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

She sipped her juice gracefully, shifting slightly onto Yang Hao's lap, while subtly glancing at Nia, who was intently watching the magic screen, her eyes filled with disdain.

"The better news is... even if the Titan Golem falls, it will crash directly onto the Ice Calamity. The Ice Calamity is too big to crawl out on its own when it is under pressure, and besides... it seems to be injured."

"Injured? I don't see it here."

"He is indeed injured. Although the Sirens' flesh magic did not directly cause him to mutate, his lower limbs were significantly affected... Theresa saw that too, didn't she?"

Having inexplicably become the protagonist of Finn's conversation, Theresa blinked in bewilderment and then simply nodded as Lalumia behind her rubbed her face.

She also saw the details that Yang Hao had missed... But then again, how could Yang Hao not have seen those details?

The young nun muttered to herself, gently kneading Yang Hao's earlobe, thinking that it was indeed best to let him rest for a while...

On the battlefield, Titan Golem's attack, unleashed after getting close enough to Ice Calamity, was frozen by the cold generated by Ice Calamity.

As a Titan demon, Ice Calamity possesses the ability to increase the intensity of cold for extreme periods of time.

He froze the air, turning the invisible air into a solid wall—under these conditions, the Titanogrem could not even swing its club, and its charging motion was abruptly halted by the icy air.

For a moment, an extremely awkward stalemate ensued between the two monsters. Although the Ice Calamity blocked the Titan Golem's attack with an invisible wall, it was unable to move freely and could not maintain the extreme low temperature for an extended period of time.

While Titanogrim possesses the ability to continue its attack after being exposed to cold, its current posture of having one foot on the ground and the other raised puts it in an awkward predicament where it will fall down once the cold dissipates.

Neither side could take action at this critical juncture, but the final decision made by the Ice Calamity was still to attempt a retreat.

“He’s trying to escape…” Nia murmured, intently watching the magic screen. “Is he unable to move freely while casting a spell? The blizzard around him seems to be weakening visibly… but conversely, the outer ‘domain’ seems to be starting to repair itself?”

"In other words, we're both in a rush. But rather than 'repairing,' it's more like 'expanding.'"

"Huh?"

"Because it got colder around here."

Nia turned around and stared blankly at Yang Hao, who pointed to the forest ahead.

Frost began to form on the forests that were not initially covered by the permafrost, and the area visibly affected by the blizzard began to expand outwards under the sunlight...

In other words, the Ice Calamity intends to expand its territory to create an escape route for itself... and the reason it does this is quite simple.

The Ice Calamity realized that the Titan Golem was a puppet controlled by someone. Even if no trace of humans was found on the Titan Golem, the controller of the Golem could surely be found in the surrounding forest.

However, the Ice Calamity does not have the ability to personally locate the controller's position—but conversely, it can directly use its permafrost domain to force those around it to leave the forest.

Should the frozen zone be expanded by five or ten kilometers?

Is it better to increase the area by sacrificing core temperature, or to increase both area and temperature by sacrificing one's own strength?

Yang Hao tried to understand the demon's thoughts, but he soon realized that perhaps the Ice Calamity really had a reason to continue advancing—a reason that even forced the Ice Calamity to give up a possible opportunity to retreat.

The calamity of ice is not only expanding into the forests, but also covering the area of ​​permafrost.

He even went so far as to try to lower the temperature around him, risking his own life in the process.

"...In a sense, I'm really glad that this demon wasn't at its peak."

Yang Hao sighed.

After signaling that everyone needed to move to a safer place, he nodded to Lalumia, making Lalumia the final insurance for this operation.

"Yes, that's right. So everyone, let's leave here first—I'll make sure the children on the ground can get home safely."

The deity accepted this heavy responsibility, and after gently seeing everyone off, she sat comfortably in Yang Hao's original seat.

In the distance, the battle between the Ice Calamity and the Titan Golem continued. But for Lalumia, the course of events was no longer important. Because if necessary, she could directly intervene with her divine power against the Ice Calamity.

