Chapter 71 Chrysalis! Moth mother! Mother of Worms!
Old Town.
In front of an almost abandoned old house, Hank, who was disguised as a down-and-out businessman, followed the people in front of the team and carefully entered the dilapidated corridor, and then they passed through the webs of spiders. , walked from a creaking staircase into a completely abandoned underground secret room.
There were already two priests in gray robes kneeling in this underground chamber. More than a dozen believers followed them into the room and knelt on both sides of a moth-shaped altar.
“Praise to the Mother of Change!”
"Praise to the Eternal Mother!"
After a group of believers entered the secret room, the heavy door was closed, and two priests in gray robes each said: "Today is the birth of the great Moth Mother. Day! It is also the day when He blesses all living beings!”
“Pious believers, please join us in praising the glory of the Moth Mother!…”
“Welcome His blessings! "
As the two gray-robed priests on the altar spoke out, a group of believers also knelt down on both sides of the altar devoutly. While Hank knelt down, he looked up slightly. For a moment, he His pupils shrank because he saw a vague outline of a moth beyond his naked eyes.
This is a true cult!
After tracking for a week, he finally found the cultist's lair.
Cults have always existed in the real world, but most of them are guys who know a little occult knowledge and pretend to be gods to deceive people and make money. But something has happened recently. After the human skin book incident, Hank was keenly aware of the aura of a true cultist.
These guys are quite difficult to deal with. They hide in the corners of Dorne City and have completely normal identities as cover. Some of them even lurk for a long time.
“Is the extraordinary person of pollution.”
Hank noticed the pupils of the two priests. In addition to the normal pupils of humans, they seemed to have insect-like hidden compound eyes. However, it was difficult to see clearly with the naked eye. Even the night watchman might not be able to see it. Only the inspiration was high. It takes an investigator to catch something amiss.
He quietly pressed the communicator in his clothes. It was a small strange object blessed with communication technology. It was very concealed and could transmit signals within a certain range regardless of obstacles.
Hank's pursuit was a little too hasty this time, and he didn't have time to notify others to come for support, so he could only use this method to convey the signal.
“Next, please accept our most devout believers from the Moth Mother’s blessing!”
One of the priests stood up.
The gathered believers included men, women, and children, including rich businessmen, poor people, and even nobles. In the envious eyes of others, a boy of fifteen or sixteen years old stood up. His right arm seemed to be a little congenitally disabled. It looked deformed and not fully developed at all. The wrist to the fingers were twisted, and the three fingers were about the size of a baby.
"Praise to the Great Mother of All Changes!"
Another priest led the boy to the center of the altar. He glanced at the kneeling believers around him and recited: " You are the mother of the old self who is in charge of life and death, and you are also the mother of the new self who is in charge of eternal life and change!”
“You are the light chaser in the darkness!”
“ You are the seeker in the eternal night, and you are the guide who guides everyone to eternal life!”
"You are a generous, kind and great moth mother!..."
The expression of the gray-robed priest became more and more excited, and the believers around him seemed to be infected, and suddenly became excited and pious, Hank His mind was slightly shaken, but he recovered in an instant. This is a fanatical ritual, a supernatural ability.
“Come here, child.”
“Welcome the new life given to you by the Moth Mother!”
At the call of the gray-robed priest, the boy with the deformed right arm was full of joy. Face walked over nervously, and he lay flat in the center of the altar. As the priest slashed his arm with a dagger, wisps of blood seeped into the altar, and a strange totem like a moth appeared under the altar.
"Praise to the great moth mother!"
"You are both death and rebirth!"
As the priest shouted loudly, other believers also shouted excitedly, Han A trace of cold sweat appeared on Ke's forehead, and he followed the movements of others nervously.
He caught a big fish today!
This is not a group of ordinary cultists, these are cultists who serve and follow the past.
And they actually summoned the power of the past.
White filaments extend from the bottom of the altar. They look like slender mycelium at first, and then become like activated silk. These crystal white filaments wrap around the young man on the altar. His right arm gradually turned into a white cocoon that completely wrapped his deformed arm.
The young man lying on the altar seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep.
When Hank moved his gaze slightly, his pupils shrank instantly, because he saw the boy's congenitally deformed arm being melted in the white cocoon.
Flesh and bones are broken down, reshaped, and rebuilt.
When the gray-robed priest cut open the white cocoon on the young man's arm with a dagger, a new white, healthy and complete arm had grown back.
A burst of exclamations sounded!
Even if their minds were affected by the ceremony, many believers could not help but become agitated. Among them were civilians, businessmen, and nobles. Among them, an old man who looked like a noble in his fifties or sixties was even more excited. He took off his hood, knelt and crawled to the altar, and said piously and enthusiastically: "Please give me a new life, the priest!... I am willing to offer half of my wealth to the moth mother!..."
"No!... ...All! ...I am willing to give all my wealth! ..."
