Gospel of Blood

The golden-red flames continued to burn, and the painful wails echoed through the palace.

Within the flames, the blurred face twisted, glaring at Charlotte with a look full of venom.

It stared at Charlotte intently, its sinister gaze as if trying to imprint her deep into its soul.

As it wailed, it spoke in a chilling voice.

“Don’t think this is over. You… can’t escape. You… can’t escape!”

“Nyx, I have remembered you. We… have all remembered you!”

As it finished, the gray-white mist suddenly reversed, and a faint energy fluctuation invaded the flames, transforming into an illusory trident mark that swiftly spread from the cage formed by the blood divine power toward Charlotte’s arm.

“Oh? Is that so?”

Charlotte glanced at it calmly.

The book gently opened, emitting a crimson glow. The illusory trident mark had not yet penetrated Charlotte’s body before it was absorbed by the book and instantly shredded into pieces.

“The Origin Fragment! You… you actually possess the Origin Fragment!?”

Seeing the illusory book in Charlotte’s hand that had “devoured” the mark, the blurred face showed expressions of jealousy, shock, and fear.

With a sound like shattering glass, it fragmented into cloud-like pieces in the golden-red flames and was ultimately “devoured” by the illusory book in Charlotte’s hand.

“The Origin… Fragment.”

Charlotte murmured thoughtfully as she put away the manifested “Gospel of Blood.”

After devouring the “blurred face”, she could feel that the Gospel of Blood in the depths of her consciousness seemed to have become more complete.

Taking a deep breath, Charlotte dispelled the now-empty cage of divine power.

All the divine power was absorbed back into her body, and the palace returned to tranquility.

However, Charlotte’s mind was far from calm.

“It saw the Gospel of Blood just now and called it the Origin Fragment… So, the Gospel of Blood is also part of the ‘Origin’?”

“It tried to leave some kind of mark on me, but it failed because the Gospel of Blood devoured its power.”

“Its power is very similar to the gray-white mist behind the eerie stone door. Is it and the power behind the stone door… both origin power?”

“And the mark it formed… the trident, if I remember correctly, that is the symbol of Sea King Oceanus. However… the mark it formed is reversed from what I saw in the texts.”

“Its divine power has a bit of an oceanic feel, but… it feels turbid, or rather, chaotic.”

“It claimed to be Sea King Oceanus, could it really be Sea King Oceanus? Only… it’s been corrupted? Or… has gone mad?”

“And… it said ‘we’ at the end…”

“What does that mean? Does it mean it is just one of the countless consciousnesses of the ‘Sea King’, or… does it imply more corrupted Gods?”

Charlotte muttered to herself, frowning.

Although she had successfully dealt with it, her mood did not improve. On the contrary… it became even heavier.

“Stargazer Casey had a problem, Crimson Queen Rowena had a problem, True Ancestor of Blood Lilith was forgotten by all, and Lilith’s brother Harald is only known as the ‘Creator God’…”

“Now, even Sea King Oceanus, who was once as famous as the True Ancestor of Blood, might have a problem too.”

“Could it be… all the myths in this world have problems?”

“The words of ‘Sea King Oceanus’ are not credible, but… if it were to deceive me, then not everything it said could be false. And if not everything is false, then how much does it differ from the truth?”

“If the myths really all have problems, how many of them are still sane?”

“The Divinity Descent Day… will it really be just the Gods who awaken?”

The more Charlotte thought, the more she felt a chill down her spine.

The myths recorded in the Myria continent numbered in the thousands, and even today, countless Gods are known.

But since Charlotte became a Demigod, none of the myths she encountered were normal.

Once could be an exception, but if it happened every time, then it wasn’t her problem.

Charlotte felt a sense of urgency.

Since becoming a Demigod, she once again felt that Damocles’ sword-like pressure.

Becoming a myth didn’t mean she could rest easy.

Forgotten myths, mad Gods, twisted histories…

Clearly, some secrets left behind from the Mythic Era are the true dangers lurking behind the world of Myria.

This prosperous world seems normal, but it is likely teeming with undercurrents.

“Whether ‘it’ is the ‘mad’ Sea King Oceanus or not, since it only sent a trace of consciousness to investigate, it means that the other side also lacks the confidence to defeat me.”

“But at the same time, since it dared to threaten me so boldly before disappearing, it means that its power is definitely not weaker than mine, and might even be stronger!”

“Fortunately, the Gospel of Blood seems to have the power to suppress it, and it can even eliminate its mark.”

“But… it is still not enough.”

With this in mind, Charlotte delved into her consciousness again, sensing the Gospel of Blood.

After “devouring” the consciousness of the “Sea King”, the supreme artifact of the bloodborne had indeed become more complete, even gaining a new dark magic ability for tracking and positioning.

Of course, for the current Charlotte, she already knew enough dark magic.

One more wasn’t significant, nor would one less be a loss.

But the key wasn’t there.

Focusing on the divine flame in her heart, Charlotte sensed her divine power.

Unlike every previous “devouring”, this time, although she eliminated the consciousness suspected to be Sea King Oceanus, even the Gospel of Blood benefitted slightly, but her divine power did not increase.

Instead, it decreased.

Or more precisely, her divine power consumption was greater than her divine power absorption.

Although the consumption was not much, it served as a reminder to Charlotte.

Her “devouring” did not always result in a net gain of divine power.

