Chapter 13: The Ritual (gore alert, disturbing content ahead)

Meanwhile, in a large dark, and damp cavern shrouded in eerie darkness, several aflame torches were fixed to the cavern walls to provide some visibility, from the yellow light produced by the torches several figures could be seen clad in ominous black hooded cloaks with red border designs along the edges, there were a total of 12 cloaked figures of varying heights and sizes each clad in black hooded cloaks from head to toe.The cavern was occupied by numerous iron cages each packed full of people of varying ages, there were a lot of people caged inside the iron cages and were kept like livestock to be slaughtered, and from time to time cries and whimpers filled with fear and despair could be heard from among the people, some cages were packed full of children of ages varying from 8 to 15 years old who huddled together for some warmth amidst the cold environment filled with fear and despair,some cages were packed with young teenage girls and boys, while some were packed full of young men and women in their prime, but the majorities were all mortals with a few gravely injured Atmasar's caged in a separate special cage made out of special material to resist the strength of Atmasar's."Where is the Head Pujari (Pujari means priest in Hindi)? Why are they taking so long?!" said one of the tall and thin cloaked figures in a frustrated tone, "His holiness must be reaching here anytime soon," said another short cloaked figure in a reassuring tone, "He better come before it is too late, the Brahmaputra clan is pissed off this time and are hell-bent on hunting down every asura they can sniff out," said a huge cloaked figure with a towering height of 7 ft and wide shoulders in a low hoarse voice,"They have hunted down several asuras already, I don't want to die in such a pathetic way, hunted down like helpless pray," said another tall cloaked figure a deep voice which sounded like a young man in his prime, "Dont worry Garihm Big sister will protect you," said the cloaked figure beside him in a high pitch female voice, although she was shrouded in a black cloak from head to toe it could not hide her protruding soft curves outlined by the black cloak.Before they could continue further they heard the sound of footsteps coming their way, they all went silent and looked at the source of the footsteps at the same time, "Is everybody here? Why do I feel the numbers are far less than it was before" said the figure cloaked in an ominous red hooded cloak in a high pitch raspy male voice, "Your holiness we all apolog-" before the short cloaked figure could even finish he was cut short by the huge cloaked figure,"Let's get this over with, the Brahmaputra clan is on the hunt, the more time we waste the sooner they'll track us down" said the huge cloaked figure in an extremely grave tone, "Ahh so that's what happened, no wonder I kept hearing Great goddess Matalikha's warnings" said the red-cloaked figure who was none other than the Head Pujari they all were waiting for."Although the number of sacrifices is lacking it cannot be helped with the Brahmaputra clan on the hunt for our lives," said the Head Pujari in an irked and solemn tone, "Alright let's begin the preparations for the ritual," said the Head Pujari before he walked towards the center of the cavern,there a gigantic Ritulastic altar was carved out on the stone floor, it was a combination of several geometrical shapes which were meticulously and systematically carved into each other, the overall altar formation was a massive carved out square with deep grooves, inside it was a circle similarly carved out with deep grooves and intersecting the square at each of the 2 sides of the corners, inside the large circle there were 2 more concentric circles, on the outer circle 8 symmetric pointy curved petal shapes were carved out which intersected with the large circle, there in between the large circle, outer concentric circle and the petal-shaped carvings several ancient Sanskrit runes were carved out, each of the petal-shaped carving and the area outside it had a rune carved out within it making it 16 sanskrit runes on the outside, while circular area between the outer and inner concentric circles has long chain on ancient sanskrit mantras carved out, and lastly on the inside of the inner concentric circle was a square Havan Kund with its corners intersecting with the inner circle.Overall the altar was nothing short of a work of art, it was a combination of precise geometric carvings with mystical knowledge, soon the Head Pujari arrived at the center of the altar where the havan kund was placed, he quickly took out several ingredients and placed them aside, then he took out a small statue of their goddess Matalikha from under his red cloak and placed it to his opposite side of the havan kund.The status of the goddess was entirely made out of black stone and had a very strong sinister aura around it, the goddess was depicted as a woman with long hair, her eyes were studded with red rubies, she appeared to be laughing and had her mouth open wide, she had 