Having heard the King’s words, Bruno felt a sense of repulsion: visiting a Voodoo High Priest on the land of the natives? It was akin to meeting an apostle of Satan on the Devil’s own land, fraught with the risk of soul corruption!
The King, Nzinga Mbemba, noticed the foreigner’s hesitation. He pondered for a moment before persuading,
"I hear your companions are undergoing the Chief Divine’s curse, a test of life and death! Only the Voodoo High Priest has the power to help you survive this trial."
Moved by these words, Bruno recalled Paulo’s painful struggle, sighed softly, and nodded his head.
Immediately, Bruno had his only healthy sailor take the mysterious cross back to the ship while he led the remaining eight people, along with the King and the Samurai, into the jungle. Paulo and two other sailors, who had completely fallen ill, were carried by the native Samurai.
Under the Equator’s sun, the three ailing men were tightly wrapped in woolen blankets. They had just endured half an hour of chilling tremors, their skin covered with goosebumps, their lips and nails turning blue, faces pale as snow, bodies and teeth shaking uncontrollably.
Aside from Bruno, the other five sailors who accompanied him also exhibited similar symptoms of chills and fever, albeit less severe.
"Truly the Devil’s curse! May the Holy Mother bless us!" Bruno made the sign of the cross once more on his chest, now fully convinced that a powerful demon lurked in this land.
After more than a day’s journey, Paulo once again went through a severe and painful feverish period, this time for a full nine hours! To control his violent struggles, they had to tie him between two logs, then they could continue their journey amid his agonized screams.
After a while, Paulo finally endured the terrible fever. Drenched in sweat, his clothes soaked through, the fierceness on his face gradually relaxed and an uncontrollable weariness came over him; he peacefully fell asleep on the log carried by the natives.
"Meu deus! My God!" Bruno made the sign of the cross as he finally saw the pagan Temple and Altar.
The Temple was constructed of wood and was not very tall. At the top of the Temple was the symbol of Voodoo, a white flag, symbolizing the White Sorcery and healing of Voodoo. The essence of "Vodu" is divine, spirit, meaning all things have Spirit. By communicating with the Spirits of all things, one can affect the changes in fortune and misfortune of the natural world.
The most prominent decorations on the temple walls were carvings of snakes, the chief deity of the Voodoo faith, the Serpent divine. In addition, the walls were painted in black depicting the most important communicators with spirits, the ghostly figures. Various shapes of these spirits twisted and danced on the walls. Bruno looked closely and thought they resembled mosquitoes.
Animal corpses hanging from the eaves of the temple walls, in the process of being air-dried, filled the air with a pungent stench; these were Voodoo ingredients in preparation, such as excitation-inducing dry python snakes, eagle corpses for transferring demon spirits, bald eagle feathers to ward off Black Sorcery, elephant tails blessing travel, dried lizards for medicinal use...
Bruno, constantly calling upon God in his mind, surreptitiously studied the pagan Temple. Overwhelmed by the intense smell of decomposing bodies, he covered his nose, turned his head, and finally located the primary source of the stench: the Altar.
The Altar in front of the Temple had three levels, with animal carcasses placed at the top. Numerous gigantic mosquitoes and flies gathered on the carcasses, covering them with a thick layer of wriggling film. Bruno took a while to confirm that the sacrificed animal was a black goat. The Voodoo symbol of the black goat is offspring’s procreation, a cherished Sacrifice among various African tribes and also the origin of the Black Goat of the forest in later Cthulhu mythologies.
At each corner of the Altar stood a Long Spear, each spearhead adorned with a dried human skull, the dark skulls still having flecks of white hair, presenting old and fierce faces silently staring at Bruno. A chill ran through the heart of the son of nobility.
Bruno was filled with fear, yet he could not help but look closely. The second layer was more than a dozen aged human heads, most of which had turned into skulls over the long passage of time. The third layer was filled with countless heads of monkeys and orangutans, bearing faces resembling humans, each expression different—some bizarrely grinning, some profoundly sad, many displaying the terror of imminent death.
"This is the Voodoo Altar. The esteemed Voodoo High Priest sacrifices the black goat to the ghostly Voodoo, praying for the prosperity of the tribe’s offspring! These four skulls are from the most powerful Black Sorcery Priests in the nearby tribes. They were executed by the powerful Voodoo High Priest, offering their mana-filled skulls as a medium for communicating with the ghostly Voodoo."
The second layer’s dozen skulls are from evil Black Sorcery Priests, used to magnify the Altar’s Mana. The third layer’s hundreds of skulls come from monkeys and orangutans, intended to draw the gathering of ghostly Voodoo... The great Voodoo High Priest protects the tribe with White Sorcery, she is the incarnation of the ghostly in the human world!"
The King’s Translator declared loudly with awe and pride, this is the most magnificent Voodoo High Priest who shelters the Kingdom, a lineage that has protected the Citizens of the tribe through the ages.
"This is Satan’s Altar. The wickedly powerful Satan’s Apostle sacrifices the spirits of humans and animals to Satan, in exchange for the prosperity of the tribe’s progeny! These four skulls are from the most potent Demon’s children in the nearby tribes, they use their evilly powerful skulls to open the gateway to Hell.