atmosphere and hurriedly came outside.
He never thought the day would come when he would think all his fellow creatures were pathetic.
Anywhere was fine - he just wanted to escape from the atmosphere full of ecstasy just before the ritual.
He wanted to temporarily leave the side of his pathetic compatriots.
The snake-person who had been wandering aimlessly above Yoth in the wilderness suddenly turned his steps.
If he went back to the place where he had met the descendant of the extinct race, that intelligent being,
He felt he might be able to forget this loneliness and disturbance, if only temporarily.
Perhaps it might be an opportunity to take a brief rest from research and change his thinking.
The snake-person passed several Vormi patrolling security,
And walked outside their territory while breathing clean, cool air.
In the distance, he could see the rock where the strange intelligent being had sat among the withered trees.
The snake-person unconsciously felt deep longing.
Just a few days ago, they had shared many stories about flying alien races and alien races living in the deep sea.
At that time, they had repeatedly made hopeful observations that they might be able to change the characteristics of snake-people and escape the crisis of extinction.
Now that felt as hazy as something that had happened only in a fantasy.
As he approached closer, he could feel a faint smell floating in the air on the tip of his tongue.
It was probably due to the rock where he had sat and the pictures carved on that tree... wait, pictures?
The snake-person hurriedly knelt in front of the rock and felt the pictures with his hands covered in wrinkled scaly skin.
This was not snake-people culture at all.
Wasn't it perhaps the civilization of the race that intelligent being had belonged to?
The tip of his sharp claws followed the shallowly carved traces.
[This is.]
It was not a simple picture.
This was a kind of message.
A final story transmitted from the departed intelligent being who was no longer in this place,
To the snake-people who would someday return here.
The cold wave striking the snake-people.
The place the fleeing snake-people headed toward was a steep high mountain, and a door leading down beneath it.
Going down for a long time, there was a sleeping being.
It awakened when the snake-people visited and welcomed them.
Light pouring forth from the awakened being.
The snake-people would barely be saved in that light...
The snake-person who deciphered the pictures realized the meaning contained within and began to tremble finely.
It was not fear. Nor was it despair.
It was the joy of one who had wandered in long despair and finally discovered a ray of light.
[I must know its name. We must go here. We can barely survive...!]
The snake-person who felt the pictures several times finally realized that he, the intelligent being who had left this place, had been their new prophet.
And that night, one week before the grand ritual was to begin,
Eight snake-people scientists risked the danger of cold and left Yoth under cover of night when no one was moving.
The steep mountain drawn on the tree.
A setting sun was carved together above the mountain.
Then the direction of the mountain was west.
Going west from here for just two days, instead of the tasteless wilderness, traces of volcanoes appeared.
The mountains that were said to have spewed hot fire day and night in the distant past each showed no reaction as if dead.
They climbed mountains with difficulty and barely found the steep mountain that had been in the picture.
Higher than any volcano, the ancient mountain mysteriously contained passages hidden so that no one could find them.
The snake-people carefully felt their way forward, following traces left by life forms other than themselves.
Downward, downward, downward.
Deeper than the underground where Yoth was located, more winding than the paths the snake-people had made, at the end of the road.
Finally, the snake-people discovered a huge cavity.
Gray stalactites hung threateningly down from the ceiling,
And in the empty space where broken rocks rolled about miserably, the snake-people smelled the scent of death lurking beyond the darkness.
Old bones and foul-smelling piles of flesh that had rotted beyond recognition and turned to liquid.
The being that reigned over all that death was simply looking down at the visitors.
A being that clearly recognized the fact that strangers had come yet did not move.
The snake-people, exhausted by cold and the long journey, knelt and crawled toward it.
The beings who had thrown away everything and come here hoping only for a way to live pleaded.
[Your prophet led us here. Please allow us to serve you.]
[If you let us survive in this cold, we snake-people will offer our sole faith to you for our entire lives.]
Even to their earnest prayers, it gave no answer.
Was it a stone statue, or perhaps a corpse that had already died and hardened?
As deep disappointment about the unidentifiable thing spread among the snake-people,
One snake-person who had barely followed the group couldn't overcome the disappointment, cold, and arduous march, and collapsed on the spot.
[Pull yourself together!]
[You cannot collapse here. Open your eyes!]
The snake-people supported the collapsed individual, but the collapsed one already had a body as cold as ice.
When they were holding the body of their compatriot who was barely breathing and didn't know what to do,
A pair of red and yellow eyes flashed in the darkness.
Horizontally wide-split eyeballs were eerily staring at the snake-people.
Something damp was crawling up from the ground.
