Gospel of Blood

Chapter 365: 21- Summoning Circle

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Charlotte picked up the roster first.

The roster was written in red, the font was neat and elegant. Even though Charlotte's handwriting was terrible, she could tell that the person who wrote the roster had very good handwriting, probably even better than Sebastian.

She opened it curiously, glanced through it, and found that it was a list of nobles who had dealings with the Blood Demon Cult.

Or to be more precise, it is the subordinates of the Blood Demon Cult developed among the nobles.

The list was quite large, a thick one, ranging from court nobles walking in the palace to noble officers in charge of patrolling the city defense, from direct members of the great noble families to down-and-out nobles who were no different from the paupers... people of all identities and classes were on it.

Charlotte even saw several heads of well-known noble families, who were also prestigious noble lords in the kingdom, on the list.

Most of them are nobles in the kingdom who support the third prince, but in addition there are also some neutral nobles and some royalist nobles.

What’s even more outrageous is that Charlotte also saw the names of some church priests, including the former high priest of Boulder, Linus.

Of course, Lennart's name had been crossed out.

And after his name, the time and cause of his death were recorded in another slightly worse handwriting, namely "September 4, 1444, burned at the stake in the Lutetia Inquisition of the Holy Royal Court" or something like that.

After looking at this list, Charlotte understood why the Holy Royal Court had been trying to eliminate the Blood Demon Cult but had never been able to completely wipe it out.

Just looking at this list, the Crescent Nobles are almost infiltrated like a sieve.

Although not all the nobles on the list have joined the Blood Demon Cult, as long as they are on the list, it at least means that they are willing to trade with the Blood Demon Cult and even provide shelter.

With the nobles holding them back, and with the corrupt priests within the Holy Royal Court colluding with the Blood Demon Cult, it would be impossible for the Church to wipe out the Blood Demon Cult in one fell swoop.

Charlotte felt it was a miracle that they could defeat the Blood Demon Cult openly.

After browsing the roster, Charlotte gently closed it.

This roster is of great significance. If it is handed over to the church, it will deal a heavy blow to the Blood Demon Cult.

To be honest, Charlotte was a little moved.

Although the core members of the Blood Demon Cult are also vampires, she has no good feelings towards these guys who can be called "terrorists".

These guys have already set their sights on her, and it would be rude not to reciprocate. Since these guys can report her to the church, she can also report them to the church and use the church's hand to severely strike a blow to the Blood Demon Cult.

However, what puzzled Charlotte was that in the memories she read, Bertrand had only been a member of the Blood Demon Cult for three years.

In just three years, how could Bertrand be able to hold a roster that probably only the top leaders of the Blood Demon Cult were qualified to have

Of course, Charlotte's confusion only lasted for a moment.

She soon figured it out herself.

It is true that Bertrand has only been a member of the Blood Demon Cult for three years, but he is the forbidden blood servant of the Dark Apostle Albrecht.

The power he holds within the Blood Demon Cult is an extension of the Dark Apostle's power, which is probably the reason why he became the Blood Count.

In this way, although he has only been a member of the Blood Demon Cult for three years, because of his relationship with the Dark Apostle, he is already considered a high-ranking member of the cult.

After figuring out the reason, Charlotte put down the roster and looked at another notebook.

She opened the title page and found that it was Bertrand's diary.

The handwriting in the diary is different from the first elegant and neat handwriting on the roster.

However, it is exactly the same as the second handwriting on the roster that was modified.

It is obvious that someone else wrote the roster, and someone gave it to Bertrand, who then supplemented it.

The diary was a few years old, and the earliest entries recorded some of Bertrand's experiences in his early years. Charlotte skipped all of them and turned to the recent years to read.

The records in the diary were similar to the memories she had seen.

In recent years, the elderly Bertrand has increasingly felt the horror of the passage of time. The aging of his body and the decline of his strength have made him more and more anxious. As the head of the Chevalier family, once he passes away, the family's strength will be greatly damaged. He has no choice but to look for various ways to prolong his life.

In the process, he got acquainted with the Blood Demon Cult.

The Blood Demon Cult lured him into the organization in exchange for helping him solve his lifespan problem. The diary also recorded Bertrand's inner struggle during that time.

However... he ultimately could not face the fear of death and accepted the Blood Demon Cult's deal.

