Black, viscous liquid churned beneath Shenyi’s shattered skin, like some living thing constantly forcing his flesh apart—then rapidly healing it again. The unstable rise and fall of his surface made the old man, who had once looked aged and kindly, turn into something indescribably vicious.

In truth, that liquid wasn’t even black.

When Hamreign and Mela’s eyes landed on it, it might look like pure pitch darkness one moment—and the next, it would become something iridescent, like oil-slick colors spread over a surface. Maybe in someone else’s eyes, it was a completely different color altogether.

It was as if the very concepts of “color” and “shape” didn’t exist on this bizarre thing suspected to be Demon God blood. It could be a shadow that bewitched the heart, or a monster that corroded soul and body.

Everything depended on the human heart.

"You need to figure something out."

Hamreign’s expression was graver than ever. The red eyeshadow at the corners of her eyes rose sharply along with her tightly furrowed brows, as if it might truly ignite at any moment.

"If that thing swallows the several million demonfolk souls inside the Myriad-Age Cycle... there’s no telling what it’ll become."

"Don’t need you to tell me. I know. I’m thinking."

Mela rubbed her smooth chin and sank into thought at once.

To be honest, this turn really had exceeded her expectations. She was starting to regret that what she’d come with was only a projection with no power.

But regret was useless. In the end, her restrictions weren’t any lighter than those Evil Gods who couldn’t lay a finger on this world because of the world barrier. Without some kind of vessel to store power in, sending a projection out to act was already the limit under normal circumstances.

Still—thankfully, she’d dragged this dragon here. Otherwise, the situation might truly have slipped beyond control.

"I’ll think of something as fast as I can. Before that... can you destroy the Myriad-Age Cycle?" Mela said quickly.

"Destroy it?"

"Even if we can’t solve Shenyi right now, we can’t let the situation keep expanding. So we destroy the Myriad-Age Cycle in advance—at the very least, we can’t let Demon God blood follow the Myriad-Age Cycle and pollute those several million souls."

"Are you really going to do that?"

Hamreign stared seriously into Mela’s eyes.

"A thousand years ago, you were the one who protected them. And now you want to destroy them with your own hands?"

The plan they’d had before was to take the Myriad-Age Cycle away, so the demonfolk remnants in the Abyss could naturally enjoy the final glow of their last life and walk gently toward death.

But if they destroyed the Myriad-Age Cycle directly, every demonfolk soul would lose its support and restraint completely. They would die immediately...

High-ranked demonmen or low-ranked demonmen. Lofty demonfolk Grand Dukes or skulking ratmen. Death would descend on the entire demonfolk race with instant, impartial fairness.

Even if the demonfolk had already fallen into madness under Shenyi’s manipulations, most of them were still innocent.

At least in her eyes, the human civil wars they’d started—after losing their reason over a thousand years of reincarnation, driven by desire and instinct—didn’t really count as sin. At most, it was just the demonfolk’s still-human baseness.

If that was enough to wipe out the entire demonfolk race...

Then the number of people she’d have to kill would be far too many.

"..."

After a brief silence, Mela sighed.

"A thousand years ago was a thousand years ago. Now is now. After all this time, the Myriad-Age Cycle has already done what it was meant to do. Demon God pollution no longer exists on them, and they don’t need to be imprisoned in this narrow reincarnation anymore."

"In the end... it’s a good thing."

Mela thought back to a thousand years ago—to that foolish person who seemed to foresee something, and came begging her before the disaster struck.

"She probably hoped for this too."

As she was thinking that, Mela suddenly felt something off.

She lowered her head—and saw a black thread that had somehow pierced straight through her body. Terrifying pollution surged along that thread, instantly spreading like ink.

This was only a projection, but if Demon God blood could pollute even magic, then naturally it could pollute her projection avatar too.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

Shenyi roared in furious outrage.

"I won’t let you succeed!"

"See? He’s panicking. Looks like this really works."

With a little pop, facing the pollution that was already spreading across her entire projection, Mela calmly took her own head off—then, with a perfectly standard high toss, threw it away.

Turns out being a projection had its perks. At the very least, if all that was left was a head for thinking, she wouldn’t suffer any damage.

"Go."

Mela’s flying head said, "I’ll keep thinking of a solution."

"..."

Looking at a scene that, in its own way, was about as grotesque as deformed Shenyi, Hamreign’s eyelid twitched several times.

"I’ll say it first. Now that he’s on guard, the odds of success aren’t one hundred percent. You’d better prepare for the worst."

"I know."

"And..."

Hamreign paused, then said seriously, "What you promised earlier—you have to do it afterward."

"..."

This time it was Mela’s mouth that twitched.

"Of course. I always keep my word. I won’t go back on something that small."

"Let’s hope."

Inside the sealed space, a wild wind suddenly rose.

Her red dress swirled. Hamreign stood up sharply and looked down.

In the short dozen seconds she’d spent talking to Mela, a full third of the space had already been polluted by Demon God blood, turning into warped flesh-and-soil.

If not for her isolation, even the human little girl on the throne—and even “her” skeleton—would have already been corroded.

