Platinum light bloomed across Harald’s body.
The nightmarish request echoed again and again through the grand hall.
Charlotte opened her mouth but said nothing.
Her gaze toward Harald was filled with complexity.
The corruption spreading across Harald’s body was now irreversible.
Charlotte knew that the method he spoke of was truly the last resort.
Harald’s divine soul had become fully entangled with origin power—there was no way to completely separate the two.
Just as he said, this was his destiny. Even Charlotte could not change the ultimate outcome.
He was right—Charlotte no longer had a choice.
This was Harald’s fate.
But from another perspective, it was also an extraordinary opportunity—one that could annihilate both Helios and the Creator’s Will in one stroke.
Charlotte knew everything Harald had said was correct.
Yet still, a nameless resistance stirred within her heart.
No—it wasn’t just resistance. It was unease.
An unease born of being swept along by fate, of walking a path designed by someone else… of not being able to control her own destiny.
Even now—even as a True God, even as someone standing at the very peak of this world—
Charlotte understood exactly where that unease came from.
It wasn’t just her unwillingness to devour this student who had so loyally admired her.
It was also the sense that everything unfolding felt too much like fate, too orchestrated, as though someone had arranged it all from the start—and from that, a strong suspicion took root.
“Was she… really on the right path?”
“Was she… truly ‘breaking’ the history that was meant to be?”
In theory, yes.
She was a foreigner to this world, an outsider. She wielded a power that even the origin could not suppress.
Even if she had failed in a past life, according to the Guardian Scepter, this time her reincarnation had successfully suppressed Helios. And now, she had been handed a perfect opportunity—to wipe out both Helios and the Creator’s Will in one sweep.
And yet, Charlotte still felt uneasy.
She had the sense she had overlooked something.
She didn’t know what, exactly—but the feeling remained.
Charlotte trusted her spiritual intuition deeply.
So even now, standing before this seemingly inevitable end, she remained silent. She did not act.
“Your Grace… Savior!”
Harald’s voice rang out again.
This time, it carried a tone of pleading.
But very quickly, his expression contorted in pain, twisting with agony.
Charlotte sensed that his soul's aura had changed in an instant.
She realized immediately—it was Helios’s consciousness that had suppressed Harald and seized control of the divine soul.
“Shut up, you traitor! I was one step away! Just one step away! You worthless failure!”
“Helios” raged, his eyes full of fury—and beneath that fury, there was something else: an indescribable fear.
But just as quickly, Harald returned to his pleading posture. The fluctuations in his soul returned to normal.
“Teacher! Our time… is running out!”
Seeing Harald’s anxious expression, Charlotte sighed in her heart.
He was right.
Their time truly was running out.
Helios and the Creator’s Will had clearly sensed Harald’s intent. Charlotte could feel the corruption upon Harald’s soul suddenly accelerating.
Charlotte’s expression shifted several times. In the end, she let out a soft sigh, closed her eyes, and sank into her consciousness.
Crimson divine power flowed outward, and within her mind, the Gospel of Blood radiated brilliantly, as if urging her to act.
As she "gazed" upon this supreme artifact that had accompanied her since her first journey through time, helping her rise to power, Charlotte’s eyes revealed a trace of unreadable emotion.
After a moment of silence, she spoke softly in her heart.
“Gospel of Blood…”
“If this truly is fate’s design—if this truly is the right path…”
“If—”
“If you truly possess your own will…”
“Then tell me—what is the right choice?”
The divine power of blood began to circulate.
Charlotte channeled it and once again initiated Blood Divination.
This time, she sought to divine her own fate.
The blood divine power burst forth, and an unprecedented brilliance erupted from the Gospel of Blood.
Within the sea of consciousness, crimson light spread. A storm surged across the blood-colored ocean.
The Gospel glowed, flickering erratically.
It opened on its own—and quickly flipped to the final page.
On the crimson page, golden radiance began to rise, and gradually… a line of ancient script appeared, slowly taking form.
At the moment she saw those characters, Charlotte’s eyes narrowed slightly.
They were entirely unlike any language she had seen before.
This time, they were in Chinese…
Sixteen golden Chinese characters flickered faintly on the page, glowing and fading
接受命运，涅槃归零，欺骗历史，向死而生
(Accept fate, be reborn in zero, deceive history, seek life through death)
“Accept fate, be reborn in zero, deceive history, seek life through death…”
Charlotte murmured aloud.
In that instant, she felt as if she had grasped something.
This… was the response from the Gospel of Blood.
And it was the first time it had ever replied… in Chinese.
Charlotte fell silent.
She looked deeply at the Gospel of Blood, and then gently nodded.
“I… understand now.”
Withdrawing from the sea of consciousness, Charlotte opened her eyes.
