Yama Rising

Cape May was a coastal city, and looking out from the city, one would be greeted by the sight of the boundless sea.

The city was very small, and it had been founded to commemorate the Dutch explorer, Cornelius May. It had a very small population of less than 5,000, but that didn't mean that there were only less than 5,000 people here.

The city was situated right next to Delaware Bay and had exceptional scenery. Even though it didn't have many permanent residents, there were restaurants peppered all over the coastline from modern fancy restaurants to more casual restaurants. However, there weren't many of them, either, and they could house a total of around 2,000 to 3,000 patrons.

At this moment, it was 10 PM at night, and inside a certain hotel, the bed, the television, and all of the picture frames in the rooms suddenly began to wobble slightly as if a low-level earthquake were taking place. However, everything quickly settled down again, and at the same time, a Caucasian man lying on the bed of one of the rooms slowly opened his eyes.

This was a thin middle-aged man in his forties wearing a pair of frameless glasses and an immaculate suit. He almost fell over a he got out of the bed, but immediately caught himself on the bedside table. After taking a few seconds to find his bearings, he rushed over to the window before gently pulling the curtains aside.

The beach was always the perfect site for relaxation. The tall palm trees outside provided perfect shade for beachgoers, and his hotel was situated in a very good location, allowing him to see the beach and most of Cape May. However, on this day, Cape May seemed to be a little different from how it normally was.

On this day, tens of thousands of people had flooded into this sparsely populated city!

They were wearing black and white robes with hoods that concealed their faces. Their robes were black on the left and white on the red, making them appear like halves of Oreo biscuits. Individually, they would be quite amusing to behold, but tens of thousands of people wearing the same attire was truly an astonishing sight.

These robed figures filled all of the streets, spreading through the entire city with the restaurant and hotel area as the center. The tiny city of Cape May simply wasn't large enough to hold so many people, and it was as if the entire city had been surrounded.

There were banners hanging on all of the buildings across from the hotel that the man was staying in, and all of the banners bore the symbol of the Slumber of the Stars and the Sea. Countless Death God Dax flyers were flying through the air, and it was impossible for anyone to drive cars through the crowd.

"The entire city has been overrun... Are these all of the followers of Death God Dax across the entire nation?" the man murmured to himself. "As expected, the Freemasonry really has already struck a deal with the government. There's no way that a small city like Cape May could house so many people. With tens of thousands of people, there would be countless logistical issues that have to be addressed. However..."

He scoured his gaze over the streets as he continued, "It's as if the police force and the government are completely oblivious to the situation. Even the residents of the city have disappeared. They've most likely already been evacuated in advance, and now, this is a city exclusively for the followers of Death God Dax."

Right at this moment, the sound of door-knocking rang out. The man closed the curtains, but didn't open the door. Right as he turned around, a flier had already been pushed into his room through the gap under the door.

He picked it up and had a look.

"The legend of the Fifth Sun, the true death god, the Slumber of the Stars and the Sea, the regal and almighty Death God Dax will show us the true path! By god's decree, when the moonlight spills down onto the surface of the sea in six days, the legendary sea monster Kraken will rise up for its once-in-1,000-years feeding frenzy. At the same time, the almighty Death God Dax will leave his divine kingdom to take Kraken to the boundless abyss."

The message was very striking, written in white text on black paper.

The man flipped the flier over and was greeted by the sight of the triangular eye at the center of the page, which represented omniscience and omnipotence.

He took a deep breath before placing the flier onto the table, then habitually flicked his wrist to roll his beaded bracelet down into his own grasp, only to find that there was no bracelet. Instead, he clasped his hands behind his back and stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window in silence.

"Six days, eh?" he finally murmured to himself after several minutes of silence. "I only have five days left to gather as much information as possible. Depending on how much information I manage to gather, I may have some chances. This is the third day since that incident at Saint Peter's Church, and my original estimate was that I would have 11 to 12 days left, but that timeframe has been shortened to only eight days now. Have they decided to enact their plan in advance or was this always the planned date to execute the plan?"

After several seconds of contemplative silence, he shook his head.

It didn't matter either way. What was important was whether he could glean the entire plan within the final five days, then work out a plan of his own to intercept the grand script of death.

His gaze traveled to the flier, and he murmured to himself, "This must be a test... The fact that they've stuck a flier into this room indicates that they're aware that the person living in the room isn't one of their own. Someone must've organized for all of them to come here, yet the four Dukes in Philadelphia still haven't made their move even in the face of such a grand occasion. Why have they remained in Philadelphia this entire time? A base of followers is the foundation for godhood. Without followers and faith, there would be no religion, and without a religion, no god can be born. There must be someone controlling everything here. Through these flyers, they're currently scouring for suspicious individuals in the city. If I receive the flier but don't display any interest or leave my room, then I'm willing to bet that there will be enforcers coming very soon to investigate."

He stroked his own chin as he continued, "In that case, it would be best for me to blend in with the crowd during the next few days, but I shouldn't appear overly eager, either. I should act like a completely oblivious individual who's merely curious about what all this fuss is about."

He then turned his gaze toward the window. "This is truly a prime location."

During the next five days, all of the important actors of this final act will take the stage one after another, and Kraken definitely won't be appearing too far away from here.

This was a divine miracle, and it was designed to send all of Dax's followers into a frenzy. After witnessing the divine miracle, they would actively and vehemently promote the Slumber of the Stars and the Sea. They had developed this base of followers during the past century, and this was the occasion where they were going to harvest the fruits of their labors.

Nothing could convince their followers more soundly than a divine miracle connected to a prophecy.

