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

His words were quite pertinent—after all, you can discover a lot of potential before you study something, but you still have to wait until you study it to make a decision on what you can actually do with it.

Everyone understood. So, after thinking it over, it was decided that there was no need to continue the meeting—everyone had work to do, but after finishing their tasks, they really deserved a good rest...

I haven't slept for a day and a half. Even the toughest man would give out by now.

So after everyone had determined their respective goals, they prepared to leave first.

After issuing the decree, Theresa went to sleep and rest, while Finn had to go to Gaparia to work for a while before returning to rest.

Naruja had already gone to sleep, while Elena, as a synthetic doll, had absolutely no need to rest.

Lalumia, needless to say, had no intention of sleeping at all; if she wanted, she could wander around energetically with her eyes wide open forever...

Even so, she still didn't consider the situation of others in the context of her own health.

She just kept rubbing Yang Hao's head and said that Yang Hao needed to rest well after he finished dealing with his work with Heilong Nia.

"If you don't go back to your room and get some sleep by then, I'll drag you back before the maids arrive, understand?"

She gently pinched Yang Hao's nose while nodding to Theresa:

"So, everyone get to work—I'll take Naruja back first, then go to Theresa's room and have the maids prepare hot water for your baths before you come back to rest... Oh, by the way, little Elena, is there anything I can help you with?"

Elena first shook her head, then nodded silently. Knowing the synthetic doll's embarrassment, Lalumia smiled and said, "I understand," before lifting Naruja from Yang Hao's lap.

She used divine magic to leave the conference room.

Those who remained looked at each other for a long while before finally sighing heavily:

"Lalumia is really starting to look more and more like a mother..."

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

While the United Nations was efficiently dealing with the southward spread of the Ice Calamity and the various impacts of the Roman Empire's demonic transformation, significant changes were also taking place in the surrounding regions of the Roman Empire.

The Kingdom of Alessar was completely unprepared for the dire situation of the Roman Empire. Now their emperor is ordering his troops to quickly withdraw with their spoils—he no longer dares to hope that he can occupy the mountains and mines in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. Rather than risking the expansion of the Demon Realm by continuing military operations, it is better to wait until the troops have withdrawn in three days and then send them back.

The Protestant region, which had finally stabilized, was thrown into chaos by the unfolding of the Demon Realm. Fortunately, the saintess Cecilia and the witch Priscilla firmly controlled the chaotic crowd. After realizing that the edge of the Demon Realm was blocked at the border of the parish, they ordered the people to continue farming according to plan so that they could obtain more food by the end of the year to get through the winter.

They were relieved by the collapse of the Roman Empire, and even more relieved by the existence of this barrier, which prevented a massive influx of civilians in the foreseeable future.

They had considered that this might be a foreshadowing by Yang Hao, but in the end they thought it might be Roman's divine retribution.

Speaking of divine retribution... from above, the demonic realm covering the Roman Empire presents a fragmented yet barely complete irregular shape. This demonic realm covers the entire central region of the Roman Empire while also extending slightly outwards into its territory. There are several gaps along the edge of the barrier that allow entry and exit, and at the gap closest to the Isgard colonial army's command post, the first batch of Isgard troops has successfully evacuated.

Even when good news came, General Piss showed no sign of joy.

Because his main force was still deeply surrounded, and under his command the main force had advanced too quickly, reaching the edge of the Roman capital—under these circumstances, it was impossible for them to withdraw as quickly as the troops at the edge of the barrier.

The Sirens who were conscripted did indeed successfully create hole after hole outside the barrier using flesh magic... but these holes were quickly repaired, and the exact mechanism behind it is still unclear.

But one thing is certain—if Isgard wants to save its main force in the heart of Roman, it cannot do so by relying on itself.

"Lady Nia, we can only rely on you now..."

Knowing the current strength of the colonial army, General Piss could only place his hopes on Lady Nia.

If Lady Nia can get the United Nations moving, I can't say for sure whether our main force can be withdrawn, but the possibility of withdrawal is at least 20%.

Although General Piss had for a moment the impulse to abandon his main force, he thought again, how could a general so easily abandon his men?

In reality, soldiers are indeed expendable in a war, but at least General Piss had to fulfill his responsibility, which was to bring as many people home as possible after the victory.

"So, Lady Nia... I'm counting on you."

So he sighed heavily.