"Sigh... More worrying than this is the problem of the demons' [species glory]."

Lalumia swayed back and forth in her chair, her golden eyes fixed on the ever-expanding frozen territory and the two enormous shadows that were gradually becoming blurred in the blizzard.

What she was most worried about was the issue of the demon race's "honor." If Yang Hao and the others didn't understand why the Ice Calamity had taken such a refusal to retreat, then Lalumia knew best what had happened.

For demons, the death of an individual is not terrible—even if it is a Titan demon who dies, as long as the death is worthwhile and brings value to the species, then nothing is a problem.

However, in most cases, high-ranking Titans will prioritize their own safety... and now, a Titan is risking its life to carve out a path to the Roman Demon Realm...

"Something must have gone wrong in Roman's Demon Realm... to the point that a Titan demon has to risk its life to advance along the most deadly path. Sigh... thinking about it this way, I actually feel a little sorry for them."

Although Lalumia didn't understand the overall ecology of demons, she was aware of the conflict between the Roman demons and the primal demons in the Roman Demon Realm...

Perhaps it was because the Roman Demon posed some kind of threat to the Demon Realm that the Ice Calamity had no choice but to launch an attack despite its difficulties?

In short, Lalumia is happy to see the demons in a predicament—but as a goddess, while enjoying the spectacle, she must also be prepared to fight them.

She concentrated her divine power in her hands, ready to transform it into a javelin and throw it to hinder the Ice Calamity.

In the distance, the Ice Calamity had reached its limit in terms of the duration it could freeze the air.

He has been gradually expanding the radius of the permafrost domain by about five kilometers by sacrificing his life force without losing temperature... But in the end, he simply does not have the ability to maintain the low temperature around him that can freeze the air into a wall.

The calamity of ice is not only due to weakness caused by lack of nutrition.

Having exhausted his life force, his life was already as fragile as a candle flickering in the wind—his increasingly weakened body naturally lost its more advanced functions. No matter how much the Ice Calamity struggled, he still couldn't stop the gradual disappearance of the invisible wall.

Right now, the Ice Calamity can only look for one opportunity—after all, it has to choose between being hit by Titan Gorem's heavy slam or being crushed by his body.

Taking a heavy blow from a club means serious injury and defeat, while being knocked down by a Titan Gorem's body means certain death.

Is there only one more hit left?

Ice Calamity found himself in an incredibly difficult situation. If he had other demons by his side to assist him, he wouldn't be in this predicament... but what could he do?

He mustered all his strength to assume a defensive stance, retracting his head into the hardest part of his body.

As the air temperature gradually returned to normal during the blizzard, and the frozen air regained its fluidity, the Ice Calamity was already prepared to suffer severe damage.

And it was at this moment.

With the invisible wall gone and regaining his freedom of movement, Titan Golem unleashed a heavy blow on the giant insect's body before him, just before he fell over due to his posture.

boom--!

The deafening roar, so loud even a missile explosion might not produce, echoed across the world. The blizzard was swept away by the shockwave, and the surrounding forests swayed and danced in the sudden gale.

Titan Golem's heavy blow not only shattered the Ice Calamity's solid icy shell, but also caused unpredictable damage to the Ice Calamity's body.

That blow would turn even a real giant into mincemeat. As for Ice Calamity, his entire back was dented.

Purple fluid spurted from his buttocks, and within the fluid clumps, one could even see many intact fragments of internal organs. The intestines, still tangled in the fluid, were even wriggling, trying to drag the internal organs back in.

However, due to the coldness of the Ice Calamity itself, these splattered organs were forever turned into a mass of ice sculptures, and even his intestines were torn apart by the convulsions of his injured body.

Without a doubt, the Ice Calamity lost—even if he were still alive, he had already lost.

But losing doesn't mean he can't continue. It doesn't mean he can't deliver the final blow to the enemy.

While it's unknown how much resources and effort it would take for humanity to create such a gigantic puppet, at least the Ice Calamity could kill the one in front of it.

