It took a few minutes for the pain of branding to disappear. I did not feel any joy in it, since the seal had imprinted itself into my body and soul. It is so powerful that I could remove it. It is made from the very powerful energies that I could do nothing against. These energies have a nefarious feeling that made me shudder whenever I concentrate on them. I felt like I had read about it, but couldn't find where or what; I will remember it soon, but even when I do, what good it will do? It is too powerful to do anything to it and even if I somehow dealt against it. I won't be able to escape from here. There are twelve freaking Earth Sovereigns here. Except for one, all of them kept their soul sense invisible, but I could sense them. Their soul sense has spread through this giant cavern, and they are seeing everything. With them looking, I could forget escaping from this place. Hell, I couldn't even take a breath without them noticing. The only hope I have is hidden being; I don't know whether it would be able to do anything to help me. These are Earth Sovereigns I am talking about; they are very powerful people. Soon, only a few hundred people remained to be branded. I wonder what they will do with us after they are done. I am sure it will be nothing good. Since I enter this place; I am getting a bad feeling, which is intense by the minute. I turned to my core and, seeing things were stable; I felt relieved. The seal had imprinted my body and soul, but it was not able to imprint my core. The seal is hair breath away from my core, never touching. I could enter inside my core and even bring things out; there is no change in my core, except for having a nasty seal around it. They branded the last batch, and the branding station moved away with a hundred sovereigns on it. For a couple of seconds, there was nothing, before a round black disc come flying in with twelve figures on it. All of them were wearing blood-red robes; it covers them fully from head to toe, hiding their identity and their face. "Rejoice, because you are the chosen," said the short man leading the group. "Today, you will enter the tower of Great Nsialius and get the blessing of a lifetime." "Enter the tower and kill each other in honor of the Great Nsialius till only twelve of you remain alive; those who did will find a great fortune. Reaching Sovereign, even Earth Sovereign, wouldn't be just a dream, but will become a reality," he said, and I could feel a few people stirring. While most like me, become horrified at his words. He is telling us to kill each other; there are hundred and twenty thousand people here and he wants all of them to die, till only twelve had remained. At his words, a memory stirred, and I asked my clone to take out that tome. It is a tome; I had found a decade ago when I was just a knight. I had found it in the storage of the human who had tried to loot me. It was an ancient tome, with decayed pages, but clear enough that I could make out the words. There I read about this. The sacrifice ritual. The sacrifice rituals are not uncommon; Grimms do it. This one is unique because it talked about a long-forgotten race. It was an invading race that had come before the Grimms and was said to be completely wiped out by the Celestials. Some of the things that tome mentioned like branding and weird runes bore a lot of similarities to things I had read in that tome. Maybe it is the same or different or something that has been inspired by it, and I hope it is true, because if it is related to that race, the tome had talked out, then we are truly fucked. In the world, millions get killed by natural disasters, feuds, wars, Grimms, and other things. Those who die, by all things, die, but their soul did not; it becomes part of universal quintessence. Some say it gets reincarnated through it. The point is, those who died in the sacrifice for that race die truly. Their soul goes to the horrifying beings of that race, instead of the universal quintessence. Where it consumes them. 'Is this a sacrifice for the Asear Vajaras?' I asked the hidden being, despite knowing I will not get any answer. 'Yes, but you do not be afraid; do what I will tell you and you will survive.' To my shock, the hidden being replied and when I registered the words she spoke, I couldn't help but shake in my soul and body. I wanted to run away, but I found frozen in my spot. It is not the fear that freezes me, but the power of the Earth Sovereign. As long as one does not move, they will feel they are free, but the moment they try; they will feel the power of the Earth Sovereign constraining them. A simple movement is possible if you want to take a step. It will constrain you. "It is time to open the gates," said the short Earth Sovereign a moment later. The circular field of blood-red runes begins to light up layer by layer, till the whole field is shining in the blood-red light. As that happened, the seal on the tower door lip up and it slowly started to open, while I watched in horror. I am not the only one in the crowd who had sensed the blood-red aura from the runes and knew its meaning. Some among the crowd also knew how it formed. They have done life sacrifices here and not a small number; they have killed a large number of people. This aura could only be produced by that heinous thing. The denser it, the more people being killed to produce it.