As the main characters of today's special celebration ceremony, the newborns were placed in two small beds made of gold. The priests carried them onto the ritual platform. Although they were small beds, that was only in reference to the height ratio of the Atlanteans. At the very least, in my eyes, the two shiny golden beds were about the same size as Pandora's single bed.
The two newborns were placed on the rectangular platform for baptism. Before the high priest could step forward, Liliana was the first to rush out. This little fellow who had suddenly become excited ran to the side of the baby bed and peeked inside. Then, she abruptly exclaimed in surprise and ran back with a sullen face.
"What's wrong?"
I looked at Liliana in surprise. She was the one who was excited to carry the baby just now. Why did she have such a pitiful expression after taking a look at the baby?
In the end, Liliana raised her head to look at me at a 45-degree angle. With tears in her eyes, she muttered aggrievedly, "Damn it. They're bigger than me when they're born. How am I supposed to carry them …"
Hearing that, everyone was instantly speechless.
Only Sandora could still calmly analyze, "Because they grow very quickly. According to the records in the database, newborns in Atlantis need to learn how to walk independently within a few days. They also need to undergo the test of the natural environment. After they're born, they grow as fast as the wind blows …"
As Sandora explained to us, I noticed that the two little fellows beside me also had strange expressions on their faces.
Pandora and Visca couldn't help but clench their fists tightly. Their eyes looked at the sky at a 45-degree angle, as though they had lost their purpose in life. It seemed that it was really difficult for these two little fellows to accept a baby that was bigger than them when they were born. Liliana was really an outstanding soldier. I should be thankful that the one who ran over just now wasn't Pandora, the two little lunatics whose resentment towards their height had already broken through the sky.
Liliana also noticed the depressed expressions of the two generals who were 1.2 meters tall. She quickly comforted them, "Don't be sad. I saw just now. Those two little fellows are only bigger than me. They seem to be a little shorter than you two …"
I looked at Lina's height. Yep, she was a hundred and ninety centimeters. She wasn't even a hundred and ten centimeters tall, so her words were a little convincing. But this little girl was also a tragedy. She had lived for several decades, and yet she was only a hundred and ninety centimeters tall. No wonder she could speak the same language as the Pandora sisters.
Weska was naturally encouraged after hearing that. His eyes lit up as he ran over. I watched from behind, tears welled up in my eyes. This pitiful little guy, has he fallen to the point where he has to look for height superiority from a baby?
Before I could stop crying, Weska ran back with a sad face. He hugged my thigh and rubbed it against me while sobbing, "Sob sob sob, it's only a finger taller, and it's a little finger placed horizontally …"
I was speechless.
"Oh, if you take into account their growth rate, they'll be bigger than you in another forty-eight hours …" Lina said, "That's right, I'm guessing they'll be bigger than you in another forty-eight hours …"
This little girl who touched my sore spot deserved to be pressed to the ground by Pandora and Visca and beaten up!
The interruption of the three little girls caused the priest who was hosting the ceremony to be at a loss. This black-robed giant wearing a silver mask looked at us with a particularly innocent gaze. It was only until Sandora reacted and gave them the signal to continue the baptism that the priests heaved a sigh of relief. At this time, the baptism of the newborn officially began.
First was the holy bath water. It was the kind of highly concentrated radioactive water that could turn half of Washington into a real-life recreation of Fallout 3 in 20 minutes. A few assistant priests placed a huge egg-shaped water tank in the middle of the baptism table. I realized that this water tank was actually modified from some kind of pod. There were various interfaces and mechanical structures on the surface. After asking, I found out that the Atlanteans had actually preserved the pod that the old Empire's expedition team used to create the first generation of cyborgs. They regarded it as some kind of sacred object with magical power. They felt that this thing had given new life to the first Atlantean God in ancient times, so it also had the ability to let the newborn be reborn.
The water tank was filled with radioactive water that emitted a faint blue light. Two priests carried the newborn (by the way, they were a pair of brother and sister) from the gorgeous little bed and quickly chanted a few prayers in the air. Then, they placed the two children into the water tank.
At this moment, I also saw the two new lives that were very special today. They were indeed bigger than Liliana.
But other than their huge size, they looked like normal children in other aspects, such as their chubby limbs and wrinkled faces. The only difference was that these two naked newborns showed a calmness that did not match their identity as babies. They did not cry or make a fuss. They had only been born for 72 hours, but they could open their unusually spirited eyes and look at everything around them with vigilance and challenge. When they were grabbed by the priests, the two children made the same shocking action. That was to curl their arms to cover half of their face to protect their heads. At the same time, it did not affect their observation of the surrounding environment.
This was the battle instinct that was written deep into their genes awakening.
Are these two naughty children still babies? Does the childhood of the Atlanteans end on the third day of life?!
