The Righteous Player(s)

Chapter 749: The End Of The First Age

The Grail-holding Lady was the mother of all “the Child in the Grail”.

The reason why “Child in the Grail” all had blood-colored pupils was because the Grail-holding Lady had blood-colored pupils – this was the proof of heredity. It transcended the limitations of bloodline and space and took effect forcefully.

—That’s right.

In the “Child in the Grail” ritual, although only one party’s genes were invested, the Child in the Grail was not the offspring of one person.

Regardless of whether a male or a female used this ritual, the mother of Child in the Grail was the Grail-holding Lady, and the provider of the genes was the father.

Although the Child in the Grail did not possess divine blood and was not a divine descendant, the Child in the Grail could still be regarded as a descendant of the Grail-holding Lady. That was because the grail held by the Grail-holding Lady represented her uterus, the process of “breeding from the grail” itself could be regarded as “born by the Grail-holding Lady” in the ritual.

Therefore, a living baby could be born from this empty grail with nothing added except blood.

The deity represented by “the Divine Transporter’s Charioteer” was dead, and all traces of her in the world were supposedly eliminated.

However, because the “Light of Divine Transporter”, which was what Annan would be born in the future, things related to Divine Transporter had not been erased.

The Pillar of Truth transcended timelines… although “could” did not imply “inevitably”.

Just like the Mysterious Lady, who was the Deity of Rituals, she was born through rituals.

As for the Deity of Desire, Grail-holding Lady also became a deity due to her desire for knowledge; in ancient times when there was no Deity of Machinery, elves created curse energy machines; and Mr. Ray himself was light, but he was also one of the aspects of light.

among the elves at that time, there was a genius ritualist — after obtaining the Holy Grail, they suddenly thought of exploiting a bug here.

The Holy Grail was the relic of “the Divine Transporter’s Charioteer” and the symbol of her authority.

Just like “Child in the Grail’s mother counted as Grail-holding Lady”… but if the Holy Grail was used for the “Child of the Grail” ritual, the concept of the “Holy Grail” as the place that nurtured ancient would override the Grail-holding Lady’s “Grail”. Then, the mother of the “Child of the Holy Grail” would be counted as “the Divine Transporter’s Charioteer”.

However, in the Third Age, “the Divine Transporter’s Charioteer” was dead and Annan was not yet born.

At that time, the “Divine Transporter” became a rule that acted according to existing logic, which was why it was described as “equitable, exalted, yet unfeeling”. This description, in fact, hinted that the “Divine Transporter” was a program with high authority!

And since the Divine Transporter was just a program, it could be understood that “the authority of the Divine Transporter was controlled by the world itself”. In other words, the Charioteer was the will of the world itself… Thus, the “Child of the Holy Grail” could also be regarded as the “Child of the World” in the ritual!

—What an incredibly convoluted loop.

However, it seemed very reasonable…

So, that’s why Endymion said that he had the bloodline of the Charioteer and that Annan was his mother…

Because the bloodline of the Charioteer flowed in its body, and now this identity belonged to Annan!

Annan had completely understood where the curse energy technology came from.

The reason why “the Umbilical Cord Ritual” where the elves extract curse energy could be established based on ritual logic was because the “Divine Transporter” was not yet born at that time. The unique properties of these “Child of the Holy Grail” made them the World’s Children!

It was like… when the director of the human resources department resigned, the rules she established were still inherited, which was the so-called “Ascension Ritual”. The official stamp, which was stolen and continued to be used, was what was known as the “Child of the Holy Grail”!

In other words, Annan didn’t need to worry about how to cut off curse energy at all.

As long as Annan could successfully complete the ascension ritual and officially become the “Divine Transporter”, then the “Umbilical Cord Ritual”, which exploited a bug to extract the world’s blood, would automatically be dissolved.

As the bug was fixed, those sinners, who used curse energy, would be gone!

“…So that’s how it is.” Annan murmured.

He also became clear about who “the Divine Transporter’s Charioteer” was.

The deity who died in the First Age, related to the Ascension Path, whose ritual could even overwrite the Grail-holding Lady’s “Child in the Grail” ritual.

Although still unclear about the clergy and name of the original “Charioteer,” just from this title, Annan could deduce — this unknown deity led to the end of the First Age.

It was because, after her death, the loss of a certain truth led to the birth of demons. Before she died, even with maximum erosion, one would not become a demon, or it was also possible that there was no such thing as an erosion rate at all.

However… the birth of demons did not directly lead to the end of the First Age.

How did Annan find out about this? The Paper Princess revealed parts of the secret to him.

Annan asked Endymion carefully.

Combining this with the responses from the ever-helpful elf librarian, Annan finally gained an understanding of what had happened in the past.

In the Age of Deities, there was no concept of “deity” at all.

Just like the elves, centaurs, and Yaserans called themselves “humans”. In their view, other races “don’t look like humans.”

