Chapter 374: Modern Mythology: About the Sea Monster
“Rumble! Rumble, rumble!”
On a rainy night, rolling thunder echoed through the sky. Fierce winds whipped huge raindrops against the dilapidated roof and broken window frames of an abandoned house in the wilderness.
In the basement, candlelight flickered. More than a dozen figures dressed in black robes stood in a circle, their lips moving beneath their hoods as they whispered obscure, difficult-to-pronounce incantations.
At the center of the circle formed by the robed figures was a complicated ritual array drawn in blood. Scattered across the array were various ritual implements: ores, shed snake skins, animal bones, stone tablets covered in writing, and other objects.
A person dressed like a priest stood in the center of the ritual array. In his left hand was a strange, rust-covered dagger, while his right arm cradled a somewhat dirty, pale-yellow swaddling cloth.
Inside the swaddling cloth lay a tiny baby girl. She looked extremely weak, her face purplish-blue and her lips pale. Tears still clung to the corners of her eyes as she lay unconscious in the bundle, utterly motionless.
“…Using the blood of an infant as a catalyst… break the seal, tear apart the barrier between the two worlds…”
After reciting the long incantation to its end, the priest’s bony fingers slipped into the swaddling cloth and closed around the infant girl’s slender neck from behind. He pulled her out of the bundle as though she were a chicken or duck being taken to slaughter. Tightening his grip on the dagger in his other hand, he plunged the blade deep into the baby’s chest.
“Waaah…”