He became the White-Haired Evil God after wearing the Seven Curses Rings.

After confirming that everything was correct, Thanatos returned to Cecilia's shadow through the Shadow Return technique.

Cecilia was still watching the battle.

They didn't even know where to pull out a handful of sunflower seeds, and they would eat them while watching.

They had absolutely no sense of crisis about being caught in the middle of a battlefield.

"Clang!"

The battle between the two was extremely fierce.

Under Julius's increasingly fierce offensive, Atorius gradually became outmatched.

After retreating to a corner, Atoris suddenly felt a surge of turmoil within him.

"The power of chaos is about to become uncontrollable. If we continue fighting like this, it might really come to this guy's will."

"Clang!"

After enduring attack after attack, Atoris realized he had to make a choice quickly.

They either ascend to become chaotic and twisted demigods, or they die.

"Clang!"

Julius's attacks grew increasingly fierce, and he was forced to make a decision.

The choice is to ascend to the level of a chaotic demigod, crush the empire and its enemies, and complete a belated revenge.

Or choose to face death head-on, entrusting the future of the empire entirely to its people, rather than its emperor.

"Ah, Roland, I hope you are well."

"Clang!"

After blocking the attack, Atoris did not choose to continue attacking the opponent.

In the eyes of onlookers, the emperor who had protected the empire for three hundred years chose to plunge the crimson greatsword in his hand into his own body.

He personally punctured the seed of chaos in his heart.

"Pfft!"

As Artoris coughed up a mouthful of blood, Julius on the opposite side also stopped his attack.

The results are obvious.

Julius no longer needed to continue fighting.

Faced with an emperor who had lived for three hundred years yet still chose to die, the warrior chose respect.

Looking at the silent Julius, Artorias let out a bitter laugh.

"Heh... What, are you disappointed that you couldn't kill me with your own hands...?"

Julius shook his head in response to Atoris's mockery.

"Your fate should have ended a hundred years ago. As someone who came after you, I am not qualified to decide your fate myself. Since you have made your choice, I should fulfill my duty as a loser of the bet."

Upon hearing this, Atoris became confused instead.

"The responsibilities of losing a bet... Chaos Cult bastard, what responsibilities do you still have to fulfill... cough!"

As Julius watched Artorias gradually lose his strength, he spoke slowly.

"The Chaos Seed should have caused you to collapse twenty years ago, but you persevered, which instead deepened the bond between you and the Chaos Seed."

"Even now that you have chosen to die willingly, it will continue to grow until it devours your body and becomes an even more insane demigod."

"Crack...click...crack-crack..."

Watching Atoris's body gradually twist and deform, and the resentment and ferocity on his face.

Julius raised the heavy black sword in his hand.

"But since you've chosen death, to fulfill the duty of failing in this bet, I will help you carry this choice through to the end, so..."

Julius paused for a moment, then raised his black greatsword high, pointing it at the mutated Atoris.

"You monster who shouldn't exist in this world, I will personally annihilate you."

……

"Thump..."

Suddenly, Roland's heart skipped a beat.

He was a high-ranking official who served the empire for nearly two hundred years.

He clearly sensed someone's passing.

However, he doesn't have much time to grieve right now.

At this moment, Roland was conducting a massive ritual around the Void Hive.

[Insect Nest Replacement Ceremony]

Roland was puzzled as to why there were no other options.

For example, banishing the insect nest directly, or completely sealing it off.

However, since there were no better options at the moment, Roland still initiated this complex and massive ritual according to the ritual blueprints.

Although he is currently the world's strongest alchemist, he still only has a superficial understanding of rituals.

If many parts are arbitrarily altered, it could very likely prevent the entire ceremony from taking place.

Furthermore, the ritual was extremely bizarre; his two skills, Reconstruction of All Things and Analysis of the World, were unable to activate any effect on it.

This made Roland even more hesitant to attempt to modify the ceremony himself.

"Buzz—!"

The next second, Roland successfully initiated the ritual.

Suddenly, a tremendous force of attraction appeared at the center of the ceremony.

"What?"

Roland suddenly realized that this ritual required an enormous amount of energy, so enormous that it was unbelievable and not at all like the energy required for a replacement ritual.

However, the ceremony was at a critical moment, and Roland couldn't worry about that now.

[The Last Branch of the World Tree]

He pulled out a jade-green staff, pointed it at the sky, and used the staff as a medium to activate Void Extraction.

With a tremendous shriek, chaotic void energy surged forth from the cracks in space.

At this moment, Roland is channeling this almost inexhaustible energy into the ritual.

Surprisingly, these chaotic void energies were completely absorbed by the ritual before he even condensed them, and without any chaos whatsoever.

"Buzz—!"

At this moment, the ritual has absorbed all the energy it needed and has begun to operate.

From Roland's perspective, a blinding white light flashed across the sky.

The enormous void hive had been replaced by a brand new crimson-gold hive.

Roland's eyes widened suddenly as he looked at the crimson-gold insect nest.

"These are... the Gold-Eating Insect Clan?!"

For a moment, Roland didn't know whether this was a stroke of luck or misfortune.

Good news, the tough Void Zerg are gone.

The bad news is that the Gold-Eating Insectoids, which specialize in countering alchemical machinery, have taken their place.

"Although the Gold-Eating Insects are still not much better off, at least they don't have the Voidification's immunity, so they can be wiped out using large-scale annihilation methods."

As he spoke, Roland raised the emerald green staff in his hand.

As the most powerful alchemist, he was not very proficient in rituals.

But when it comes to magical prowess, Roland is among the best in the world.

The next second, a multicolored elemental storm instantly swept across the entire Gold-Eating Insect Nest.

"Whoosh—!"

As soon as the Gold-Eating Insects of all sizes emerged from their nests, they were torn apart into countless flying fragments of insect corpses by a massive elemental storm.

For a time, the Gold-Eating Insect Clan was actually suppressed.

Seeing this, Roland breathed a long-awaited sigh of relief.

"Phew... The Zerg probably won't be able to recover in a short time, so we can put this on hold for now."

With that, Roland immediately put away his staff, activated the directional teleportation array in the direction of Carlo Sri Lanka, and left the place.

For Roland, there were more important things that required him to return immediately.

……

After Roland left, a petite figure emerged from the shadows.

"I didn't expect it to work with other Zerg types. Looks like we need to find a way to strengthen this Gold-Eating Zerg..."

The person speaking at this moment was Xie Bai.

She, who had been staying in her room, decided to go out for a walk after a long time.

Then, just then, Roland started the replacement ritual.

Immediately afterward, before she could finish complaining about the Gold-Eating Insect Clan, a message came from her shadow.

"Hmm, Artorias has actually advanced to a demigod?"

Upon hearing Thanatos's request, Xie Bai quickly learned the situation on the ground.

"Even he and Julius together couldn't defeat him. It seems this demigod is indeed very strong."

As he spoke, Xie Bai stretched.

"Hmm... It's been a while since I've been in a fight, so I'll go check it out."

With that, Xie Bai disappeared into the shadows.

Only the Gold-Eating Insect Clan remained, trembling in place.