Chapter 548: The Will of The Blood Queen

The gates of the crimson fortress groaned open, a sound like a dying giant's final breath. A wave of power, ancient and overwhelming, washed over them. It wasn't divine. It wasn't demonic. It was something else. Something primal, a force of nature that dwarfed their comprehension, a pressure that threatened to crush their very souls.

Silence answered.

The silence stretched, thin and taut, a wire pulled to its breaking point. Each second felt like an eternity, a lifetime of dread and uncertainty.

Aurelia's mind was a chaos of conflicting emotions: fear, confusion, and a dawning, terrifying understanding.

However, she snapped back when she saw Lady Seraphim stand up and walk inside as if her previous action was totally normal.

'Oh! We can stand up,' she thought, a wave of relief washing over her.

But that relief was short-lived.

What greeted them was a long crimson staircase that seemed to have no end.

On both sides were more of the impaled gods, their screams now silent, their bodies now just grim decorations in this hall of horrors.

This fortress had no ceiling; it didn't need to, everything belonged to 'her' anyway.

As they ascended the endless staircase, Lady Seraphim noticed the state of her subordinates, their faces pale, their bodies trembling, their divine confidence shattered.

"We call this place The Red Sea of Sorrows," she said, her voice a low, serious murmur. "A fitting name, don't you think?"

None dared to answer.

"It is a realm that was created by a certain mortal in order to fight the gods and prevent them from reaching Earth," she continued, her gaze fixed on the top of the staircase. "This is the final resting place of those who failed."

Miriel, her arrogance finally cracked, her face pale, her hands clenched into fists, couldn't hold her tongue.

"My Lady," she asked, her voice a trembling whisper. "Who... who is this... mortal?"

"Her true name is long forgotten; we simply know her as The Blood Queen," Seraphim replied, her tone calm, detached. "A monster who rose to power through blood and slaughter, a being who defied the gods and won. A being who even our great mother, the radiant Uriel, respects... and fears."

Silence.

The Blood Queen.

The name hung in the air, a curse, a legend, a myth made real. It was a name that shouldn't exist, a name that defied everything they believed in.

'But... how? How can a mortal...' Aurelia's mind was a maelstrom of questions, of contradictions, of a reality that was crumbling around her. 'How can a mortal create a realm like this? How can a mortal kill gods? How can a mortal make Lady Seraphim... kneel?'

It was impossible. It was a contradiction. A paradox.

And yet, the evidence was all around her. The impaled gods. The sea of blood. The fortress of nightmares.

'A mortal is stronger than me... a goddess...'

A wave of despair washed over her, a feeling of utter powerlessness. She had spent her entire existence striving to be a worthy daughter of Uriel, to be a true goddess, to be a being of power and authority. And now, in a single, terrifying moment, all of her efforts seemed... meaningless. She was an ant in the shadow of a god-eating giant.

She risked a glance at Miriel, her 'sister,' her rival. Miriel's face was a mask of disbelief and denial, her grey eyes wide with a horror she couldn't comprehend. Her arrogance, her confidence, her very identity, it was all crumbling, replaced by a raw, primal fear.

"H-How... how can a mortal... be this powerful..." she stammered, her voice cracking, her composure shattered. "We... We are gods. We are... chosen. We are... superior."

"Superiority is not a right, Miriel. It is a state of being, fleeting and fragile," Seraphim replied, her tone cold, didactic. "And in the face of true power, it is an illusion."

Miriel looked like she was about to argue, to lash out, to deny the reality that was crushing her. But then she looked at the impaled gods, at their frozen, silent screams, and her defiance died. She was silent, her head bowed, her shoulders slumped in defeat.

"The Blood Queen had many terrifying abilities, but the most dangerous one is her control over souls and blood," she continued, her voice a low, serious murmur. "Any being she kills, god or mortal, she fully absorbs its strength, its knowledge, its very essence. She is a black hole, a vortex of endless hunger. She is the embodiment of the concept 'Power through Blood.'"

Aurelia shivered, a cold dread seeping into her bones. The concept 'Power through Blood' was a terrifying one. It was a path of eternal conflict, of endless slaughter, of a hunger that could never be sated. It was a path that led to... this.