A gray-robed priest helped the young man on the altar. The young man looked at his new-born arm and said with excitement. Speechless.
Another priest walked up to the old man and said in a gentle tone: "The great moth mother does not care about money and wealth."
"She only cares about a pure heart and the courage to pursue the light!"
"Do you have the courage to pursue the light?"
This sentence immediately stopped the old man in front of him. He looked at the young man not far away who had completely returned to his normal appearance. He struggled and hesitated in his heart. He didn't want to Knowing what light is, he does not long for light. He only wants to be reborn and save his old and painful body.
The gray-robed priest saw his hesitation and said slowly: "Do you want to accept the trial of the Moth Mother?"
"Chasing the light of eternal night, the light of darkness, the last light..."
This old man dressed as a nobleman was shaking all over. He didn't know if he would chase the light, but he knew that he was about to die. Even the best doctors couldn't save him. The believers around him became fanatical.
Under the altar, Hank in the crowd was trembling slightly. Although other believers were also trembling, they were trembling with excitement, while Hank was trembling with fear.
This is not an ordinary cultist, this is a dependent family from the past, a cultist who received the gift of the past as a human being.
The city of Dorne has not seen such a terrifying enemy in nearly ten years.
"No!"
"Headquarters must be notified immediately, they are too dangerous!" Hank's breathing was rapid.
On the altar.
The old man dressed as a noble was still hesitant, but the young man beside him stood up excitedly and said to the old man: "As long as you devoutly believe in the Moth Mother, you will get her gift!"
"Look at my hand, it has completely returned to normal."
"Praise to the mother of death and rebirth!"
The old man looked at the young man's healthy arm that had grown back. His eyes were full of heat. Finally, he stretched out a withered old arm and said tremblingly: "I am willing to accept the trial of the great moth mother!"
The gray-robed priest showed a smile.
He stretched out his hand to make an invitation, and said gently: "Come on. Go up to the altar, welcome the blessing of the Moth Mother, let go of the old self, and embrace the new life!"
The old man took off his burqa and walked forward tremblingly.
"Believers."
"Please witness this moment! Witness the miracle of the great moth mother! Witness the birth of an eternal being!..." The priest's enthusiastic words made the surrounding believers tremble. Incessantly.
Eternal life?
Even the legends of destiny cannot achieve eternal life!
Hank looked at the changes on the altar, and one hand had already touched his gun.
Buzz.
The entire altar trembled slightly. As the old man lay on the moth-like altar totem, slender white threads reappeared, and the silk-like threads completely wrapped him. In a few minutes, he turned into a complete chrysalis!
“Embrace death and rebirth! Embrace is the change of life!”
“Let us pray for him.”
"Pray that he can pass the test of the Moth Mother!" The gray-robed priest also knelt down.
In Hank's sight.
After the old man on the altar was wrapped in silk and turned into a chrysalis, he began to tremble slightly, and then fell into a deep sleep. In his sleep, the reflection of the moth overlapped with his body, and then his body began to Little by little, it melted, first the flesh and blood of the face, then the eyes, bones, brain, internal organs, etc.
In the end, his whole body melted into a pool of turbid and squirming blood inside the white silkworm chrysalis!
"Dead?" Hank's body trembled slightly.
wrong!
Not dead yet.
The completely melted flesh and blood did not die completely. Under the influence of a certain force, it began to reshape, regenerate, and condense a new body.
At first he looked like a human being, a younger and healthier middle-aged man, but soon his body changed.
He does not long for the light, nor does he have the courage to follow the light!
The moth mother abandoned him.
His body is mutating and no longer looks like a human being!
Beside the altar, the two gray-robed priests looked at each other, with a trace of disappointment on each other's faces.
A loser in a trial.
This old man failed to pass the test of the Moth Mother, but they will continue to maintain the ritual.
A weird and terrifying creature that seemed to be a combination of a moth and a human was reborn in the silkworm chrysalis. It had arthropod-like arms, a human-like body, gray-white wings that emerged from the cocoon on its back, and huge eyes. Insects have compound eyes and facial contours that are roughly similar to humans, but the lower jaw is a completely split mouthpart.
It turned into a chrysalis trapped in a white cocoon.
But others around him seemed unaware of this, as their eyes were obscured by illusions.
"Complete metamorphosis!..."
"The law of life of insects."
"This is the old authority in the realm of life." Hank buried his head deeply, not daring to act rashly.
Life forms are reshaped.
Between death and rebirth, the old self is destroyed, the new self is reshaped, the mortal flesh and blood is reshaped into a new body, the mother of immortality and change, this is a terrifying power that can only be possessed by the old days. .
But it is a pity that the recipient of this ritual did not survive the trial, and it failed to emerge from the cocoon and become a butterfly in the end!
There is only a twisted monster in the Chrysalis that is full of hatred for life.
The light chaser will not love those who do not have the courage to embrace the light.
………………
(End of this chapter)