Before anything else could be said, the Grand Priest raised his hand again, which caused the others to spread out and each stand in front of a crucified person. He then closed the still raised hand, forming a fist. That apparently was the signal, as multiple swings and multiple cracks suddenly filled the air, as the sickening thud of Warhammer shattering bone was heard. The screams that followed were blood curdling, however they were drowned out by the assembled ground absolutely screaming in adulation, before shouting Straf in unison once more. Once again, the signal was given, and once again, damage was done as the anguished cries seemed a little louder than before. This went on a few times as the victims on the edges were worked over, before there was another brief pause.
“Do you hear what is in store for you, Heretic Paladin? You shall be enlightened by my Opplysning. I pray that you see the Goddess’ everlasting light.”
After giving the signal once more, the ceremony resumed, this time, with the High Priestess partaking. She and the Grand Priest would alternate between smashing the Barbarian, and the Paladin, with the Barbarian laughing and commenting the entire time. As the ceremony continued, the clouds in the sky above began to move and swirl, congregating and forming into the shape of a face. The wind generated by this was almost gale force in nature, with robes, rocks and even congregants being tossed about like nothing. The Priests, who were unaffected, continued with their work and it wasn’t long until the face in the sky rook on a decidedly feminine appearance – feminine and extremely amused.
“Unyja!” One of the prostrating members of the crowd exclaimed as they took a momentary break from smashing the ground with their forehead.
As more and more of the flock were alerted to their Goddess’ presence, they ceased banging their heads on the ground, raised their arms to the sky and began chanting Her name. The Grand Priest, thoroughly aware of Unyja’s presence, decided to put more effort into his swings, not only to please her, but to silence the laughing Barbarian. Rather than him writhing in agony and quieting down, instead, the more boisterous he became, the more it seemed to fuel his body’s extraordinary ability. All his wounds were being healed in real time, with all the stakes and spikes in his body slowly being pushed out as his body healed. Even the contraption around his neck that was keeping the helm locked in was being forced out. The Grand Priest unleashed a fierce barrage of blows that were no longer supposed to ‘punish’, but kill. The laughter continued through the entire barrage until a particularly well aimed shot hit the laughing man square on the chin, shattering it and twisting his head so violently, the resulting snap was crisp and clear for all to hear. Immediately, the laughter stopped and the body went completely limp, causing the Grand Priest to thrust his Warhammer above his head. This drew vociferous cheers and chants, as well as clear amusement and approval from the almost ethereal visage of Unyja – whose chortles of glee caused the earth to quake.
The ritual continued for some time, as its purpose was to prolong the punishment as long as possible, with breaks being taken somewhat infrequently in order to ask the punished whether or not submitted and accepted Unyja’s ‘warm embrace.’ In spite of the all the damage being done, so far, the only casualty was the Barbarian, and sense of time was completely lost in this situation. Understandably, the crucified men and women were beginning to submit one after the other. The sunbathed the mountain in warmth and light, which was somewhat juxtaposed with the sheer brutality that was taking place. The Goddess was absolutely at the height of her amusement, with two cloudy hands having formed at some point during the ceremony. She was clapping, and each clap caused the ground to shake and thunder to reverberate. Everybody was so caught up in the events of the morning that they failed to notice the differences between the earth quaking because of Unyja’s joy, and something extremely large approaching until the Goddess Herself suddenly stopped laughing and looked off into the distance. Her face went from being filled with pure glee, to one of intense scorn as she looked down at the gathered Priests with disdain – as if she blamed them for it. The Priests all stopped what they were doing and looked to the horizon. It wasn’t long before the reason for Unyja’s displeasure came into sight. An especially large specimen of Colossus – a large, humanoid race – was making its way towards the mountain. As slow as its strides appeared, they were so large that the creature was actually covering ground surprisingly quickly. The Colossus was clad in armour that was a mixture of plate-mail and long, almost ornate pieces of robe like cloth which bore an insignia all over it. Having only one arm, the ease with which it carried its weapon, a Greatsword so large it likely would be too heavy for a normal Colossus to wield, beggared belief.
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The Colossus suddenly pushed off with such force, the ground split and cracked as it started sprinting towards the mountain. Despite it being gargantuan in size, the Colossus was still a fair bit shorter than the peak where the ceremony had been taking place. As if completely unbothered by this, the Colossus continued sprinting until it reached a certain point – which was still quite far away and then jumped straight into the air. The elevation said leap generated was mind boggling, as was the distance it flew. Again, it still seemed as though the jump was ambitious at best, however much to the absolute shock and chagrin of Unyja and her Priests, golden, ethereal wings materialized on the giant’s back, before it pressed its legs together, bent its knees as if it was crouching on some kind of imaginary platform, and sprang up as the wings simultaneously flapped, shooting the Colossus towards and eventually, past the peak. To his credit, the Grand Priest didn’t spend an instant longer than he had to before quickly getting on top of things.
“Vicars of Contrition, raise your Hammers!”
“Bless! Strength of The Goddess! Speed of The Serpent! Khasriel’s Courage!”
As the Grand Priest rattled off Spell after Spell, his subordinates as well himself, all began to glow and roar as they received incredibly effective buffs in resistances, all of which were geared towards basically staying alive – which was all that could be managed at that point as it didn’t take long for the Colossus to land right in between the assembled crowd and the Priests with a thunderous thud. The ground shook so violently, it felt as though the mountain would split and the giant stabbed the tip of its sword into the ground below before looking directly at Unyja’s visage and letting out an ear-shatteringly loud roar. The roar was so intense and long, a golden light pulsed out from the ridges between the plates. Winds just as intense as those Unyja produced earlier were generated and almost everybody present was paralysed with Fear. A few members of the Flock were so affected by the roar, they began to bleed profusely from all of the orifices on their bodies before exploding into red, gooey messes. Not to be outdone during her own ceremony, the Goddess Unyja let out a roar of her own to combat the one of the Colossus. The two clashing roars sent believers flying left and right, some exploding in the air while they were at it, causing blood and viscera to rain down all over the mountain peak. The High Priestess began chanting, far quicker than she had done at the beginning of the ceremony, and raised her staff. A barrier immediately materialized in front of the Priests, shielding them from the effects of the shouting match between the Goddess and the Colossus. The Grand Priest began chanting himself, dispelling the Fear that had gripped all of his and the Priestesses subordinates.
As they all regained their senses, the Grand Priest cast a Spell to increase the mental fortitude of the Priests.
“High Priestess, have your people guide members of the flock over to us – we will have need of them.”
With a nod of her head, the Priestess both acknowledged the command and passed it on to her subordinates, who chanted and cast their own, lesser barriers before running out and moving as quickly as possible. The Priests all watched on as the Colossus pulled its sword out of the ground and pointed it straight toward the sky. Having stopped roaring, it began to recite some sort of Scripture, with the blade of the sword glowing progressively brighter as it spoke. Concern practically dripped from all of their bodies as they watched on, and their concern was soon validated as when the giant’s chanting stopped, a massive burst of light emanating from the blade flared out almost maliciously. It caused the visage of Unyja to literally explode, with her screaming her displeasure as it did. The light lingered as the scream echoed, and the light caused the Priests to shield their eyes. Once the light died down, the predominant sound that remained was that of the Flock members who were being brought to the Priests screaming and crying in absolute agony. As the Priestess’ Apostles returned, the reason for the screams was made apparent as the area of the skullcaps that covered their eyes were glowing bright orange, and the sound of their sizzling eyes could strangely enough be heard perfectly along with the screams.