After being forced to step down, the once-annoying nun eloped with me.

“However, I can ignore attacks involving divine magic.” The little nun muttered, “The divine magic of the God of Light is like free money to me. I will definitely accept it and turn it into our original power. But as for physical attacks, we can only rely on you.”

Finn sighed and said that if there was so much concern about physical attacks, Theresa should stay in a safer place. Faced with Finn's helplessness, Theresa simply gripped Yang Hao's sleeve and said, "If I choose to stay in the rear when it's most needed, who will be willing to walk alongside me?"

This is Teresa's philosophy of life—never be someone who receives charity. We must support each other and walk together. This is her stage.

Therefore, Theresa would never abandon her duty for safety's sake. And coincidentally, the battle between the black dragon and the angels was drawing to a close...

Faced with a thick-skinned, magic-immune black dragon, no matter how much power the angels gained, they still couldn't break through its defenses with their weapons and divine spells. Furthermore, as more and more believers on earth died due to the collapse of faith, the angels' divine power dwindled, until finally they could cast almost no divine spells beyond the most basic ones.

Black Dragon noticed the movement of the airship and naturally began to drive the angels toward Yang Hao and the others. Faced with the surging angels, Yang Hao and the others simply told Theresa to get ready and then watched Theresa perform with peace of mind.

And she lived up to expectations, murmuring words from the Holy Book of Light as Teresa stretched out her right hand toward the angel flying towards her.

A silvery-white light shimmered in her hands, and accompanied by the distant roar of a black dragon, she sprayed the silvery-white light as bubbles onto the path of the angels.

"...Although it was originally a divine spell used to amuse Anna, it should be about the same as using it on these angels, right?"

Theresa murmured.

After the angels collided with the bubbles created by the power of the God of Light, they fell helplessly toward the ground amidst bursts of silvery-white flashes.

Some landed on the airship, while others landed on the ground. Yang Hao and the others, along with the guards, managed to control the angels that had fallen onto the ship. As for those that had fallen to the ground…?

Seeing the black dragon swooping down in a fit of rage, eager to tear them to pieces, Yang Hao tentatively concluded that he should leave it alone.

............

The afternoon of November 17th.

When the flames of the fire trap finally burned out, leaving only charred remains and the blackened ground on the hillside in front of the refuge church... the United Nations' army was taking stock of their own losses and the enemy's casualties.

First, there are our own losses—besides the heavy machine guns at the machine gun positions being completely out of ammunition and the airship's cannons having used up almost all their ammunition, the only other loss is that the airship was dented on the deck by the falling angels, which will be a bit troublesome to repair later.

The enemy's losses were incalculable—the soldiers of the United Nations still couldn't set foot on the scorched earth to count the number of corpses. Rather, the charred bodies had long been indistinguishable due to being trampled on or entangled in the vines of the Golden Valley, making identification impossible.

The soldiers could only deduce that, apart from a very small number of sane individuals who fled at the first sign of trouble, the tens of thousands of believers must have perished in the inferno. Their charred corpses were hardly even worth counting; even if they wanted to identify high-value targets, the soldiers simply couldn't afford to enter the scorched, oven-like zone for an extended period without protection...

"So, that's all for our report..."

"Okay, thanks for your hard work. Move the machine gun back and prepare for evacuation."

After landing back on the ground, Yang Hao received a report from the ground commander. After encouraging the commander for his hard work, he led Finn and Theresa to the familiar church interior, and then, under Theresa's guidance, they arrived at a secret underground cave.

Theresa explained that there would be a long waiting period before she could control the shrine to rise, and if she was worried about wetting herself upon seeing the "light," she should take advantage of this opportunity to do so.

"Why don't you suggest using this time to calm your tense heart like a sage?" The little elf rolled her eyes, then leaned against Yang Hao's waist. "So hurry up and bring the shrine up—but then again... what are you going to do, Theresa?"

"What do you mean, what should we do?"

"What I mean is, after the [Light] manifests in the world, everyone's faith will definitely shift from you to the [Light]... Is that alright?"

The elf's sharp question, as always, brought a slight smile to the little nun's lips.

