An suddenly felt very cold.

She sat still on the throne. The icy obsidian pressed tight against her skin, giving off a ghostly, chilling sheen.

But this cold wasn’t coming from physical contact.

It was coming from... her soul.

"My king... my king..."

Shenyi’s maddened voice still echoed in her ears—and it was getting closer and closer. The piercing noise drilled into her mind, mixed with whispers that could drive a person insane.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the shadows beneath the throne growing thicker—like a shadow being dragged long by the last sunlight, grotesque beyond measure. And the sticky, corrupted liquid pooled into a rapidly rising tide, little by little swallowing the throne’s base.

Shenyi was here.

The spatial barrier Hamreign had set was still working, but that Pollution seemed to seep into everything. As it gnawed away at the last of the defense, Shenyi was already on the other side of the barrier—his old face full of fanaticism and hunger—pressed up against the transparent, invisible wall of space, pinning An with a gaze so revolting it made her sick.

"Wait for me, my king. I’ll bring you back right now... soon... very soon..."

"Since you still think of me as your king..."

An’s face stayed blank. Her composed, dignified features forced down the trace of fear she felt toward something this horrifying.

"Can I tell you to get the hell out?"

"..."

Shenyi froze for a moment. The wrinkled skin all over his body split open at once. In the darkness of those cracks, it seemed like countless bizarre, venomous eyes were staring straight at An.

But Shenyi showed a kindly smile—like a gentle old grandfather next door—and spoke softly, warmly:

"Don’t be afraid, my king. Please don’t be afraid. You’ve only been deceived by this false shell, these false memories. I’ll rescue you from it very soon—I’ll save you from this reeking shell!"

"What reeking... look at yourself first, you old monster. The stink on you is enough to make someone throw up."

An clenched her hand hard. Relying on the mental discipline she’d been trained into since childhood, she forcibly reined in her emotions.

Fear was useless.

Anger was useless.

Even that dragon revered as the Calamity couldn’t protect her forever. An understood perfectly: the only reason she was being sheltered was because she was a link in Shenyi’s plan to revive the “Demon King.”

As long as the situation was under control, Hamreign would have the leeway to protect her. But if things went even slightly bad, she would definitely abandon this side for the moment and turn to—

Boom!

A massive explosion yanked An out of her thoughts. She saw blinding light and flame descend from above, striking along the spatial barrier and briefly forcing Shenyi back.

An lifted her head in shock. At the very highest point, that fiery-red figure looked like a blazing sun hung in the sky. Hamreign was attacking the Myriad-Age Cycle, yet she still seemed to be sparing a glance this way—and splitting off a thread of power.

"The legendary Calamity... doesn’t seem quite as cold-blooded as the stories say..."

An murmured quietly.

But she didn’t feel even a trace of encouragement from help that came from an outsider.

For one simple reason—

"This is useless."

In the blink of an eye, Shenyi—whose limbs had been torn apart by the light and flame—pressed close again. His flesh was already in tatters. Deep, unfathomable Demon God blood flowed through the gaps between the shattered pieces, just as active as ever.

Hamreign’s full-strength strike couldn’t even kill him. So what could this hurriedly split-off attack do to him?

Of course it did nothing.

It couldn’t even buy time.

Crack, crack...

The filthy tide climbed higher and higher. Twisted tendrils finally tore a small opening in the spatial barrier, carrying Pollution from that Demon God as they slowly, steadily wormed through the fissure.

"Stop resisting, my king. Come—take my hand. I’ll give you back everything that should have been yours. I’ll let you regain the power to take revenge on this world! Yes... power! My power! Your power!"

The madness in Shenyi’s eyes grew thicker, and even his speech started to slip into confused, inverted nonsense.

But his obsession with reviving “his king” didn’t weaken in the slightest. Under some kind of catalysis, it became the only thought left in his mind.

His body of flesh forced its way in along with that sticky, reeking liquid through the fissure in space. Even when the pressure crushed his body completely into scraps of meat, he didn’t feel it at all. The broken body stitched itself together again, and his heart brimmed with delirious joy at having taken this ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) critical step forward.

"Come, my king! Please, take my—"

"Get lost!"

The dignified, pretty face An kept composed could no longer hide her fury and disgust.

"Get the hell away from me! The only person who gets to touch me is my master!"

In an instant—

Steel sang.

An had been imprisoned on the throne by Shenyi, unable to move. But with her temperament, there was no way she would sit there helplessly for this long.

She’d been trying the whole time to break Shenyi’s restraints. The gap in power was enormous, but if her master could escape a carefully built cage with nothing but a fishbone, then how could she not do it too?

She was her master’s personal maid.

Lockpicking, LV·MAX!

The restraints broke.

And the Divine Favor she’d been storing for so long finally erupted in full!

A forest of steel burst up from the ground and crashed down from above, instantly forging Shenyi into its grasp.

