CHAPTER 666: [BLOOD MOON WAR] [11] THE GIRL OF THE BLOOD LAKE

"I trust that you all understand me now.. Do not interfere with what’s happening in Sancta Vedelia."

Nihil’s sharp gaze swept over the seated deities—God and Goddesses.

"If they can’t even deal with that Witch on their own," Nihil continued, "then what’s coming will be far worse. They are there to assist and support Lord Eden, not to be carried on our backs."

There were small, silent nods around the room. A quiet agreement—or perhaps resignation. All except one.

Fenrir let out a low, disdainful snort and rose without a word. In a blink, his form dissolved.. Clearly, Nihil’s earlier words hadn’t sat well with him.

Unfazed, Nihil turned toward the white haired young Goddess.

"I’m talking especially to you, Khione," he said, voice slightly colder. "I don’t know what my daughter may or may not have told you, but I’ll be clear. Do not interfere. That’s not a request—it’s an order. As the Guardian of Sancta Vedelia, I hold responsibility over this realm."

Khione returned his stare without flinching though something flickered in her gaze. "If it’s the war you’re concerned about, Lord Nihil," she said calmly, "I will not get involved. You have my word."

Without waiting for dismissal, she vanished as well.

Only two remained now: Athena and Anuket whose green eyes sparkled with curiosity.

"Nihil," Anuket said suddenly, folding her arms with a faint smile, "you’re not the type to act without a reason. Sending your son—mortal though he is—to Sancta Vedelia... That doesn’t sound like your usual strategy. Tell me, did Laima give you a prophecy?"

Nihil didn’t respond. His gaze lingered on Anuket, unreadable.

She let out a quiet laugh, lips curling into a knowing smirk. "I thought so," she said, then vanished without further pressing.

That left just Athena, sitting in contemplative silence, her brow slightly furrowed.

"You seem troubled, Athena," Nihil observed, finally breaking the quiet between them.

"I am," she nodded, her eyes distant. "Lately, I’ve sensed the presence of someone carrying my blessing."

Nihil raised an eyebrow. "You’ve granted many blessings over the centuries. This isn’t exactly unusual."

Athena shook her head. "No, this one is... different. His aura is strong. And he carries the Olphean blood—thick and potent."

Nihil straightened slightly, his expression darkening. "You may have sensed the Olphean Prince. He is talented—remarkably so."

"No—" Athena began, but was immediately cut off.

"Athena."

She looked at him, surprised by the intensity in his gaze.

"No one interferes with the war," he said again, slower this time, as if etching the words into the air.

Athena held his gaze for a long moment, then finally nodded in understanding.

Only then did Nihil turn and leave.

Athena remained alone. She glanced at the space beside her—a spot that had once been filled by the presence of Freyja. But Freyja was gone now.

Athena sighed softly and turned her eyes back to the celestial sky beyond the chamber walls.

"What am I supposed to do, Great Mother..." Athena whispered into the silence.

She wasn’t speaking to just anyone. Her words were meant for Ymir.

Athena had been there during the founding of Sancta Vedelia. She had helped raise its foundations not for her own glory, but for Ymir. She had even offered a portion of her divine essence to help forge the Olphean Bloodline—a rare act of devotion, even for a goddess.

But now, she found herself wondering... why?

She had never questioned Ymir’s wishes before. Not once. She had obeyed without hesitation, placing her trust in the Great Mother’s will. But millennia had passed in what felt like the blink of an eye. Empires rose and fell, constellations shifted, and in that unrelenting passage of time... questions began to bloom in the garden of her mind. And where questions sprouted, doubt was never far behind.

Nihil wasn’t helping either. He was hiding things—of that she was certain. His stern commands, his evasive glances... it gnawed at her. She wasn’t used to feeling this frustrated. But lately, she had begun to feel like the foundation beneath her feet was shifting.

And worse... she felt like she was slowly losing everyone she cared about.

Elysia... gone.

Harivel... sealed somewhere nobody seemed to know.

Persephone... imprisoned by her own uncle.

Freyja... sealed in the Tree.

And recently Vysindra...

Each departure left a hollow space in her heart, and the growing emptiness left her feeling adrift.

Her own father—Zeus—seemed to know more than he let on. She had long accepted that he was too busy pursuing Harivel and any woman he deemed ’worthy’ of his attention to spare time for his daughters. Even for her—his favorite, or so the others said—his affection came in short, arrogant bursts, not heartfelt conversation.