She hummed softly a few times, then sliced ​​her thumb across the control panel left behind by the Bayer Zans Empire. Letting the blood drip and gleam faintly on the panel, she chuckled softly:

"You think I'm an ungrateful Roman? Don't let my constant insults fool you... I genuinely respect Him as an elder. As far as I can remember, after my parents died, He cared for me with His meager strength, just like my mother... This really is His, so why should I keep it?"

But if you lose your power, can you really continue to help Yang Hao?

Finn had originally intended to raise the question directly—but after carefully considering Theresa's identity, she felt relieved.

Teresa is now not only the only nun and saint of the Light, but also its spokesperson. Even if Teresa were to return all her power to the Light, as both a nun and a saint, she could still draw upon the faith of her followers and provide Yang Hao with combat assistance through the traditional clergy system.

To use a simple analogy, before the power was transferred, Theresa could use powerful divine magic anytime, anywhere—after the power was transferred, she could still use divine magic anytime, anywhere, but she would need a believer by her side.

Of course, if the Light truly favors Theresa, it probably wouldn't ask Theresa to return her power to it. In that case, Theresa would still be the Theresa everyone knows, and she would suffer almost no loss. Naturally, she wouldn't have to worry about not being able to keep up with Yang Hao's pace due to insufficient power.

Not to mention that Theresa is currently holding the position of Bayer S. Baselissa—putting aside Yang Hao's doting on her, even if Yang Hao didn't love her anymore, she still has the ability and necessity to stay by his side...

...

So, am I out of my mind because I'm worried about her?

For the first time, the little elf felt a headache coming on from her own sentimentality... Listening to the rattling of gears beneath her feet, Finn sighed again.

She shifted her position so that Theresa could also have a comfortable place to lean against their man. Then she looked up at Yang Hao and said, "What will we do when the furious Black Dragon is about to get angry?"

"Will we need to explain the existence of [Light] to her then? That's a god, you know?"

“I think explaining shouldn’t be a problem, right? After all, Nia seems pretty rational. She wouldn’t choose to sabotage the [Light] just to offend us, would she?” Theresa rolled her eyes. “Besides, if we make Isgard realize that we can even save gods, and that our next move might be to kill a god, they’ll probably think more highly of us, right?”

"It could be worse—after all, you know. Heh. Mortals are terrified of powerful nations that turn against gods, you know?"

"I don't think our country can be considered strong. The male-to-female ratio of our population is terrible right now. Let's wait until we have tens of millions of people before we talk about being strong."

"Then it depends on how hard Mr. Yang Hao works."

Yang Hao rolled his eyes, thinking that they were definitely not talking about political efforts, but rather efforts in other areas...

But after thinking it over—never mind. Although he really wanted to say that he probably couldn't contribute much, it was quite normal to start with a child as a goal...

...

I hope that [the light] can solve the problem of Teresa and me not being able to have children... I hope so.

Yang Hao was praying fervently in his heart when the sound of gears stopping stopped.

At the end of the cave passage, a downward staircase rose up. After exchanging a glance, they followed Teresa down the stairs.

Below, they entered the interior of the shrine and, after passing through a dusty but clearly active corridor, arrived at the hall. Here, a nun kneeling on a cushion seemed to be reciting something eloquently.

It seems that in the eyes of the believers, the image of "Light" is that of a nun—before everyone could recover from this fact, the nun's action of getting up and turning around almost made their eyes pop out.

Without him.

"Welcome, children—it would be wonderful if you weren't hurt."

The gentle and considerate image of "Light" before her was simply a larger-chested, black-eyed version of Teresa.

Chapter 5: Mother Light's Embrace and the Next Goal - 8K

.....

Late at night on July 17.

When Yang Hao and his group finally returned to the Purple Palace in Constantinople with the books stored in the underground of the refuge church and, most importantly, the [Light], the black dragon Nia was still in a daze of shock.

At first, she thought that her hard work was merely to establish a strategic point for the United Nations, to annihilate the enemy's manpower, and to deal a certain blow to the enemy's religious groups, nothing more.

Although fighting those "angels" back and forth was a bit unpleasant, Nia still considered herself to be doing something insignificant... So what if she killed tens of thousands of rioters? So what if she roasted tens of thousands of people, beat up a few angels, and captured these zombies?