Afterwards, he held the first embrace ceremony with the dark apostle of the Blood Demon Cult and became a forbidden blood servant.

After that, the Dark Apostle handed him the roster of the Blood Demon Cult's contacts with the nobles and holy priests, appointed him as the Blood Demon Cult's chief priest in Lutetia, ordered him to secretly win over more nobles, and preside over the sacrificial ceremony in the royal capital Lutetia.

As for the specific content of the sacrificial ceremony, the diary did not record it.

It’s not that Bertrand didn’t want to write. Some of the relevant text paragraphs in the diary were obviously intended to write about the relevant content of the sacrificial ceremony. It’s just that every time he did that, the handwriting would suddenly become sloppy, as if the person writing was trembling.

Charlotte could almost guess the reason. It was probably because the specific content of the ceremony was listed as a taboo in the Blood Servant Mark that could not be disclosed, even in a diary. When Bertrand wrote this, the soul mark must have reacted.

Seeing this, Charlotte shook her head slightly:

"He is called the chief priest, but in fact he is just a cannon fodder..."

Yes, cannon fodder.

After all, the Blood Demon Cult is a supernatural organization of the vampires. How could the real high-ranking officials be blood servants? This Bertrand is probably just a tool for the Dark Apostles to execute their orders.

The power of the blood descendants at the earl level is not so easy to obtain. It is easy to come and easy to take back. The forbidden blood servant was originally a slave of the higher-level blood descendants. When the Blood Demon Cult achieves its goal, I am afraid he will be abandoned.

However, in addition to the sacrificial ceremony, Bertrand did record some of his experiences within the Blood Demon Cult.

This part of the content actually aroused Charlotte's interest, especially the internal structure of the Blood Demon Cult.

What surprised Charlotte was that the organizational structure within the Blood Demon Cult was not that tight. Although the branches of the Blood Demon Cult in various places nominally obeyed the orders of the Dark Apostle, they actually fought on their own.

Summoning the Blood Demon Grand Duke to the real world is the goal of all Blood Demon cultists. However, the Blood Demon cult organizations in different places have their own ideas and plans, and have not integrated their forces.

This is also what Bertrand complained about in his diary.

Judging from the date, it was probably written after the two failed divine descent rituals in Boulder and the North.

This answered a question Charlotte had, which was why she felt that wherever she went, the Blood Demon Cultists she met seemed to be preparing for a ceremony to descent from the gods.

In addition to these nagging complaints and rants, the diary also records some of Bertrand's attempts to win over nobles and even priests.

Over the past three years, he has successfully won over many nobles and clergy, and some of them have even been transformed into vampires. However, the "deals" offered by the Blood Demon Cult to all those who have been won over are almost the same.

That is "eternal life".

Charlotte was not surprised. Even though the "immortality" of the vampires had many limitations, it was still a kind of "immortality" after all.

Humans will eventually die. No matter how powerful they are, they will return to nothingness after their life span. The more powerful and influential one is, the more they will respect and fear death...

The fear of death and the desire for power are the breeding ground for the growth of the Blood Demon Cult's faith.

The vampires have a very high sense of identity with the vampire race, and the vast majority of vampire clans, even those that have long since parted ways, still follow the ancient creed of the vampire race.

One of them is to maintain the purity of the bloodline and limit the unlimited spread of bloodline power.

Among all the bloodline organizations, only the Blood Demon Cult does not follow this and dares to openly use the "First Embrace" as an exchange of benefits.

Of course, whether it is becoming a vampire in the first embrace, or becoming a "blood servant" in the first embrace, only God knows.

After reading Bertrand's diary, Charlotte let out a sigh and closed it.

There is a reason why the Blood Demon Cult has been able to continue in the Crescent Region. As long as there are people who fear death, they will not lack new believers.

But Charlotte became a little curious about the ancient creeds that the blood descendants must follow.

Blood descendants are not allowed to create forbidden blood servants. Charlotte knows the reason for this rule. It is simply to prevent chaos and collapse among the blood descendants.

Then why is there a limit on the unlimited spread of bloodline power

To prevent too many immortal vampires from competing for resources

Charlotte was curious.

"My knowledge of the vampire race is still too limited. Perhaps I can find a way to get some vampire classics from Yulster when I have the chance in the future."

Charlotte pondered.

