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

He was just dazed when Lalumia took him back to her room in this inexplicably quiet corridor. It was only after they left that the servants and maids, who had gotten lost due to the divine magic, returned to the corridor in a daze.

When they returned, it was already too late.

Lalumia led Yang Hao back to her room, personally prepared a cup of hangover tea for him, and then asked him to sit down on the sofa. A strange, somewhat frightening smile played on her lips.

"Here, drink this and you'll feel better."

She smiled and handed the hangover tea to Yang Hao. At this moment, she was dressed like Theresa, yet not like Theresa—perhaps so that her servants, who didn't recognize her, could distinguish her identity and avoid confusing her with Theresa. In recent days, Lalumia had been wearing her hair in a ponytail that hung down in front of her chest before going out.

Therefore, Yang Hao realized even more clearly that the person in front of him was Lalumia, not his wife.

"Thanks..."

He nodded gratefully, drank the bitter hangover tea to clear his head a little, and felt that Lalumia was somehow exuding a faint beauty.

She had always been beautiful—but this strange beauty was inexplicable to Yang Hao...

However, he quickly regained his composure. Thinking to himself, "This is someone my wife sees as a mother figure," he patted his cheeks to make sure his breath was completely free of alcohol before deciding it was time to leave.

"Although I won't stop you from going back now, my child, I still hope you'll be more careful in the future, okay?"

"What...is it about?"

"No matter what, people will still worry if you're out drinking for so long without anyone with you. So next time you're going to drink like this, at least let me go with you, understand?"

So that's what you were worried about...

Yang Hao felt a warmth in his heart, nodded to show his understanding, and left Lalumia's room with gratitude in his heart.

Lalumia watched with a smile as the door in front of her was gently closed.

After a while.

"Hehe... If I had acted a little more seductively just now, I wonder if Yang Hao would have made a move on me? But thinking about it carefully, he doesn't seem to be the kind of person who takes the initiative. It seems I have to be more proactive?"

But compared to this, huff huff huff...

I wonder what kind of expression Teresa would have if she found out her husband had harmed the deity she worshipped... What if I struck first? Wouldn't that be even more fun?

The gods chuckled. Now, without needing to worry about the "bright future" of their people and believers, the gods finally had the opportunity to unleash their true nature.

Perhaps I've always been someone who enjoys watching others have fun? Or maybe it's a reaction to emotions suppressed for centuries due to my responsibilities?

In short... Lalumia, who was lying in bed writhing like a maggot, didn't think there was anything wrong with what she was doing.

In her mind, Yang Hao, Theresa and Finn, as well as herself, Naruja, Elena, or "everyone" were all complete immortals—if not now, then always.

Having achieved immortality, mortal morality is, in a sense, no longer an issue. Naturally, with Theresa and Finn having given their permission, it would be perfectly reasonable for a god to pursue his own happiness and security, wouldn't it?

But why is it Xiao Yanghao?

Lalumia laughed and laughed until she finally collapsed onto the bed, too exhausted to continue.

Why him?

Perhaps it's because I've been paying too much attention to him?

Could it be because of the emotions conveyed by Theresa?

Or perhaps... it's simply feelings that developed from spending a lot of time together?

"I don't know why this is... but in the end... humans themselves have many emotions that arise without knowing the reasons behind them, so why can't we gods?"

Lalumia lay on the bed, muttering to herself.

She gently closed her eyes.

As time goes by and things progress...

Time flies, and it's already June 23rd.

The Ice Calamity has arrived less than two days from the Monster Forest.

Although it is still far away in the grasslands.

But its impact has already spread to the forests.

Chapter Six: The Calamity of Ice and the Final Battle - 8K

It was early morning on June 23, 2006 in the Imperial Calendar.

While most people were still fast asleep, chaos reigned in the northern part of the Monster Forest.

After approaching the Demon Forest, the Ice Calamity began a long detour. Using its clear night vision, it noticed strange tower structures in the distance. Realizing that surging magical power emanated from these towers, it deduced that they were likely weapons specifically designed to target it.

The Ice Calamity had never actually seen such tower-like weapons, but his experience fighting the Bayrjans told him that such tall things were definitely not to be trifled with.

We must change our route—but if we do, we might miss the time to enter the Demon Realm...

Ice Calamity can choose to change its route while increasing its speed.

This was not a difficult task for him—but it was based on the premise of having enough food.

With a full stomach, even the least active demon can move quickly and easily.

If they can't get enough to eat, even the most skilled demon subspecies can only crawl on the ground.

Although Titans can evolve organs similar to plant photosynthesis using their excess evolution limit even without eating, the output of such organs is ultimately just a drop in the ocean compared to a Titan's daily consumption.

The most direct consequence of all this for the Ice Calamity is that there is a very high probability that he will have to enter another period of hibernation before reaching the Roman Demon Realm due to exhaustion, until he recovers enough strength to become active again.

...Therefore, the Ice Calamity must carefully consider whether all of this is worthwhile. But thinking about it carefully, if it could enter the more resource-rich forests and directly devour those trees, perhaps it could accumulate more energy and avoid hibernation...

what can we do about it?

Ice Calamity fell into deep thought. But he soon realized that his own life or death was irrelevant; what mattered was that he had to reach the Demon Realm as soon as possible to reunite with his dying kin.

"Roar..."

Through the connection between his kind, the Ice Calamity could perceive all the life activities of his demon servants in the Demon Realm. He could clearly sense the life force of his kin constantly diminishing...

To use a metaphor that humans can understand, the demon servant's life force is like a glass of water, with a crack at the bottom that constantly leaks the liquid, spilling it onto other places far from the continent...

The Calamity of Ice couldn't understand what was going on. But he knew he had to make a decision.