Ultimately, isn't this just a regular military operation?

Nia did indeed think that way at the time. Even after the battle ended, when His Majesty Yang Hao and his two wives entered the church, she still thought that way as she leaned on the railing of the airship watching Naruja enthusiastically studying the structure of the angels.

But when Emperor Yang Hao brought a nun out of the church and had soldiers move a large number of books out of it, she realized something was wrong:

Where did this simply dressed nun come from? She gives off a strange sense of warmth and friendliness. Come to think of it, why do you look so familiar...?

Black Dragon was filled with confusion, vaguely feeling that the black-eyed, white-haired nun resembled someone she knew... but then she suddenly realized something—wasn't the Queen of Bayer Nils exactly like her?!

Could this be a strange new outfit that Her Majesty Theresa suddenly came up with?! But that doesn't make sense, does it? Her Majesty Theresa went in perfectly fine, and she's coming out perfectly fine too! What's going on?

Black Dragon was completely bewildered as he and Naruja watched the heavily protected, respected nun board the airship and enter her comfortable cabin.

She was still somewhat lost in thought, her mind not yet fully cleared from the battle, so she foolishly asked His Majesty Yang Hao, who was alone overseeing the moving of church supplies:

"Um? Your Majesty Yang Hao? May I ask who that person is?"

The moment the words left her mouth, Nia knew she had asked something she shouldn't have—but before she could react and apologize, His Majesty Yang Hao sighed and uttered a single word:

【bright】.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Nia was greatly puzzled, and in response to her confusion, Yang Hao simply repeated the same sentence:

【bright】.

He paused briefly, then turned to look at the cabin where Finn, Theresa, and the nun were resting. He glanced meaningfully at the black dragon of Isgard, then reached out and touched Naruja's hair as she leaned closer. Without noticing a slowly moving camera at the end of the corridor, he added:

"Or you could say you can understand it as a [god]."

"...Huh?"

"Literally, a god representing the concept of 'light'—but she desperately needs care and nurturing, and more importantly, she needs to reclaim her power from our enemies... Or is it that you, Nia, cannot understand the situation in Ysgard because there is no 'god'?"

"No... well, we have religious beliefs in our country, but... what did you just say?"

Nia tilted her head blankly, pointed to the cabin, and then pointed to Yang Hao:

"You mean... a god? And you've saved him? And you... you even plan to help this god regain his power?!"

Black Dragon's voice grew louder and louder, and even though Yang Hao wanted to stop her but couldn't, he chose to let Nia do as she pleased.

For Nia, this was something she had never even imagined...

She had considered what kind of results her assistance in the United Nations' military operations would bring to the United Nations, and she had even considered that her assistance might make the United Nations the true rulers of the continent of Elusia... but she never imagined it.

My mission was actually to help the United Nations rescue a god?!

And they even plan to help that god regain his power, for which they need to take revenge on that Light God Cult of the Roman Empire?!

What the hell did I do...? No, the most obvious thing is... I think I lost money!

If I'd known you were here to save God, I would have been so stupid as to come without a checklist! This isn't fair!

Black Dragon returned to her temporary room in the Purple Palace, still dazed. She lay on the bed, still dressed, lost in thought. Perhaps her confused mind needed a bath to calm down, but then she realized the more important thing now was to inform Margarita.

The United Nations saved a god—enough to change Ysgard's entire diplomatic strategy towards the United Nations once again, but before that, Nia might...

...

Exhausted, she got out of bed, stripped naked, changed into her pajamas, and took the magic mirror into the bathroom where hot water had already been prepared.

Never mind all that, let's report it first.

Anyway, it'll be Margarita who'll have a headache, not me.

With this "letting things slide" mentality in mind, Black Dragon contacted Margarita in the bathroom and recounted everything he had seen and heard...

Meanwhile, in the small lounge next to Yang Hao and Teresa's bedroom...

Looking at the [Light] in front of him, who was almost identical to Theresa, and then at Theresa and Finn, Yang Hao sighed, took a sip of hot tea, and was troubled about how to start a conversation.

When they were in the underground shrine, Yang Hao and the others were truly dumbfounded.