Chapter 434: A Far Away Tale – Divine, Sin and Blood

As the new Goldenarch, Peru, whether she liked it or not, was now burdened with the fate of ruling the Fallen Dominion.

To her, who valued human life above all else, death was an act that defied her principles.

Because her altruism was rational, she could only be virtuous.

Meanwhile, the Doctor Sage, Lyre Nightingale, bore a similar burden.

Having broken the Blood Shackles and being able to act by herself, she was now responsible for the deaths of those she met.

Thus, the Doctor Sage treated the wounded—so that no one could say the death was due to her incompetence, neglect, or apathy.

And last, but certainly not least, the Regressor, Shei, sought to save the world.

Whether it was to live or to die, Shei herself didn’t know.

Regardless of her intent, she moved for the noble purpose of salvation.

Three people, united in their desire to save humanity.

All of them were deeply connected to the Divine.

Their abilities were exceptional, and their intentions pure.

If these three saviors put their heads together, surely they would devise an extraordinary solution.

And indeed, they did.

Inside a glass chamber, the corpse of the Thunderarch Elkid continuously spewed blood.

Like an unending well, the blood kept gushing forth.

Elkid’s body was constructed with the power of the Golden Lord.

And so, with the power Peru wielded now, she used her corpse as a factory to endlessly produce blood.

“…”

“…”

“…”

Though they had seen this sight for hours, each time they passed before it, all three of them fell silent and somber.

Some looked away, others clicked their tongues, or simply stared silently.

Their reactions differed, but the feelings within them were the same.

Subtle guilt prickled their consciousness.

A discomfort at brushing against the Anathema.

Even knowing it was necessary, a vague sense of repulsion dominated them.

Of the three, Lyre Nightingale—the one most used to such sights as a vampire—did what needed to be done.

She collected the blood from the glass chamber with Bloodcraft and brought it under her control.

It would not clot until it was used for healing.

With little to do, Shei followed behind and asked.

“Did you get it all?”

“Yes. Thanks to this blood, no one has died from blood loss.”

Her tone seemed to defend the origin of the blood, but her unconscious feelings had bled into the tone of her voice.

If even a vampire felt this way, how much more would it disgust Shei, with her human sensibilities—and especially when the corpse in the tank had once been her vague ally?

Shei glanced cautiously at what was once Elkid and carefully asked.

“So… should we stop producing more now?”

Had she been an ordinary human, Lyre might have empathized.

But since she was a vampire. Lyre firmly shook her head.

“That is not an option. Some cases will require invasive surgery, and that process will require several times more blood. To stop now would be to invite greater danger.”

“…Yeah, I guess so.”

If Elkid had been someone to entrust your back to, Lyre was a lighthouse.

In a future where war swept across the continent and tragedy became routine—where sin spread like wildfire among humanity—she was a red flower blooming amid ashes.

Because of her, several wars had stopped, and even the devout temples yielded their sacred ground to vampires.

…And as is often the case with flowers born of tragedy, Lyre had been mercilessly crushed and annihilated.

But that hadn’t happened yet.

Shei shook her head and instead turned to Peru.

“Witherarch. Is there really no other way than using Elkid’s corpse? I’m not saying this to blame anyone… it just looks so awful.”

If human worth existed, where did it lie?

In their noble spirit?

Or in their bodies that housed Qi?

Peru’s belief in the value of humanity had not changed.

But the scales on which she weighed that value wavered more and more—like her trembling eyes, like her shaking heart.

To use the Thunderarch’s corpse as a blood factory, restored and preserved… Was that truly the rational altruism she pursued?

There was no answer unless she sought it herself.

With hesitation, Peru said,

“…It’s impossible.”

“Why?”

“…The Golden Lord’s power isn’t creation. It’s restoration and replication. If I don’t understand something, I can’t make it.”

“But we already have this blood, right? Can’t we just replicate that?”

“…No. Blood isn’t just some simple substance. It has structure. Without the help of the body during production, it won’t function properly.”

Peru’s explanations were still too brief for Shei to immediately grasp.

Not that it was Shei’s fault—no one else would’ve understood either.

“You respected Elkid too, didn’t you? Does it really have to be this way? Isn’t there another method?”

Blood serves many roles in the body.

To fulfill all those roles, it must be produced—indirectly, if not organically—through a proper process.

A miracle, yes, but barely possible with the Golden Lord’s power.

Elkid’s body also had a rare affinity for alchemy.

Even so, there were limits.

Not because Peru was insufficient, but because alchemy itself had structural constraints.

A perfect construct cannot blend with imperfection.

Just like the crops made by the Golden Lord’s power had destroyed the imperfect human body, blood made without a proper vessel would clash with the recipient’s system.

So Peru had to defile the blood using Elkid’s body as the grinding stone.

But she didn’t have the words—or the strength—to explain it.

She too was filled with sorrow.

So all Peru could say, in a low voice, was…

“…I wish.”

It wasn’t enough to explain anything.

But it carried all the emotion needed.

I want to.

But I can’t.

Caught between intention and capability, Peru was suffering.

And that alone kept Shei from pushing any further.

She leaned against the wall and sighed deeply.

“In the end… can we never escape sin…?”

Feeling fate slowly converging, Shei recalled the past.

A past that had yet come to pass, yet had undoubtedly occurred.