But that isolation was only temporary. If they couldn’t resolve the root existence directly, sooner or later everything here would become fuel for the spread.

Shenyi stood at the very center of the polluted zone. Sensing the threat, he no longer chased after Mela’s nimble hopping head as it bounced away. Instead, he raised his head and met Hamreign’s gaze in silence.

"In terms of distance, I’m closer."

The Myriad-Age Cycle was to Hamreign’s left—on the obsidian throne, above the skeleton’s head.

For her, it was within arm’s reach.

But distance meant nothing to Demon God blood either.

"My lord... please be patient. I’ll come welcome your return at once!"

Shenyi’s face was feverish with devotion as he chanted again.

But his chant was quickly drowned out by the sharp noise.

The sticky liquid behind him flowed. Amid countless warped, twisted things, it was as if countless sinister eyes opened, all staring at Hamreign in midair.

Even though Hamreign was braced and ready, the filth didn’t pay any attention to the Calamity poised to strike.

In that brief instant, a warped crown floated above Shenyi’s head. The deep-gray, stench-filled curtain spread, racing at an inconceivable speed to wrap around the Myriad-Age Cycle.

If summoning it proactively would be easily blocked by Hamreign—then go touch it proactively.

As long as it made contact...

Just a light touch...

Because the Myriad-Age Cycle was still under Shenyi’s control right now, it had no guard against him. With a single touch, the Demon God blood that had failed for a thousand years to stain the Myriad-Age Cycle would instantly swallow those several million souls.

Even Hamreign would no longer be able to stop his thousand-year final wish.

That joy—his king’s return—almost filled Shenyi’s heart.

—Even though he didn’t actually have a heart anymore.

"But it looks like racing speed won’t work... so we’ll have to race pure violence."

The Calamity wasn’t about to let him get his way.

The logic was simple.

If she couldn’t be sure she’d destroy the Myriad-Age Cycle before Shenyi touched it—

Then before Shenyi touched it, she would suppress Shenyi and Demon God blood together!

Hamreign’s scarlet hair spilled loose. In her majestic golden eyes, brilliant radiance gathered like a blazing sun.

Unimaginable magic poured from the proud body her dress couldn’t hide. It circulated around her, inhaling and exhaling, feeding the convergence of some invisible force.

Boom!

The entire space shook violently—but it seemed the anomaly wasn’t here.

If someone could lift their gaze ten million meters, up above the Abyss, they would see that the spatial turbulence that had shrouded the Abyss for a thousand years had developed a vast, clearly defined depression.

Golden color instantly dyed the clouds, dyed the fog, and even surged upward—reaching the true sky above the Abyss.

It wasn’t even evening yet.

And half the world seemed to greet the sunset early.

Hamreign looked down at Shenyi and spoke a maxim that felt like it could rewrite the world.

【Die.】

In an instant—

As that cold, profound word echoed, it was as if the whole world went silent for a beat.

Shenyi’s eyes widened. He went blank, speechless.

There was no flashy spectacle. No world-shattering terrifying ripple.

He simply lowered his head slowly, watching his body crack and rot bit by bit.

Inconceivable damage erupted across the half-human body he could barely be said to have. It gnawed away at his vitality. He collapsed to the floor. Churning black liquid streamed out of him. In the blink of an eye, he looked as wretched as a lump of rotten mud smashed hard into the ground.

It wasn’t only him that rotted. The warped things around him did too.

The crazed lines tore apart. The twisted tendrils rotted one after another. Even the endlessly surging viscous liquid gradually lost its vitality, becoming a pool of dead water that no longer flowed...

It seemed Shenyi—

And even the Demon God blood inside him—

Had met true death under Hamreign’s single word.

One word, and calamity descended.

With nothing but her red lips parting, she could destroy everything.

This was—

"Heh-heh... draconic language magic..."

And yet that death was painfully brief—far briefer than Hamreign expected.

Shenyi, who had clearly already died, suddenly snapped open eyes that were half-decayed, his face ferocious.

"Worthy of... the Calamity that represents disaster..."

That black-blood-like viscous liquid began to churn again. New tendrils grew from the rotting chunks of flesh. The scattered lines were torn apart—only to become even more crazed.

Shenyi spoke with a cold sneer. And now, his voice was already mixed with noise that could corrode the soul.

"Unfortunately... it’s useless on me."

"Tch."

Hamreign clicked her tongue again in displeasure, her face dark as water.

"The Demon God’s immortality..."

She was the Calamity—dragon of disaster—who could easily bestow the purest death upon all things.

But this power had little effect on Demon God blood that inherited the Demon God’s immortality.

Because even death-aspected draconic speech couldn’t kill something that fundamentally could not be killed.

Based on what she’d learned in the war a thousand years ago, the first thing she should’ve done was suppress that thing’s activity...

But right now, reacting in haste, she simply didn’t have the conditions.

"...Still, I never expected that to kill you. As long as it delays you, that’s enough."

Light flared behind Hamreign again. Intricate magic arrays unfolded—aiming...

At the Myriad-Age Cycle on the other side.

And Shenyi, freshly resurrected from death, had no strength to stop her. He didn’t even have time to control the Myriad-Age Cycle to dodge.

