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

If given the chance, Margarita would definitely stop and carefully study just how amazing these creations are.

But the increasingly urgent footsteps behind them urged them to keep going.

Just as the vampire president was pondering whether to have some people stay with her to temporarily halt the demon's advance, she saw the white-haired nun say: "It seems the ground forces have done their best."

"Fen and the others said that when they noticed demons covering something as it moved toward the seaside ruins, they tried to stop it by covering it with magic or bombarding it."

"The demons' goals are the same as ours, after all. Compared to that... we don't need to fight the demons in a place like this."

“That’s true. We can’t waste time—but the demons are close behind, so we have to be prepared.”

Finn and her companions had previously tried to thwart the demon, but all their efforts ultimately failed.

On one hand, the demons' shift from offense to defense has significantly reduced the effectiveness of magic. On the other hand, that strange demon has evolved diverse team abilities, meaning that at least the elves cannot pose a significant threat to the visible [shield].

The demon seemed to understand that individual strength is extremely limited. Therefore, it evolved terrifying team support abilities, putting pressure on Finn and Elena while allowing Yang Hao and the others to relax.

After all, the narrow underground environment is a completely different environment from the surface environment.

Underground tunnels demand more individual skill and strength—after all, the tunnels are only so big, and even the one they're currently traversing can only support a maximum of ten people side by side. In this situation, teamwork can actually be an obstacle. However, Yang Hao and his group, with their superior individual strength, now have an advantage.

After all, one side is the vampires, the other is the saintess of light, and the third is simply the world god. The remaining miscellaneous characters are basically fearless magical puppets and golems. There are also elves to assist the mages, and guns and bombs to deal with the physical attacks. It can be said that they are flawless and have very few weaknesses.

The only two weaknesses might be Yang Hao and Naruja.

As the two most vulnerable points of the assault team, they were also well protected—in a sense, even if they were attacked by demons, it wouldn't matter, because Theresa's divine magic would directly send them to the safest place.

Not to mention... Lalumia's token is also in their hands.

If the situation becomes too critical, Lalumia can be summoned to come and save the day.

But if that were to happen, perhaps the severity of the situation would have exceeded Yang Hao and Theresa's expectations?

They sighed heavily. After having the golems block the narrow tunnel behind them to buy time, they quickened their pace and finally stepped onto a main road leading to the Siren capital ahead of the demons.

This is a city buried underground.

The city still maintains its structure from a thousand years ago. The furniture, large and small, still functions normally. Further away, one can see a large number of organ remains made of flesh and blood.

These organs have completely perished. Kino explained that flesh and blood magic is still flesh and blood, after all. Without nutrition, it will still die from malnutrition.

However, her heart was clearly not with those grotesque fleshy organs and fools.

She looked sadly at the surrounding crystals, or more precisely, at the fragments of a Siren's body sealed within them—according to her grandmother, these fragments would naturally form when an ancient Siren died. This was not only to protect their remains, but also to teach future generations a lesson.

Kino didn't understand what "lesson" meant. But she knew she was about to reach her destination—once she obtained that scepter, everything about demons would end, right?

...It might end. Perhaps I'll feel extremely exhausted—but in any case, now is not the time for me to stop.

But then again...

Where exactly is the palace?

Chapter Twenty-Four: [The Final Battle at the Ruins of the Royal Capital] Part One

Crunch, crunch.

Under the cover of his companions, the demon leader, who had evolved to the next stage, cautiously advanced through the narrow passage.

Not long ago, they stepped into a trap set by humans. Unlike magical or physical attacks, the divine power trap directly caused terrifying casualties to most low-level demons, making the demon leader realize the seriousness of the problem.

After all, there were no clergy members unleashing divine power on the main battlefield. But here, there is a being possessing immense divine power...

In other words, have humans already discovered our target? Or have they decided to fight us to the death?