"If Kraken isn't far away, then the fleet of the three Caribbean death gods won't be far away, and the ship dragging along Tezcatlipoca's heart won't be far away, either! Even more importantly..."

He made his way over to the window and pulled the curtains aside again. "The Spear of Longinus won't be far away, and I'm sure Tezcatlipoca is lurking nearby as well."

This was his opportunity to reclaim his own heart, and he was almost certain that Tezcatlipoca wouldn't be able to pass up the temptation!

As such, he wasn't fighting alone!

"Now, all that's left to do is to wait for the commencement of this epic show."

………………………………………………..

Bermuda, Hamilton, Britannia Overseas Territory.

This was a very small place, so much so that it never received any attention. It was also not a very wealthy place with the Bermuda Dollar as its currency, and most of the residents' income came from fishing.

It was already nighttime, and the light of the dying sun basked the surface of the sea in golden radiance. Rays of fragment golden light were reflected by the waves, and a series of fishing boats were rapidly returning to the islands. For these small fishing boats, the sea at night was a very perilous place.

However, one of the boats remained behind.

It wasn't a fishing boat.

Instead, it was a small cruise ship that could house around 30 people. At this moment, there was a woman wearing a cloak on the deck. Her eyes were concealed, and she was wearing a bone necklace. Her palms were joined together as she knelt on the deck of the ship, and she was chanting something incessantly.

On the deck in front of her was an array drawn using blood, and several young men and women were standing off to the side with grief-stricken expressions and eyes that were red and swollen from crying.

"Have you still not found them?" a Caucasian woman asked in a sobbing voice. "Yesterday, my father went out fishing with some friends, and I'm certain that their boat disappeared near here!"

The woman raised her head, and even though her eyes were covered, she turned her gaze toward the group of young men and women as she replied, "We need to leave this place now."

"Why?" a young man asked in an incredulous manner. "Why should we leave when we haven't found anything? We're not leaving until we find our father!"

The woman stood up and said in a grim voice, "An extremely fearsome mass of Yin energy passed through here recently. Your father most likely encountered some... supernatural event, and this is why you asked me to come here."

One of the young men and women immediately opened their mouth to say something, but the woman cut them off with a shake of her head as she continued, "I can sense that if we don't leave this place, the same fate will befall us."

"I've had enough of her bullshit!" One of the young men stepped forward with a furious expression. "I knew we shouldn't have paid her to come here! She doesn't have occult eyes, she's a blind lady scamming us out of our money! What we should be doing now is wait for the coastline patrols! Do you still not understand?"

The woman didn't reply. She merely shook her head in a sorrowful manner. "How unfortunate..."

Before she had a chance to finish her sentence, she abruptly turned toward a certain direction.

The young man who had spoken was even more enraged to see this, and he grabbed onto her shoulders as he yelled, "Are you still trying to fool us? You wasted so much of our time and money, yet you haven't done anything! If you don't give us a full refund right now, I'm going to..."

"Wait... David..." A woman gently latched onto his shirt as she said in a trembling voice, "There really does seem to be something off about this place..."

Their ship was the only thing in this area of the sea.

The sound of the waves, the sea birds, and even the rumbling of the ship's engine had completely faded.

It was as if all sound had been stripped from this world, and at the same time, an indescribable sense of horror was washing over their hearts like a tsunami.

The woman suddenly fell to her knees, and her entire body was trembling with fear as she pressed her forehead against the ground, not even daring to utter even a single word.

No one dared to speak anymore, and everyone was inspecting their surroundings intently. Immediately thereafter, all of the young men and women on the ship suddenly fell to the ground in silence.

One body after another fell onto the deck around the cloaked woman, and she was biting down onto her own lower lip with such force that she was drawing blood, but she still didn't dare to say anything.

They had all died!

In the blink of an eye, all eight of them had died in unison!

The cloaked woman raised her head in a fearful manner, and right at this moment, a fierce gust of wind suddenly swept past, stripping away the cloth that was covering her eyes.

As a result, a pair of deathly pale eyes were revealed, and at this moment, a nightmarish scene was being reflected in her ghastly eyes.

The surface of the sea bulged upward as if a giant beast were rising to the surface, and one warship after another from the Age of Discovery rose up from the seabed while emanating boundless Yin energy.

Enormous volumes of seawater cascaded down the sides of the ships, and all of the ships were packed with Yin spirits that were long dead. Fierce netherfire was burning in their eyes, and all of them were standing still on the spot with menacing weapons in their hands.

The cruise ship was situated right at the center of the fleet that had just emerged from the depths, and there had to be several dozen ships in the fleet in total!

The souls of the young men and women who had just collapsed had already been bound by chains and were screaming as they were dragged onto one of the ships. Right in front of the witch was a gigantic black ship that was over 200 meters in size, and it was situated no more than 20 meters away from her!

Her teeth were chattering audibly as she looked up with a horrified expression.

She saw three Yin spirits wearing pirate attire standing at the bow of the ship, watching her in a completely emotionless manner.

What kind of fearsome beings are these?!

Their terrifying Yin energy was like an insurmountable mountain, and the cloaked woman only took a single glance at them before lowering her head to the ground again in fearful and reverent silence.

Why have these ships from another world appeared here? Is this world about to face destruction?

"Ah, so this is what it feels like to be back in the mortal realm..." Leoric said as he spread his arms open, then cast his gaze down toward the small ship down below.

"And there's fresh blood food here as well."

There were still three days left till the conclusion of the grand script of death.

The 60-ship fleet of the Caribbean Sea had passed through the Yin Yang Mezzanine and was the first to arrive!