"--roar!!!"

The Ice Calamity let out its final roar. And just as the Ice Calamity clamped its remaining intact forelimbs around the Titan Gorem's lower limbs, another sudden burst of coldness erupted from the Ice Calamity's body.

Wherever the cold reaches, all life and space cease to function.

Although it's only a short distance of less than two hundred meters in radius, it's enough for the Ice Calamity.

It used its last breath to freeze both time and space within those two hundred meters.

What remains for this world is the permafrost and the calamity of ice and snow that can never be eradicated.

And terrifying legends about demons.

Chapter 8: Death is the Real Trouble - 8K

......

The Calamity of Ice is dead.

He died far faster than people imagined under the clubs of the Titan Gorem—but the impact of his death was unprecedented.

In the historical records of the Bayern Empire, the effects of a demon's death were generally repairable.

The Mother Nest can be mined like a mineral deposit, and the tentacles that modify the terrain can be cleared away in time. Even the effects left behind by demons carrying acid or other conceptual abilities after their death are fine. As long as the ground is cleared away in time, it generally won't have too much impact on other places.

Even the current Roman Demon Realm is no longer a problem after acquiring the [Purification] ability of the Siren's flesh and blood magic. Even at the beginning, Yang Hao was confident that the corpses left behind by the Ice Calamity could be used for his purposes, or at the very least, he could find a way to mine them like ore.

But the actual situation was far more complicated than Yang Hao had imagined.

"...That's a true freeze, even the space itself is frozen...Even if soldiers shoot directly at that space, the bullets stop the moment they enter the edge...We have no way to purify it."

The Sirens' leader, Chino, lamented to everyone the difficulties he was facing in his work.

Although Teresa and the others were still completely bewildered about the situation, Yang Hao had already figured it out—let alone whether the mine could be mined at all, it was probably a good question whether the frozen area could even be restored to normal.

After all, even the entire "space" was frozen solid—Yang Hao sighed, "That was an extreme low temperature that even damaged the space itself."

There was once a theory on Earth that if the temperature were low enough, spacetime could theoretically be frozen.

Now, Yang Hao has a living example right in front of him.

The place where the Ice Calamity perished alongside the Titan Golem is said to have reached the lowest temperature defined by physics.

That is, -273.15 degrees Celsius—the lowest temperature Yang Hao had only heard about on Earth.

At this temperature, the area surrounding the Ice Calamity entered a state of complete stagnation.

Time and space completely lose their meaning inside. Even if you shoot directly with a weapon, the bullet will stop spinning the moment it enters the edge of the area, and even its trail will be perfectly preserved. It doesn't just dissipate; it even tends to condense further.

The sirens had never encountered such a troublesome problem before... They tried to use flesh magic from a distance to "break" the edge of the frozen coffin, but found that although the magic could be transmitted normally, it stopped completely once it entered the edge, just like a bullet.

Flesh magic relies on magic power to be released; without magic power, flesh magic loses all meaning. Helpless, the Sirens had no choice but to abandon their work, say goodbye to the people on site, and slink back to their camp at the rear.

Yang Hao didn't blame them. After all, this was indeed beyond the Sirens' capacity to handle.

He simply sighed and told the Sirens to go back and rest, then, with a headache, he said to everyone:

"It seems we need to prepare for a large section of the Monster Forest to become completely abandoned and unusable... Fortunately, the Monster Forest has no shortage of vast forest areas—and barring unforeseen circumstances, we can try to limit the impact to a localized area..."

"In reality, this is impossible."

"Huh? Lalumia... what do you mean by that?"

Lalumia's interruption made Yang Hao's already troubled head throb even more.

He turned to look at the deity massaging his shoulders, his eyes filled with bewilderment.

The deity merely sighed and shook her head. Under the watchful eyes of Theresa and Finn, whose lips twitched, she directly asked Elena to mobilize the power of the magic network, and then prepared a magic screen in front of Yang Hao.