After watching the Sirens, under his command, diligently open one passage after another, allowing the friendly forces inside the barrier to evacuate.

He knew that this was all he could do.

......

time flies.

Yang Hao and Nia appeared once again in the reception room of the Purple Palace.

Nia's expression was extremely solemn. But this time, she truly had no hope left.

"...Your Majesty Yang Hao."

After all, this was a plea from the United Nations to almost unconditionally save their main force.

She held no hope, but for the sake of her people's army.

She had to seize even the slightest possibility.

Nia gritted her teeth.

But at that moment, Yang Hao nodded:

“I agree. We shouldn’t use the same mindset as in a human civil war when fighting demons. They are our common enemy, so the United Nations will do everything it can to help Ysgard rescue your forces—so, can we get to the point? We don’t have time to waste. Understand?”

I haven't said anything yet!

Nia stared at Yang Hao in disbelief.

I just inexplicably felt a warm, relaxing liquid trying to well up in my eyes.

Chapter Two: Interactions with Ysgard, and... -8K

“I agree. We shouldn’t use the same mindset as in a human civil war when fighting demons. They are our common enemy, so the United Nations will do everything it can to help Ysgard rescue your forces—so, can we get to the point? We don’t have time to waste. Understand?”

Looking at Miss Nia, who was staring in disbelief.

Yang Hao muttered to himself, this was indeed the answer he had given after careful consideration, and it was indeed true.

After careful consideration, it is not difficult to see that the devil has an almost overwhelming advantage over a single country.

Is the Kingdom of Eden powerful? Of course it is. Their magical technology is unparalleled, even capable of sending their continent into the sky. To this day, their floating continent remains stably afloat outside the ports of the United Kingdom, and the artificial magical reactors built on it produce more magical energy in a month than the continent of Elusia recovers in a year.

Was Bayerzs powerful in the past? Of course it was. It allied with the Elven Kingdom to fight the demons, but ultimately found itself in a situation where it had to drag the demons underground to perish together. It even nearly faced annihilation.

Even with such powerful nations, both found themselves at a disadvantage when forced to confront the demons alone—the Bayerzens could at least fight the demons despite food shortages, while the Kingdom of Eden, due to its awkwardly abundant magical environment, was repeatedly defeated by the demons... Why was this?

Yang Hao believes the answer is simple: it lies in the fact that the demon race has an overwhelming advantage over the evolution of individual countries.

Why do you say that?

(The Kingdom of Eden possessed powerful magic, so demons evolved resistant skin to fight them... Similarly, when Bayrzens fought demons, he primarily relied on the divine magic of "Light," so demons also evolved a strategy to directly confront priests and their followers...)

To put it bluntly, the demons' overwhelming power over a single nation lies in this evolutionary ability—but this ability is not invincible. If multiple nations can unite closely, then the demons' evolutionary ability will be dealt a heavy blow...

The answer lies in the demon's ability to evolve.

If a demon's evolution limit is 10 cookies, and allocating evolution to different directions requires consuming one cookie—then in the face of a demon, the strengths of a single nation can be easily negated by evolutionary abilities.

If we use the Kingdom of Eden as an analogy, its magical technology score is 9, so the demon can directly put ten cookies into the evolution of magical technology.

This directly led to the Kingdom of Eden losing its most advanced weapon against demons, and then being forced to use its weaknesses to fight against the demons' strengths, which would naturally lead to defeat, and it might even die a very quick death.

Demons possess an unparalleled advantage against single sources of damage. However, conversely, when the Kingdom of Eden joins forces with the United Nations, which excels in physical destruction, the demons find themselves in an awkward situation where they will be easily overwhelmed no matter which resistance they evolve.

This means that in the future, if the fight against demons is to be waged, alliances between nations will be of paramount importance. And this only mentions one aspect of the demons' evolution of [resistance]; it hasn't even mentioned their evolution of [weapons] and [intelligence]...

Considering various factors, we are no longer in an era where nations can fight crises alone. Ancient nations have taught their successors the importance of cooperation through bloody lessons—under these circumstances, Yang Hao naturally abandoned his intention to continue harming or ignoring Ysugard's pleas.

To put it bluntly, a civil war between humans is like a father beating his son. But a demonic invasion is as absurd as the neighbor barging into your house to beat up your son. Rather than letting the main force of Ysgard be annihilated and causing problems for future cooperation, it's better to take this opportunity to do them a favor while ensuring that the main force of the colonial army doesn't suffer too many losses.

