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

"Cecilia!"

With the help of the Night Witch's exclamation and the magic of darkness, Cecilia finally came to her senses.

The evil god wants to take her body!

The evil god howled, and the saintess Cecilia was caught off guard and instinctively raised her holy sword to cover herself. Then, in the next moment, she saw the god of light, who was rushing towards her, being cut in half by a silver pillar of light.

She was panting heavily. She first glanced at the upper body of the God of Light, who was lying on the ground like a dog trying to get up, before turning her head to look in the direction from which the silver beam of light had come.

That was the high and mighty princess in purple, and a grumpy elf. She knew the princess in purple.

Who could have imagined that the two, who were once so different in status, would have such a reversal at this moment?

Cecilia smiled bitterly as she released the holy sword from her hand. She could no longer feel the power emanating from the God of Light.

The God of Light is probably dead.

"Then, I think we should have a serious talk."

They stepped on the head of the God of Light's body, which was gradually turning into dust.

The former nun smiled and spoke to the saint.

Chapter Seventeen: 4/5 After the Battle, the Demon Realm-8K Unfolds Ahead of Schedule

"Then, I think we should have a serious talk."

Stepping on the head of the God of Light, which was gradually turning into dust, the nun first smiled and spoke to the hesitant saint, while tapping the head of the God of Light, who was gradually disappearing but still looking at her with resentment, with her scepter.

The God of Light is doomed—Teresa knows this very well. She is not afraid of any possible possession by the God of Light. Because she is now the saintess of Lalumia, if the God of Light wants to possess her, he will first have to get past the ever-growing power of Lalumia.

Besides, she had taken all necessary precautions before coming... The little nun muttered to herself, then glanced back at the United Kingdom soldiers who were clearing out the Old Cult's army under her orders. She and Finn exchanged a look and decided it would be better to finish them off with another shot.

Although there was no immediate danger to her life, being injured and upset was still a loss. Theresa raised her scepter high once more, and under the watchful eyes of the Night Witch who rushed over and the others, a silvery-white flash once more appeared at the base of her scepter...

"By the way, Cecilia—I don't know if you understand one thing, but the God of Light you worship is just a filthy bastard. But unfortunately, although my Lord will still give you the right to worship her, I will never allow you any possibility of entering our country."

Theresa stated with a smile, while the elf beside her darkly turned his face away: Wouldn't it be better to just kill them directly? It would be easier and there would be no repercussions... Is it really necessary to go to such lengths?

However, Finn's perspective is understandable—Theresa needed to establish a clear boundary between the current Bayern and the Romans.

The Romans will harm the innocent, disregard laws and religious texts, and act recklessly in the name of morality.

But the Bayerns couldn't do it. The United Nations couldn't. They had greater ambitions, stronger monarchs, more binding laws, and higher social morality.

Theresa had no reason to allow her people to have even the slightest possibility of degenerating into Romans for the sake of mere personal grudges. But ultimately, Finn could understand; not bringing her bag... fine. She was willing to accept that. After all, it was a promise made.

So hurry up and finish the job. The elf urged with her eyes, and as the nun nodded slightly, preparing to unleash the pillar of light to completely annihilate the God of Light, accompanied by the painful howl of the God of Light whom she was stepping on, everyone saw the God of Light's body begin to turn into dust and dissipate at an even faster speed.

What was going on? Before they could figure out what was happening, a deafening roar coming from the location of St. Petersburg drew everyone's attention.

As the morning sun shone, the magnificent St. Petersburg in the distance began to crumble.

"You...you! You won't get anything from me...don't even think about it!"

The God of Light's hoarse, resentful words made Theresa burst into laughter.

He truly lives up to his reputation as a barbarian from Roman.

What cannot be taken away must be destroyed, even if those things never belonged to the Romans in the first place; after their defeat, they only thought of destroying everything.

"Truly worthy of the Romans. Truly worthy of the Roman gods." The white-haired nun giggled, canceling the divine power gathering at the base of her scepter. Then, she stomped directly on the head of the God of Light, forcing him to gnaw on the black soil in an extremely humiliating posture.

The nun laughed mockingly:

"I was still thinking about how to destroy that city in a reasonable way. Lalumia doesn't care whether she can regain heaven. Our people have no intention of occupying those two places before you die—God of Light, or rather, Mr. Despicable Constantine?"