The demon leader didn't hesitate for long. After all, hesitation wouldn't solve anything; it had to find the humans before they found the scepter...

...However, humanity still has a backup plan.

In the demon leader's eyes, the passage ahead was blocked by a metallic lump.

It was an inorganic entity that inflicted massive damage on lower-level demons on the main battlefield. Although driven by magic, there wasn't a single spot on its body that demons could bite.

Demons hate these kinds of enemies. But the enemies love to use them as henchmen—which is a real hardship for the malnourished demons who are hoping to evolve through eating on the battlefield, and even more so for the demon leaders who are receiving messages from their distant comrades on their deathbeds.

After evolving abilities similar to team support, the individual strength of the demon leader had already decreased considerably. It was one thing to help a large group of lower-level kin from afar to stop the enemy's firepower, but to actually engage in a head-on confrontation with a metal lump at close range was nothing more than a waste of resources.

Now... the demons can still see a metallic lump in the narrow underground passage. And there's only one visible path to take.

It was too late to retreat and find another way out. The only option the demon leader could have was to order his lower-ranking demons to charge forward.

The clash between flesh and steel is always straightforward. The sharp edges of the metal golem are inherently powerful weapons. Even if a demon has evolved a shell to resist physical attacks, in a close-quarters, head-on collision with no way to defend itself, the hard shell will instantly turn into fragments.

Although Golems are unarmed, they can hold their own against low-level demons in confined spaces.

The demons simply abandoned their defenses and evolved offensive organs to fight against the golems, but the golems are not living beings after all.

Living things gradually lose vitality due to blood loss, and their pace of attack or defense slows down due to pain, anger, or fear, as well as physical exhaustion.

But Golems are different. As long as the key magic circuits are not disrupted, Golems can move almost indefinitely with the help of the magic power within their bodies.

Although the event has a time limit, if you expect it to stop after exhausting Golem's magic power, then the whole day will probably be blocked like this.

Left with no other choice, the demon leader had to sacrifice his own companions.

However, in the narrow passage, the effectiveness of risking one's life was greatly reduced. Thus, after consuming nearly a third of the low-level demons, the golem blocking the way finally stopped moving completely.

Although they were all larvae, the demon leader was still deeply saddened by their sacrifice. But thankfully, they had finally entered the Sirens' underground capital... All that remained was to find the Sirens' scepter.

If we can find that scepter made entirely of magic... all sacrifices will be worthwhile.

... .....

The Sirens' scepter is in a secret chamber deep within the underground tunnels of what was once the royal palace.

But Yang Hao and Kino couldn't find the palace's location. If the Siren's palace was built at the highest point like other countries' palaces, it would probably have been destroyed because it was buried underground.

Unable to find the iconic palace, they could only try their luck in the ruins. But just now, Naruja warned them that the demons had breached the Golem's defenses.

Although a large number of larval demons were lost, the high-ranking demons and larval demons, which constituted the main fighting force, remained intact. In other words, these demons posed a significant threat to the team of fewer than sixty members.

"I'd better...make some golems instead."

The Ling Clan Chief muttered to himself, and just then, the magical puppet that was scouting ahead found something of interest.

They didn't find the palace, but they did find a vast area of ​​ruins. Above the ruins, a component resembling the top of a bell tower was embedded in the ceiling of a cave.

Based on the remaining parts of the bell tower top, the ruins area was either a former palace area or an area similar to a religious temple.

But Chino objected.

Because the Sirens were not religious.

"We Sirens have never heard of anyone believing in religion throughout history!" The Siren girl trembled, as the demon's voice grew closer behind her. It was understandable that she was afraid, as it was her first time being so close to a demon. "Besides, as Grandmother said... there are many tall buildings in the ancient Siren capital, but if the buildings are both tall and occupy a large area... then the palace area must be the only one!"

"So, barring any unforeseen circumstances, this place is the palace... Wait, don't we have a world god here? Miss Gaia, you don't even know that? I feel like Lalumia is more useful than you?"