'So... that's why she's so powerful...' she thought, her mind reeling from the implications. 'She's not just strong. She's a composite being, a living library of stolen power. A monster made of monsters.'

"S-She was defeated?... Right?" one of the male angelic gods finally managed to speak. "The alliance of gods... they won... right?"

"Define 'won,'" Seraphim replied, her lips curling into a slight, enigmatic smile. "They managed to... contain her. To push her back, to sever her connection to Earth. But they didn't destroy her. They couldn't. They just... split her apart and bought themselves some time."

'She's still out there... somewhere...' Aurelia's heart pounded in her chest. 'Waiting. Watching. And now... we're in her domain. In her home.'

The staircase finally ended.

They stood on a vast, circular platform, suspended in the screaming sky. In the center of the platform was a throne.

A throne of bones.

It was a gruesome, yet strangely beautiful, masterpiece of necromantic art. It was carved from the femurs of countless gods, their divine essence still faintly glowing within the ivory, a ghostly, shimmering light. The back of the throne was made from their ribcages, their finger bones forming intricate, delicate patterns, their skulls serving as macabre decorations.

It was a monument to conquest, a symbol of absolute power, a throne built from the very beings who had dared to challenge its owner.

And on it sat a figure.

A woman.

She looked... ethereal.

Her skin was pale, almost translucent, her long silver hair cascading down her back like a waterfall of moonlight. She was clad in worn, broken black armor, the metal cracked and scarred, the design archaic, forgotten.

A giant golden sword was impaled through her chest, the tip protruding from her back, pinning her to the throne. Golden chains were wrapped around her limbs, their ends vanishing into the screaming sky, holding her in place.

She was a prisoner.

Yet, she was the most terrifying being Aurelia had ever seen.

"Is... she the..."

"Yes, The Blood Queen," Seraphim whispered, her voice filled with a complex mixture of fear and reverence. "The God Eater. The Tyrant Of Blood."

"Or at least what remained of her," she added.

"Remained?!" Miriel asked, her confusion overriding her fear.

"This is just a broken shell of her former self, a fragment of her will," she explained. "At the end of the war, the Blood Queen sacrificed her powers to force the universes to accept the existence of this domain and its link to Earth."

"As a result, she became weak enough to be sealed by the alliance of the gods," she continued. "The sword in her chest is The Sword of Dawn, a weapon crafted by Uriel herself, designed specifically to counter and seal beings like The Blood Queen."

Aurelia stared at the figure on the throne, her mind a whirlwind of conflicting emotions. This was the monster who had killed gods, who had created this realm of horror, who had made Lady Seraphim kneel. And she was... sealed. A prisoner.

But even in her sealed state, she was terrifying. Her presence alone was enough to make the very air tremble, to make the soul feel like it was being squeezed in a fist.

"So she can't move... right?" Miriel asked, a flicker of her old arrogance returning. "She's just... a statue?"

"She is not a statue, Miriel." Seraphim's gaze turned cold. "She is the will of this realm. Even in her sealed state, she is its master. Her mind, her consciousness, is still... active. If any of us flashed a bit of our divine energy even by mistake, we would be dead."

Miriel paled, her arrogance once again replaced by fear. She understood now. They weren't in a fortress. They were in the belly of the beast.

'Her mind is still active...' Aurelia thought, a wave of dawning horror washing over her. 'She can see us. She can hear us. She can... feel us.'

And then, as if in response to her thoughts, the figure on the throne moved.

It was a subtle movement, a slight tilt of the head, a slow, deliberate turn of her gaze. Her eyes, once closed, now opened.

They were red.

Not a normal red. A deep, ancient crimson, the color of fresh blood, of life, of death. They were empty, yet they held a universe of pain, of rage, of an eternity of suffering.

And they were looking directly at Aurelia.

Aurelia froze.

Her blood ran cold.

Her heart stopped.

Her soul screamed.

She felt a pressure, a mental intrusion, a presence that was older than the gods, older than the stars, older than the concept of time itself. It was a consciousness that was vast, ancient, and utterly alien.

'Welcome... Blood of my blood.'

Sorry For the delay guys, I almost broke my leg the other day so I had to spend some time to rest and couldn't post, I hope you understand.