Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!
Chapter 579 - 578: The Sealed Secret

Chapter 579: Chapter 578: The Sealed Secret

"We once believed that everything we did was right, but the truth is not so,"

Maria sat back down in the chair, closing her eyes.

"You’ve seen it, outsider, the dark and sinful side of the Healing Church, but the origin of it all still stems from the inherent greed of human nature. Those people, they are addicted to the Blood of the Ancient God, craving what humans should not possess..."

"I see,"

Fang Zheng put down the book in his hand and then looked towards the woman in front of him. From Maria, Fang Zheng finally learned what exactly had happened in Anan.

And with Maria’s description, Fang Zheng was finally able to piece together the entire event.

Firstly, Byronvis Academy unearthed the ruins of the Sumerian Civilization, and from within the ruins, they learned that the Sumerians were once slaves to the Old Gods and had once attempted to ascend their own being by injecting the blood of the Old Gods, aiming to become deities like those they served.

However, the Sumerians failed, leading to their destruction.

Attracted by this secret, Byronvis Academy took over the remnants of Sumerian Civilization to resume the study of divinity. Then, they discovered Ibitaris, the Daughter of the Cosmos—a Ancient God that had not left this world—in the depths of the Sumerian ruins. They brought this deity back to Byronvis, attempting to gain the secrets of the Ancient God.

Regrettably, their experiments also failed. Initially, the Blood of the Ancient God they obtained from the Daughter of the Cosmos did indeed enhance their power, but as more blood was injected, the experimenters at Byronvis Academy, almost without exception, underwent mutations, leading to a series of collapses from soul to psyche.

In light of this, Master William decided to end the research; however, his star pupil, Lawrence, clearly wasn’t willing to stop there, so they parted ways on bad terms.

Before Lawrence left, Master William—the old man who had attained near-deity wisdom on his own strength—finally revealed the truth to him: the reason humans could not fully become Ancient Gods lay in their lack of one thing.

The Third Umbilical Cord.

This item is only possessed by infants of Ancient Gods and connects the deity’s brain with Spirit Sight, meaning, without the Third Umbilical Cord, humans, no matter how hard they tried to inject the Blood of the Ancient God, could not become divine beings while still in human form.

But Lawrence evidently did not give up. After leaving Byronvis, he built the Healing Church and began two experiments—on one hand, Lawrence tried in every way to obtain the Third Umbilical Cord; on the other, he chose a different research path, attempting to control the beastification that occurred due to the excessive injection of the Blood of the Ancient God with human wisdom alone. After all, in Lawrence’s view, if his own mentor William could do it, then he surely could as well.

Of course, the latter was only a backup plan in Lawrence’s eyes; if possible, he still longed to obtain the Third Umbilical Cord to fulfill his desire to become divine.

Eventually, Lawrence’s research made significant progress. With the "Holy Grail" unearthed from the Sumerian ruins, they successfully made contact with the Ancient Gods existing outside the void and attempted to perform a ritual known as the Blood Moon.

All higher beings have lost their children and are seeking them.

Only the impure Divine Blood can trigger this mysterious union.

Thus, in order to enable the mating of Ancient Gods with humans, so that humans could conceive the children of Ancient Gods and obtain the Third Umbilical Cord, Lawrence initiated the Blood Moon ritual. It would attract Ancient Gods to the mortal realm, to copulate with an individual bearing the impure blood, thereby causing that individual to become pregnant and bear a child.

But Lawrence’s ritual failed.

A member of the Cainhurst suddenly burst into the ritual site, slaughtering all the guards and stealing the Divine Blood. The ritual’s failure resulted in the Ancient God’s wrath engulfing the whole of Old Yharnam, turning it into a land overrun by monsters. With no other choice, Lawrence had to burn the whole of Old Yharnam to ashes, and he sealed off the path between Church Town and Old Yharnam to put an end to it all.

The Healing Church naturally wouldn’t stop there. After the failure of the ritual, an angered Lawrence dispatched the Executor Team led by "Martyr Logarius" to the castle of Cainhurst, attempting to retrieve the Divine Blood stolen by that Cainhurst member and to exact vengeance on the entire Cainhurst clan.

