2 bonus chapters are dedicated to the reader “Monica_Ceja” for gifting a castle to the novel.

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Even excluding the time she spent in the palace, it had been many decades since she hid herself in the Kingdom of Megaris, yet she had never stepped inside the only temple in the kingdom. It was such a reclusive and mysterious place that the general public only knew they existed, but wasn’t sure exactly how they function as the religion only served the royal family of Megaris. Aside from important events related to the Ivanov Family, the priests serving the temple never showed themselves in front of the public.

After passing through a small forest, the royal carriages stopped in front of a large empty courtyard where the royal couple had to alight from their ride and walk by themselves. Both the King and Queen were wearing pure white robes, walking like a pair of immortal beings as they made their way up upon the stone steps of the large flat temple built purely out of grey stones. It was a simply decorated yet spacious monument, with each of their footsteps loudly echoing in the hallways. The pillars were simple yet imposing, and there weren’t many drawings engraved on the stone walls.

Both King Theron and Esther immersed themselves in the quiet and solemn atmosphere of the temple.

Upon reaching the lobby of the temple, they found the High Priest and his fellow priests present to welcome them.

“The Temple of the Divine welcomes the Dragon and Phoenix of Megaris,” the High Priest said as he and the priests behind him bowed toward the royal couple.

The priests then guided the King and Queen inside the temple.

Contrary to the simple and almost empty outer hall, the interior of the temple gave off a glamorous yet imposing feel. It was the same grey stone walls, yet with every ten steps, one could see marble statues of living gods and mystical creatures from the ancient legends.

In the centermost hall, they saw an immense sculpture of a brilliantly shining sun made out of pure gold and precious gems. It was a symbol of the highest of all the gods in existence, the very same sun as the crest representing the Ivanov Royal Family,

The King and the Queen of Megaris bowed in front of the emperor of the old gods and heard the High Priest say, “King Theron, please come with me to the ritual chamber.” He then looked at Esther. “Queen Esther, you can only accompany your husband up till here.”

She nodded. “I will stay here and wait.”

King Theron followed the High Priest towards a different chamber inside the temple which was prepared exactly to perform holy rituals, while Esther stayed in the centermost hall used for worship, staring at her husband’s back with her mind growing anxious.

All she could do was to pray for everything to go well. Knowing the Devil, she believed he would help the kingdom and its people, that things would return to the way they were before…

The priests of the temple opened the door for King Theron to enter the ritual chamber. Though King Theron had visited this temple before, it was his first time entering this particular chamber. He took this chance to observe the strange room.

Unlike the other parts of the temple that gave off an open, wide and spacious impression, the ritual chamber was comparably smaller, though it was still about as large as the halls used to receive guests of the Grand Palace. Rather than large, it was perhaps better to use the word ‘tall’. The chamber had a high dome ceiling that seemed to be made of black obsidian stone, and the rest of the chamber seemed to be made with coppery-like ancient rocks bearing the marks of time.

In the centre of the ritual chamber, there was a particularly eye-catching circular area elevated from the floor which was surrounded by seven short pillars placed at equal distances from each other.  The floor in the centre of those seven pillars had something drawn on it, which looked like ancient writings Theron had seen in the scrolls from the empire that was destroyed a long time ago.

Compared to the quiet and solemn temple, this chamber felt eerie and heavy. Though there were torches attached on the walls of the chamber, a majority of the ritual chamber still remained dark. This was perhaps due to the fact that there were no windows to the chamber and sunlight could not enter.

The young king then heard the door close behind him. Other than the High Priest and King Theron, no one was allowed to enter the ritual chamber.

“King Theron, please stand above the sun symbol.” The High Priest signalled him to stand on top of the small circular sign drawn in front of the elevated platform.

“Remember, you cannot step out of the sun symbol until we finish talking with the Devil.”

He did as he was told, while the old man gave him something before standing on one side, a few steps away from the King.

A dagger.

What the old man had handed him was a ceremonial dagger.

The hoarse voice of the High Priest echoed inside the chamber.

“Only the blood of a direct descendant of the Ivanovs is necessary as a sacrifice in this ritual. I will be reciting a prayer using the ancient language used by the old gods, and Your Majesty only needs to let three drops of your blood fall on the sun symbol where you are standing. Once the summoning ceremony begins, we cannot stop.”

The High Priest gestured towards the circular space surrounded by the seven pillars.

“The Devil—no, he who guards the living, he whose name the world has forgotten, will appear on that platform.”

Though he was still suspicious if this would really work, King Theron could not help but feel nervous. ‘Will something…someone really appear there? This makes me feel like I’m being scammed. Why is someone called a Devil also being called a guardian—’

“Shall we begin, King Theron?” the old man asked, interrupting his internal panic.

“Yes, let us begin.”

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