He might’ve had a soft spot for her, but it didn’t change anything. He was loyal to Eden, just like Nihil. Too loyal.

Still... Eden had once helped Zeus beat the Titans, so perhaps her father owed him a debt that couldn’t be repaid.

She couldn’t fault him for that. Not entirely.

But lately... Athena found herself struggling to align with Eden’s methods. And not just Eden’s, but all of them—Nihil, her father, the Council. Their goal was clear: prepare for the threats long foretold, the shadows on the horizon. They all agreed the mortal realm needed to be strengthened, that it had to rise to meet the coming storm.

But... was this really the way?

Did they truly need to treat mortals like cattle—tools and test subjects in a grand divine experiment?

Had they crossed a line? Had they all lost something sacred in the pursuit of survival?

As her thoughts spiraled, she suddenly felt a ripple in the air in front of her.

A presence.

And a familiar one on top of that.

Athena’s gaze rose up. Her green eyes blinked once, and then focused.

She narrowed her eyes.

"What are you doing here..."

***

"I–It’s enough now! We’re far enough, Senior!" Alicia’s voice rang out behind me, her hands pounding against my back.

She’d been riding on my shoulders for the past half hour, and although she’d stayed quiet through the escape—probably because survival took priority—her tone had now shifted. Sharp. Flustered.

"You think?" I muttered, glancing behind us as I leapt over another ridge, breath catching slightly in my chest.

The forest stretched into the horizon behind us, bathed in hues of dying light. It looked empty—but I knew better. Those guys were fast, and if they’d decided to track us... we’d know soon. Still, Alicia was right—I was wearing down. My stamina had limits, and after fighting off those monsters earlier, I was hitting them fast.

"Watch out!"

Alicia’s warning snapped me back to the present. I turned my head forward—just in time to see a massive bird-like creature diving straight toward me, wings flaring with unnatural speed.

"Ugh—!"

The thing slammed into my face with the force of a boulder. Samara’s Reach flickered beneath my feet, destabilized. My flight spell crumbled in midair.

We hit the ground hard.

I felt the impact rattle my spine as we tumbled through the dirt. Alicia rolled several meters ahead of me, while I skidded into a broken tree trunk. My whole body ached.

Flat on my back, I exhaled a shaky breath and stared up at the sky. It was late afternoon, but crimson clouds bled across the horizon, swirling beneath a deep blue dome. The moon—blood red and massive—hovered ominously, clearly visible despite the hour.

Even the sky looked cursed in this era.

I turned my head, grimacing. "You okay, Alicia?"

She was already on her feet, brushing dirt and ash off her skirt with furious hands.

She glared down at me. "Why are you so clumsy... um, Edward," she said, stumbling over the name.

She was still adjusting. I guess calling me ’Senior’ had become a habit she couldn’t quite shake, and switching to ’Edward’ felt too direct. But at least she didn’t call me ’Amael’.

Though it was too late after Ernest learnt it.

I sat up, rubbing my forehead. "Not clumsy just tired of fighting monsters."

"You... should’ve left me," she whispered after a pause.

"I told you already," I said, pushing myself to my feet with a tired grunt, "I’m not leaving you behind."

"Why?" Alicia looked at me, eyes searching. "Don’t you want to go back to the present? Back to Senior Celeste... Senior Alvara?"

Of course I wanted to see them again.

Of course I missed them.

"Yeah," I said slowly. "I do. But you’re my Junior. That means something to me. I’m responsible for you. And... you’re Victor’s sister. Someone Elizabeth cared about."

Her expression shifted—lips tightening, eyes lowering. She bit the corner of her lip, struggling to keep her composure.

"And," I added, "I care about you too."

That made her glance up quickly, eyes wide with surprise. She opened her mouth, then shut it again. Instead, she turned around quickly, cheeks flushed.

"We should keep moving," she said briskly, walking ahead. "I see a town up there."

I stood and dusted myself off, cracking my sore neck as I followed. "A town, huh?"

I narrowed my eyes as the shape of it emerged through the fading light—low, smoldering rooftops, broken spires, and a deathly silence.

"Already sacked," I muttered grimly. "Destroyed by the Witch Knights, most likely."

Charred smoke coiled into the sky like fingers dragging across the clouds. No voices. No lights. Just the whispers of ruin.

I guessed we were still somewhere in the Teraquin Kingdom—probably deep in the territory the Witch Knights had already conquered. Which meant we were still behind enemy lines.