After putting the diary and the roster back in place, Charlotte thought about it and decided to hand them over to the church.

There's no way around it, she's just such a good citizen with a strong sense of justice.

Not only that, she also wants to pay faster.

This incarnation of hers can only last for one day at most, after which it will self-destruct.

Before, she had thought that she could use the power of possession to fake Bertrand's death, but when she saw the roster, she realized that this method would not work.

Bertrand's identity was even more special than she had imagined. He held the roster of the Blood Demon Cult, and the Dark Apostles must be paying close attention to him.

Should this incarnation perish, the Dark Apostles of the Blood Demon Cult will surely be alert.

She had to hand over the information to the church before the Dark Apostles noticed it, and she had to get the church to act quickly.

So… how do we hand it over to the church, and how do we get the church to act quickly

A figure naturally emerged in Charlotte's mind.

That was the undercover demon hunter.

But she soon rejected the idea.

Relying on undercover demon hunters to pass on messages is still too inefficient.

Moreover, who can guarantee that the church will act quickly after the message is passed on

Unless... it gives the church a reason to act quickly.

Charlotte had a bold idea...

Of course, before implementing this idea, she had to "transport" the spoils back first.

After thinking about it, Charlotte put away the diary and the roster, then packed up all the more valuable extraordinary materials and equipment in the secret room and piled them together.

Then, she selected some extraordinary materials specially used for drawing magic circles, and set up a sacrificial circle on the ground.

In the center of the sacrificial circle is the symbol of thorns and roses.

This is a sacrificial formation pointing to the "Blood True Ancestor".

Charlotte learned the sacrificial array from Nice.

She had tried it before, and after the faith network was activated, she had gained some abilities similar to those of a god, one of which was to receive sacrifices through the faith network.

Of course, it is more accurate to say that it is a sacrifice, rather than a fixed-point transmission with the help of a faith network.

The location of teleportation is the Dark Night Castle in her spiritual world. After the teleportation, she can also teleport back through divine blessing, as long as the effect of the blessing is positioned as a bestowal.

Charlotte drew the magic circle crookedly, put the "trophy" in it, and then communicated with the Holy Book of Blood in her mind to establish a connection with the magic circle.

As the master of the holy book, she does not need to pray to herself, she can just establish a spell connection directly.

As she thought about it, the sacrificial array glowed faintly, and the objects in the array flashed slightly and then disappeared.

At the same time, a pile of miscellaneous things appeared in the corners of the Dark Night Castle.

After collecting the spoils, Charlotte was certain.

She erased the thorny roses from the magic circle, and then modified it into a magic circle for summoning demons.

She had copied it from Bertrand's collection of magic books on the bookshelf, but she had omitted the spells for the types of demons to be summoned.

The specific spells needed to summon demons vary greatly and there is no fixed number. As long as it is related to the target demon you want to summon, it will be fine. Of course, the more accurately the spell is described, the more accurate the summoning will be.

For example, the spells for summoning demons recorded in the Holy Codex of Blood are very precise.

After modifying the magic circle, Charlotte drew the well-protected "Blood Servant Mark" on this body...

Then, she closed her eyes, communicated with the Holy Book of Blood, and activated the Demonic Contract.

The Holy Book of Blood shone brightly, and Charlotte felt vaguely as if she was connected to a boundless darkness. In that darkness, there were countless evil auras, strong or weak, that seemed to be waiting for her to communicate.

However, she did not choose to communicate with those evil auras, but directly connected to the "Blood Servant Mark" protected by the power of blood...

At this moment, the "Mark of the Blood Servant" and the magic circle for summoning demons were successfully connected with the help of the demon contract!

Then, Charlotte removed the blood power that protected the "Blood Servant Mark", dispersed the demon contract, and even her consciousness quickly left this body.

Without the protection of divine power, the "Mark of the Blood Servant" quickly collapsed. A powerful and evil aura surged against the mark, carrying with it some kind of angry will.

Then, that breath was quickly drawn into the summoning circle on the ground.

Then, a new summoning spell slowly formed in the magic circle.

The dark apostle of the Blood Demon Cult also has demonic blood...

In an instant, the magic circle was quickly lit up, dazzling light shot up into the sky, and a terrifying will slowly descended.

In addition to anger, there was also... a bit of surprise.