I raised stunning young ladies, but they all wanted to possess me.

The giant dragon's bone wings froze in mid-air, the blood-red flames in its eye sockets flickering and struggling wildly before going out.

When it lit up again, the flames had turned into seven colors.

It lowered its head, used its forcibly controlled heart in its chest to drive its entire skeleton, turned around and spewed dragon breath towards the crack.

The crimson flames poured into the Black Tide's charging ranks, engulfing the skeletal knights in their charge, the rear ranks of the steel colossi, and the mental shriek the Gorgon hadn't even had a chance to unleash.

Then came the second head, and the third head.

The steel colossi, their hearts pierced by the seven-colored light, stopped in their tracks, their dark red eyes simultaneously extinguishing and then illuminating again.

They turned around and swept the beams of light from their arms across their fellow beings.

A row of Abyss Lords knelt before the city gate, leaning on their greatswords. The eerie green flames inside their helmets were replaced by rainbow flames. They stood up, turned around, and swung their greatswords, cleaving open another S-rank that was still resisting.

The backlash from a Class A calamity is as swift as a surging tide.

In a matter of seconds, the vanguard of the Black Tide became the gravedigger of the Black Tide.

The surviving calamities began to kill each other. The bone-eating worms that were still crashing into the city walls were crushed by the steel colossi. The Gorgons that were still spewing poisonous mist were burned to ashes by the skeletal dragon's breath. The steel colossi that were still attacking the southern breach had their legs severed by beams of light from their betraying brethren and were forced to their knees.

Everyone on the battlefield witnessed that scene.

They saw the S-class skeletal dragon, which had been hovering above the city wall, bowing its head before the young man as if bowing to its master.

They saw him standing at the breach in the city wall, thin and pale, with iridescent light emanating from the depths of his pupils, like a lighthouse shining in the eye of a storm.

They saw that with each movement of his finger, an S-class beast bowed its head, a row of A-class beasts defected, and an entire Black Tide was torn to pieces by its own kind.

The final crack was sealed off by the simultaneous breaths of more than a dozen rebellious skeletal dragons.

The dark red lightning flickered a few times reluctantly before silently extinguishing itself in the night sky.

Only scattered remnants remained burning on the battlefield, black and red blood mingling into a dark purple river that flowed down the city walls, gleaming eerily in the moonlight.

The soldiers on the defensive line looked up.

Some people dropped their guns, while others knelt on the edge of the shell crater, their faces covered in blood, looking up towards the city wall.

No one spoke, no one cheered, not because they weren't excited, but because they were so overwhelmed that everyone forgot how to cheer.

Then everyone saw it.

Their guardian angel, the chief priestess who had slain countless S-rank warriors, was standing behind the young man.

She reached out from behind and wrapped her arms tightly around his waist.

Her forehead rested against his back, her long hair cascading over his dusty shoulders, her blood-stained fingers gripping the hem of his shirt so tightly, as if afraid that if she let go, he would disappear like the other fallen comrades.

Gu Yan swayed slightly.

His lips were deathly pale, cold sweat streamed down his face, and the iridescent light in his pupils was slowly fading.

His consciousness was slowly sinking, but he didn't fall.

Because she was hugging him from behind, very tightly.

He raised his hand and gently patted the back of her hand that was wrapped around his waist.

The movement was very light, but Yuzuru felt it and tightened his arm even more.

Her eyes were red as if she had just been pulled out of the deepest, deepest fear.

She didn't speak, but simply buried her face in his back, feeling the gentle and faint spiritual energy still slowly flowing within him.

Just then, a golden light suddenly appeared on the distant horizon.

It wasn't the dark red of the Kuroshio Crevice, but pure gold, the kind of golden flame that can only be seen above the permafrost of the far north.

The light approached from the extremely high sky at an incredible speed, leaving a trail of blazing golden flame in mid-air.

The pilot of an armed helicopter that was returning to base leaned out of the cockpit and shouted into the communications channel.

Something is approaching!

"That's too fast!"

"It's not a calamity!"

"Repetition is not a calamity!"

The golden light stopped abruptly directly above the defensive line, then fell like a meteorite, landing less than fifty meters in front of Yu Sheng and Gu Yan.

Smoke and dust billowed into the sky, causing several wrecked mechs to slide backward several meters.

Before the smoke and dust had even cleared, a foot had already stepped out from inside.

Combat boots made a crisp sound as they stepped on the gravel, followed by long, straight calves, a dark blue combat uniform, and long, flowing golden hair that danced wildly in the wind.

Lin Jinyu stood on the battlefield soaked in black blood, with the deep crater created by the fall and the still-burning remains of the calamity behind her.

Gu Yan leaned against the headboard.

The feeling of emptiness draining from my body hadn't completely subsided; every breath felt like it was tearing at my dried-up meridians.

He had just used the Mirror Flower Seal to forcibly control the S-rank calamity, and the mental energy consumption had far exceeded his current tolerance.

His fingers were still trembling slightly, and his vision was somewhat blurred.

But what confused him even more was Lin Jinyu.

How come she's in Japan? Shouldn't she be on the front lines in Great Xia or Northern Europe?

Elena had previously stated that Lin Jinyu and Pei Yuran did not participate in the god-making project because they would not go to any closed bases; they would find him in the most primitive way.

I searched every city and every street until I found him.

He didn't expect it to happen so quickly, nor did he expect to be here.

However, Yuzuru had disguised his appearance with spiritual energy, changing his face and demeanor, so she shouldn't have recognized him.

What he didn't know was that Lin Jinyu's entire body trembled the moment she saw him.

That trembling was something she had suppressed for far too long, so long that she herself couldn't believe it.

She forced herself to suppress it.

She couldn't lose her composure on the battlefield in front of all the soldiers.

She simply walked up to him and stopped, her golden pupils lingering on his face for a moment before turning to Chiyomiya Hanyu beside her.

"This is..."

Lin Jinyu's voice was very calm, as if she were asking a question that had nothing to do with her.

"He's my deputy."

Yuzuru bowed slightly, his tone calm and natural.

"He was recently transferred here to assist me in maintaining the rune arrays on the defensive line."

"fine."

Lin Jinyu nodded.

Her tone was very indifferent, so indifferent that it was as if she were saying that the weather was nice today.

Then she turned around and walked towards the defense command post, her long golden hair fluttering gently in the smoke-filled wind.

She didn't turn around, but when the wind blew through her hair, you could see her ears trembling slightly.

Gu Yan blinked.

He hadn't expected things to go so smoothly. Just as the weight on his heart lifted a little, he felt something was amiss.

She only said three words to a complete stranger she was meeting for the first time.

This was not the style of Lin Jinyu he remembered.