Martyr Logarius went and never returned, and no one knew exactly what happened.

But Laurens had no time to care about this anymore, because at this time, another schism occurred within the Healing Church.

Due to the Divine Blood being taken away, the ritual failed, which nearly shattered Laurens’ wish to become a deity through the Third Umbilical Cord. Under such circumstances, another faction within the Healing Church began to rise — the Menses School.

"We don’t need to evoke Ancient Gods to complete the ritual; we can create an Ancient God ourselves." Therefore, although Laurens’ Blood Moon ritual had failed, for the Menses School, they found another opportunity — not to give birth to the child of an Ancient God but to create a true deity with human hands.

The Menses School and Laurens naturally were at odds, and thus, they quickly went their separate ways. However, Laurens was showing signs of beastification due to excessive injection of the Blood of the Ancient God, and he had to find a way to acquire the Third Umbilical Cord; otherwise, not to mention his research, even Laurens himself would probably be doomed.

Just as Laurens was in utter despair, he suddenly learned of a piece of news.

Not far from Yharnam lay a little fishing village where the people worshipped an Ancient God named Kos. Moreover, most importantly, perhaps due to the influence of the Blood Moon ritual previously held by Laurens, this Ancient God named Kos became pregnant and was about to give birth to a child! And now, the believers of Kos in that fishing village were preparing to pray for the safe childbirth of their deity’s Godchild!

It was a lucky find that required no effort!

An ecstatic Laurens immediately gave orders to the Hunter brigade to go to the fishing village, annihilate the Monsters, kill Kos, and obtain the unborn child and its Third Umbilical Cord inside Kos!

As an excellent Hunter, Maria naturally also went along.

At first, the battle in the fishing village went very smoothly, and no one thought there was anything wrong — those fishermen who worshipped Kos had long turned into half-fish monsters, so in the eyes of the Hunters, they were no different from those creatures in Yharnam. Obviously, the only thing the Hunters were there to do was to kill!

Against the battle-hardened Hunters, the fishermen of the village were almost powerless, and the battlefield became overwhelmingly one-sided slaughter. The Hunters dispatched the fishermen with ease, then stormed the caves behind the village, where Kos was nearing childbirth.

Any creature is most vulnerable during pregnancy, even an Ancient God. Faced with the ferocious Hunters, Kos struggled desperately, but in the end, she couldn’t escape the Hunters’ clutches; they brutally killed Kos, cut open her belly, and took out the yet unborn child along with the Third Umbilical Cord.

However, no one can kill a deity and escape unscathed, but the Hunters, engulfed in their frenzied delight, did not hear Kos’ dying curse and rage.

"Curse these Demons; curse their offspring, for generations upon generations, to suffer eternally."

The overjoyed Hunters left with their prey, but only Maria stood there, gazing at the corpse of Kos. As a woman herself, she could feel the pain and anger Kos experienced in her final moments. As a Hunter, Maria could mercilessly raise her blade against those Monsters, but as a woman, she couldn’t accept the heart-wrenching scene before her. People had killed a mother for their desires, taking her child...

Perhaps, our coming here was a mistake.

Maria threw her weapon into the well of the fishing village, swearing never to partake in battle again, but it changed nothing — Kos’ curse was already spreading. Those Hunters who had participated in the hunt vanished almost overnight, mercilessly locked into this Nightmare, turning mad and violent, enduring torture and agony from soul to body.

Maria was powerless to do anything about it. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com

"Kos’ curse has trapped us in this Nightmare,"

Maria said while taking out a Star Chart from her bosom.

"In life we found no peace, and in death, our souls will find no release. We cannot change all this, for we ourselves caused it, but you are different, outsider, you might have the power to lift this Nightmare, to end this bad dream forever."

With that, Maria raised the Star Chart in her hand toward the giant clock on the wall before her. Soon, the huge circular clock began to slowly turn, then revealed an opening.

"Come, outsider,"

Maria nodded toward Fang Zheng and Big Chin by his side.

"I will show you the Origin of this entire Nightmare."