It was a golden vertical pupil.

Majestic. Indifferent. Dazzling gold radiated outward from that crystalline eye in sharp, prismatic beams—like a colossal sun hanging in the sky. In an instant, it swept every last trace of darkness out of the throne space.

The hundred statues trembled again, like living things.

This time, their fear wasn’t coming from some vague, intangible pressure. Just that single golden eye was enough to make anyone imagine the enormity—and horror—lurking behind the tear.

This was pressure from a higher tier of life. An ancient primordial beast looking down at the lowly ants beneath its feet.

For a thousand years, the owner of that golden eye had rarely appeared before the world. But every time she did, she stirred up unimaginable waves across the entire continent.

Sometimes she was the destroyer of a race.

Sometimes an unspeakable existence within a forbidden zone.

Sometimes the villain in a legend—one who was never defeated.

She had left behind countless names, countless titles, countless records drenched in fear.

But only one appellation was remembered most clearly by the world.

Calamity.

The Dragon of Death and Doom—Hamreign.

"Ah..."

Even Shenyi was shaken by the pressure falling from the sky. He craned his head up, his whole body stiff.

"Y-You... you came too..."

"Hey! Why is it ‘you’ with me, but you use an honorific with her? I’m obviously the bigger one!"

The only person in the room who hadn’t been affected at all—the little-girl head—immediately started grumbling when she heard how Shenyi addressed Hamreign.

Then she abruptly changed her tune.

"But whatever. This isn’t the time to nitpick that kind of thing... Go! Beat this brat up, Hamreign!"

"Shut up, you dead midget."

A cold voice dropped from the high sky like a booming thunderclap, drowning out an old little girl’s instigating yells. And as that thunder rolled, the black tear that cut across the entire ceiling of the throne space was forced wider by some terrifying power.

This throne space was buried deep underground. Shenyi had reinforced it for hundreds of years, and several broken ancient relics empowered it on top of that. Even Shenyi himself, entering it, had to follow its rules to a certain extent.

But the Dragon of Death and Doom seemed completely unaffected, because what she was tearing open wasn’t heavy earth and stone that physically existed—

It was space itself.

Even the space here was in a reinforced state; even Truth-Rank spatial magic would struggle to shake it. And yet she used this simple, brutal method—forcing her way in by sheer violence—and declared to Shenyi what absolute brutality looked like.

"Shenyi. Hand over the Myriad-Age Cycle."

Compared to Meladomir’s “gentle” persuasion, the Dragon of Death and Doom was far colder.

"For her sake, I’ll leave you a whole corpse."

"...A thousand years have passed, and you’re still this short-tempered."

Shenyi tilted his head. His hunched body trembled faintly under that terrifying pressure, but there was no fear in his eyes.

He seemed to listen again, and then he smiled.

"Listen—she says she thanks you for your ‘respect.’ But I can’t hand over the Myriad-Age Cycle. This is her hope of resurrection. Who would be willing to hand their hope of resurrection into someone else’s hands? If it were you, you’d understand that feeling too, wouldn’t you?"

"Tch. You talk too much."

Behind the tear, Calamity clicked her tongue in displeasure.

"I said a thousand years ago we should’ve killed you all. Otherwise you’d become a problem sooner or later. If not for a certain nagging dead midget—"

"Hey! You’ve said ‘dead midget’ twice now, okay?!"

Meladomir swayed as she picked up her own head, protesting with deadly seriousness. "Even if I’m small right now, I’m obviously older than you—"

"Enough."

The Dragon of Death and Doom didn’t spare a glance for an old little girl who was utterly useless in a fight. She said coldly,

"A thousand years ago or a thousand years later, there’s no difference. It’s just killing, that’s all. In the few hundred years after that disaster, I dealt with this kind of cleanup far too many times. I’m not going to miss you."

Space shuddered.

That black tear swelled violently, shedding the word “tear” entirely and becoming an enormous opening.

Cold light flashed off iron-hard scales. Massive wings blotted out the sky. A mountain-sized figure crushed through the void—Calamity herself, the Dragon of Death and Doom, finally revealing her full form, so violent and beautiful it shook the mind.

Even Shenyi couldn’t help murmuring in a daze,

"Ah... as expected. Compared to a thousand years ago, you’re far more terrifying now."

He looked stunned by that gorgeous, brutal figure—but the instinctive warning of death made him react in the way a serious fighter should.

The crown rose.

Scarlet radiance swallowed the entire world in an instant. Shenyi’s crown looked as though time had corroded it; the sun, moon, and stars carved into it were rusted through, steeped in ruin.

But it was still granted by the heavens.

It still symbolized the unimaginable authority of Shenyi—the crowned one of a thousand years!

