Gospel of Blood-Chapter 668 : The Bloodborne’s Betrayal

“The extraordinary power of the Myria world began with the Origin. Every extraordinary being has long since been branded with the Origin’s mark.”

“If we are to ultimately defeat the Origin, we must find a way to break free of this cage and sever our connection with the Origin.”

“That is why I sought to forge a complete, fully realized Gospel of Blood—one that is entirely detached from the Origin’s power.”

When the crisis of the bloodborne erupted, Artemis once again recalled the words her teacher had spoken to her before entering slumber.

In truth, the moment Artemis realized that the Origin had already acted, she had foreseen what would happen next.

Though she had exhausted every means to prevent it, in the end, what had once occurred on the Western Continent happened again—this time among the bloodborne.

Origin corruption… appeared within the bloodborne.

The Origin was, after all, the Origin.

While the bloodborne relentlessly hunted down the Origin’s followers, the Origin was also adapting to the power of the bloodborne. The final result… was the contamination of bloodborne power by Origin force.

At first, the bloodborne began to sense rejection from the “world” itself.

They grew fearful of sunlight. Their thirst for blood became overwhelming. Their extraordinary powers began to mutate, as if afflicted by a curse of blood.

Their temperaments became extreme and chaotic, as though some force had polluted their very souls—and eventually… this corruption spread to the bloodborne princes themselves.

Artemis attempted to purge this corruption.

But her power was far too weak.

At its root, her own growth had also benefited from the extraordinary power of the Myria world. Though she had obtained the greatest share of blood-divine power, she was not the True Ancestor of Blood. Against the Origin’s power, all she could do was suppress it.

And suppression breeds resistance.

When the Origin’s corruption of the bloodborne princes penetrated their divine souls, that resistance ultimately manifested as open rebellion—rebellion against the “True Ancestor of Blood.”

Some rebelled for power. Some for “freedom.” Some for authority.

The Origin’s power had already corroded the minds of many bloodborne, and internal degeneration and schism began to appear among them.

When Artemis realized she could no longer cleanse the corruption, and attempted—like her teacher—to condense a similar “Gospel of Blood” with purifying effects to suppress the tainted princes… the princes finally chose rebellion.

A war ignited by five great bloodborne clans erupted across the Myria continent.

Artemis was powerful.

As the sole remaining chief god of the elves, she already stood at the pinnacle among true gods. And the bloodborne incarnation that Charlotte had used as a “vessel for divine descent” had, with the ever-growing faith in the True Ancestor, grown to a level no weaker than her true body.

If she abandoned all thought of purifying the corruption and merely sought to suppress or even kill the bloodline princes, it would have posed no difficulty at all.

It should have been so.

But Artemis had overlooked one thing.

Like the other bloodborne, she herself had, in essence, also benefited from the extraordinary power of the Myria world during her growth.

And so…

The Origin awakened within her as well.

Thanks to the blood-divine power Charlotte had left behind, Artemis detected the Origin’s presence the moment it attempted to erode her divine soul.

Yet even having detected it, she could not stop it. There was no other reason—her power itself originated from Myria’s extraordinary system. Her true body was somewhat better, with her divine soul protected by blood-divine power, but her incarnation… was utterly incapable of suppression.

Even after forging a similar “Gospel of Blood” in imitation of her teacher, Artemis still could not halt the Origin’s corruption. At last, she was forced to face a cruel reality.

By her own strength alone, she could never contend with the gradually awakening Will of Origin.

“Teacher… only Teacher. Teacher is a Creation-rank god who has already transcended. Only Teacher’s power can oppose the Origin. Only when Teacher awakens can the Origin be defeated!”

But Artemis could not contact Charlotte.

No—before entering slumber, Charlotte had not even left her a means to awaken her.

Artemis did not know how long her teacher would sleep, nor where she slept!

She began searching—searching for where Charlotte might be slumbering, searching for any communicative contingencies Charlotte might have left behind.

Yet no matter how Artemis searched, she could not find the slightest trace of Charlotte.

Worse still, as the title of True Ancestor of Blood merged fully with her, all of Charlotte’s former “traces” seemed to have been erased.

No signs. No traces. And aside from Artemis herself, no other being—not even gods—knew anything about her.

That feeling…

That feeling was as if—

“It’s as if Teacher has completely vanished, no longer exists in this world, and has been ‘forgotten’ by all wills.”

Artemis murmured.

Yet she alone remembered.

Only she—the one mythic being who possessed the “True Ancestor incarnation” and the sole remaining “connection” to her teacher—remembered.

“Teacher… where are you sleeping? Teacher… where did you go?”

Artemis was lost.

But the Origin’s power continued to erode…

“This cannot continue. I… I must find a way to notify Teacher, must find a way to warn her that the Origin has awakened ahead of time!”

Artemis clenched her fists.

At that thought, her gaze gradually hardened.

Yes, Teacher had indeed vanished.

But there remained one final possible way to reach her.

