The artwork depicted a striking hybrid creature, a blend of lion and goat, much like the one perched upon the mountain. It sat atop a high flat platform, reminiscent of the one at the city's entrance, with blurred figures of people below reaching up, their hands stretching towards it. Upon closer inspection, they bore an uncanny resemblance to humans, albeit with one distinct feature: a single horn protruding from their foreheads.
This creature, embodying malice and likely corruption, which had nearly taken his life, yet within this city and by their people, it was not reviled but revered—worshipped as if it were divine,a god's creature.
El scoffed at the sight. "Just like humans, who can worship almost anything—even themselves."
Back home, he hadn't been particularly invested in religion; even the Book of Prophecy which he had studied or well forced,had still left little impact on him. To him, it seemed merely the work of a powerful diviner mage, shaped before the age of the Golden War and the Night of Sorrows.
And as for the deity the creation lord the church honored and worshipped, it was an abstract concept he struggled to believe In.
After all, he had never encountered this being firsthand. He wasn't as extreme as a strict Empiricist, who believed only in what could be seen, heard, or touched; still, his views aligned with that approach in many ways.
But even he felt his convictions wavering, especially after the profound experiences of this trial, which hinted at something higher, perhaps incomprehensible to his mortal mind. But if there was things like that,it would only be temporary, after all getting the power he initially needed in helping his dying world and leaving his power halfway would not be ideal for him who would search for experiences,he might as well go all the way to the top of the cosmos.
But going back there was always a reason behind the growing faith in the things people chose to worship—well, most of the time.
As he continued to parse through the diagrams, seeking more information, he finally grasped some key details. Before the city's inhabitants settled here, they had two primary motivations: warmth, as the surface was perpetually cold, and protection. They had migrated to the mountain—his understanding of their arrival was still shrouded in mystery. Despite searching for refuge, they faced relentless death, as the original mountain dwellers were predators that hunted the weaker creatures on the mountain and tragically, the newcomers became perfect prey, suffering slaughter at the claws of these creatures.
The head chief had no choice but to brave the cold landscape with a team of warriors, seeking a safer haven to dwell in. Yet, the quest seemed futile; two attacks had whittled down his group from ten capable men and warriors to just four including the head chief, and the chief refusing to abandon hope continued.
Normally, such a plan would seem insane to go through, but it seemed lady Luck was in her younger days as she had brightly shared her gift of luck towards them when they stumbled upon a hole leading to the cave where they ultimately built the city. Initially, their discovery brought joy, but the challenge loomed further: how would they transport their entire group, primarily women and children, through the mountains scape into the cave without becoming easy targets?
At that critical moment thinking, the hybrid they revered as the 'Divine Messenger' arrived on the mountain—its entrance heralded by a beam of light from the sky, which they soon called 'Heaven's Ladder', a scene immortalized on their wall as if lifted from reality itself.
Convinced it was a divine intervention, their delusions were cemented further when the creature began to vanquish the mountain's predators.
Due to the incident where no one perished even as the creature roamed nearby, the community's confidence sky rocketed, solidifying their belief that it was a divine intervention. This newfound faith helped them reach the cave safely, and then drawing from their various journey experiences, they constructed shelters and managed to survive—though it wasn't without its challenges.
Eventually, they built a thriving city that enjoyed bountiful harvests for many years. However, after several generations and the inauguration of a new chief, darkness began to descend upon the city.
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The trouble began when a group of warriors, tasked with foraging from the surface, failed to return. These men were fathers, husbands, and even grandfathers, so their families searched desperately for them.
After three days of looking without a trace, hope began to fade. Yet, a week later, one of the warriors stumbled back, bloodied and barely clinging to life,but thanks to their medical skills, he was saved and when questioned about his ordeal, his face twisted with terror as he cried out repeatedly, "The messenger did it!"
His words were dismissed as blasphemy by the head chief, a fervent believer in the monster's protection, who convinced himself and the entire town that the creature required a sacrifice to show appreciation for its benevolence.
Without a moment's hesitation, he declared the wounded warrior the first offering. That marked the beginning of the city's tragic downfall, vividly depicted in their drawings showing the warrior crucified as the initial sacrifice.
The subsequent sacrifices, driven by the chief's delusions, became a grim routine.
Stepping away from the hall towards it's back, a horrifying sight awaited—an expanse littered with bones, too many to count: those of children, women, men, and the elderly, all piled like refuse. Just as illustrated in the drawings, skulls adorned with horns stood among the remains. El's expression mirrored a mix of anger, sorrow, and an unreadable emotion even to him.
As he approached the macabre scene, he spotted a single skeleton lying on the ground, a crude dagger embedded in its neck. Uncertain of the identity from the illustrations, he speculated it could be the head chief.
Perhaps he had realized his grave error and took his own life, or maybe he clung to his fanaticism until the end it didn't matter.
In any case, El found himself haunted by the image of this moment—the hall, the bones, the solitary skeleton—though he couldn't quite recall where he had seen it before.
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