“It must be the cost of eliminating that ‘consciousness.’ It seems… not everything can be converted into divine power, and erasing a mythological level of mental power is even more difficult.”

“I have never truly killed a God. Even defeating the God of Abomination and Deformity only resulted in their imprisonment. Perhaps… killing a God is even harder than I imagined.”

Charlotte pondered.

“I… need to quickly further enhance my strength.”

“Being a Demigod is not enough. Below the Legendary level, as long as I’m careful, it’s hard for anyone to truly threaten my life. But above the Legendary level, it’s different…”

“What I need to face next might be those hidden mythological powers.”

“I must become stronger, even if I can’t immediately become a true God, I must accumulate more divine power…”

Charlotte once again felt the desire to grow stronger quickly.

Of course, she also knew that the further one goes, the harder it is to increase one’s power.

Even with the Gospel of Blood as an external aid, since becoming a Demigod, Charlotte clearly felt her growth in power slowing down.

Charlotte understood why.

The energy required to enhance mythological power far exceeded that of mortals, and the current Myria continent was in a period of low magical energy, making it difficult to find the necessary energy.

The only shortcut she could think of was probably… traveling back to the past to find those ancient Myria Gods she could defeat and extract their power.

“Finish handling the matters of Starfall as soon as possible, then… go to slumber early and return to the past to seek power.”

Charlotte muttered to herself.

…

In the following days, Charlotte accelerated her actions.

The situation in the Starfall Kingdom was basically settled, with only secondary internal conflicts remaining. The most crucial of these was stabilizing the unrest caused by the integration of the bloodbornes and accepting immigrants from the Free Tribe Alliance.

To stabilize the unrest caused by the integration of the bloodbornes, Charlotte had a clear plan: to appease and constrain both human nobles and the bloodbornes.

The most effective and reliable way to quickly gather people together was naturally through interests. Charlotte thought she might as well involve the Nez and Harcos Clans in her planned alchemy company.

She really had to thank the Harcos Clan this time. The 2.5 billion gold tana tribute was enough to win over various forces within the kingdom and invest in development and construction.

Of course, Charlotte delegated the more detailed work to her subordinates.

She was not one to handle everything personally, as long as she had control over the general direction. Giving money and manpower and leaving the rest to professionals was her way of understanding delegation.

Charlotte dared to do this because she held the most core power.

As a Demigod walking the earth, there was no one in the Starfall Kingdom who could truly defy her.

Overall, although there were bumps, the integration of the bloodbornes into Starfall society should not be too difficult.

Half a month later, the first batch of immigrants from the Free Tribe Alliance also officially arrived in the northern part of Starfall Island, a total of 50,000 people.

Charlotte secretly monitored the entire immigration process.

Duke Gale handled the migration of tens of thousands of people in an orderly manner, which even Charlotte, with her discerning eye, found no major faults in.

Of course, this was also because Charlotte had provided sufficient immigration funds.

Once again, she thanked the Harcos Clan for their contribution.

With the first batch of immigrants settled, the remaining tasks became easier. The beginning is always the hardest; once the initial task is completed, subsequent repetitive tasks can follow the template.

Charlotte did not plan to keep monitoring. The remaining tasks were left to Duke Gale and the Nightshade Cult.

However, these were internal conflicts.

Externally, the situation was still severe.

The Crescent Kingdom on the continent still eyed the Roman Duchy and the Castell County covetously, and Luna Island in the North Sea was the most dangerous place in Charlotte’s mind.

Fortunately, the internal conflicts of the Crescent Kingdom had not been completely resolved. According to intelligence, Charlotte learned that King Louis V was still suppressing and consolidating the nobles’ power and did not seem to have plans to seize Roman and Castell at the moment.

But based on Charlotte’s understanding of the other party, she knew they would not give up, even though she had signed a mutual defense treaty with the Northern Grand Duchy.

The current calm was just a form of forbearance.

There was no solution to this unless Charlotte really gave up her territories on the continent.

But she did not intend to give up. The Roman Duchy was an important agricultural area, and Castell County was her treasury and hometown. As long as she wanted to continue developing, she could not lose them.

Charlotte could only deny the nobles’ proposal to establish the “Starfall-Castell United Kingdom”, temporarily avoiding provoking King Louis V, and pretend to be both the Crescent vassal and the Starfall King, dragging it out as long as possible.

She estimated she could have a few months of peace, enough time to slumber.

As long as she woke up stronger, combined with the various arrangements she had made with her money, she should be able to contend with the Crescent Kingdom.

The real headache was the Luna Island.

But Charlotte dared not explore it rashly.

She had conducted an observation of Luna Island herself, and the results were not good.

Even her spiritual sense vaguely warned her that she absolutely should not go to Luna Island now.

Since she could not go herself, sending others was out of the question. Charlotte decided to temporarily close the northern border against Luna Island as the Queen of Starfall.

Of course, this was not a long-term solution. Even if the border was closed, if the “things” on the island wanted to come over, Charlotte could not stop them.

Charlotte just wanted to buy some time, relying on the other party’s apprehension of her, until she could “wake up.”

When Charlotte had finished handling all matters, it was almost a month later.

After explaining all the affairs to Sebastian, Nice, Yurst, Bardock, and Margo, Charlotte once again lay in the black coffin Sebastian had prepared for her.