A grand flood of light and flame erupted, instantly swallowing that ancient, powerful relic.

Light and thunderous roar nearly tore at the senses—but within it, almost everyone heard a crystal-clear sound of shattering...

"Ah..."

Shenyi’s smile froze—then twisted into ferocious rage.

"Y-You... you actually dared... dared to destroy the hope of my lord’s return. You actually dared...!"

In Shenyi’s fury, Hamreign finally let out a breath.

No matter how they dealt with Shenyi and the thing inside him afterward, at least they didn’t have to worry about the situation escalating anymore—

"But unfortunately, I lied to you. You didn’t actually believe that, did you?"

The next moment, Shenyi—who had been enraged—suddenly changed expression and showed a mocking smile.

"You didn’t seriously think I’d be so blinded by anger that I could only rage uselessly, did you?"

"...Isn’t that exactly it?"

"Heh-heh... quite the opposite. Right now, I’m clearer than I’ve ever been. The ones who should be raging uselessly... are you."

"..."

A bad feeling hit Hamreign instantly. When the magic light finally dissipated, she snapped her head around to look toward the ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) Myriad-Age Cycle.

And her pupils shrank.

Because within the dispersing magic, the Myriad-Age Cycle was still intact—floating above the feather-clad skeleton’s head.

Her full-power spell had only shattered a faint film of light that protected the Myriad-Age Cycle from the outside.

"This is... what?"

Hamreign’s gaze traced that film downward—past layers of stone and soil. She saw countless dense runes carved into a high platform poured from magical materials. She saw those so-called “royals” of the demonfolk—those rare high-ranked demonmen with magic compatibility—killing themselves one after another, their blood staining the platform’s base red.

And all of it together formed a vast, complete spell—

An ancient spell.

"Do you understand now? This was never a race, because I left a thousand years ago. I’ve been standing at the finish line the whole time!"

Shenyi laughed in exhilaration.

For a thousand years, he had been preparing for his king’s revival—how could he not have left a final safeguard?

That ancient spell he had built at any cost wasn’t just a foundation for revival. It wasn’t invincible, of course—but it could still withstand three to five of the Calamity’s full-power attacks.

And now—even if she was the Calamity Dragon, even if she was the strongest mage in the human world—she couldn’t kill him, and she couldn’t destroy the Myriad-Age Cycle in a short time...

So how could they possibly stop him?

"As an old acquaintance, I still hope the two honored guests will simply watch quietly and wait for the moment this grand rite reaches its magnificent curtain call."

"I think you want to see her again too—don’t you?"

Shenyi didn’t want to waste power clashing with the Calamity, at least not yet. All the pollution rapidly contracted. The stench-thick liquid flowed along the boundary Hamreign had isolated. Shenyi turned his head—and his gaze fell on An atop the throne.

Even now, he hadn’t forgotten: the first step in reviving his king was to complete her broken soul.

"Mela."

Hamreign spoke suddenly.

"Did you come up with something?"

"That’s a bit much, isn’t it?"

Mela complained helplessly.

"Sure, I’m a hundred times smarter than you—but it hasn’t even been a full minute. How is my brilliant little brain supposed to come up with a way to counter Demon God blood in that short a time?"

As she spoke, Mela even shook the only thing she had left—her little head—to protest.

"I know it’s ridiculous. But it looks like the situation doesn’t have the luxury of letting you think slowly."

Hamreign said, "And you’re not smarter than I am."

"...Says the one crying and begging me to think of a way."

Mela grew even more exasperated.

"But a way... isn’t impossible."

She looked toward the film protecting the Myriad-Age Cycle.

That thing really did have the ability to withstand several of Hamreign’s full-power attacks—but in Mela’s eyes, it was full of holes.

After all, Shenyi didn’t know magic at all. His magical attainments still weren’t enough to cast even a simple light spell. That “complex and powerful” ancient spell was nothing more than a crude patchwork—cobbled together over a thousand years from whatever remnants were left inside Gutongs Castle.

If Mela’s true body were here, she could crack something this rough by flicking her pinky.

So...

"At the end of the day... do we really have to use that kind of method?"

Mela let out a melancholy sigh.

"The cost is... kind of huge..."

...

The Empire.

Belrand.

Saint Maria Academy.

A sea of flowers.

Mela, lying quietly at the very center, slowly opened her eyes. Her amber gaze was clear as glass—like the first ray of dawn shining into the human world.

And as she woke, some vast sound began to rumble at the bottom of the flower sea—like countless gears turning beneath it, driving the operation of something unimaginably huge.

A bell rang. Phantom bell towers rose around the academy. Mela seemed about to float up from the flowers, looking out—by the dignity of her true body—toward the Abyss floor, infinitely far away...

"Oh?"

But with a little cry of surprise, everything came to an abrupt, jarring halt.

...

Mela’s remaining head shook with difficulty, finally letting her ear press tight against the ground.

Then a certain sound, at last, entered her ears clearly.

"This sound... this wave..."

Mela’s brows lifted. She spoke with undisguised delight.

"Oh? Oh? Looks like my cute disciple is causing another commotion I never would’ve expected..."