Chapter 38: An Offering to the God

The Festival of Light arrived as scheduled.

The entire Sanctuary was steeped in a solemn, oppressive fervor. The Great Tree of Light itself seemed to sense the mood; the crystal nodes on its branches glowed more intensely than usual, illuminating the vast cavern ceiling in minute detail, yet casting deeper, darker shadows below. People donned their finest clothes and gathered in the clearing beneath the tree, awaiting the grace of their deity.

David, hidden in the crowd, felt his heart pound against his ribs like a war drum. He exchanged a final glance with Elias, Karl, and the others. Everything was in place. Karl and his men had already crept like shadows toward the warehouse. Elias's team was dispersed at key points leading to the altar, waiting for his signal.

Landon's figure appeared on the high altar. He wore a robe of pure white, his long, silver hair flowing with a holy light under the brilliant glow, as if a true god had descended. He opened his arms, a benevolent smile on his face, and the entire square fell silent. Hundreds of pairs of eyes stared up at him in unison.

"My children," Landon's voice, amplified by the cavern's natural acoustics, resonated with a strange power, reaching every ear. "Another cycle has passed. Under the protection of the Great Tree of Light, we have triumphed over the darkness... Today, the Great Tree will once again bestow its grace upon us..."

His voice was hypnotic. Many were already in tears, ready to prostrate themselves.

David knew. Now!

He was about to give the signal, but then, something went terribly wrong.

The crowd behind him, which should have been his staunchest support, suddenly parted as if cleaved by an invisible blade, creating a cold, empty lane. Landon's guards, the Watchers, emerged from the crowd holding sharp, light-crystal spears. But their target was not the altar. They turned, their spear-tips pointing outward, forming a hopeless cage around David and the core members of his resistance.

David's blood froze in his veins, as if flash-frozen by an arctic wind. It was a trap.

He stared in disbelief at Elias, at Karl, at the partners who had sworn oaths with him, whose eyes had burned with fire. Now, on their faces, he saw evasion, guilt, and a deeper, overflowing… fear.

Elias kept his head bowed low, refusing to meet David's gaze. Karl turned his face away, his jaw clenched so tight the muscle stood out like a rigid line.

High on the altar, the benevolent smile on Landon's face remained, but his eyes were now like two daggers dipped in ice, piercing through the crowd to pin David to the spot.

"David," Landon's voice rang out again, no longer a gentle hymn, but filled with condescending mockery and cold authority. "You are a fascinating variable. Your arrival was like a stone tossed into a placid lake. You thought you were making waves, but you have no idea how deep this lake truly is."

He slowly descended from the altar. The crowd parted for him like the Red Sea for Moses, creating a royal path. He walked up to David, his gaze sweeping contemptuously over the bowed heads of the "traitors."

"You thought you were saving them?" Landon chuckled, pointing a long finger at Elias. "Ask him why he told me every last word of your 'grand plan'."

David whipped his head toward Elias, his eyes filled with incredulous pain and accusation. "Elias? Why?"

Elias's body trembled violently. He finally looked up, murky tears welling in his eyes. He glanced at his daughter, Lina, held tightly in her mother's arms, safe and sound. His voice was as hoarse as if it had been scraped with sandpaper. "I'm sorry, David… I'm sorry… The Shepherd… he promised. He promised that if I… if I told him everything, Lina would receive a real Sacred Fruit. She would be healthy forever, forever blessed by the Great Tree… I couldn't… I couldn't gamble my daughter's life on a vague future you described…"

"Future?" Landon's laughter grew louder, dripping with disdain and pity. "Your so-called bright future is to send them back to struggle, chaos, and slaughtering one another? David, you come from a broken world, so you don't understand the value of order. Here, I have given them food, light, faith, and a purpose to cling to! And you? What have you given them? Doubt? Chaos? A far-fetched notion of 'freedom'?"

His gaze swept across the entire assembly like a sword. Everyone cowered under his aura, bowing their heads low.

"Listen to me!" he proclaimed. "Stability is paramount! Faith is heavier than life! It was I, Landon, who pulled you back from the brink of death! It was I who built this one and only paradise! And he," he pointed at David, his tone suddenly severe, "an outsider, a blasphemer, wants to destroy it all! He seduced you with lies, wanting to drag you back into the all-consuming darkness!"

A commotion erupted in the crowd. Some began to glare at David with fury. Fear and the faith that had been drilled into their very bones crushed all reason. They would rather trust a familiar tyrant than follow a strange liberator into unknown risks.

David watched it all, his heart turning to ice. A bitter flood drowned his senses. It wasn't the sharp pain of a blade, but the hollow collapse of being uprooted from the world. He wanted to save them, and they had personally offered him up as a sacrifice to their god.

Landon leaned in close to David, whispering with clear, contemptuous softness that only they could hear:

"Remember this, David. In the Forgotten Land, I am God. And you are nothing. Your knowledge, your ideals, they are worthless here. You thought you could challenge me?"

He straightened up, resuming his divine posture, and announced to all: "For the blasphemer, there shall be the harshest punishment. Lock him up. Put him with the beast."

The Watchers roughly seized David and dragged him away. The crowd watched him go, their expressions complex. Some were relieved, some showed a flicker of pity, but most turned their fanatical gazes back to their god—Landon.

Elias stood frozen, clutching the glistening Sacred Fruit Landon had just "bestowed" upon him, tears streaming down his face. He had saved his daughter's "future," but he had sold his own soul forever.