The last of the maroon rays grace the landscape, ushering in the moonlight.
A sombre ambience clung and blanketed the jungle, even the ever lively bird chirp had transformed into a melancholic dirge.
Underneath this sombre blanket, a flurry of activity was taking place within the simian stronghold.
The primate__ trickled down the great oak, making a procession towards the west, circling a great depression--- within which they settled down.
Their hoarse voices chant uninteligennly* their bodies twisting and turning, fully engrossed in their ritualistic and macabre dance.
Colourfull feathered headgears adorn their heads, shifting in correspondent to the dance motion.
Shkrrlt.
The shaman thumps his body staff onto the earth, halting all the dances.
"Hear me brethren!"
"We are here to correct an affront to our people, mete our justice!"
He begins, his bony hands raised high.
As if on cue,
Three naked humans get pushed down onto the sacred platform.
Their bodies covered in black clay, with patterns made of white worming all through their bodies, intricately painted as if a great tapestry.
Their eyes grey out with resignation, only one of them still fighting and struggling--- the two were __ broken, awaiting their deaths.
Drums thrum as the shaman walks towards them, a clay goblet raised high in display.
He weans them a green concoction, smirking as the humans retch and gasp.
He halts, displaying the empty goblet.
"It begins!"
Drums and chants erupt, slowly rising as the ritual commenses.
"The huumans have committed great travesty against our kindred." The shaman declares.
"They have killed. They have shed blood!"
"Blood begets blood!" All the spectating simians shout in unison, their eyes carrying a deranged glow.
"The harmony of the land is disturbed." The simian shaman continues,
"And so, the ancestors will bear sight of them, mete out justice."
Saying this, his bony staff dig into the earth and he drags it along--- an expansive ritual circle with intricate carvings inside coming to form beneath his clawed feet.
The drumming and chants reach a cresendo, abrupty halting and letting silence reign.
The voice of the shaman cuts through the air, reverbarating and pulsating with great fevour.
His neck cracks as he suddenly stares up the rising moon.
"O', exalted and primal ones!"
" 'O revered great ancestors heed my call!"
The ambient arcana swirl and churn, a foreign yet ancient presence rearing its head.
A domineering pressure rolled across the plains in a single, silent wave, as though the sky itself had taken a breath and decided to exhale all at once.
In that instant, every chant died, every Simian stiffened, every spine straightened, and every instinct screamed the same word:
Look above.
Hundreds of heads tilted upward in unison as the clouds parted without sound and from the heavens, a lone spectral figure descended slowly, motes of dark green arcana fluttering calmly despite the absence of wind, black eyes cast downward without emotion or hesitation, as though he were not arriving to address an injustice to its kin, but to judge the world.
The spectral figure's feet land.
Standing over the sacred historical site, it bent down to touch the hallowed grounds beneath its feet.
In that moment, many of them felt something inside their chests crack open in a way that never had.
The shaman prostates, his voice trembling as he speaks up
"All mighty ancestor, these creatures committed a great travesty against the Simian kin."
"Deliver your punishment."
The air churns with electrified pulses before an ominous whisper sounds,
"Your souls are mine!"
The swirl of arcana converge forming small spectral figures who wailed in anguished screams as they entered the humans, making them twitch and thrash in the dirt.
Every simian holds its breath, watching justice unfold.
Soon the human figures shrivel up and shrink, their skin clinging to their bones, their thrashing stops--- an ominous cloud rising from their agape and anguished maws.
~It is done...
A receding spectral voice whispers before disappearing into the earth.
A great silence ensue, everyone prostated for a long while before the heavy presence subsides and disappears.
The spectral ancestor turns, only to suddenly look towards a distant tree.
A silhouette flickers and disappears
*Oh shiet*
Rain pants, gasping for air.
His skin crawled with goosebumps--- he'd watched the entire event unfold.
Hidden within the thick canopy, it was only when the specter glanced towards his direction did he suddenly [shadow vault] fleeing.
The ritual in its entirety was so unsettling to him, a feeling of unease and great danger surged the moment the spectral figures appeared.
As of now, his figure flickered again and again, making as much distance between him and the simian stronghold.
****
~ Within the halls of the cult headquaters~
"What is happening in there?!" Viridia shouts, pacing up and down the hall, her high heels clonking noisily against the cobbled floor.
"How are they all dying like flies!"
As if on cue, three more soul lamps flicker and dim, slowly turning dark.
An ominous green glow flashes the last moment before the three lamps go dark.
Viridia clutches her neck, gasping--- the flare of green had bathed them in an ominous and suffocating aura.
The one that made someone buckle and cower.
"I will report this to his eminence right away!" an enforcer asserts.
Chi.
"They won't be any reporting done. Are we clear?" Viridia hisses, the limp body of the enforcer slumping under her arms-- bleeding from a dagger impaling his heart.
The other two enforcers nervously nod, agreeing to her demands.
She couldn't afford to be found out--- the head priest had promised to flay her on any hint of failure.
And the way they were haemorraging soldiers classified as failure on her part.
Her blodied fingers tremble, her mind spinning as she racked and grasped at any solution to her current predicament.
"Yes. I have no choice." She murmurs under her breath.
Her mind was made, the head priest would never find this out...ever, or else...
For now, she'll have to find means to correct the mistake.
Her feet carry her towards the dungeons, her place of work.
Rows upon rows of chained individuals graces her eyes, they glow with contempt, sweeping across their pitiful states.
The prisoners were numerous and varied--- heck, humanoids and beasts alike groveled within this dungeon.
"Listen up!" Her voice cuts through the air, echoing and reverbarating within the whole dungeon.
"I have a task of great importance," She continues, he voice akin to a hiss,
"Succeed and I will grant you the freedom you desire."
She presses on.
A few chained prisoners look up, their gazes hopeful--- though a small number locked eyes with her, abruptly erupting in mirthful laughter.
Chi.
~gurgles~
"Anybody else?" Viridia hisses, her piercing gaze sweeping across the hanging prisoners.
"This is what I expect of you..."
She proceeds to instruct the few she had selected on what she expected of them, fitting them with armour and weapons before sneaking them through the portal at the main hall.
She thoughts churn and bubble, only settling with one clear conclusion:
Nobody should ever find this out!