Neither a snake nor any monster, it gently coiled around the unconscious compatriot from them.
And then,
It instantly disappeared to where the yellow eyes were shining.
A chilling sound was heard.
The sound of some very light liquid dropping was also heard.
The sound of thud, and the cloak that had been worn crumbling to the floor without a trace.
None of the snake-people who were there could even hiss.
The yellow and red eyes stared at the seven remaining snake-people one by one.
And spoke.
[I am... the sleeping god... of Tsathoggua, Sleeper of N'kai... Who... awakened me...? Who... will receive... my blessing...?]
*
The disappearance of as many as eight scientists was certainly a major incident,
But for the snake-people facing the grand ritual, preparing the finest offerings for Ig was most important.
The snake-people who served as priests must have heard the news too, but since no word came out,
Other snake-people also had no choice but to suppress their anxiety and worry and focus on preparing for the ritual.
This ritual was a ceremony praying for the Serpent King's return,
And at the same time, it was an important event that would determine whether the snake-people could receive Ig's protection.
On the best day designated by the priest snake-people,
In the morning when the cold morning air had not yet lifted and everyone was bundled up tightly,
A procession of priest snake-people appeared from Yoth.
Ugly Vormi escorted the priests while stooping low.
The priests climbed up to the high altar with dignified appearances, slightly lifting their long tails so they wouldn't drag.
Flowers and fruits that filled the altar to the brim, pure lizards skewered on sticks, stones emitting thick fragrance, and various small statues of all kinds.
The priest snake-person presiding over today's ritual turned his body and looked down at the countless snake-people.
[Residents of Yoth, beloved snake-people, respected scientists, priests who carry on tradition.]
Snake-people looking up while thickly wrapped in coverings were receiving the pale morning sunlight.
Their priest spoke seriously.
[We are the descendants of the Serpent King. We built the glory of distant Valusia on this land and cultivated an even more abundant civilization than that. Scientists created Vormi, and we took one step closer to the Serpent King. We too have risen to a position where we can create together with him by following his footsteps.]
A cold wind blew.
Several snake-people shrank and glanced anxiously at the sky.
The priest snake-person nodded.
[However, a great crisis now approaches before us. This land is freezing, and the planet is getting colder and colder. This is because the sun's fire is dying out. This is an unstoppable providence. If things continue like this, we will be confined to our proud Yoth. We will live miserably underground, longing for the surface.]
Due to the priest's words, a slight commotion arose among the snake-people.
It was something everyone had been worrying about until now, but they hadn't expected even the priest snake-people to mention it directly.
However, the priest snake-person continued speaking peacefully as if he felt no such anxiety.
[But when our Father awakens, everything will change. He is our Father, the great Serpent God and the one who grasps the world with both arms. Only his protection will save our people. He put himself to sleep to support Yoth. Now that the crisis of the snake-people has come, he will awaken.]
A hand with scales and hooked claws shot up toward the sky.
[Now is the time for snake-people to serve him. Traitors who do not serve the great Serpent King should offer cold blood at the altar and confess to him. Apologize for defiling his name and return to his embrace. Today he will surely open his eyes!]
The Serpent King would return.
When he came, all problems would be solved.
At the priest's bold promise, the snake-people knelt and sat.
Some showed respect by raising both hands upward as if grasping something,
And there were snake-people who buried their heads in the cold ground, hoping that the Serpent King said to be beneath Yoth would please awaken.
The priest shouted.
[Serpent King, our origin! Awaken from eternal sleep. Your children call you, so hear our voices!]
The fire lit on the altar blazed fiercely and burned like the sun.
The priests arrayed on both sides of the altar began reciting blessings that only snakes could understand.
Strange ancient blessings made of air, fire, and hissing.
But before even one verse could end, a great sound of anger burst out from among the snake-people crawling on the ground.
[No, no! That is a lie! The Serpent King will not awaken. He has abandoned us, escaped into deep sleep!]
[Who is it! Who disturbs the sacred ritual! Where is the one who blasphemes the great Serpent King? I will personally pluck out their eyes and offer them to the altar to please our Father!]
The priest who let out a hissing roar swept the snake-people with yellow eyes.
Among the confused snake-people, several slowly stood up.
Seven snake-people wearing robes.
When they removed their robes, those around them made sounds of horror and hissing.
Beings with sparse brown fur,
And bizarre appearances as if snake-people and amphibians had been combined.
They flashed the same yellow eyes as the priest and shouted.
[Fellow creatures, do not be deceived. The Serpent King has forsaken us. There is only one way for snake-people to survive - believe in the 'Sleeper of N'kai'!]