I strongly ridiculed them. Even though I knew that there were even more ferocious "maturation", such as those Empire soldiers who jumped off the production line and smashed people with cannons, but after all, one was a mass-produced Shiring Apostles, while the other was a carbon-based organism that was born from the mother's womb. The latter's exaggerated growth rate was too concerning.
After the newborns were placed into the holy water, the priest immediately began to read a blessing prayer. The prayer was not long, and there seemed to be a lot of room for interpretation because I found a lot of things that were in line with today's situation. The priest first welcomed the two newborns into this world and then announced that they were the first pair of babies in Atlantis since the beginning of the New Era. This was of great significance. Immediately after that, the priest announced that under the witness and blessing of the "Great God" and the three leaders, the two newborns would grow up healthily and they would become the best warriors in the shortest time possible. Basically, it was all about these things. Rather than saying it was a prayer, it would be better to say that it was a very practical birth record and future life plan. After finishing the prayer that I thought would take half an hour to say in less than a minute, the priest who presided over the ceremony tapped the scepter in his hand and suddenly shouted three words in a high-pitched and strange voice, "Haragon!"
I suddenly noticed that there was a slight change in the atmosphere among the few Atlantean priests who were participating in the ceremony. Even Ares, who was next to me, had a solemn expression. Alright, even though I could only see his chin, I felt that it was a very serious chin …
"Haragon!" Two assistant priests walked up from the back of the line as soon as the officiant's voice trailed off. They repeated the three words loudly, and at the same time, each of them held a large rectangular box. The box was made of metal, and there were some curved patterns on it. No one knew what was inside, but it could be seen that the box was trembling slightly in the assistant priest's hands, as if there was a living thing inside.
Liliana stretched her neck and looked curiously at the two big boxes. I felt that if it wasn't for her elder sister holding her back, she would have rushed over to have a taste. Even Mercury Lamp became restless. She twisted around on my shoulder and muttered, "A child's birth is actually so serious. Tsk …"
I sensed something and lifted my shoulder. The little doll immediately hugged my head tightly. "Hey! What are you doing! You are going to fall! "
"How about we make up for this welcoming ceremony when the time comes?" I said softly with a smile. "According to the standards of the Empire's Princess, we have to arrange at least twenty thousand tables of Manchu-Han Imperial Feast to celebrate your birthday, and then go through this process for you?"
Mercury Lamp knew that I was joking, but she immediately became fascinated. Then, she lowered her head and started to bite my scalp.
At that moment, the two assistant priests had placed the big box on the side of the water trough that contained the holy water and the newborn. The holy water in the water trough was only about ten centimeters deep. There were two strong "babies" (I was really embarrassed to say that they were babies. They were even bigger than Liliana!) They curiously sat up straight in the water and poked their little heads out of the water trough. When they saw the box in front of them, they unexpectedly revealed a vigilant expression at the same time.
"Inside …" Liliana seemed to have sensed something. She covered her mouth and exclaimed in a low voice.
The box was suddenly opened. After two or three seconds of silence, two agile black shadows darted out from inside!
Before I could react, the two shadows had already fallen into the water trough. Then, there was a low hiss and a fight in the splashing water.
"Harragon is a type of poisonous python." Ares bent down and explained in a low voice, "This type of python only lives on Mount Olympus. We regard it as the spirit of the sacred mountain, and also the instructor to test the newborn …"
"Damn! You guys are playing with your lives! " This time, even Liliana couldn't help but scream. I reacted faster than her and was about to rush over, but Sandora grabbed my arm and pointed at the water trough that had quietened down in the past few seconds.
Yes, it had quieted down. The hiss and the fight had only lasted for a few seconds. It was so fast that I thought that the two three-day-old babies had been killed in a second. However, the newborn's parents had been looking at the water trough with a smile. It didn't seem like they had been killed in a second. When the fight ended, they looked at each other and went to the water trough. They took out the 'Harragon' python that had been torn into several pieces.
"Healthy children! Long live the Gods! "
The priest who presided over the ceremony raised the two python heads that had almost become flocculent. A high-pitched voice came from under the silver mask. The python's blood was still flowing, splashing on the black priest's robe and his mask. The other priests also raised their hands and repeated in a uniform and strange tone, "Healthy children! Long live the Gods! "
The cheers began to spread from the priest team until the other Atlanteans who were participating or watching nearby also raised their arms and cheered. The whole scene was as strange as the bloody totem ceremony in ancient times. The others and I were dumbfounded. Mercury Lamp couldn't help but shrink her neck. Then, she gently pulled my hair and said, "Stupid human, don't tell me you are really going to prepare this for me …"
I glanced sideways at the little girl who was shivering on my shoulder. I felt that it was necessary to tease this arrogant girl. "I am going to prepare something even more powerful for you. If you don't listen to me, I will throw you into the Nile River … Hey! Don't bite my ear! "
Mercury Lamp hugged my head and bit it. In an instant, the two of us became the biggest disharmony in the entire ceremony. My elder sister couldn't help but give me an elbow from behind and whispered, "How old are you? Enough, enough. Stop acting like a proper person."
