Survive Together with Ansu!

Ansu stared intently at the darkness ahead.

Just as he stopped, a dull mechanical clicking sound echoed from all around the circular plaza, and then a massive ignition pedestal carved with exquisite reliefs slowly rose from the front.

Under their gaze, a ghostly green fire erupted from the ignition pedestal with a roar.

As Ansu and Celia looked around the circular plaza, dozens of similar massive ignition pedestals had risen, their hellish flames burning silently, shrouding the entire plaza in a grim and eerie atmosphere.

This sight caused Professor Duncan to rush forward in excitement.

When he ran panting to the nearest ignition pedestal and examined it closely for a moment, he could no longer look away.

"Eddie! Look at what is carved on this!"

"Such an exquisite magical rune structure... it can even keep the entire mechanism functioning for a thousand years! And... these magical mechanisms must have a more efficient mana source!"

Professor Duncan hurriedly took out his notebook and continuously recorded the complex symbols on the magical mechanism.

"If I can understand any single thing here, I can become a magitech master! I can definitely become the kind of person written about in textbooks!"

Eddie dragged his exhausted body toward the professor, who seemed over-excited, feeling that the professor had forgotten a problem...

"Professor... haven't you noticed that something is getting more and more wrong with this place?"

"Wrong?" Professor Duncan had no time to pay attention to his student, still immersed in his research. "How is it wrong?"

"I just feel..." Eddie felt that although the ghostly fire was burning, the surrounding atmosphere was becoming increasingly cold. He couldn't help but hug his arms, his voice trembling as he spoke. "This place... it clearly looks like an altar..."

"And we... are the sacrifices in this altar."

On the other side, Ansu carried Celia on his back, and after observing an ignition pedestal, his footsteps slowly moved toward the darkness further ahead.

"I feel it..." Celia frowned tightly. "A thick aura of death. Many people must have died here..."

"I feel it too." Ansu looked around. Just now, at the moment the ghostly fire lit up, he seemed to have a hallucination.

It was a hellish painting where mountains of withered bones formed a twisted horizon, countless figures were fighting madly within, letting out desperate and inhuman roars, and a sea of blood from corpses extended forward from beneath his feet, soaking everything as if it would never end.

Furthermore, he currently felt as if countless cold gazes were watching him, a sensation like maggots on bone, as if endless malice were about to consume him...

"It seems this is indeed an altar." Seeing that Ansu's emotions were somewhat off, Celia silently held him tighter, wanting to give him some warmth.

"But it makes sense. A temple of the God of Slaughter... the most important place would naturally be the altar."

Ansu turned his head, gazing into those soft and beautiful eyes.

Celia recounted the knowledge she had obtained from ancient texts to him. "It is said that when the God of Death fell and became an evil god, He no longer gave blessings to His believers. Just as we later called Him, the God of Slaughter craves slaughter; He only feels pleasure for slaughter and even more slaughter..."

"The fall of the guardian deity marked the beginning of the demon empire's decline. To please the god, the demon rulers could only continuously seek sacrifices, performing never-ending blood sacrifice rituals on the demon's land."

"Those insane slaughters caused all races and nations to feel fear... even the most evil people of the time would find the demons extreme to the point of madness..."

"The demons were indeed too extreme..." Even though Ansu knew that the demon race had a flourishing population in the previous era and was a slave empire where human lives were worthless, they still couldn't afford to kill like this...

"In the last hundred years of the Second Era, the demon empire's blood sacrifice rituals were diverse, even turning slaughter into an art..." Celia's voice was low.

"The Great Arena was a type of ritual for the demons to please the god. They threw all the slaves into the arena to kill each other... It is said that the one who started the Demon Calamity War, who brought the end to the whole world, the last monarch of the demons, emerged from the arena..."

Ansu nodded. This great demon king was very famous, but he hadn't expected his origins to be so lowly, even being a slave in the arena.

"You should have heard about this demon monarch long ago..." Celia said softly. "Back then, he had grand ambitions, saying he would fight for living space for the demons and make this most superior race great once more..."

"Yeah... and we know the result." Ansu shook his head with a smile. "He struggled all that way, but the living space for the demons only got smaller, and they were almost driven into the sea..."

"In the end, the demon monarch's head was cut off by the previous generation's Chosen One. The demons were left leaderless, and the ancient empire finally reached its end of total extinction..." Celia looked at Ansu, seemingly implying something. "That is another story, a story about the Chosen One..."

Because of his own identity, Ansu naturally understood this story very well, but after hearing Celia finish these words, he frowned and pondered for a moment. "You mean... this altar beneath our feet, or rather the entire building, is actually the Great Arena from a thousand years ago?"

"I think so..." Celia's gaze suddenly noticed something ahead, so she patted Ansu's back. "Over there... cast an Illumination over there!"

Ansu immediately cast Illumination in the direction Celia pointed, and then saw a very prominent stone tablet on the rock wall at the edge of the circular plaza.

He hurriedly carried Celia over, and by the pale glow, he saw ancient characters he couldn't understand inscribed on the stone tablet.

"This is Ancient Enus, I know a little bit..." Celia read carefully for a long while, her gaze gradually becoming solemn.

Ancient Enus was the language system of the demon empire, because the name of the demon empire was the Enus Empire. Seeing Celia constantly trying to translate, Ansu took out his notebook.

"Slaughter... recognition..."

"Obtain?"

Ansu saw Celia translate with a serious expression for a long time, but only those few words popped out of her mouth.

It seemed the young witch really only knew a little bit...

"Well... if you didn't mess up the word order, I think I understand the meaning of this inscription." Ansu looked back at the circular altar surrounded by ghostly fire. "It seems we really have to keep fighting on this altar to obtain the god's recognition..."

"Wait, this word means secret treasure!" Celia pointed at those characters that seemed hurriedly carved, looking at Ansu with surprise.

"It seems this was left by the demon army back then. It should mean... hold a sacrificial ritual like before, and by obtaining the god's recognition, one can inherit the treasure!"

Ansu, however, did not share Celia's surprise. "Don't forget... according to the current situation, we are the sacrifices. I suspect the changes in this altar just now were the work of those people above, so logically speaking..."

"No! We still have a slim chance of survival!" Celia revealed a firm gaze.

"So what if they started the sacrificial ritual? We can be like the last demon monarch and carve out a path of blood from the arena. We can also obtain the god's recognition!"

"Yeah." Ansu nodded his head with a serious gaze. "I hope so."

After saying this, the ground began to tremble slightly.

Ansu and Celia immediately looked around, and images of endless withered bones and a sea of blood from corpses flashed before their eyes from time to time.

Ansu felt that those spirits who had been watching him were gradually being awakened...

The slaughter ritual had begun...

From Professor Duncan's side in the distance came a series of screams. Eddie saw a group of rotting demon soldiers emitting green light suddenly spring out, and he hurriedly pulled Professor Duncan back in fear.

"Where did these come from?" The eerie changes before him caused Professor Duncan's eyes to widen.

"Let's gather together!" Ansu, carrying Celia, sprinted toward the center of the plaza. "Hurry! The sacrificial ritual has begun. If you want to survive, you have to fight for your life!"

The dull sound of war drums from a thousand years ago echoed throughout the altar, and the scene on the plaza became increasingly terrifying—countless demon spirits, either rotting or translucent, seemed to surge from underground, quickly filling the entire plaza.

Celia got down from Ansu's back and tightly held his hand.

This hellish scene before her made her gaze even more determined. "This is definitely not a dead end! Ansu, trust me! We will definitely live!"

Survive! I must survive together with Ansu!

For that beautiful future she longed for...

Celia decided to put everything on the line!