The King of Sin.

She wielded the power of all the Divines.

She shattered the earth, tore the sky, hurled lightning, fired beams of light, and twisted perception.

In the presence of the King of Sin, humanity had to doubt everything.

Illusions clouded their eyes while demonic whispers confused their ears.

They lost all sense of direction, and could no longer even tell what was real or not.

Even… the companions standing before them.

One of the Druids—Nevida, priestess to the King of Sin.

The last living Divine.

Her power was to bear fruit from the Tree of Corruption—fruits from which beasts were born.

Atop that tree, the King of Sin bore a human being.

There was neither life nor death.

Everything visible was both truth and illusion.

People who had died yesterday would wave and smile the next day, and those who once cried out for faith turned instead to the King of Sin.

Humanity went mad, unable to distinguish between the fabricated and reality.

And the only way to resist was to attack the King of Sin.

…Even if they had never won, not once.

Perhaps that was why Shei felt such deep repulsion toward this method.

The King of Sin thrived on the blurring of human boundaries.

And surely, the creation of Peru and Lyre… was a direct path toward the King of Sin.

“But we have no choice. It must be done.”

What had already happened could not be undone.

To destroy the glass chamber, cremate Elkid’s body, and silence Peru to prevent further use—that was the Sanctum’s way, not Shei’s.

If this failed, she could always regress once more.

In that case, it was better to watch how this future unfolded.

Instead, Shei compared what was different from before.

And truthfully, the answer had already been determined.

The self-proclaimed King of Human, Hughes.

He claimed to be just a petty criminal who had been dragged into the Abyss, but in truth, he was the King of Humans in hiding.

Surely, his purpose in entering the Abyss had been to seek out the Divine.

Whatever the case, as soon as he became involved, the Divines followed.

Mother Earth, Nevida, the Golden Lord, the God of Thunder—all of them brushed past him in the short time that followed his arrival at the Abyss.

Whether he sought the Divines or they came to greet him, one way or another, more Divines would become entangled with him.

…He would likely pass through the Mage Federation and the Silver Branch Forest of the Sanctum as well.

“My gut was right. I knew something was off from the beginning.”

If Shei were just an ordinary person, it would be too late to speak up now.

But Shei was a Regressor.

She had no regrets.

Because she could turn back what had already occurred.

Holding onto what had passed became her first step toward the future.

However…

“Why did it have to be the Duchy of Mist… What should I do now?”

The power of the Duchy of Mist far surpassed that of the Military State.

In the darkness that nullified most of the abilities of the Seven Colored Eyes, vampires roamed—beings whose very existence were akin to myth.

Even Shei could only handle one Elder at a time, and only if they weren’t also Qi Practitioners.

Shei was a tactician.

In battles involving raw power or affinity, she had the upper hand—but when faced with pure martial talent, like the Sunderspear, she faltered.

Stripped of overwhelming power or luck, Shei was just an average talent who had gained many fortuitous encounters.

Without the Heavenly Counter Domain she learned from the Sword Empress, even twelve regressions would have been insufficient.

…And against someone like Crimson Duke Valdamir, who possessed overwhelming talent and power?

Not even her Heavenly Counter Domain would be enough.

In her current state, with neither the foundation nor strength, Shei couldn’t go against the Duchy of Mist.

To forget the gruesome sights before her, she forced herself to focus on other thoughts.

“Ugh. The Duchy of Mist should remain intact until the Great Tide hits. Let me think… when was that again…?”

Then, Shei suddenly straightened her back, her hand instinctively reaching for her hip.

Her body moved before her mind, and trusting her intuition, she extended her senses.

Far off, at a distance that would escape all but the most attuned, a powerful presence was slowly walking toward them.

Shei activated her Seven Colored Eyes and murmured,

“Erzsebet… and Dogo?”

Two monsters, each capable of destroying a city alone walk around with no intention of hiding their presence.

Elders.

To have another two Elders appear at a place already visited by three…?

Optimistically, perhaps they had concealed their identities earlier to avoid causing a scene.

If it were someone like Lunken or Kavila, their appearance alone would’ve caused chaos.

But who wouldn’t recognize the Countess Erzsebet, whose portraits littered the continent, or the mummified high monk Dogo?

There had only ever been thirteen Elders in history.

Even if people didn’t know their faces, they memorized their traits.

At the very least, none of the Elders avoided conflict.

Perhaps they even secretly welcomed it.

If the two Elders came to fight, then Claudia was doomed.

Shei clicked her tongue.

“Erzsebet alone would be bad enough, but Dogo too? That’s impossible.”

The resurrected monk.

The immortal who chose corruption over ascension.

A penitent who scorched his own flesh in sunlight.

Even when he was alive, he was called an immortal.

After becoming a vampire, his martial arts reached a new peak.

Though somewhat outdated, that brute strength fused with vampirism became known as the Demonic Martial Arts—a combat style considered nearly invincible.

In pure technical mastery, he was second only to Valdamir.

Shei couldn’t win. But—

“Wait. If it’s Erzsebet and Dogo… maybe I can.”

If it was those two, then maybe Shei could work with that.

Not to win, but to resolve the situation.

After all, Shei didn’t have the power to save anyone.

But she could still do what she was best at.

Shei leaped over the lightning tower’s railing.