Gospel of Blood-Chapter 623 : Eternal Realm

The Western Yunette Empire lies north of the Theocracy, with the location marked by the Guardian Scepter set within the Empire’s center.

If traveling at a normal pace, reaching the destination would take at least two months. However, Charlotte had no intention of following a conventional route, having concealed her identity for this journey.

After tiring of the scenery along the way, she cast an invisibility spell on the carriage and used her divine power, embedding it into the carriage wheels, allowing them to fly.

The speed of flight was unmatched. With divine power, the carriage crossed mountains and rivers, shooting through the sky like a meteor. Nice, excited beyond measure, jumped up and down at the windows.

As a former Legendary, Nice had never enjoyed the privilege of flying alongside a God, let alone riding in a flying carriage.

Legendaries could fly using magic, but their speed was much slower than Charlotte’s divine-assisted speed, and their flight duration was far shorter.

After half a day, a magnificent city came into Charlotte’s view, spanning a basin with crisscrossing rivers like a giant hexagram. Its scale seemed to rival the Holy City of the Theocracy.

Charlotte’s heart stirred, recognizing the place as the imperial capital of the Western Yunette Empire, New Western Yunette City, described in ancient records.

However, her goal wasn’t this city.

The carriage, guided by the Guardian Scepter, flew past New Western Yunette City towards the nearby mountains.

Soon, a forest of dark purple appeared before her, and Charlotte felt a familiar chaotic aura.

It was the aura of “Origin Corruption.”

“Huh? Isn’t this the Forest of Sorrow? Is our destination here?”

Nice clutched the window, astonished.

Charlotte’s curiosity grew.

“The Forest of Sorrow?”

She inquired.

Nice nodded, explaining,

“This is a cursed forest in the Western Yunette Empire. Three hundred years ago, a demon invasion from another realm happened here, corrupting the entire forest beyond repair. It turned into a demonic forest, causing a lot of trouble for the Empire.”

“If the Holy Court hadn’t intervened in time, the Western Yunette Empire might have been destroyed. The invasion critically weakened the Empire’s royal family, eventually costing them central authority.”

Nice glanced at Charlotte, his voice careful.

“Because demon summoning was involved, the catastrophe was eventually blamed on a conspiracy by the bloodbornes. The demonic invasion led to the deaths of over a million people, and the forest was renamed the Forest of Sorrow.”

A Blooodborne conspiracy…

Charlotte frowned slightly.

Only the Shedite Clan of the Dark Path among the bloodbornes could summon demons. Perhaps due to the lack of a Blood Prince constraint, the Shedites always acted in extreme and chaotic ways, which even troubled Charlotte.

Oddly, despite the issues the Shedite Clan had caused since her arrival, she didn’t hate them deeply. On the contrary, the Shedite name brought a strange sense of frustration and complexity, as if something important lay forgotten.

She sighed and looked toward the Guardian Scepter.

“Is this where you marked?”

She asked.

The Scepter nodded, replying,

“It should be. The Eternal Realm is also an alternate dimension, and the thinner the spatial barrier, the easier it is to access other realms.”

“Though I’m not sure why the entry didn’t appear in the Holy City like in the last cycle, it’s likely due to the prior demon invasion weakening the barrier, causing the Eternal Realm’s entrance to project here.”

Charlotte nodded slightly.

“Then let’s descend.”

With a wave of her hand, the flying carriage began its descent and revealed itself.

Sensing their approach, the trees in the Forest of Sorrow seemed to “come alive,” reaching out with menacing vines toward Charlotte and her companions.

Charlotte glanced at them, and as if feeling her gaze, the vines instantly halted. They trembled, then retracted quickly. The dark purple trees around them shuddered and parted, revealing a path leading deep into the forest.

“It’s here! Right here! I can feel it! I sense the Eternal Realm!”

The Guardian Scepter exclaimed in excitement.

Charlotte, too, looked toward the depths of the forest, feeling a divine power radiating ahead.

Possibly due to her Holy Court access, she sensed a powerful holy power in the forest’s center—an unmistakable beacon in the corruption around it.

“Let’s go have a look.”

Charlotte said.

She led the way into the depths of the Forest of Sorrow, followed closely by the Guardian Scepter and Nice.