You really were a huge help. After all, for us right now, the destroyed holy city is the best holy city ever.

Upon hearing this, the God of Light stiffened for a moment, and then began to struggle frantically.

But this time, Teresa didn't give it any chance.

A beam of silvery-white light pierced the ground and burned the body of the God of Light to pieces.

Sister Teresa stood there amidst the silvery-white flames. These divine flames, capable of melting the hardest metals, showed no intention of harming Teresa. Instead, the saint and the witch instinctively took several steps back, only stopping panting heavily once they could no longer feel the heat of the flames.

The God of Light is dead—he is utterly dead. The news of the death of a deity will automatically spread in the hearts of every Roman who once believed in him, and for the believers among them, this is an era of utter despair.

But for Theresa and Finn, and for places like the United Kingdom and Isgard, which don't believe in the God of Light at all, this would only be good news.

Seeing the Protestant soldiers, except for the nuns, lying helplessly on the ground groaning in pain, Theresa had reason to suspect that these soldiers, even until just now, were unwilling to believe that the God of Light would really kill them. They were truly ignorant people.

While the worship of the Purple Royal Family by Bayer Gems is indeed a problem... at least the people of Bayer Gems are willing to consider whether the current Purple Royal Family is worthy of their loyalty, right? It took a lot of effort, with Yang Hao's help, to gain the people's genuine loyalty...

Otherwise, relying solely on her identity as the Purple-Clad Princess to enter the underground world? Don't be ridiculous. If that's all she accomplished and she ended up as a doll-like figure, the people of Bayer would probably have already changed governments by now!

Theresa sighed. She lamented the plight of the Romans.

And it was at this moment that Fen smiled with a sinister expression:

"So, shall we get down to business now, Theresa?"

"...That's true."

Theresa refocused her attention on the saintess and witch, who were a short distance away. She snapped her fingers, dispelling the surrounding silvery-white flames, and the body of the God of Light on the ground had completely vanished without a trace.

Just then, Elena and Naruja from behind came over and whispered, "Yang Hao and the others have returned to their base. Should we notify them to come over?"

How could we possibly let them come? This was originally a private matter that Teresa and Finn wanted to handle themselves...

Seeing the seemingly calm but secretly ambitious synthetic doll, Theresa and Finn had no choice but to give Elena a chance to get close to Yang Hao, and with Naruja keeping an eye on her, they were finally able to formally negotiate with the Protestant Church.

...The first step in battlefield negotiations needs to be resolved as quickly as possible.

As the victor, Theresa acted decisively.

She wouldn't be as easily swayed by emotions as Finn, so she wouldn't kill the two women she knew who were no longer a threat, but that didn't mean she would let her guard down.

"As I just said... although our United Nations has no intention of killing you, and is too lazy to occupy these few pieces of trash land, after the Holy City was destroyed, we have even less need to take back a bunch of ruins."

Dressed in simple yet luxurious clothing, Theresa stood high above, and Saint Cecilia had to look up to barely meet Theresa's slightly disdainful gaze.

"But as a fundamental condition... you will never be allowed to enter the United Nations. No matter what happens. Furthermore, we will not accept any of your diplomatic or trade terms, nor will we allow you to approach within ten kilometers of Yang Hao... Doesn't that sound like a war treaty? Yes, we don't care at all. You are not even as good as the losers in this war, so this is not a request for your opinion."

You either accept it, or you die here—and this is the choice I've secured for you. For the sake of our past acquaintance, and for the sake of you, Little Witch, not having had a chance to act back then, I'm giving you a chance.”

The nun's calm statement caused the saint and the witch to exchange a strained glance.

Admittedly, they had absolutely no choice. They couldn't possibly negotiate, because they simply didn't have the leverage.

Opportunity only comes to those who are capable of action. Clearly, this time they had neither the opportunity nor the ability to resist—or rather, they couldn't even take action, let alone offer their opinions.

Therefore... the saintess could only say:

"...We are willing to accept any conditions."

"Oh? I thought this would be troublesome."

"...Fine, after ascending to the ground, I've come to realize that my identity isn't omnipotent...So, Theresa, you're free to say whatever you want. I'm well aware of my current identity and situation. I only ask that you give this poor soul who barely survived a chance to live."

