Gospel of Blood

“Surrender? What a joke! Should we become puppets of the Origin like you?”

Sebastian coughed blood as he sneered weakly.

“How unfortunate… My Lord’s world has no place for aberrations.”

Angus replied with a look of regret.

With a wave of his hand, soldiers of the coalition raised their heavy crossbows, aiming at the surrounded Sebastian and the others at the center of the plaza.

Magical arrays glowed, and under the enhancement of Legendary clergy, every bolt was imbued with divine energy. At the soft command of the Pope, a rain of arrows flew forth like a storm of light.

When Charlotte teleported into the skies above Starfall City, this was the scene she witnessed.

And when she saw the once-prosperous and beautiful city turned to ruins, saw the faithful slaughtered indiscriminately throughout the city by the coalition forces, saw her loyal followers cornered in desperation—a blaze of fury ignited in her chest.

When a God is enraged, heaven and earth tremble.

The rain of arrows froze midair as if time had stopped. Soldiers across the city halted where they stood, frozen in place as they slaughtered her followers. On the Red Palace plaza, the clergy and coalition troops attacking Sebastian and the others stood like statues—then suddenly burst into flames.

Golden-red fire surged skyward, instantly igniting all those encircling Sebastian and his group. Screams filled the air.

When the flames died down, every single priest and coalition soldier—including Pope Angus—had perished, reduced to charred corpses littering the ground.

Staring at this sudden reversal, Sebastian and the others were stunned.

Only then did a familiar yet detached, cold, almost inhuman voice ring out from the sky.

“If you so revere the Origin… then turn to ash alongside it.”

Charlotte had arrived.

Wreathed in golden-red light, she descended before Sebastian and the others.

“Everyone… I’m sorry you had to suffer.”

Charlotte sighed as she looked at their shaken expressions.

However, the joy and relief she had expected were nowhere to be seen.

On the contrary—when Charlotte’s gaze fell upon them, she saw fear in their eyes.

Most strikingly—in the ones who knew her best: Nice and Sebastian.

“M-mew! Your Grace… no, you—who are you?!”

Nice stared at her face, trembling in horror.

—Huh?

Charlotte blinked in confusion.

Blood—dark red and thick—had begun gathering from all directions across the plaza. It was the blood of fallen soldiers and the slain faithful of the Eternal Night.

And within that blood, like a rippling dark mirror, Charlotte saw a blurred reflection of herself.

She was smiling.

A twisted, exaggerated smile.

Charlotte’s heart clenched with dread. As her expression changed, so too did her reflection—but the smile on its face remained, growing even more warped.

As if realizing something, Charlotte pulled up her sleeve and looked at her arm.

Pale and glowing softly, dreamlike and beautiful. But beneath that porcelain skin—black markings were spreading.

That was origin power.

The Origin… had corrupted her.

“When did it happen?”

Charlotte’s gaze turned rigid.

But she didn’t panic.

Blood divine power surged as she summoned the Gospel of Blood to assess her condition.

Divine power circulated—and Charlotte was shocked to find that at some unknown point, her body had already accumulated a significant amount of corrupted origin power.

She focused her mind. Activating the ability 【Devour】, she swiftly absorbed and assimilated the corrupted origin power.

Yet—just as she devoured it, more corrupted origin power appeared inside her.

Not only that—Charlotte realized with growing alarm that as she continued to devour, her blood divine power—normally the natural bane of the Origin—was gradually weakening in its effect.

In other words—the "abnormality" of blood divine power in this world… was beginning to vanish.

Charlotte’s expression turned solemn.

The abnormal nature of blood divine power was the key—the key she and Lilith had used to combat the Origin. And now… that key showed signs of failing.

Worse still, as the corrupted origin power grew inside her, Charlotte found that her consciousness was beginning to dull.

That realization sent a chill through her heart—

And led her to a far more terrible possibility…

When Charlotte turned her consciousness inward to examine her divine soul, she was horrified to discover that her very divine soul was beginning to be corrupted by the Origin!

Her divine soul—

The soul she had brought from another world!

It was the very foundation of her ability to devour the Origin and ascend to the highest tier, the very reason Lilith had chosen her—because a soul from another world was not subject to the Origin’s control or corruption. And now… that very core of resistance had begun to fracture!

And that wasn’t all—

As soon as Charlotte detected the corruption of her soul, she immediately used her blood divine power to purify it. The power of blood spread; though it was difficult, she did succeed in weakening the soul’s corruption. However… once the corruption of her soul weakened, the corruption on her body began to increase.

Charlotte continued channeling her divine power to devour the corrupted origin power within her body—but the moment she did so, the origin corruption in her divine soul flared up again, growing rapidly!

Charlotte finally realized the severity of the situation.

“It’s the Creator’s Will…

“The Creator’s Will wants to choose me as its new vessel—to resurrect through me!”

This was something that should have been impossible. She was supposed to be immune.

But when her uniqueness began to fade, that most impossible of outcomes had become a terrifyingly real possibility!

And Charlotte was beginning to understand why—

“Because I’ve reached the Creator tier. Because I’ve… established a deeper bond with the world of Myria!

“My power comes from the Gods of Myria. And the Creator-level power I attained—must be a version inherently bound to Myria!

“In other words, because I’ve grown closer to the world, I’m no longer considered an ‘outsider.’ I… have been accepted by this world.

“But that’s not a good thing. Because I’m no longer viewed as a foreign entity, my power has begun to fuse with the Origin. My uniqueness… has started to break down.

“The stronger I become, the weaker my uniqueness becomes!”

Charlotte quickly grasped the root of it.

The closer she moved toward the Creator tier… the more she lost her special identity.

And the Origin was exploiting this, using it to corrode her, pollute her, and descend into the world through her!

Even worse, now that she had already devoured the powers of the Gods of the Holy Court, she had, in essence, become Creator-ranked. But since she had just awakened and had yet to master this new power, this was—ironically—the moment when she had the least control over herself!

If the Origin chose this moment to possess her—she might not be able to stop it.

And then—the worst-case scenario began to unfold.

The origin power was expanding rapidly inside her!

“Hehe… Eternal Night, there’s no need to struggle any further. I told you—your failure was inevitable. This is your fate… and the inevitable course of history.”

A faint, mocking laugh rang out.

Charlotte looked up—only to see that Sebastian, who moments ago had looked terrified, was now smiling. That same eerie, exaggerated smile, watching her calmly.

No.

He could no longer be called Sebastian.

He now resembled “Helios,” but Charlotte understood—this wasn’t Helios speaking. Or rather, the “Helios” she had known was never truly Helios in the full sense either.

In that instant, Charlotte understood—

He… was the Origin.

“Sebastian” smiled serenely.

And it wasn’t just Sebastian.

Nice, Albrecht… all of her surviving followers wore the same twisted smile, staring at her with cold serenity.

The horrific sight left Charlotte shaken.

In a flash, she recalled the moment she first transmigrated into this world—the time she had been tied to a cross by her so-called grandmother…

She remembered that night. That dinner. The way all the servants had smiled in unison.

That smile—exaggerated, eerie.

Laden with implication.

And now, the twisted smiles of her current “followers” were slowly merging with those of the servants she’d seen long ago…

No—

They were the exact same smile.

The smile of those who look upon a sacrifice… a vessel.

“Eternal Night…”

“Sebastian” spoke again.

“All the power in this world belongs to me. The highest being of this world—can only be me.”

“From the moment you entered my world… from the moment you accepted extraordinary power, your fate… was already sealed.”