The inside of the flesh egg is not the embryo of the gods, but a cluster of constantly reorganizing basic particles, perfecting its form of existence by devouring life.
At the moment just before being devoured, the Scepter Priest understood this truth. The embryo is not an "about to be born god," but an already awakened rule. It does not grow by faith, but expands itself by "devouring possibilities." It creates the Ghost Bride not for service, but to collect living samples to analyze, absorb, and assimilate.
What is cultivated is a world without boundaries—where there is no "you" and "me," no "life" and "death," no "believers" and "gods."
Only it, eternally flowing, eternally existing.
More terrifyingly, the Scepter Priest realized this truth too late. He felt his consciousness being analyzed, copied, and then dispersed into the brains of those mummies.
Raven Ian quietly watched this scene. He saw the priest's white robe gradually stain with gold, and a third eye split open the gap in the center of his forehead.
When the transformation was complete, the former High Priest had already become a member of the mummy crowd, mechanically joining the chanting procession. The new Ghost Brides were still constantly bringing in sacrifices. Ian noticed the increasingly detailed categorization on the tags: "proficient in Hermes Secret Art," "master of seven prophecy systems," "capable of controlling Nile River tides."
The embryo was not satisfied with ordinary life force, it began selectively devouring specific knowledge and techniques, aiming to gather the strengths of all beings to complete its omnipotence.
Ian felt a terror within the absurdity. The ceremony continued, Ian did not see the black-robed woman he had encountered before and did not find her corpse. He did not know if she had foreseen and escaped, or if she had become a member of the mummies before he arrived.
Those who became mummies could no longer distinguish facial features.
Just then.
The chanting in the cellar suddenly became urgent, the jaws of the mummies opening and closing with a frequency almost breaking, producing an eerie clicking sound. The raven that Ian had transformed into perched on withered trees outside the Temple, wings folded, and scarlet eyes reflecting the golden embryo deep underground.
He was still pondering—how to end that "self is everything" existence? How to break its eternal cycle built upon countless live sacrifices?
No time to think it through.
The central golden flesh egg suddenly trembled violently, with surface veins writhing like a snake swarm.
Inside came a sudden pulse.
Like a heartbeat.
Thump—
Thump—
The rhythm was slow and heavy, yet carried an irresistible pressure, as if the whole earth trembled with it. The Temple's stone walls began to seep black blood, the ground cracked, the air thick with a pre-birth agitation. The air in the entire cellar began to warp, moss on the stone walls withering at a visible speed.
As if even the life force of plants was forcibly extracted.
Ian's pupils contracted sharply.
"Is it going to hatch prematurely?" Ian's mind raced. According to records he'd seen in the library, this Creation God Ceremony should take at least seven more days to complete. Unless—
From the group of mummies rose an exceptionally tall figure. Wrapped in a rotting magic robe inlaid with gold thread, the meat芽 at the center of its forehead had grown into a complete golden eyeball—precisely the transformed Scepter Priest, now the so-called "Mummy Archbishop." It raised a skeletal arm, and all chanting ceased abruptly.
"To celebrate the advent of my Lord..." The Mummy Archbishop's voice sounded like countless people speaking simultaneously, even the tone carried an eerie harmony, "all living in the city, all must offer!"
The Ghost Brides simultaneously raised their heads, their golden sand-formed eyes flickering with mad brilliance. Their red veils moved without wind, their bodies beginning to dissolve into a state of basic particles.
"Find every living being, no matter adults, children, men or women..." The gold eye at the Mummy Archbishop's forehead burst with blinding light, "Let them... join our ranks!"
It was the Mummy Archbishop's voice.
Once the highest leader of the Sun God faith, now transformed into the embryo's mouthpiece, standing at the forefront of the mummy priests, withered arms held high, palm facing upwards, as if proclaiming an oracle. At the utterance, all Ghost Brides in the hall simultaneously turned, their red eyes flashing, blood mouths slightly open. They no longer dragged coffins, instead merging directly into the walls, slipping into cracks like smoke, silently dispersing from all sides, clear in their goal—the city's living.
Ian instantly understood.
They were no longer "Harvest Wizards," but planning to harvest the entire city. Every living person would be transformed into a mummy, becoming "nourishment" and "limbs" for the embryo's birth. This city would no longer be a human habitation, but a giant "Divine Kingdom" composed of countless mummies.
Truly a terrifying concept upon deeper thought.
"Damn it!" Ian cursed in his heart.
He had previously devised a tactic against the embryo—using "Paradox Divine Authority" to redefine its "existence logic," plunging it into a "both exist and do not exist" quantum state, thereby breaking its rule anchoring. But that required time, precise ritual arrangements, and delving underground, confronting the embryo head-on.
And now, he had no more time.
An entire city, thousands of innocent lives, were being pushed toward death.
He could not wait any longer.
He must stop it all before those monsters began their slaughter! The raven spread its wings, soared into the sky, immediately piercing through the Temple's dome, transforming into a shadow, swooping toward the city center.