At that time, elves called Them “Lords,” centaurs referred to Them as “Living Pillars,” dragons named Them “Kings,” giants called Them “Elders,” and the insect race termed Them “Winged Ones”… There were also titles like “Keystones,” “Guardians,” and so on. Each race had its way of naming Them, which was quite confusing.

And after the end of the First Age, the birth of deities became more difficult. Some people, and even a few “Lords,” “Kings,” and “Winged Ones,” abandoned the truth and fell, becoming incredibly powerful demons.

However, at that time, demons did not initiate conflicts with other races. It was merely a natural mutation. The word “demon” did not carry a derogatory connotation but simply meant “a person with horns” in the Elvish language.

Although demons became impulsive and their desires intensified, they were not foolish. They also knew not to abuse the world’s blood; excessive use would lead to the collapse of the world…

…So, they gathered together, led by a mature dragon who had not yet grasped the truth, and went to other worlds to plunder the world’s blood.

—Since I can’t use what’s in my own world, then I can rob someone else’s, right?

“Sage’s Stone” was taken from the immaterial world during the first expedition. The immaterial world collapsed because this large piece of Sage’s Stone was taken away — no one knew where this Sage’s Stone went… But after that, the ascended beings of this world gained the ability to use the power of “elements”.

That dragon, due to the success of that expedition, obtained a Book of Truth named “The Ode Of Flint”, thereby achieving deity status and earning the title “Father of Flint.”

A long time after that, it seemed a great catastrophe occurred.

Twelve guardians from different races and differing stances, but holding significant clergies, were gradually united under the pressure of that event.

They utilized the Book of Truth, “Chronicle Law”, as a sacrifice, and the entire world as a ritual platform, delineating 12 months and 360 days, defining the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. With this, they constructed the “upright deities ritual,” collectively naming all managers of truth as “deities”.

The initial goal was to protect the upright deities with important clergy through “Holy Months”. Later, as more important deities emerged, this ritual underwent a secondary improvement, adding the concept of “subordinate deities” and distributing “immortality” among other deities.

At the same time, they established three laws: deities could only be worshiped and could not personally guide or kill mortals; conflicts between deities should be handled by substitute walkers as much as possible; while deities had churches, they could not be killed by other deities.

This served to distinguish between humans and deities, keeping the world’s conflicts within certain limits.

In the beginning, even the demons believed in deities.

Then, something happened.

Demons of various races, who had taken the Fallen Path, gathered under the leadership of one of Father Flint’s brothers, attempting to form a new regime — they established a very strict racial and hierarchical system among demons. Within the same rank, the elder was respected. Among peers, military achievements were honored.

Those who were unwilling to embark on the Fallen Path were ostracized as the lowest class within their sphere of influence. Once they became demons, they were considered inferior among their peers due to their late entry.

However, elves could not walk on the Fallen Path.

Because they naturally possessed pure souls, they were at a disadvantage in the country of demons. Thus, the entire elven race fled, seeking refuge in the legendary desert that could be entered but not exited, under the protection of two upright deities.

For some reason, the centaurs also followed. There were also a few dragons and giants who refused to surrender.

Because once the demon entered the desert, it would take seven times the damage. So they were stopped.

Originally, the elves planned to live in the desert until the end of time… at least until the emperor’s rule was over before going back.

However, at the end of the Second Age… the desert gained life, turned into a living desert that swallowed everything, and began to spread rapidly in all directions.

It was then, in their desperate escape westward, that the elves did something even the demons would not do.

—Stealing the World’s Blood.

This act alarmed the remaining ten upright deities, who rushed to see what had happened. During the hundred or so years of their absence, the demons, left without supervision, split into numerous factions, waging wars against each other in the world east of the desert.

Later, the demons were only willing to believe in three upright deities — Red Knight, Grail-holding Lady, and Father Flint. They were worshiped uniformly by the “Bloodcoal Church”.

On the contrary, many false deities who had escaped from Yasseran struggled through the living desert that could even devour deities… Ignoring the Three Sacred Laws, they began to build their forces.

Compared with the peace on the Yaselan Continent, the old continent east of the desert was in the midst of a long, never-ending separatist war.

This war did not end until the end of the Third Age because of the Epoch Disaster. But the knowledge belonging to demons had already been nailed into the realm of mysterious knowledge by the Mysterious Lady. The Yasseran people, unable to obtain information from their “old home” through rituals, remained unaware of what exactly had happened… Thus, the two worlds were severed.

At that time, the Yaserans west of the desert encountered invasion and colonization by the Osserians. It further deteriorated due to the elves’ abuse of curse energy; the world east of the desert underwent a prolonged thousand-year war, with the entire world submerged in blood and fire.

—All of this was directly or indirectly caused by the death of “the Divine Transporter’s Charioteer”.

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