Artemis lowered her head and looked at the “Gospel of Blood” in her hand.

It was the book she had forged in imitation of her teacher, using the blood-divine power her teacher had left her.

This “Gospel of Blood” could not devour the Origin’s power as the true gospel could. However… the blood-divine power within it could serve as an anchor to communicate with the true Gospel of Blood.

And if she were to additionally sacrifice that True Ancestor incarnation—using its rank-based connection with her teacher to retroactively trace through time—then perhaps, like her teacher, she could open a brief rift in spacetime and transmit a message.

“Teacher… you can traverse time. If I open this spacetime rift along the path you must have passed through in the past, then the future you will surely receive the message.”

With that thought, Artemis looked toward the bloodborne princes who were steadily closing in outside the Castle of Night.

Sacrificing this incarnation would be enough to open a communication channel to her teacher for a short time.

The price, however, would be the complete erasure of the identity “Lilith.”

Moreover, her true body would inevitably be implicated as well. She would lose all blood-divine power and be unable to resist the Origin’s erosion any longer, forced to enter slumber voluntarily to prevent further contamination—

Until… the future teacher awakened her once more.

Exhaling softly, Artemis turned her gaze to the advancing bloodborne.

Crimson divine power erupted from her body. In that instant, she released all blood-divine power without reserve, using the princes’ siege upon her to begin the sacrifice!

Divine power roared. Battles among myths darkened heaven and earth, overturning mountains and seas.

At last, under the combined assault of the bloodborne princes, the “True Ancestor of Blood”… finally fell.

Crimson divine power evaporated unceasingly. Blazing divine flame ignited everything. The towering divine body cracked and collapsed under the piercing of countless powers.

Artemis glanced once toward the distant white-gold radiance racing anxiously toward her and whispered.

“Big Brother…”

“‘Lilith’… will go on ahead.”

With a soft sound, the crimson body shattered, scattering into countless flying particles of light, forming a blood-colored river that blotted out the sky and stretched for hundreds of thousands of miles…

The “True Ancestor of Blood” Lilith… had fallen.

…

With the destruction of the “True Ancestor incarnation,” Artemis’s true body also suffered grievous damage.

An overwhelming drowsiness washed over her. Artemis knew this was the forced slumber brought on by extreme injury.

But she still remembered her mission.

Thus, in the final instant before falling asleep, she expended her last strength to activate the “Gospel of Blood” in her hand.

The crimson book shattered. Page after page flew in all directions. And as the bloodborne princes rushed to seize the pages, the final strand of blood-divine power drew Artemis’s consciousness up into the high heavens.

It was a strange sensation. Artemis felt as though her sense of self had been stripped away, transformed into a purely observational perspective, gazing down upon the world.

Time flowed.

But her time stood still.

No—not her time, but rather, as she had wished, by sacrificing the True Ancestor incarnation and her own power, she had successfully used her bloodline connection with her teacher to find the path that could reach her!

Artemis beheld a starry river formed of countless fragments of spacetime.

Before this river, the history of the entire world seemed to be cut apart and unraveled, unfolding like a vast scroll.

And when Artemis saw this starry river, she once again sensed her teacher’s aura.

“Teacher… you were here before!”

Her heart leapt.

Artemis did not know where this place was.

But judging from the residual aura, even if Charlotte was not here now, she must have passed through this place before.

Following that trail of aura, Artemis could trace her.

With that thought, Artemis began burning her consciousness.

What had arrived here was only a single strand of consciousness.

Consciousness, too, could serve as fuel for advancement.

In this strange space, aside from the message she wished to deliver, anything could be used as fuel to move forward.

This, too, had been part of her plan from the start. Memory is a vessel of power, and those memories of hers that might be eroded by the Origin had to be burned away during the search for her teacher, lest they become a means for the Origin to trace her.

Of course, this would cause her strand of consciousness to forget most memories before reaching the destination—but as long as the message could be delivered, it would be enough.

Artemis’s consciousness burned continuously.

And in the unseen depths, she felt her teacher’s aura growing ever clearer.

After an unknown span of time, her consciousness finally reached the end of the path.

No.

Strictly speaking, it was not the end of the path—

But an apparition that blocked all investigation.

It was a phantom book, and also a gateway to the unknown.

It was the Gospel of Blood—or rather, the reflection of the Gospel of Blood.

At the sight of the phantom book, Artemis froze.

As if realizing something, her gaze grew complex—filled with sudden understanding and excitement.

“So that’s how it is…”

“Teacher… is this your true plan?”

With reverence, Artemis bowed to the reflection of the gospel and ceased trying to move forward.

“We… have been protected by you once again.”

She murmured with mixed emotions.

Then Artemis turned back, looked at the path she had come from, and without hesitation severed it—shattering all memories within that strand of consciousness that belonged to “Artemis.”

From that moment on, the path tracing from present-day Myria to this spacetime was completely cut off.

“Teacher… I, too, will await you in the future…”

Her final voice faded slowly as her memories burned away.