But then again, when I was with Alicia, it was always enemy territory—no matter where we went.

To the Resistance, I was a good guy, and she was a monster working under the witch.

To the Witch Knights, she was one of their own, and I was little more than a walking blood bank.

We didn’t really belong anywhere anymore.

"This is... horrible," Alicia muttered as we stepped into the ruins of the town.

I didn’t reply. My eyes swept across the devastation. If I had to guess, the attack had taken place just a day or two ago—but the damage... it was catastrophic. Buildings still smoldered with dying embers, their charred skeletons creaking in the wind. The acrid scent of smoke clung to everything, suffocating and thick.

And the bodies...

Dozens of them—twisted, burnt, left to rot in the open. Some had been torn apart, others blackened to ash. The air was heavy with decay and blood, every step we took echoing the silence that blanketed the town like a funeral shroud.

Still walking, I raised my arm to cover my nose, the stench unbearable.

"This doesn’t look like just a random raid," I muttered. "Feels like they wiped this place out... intentionally."

Witch Knights might be using towns like this as checkpoints, I figured. Let them fall, then use the carcass for their own benefit.

"Senior Edward..."

Alicia suddenly stopped in front of me.

I stepped beside her and followed her line of sight.

"...What the hell?"

In the middle of what had once been the town square, the earth had caved in to form a deep, circular crater. And at its center... was a lake of blood.

Not dried blood.

Liquid.

Shimmering, dark crimson—and boiling.

Steam rose from the surface in thick, nauseating waves. Bubbles popped softly along the surface, the scent of iron growing even stronger. It looked like something pulled from the final act of a horror film.

Alicia suddenly gasped and clutched my sleeve.

Her hand trembled.

I turned to look at her.

"I... I saw something move in there," she said quickly, looking away, as if embarrassed by her reaction.

"Something moved?" I repeated, staring back at the pool. "Inside the lake?"

She nodded, biting her lip.

I narrowed my eyes, focusing hard on the center of the crater.

At first, all I saw was swirling mist—thick and crimson, like blood turned to fog. But then, as my gaze shifted slightly to the right, I caught a silhouette.

A figure... standing motionless at the heart of the lake.

She was cloaked by the mist, her presence almost ghostlike, but real. Her back was turned to us. From what I could make out, she was wearing a long, flowing garment—something between a kimono and a ceremonial robe. Black, with sleeves that hung low and wide, the kind you’d see in ancient rituals. Around her waist was a length of red rope or cord, tied loosely, as though more symbolic than functional.

Her hair flowed down her back in straight, silken waves—at first it seemed pitch black, but as the mist thinned just slightly, I saw the true color.

A dark, lustrous shade of violet... stained in places with smears of crimson blood.

It reached her waist, swaying faintly even though there was no wind.

There was something deeply unsettling about how she stood there, utterly still in the middle of a lake of blood. Not reacting. Not moving. Just... present. It gave me chills.

And then—without warning—she moved.

Not much.

Just a slow tilt of the head, turning halfway toward us.

But that was all it took.

Alicia gasped beside me. I felt myself freeze.

Her face came into view, pale as moonlight, her skin flawless—inhumanly so. And there was no mistaking what she was.

A vampire.

But not just any vampire.

She was the most stunning vampire I had ever seen. No, the most stunning woman I’d seen—excluding maybe the Goddesses themselves I had seen. There was something ancient about her beauty.

Her eyes were a deep, glowing crimson—half-lidded, cold, unreadable. They didn’t sparkle or flicker. They didn’t pierce. They simply stared, like they were remembering something long, long forgotten. She stared at me, and then Alicia, her gaze lingering in a way that made it impossible to breathe.

I couldn’t look away.

There was a feeling stirring in my chest—foreign and hard to place. A strange pull. Like some forgotten instinct.

Without meaning to, I took a step forward. Just one. I needed to see her more clearly.

And then—just like that—she closed her eyes.

Her body began to tip backward slowly, like a puppet with its strings cut.

I reacted without thinking, surging forward, plunging deeper into the thick lake.

The heat surged around me, but I didn’t stop. I reached her just in time, wrapping my arms around her body before she could disappear beneath the surface.

She was light.

Too light.

Like she hadn’t eaten in days—or weeks.

Her purplish-black hair clung to her face in wet strands, hiding half her features, but the half I could see was hauntingly serene.

I held her gently, staring down at her face, still stunned by her presence, her appearance, her... everything.

"Who are you?"