With this in mind, Yang Hao gave the above answer before Black Dragon Nia could react. And now... looking at Black Dragon Nia's expression, which seemed to be on the verge of tears of gratitude, he wearily pondered, "Any normal person should know the importance of fighting demons, right?" He then slumped onto his sofa and said, "Wouldn't it be better if we just got straight to the point?"

Urged on by Yang Hao, Heilong Nia suppressed her inner excitement and the warm tears welling up in her eyes, and calmed herself down. She took out a handkerchief from her still-unchanged clothes, gently wiped her eyes, and then spoke:

"Thank you for your understanding and assistance... In fact, our troops have now been divided into three parts."

General Piss's logistics and command hub was outside the barrier, while his guards and some reinforcements were trapped inside the barrier, not far from the command hub.

They are currently working together actively to carry out the evacuation... therefore, they are the part that does not need to be concerned about.

What's truly important are the roughly 20,000 main force troops who have already approached the capital of Roman Kingdom—they are trapped deep within the barrier, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, they should also be attempting to break out...but..."

At this point, the black dragon, her eyes red, paused for a moment. Then she looked down at the small notebook in her hand and said, "The ecological environment within the barrier is particularly harsh... to the point that it has caused the biota to mutate."

Yang Hao was taken aback for a moment, then asked what had happened. Nia shook her head and then slumped onto the table.

"According to General Piss's intelligence, the barrier is filled with an extremely dense purple mist. All living and inorganic matter are mutating under the mist's cover; the Romans are turning into twisted monsters one after another, and all the dead are transformed into even more twisted aberrations the instant after their death..."

Our main force is probably in a situation where they want to fight but dare not, and want to run but can't find their way because of the thick fog... In addition, with the change in terrain, they may have already gotten lost inside the barrier.

Not to mention...

"Not to mention?"

"...Those mutations have also begun to manifest in our people. The Roman mutations aren't limited to the Romans; they appear in all living beings, only they're progressing much faster—our mages can't find a way to stop them, in other words..."

"It's quite possible that by the time we find the main force of Ysgard, your lad will already be teetering on the edge of mutating into a monster, right?"

Yang Hao's words silenced Nia, who was lying face down on the table.

Indeed, the most pressing issue now is not rescuing the main force of the colonial army, but rather figuring out how to determine the infection status of the colonial army.

According to intelligence transmitted from the front lines by General Piss, all creatures located within the purple barrier or the [Demon Realm] have undergone mutations to varying degrees.

The Romans mutate the fastest, especially the refugees from the lowest social classes. Next are the fat and bloated officials or nobles, and finally the trained warriors and strong-willed heroes.

Once they mutate, they transform into various terrifying monsters. Initially, these monsters can be killed by firearms, but after a period of combat, they inexplicably evolve curved chitinous armor specifically designed to counter firearm bullets...

This directly led to the Ysugard colonial army's successive defeats: they didn't have enough mage resources to fight these terrifying monsters! Forced to retreat at top speed, they discovered similar mutations on their own bodies only after they were outside...

Especially the alien races in the Ysgard army, their mutations occur faster and over a wider area than those of ordinary human soldiers.

Nia spoke fluently and concisely, while Yang Hao listened attentively. After a moment, Yang Hao raised his hand, signaling Nia to pause:

"Overall, I understand the situation," he said. "I will immediately send my mage and hunter corps to General Piss's location to see if we can use magic to eradicate the infection from the Isugardians."

At the same time, I will also communicate with the Kingdom of Eden. The magical technology of the Edenians should also be useful... but we cannot guarantee that we can completely solve the problem.

Besides, Miss Nia..."

Yang Hao looked up at the clock in the conference room. It was a little past 10 a.m. on May 20th. If he started making arrangements now, there should still be enough time...

"I need you to get some rest and then immediately head to the area where General Piss is located to obtain firsthand intelligence... I will also personally lead a team there to handle this matter after a short rest. But I hope that by the time I arrive, you will already have detailed information about the world inside the barrier, is that alright?"

"...Can."

“Then let’s do it this way.” Yang Hao stood up, cracked his neck, and casually took the teacup handed to him by the maid who had just arrived, downing the black tea in one gulp. “We don’t have time to waste. Let’s get started—please remember, we may be two independent nations that need to scheme against each other in the human world… but I hope that in the fight against the demons, we can become close allies.”