Beneath the dark night sky, with only the bright moon hanging high, shedding light upon the land, the altar was strewn with the corpses of bulls, splatters of dark red blood staining the ground, creating an especially eerie sight under the moonlight.
The female seer solemnly placed the tenth bull's heart upon the altar, her mouth continuously chanting those complex and obscure words without pause. As for the bull carcasses beside her, she paid them no further heed.
Ten sturdily built bulls, ten hearts forcibly ripped from the bulls' chests while still alive, ten souls howling in fear and despair...
A blood sacrifice.
Undoubtedly, this was the method of offering the female seer had chosen after much deliberation.
Unlike offerings given to gods and spirits, which were delicious, fatty meats, the sacrifice for a blood offering was fear, despair, cruelty - it was the curse upon the mortal world uttered by living souls after struggling in desperation before departing from this world.
These twisted souls would be offered up as sacrifices to satisfy those brutal existences with peculiar tastes...
But would it succeed?
Even the female seer herself was unsure about this, and she equally did not know what the consequences of failure would be.
Gazing at the dark night sky, the female seer stood before the blood-drenched altar, spreading her arms wide as if to embrace some unseen presence.
She slowly closed her eyes, letting her mind sink into deep tranquility, trying to sense those enigmatic whispers from the unknown.
"Listen, please heed the summons of your humble servant. Your servant hereby offers you tormented souls as sacrifice..."
The female seer murmured.
Before her, the ten bull hearts were laid out upon the altar, yet there was no response at all.
And behind her, all the people had respectfully distanced themselves from the altar, not daring to encroach upon the sacred space, let alone have the audacity to disturb the female seer's summoning ritual.
Time passed by bit by bit...
But even as the moon set, there was still no answer.
The female seer opened her eyes and muttered.
"It failed."
...
The offering had failed.
That powerful existence that had swallowed the sun did not respond to the female seer's summons, as if completely disregarding the sacrifice.
Failure.
The female seer had anticipated this possibility, so she didn't feel particularly discouraged.
The probability of a failed offering was quite high. It could be because the other party was dissatisfied with the sacrificial offerings, or it could be that they simply had no interest at all. All sorts of possibilities existed. And if an offering failed, it was very common to conduct the next offering again.
But in this offering, the female seer did not sense even the faintest hint of intent to communicate. She could not feel any presence from the other party at all, as if an ant was desperately waving its antennae before a human, yet the human paid it no heed whatsoever.
"Were the offerings not good enough?"
The female seer, having returned to her house, pondered. Beside her, the robust man and several other nearby clan leaders sat around the fire, waiting respectfully to hear instructions.
After a moment of contemplation, she spoke.
"Since offerings of livestock seem unable to pique that existence's interest, then let us try using slaves as sacrifices."
The clan leaders looked at each other, then nodded in agreement.
...
The tenth moon rose after the sun's disappearance.
Undoubtedly, slavery was still very prevalent in this world. Even the daily life of the Norsemen involved going out to sea to fish, as well as to raid, plunder captives, and trade slaves. So if one were to speak of slaves, these clan leaders had no shortage at all.
However, gathering slaves from a dozen or so villages within a ten-mile radius was not easy. And now without the sun, traveling had become even more troublesome, causing it to drag on for several days before being completed.
But no matter how arduous, the slaves were still gathered.
"Kneel!"
Accompanied by the barked orders of the Norse warriors, their bodies painted with blue tattoos, the slaves, hands bound behind their backs, were kicked in the backs of their knees and couldn't help but collapse to the ground.
Over a dozen people shared this fate, all of them stripped naked without even clothes to cover their shame or protect against the cold. Their bodies were emaciated after long periods of enslavement.
And before them, the elderly female seer knelt in front of the blood-stained altar, eyes closed, praying in a low voice.
After a long while, the female seer calmly stood up, turned around, swept her gaze over the dozen or so slaves before her, then casually pointed at one of them. The Norse warriors behind the slaves, taking the cue, hauled up this slave and proceeded to bind him to the altar.
The ignorant slave, bewildered and terrified, tried to resist. But his scrawny physique made it impossible for him to fight against the brutal restraints of the Norse warriors.
"No... no..."
The slave's face was filled with dread. He screamed and wailed, his hands and feet desperately struggling. The ropes binding his hands even cut into his flesh, drawing blood.
As a Norseman, he naturally knew what the female seer intended to do. But precisely because he knew, he was utterly petrified...
However, whether it was the Norse warriors with blue tattoos covering their bodies or the elderly female seer, their faces remained impassive as always, as if this were all routine.
After the slave was tied to the altar, back facing up, the female seer drew out her ornate golden dagger, then stood solemnly before the altar. The tip of the blade gently rested on the slave's bare back.
The cold edge of the blade touching the slave's skin made his breathing more and more rapid, despair and horror filling his eyes.
His head was facing down, unable to see the female seer's face, but because of this, he could focus all the more on the chilling sensation emanating from his back.
The female seer began to mutter under her breath.
"The eagle slumbers within you..."
The golden dagger began to carve upon the slave's back, cutting into his skin, using the blood oozing out to etch a crude pattern along his spine.
Eagle talons, eagle head...
A lifelike eagle appeared, but strangely, this eagle had no wings, only a body, a head, and claws.
"But the eagle yearns to soar..."
The dreamlike voice echoed by the slave's ear.
The slave's eyes grew more and more hopeless. He muttered something faintly, as if there were still many regrets and unfinished business he had yet to resolve.
The ornate dagger pressed against the slave's back, then forcefully sliced down!
"Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!"
The slave's wails and screams of agony echoed out from around the altar. The slave tried to struggle, but the tightly bound ropes made it impossible for him to budge.
However, the female seer paid no heed. Instead, she used the dagger to slice open the muscles on the slave's back, exposing the place where the ribs connected to the spine.
"It needs wings..."
The female seer slowly chanted as the golden dagger in her hand severed the place where the ribs joined the spine. This naturally made the slave almost unable to scream from the excruciating pain, but she didn't care. She slowly intoned:
"When the eagle breaks free from its bonds..."
Reaching out her hand, she grasped that rib, then forcefully wrenched it outward!
"Crack!"
With a sickening snap, the rib on the back was brutally levered open.
One...
Two...
Three...
As the female seer chanted, nearly all the ribs on the slave's back were forcibly pried open one by one, bent outwards, exposing the kidneys inside. Yet even so, the slave still clung to life. In order to ensure the smooth progress of the ritual, the female seer would occasionally sprinkle salt water on him to prevent the sacrificial victim from passing out.
However, the slave was on his final breaths at this point, exhaling without inhaling. One could only faintly hear the gurgling sounds from his throat.
Upon the altar, foul black blood flowed across the entire surface, filling the ritual space with a bloody and terrifying atmosphere.
"It will carry the soul of the offering..."
While reciting the sacrificial verses, she continued to wrench open the ribs. And when the final two ribs were levered up, the lungs were flipped outwards as well.
The light faded from the slave's eyes as death took him.
On his back, the twenty-four ribs bent outwards were like spread wings, forming a grotesque blood eagle together with the eagle body etched into his spine.
"Flying to the distant beyond..."
Gazing at the dead slave before her and the blood eagle spreading its wings on his back, the female seer prayed in a somber tone.