And what crashed down on that authority was an even more savage dragon claw.

There was no battle aura covering it. No magic power.

And yet when it slammed in from the far end of space in that blunt, straightforward way, even space itself screamed.

Boom!

Bathed in the crown’s light, the deep gray curtain spread out in an instant. Like a thick wall of fog, it replaced space itself and braced in front of the dragon claw.

This was Shenyi’s domain—Void Curtain.

It had once withstood endless falling Holy Light above Gutongs Castle. It had once blocked that eerie Black Knight in the tower’s lower levels. It had once beaten back the attacks of an Evil God’s puppet before mountains of corpses.

Split into three, it had done so without pressure.

But now, under that dragon claw’s unimaginable force, the deep gray curtain began to deform—like clay pressed into a sculpting mold.

The claw squeezed it inch by inch. Through that heavy fog-wall, Shenyi could clearly see a giant claw shape bulging out of the curtain on his side, vivid down to the smallest detail.

"Hmph."

The Dragon of Death and Doom still sounded displeased.

"So you [N O V E L I G H T] blocked it."

How long had it been since a human had blocked her attack?

"Is this your confidence, Shenyi?"

"It’s not confidence."

Shenyi let out a long breath, stopped his body from continuing to retreat, and even pushed the Void Curtain back a short distance.

"When you’ve lived this long, you ought to have something you can show, shouldn’t you?"

"Fair."

The golden vertical pupil narrowed. Calamity murmured—yet those syllables struck like an ancient bell, making every speck of dust tremble.

"But unfortunately."

Just this—

Isn’t enough.

Bzz.

Bzz.

Bzz.

A muffled sound suddenly boomed from the hollow beyond.

It felt like some ancient machine, slowly starting up its power to destroy all things.

But it wasn’t any machine. It was simply magic power so vast it defied imagination—compressed together in an instant—releasing a terrifying vibration.

Shenyi jerked his head up. Over the curtain, he saw countless points of light rapidly gathering and weaving across the black dragon’s body, tracing an arcane trajectory until they formed a blinding long spear wrapped in flame and lightning.

Magic.

That dragon who had entered by crushing everything with brute physical force... was using magic.

"Ah... right... how did I forget?"

Shenyi murmured in sudden realization.

Of course she could use magic.

And it wasn’t the draconic spellcasting of ancient legends, either. It was structured magic developed and created by humans. More than that—her mastery had likely reached a level that most of this world’s top human mages could only stare at in despair.

Because she, just like the one over there still clutching her own head tightly so it wouldn’t get blown away by the shockwaves, had been, a thousand years ago...

"Hope you don’t die too ugly."

That cold declaration cut off Shenyi’s drifting memories again.

The black dragon twisted her body and clenched the spear wrapped in blazing light and thunder with her claw.

Her wings beat. Her long tail swept. The Dragon of Death and Doom spun gracefully across the sky like a dance, hurricane winds lifting her massive body. The movement held a beauty you couldn’t help but admire.

The beauty of despair.

The beauty of death.

No long chant—only control so precise it completely contradicted her outward savagery.

In an instant, everything in sight was drowned beneath a flood of annihilation. Even the crown’s radiance looked weak before it. The spear was thrown—Void Curtain, which had once blocked everything, was torn apart as easily as thin paper.

It was like a world-ending spear—yet at the final moment it converged into a single point. It pierced through the curtain and swallowed Shenyi’s body, but neither Meladomir watching from the side, nor the skeleton and An on the thrones, were affected in the slightest.

"Wow."

Meladomir put sunglasses on her head and admired the end-of-days obliteration.

Shenyi’s figure gradually vanished behind flame and light. The scarlet color drained away rapidly, and the throne space could no longer feel the crown’s presence.

Dust rose. Everything fell silent.

"Amazing!"

But the silence was quickly broken by enthusiastic clapping. With a little pop, Meladomir reattached her head to her neck and applauded with sincere admiration.

"You look way more practiced with that move. Back when you used to do it, I had to be ready for half a city to turn into ash. Who knew you—of all people—would someday have this level of delicate control over your power."

"Of course."

The enormous dragon vanished from the far side of space. A bright red dress settled into place, and a figure wreathed in fire appeared soundlessly beside Meladomir.

"Not everyone gets younger the longer they live like you do."

"Who gets younger the longer they live?!"

Meladomir planted her hands on her hips, huffing. "I’m still a little better than you at this level."

"Oh?"

With eyeshadow red as flame, that golden pupil—no longer painfully bright—shifted slightly.

"Who said I meant magic?"

"..."

Meladomir froze.

She lowered her head, looked at her little-girl body, then stole a sidelong glance at the voluptuous, mature figure next to her. A thousand rebuttals spun at the tip of her tongue. In a battle of words, this stupid dragon was never her match, but a sharp wave of grief still rose in her chest.

