"Varhan, sacrifice Kaalmaahen and end this charade."
Har Jahard ordered Varhan in a callous voice. The latter nodded casually at the Oni king before walking towards the final sacrifice.
"War drums!"
Har Jahar demanded in a stern voice. There were various-sized war drums placed everywhere on the pyramid. Har Jahar's demand spurred the crowd and the monsters assigned to the war drums manned their positions and started doing their job at the same time.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump Thump Thump.
The war drums started throbbing in unison as they played a mystic sound. The bass of that sound was stirring people's emotions, making them more lively than they were before Ror's breakdown.
Varhan took out a weapon that he hadn't brandished in the festival– a space element dagger that he spun around in both his hands artistically. His steps matched the beats coming from the war drums.
'This orc…'
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Har Jahar looked at Varhan's carefree attitude as he approached Kaalmaahen and looked at the orc keenly. This orc hadn't bent his knee in front of him earlier. As if he didn't view entities of his level with that much importance.
Varhan kept his cool despite the vestige of Anfang's world manifesting itself. This was an exceptional mental fortitude only had by those who had already seen and experienced things that they felt were worse than this incident.
Har Jahar couldn't punish Varhan even if he wanted to because he had the power of sacrifice and faith accumulated in his body. The accumulation would get tainted if he comforts him now and the worshiper starts treating this procedure as something detrimental to him.
'Hmph. Even if he gets blessed in the end today, what happens after the blessing is not God's concern. I'll deal with him after the festival's over.'
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Har Jahar decided to kill both Ror and Varhan after the end of the festival. But that would have to wait. He needed the Orc Leader to finish Kaalmaahen.
Ror's death while oath-bound to the world's will would result in backlash for Har Jahar instead. However, there was a simple way to deal with this problem.
Let Ror's oath never come to pass. Har Jahar just needed to kill Kaalmaahen without anyone's interruptions and that should be it.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Kaalmaahen sensed Varhan approaching him amidst the pounding war drums and opened his eyes. He had heard his father's agony through his speech and kept quiet. However, now that his death was drawing closer, he wanted to have a word with his killer.
"Varhan, I have seen your battle and experienced it for the first and last time. You deserve the blessing and any other positive thing coming your way."
Kaalmaahen said and paused. He looked at Varhan's eyes for a bit before asking another question.
"Can… Can I ask you to check up on my father now and then?"
Varhan shook his head in denial before answering in an Oni tongue.
"No," he said simply.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Kaalmaahen pursed his lips before taking a long breath. "Very well," he said and was turning his neck at 4 O'clock to look at his father one more time.
But then something clicked in his mind and stopped rotating his neck. He felt something was weird about Varhan saying no to him. He looked at Varhan with a confused expression as if wanting to know whether the noise he heard from him was his hallucination or not.
Har Jahar didn't really pay attention to or care about Varhan's supposed mute status. So he didn't catch on. However, most of the audience in the sacred hall was different.
Before they could ask Varhan any questions, the guy himself spoke up after looking at Kaalmaahen.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
"I mean you can do that yourself. I'm too busy looking after my own shit to care about anyone else these days."
Varhan said and spun his dagger around his body with his catch-and-release weapon approach. He had said the last statement in his normal tongue.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Eren looked in the distance where Sharog was and spoke up, seemingly to nobody in particular.
"Do it."
"Yes, my Lord." Somebody in the distance answered.
Borul assigned Sharog the task of spoiling the festival using the array setup that he had been creating for quite some time now. This was what the rebellion was counting on to take care of Har Jahar.
However, the array setup was supposed to be triggered after the festival came to an end. Not before.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Varhan was using the same setup using Sharog as a trigger.
The audience in the vicinity as well as the monsters who had climbed the pyramid froze once more. This was because the entire pyramid had lit up with runes that are part of a larger array.
"This... this… this… fucking… Sharog… you traitor… Why did y…"
Borul cried in disbelief as he witnessed Sharog's betrayal at a crucial time. He knew what the array was supposed to be because he was the one who had cast it using very careful planning.
And now someone else was using that setup.
Bzzt.
It was too late. The array was fully operational before Borul and other rebels could escape from it. They were locked in their positions and their mana, as well as their life essence, was siphoned away from them.
All the mana and life essence that was being siphoned from the monsters, who were helpless lambs by this point, was being used to stop one existence from acting up as the most powerful existence in subspace.
All these things happened so fast that only those who had known about this setup could get a semblance of understanding of what was happening. Others had been caught off guard– including Har Jahar.
"Hmm?"
Har Jahar found out that he couldn't use his mana or elemental attainment anymore. A small array appeared under his feet that was connected to all the monsters by runic threads. This sight confused him. The confusion transforms into a serious frown
Har Jahar then tried to move only to realize that he couldn't. Only now did he connect the dots and had disbelief written on his face.
"Rebels! Fucking cowards. Release me this instant or else…"
"Or else what?"
Varhan spoke up in a voice that showed a drastic change. He displayed a cunning smile on his face as he observed his plan had come to fruition.
He was hindered by the array's effects. He, Sharog, and her twin assistants present at the sacred hall were the only ones who had not been connected to the siphoning array.
Kaalmaahen who had accepted his death watched as Varhan smiled and played with his dagger in hand. He watched with an incredulous expression as the Orc Leader drove the dagger into his heart.
"Vile rebels! This is a god's sacrifice you are interfering in. This act of evil will be purged by our god…"
Har Jahar yelled with all his might, warning the rebels they shouldn't mess with the ceremony, lest the about-to-be-summoned god get angry.
"Hahahahahaha!"
Varhan laughed like he had heard the funniest joke in a while. He turned around and disappeared from his position before reappearing near Har Jahar.
The tall Har Jahar towered over Varhan when he was so close to him. He didn't like that.
Har Jahar had thought he couldn't get any more shocked today. But he was proven wrong when Varhan's body started changing shape and started appearing as tall as him.
Varhan came within a meter's distance of Har Jahar and looked him in the eye before commenting.
"Har Jahar, is it? I'm not on the rebel's side. "Neither of us is on your side."
Har Jahar started feeling a weird sensation throughout his body as he watched Eren's eyes that he came to realize were not monster-like. He felt like his body was sending him warning signs to get away from existence like Varhan.
His survival instincts that had been put to slumber suddenly woke up and started telling him that something bad was about to happen to him despite him being the Oni king if he doesn't get away from this seemingly unimportant Orc Leader.
Eren's body had started producing tribal tattoos over his torso as the dagger was still lodged into his heart. His voice grew heavier and grimmer as he continued.
"Purging evil? My evil will not just survive. It'll thrive. In this world. And worlds that are beyond."
Eren's devil-like voice was heard by all the helpless spectators. He removed the dagger from his heart and wiped his blood on the blade with Har Jahar's face before casting his vile ability.
The sacred hall that was supposed to be blessed by the divine was where he cast his ability.
"Mark of the Seven Sins: Domain of Wrath!"