About fifteen minutes later, they reached the forest’s center.

They found a small lake, its water a dark purple like the forest. At the center of the lake floated a brilliant spot of light.

The light was oval, radiating holy power with a platinum cross symbol swirling around it.

It was a portal.

“Your Majesty, we’ve arrived! The Eternal Realm! This is the entrance! My Lord and the Gods of the Holy Court are slumbering within!”

The Guardian Scepter said, gazing at Charlotte with eyes full of hope and longing, eager to awaken Harald and the Gods.

But Charlotte didn’t act immediately.

As she stared at the holy portal, a mysterious warning resurfaced in her mind.

Harald cannot be trusted.

Beware of his followers.

After a moment of contemplation, Charlotte split off a portion of her divine power, forming an avatar and projecting her consciousness into it.

“Let’s go in and take a look.” freeωebnovēl.c૦m

With that, the divine avatar flew toward the entrance of the Eternal Realm, enhanced by her blood divine power.

The Guardian Scepter paused, glancing at Charlotte’s main form resting with closed eyes. It hesitated but then floated forward under divine power, following Charlotte’s avatar.

“Wait! Wait for me!”

Nice quickly cast a clumsy flying spell to catch up.

Guiding her divine avatar, Charlotte entered the platinum light portal.

After the familiar feeling of spatial displacement, her surroundings brightened, and she found herself before a majestic temple.

This temple stood within a starry sky, gleaming white, with tall towers reaching toward the heavens as if to touch the distant stars. The grand stone door was engraved with the Holy Court’s ringed-cross symbol and mythological reliefs of its Gods, all glowing faintly in platinum light, echoing the stars above.

“The Eternal Realm! This is the Eternal Realm—the place where my Lord and the Gods slumber!”

The Guardian Scepter exclaimed, fervently excited.

Yet, Charlotte frowned slightly.

She felt a familiar aura, one only she, as a master of the origin power, could detect—a taint of origin corruption, identical to what she sensed on Helios.

Glancing at the Guardian Scepter, she saw no reaction. Evidently, it hadn’t noticed this aura.

An unsettling feeling rose within her.

“Guardian Scepter, are you saying that Harald and the Holy Court’s Gods are all within this temple?”

She asked.

The Scepter nodded.

“Correct! This is the Eternal Realm, and this temple is the origin of my Lord’s Church—the Holy Court. Here are the original and most important statues of the Holy Court’s Gods, embodying their divine essence.”

“Awakening the statues will awaken the Gods from their slumber!”

“This… is how I did it the last time?”

The Scepter shook its head, regretful.

“Last time, you awoke too late. Though I summoned the Eternal Realm, you didn’t make it in time. But this time… we’ve made it!”

Charlotte fell silent.

She glanced at the towering temple before her, gently shaking her head.

“That’s not certain.”

“What has happened cannot be changed, altering a set future is no easy task.”

Without waiting for the Guardian Scepter, she pushed open the temple door.

As if crossing the boundary of space and time, she stepped into another dimension.

Beneath the platinum glow, the temple doors slowly opened, revealing the scene inside.

Seeing the interior, Charlotte stopped, her expression shifting.

Her gaze swept the temple, her voice laced with tension.

“Guardian Scepter, are you sure… this is Harald and the Gods’ resting place?”

“Absolutely, Your Majesty! As my Lord’s wisdom artifact, I could never mistake it!”

Behind her, the Scepter’s voice was brimming with pride and anticipation.

Charlotte was silent.

With a sigh, she asked,

“Then, what does it mean if the statues here have been damaged?”

“Damaged statues?!”

The Scepter’s voice rose sharply.

It quickly moved beside Charlotte, and when it saw the scene within the hall, its expression turned to shock and fear.

“Impossible! This… this cannot be!”

Inside the temple.

The hall, radiant with platinum divine power, was grand and sacred.

Towering statues lined the sides, each vividly lifelike, surpassing even those in the Holy Palace of the Holy City.

But unlike the Holy City’s radiant statues, these statues were dull, covered in cracks, lifeless as if they were nothing more than dead stone sculptures.

And at the front of the hall, where Harald’s statue should have been, lay only a cross insignia, split in two.