Crush—grind—twist...

The massive steel coiled and coiled like a giant serpent, inch by inch completely annihilating Shenyi’s flesh.

Divine Favor exploded with astonishing power. Even Hamreign up above couldn’t help but glance over.

But—

Drip.

Just as An released everything in a single instant—so hard her face was already turning pale from the recoil—a drop of ink-black liquid dripped out from between the steel.

It fell in front of An.

Gurgle, gurgle...

It rapidly expanded. From the center of a lake formed by that viscous liquid, Shenyi floated up—completely unharmed. The kindly smile on his face didn’t fade in the slightest.

"So this is your final resistance?"

He nodded, praising her.

"That character of never giving up... it’s exactly the same as hers."

"..."

An’s body swayed, and she sat back down on the throne.

Her all-out resistance had only earned a single line of praise from the enemy.

How ridiculous.

No... this was exactly what she’d expected. The reason she resisted at all was simply because she didn’t want to fail that miserably.

She was her master’s maid. Even if she had to die, she would die with her back straight—so she wouldn’t stain the Campbell name.

"I’m sorry, Master. I can’t keep serving you."

An smiled bleakly.

"I won’t even... get to see you one last time."

But for the current situation, that was also a good thing.

Master—run. Go as far as you can.

That way, no matter what Shenyi does, no matter what that thing he revives goes on to do...

At least her master will be safe.

As long as her master is fine, then even if she dies—

"I’m here."

An—who had almost peacefully accepted her fate—jerked upright, eyes widening as if she couldn’t believe it.

Was it a hallucination? Had she just heard her master’s voice?

No. Not a hallucination.

Because in that moment, even Shenyi—standing only inches from her—lowered his head toward somewhere and wore an expression of stunned disbelief.

It really was—

"I fucking came!"

The excited voice echoed through the warped, overgrown space, but An couldn’t help blinking in confusion.

Strange. That second sentence sounded familiar... but it didn’t seem to be her master’s.

...

"You stole my line!"

Inside the cramped cockpit, Muen irritably shoved Ariel aside as she nearly took up all his space.

"This was my cool entrance in front of An! That’s too much!"

"What do you mean your line? It’s mine!"

Ariel bared her teeth, but the excitement in her eyes was impossible to hide.

Right now, her hand was clenched tightly around the control lever in front of her. A clear sense extended along the lever to the massive thing at the end of the cables. She felt an unprecedented thrill—her senses stretching and strengthening dramatically, as if she were merging with what she was controlling.

Through thick layers of earth and all kinds of defensive restraints, she could even clearly see what was happening inside that sealed space!

"This ** thing—why didn’t you pull it out sooner!"

Ariel was riding high. After being stifled underground for so long, she could finally cut loose!

"What do you mean sooner..."

Muen was speechless.

"Did you forget we found this thing together?!"

"Ah. Right."

Ariel curled her lip.

Not only had they found it together—they were controlling it together.

At this very moment, her and Muen’s hands were overlapping on the control lever. Only by joining two mental forces far beyond others at the same level could they barely get this terrifying super-weapon moving.

Because both of them had to exert force, the warmth and touch through their palms was clearer than ever. Even their bodies were pressed tight together. To avoid making the cockpit even more cramped, she was practically “sitting” in Muen’s lap...

But for the sake of getting a good rush in, she wouldn’t argue with him for now.

"So? What do we do next?"

"What do you think? The road’s already right in front of us."

Through the shared sense flowing up from his palm, Muen watched what was happening inside that space. The raging fury in his chest was already impossible to suppress.

His voice punched through the solid barriers, rolling with anger, echoing in that space ahead of them.

"Shenyi, you old monster—get the hell away from my girl!"

The only person who gets to touch his maid... is him!

Muen’s eyes threw off molten fire. He lowered his head to Ariel.

"Charge."

"...Okay."

Ariel pressed down that strange feeling that had risen in her chest for no reason, and followed in a low voice:

"Charge."

So, regardless of how their minds were about to tear apart again, Muen and Ariel both drove their mental output to the limit together, coordinating as they shoved the control lever to its highest point!

"This is..."

In that moment, it was like even the Demon God blood stopped its eerie screeching noise. Shenyi stared blankly downward, but what shocked him wasn’t Muen’s possessive roar.

"Impossible... that thing was abandoned for a thousand years... impossible... impossible for anyone to start it..."

Shenyi didn’t care about Muen escaping. In his eyes, Muen was nothing more than a weak human brat.

How could something that weak possibly threaten him?

A truly ferocious beast never cares about the few ants it lets crawl away.

But now—

Boom!

The earth shook. Mountains trembled. The world shuddered.

Along with a deep, muffled roar, some cold, enormous, magnificent construct speared through the earth with a sharp tip and rose up in an instant!

Ants aren’t scary.

But these two ants... came back driving a mech.