Looking at Harald’s pleading expression, her own gaze had already returned to complete calm.
She spoke no further.
But the divine power surging rapidly from her body made her decision clear.
Seeing the divine power rising from her, Harald smiled.
His smile… was one of peace.
“Your Grace, True Ancestor…”
“Everything… I leave to you.”
In the next second, a surge of blood divine power erupted. Crimson light completely engulfed Harald.
In that instant, the corners of his mouth curled upward in a strange arc—but it vanished just as quickly, lost to the roaring surge of divine light.
At the same time, Charlotte felt a vast ocean of holy power rushing toward her, scrambling to pour into her divine core...
And her divine power, which had long since reached a bottleneck, began to loosen—like a butterfly breaking from its cocoon, like a fledgling cracking through its shell.
A new kind of power was born within her divine core, a new divine power began spreading throughout her body.
And in the next moment, that power broke through everything—
A hidden valley.
A golden-red beam of radiance shot skyward, piercing the clouds and reaching the heavens.
A heart-shaking fluctuation expanded outward from the center of the temple ruins, quickly coalescing into a massive golden-red cocoon of light that enveloped Charlotte.
…
Charlotte had a dream.
In the dream, she seemed to become a wisp of wind.
She drifted past vast mountain ranges, where greenery blossomed between the ridges and flowers bloomed along the slopes.
She crossed cracked canyons, and streams began to flow—rain descended from the heavens.
She passed over barren plains, where forests sprouted from the ground, and rivers surged through the land.
She gazed down upon the earth, where birds and beasts were born in the wilderness.
She lingered among the mountains, where mineral veins were born.
She swirled through the sky, as magic spontaneously spread across the world.
She had become an all-powerful existence—
A wind that could change anything… create anything.
Charlotte loved the feeling.
Unbound, omnipotent, in total control.
And so it went.
One year…
Another year…
And another…
If possible, she felt she could remain like this forever.
But she knew she couldn’t.
Charlotte closed her eyes.
In the depths of her consciousness, the Gospel of Blood radiated with boundless crimson light—like a lantern guiding the path in darkness.
It was both a lamp… and an anchor.
“This is the Creator dream.”
“But I… am not of the Creator.”
Charlotte let out a soft sigh.
Crimson light spread.
Countless voices of prayer reached Charlotte’s consciousness.
Some pleading, some crying, some wailing in pain, some drowning in despair…
She seemed to hear the clash of battlefields.
She heard the cries, sobs, and calls of her believers.
She heard galloping hooves, the thunder of cannons…
She also heard the cheers and praises of sacred worshipers.
Charlotte fell into silence.
Her resolve gradually solidified.
She raised her hand—and ended the dream.
In the next moment, her consciousness began to awaken.
…
The hidden valley.
Thick vines covered everything, the crumbling ruins concealed beneath lush growth.
At the center of the valley, the massive cocoon of light still shimmered gold and red, with only the surrounding shrubs and vines recording the passage of time.
No one knew how much time had passed…
Suddenly, fine cracks appeared on the surface of the cocoon.
They rapidly spread like spiderwebs, and then—with a soft crack—it shattered.
A subtle ripple of energy spread outward.
Wherever it reached, flowers bloomed, and life was restored.
Tangible magic diffused across the hidden valley, creating wondrous phenomena. Majestic and vast, the aura spread with the flow of power.
All things bowed in reverence—as if to a sovereign.
Until a long and distant sigh echoed through the air.
The radiance withdrew—and a sacred, noble figure stood in the valley.
A solemn divine robe woven of gold and black.
Brilliant silver hair, and mysterious golden-red eyes.
And a breathtakingly beautiful, transcendent face…
It was Charlotte.
The overwhelming divine power around her seemed to have vanished.
She stood there, as though completely fused with the world itself.
The world pulsed in rhythm with her breath, and magic sparkled in sync with her heartbeat.
She used not a single ounce of power.
Yet every movement she made seemed to affect the entire world.
She was the world.
And the world was her.
She looked up at the overgrown ruins of the temple around her.
With just a glance, the vegetation retreated, the temple was restored, and in an instant, everything returned to pristine condition.
It wasn’t even the ruined state she’d last seen before falling asleep—it was the temple in its most glorious age.
As if time had reversed.
Or perhaps… rebirth had been granted.
And all of this—came from a single glance. Or rather, a single insignificant thought.
“How long… have I slept?”
Her ethereal voice echoed out.
It carried a strange power—any being who heard it could not refuse to answer, and would respond from the depths of their heart, giving everything they had.
“Your Grace… You have slept for three years.”
An aged and reverent voice answered her question.
Behind Charlotte—
The Guardian Scepter had appeared at some point, bowing in a posture of utmost respect and obedience.