Chapter 102:27. Stormy (low fever at night)
Atop the Eclipse Temple in Taraxlan, the Moon City, the Astrologer, Observer, and greatest of the Skink Priests, Tito Ikau, gazed at the night sky with his cold, deep eyes, seeking to discover what he had missed. As time passed, his gaze remained fixed on the stars, his body motionless, only his nictitating membranes moving silently. Despite his best efforts to search for signs, the Astrologer saw nothing.
Teto Ikau was hatched when Manasrib completely obscured the cursed Morsrib, a phenomenon previously considered bad in Lizardmen society, but with his arrival, the Slann now proclaim it auspicious. The Slann also claim that, blessed by the ancient wind god Typok, he can read visions of the future from the constellations swirling in the night sky, a skill unmatched by any Skink Priest.
Tonight, the ancient wind god Typok constellation is the brightest star above the Eclipse Temple, but he finds that the arrangement of other stars is all disordered, and the entire constellation reveals a strange disharmony.
It was not the atmosphere that blocked Taito Ikao's vision. His shining eyes could penetrate the mist and thick clouds above the jungle. His sight could even penetrate the raging wind and see the stars clearly in the lightning and thunder.
Taito Ikao felt he could grasp the rotation of the sun and moon, seek its omens, and ask the heavens for another five hundred years. It wasn't the green light of the evil moon, Morslieb, that was hindering him, but rather the astrological chaos...
Taito Ikau waved slowly, imitating the Slann. The Skink attendant standing beside him lit the incense again. He tried to calm himself. He looked up at the stars again. After a long moment, he finally saw an omen. And it seemed to be heading towards Taraxlan. Just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief and cheer, he saw a huge danger ahead of the omen, also heading towards Taraxlan.
Tiktato had recently taken part of the main force to support the battle in Zahuitak, Echo City. The army in Talaxlan, Moon City, was running low, and the garrison was beginning to be stretched thin. Tiktato Ikau had recently transferred some Skinks serving the Grand Market to assist with patrols.
When the Slann didn't awaken, Taraxlan was led by Teto Ikau, responsible for maintaining the city's daily operations, such as patrols and coordinating the maintenance of the monument. Of course, no matter which temple-city, the Skink Priests in charge of the city had very little decision-making power, and those who were overly active were generally sent to the Tyrannosaurus Pit.
For example, which temple building to prioritize for repair, or which part of the jungle to clear, any unusual, important and emergency decisions can only be made by the Slanns.
Skinks, prone to emotional outbursts and unreliable personalities, lack the calm nature of the Slann. Command authority should be placed in appropriate positions to ensure that no overly emotional bio-robot is given too much power. This is unless the Slann are unable to be awakened, which is of course an extremely extreme situation.
As for the City of Echoes, Zahuitak, it was an ancient temple city, a city completely defiled, a city that, despite being rebuilt many times by the Slann over the millennia, was ultimately declared abandoned. The vast network of spiritual veins here was deeply torn, and not long ago, the Chaos Rift opened again, and demons continued to spew out from the rift.
Lord Slantnok, who inherited the cursed city after the unfortunate death of Lord Zul, led a fierce battle against the Lizardmen there. The battle had raged for years, with a steady stream of Lizardmen arriving from the various temple-cities to reinforce the city. The fighting was so earth-shattering that the tremors could be felt a hundred miles away.
K'Gar, invincible and unstoppable, the most valiant and skilled Lizardmen general ever, fell at the hands of the gods, smiting every enemy, including the servants of Chaos. The Lizardmen used their ferocious savagery to resist this twisted, unnatural tide. Here, the Chaos legions' steel shattered against the Lizardmen's hard scales. But the price paid was high. Column after column of Lizardmen warriors perished, and new warriors emerged from the hatching pools, rushing to the battlefield without stopping, but the losses could hardly keep up.
Of course, all of this has nothing to do with Dacus for the time being, as he is still sleeping soundly.
Ryan had already gotten up to take charge of the second shift, while Chupakoko was still standing there looking at the sky pretending to be deep. After he inspected the sentry post and found that there was no problem, he sat down next to Chupakoko. There couldn't be any problem, as they were surrounded by a large army of lizardmen in three circles inside and outside. He took out the cold lizard skin water bottle at his waist and drank.
"Hey, what are you looking at? Wanna drink? Hexota mead."
Chupakoko came to his senses and went to pick up the cold lizard skin water bottle, but Ryan reacted faster than him and hung it on his waist again.
"Sorry, I drank it all. Have some red guava."
Ryan, like a magic trick, took out a few fruits from his noble robe and stuffed them into Chupacoco's hand.
"So, do you really know astrology?" Ryan asked indistinctly while chewing on the fruit.
Chupakoko was chewing on a red guava, but he was clearly in a bad mood. There was clearly a premonition, but he had just been looking at the stars for a long time and couldn't see anything. Instead, he felt that the entire starscape revealed an inexplicable weirdness. After following Daquus for two years, he became more and more doubtful about his astrological skills.
When Ryan saw that Chupakoko ignored him, he reacted, took off the cold lizard skin water bottle after eating the fruit, took out a few fruits from the noble robe and put them on it, patted Chupakoko's shoulder and left.
The next morning, Daquus, Chupakoko, Akadan, and several other Duruchi dignitaries boarded pterosaurs and flew to the floating pyramid. Atop it, a vast woodland garden floated and swirled, planted with exotic plants. Occasionally, the garden formed strange patterns that seemed to be related to magic.
This place is not abandoned. The buildings on the spirit vein nodes are still in operation, and there are often skin lizard riders passing by to take care of them. They usually pass by here to rest when traveling between the north and south of Lustria.
Of course, this is just a spiritual vein node and there is no valuable incubation pool.
After searching the suspended diamond-shaped pyramid for a long time, they found gold, gems and other rare treasures everywhere, but there were no objects of practical value. After two days of searching, they finally found a peculiarly shaped mask in a secret room of the pyramid.
The mask was crafted from ornate gold and intricately carved with patterns. It was streamlined and featured a raised crown. The crown could be adjusted in height like an airplane's speed brake, and its design seemed to be for a Pterosaur Skink rider.
When Kaleen saw the mask, his eyes widened. Daquus had never seen such longing in his eyes.
"Try it if you like."