The Villainess Winning Back Her Beast Husbands-Chapter 19: Snake Beast Husband, Thorne
Evangeline’s eyes narrowed. Unhurried, she followed them inside.
"Evan—" Verdant’s expression changed. She was about to call out to her but stopped when she saw Saskia’s cold stare. Saskia sneered, "Let her go! She’s just a disabled female. Does she really think she’s someone important?"
For a female, having no Star Pattern was indeed no different from being disabled.
’We’re just a subordinate tribe attached to the Grymdale Tribe. For her to just walk into another tribe’s totem sacrifice like that... she’s asking for it. Heh. Once she’s discovered, we can just wait to go in and collect her corpse.’
Verdant’s face turned pale. Seeing the thick smoke billowing up from within the Grymdale Tribe’s grounds, she didn’t dare speak again.
’But I know Evangeline probably won’t make it out alive.’
Every tribe had its own unique totem, and the totem sacrifice was an exceptionally solemn ceremony to pray to the Beast God. It involved a live sacrifice, and any outsider who participated would be seen as blaspheming the Beast God.
The Midridge Tribe had not yet been integrated into the Grymdale Tribe; they were still outsiders.
Evangeline followed several Sentinel Beastmen and, before long, arrived at a wide, open sacrificial altar.
The altar was paved with huge stone slabs, its surface flat and exuding an ancient, imposing aura.
The area around the altar was packed solid with people. They were all kneeling on the ground, their backs hunched over, hands folded on the ground with their foreheads pressed tightly against them. The atmosphere was solemn.
Evangeline saw Elias Moretti kneeling at the very front, his posture equally devout.
The site was silent, save for the CRACKLE of the flames at its four corners.
On the high altar stood a mysterious figure, their gender indiscernible.
He wore a snake-head mask, its eyes chillingly cold and deep, as if they could see through all the world’s secrets.
The moment the Sentinel Beastmen arrived, they were seemingly drawn by an invisible force, unhesitatingly kneeling at the periphery in the same posture, utterly devout.
Evangeline’s gaze swept over the momentous ceremony, but her eyes fixed on one spot.
It was a stone pillar standing on the altar, so thick it would take two people to encircle it with their arms. It was an imposing sight.
Carved on the pillar was a winding, coiled snake totem. The texture of its scales was clearly visible, its forked tongue was slightly extended, and its eyes radiated a cold light. It was so lifelike it seemed ready to break free at any moment.
Right now, someone was tied to the stone pillar.
The person was tightly bound by coarse ropes, unable to move. Their body was arched back slightly, their disheveled hair flying wildly and obscuring most of their face. Only the corners of their mouth, twisted in pain, and their trembling body straining against the ropes could be vaguely seen. Amidst the solemn, mysterious altar, they were a starkly incongruous sight.
With a single glance, Evangeline recognized him.
Her Snake Clan Beast Husband, Thorne.
Just then, the mysterious person on the altar spoke.
He was prostrated, and his cold voice rang out, "The Grymdale Tribe harmed the Beast God’s Envoy, provoking the Beast God’s great wrath and bringing down divine punishment! The trembling earth and rampant disasters are the proof!"
"Today, the Grymdale Tribe holds this totem sacrifice to offer the son of my respected Snake Clan’s leader—Thorne—to the Beast God! We sincerely pray that the Beast God will forgive our clan’s sins, quell his anger, allow the Grymdale Tribe to return to peace, and spare us from the suffering of this divine punishment!"
The man in the snake-head mask’s voice was like a great bell. He raised his hands high, as if proclaiming to the heavens.
As his voice fell, the previously silent Beastmen of the Grymdale Tribe echoed in a great shout, "We beg the Beast God to forgive our clan’s sins, quell his anger, allow the Grymdale Tribe to return to peace, and spare us from the suffering of this divine punishment—"
The sound shook the heavens. After a long moment, the mysterious man stood up and picked up a fiercely burning torch from a pyre.
"The offering—" With that, he was about to throw the torch onto the dry firewood piled at the base of the pillar.
But at that moment, Thorne, on the stone pillar, suddenly spoke.
"Heh, heheh..." He laughed coldly, his hoarse voice like that of a demon from hell.
He lifted his head, his jet-black eyes, tinged with dark green, sweeping over the crowd through his tangled hair.
"To be reduced to a sacrifice is not my wish! I am filled with bitter resentment!" Thorne, tightly bound by the ropes, spoke word by word, his hoarse voice carrying an icy brutality, his eyes full of venomous resolve.
"Today, since my body is not my own and I am forced to be an offering to the Beast God, I lay this curse: May Evangeline of the Fox Clan die a dog’s death! May disaster stalk her like a shadow, devouring her whole! May she be endlessly tormented by pain, never to find peace!"
He gave a sinister cackle, his voice echoing across the empty altar, filled with endless hatred.
Standing at the back, Evangeline listened to the curse swirl and linger, refusing to dissipate, and a chill crept into her heart.
The mysterious person glanced at Thorne but said nothing. Just as he was about to toss the torch onto the pyre, he suddenly paused. His chilling gaze shot straight toward the ramrod-straight figure of Evangeline.
His voice was heavy with anger. "Who are you? How dare you blaspheme the Beast God during a totem sacrifice?!"
Hearing this, the prostrated members of the Grymdale Tribe were aghast. One by one, they turned to look behind them.
When Elias Moretti saw Evangeline, his expression changed, his voice filled with menace. "You have some nerve!"
Thorne’s dark green eyes also stared at Evangeline, the chill in them startling, his aura thick with malevolence.
"Who is this female? What is she doing in our Grymdale Tribe?!"
"Blasphemy against the Beast God! Damn her! We should throw her into the Myriad Snakes Cave to be devoured alive!"
"She disrupted the totem sacrifice! She should be killed!"
"..."
Facing the menacing crowd from the Grymdale Tribe, Evangeline was fearless. Her charming voice carried an undeniable authority as she coolly regarded them. "You are mistaken. The Beast God protects Beastmen. Why would he kill wantonly?"
The Beastmen gasped. "You dare question the Witch’s decision??"
’Elias Moretti’s expression darkened. He suspected this was the female who had trifled with him last night. He had wanted to keep her around for his own convenience, but if she was actively seeking death, that was her own problem.’
Evangeline sneered. "Witch? Killing his own kind—what kind of Witch is that? What kind of Beast God’s Envoy?"
On the altar, the mysterious man in the snake-head mask stared at Evangeline, not angry, it seemed. His cold voice drifted out, "She has disrupted the sacrifice and offended the Beast God. Bind her and throw her into the Myriad Snakes Cave."
As the Grymdale Tribe’s Beastmen were about to make their move, the corners of Evangeline’s lips curved up. She spoke as if looking down on them. "Didn’t you just say that killing a Beast God’s Envoy would anger the Beast God? I am also a Witch. Do you dare kill me?"
As her words fell, Evangeline gently raised her hand, and a transparent talisman shot into the sky.
RUMBLE—
In an instant, a deafening roar, like thunder from a clear sky, exploded across the heavens. Huge raindrops began to pour down, SPLATTERING against the ground and sending up sprays of water.
In the blink of an eye, the entire altar was shrouded in the sudden curtain of rain.
What was even stranger, however, was that while it poured on the altar, the sky beyond it remained clear. The rain seemed unable to spread, a scene that couldn’t help but make one’s skin crawl.
The prostrated Beastmen looked terrified, each one of them drenched to the bone.
In a moment, the torch in the mysterious person’s hand, as well as the surrounding bonfires, were doused, releasing great plumes of smoke.
