Naked Flesh for Our God.

In the basement of the temple, deep under the layer of ice, there was a very special room. A vast room where incense was constantly burning. Yet there was no idol except the strange, shapeless mass held by chains in the middle of the stage.

"1912. It had been 3 years since it was confirmed that the man had set foot on the North Pole. A great movement had been launched in search of new lands to explore," the Oracle commented, taking a kind of scalpel. "The excitement even touched my family, poor immigrants who had settled in Nome, Alaska."

She turned to Ritz with a smile.

"Oh, you know, it was a nice little town. Not as beautiful as our motherland according to my father, but beautiful nonetheless."

"I-Is that... will it be painful?" asked Ritz, lying naked on the cold floor.

The Oracle's eyes rolled upwards for a moment as if to think before returning to Ritz's face.

"My father was a hunter," she said. "It always seemed to me that he wanted to have a son, but my mother couldn't give birth again."

The Oracle deftly thrust his scalpel into Ritz's navel.

"A-Aaaaaargh!!"

Despite the heart-rending screams that soon filled the room, the Oracle remained unfazed, slowly moving up to the chest with her blade.

"When I hurt myself," she continued, "he told me there was no point in crying. That no one would come to help me. Instead, he was asking me to keep some truth in mind – the pain is temporary. Yes, because, even if it's mild and chronic, it just means that you'll get used to it. If, on the other hand, it is very intense, it simply means that one will soon be liberated by death. Ritz, is this pain you're feeling mild or severe?"

"Aaaaaaaaargh!! Argh !!"

Ritz's screams were drowned out in confused grunts. The Oracle withdrew her scalpel when it reached her ribs. Noticing that Ritz was crying in pain, eyes closed, the Oracle brought her face closer to hers.

"That's not right, Ritz. Don't close your eyes, look all the way to the end."

"Eeek !!"

Ritz, however, reacted only with a stifled scream. If she wasn't unable to move at the time, she would surely have run away, and the Oracle knew it.

"Ah~, you don't give me a choice."

With the skill she had shown, she took her scalpel and planted it a little above Ritz's eyelids.

"Aaaaargh!! AaaAaaargh !! A-STOP!! STOP !!"

"My father had only been wrong twice. The first was when he believed that my mother would never have any children but me. The second was when he thought no one would come to help me if I cried. He was wrong. God has come. He came and saved us."

"AaaaaaAaaargfhh !!"

The Oracle removed Ritz's eyelid, which she had just cut out.

"Look, Ritz, look. Do you see it? That egg on top of me?"

Against her will, Ritz's bloodied right eye landed on the sledgehammer chained to the ceiling. She hadn't noticed it when she came in, but that thing, that egg, it seemed to her that it was made of faces. Human faces. It wasn't just faces, it was a mass of sewn skin, the egg of a profane deity.

"When we found God, we received his blessing. Unfortunately, he was frozen and stuck inside this place. The only way to free him was to revive him. Yes, reviving it in an egg made of skin. Naked flesh. Naked flesh, naked flesh, naked flesh, naked flesh. Naked flesh for our God. Luckily my father taught me how to remove animal skins and sell them, wasn't it?"

She leaned back to Ritz's ear.

"Ritz, rejoice. You will soon be the mother of God."

Her voice trembling, Ritz begged her to stop, but the Oracle ignored. She cut off her other eyelid, scraped the skin off her face, and sliced her lips. She then attacked the skin of the neck, the halos, the armpits, the hands, the legs, and the private parts. After hours, Ritz was no longer screaming. On the contrary, she laughed as she was butchered. God's voice was louder than the pain again and she could more than hear it.

The ritual was over, and a new member had offered her skin to the God of the camp.

"Congratulations, Ritz. Your pain was only temporary."

***

After months of traveling, Andrew Windshire had finally found his way back to camp. The obsession of some of the members to escape from this icy land had cost the lives of many of his companions. He had even temporarily lost his role as captain until, finally, the survivors admitted that there was no way out.

The return was difficult, but it was inevitable. The explorers no longer had maps but instinctively knew where the camp was. It was as if it was calling them, asking them to come home. Returning to the noiseless camp, the explorers instinctively headed for the temple. Andrew threw open the doors of the temple, interrupting the Oracle's sermon.

However, the congregation did not turn to him. Only the Oracle looked at him with a motherly smile. Graciously, she opened her mouth and addressed him.

"Andrew Windshire, have you ever heard the voice of God?"