By now, the Atlanteans' ceremony seemed to be coming to an end. Although it was short, the process just now was full of blessings, baptism, and test. Many of the onlookers, especially the group of monsters, were dumbfounded as they understood the cruel customs of the powerful artificial civilization of Atlantis. Especially the last step, they actually used a deadly poisonous snake to test whether the child was healthy or not. In fact, they were not only testing the child's health, but also the newborn's aggression and fighting instinct. These were written in their genes. Just like how newborn babies knew how to avoid fire, they knew how to destroy their enemies and how to protect themselves from the moment they were born.
What would happen to the children who did not possess this ability?
"They would die on the baptism platform. The holy water tank would be the perfect coffin for these failures," Ares said frankly in response to my question. "Not knowing how to fight and kill is a genetic defect for the Atlanteans. This means that the genes that the gods gave us have mutated badly in those failures. However, this kind of thing is rare. In history, there were only three cases where the fighting genes were recessive, and those babies did not make it out of the baptism platform. The enemy will infect the weak among us. The babies who could not pass the baptism will become enemies controlled by the abyss after they grow up. This is for their own good. "
"Don't do this in the future." I took a deep breath. I still felt that it was necessary to say something from my standpoint. "I know that this kind of custom was normal in the past because if you didn't do this, you would have perished. However, now that you have the Empire backing you up, it is better to avoid this kind of bloody baptism."
Ares was stunned and thought for a long time. I thought that he would insist on his opinion, but in the end, this giant nodded and replied in a low, muffled voice, "Then, let us change our custom."
It seemed that I had underestimated the influence that the words of the "gods" had on the Atlanteans. Their customs were built on the will of the gods. So, when the gods' will changed, they would immediately change their customs. This entire race was full of fanatics!
Sandora's gaze was still on the priests. The two babies' bodies had been wiped clean and placed on their small beds again. The young parents were accompanying the two babies while the other priests used spices and new holy water to clean the blood stains on the sink. After watching for a while, Sandora suddenly said, "The children with recessive fighting genes do have the right to live. However, this kind of baptism ceremony can be preserved. Don't let the next generation forget how to fight."
After saying that, she smiled at me again. "The incident with the Mobrador civilization has made me a little sensitive. However, for a race that lives for fighting, it is not a good idea to be overly protective."
I looked into Sandora's eyes and immediately understood what she was thinking. I then nodded. "That's true. Also, this baptism method is considered as a non-material cultural heritage, right? Should we set up an incineration … uh, the Ministry of Culture to sort out the related things? There are so many worlds under our name. There are so many strange customs. "
Sandora rolled her eyes and ignored me. Only Liliana kindly explained to me in a low voice, "Boss, the Ministry of Culture doesn't care about these things."
After the baptism of the newborns ended, we did nothing but watch. However, I was still quite satisfied. After all, it was equivalent to witnessing a novel culture of a different race. However, Liliana didn't think the same way. She always felt that she felt bad for not participating in this matter. She still remembered the heroic words that she had said before we set off that she would personally bless the newborns with the Goddess. Even though it seemed that the Goddess didn't expect this at all, she still couldn't forget it. So, when the two newborns were about to be taken away, this little girl suddenly jumped out.
She called out to Jingle, who was struggling to save her owner's hair from the Mercury Lamp above my head. She announced that she wanted to give this child a "loving blessing filled with the Goddess's gift."
A few Atlantean priests immediately showed some awkwardness when they heard Liliana's request. They respected this little girl who was only one-third their height because she was a friend of the "Great God." However, they didn't dare to rashly agree to her request because — — the Atlantean doctrine did not allow them to accept any other God. Even if this God usually lived in the Great God's pocket, and more importantly, the Great God was right in front of them. At this time, it was a bit unreasonable to let a newborn receive the blessing of a God.
"Let her be. Otherwise, she will cause trouble for me for the whole day."
I saw that even Zeus looked down with a troubled expression. I shrugged at them.
Liliana cheered and led her Goddess forward to bless the newborns.
Today might be the day of the revival of religion — — I did nothing but watch them dance!
"D * mn, no matter how many times I look, this child is really big." Liliana had Jingle on her head as she leaned on the edge of the "baby bed" that could be used as a single bed for herself. Jingle also looked inside and nodded in agreement. "Jingle thinks everyone is big …"
Everyone was speechless.
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