Chapter 90: Truth of the Trial

Laemno saw precious red ichor spill out of his severed body, unable to muster any thought other than the vague realization that he had been cut. 

"What... just happened?" 

Cephissos crouched without care before grasping his head by the hair. A few strands snapped due to the weight, rousing Laemno's sense of pain and sending him into a screaming frenzy. 

His world was reduced to nothing more than agony, filling every inch of his being with the torment of his scorched organs. 

"You seem to have been mistaken on one point," the Pontiff coolly remarked. "The Sacrificial Ceremony is no more. However, we must pretend for the sake of our people. With a few tricks and spells, I can make your limp corpse move and bleed with greater credibility than a living human ever could."

He let out a sigh of annoyance. "You just had to make me go through the trouble of dragging you all the way to the Great Sanctuary."