Gospel of Blood-Chapter 664 : The Birth of the Twins

The arrival of the Mythic Age ushered in a magnificent new era upon the Myria Continent.

The collision of civilizations, the rise of new gods, the clash of wars… all of these produced wondrous chemical reactions. The Myria Continent, which had not undergone rapid change even through many years of continental warfare, finally began to grow and transform at great speed.

The elven race was no exception. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

When divine power could no longer provide protection, the extraordinary turned their gaze inward.

With the descent of power, the elves were forced to turn their attention to the application of magic. The legacy left behind by the gods, combined with the elves’ own exceptional magical talent, soon propelled elven magic to unprecedented heights.

New technologies, new spells, new theories…

All kinds of innovations burst forth like bamboo shoots after the rain.

The scale of these changes even left the reclusive Artemis astonished.

At this moment, even the Moon Goddess suddenly realized that, without the protection of gods, mortals could still carve out a new world of their own.

Although they had lost the protection of most of their gods and found it difficult to give birth to new deities, the elven race—possessing many ancient divine artifacts and ever more refined mastery of magic—undoubtedly became one of the supreme powers of the Myria world.

Whether it was hunting down Old Gods or supporting the rise of new gods, the elves’ influence could almost always be seen behind the scenes.

Two hundred years later, the elves were even able to imitate divine artifacts and create sacred relics capable of threatening gods!

Moreover, they went further still, creating elven magitech devices that allowed even mortals to wield extraordinary power!

However, when one holds power that does not truly belong to them, ambition inevitably continues to swell.

To wield power capable of threatening gods with a mortal body, to hunt Old Gods again and again as mortals, to support the rise of new gods… such experiences gradually caused the elven race to lose itself in that power.

…

Mythic Age, Year 300.

Due to dissatisfaction over the distribution of divine artifacts and differing views on faith and worship, the elven race—by then occupying half of the Myria Continent—fell into internal strife and ultimately split into seven different elven tribes.

Artemis did not intervene.

Even though she faintly sensed the shadow of the Origin within these events.

“Not yet. Now is not the time…”

She murmured.

Indeed, it was not yet time.

Artemis knew very well that, with her teacher still in slumber, the elven race alone could not withstand the Origin’s erosion.

Not only the elves—even she herself could only rely on the safeguards her teacher had left behind to contend with it.

This was the Origin. Even though its power no longer matched her teacher’s, even though it had been gravely wounded and fallen into slumber, the world’s extraordinary power still operated according to its will.

It was, after all, the source of extraordinary power in this world. Its infiltration and corruption far surpassed that of any other god. Unless it were completely cast into eternal silence, none of this could ever truly end.

At this moment, Artemis recalled once more her final conversation with Charlotte before the latter’s slumber—

“After my clash with the Origin, it has already become aware of the elves’ secret. Therefore… next, it will certainly exercise its authority over the extraordinary to impose restrictions upon the elven race.”

“Teacher, if that is the case, what should I do?”

“Hehe. If it wants to restrict you, then let it restrict you. The portion of power I gave you can be cultivated and expanded. It is a power capable of devouring the Origin. Grant it to mortals, and it will be enough to shape a new race capable of contending with Origin power.”

“You mean… the Bloodborne?”

“Correct.”

“But… the Origin will not allow us to do this. I can feel it—though it slumbers, its ‘eyes’ are always fixed upon us.”

“That is why we need an opportunity—one that prevents the Origin from linking everything back to you, and back to me. At the very least… an opportunity that keeps it from associating us with it in the short term.”

“An opportunity… I understand.”

“Hehe. It seems you have already thought of it. But before that opportunity arrives, you must accumulate enough power and not act rashly. Only then… can that power be unleashed completely in a short time.”

“That is not something that can be accomplished quickly.”

“Of course. This time may require several hundred years—or perhaps… a thousand years. And during this process, the only thing you can do is distance yourself as much as possible from continental conflicts, gradually fading from mortal sight, and avoiding its ‘eyes’.”

“I understand…”

Thinking of this, Artemis took a deep breath and looked once more toward a certain direction on the continent.

At the end of her gaze, within a small half-elf tribe, a young half-elf boy was obediently sorting freshly gathered berries together with others.

“Brother…”

Looking at that face—so similar to her memories—Artemis’s expression grew complicated.

Unlike the other elven gods, Artemis had not always retained Helios’s divine soul origin. Instead, as Charlotte had instructed, she had sent it to reincarnate early on.

The Origin power was bound too tightly to Helios’s origin—so tightly that Helios had no way to deal with the Origin, and the Origin, at present, likewise had no way to deal with Helios.

What Artemis did was, through repeated reincarnations, gradually separate the Origin power from Helios’s soul origin—while also giving the Origin an illusion, allowing it to see an opportunity to break free of Helios and then devour him once more.

Thus… as the sun rose and the moon set, the seasons turned, and the years flowed quietly by. In the blink of an eye, another four hundred years passed.

Over the next two hundred years, the situation on the Myria Continent changed once again.

Due to the elves’ division, the overall strength of the elven race declined for the first time, and the Old Gods seized the opportunity to reignite war.

After a hundred years of conflict, elven influence continued to shrink. To contend with the Old Gods, the elves began supporting and cultivating extraordinary individuals of other races, controlling them through alliances, intermarriage, and the breeding of half-elves.

However, driven by a sense of racial superiority, the elves fundamentally looked down upon these “lesser races.” Some extreme elven tribes even regarded them as little more than slaves—providers of resources and extraordinary power.

For example… the elven power established in the northern regions of the Myria Continent—the elven nation that maintained control over inferior-race extraordinary beings through slave contracts, and that took its founding year as the start of a new “Apocalypse” era—the Tower Kingdom.

Mythic Age, Year 572, or, in other words, Apocalypse Year 460.

Helios’s ninth reincarnation was born within a human vassal tribe under the Tower Kingdom.

This time, he possessed not the slightest trace of elven blood, becoming a human completely and utterly.

At the same time, this also meant that, through repeated reincarnations and the gradual completion of his soul, his soul origin had finally been severed from the Origin.

This did not mean that the Origin power within his soul had vanished.

Rather, it meant that Origin power was no longer a constituent part of his soul.

At the same time, this also meant that he himself would no longer be able to suppress Origin power through his own will.

Meanwhile, high in the heavens—

Artemis, who had been watching all along, also sensed everything that had happened.

“The time… has come.”

She murmured.

With that, she gently extended her hand and released a ray of silver light. That light swiftly entered the body of the woman carrying Helios’s reincarnation, transforming into another embryo of similar size.

Nine months later…

A pair of twins—a boy and a girl—were born in the Northern Mountain Tribe.

On that day, the heavy snow that had blanketed the northern lands for over a month miraculously ceased. Warm sunlight bathed the earth, dazzling and brilliant, and at night the moonlight was brighter and gentler than ever before.

The twins’ father, the hunter Hafdan, was overjoyed. He gave his children two names that, in Ancient Myria, respectively signified “nobility, light, the sun” and “beauty, mystery, the moon”—

“Harald! Lilith! From now on… you will be called Harald and Lilith!”