Chapter 275 Behind the Divine Statue
The Radiant Divine Statue was located in the basement of the grand hall.
The corridor leading to the statue had very little light, with only weak torches every few meters. The dark shadows enveloped almost the entire path, making it hard to believe that this would be the church that believed in the Radiant fate track.
Regarding this, the elders\' explanation to Reji was that they believed light and darkness complemented each other. The darker it was, the more it could highlight the grandeur of the divine statue.
Just like how no one would pay attention to street lamps during the day, but they would always remember the lighthouse in the night.
As they reached the end of this dark corridor beneath the grand Radiant Cathedral, the heavy stone door was slowly pushed open by the elders.
Reji looked inside and saw a divine statue flickering with radiance, standing in the vast underground chamber. Just as the elders had said, amidst the boundless darkness surrounding it, this shimmering Radiant Goddess statue was so dazzling and eye-catching.
The radiance emanated warmth and gentleness.
The great elders couldn\'t help but show a look of piety on their faces. As they bathed in this radiance, it seemed that the fear instilled in them by Reji earlier had diminished a lot.
Of course, as Reji spoke up later, the elders immediately snapped out of the statue\'s luster and once again became trembling and fearful.
"Tell me, what is the blood contract, and what does it mean to sacrifice the Saintess to the divine statue?"
Since the memory from the Sage\'s Stone had been cut off, Reji could only rely on the clues in the memory images to continue investigating the hidden truth behind the Emperor\'s route back then.
Naturally, what he was most concerned about was this Radiant Goddess statue, as well as the blood contract sacrifice that Freya was forced to agree to, as proposed by the elders at the end of the Emperor\'s memory in order to protect him.
Judging from the elders\' expressions now, they were all very surprised by him.
It was obvious that this was a secret known only to a few of them internally.
The three elders stammered a bit, seemingly still hesitating.
It wasn\'t until Reji gave them another cold glance that they recalled the miserable state of the other three elders. Their bodies trembled, not daring to conceal anymore, and they hurriedly explained to Reji:
"L-Lord Hero, the blood contract is exactly what it sounds like. As long as the Saintess\'s blood is used to nourish the divine statue, the statue will absorb the blood and bestow blessings upon us in return."
"Anything else?"
"The Saintess must voluntarily offer her blood. Other than that, there\'s n-nothing else, Lord Hero! We don\'t know anything more. Also, we have never forced Freya, not even once. You must believe us!"
The so-called elders seemed to have only a partial understanding of this divine statue.
Reji couldn\'t be bothered to waste more words with them. Surging magical power gushed out, directly smashing the three elders against the wall, knocking them unconscious.
Afterwards, he walked up to the Radiant Goddess statue himself, intending to investigate personally.
The quickest way was to envelop the statue with his consciousness.
However, for ordinary people, doing this would be too risky. If the statue truly had something strange about it, it would be like a sheep entering a tiger\'s den.
[You have switched your currently equipped title from: Child of Destiny → Unforgiven]
When it came to the spiritual world, Reji wasn\'t afraid of anything.
Closing his eyes, he walked over and touched the statue. The moment his consciousness made contact, Reji immediately felt boundless darkness surging in like tidal waves.
It turned out that the inside of the statue was not at all like the radiance on the surface. Instead, it was filled with destruction, darkness, and evil.
Unfortunately, when these forces tried to devour Reji, this foreign invader, they instead became the sheep entering the tiger\'s den.
The radiance on the statue was trembling violently as if wanting to scream and run away, but it was too late.
The boundless abyss brought by over a hundred million sin points instantly annihilated the evil thoughts originally attached to the statue. Reji became its new master.
Because of this, the true secrets from the divine statue that followed surprised Reji greatly.
After gaining control of the statue, Reji was surprised to find that the statue seemed to be not the only one. In other words, in the universe outside their world, there was another "kin" emitting a faint aura.
Moreover, the distance between the two was constantly getting closer.
Reji immediately deepened his perception and used the statue to link his vision. When his mind finally found the other "kin," the scene on the other side was both familiar and unfamiliar to Reji.
Great Demons were roaring and fighting in lava.
Decay Demons in the sludge pool were devouring each other.
The blades of Sword Demons clashed as they fought each other.
Breeding Demons in the birthing chamber were frantically reproducing.
The other world connected to this Radiant Goddess statue was the Demon Realm!?
But the demons here were completely different from what Reji remembered.
They were filled with chaos, disorder, and self-slaughter, as if each race was completely dominated by their respective desires, becoming much more frenzied.
Amidst this insane Demon Realm, there was a small, skinny figure hiding.
She was different from the other demons.
She had a humanoid body, small goat-like horns, and although she tried her best to hide it, a bit of a pink, pointed little tail peeked out from behind, indicating her identity.
This was a succubus.
A young succubus.
She seemed to be hiding and fleeing throughout the entire Demon Realm, afraid of being discovered by other demons. Her tattered clothes, hungry expression, and weak steps all indicated the difficult situation of this little succubus loli.
The only valuable item on her entire body was probably the pendant in front of her chest.
The young succubus also attached great importance to it, treating it as important as her life.
No matter how difficult it was to survive, she had to keep this pendant safe.
As for the identity of this little succubus...
It could be seen from Reji\'s trembling mind now.
That\'s right.
Eileen!
No wonder the inside of the statue was filled with such a destructive aura.
It made sense if it was connected to the Demon Realm.
Based on the current information, the Saintess was selected by the divine statue. The statue guided the elders to cultivate the Saintess by granting blessings, and the ultimate purpose of all this was for the grown Saintess to "voluntarily" sacrifice herself back to the statue.
The Emperor had once told Eileen that the Saintess and succubus were very similar.
If Reji replaced the "divine statue" here with the "Demon King" and the "Council of Elders" with the "Apostles," it was indeed the case.
The elders/apostles remained unchanged, while the Saintess/succubus were replaced generation after generation.
The divine statue selected the Saintess, and the succubus summoned the Demon King.
The elders nurtured each new Saintess for the blessings of the divine statue, while the apostles cherished each new succubus for the descent of the Demon King.
In the end, the Saintess sacrificed herself to nourish the divine statue.
In the second playthrough, when he had just descended, Eileen also took the initiative to perform the ritual with him, wanting to feed her power back to him and help him, the new Demon King, grow quickly.
Therefore, the pendant held by the young Eileen now was the other half of the divine statue.
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From what Nazha had told him before, the Demon Realm had turned into seven apostles and the Demon King.
This might explain why Eileen, as the revered succubus, now seemed to be on the run like a... wanted criminal.
Before Reji could analyze further, the image transmitted from the other side of the statue made his heart ache.
The hungry Eileen wanted to find something to eat. She carefully avoided the patrolling demons and was about to search for edible scraps in the Decay Demons\' garbage pool.
But perhaps the little succubus was too hungry and let her guard down. Eileen didn\'t notice at all that her every move had long been discovered by another Decay Demon lurking in the shadows.
The other party seemed extremely excited about Eileen, as if discovering a delicious prey. The bloated Decay Demon licked its tongue, with viscous saliva dripping down, crawling step by step towards the unsuspecting little succubus from behind.