So he decided to quicken his pace—but before that, he wanted to test whether the clock towers would emit magic that would harm him.

"Roar--!"

After all, if possible, he wanted to reach the Demon Realm as quickly as possible. If the clock tower wasn't too much of a threat... then advancing while enduring the attack was acceptable.

With that in mind, the Calamity of Ice began its activities.

It crawled on the ground, burying half of its body and fragile limbs in the frozen soil, and then dug its way forward, following the shortest route to the Roman Demon Realm.

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

As the Ice Calamity advances, the Permafrost surrounding him also moves forward with him—contrary to popular belief, the Ice Calamity is actually a Titan demon without the ability to launch proactive attacks. At least compared to those Titan demons who can easily flatten a mountain, his offensive capabilities are practically nonexistent.

Conversely, the Ice Calamity's defensive and positional warfare capabilities are at another extreme—in the entire demon race, it's almost impossible to find a second demon more adept at defensive combat than the Ice Calamity. There are two reasons for this.

The first reason, of course, is the permafrost surrounding it—this frozen soil, which moves with the calamity of ice, will continue to get colder over time.

If initially the Ice Calamity only makes the areas cold enough to cause frostbite at night, then after a period of time, the local climate will deteriorate to the point where people can freeze to death even during the day.

Based on this, if the calamity of ice continues to roam the surrounding area, then the cold will intensify further, and may even gradually freeze the air as well.

Few creatures possess the ability to enter the final stage of the permafrost realm. Even if they could, they would face the second characteristic of the Ice Calamity.

That is—its physical body.

Unlike other offensive Titans, the Ice Calamity's physical body is closely linked to its domain.

In a sense, to harm the Ice Calamity's physical body, one must first break the permafrost domain surrounding it. Even if its permafrost domain is broken, the attacker can only damage the Ice Calamity's body through physical means.

Even so, it doesn't mean that the Ice Calamity will be at the mercy of others after the Eternal Freeze Domain is broken.

It had long since evolved its skin into an extreme form of magic immunity, and on top of that skin was a sturdy armor made of several meters of solid ice.

These ice blocks are harder than steel, and its head, the only part not protected by ice, can move freely within the icy shell like a tortoise's head—for thousands of years, apart from the war machines of the Bayerzans, the Ice Calamity has never encountered another opponent capable of shattering its solid ice...

It's easy to imagine that it's practically invincible on this continent right now—but even so, the Ice Calamity still needs to be wary of magical weapons attacking it...

After all, magical weapons could easily destroy the ice on his body, and once the ice was destroyed, his fragile skin would be easily penetrated by physical means... Although Ice Calamity thought this was a very low probability event, just to be on the safe side, he still cautiously burrowed a little deeper into the ground.

His plan to remain hidden was a success. Although the frozen realm would constantly reveal his location, at least the Calamity of Ice had transformed his physical form from a "walking hill" into a "slightly raised slope."

He could feel the creatures that had been swallowed by his frozen domain constantly fleeing—he could feel the increasing amount of nutrients coming from his mouthparts as he dug his way forward.

Later on, he could even faintly taste the flavor of [nuts]—but he was still far from reaching the edge of the Monster Forest.

Confused, the Ice Calamity poked its head out of the ground in the last darkness before dawn. With its movement, what appeared to be a nomadic tent above its head was blown off, and in the midst of the flying tent, a figure fell right into the Ice Calamity's maw, instantly being bitten into countless pieces.

It was someone who had been dead for a long time—Ice Calamity pondered, savoring the sour taste in his mouth. It wasn't tasty, and it wasn't nutritious enough. But as an extra treat and his only meat recently, it wasn't bad.

But... why is there a lifeless tent in this place? And why have the surrounding herds vanished without a trace? Aren't humans the kind of race that tries to bring the dead back for burial?

The Calamity of Ice fell into deep thought. Gazing at the dark forest in the distance, and then at the towering clock tower in the distance, it buried itself in the ground once more, and moved forward at an even faster pace.

Its permafrost has caused irreparable damage to the surrounding grasslands.

Large amounts of pasture were frozen to death, animals unable to escape became stiff corpses, and even the water in the underground soil was frozen into small ice crystals.

Before the Ice Calamity is completely destroyed, this grassland will likely be unable to restore its former prosperity and vitality on its own.

Meanwhile, the United Nations' army was making preparations in the Demon Forest.

The blizzards that are visible to the naked eye in the distance are the best indicator of the Ice Calamity's attack.

"It's almost here! Just as Finn predicted, it will definitely prioritize a straight-line attack..." The elven ranger assisting in the operation wiped the sweat from his brow. "Anyway, quickly contact the Edenians on the [Clock Tower]—we need to drive it to the trap as planned! Get the [Clock Tower] ready to fire!"

"We've made contact—but the visibility is terrible! They can't find the Ice Calamity's true form! Come to think of it, can't our magic network directly link to the flying golems' perspective as well?!"

"Are you stupid?! We already connected! But the problem is, even the flying golem can't do anything... Holy crap?! I see it! It, it's underground?! This bug can burrow?!"

"what?!"

The elf's startled cry drew everyone's attention, but after confirming that the Ice Calamity was indeed active underground, the on-site commander, pale-faced, immediately ordered the [Clock Tower] troops to fire in the direction the Ice Calamity was advancing—regardless of whether they could hit it or not, just fire!

After all, this small position hadn't been fortified in any way to defend against an underground attack. Even with the assistance of elven mages, there was nothing that could be done to prevent an underground assault!

You can't expect a few dozen people to replace the entire underground space, ten meters deep, with concrete in just two days, can you?!

"Shoot! Hurry up! I can fucking feel the vibrations from the ground! If we don't fire now, we're done for!"

"--learn."