Damn it. I’m obviously older—so why does it feel like I just lost horribly...

"Don’t get cocky. When my grand plan succeeds and I’m back to my sexy eighteen-year-old glory, you’ll be the one crying."

Meladomir lifted her neck proudly.

"Talk to me when that day comes. I don’t have much time. I’m not interested in wasting it on you."

Hamreign didn’t even have the interest to bicker with Meladomir this time. She simply took a step with legs so long they were practically Meladomir’s height, heading toward the Myriad-Age Cycle.

She truly couldn’t understand why Meladomir had wandered around this hellhole for so long before finally coming to deal with Shenyi. This was obviously simple—kill Shenyi, destroy the Myriad-Age Cycle. Just like now. It didn’t even take three minutes.

But following Meladomir around on a “return to old places” tour had wasted far too much of her time.

She couldn’t leave that forest for too long, and... this place was saturated with a nauseating stench. Even after a thousand years it hadn’t faded, and it always dragged up unpleasant memories.

In short, she didn’t want to stay here a second longer—

"Gurgle, gurgle..."

Hamreign’s steps abruptly stopped.

Her gaze swept the surroundings. There weren’t many living things in this space. Aside from Shenyi she had just struck down, there were only her and the girl on the throne.

Meladomir didn’t count. If she could yank her own head off and toss it around for fun, then this projection probably didn’t even need to breathe.

So why... was there this inexplicable sound?

A hallucination, or—

"Gurgle, gurgle..."

"Yeah."

Meladomir spread her hands with a helpless shrug. "Looks like we’re not getting off work that easily."

"...Is this what you humans call ‘smoke with no damage’?"

Hamreign looked at Meladomir without expression. "I thought that only happened in stories."

"‘Smoke with no damage’ only happens in stories. After all, dust might be good at blocking sight, but do you really think it can block your senses or mine?"

Meladomir’s voice stayed casual.

"Shenyi is obviously critically wounded and on the verge of death from your hit. It’s just that..."

As the dust gradually cleared, and as that bizarre gurgling grew sharper, a teasing smile slowly formed on Meladomir’s lips.

"Final bosses have a second phase. That’s common knowledge, isn’t it?"

Gurgle, gurgle...

Shenyi finally became fully visible again.

Just as Meladomir predicted, his injuries were horrifying. Nearly half his body had been directly vaporized by the Dragon of Death and Doom’s world-shattering strike. Even with a crowned one’s absurdly tough body, he was barely hanging on.

But...

It also seemed to be precisely because of that, that something found its opening.

Gurgle, gurgle...

Black, sticky liquid flowed out of the shadow beside Shenyi. The blurred darkness finally became something solid, extending grotesque, indescribable tendrils to embrace him—then fusing with him at terrifying speed.

"An Evil God?"

Hamreign’s face turned as cold as water. "Which one? That disgrace among Evil Gods?"

"Well, with Shenyi’s obsessive fanatic personality, it’s not unreasonable to guess it’s the Love God. It even sort of fits."

Meladomir watched the shadow and shrugged helplessly.

"I’d love for it to be them, too. After all, they’re a disgrace among Evil Gods—the boost they give polluted hosts isn’t that big. They themselves are still sneaking around stealing power, so hungry they’ll even eat the Church’s Holy Light... but unfortunately, whatever’s on Shenyi doesn’t seem that simple."

"Why are you so sure?"

"Simple."

Meladomir sneered.

"Didn’t you hear what Shenyi said earlier? He was fooled by this thing for a full thousand years."

...

...

"Something... is hiding in Shenyi’s shadow?"

Hearing the girl’s words, Muen subconsciously propped his chin, thinking.

"Don’t tell me that thing is the Love God."

Because he loved this girl so deeply, then the Love God caught the scent and sweet-talked him into becoming their lapdog—spending every day screaming about love, love, love, while doing nothing but disgusting, rotten things...

Yeah. It fit pretty well. If nothing else was going on, it was probably the Love God.

"Wait. That’s not quite right."

But then Muen suddenly remembered the fight with Shenyi up in the tower.

Back then, Shenyi split into four and fought four enemies at once—

The Judgment Archbishop, the Salvation Society’s Second Seat, Muen himself, and...

The Love God’s puppet.

If the Love God had already controlled him—or rather, already bewitched him—then why would they go out of their way to sneak in like that, secretly, without even a shred of dignity?

Fighting himself? Did the Love God’s tastes really evolve to this level?

"The Love... God?"

While Muen was thinking, the girl in front of him tilted her head. Even through that layer of blur, Muen could clearly feel the trace of confusion she was showing.

"What’s that?"