I Usurped the Ritual but Now I Serve My Own Religion as an Overlord

Grim Valley—a dangerous place to live, and deadly to humans without the divine protection of a god or goddess. Those forced from the Great Civilizations in the Upper North are forced to enter the valley as refugees, and few make it out alive. The few that do always end up making a pact with one of the gods who reside in the Undercroft—but these pacts are Faustian in nature, and come at a steep cost.

The village of Shadow's Pass exists as one of these few survivors with a scant nine-hundred villagers. Large for a village in the Grim Valley—small for any self-respecting town in the Upper North. The reason for village's continued prosperity is simple: two-hundred years ago, the then-chief of Shadow's Pass made a deal with the God of Nightmares, Necrosis. In return for the village's continued salvation and opulence against the deadly monsters which roam Grim Valley, the villagers of Shadow's Pass must offer up one child at the dawn of each new decade.

This day would be known as "Hollow's Dawn", and while an abominable practice, the sacrifice of one would allow the hundreds remaining to continue their despair-filled lives. And so the cycle continued, until the village's 20th Hollow's Dawn...

"Arte...I don't want to die, please..."
"...Don't worry, Nimia. I will protect you. No matter the cost."

☙ ɪᴍᴀɢᴇ ᴄʀᴇᴅɪᴛ ❧
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