"Then who will give those demons who were inexplicably slaughtered a chance? Who will give the elves who lost their loved ones to your invasion a chance?"

Theresa's disdainful words silenced the saintess. But in the end, Theresa was merely speaking out of anger. Politics is the art of compromise, and Theresa desired the parish to remain in chaos; for this reason, the witch and the saintess were necessary.

Their mere existence within the diocese was enough to serve as a buffer... They had lost the possibility of rejoining the Roman Empire, and combined with their status as remnants of the Roman Empire, it was even less likely that they would be accepted by the post-war Khuttod Khanate and Issugard.

After all, the Romans, whom the barbarians hated most, were followers of the Church of Light. The Isgard people, in order to maintain good relations with the United Nations, could not possibly be on good terms with the remnants of the Romans—in this situation, the United Nations would gain a buffer zone between its two allied territories, minimizing the possibility of border clashes.

This is the role the Saintess and Witch will play from now on—a dumping ground for buffering the three nations. Theresa doesn't care what the dumping ground becomes, as long as it remains a dumping ground, that's fine with her.

So... I was just being stubborn, being stubborn.

But Theresa couldn't possibly get the current Protestant cult to hand over its people. Because before the Protestant cult became a dumping ground, it needed a sufficient number of people to survive the coming period, and it needed saints and witches as the foundation to ensure that the dumping ground, though slightly foul, wouldn't inspire people to consider taking it over.

The United Nations doesn't need to send people to build a junkyard. These people are essential.

so...

"...Phew. I'll give you a chance."

Theresa spoke under Finn's somewhat displeased gaze. She knew, of course, that the elf would be unhappy—but she also believed that the elf would understand.

It's just that elves are more prone to acting on emotions, nothing more.

Thus, the first negotiation ended in complete failure for the Saintess and the Witch. They still had about half an hour to negotiate before the Bayrzens could fully reclaim their ancestors' remains.

Meanwhile, due to the destruction of the Holy City, Yang Hao and the others, after a short rest, determined that the diocese was no longer of any value to occupy.

He was well aware, of course, that the parish's only value lay in its status as a religious and cultural center for the Bayern people—the very holy city of St. Petersburg. But now that the holy city had been destroyed and Larumia's heavenly kingdom had been ruined, the parish truly had no value in being occupied.

He decided to leave the parish unattended and use it as a buffer zone, but he didn't know how Teresa's negotiations were going...

Yang Hao seemed somewhat uneasy. Just when he seemed to be reaching his limit, Lord Lalumia said that they could go back now.

"After all, Theresa can handle everything—and Finn will help her too. They can come back quickly afterwards... The only problem might be that if we stay here too long, the army might think we have more military operations to continue, you know?"

Lady Lalumia stroked Yang Hao's hair as she stated this, despite the strange look from the black dragon Nia.

Yang Hao thought it over and agreed—they were only causing trouble for the army by staying here. It would be better to return home first and focus on building relationships with allied countries...

And so, Yang Hao decided to go back. However, he didn't forget Miss Nia, the Black Dragon, whose contribution, though not as great as he had imagined, had certainly been useful.

tentatively.

“Miss Nia, it seems that my business trip to Isgard as promised can be put on the agenda soon—we can discuss the details when I get back.”

He put a large pancake down for Nia.

Then, he and Lalumia used the elven mage's teleportation magic to leave first.

Elena and Naruja, who were left behind, still had things to take care of, so they left quickly.

In the end, only Miss Black Dragon remained standing in place.

She let out a long sigh. Her relaxed body felt a profound weariness she hadn't experienced in a long time.

Thinking to herself, "My long-term efforts are finally about to bear fruit!" Black Dragon Nia muttered to herself, "After I return home, I definitely need to take a long vacation first!"

"I'll just sleep for two or three years for now," Heilong said happily as he began planning his future vacation.

Meanwhile, at the front lines, Theresa finally confirmed the start of the war negotiations.

Based on the original framework, Theresa forced the Protestants to limit their activities to the territory of the Catholic Church at most. They could not even go to St. Petersburg, because even the ruins of St. Petersburg did not belong to the Protestants.

Based on this, the only clergy system that Protestantism allowed to retain was their ascetic corps. Since the ascetic corps essentially possessed power through faith—a renamed form of "light"—it was, in a sense, very easy to extinguish Protestant resistance.