"quack?!"

The raven perched on Margarita's head cawed in dissatisfaction. The vampire, fulfilling her duty as translator, merely rolled her eyes, then drew her weapon from her waist and turned to the boastful Theresa, saying:

“Gaia has been asleep for a long time, and she has no need to understand the whole world. Moreover, she is not the creator of this world; she has only restarted a useless god who can open the ‘door’.”

"quack!!?"

"It seems we have at least reached a consensus on our attitude toward God."

"Yes. But speaking of which, are you really a nun? This is the first time I've ever seen a nun so disrespectful to God."

"It's alright. After all, he's a god, so it's good to scold him a few times—more importantly... the demons are coming."

"...Either we fight here, or we continue onward. What's the choice?"

"...How should I choose?"

All eyes turned to Yang Hao, the decision-maker.

Yang Hao didn't hesitate for long. If fighting demons in narrow spaces was advantageous, then fighting in such a vast, empty space as the ruins of the royal capital would be tantamount to suicide.

Given the harsh environment, temporarily avoiding battle is a viable option.

“Naruja, create golems, and then use them to find the possible location of the secret passage in the ruins—if possible, we will fight the demons in that passage.”

But what if you can't find it?

Yang Hao looked at the ruins ahead.

I've already made up my mind.

Chapter Twenty-Five: [The Final Battle of the Capital] Part Two

The golems were digging through the ruins with inhuman efficiency. The footsteps of the demons in the distance were getting closer and closer. If nothing unexpected happened, they would make contact in less than ten minutes and then engage in a brutal battle that would affect everything.

Yang Hao wasn't foolish enough to fight a demon in an open area. He had Naruja control the golems to deliberately create a long corridor-like terrain, and then pile up the end of the corridor into a platform that was as flat as possible while also providing cover.

Using a high ground to attack a low ground is like a father beating his son—although it may not be as effective against demons as it is against humans, the advantage of terrain is something that must be sought by all means.

In addition, Yang Hao also tried his best to have the magical puppets use magic to flatten the slopes on the three sides of the ruined highlands, and use magic to reinforce the underground structure to prevent the demons from launching an attack using the burrowing tactic, while leaving the demons with only one difficult way to climb the slope.

In this situation, the human numerical disadvantage has been reduced to zero as much as possible. Furthermore, Yang Hao specifically opened a small portal in this location... as long as the battle above stabilizes, Fen and the others can send soldiers over to provide support at any time.

It's stable, as stable as it gets.

The only variable is the underground passage of the Siren Palace, which neither side has yet found.

The core objective for both sides is not to kill each other. Their most important goal is to find the Sirens' scepter.

"In other words... if we don't have a secret passage under our backside, or if the demons find a secret passage elsewhere, our advantage on the high ground will be completely lost."

On a makeshift platform, five or six meters above the original ground, Yang Hao expressed his concerns to Theresa while also observing the approaching demons in the distance.

"After all, we deliberately narrowed this passage, which not only made the demons hesitate when they attacked, but also made us worry about our own safety when we went down."

"Fortunately, we still have you and Margarita here—although we're not sure how useful Gaia, the world goddess, will be, with you two here, perhaps there won't be much of a problem."

"Oh dear? You actually think your wife is on par with a stranger? Looks like I'll have to teach you a lesson when we get back. Humph."

The little nun snorted, not forgetting to reach out and pinch Yang Hao's side, and not forgetting that they were on the battlefield.

She stared at the demons in the distance, scrutinizing the largest one for a long while, before muttering to herself in front of the warriors of the United Nations, who were sweating profusely:

"Speaking of which, I've always been curious whether demons can evolve into their own kind of 'gods.' After all, when you think about it, material resources, magical power... the only power that demons haven't utilized seems to be 'divine power,' right?"

"Since demons can mimic evolution... then they should also be able to evolve their own faith, right?"