Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

"Strictly speaking, the concept of nature isn't affiliated with divine or demonic domains."

The goddess said as she walked ahead.

"However, it was my interpretation of the concept that led me to form my own divinity based on a singular aspect of it.

Once my divinity as the Goddess Great Mother was established, I couldn't introduce many changes to the way I harnessed the concept of nature. In more ways than one, the Immortals are enslaved by their own divinities, you see.

So I created a natal clone of myself and asked her to sort of reach the same destination using a different path than the one I had walked earlier on," the goddess said and sighed.

When she was inside a grand hall, the goddess turned around and faced Eren before continuing further in a serious manner.

"The natal clone is different from any ordinary clone. I couldn't put many restrictions on it because some of those restrictions would have affected my real form as well. However, I couldn't make use of the regular cloning techniques or avatar creation either.

I could only make use of the natal clone for this task because I had planned to integrate two polar opposite Paths together in order to become a True Immortal.

It wouldn't have been possible to pull this off without using the natal clone, which would ensure that there was no conflict at the time of integration of the second path into my existing divinity.

Anyway, the clone did its job well. She created a strong foundation in Labh Salem and started studying the ways of the demons.

She was the one who trained a few subordinates under her and created the first coven of witches.

She was one of the foundational witches who managed to summon Samael and other Demon Princes on Labh Salem and used their powers to establish the first batch of ancestors of the half-blood clans, who then went on to create their own clans in Labh Salem.

This witch clone of mine was the one who created two separate branches of magic, witchcraft, and voodoo magic.

Witchcraft is basically using the concepts of nature using the demonic influence. And voodoo magic is basically a way to control a target using their own Lifeforce, which again falls into the domain of the nature magic used in a corrupted form."

"In short, your clone was the progenitor of the witches in Labh Salem. And her experiments related to demon magic led to the establishment of the half-blood clans," the butcher summarized in simpler words.

He furrowed his eyebrows in contemplation when he started processing the goddess' words. He had to say that the lessons of history he received from the goddess were filling up a lot of missing blanks he had when he first heard about the inception of the Anfang Alliance from Nira Nightshade.

However, after recalling what Nira had said to him regarding the establishment of the Samael clan, he understood that there was something that the goddess hadn't told him upfront. It was not that she had intentions to hide things from Eren. however, she didn't need to be overly exploratory with him either.

Too bad, Eren wasn't someone who'd let the opportunity slip by. He decided to fish for more information as the opportunity presented itself.

"Were you or your clone also interested in creating the Elder Ichor bloodline artificially back then?" Eren asked as he narrowed his eyes on the goddess.

The goddess was a bit surprised when Eren asked her the question. However, her expression soon eased before she nodded, replying to him soon after.

"That's right. I was indeed interested in artificially creating the Elder ichor bloodline," the goddess admitted without any fear.

"I gave my clone full freedom to act in her best interests at the time. It was she who established a formal agreement with Samael to artificially create the Elder Ichor bloodline.

After all, Samael and I were both interested in harnessing the power of an Elder God. Plus, he had all the time in the world. After various trials and errors, we somewhat succeeded in creating what could be described as a prototype.

However, my clone soon found out that she couldn't make use of the 'impure' bloodline no matter how many times she tried to transplant it to normal humans and Practitioners.

After conducting many failed experiments using witchcraft and voodoo magic, she soon found out that the bloodline of the Elder Ichor wasn't as simple as she thought it was.

The bloodline itself had some sort of consciousness of its own. It had the power to resist assimilation with anyone it did not deem fit to wield it.

We eventually found out the reason for it. It was a form of prohibition set by God Aleph before his death. According to his wishes, only someone who fulfilled all his conditions could successfully assimilate with his bloodline.

So Samael and my clone both stopped their experiments and decided to spread the technique to artificially create the bloodline of the Elder Ichor in a controlled manner. Sort of like a way around God Aleph's prohibition. Some also call this prohibition the bloodline shackles.

Their aim at that time was to see who successfully inherited the bloodline of the Elder Ichor and then use them as a foundation for their further experiments.

I wanted to become a True Immortal and Samael wanted to claim God Aleph's divine throne. This was a way the Demon Prince of Wrath and my clone could both benefit. So I naturally allowed my clone to move forward.

Unfortunately for them and fortunately for you, those experimental methods found their way into Anfang.

The House Samael from Anfang at that time wanted to use the experiments as a way to temporarily unlock Titan transformation for all of the Rankers in Anfang.

However, they didn't know that they underestimated the power of the Elder Ichor.

Since there was no guidance provided by their benefactors in Labh Salem, House Samael didn't think of unlocking more use of the ancient bloodline of an Elder God and kept it under wraps after creating the prototype– an impure bloodline so to speak.

How could someone see a bigger picture when their house is on fire? The Calamity Era was a harsh time for those people in Anfang active at the time.

Anyway, I'm sure you know the rest of the story. In the end, you managed to assimilate with the Elder Ichor bloodline, becoming god Aleph's successor.

And in doing so, you gained his abominated divinity– something I had dreamed of doing with my natal clone."

The goddess finished speaking and let Eren process the missing pieces of the puzzle.

AN: The term "bloodline shackles" was first used in chapter 1577.