4 hands each carrying something, her upper 2 hands were raised in the air while the other 2 were lowered.In her left raised hand she carried a long scythe, while in the lowered left hand she carried a skull, in her right raised hand she carried burning black flames, while in her lowered right hand she held a bowl filled with organs like heart, brain, intestines, and blood. In addition to that she was wearing a skirt made out of the severed hands of various creatures as well as a garland made out of the skulls of various creatures, all of these details made her look even more sinister and evil, the stone statue was only palm sized but was an embodiment of Chaos and Evil.As soon as the pujari placed the stone statue of goddess Matalikha he quickly gestured the 12 present cloaked figures to bring the caged people out of their cages, soon all the cages were opened, and all the caged people inside them, whether it were little children, young teenage girls, or men and women, started crying and begging for mercy while struggling to free themselves from their captives, but everything was in vane as a huge overwhelming pressure soon descended over them like a mountain which made them all fall to their knees, in an instant the whole cavern went silent.The pujari then took out an ancient skull engraved with numerous ancient Sanskrit runic patterns and mantras and placed it right next to the statue of goddess Matalikha."Start butchering the children first, cut their heads and limbs then place them along the square-shaped grooves so that their blood can start flowing through it, follow the same procedure in accordance to their age for rest until all the mortal's flesh has been placed, then carefully take out each and everyone's heart, brain, stomach and intestines.Place the hearts over the 8 petals shaped carving, their brain should be place outside the petals and stomach over the circular area between the 2 concentric circles, lastly wind their intestines into balls and place them alternatively with the stomachs" instructed the pujari in a calm manner while enjoying the smell of blood and slaughter.After a while of bloody butchering everyone except for the captured Atmasars the entire cavern was filled with the strong smell of blood and gore, countless torn and ripped heads and limbs of all the mortals ranging from small children to grown men were placed along the square altar which was completely filled with their blood, their organs like heart, brain, stomach, and intestines were neatly dissected from their body and placed over the specific areas mentioned by the head pujari. The souls of every butchered mortal got sucked into the skull that the pujari had placed near the statue.After making sure everything was carried out properly the pujari asked them to bring the atmasars and tie them up outside the altar. Then he asked all 12 of them to sit behind him in the lotus position outside the altar and chant the Asura mantra of their stage, after everyone settled down, the pujari finally began the ritual.He started by sorting the 7 Havan samagri (Havan materials) which contained wood, essential oil, roots, seeds, leaves, flowers, and powder. For wood, he used the wood from the 100+ years old demonic tree, for essential oils he used the refined fat from the pancreas of a Vritras (dragon), for roots he used the root of 1000-year-old blood-sucking vines, seeds of a corrupted Ashoka tree, leaves of the ten-thousand eyed chakshu plant, screaming flowers of a demonic tree and lastly powder formed the grounded skull of a Vritras.He started by adding the wood inside the empty havan kund, and then he drizzled the essential oil over it and lit them up, He then sat in a lotus position while loudly chanting the Goddess Matalikha mantra. While chanting the mantra he proceeded to slowly add the rest of the ingredients in a specific sequence and order.As soon as he began chanting the mantra, the entire Havan Mandal (altar) started glowing in red, and the blood that was flowing through the deeply carved grooves of the altar also started to glow and flow rapidly in an endless loop, the ancient Sanskrit runes carved inside the havan Mandal also started to glow in a sinister red, and lastly, the numerous internal organs extracted from he butchered people started to slowly wither while emitting an ominous and foul black smoke. At the same time, the smoke coming out of the fire burning within the Havan Kund started flowing towards the palm-sized black stone statue of the goddess Matalikha and seemed to seep inside the stone statue through the surface.As the mantra was coming to an end he shouted out loud "Oh great goddess Matalikha the embodiment of chaos and desires, the devourer of all beings and destroyer of everything, we, your devout devotees pray to you front the bottom of our hearts and offer you these fortunate souls, and their flesh for you to devour, oh great goddess please bestow us the opportunity to be graced your darshan (sight/glimpse of the god/goddess), show us the right path towards your divine Pathway." said the pujari in an extremely fanatic and devoted tone.