It felt so good to be close to the witch!

Lati's eyes were tightly closed, and blood flowed from the corners of her eyes, mouth, nose, ears, and other places. Perceiving and manipulating space in such an environment was equivalent to putting her soul on a fire to be roasted, but under such intense pain, her expression did not change at all.

Right now, she only had one thought in her mind—no matter what, she had to get everyone out of here!

The second after the outburst, Latie suddenly opened her eyes, a flash of silver light passing through her bloodshot pupils: "Go!"

She grabbed Roy with her left hand and reached for Toni, who was in energy form, with her right, but the object passed right through her and she couldn't touch it.

Latie looked anxious, and at that moment, Toni transformed into a light blue stream of data and merged into the Starfire Blade at Roy's waist.

Seeing this, Latie's eyes relaxed, and then, a dazzling silver light enveloped their bodies, and they disappeared into the ultra-long-distance spatial teleportation portal that had been opened.

The very next second after the group disappeared, the light and heat that consumed each other generated a new round of fission and explosion, and a huge mushroom cloud rose again in the sky above the ruins.

……

On a beach by the sea.

The space distorted violently, and the silver light was further punctuated by a blinding crimson-gold gleam.

Roy, Latie, and Sehir fell from the spatial portal.

The moment she landed, Latie, who had gritted her teeth and held on until now, rolled her eyes and fainted.

Roy landed steadily on the ground, reached out his hands, and hugged the unconscious Latie.

Looking at her pale, bloodless face, Roy's eyes flashed with heartache.

Roy used the limited energy he had in his body to transform it into relatively gentle healing energy to soothe Lati's injuries. Only after a trace of color returned to her face and her breathing became relatively calm did Roy breathe a sigh of relief.

After checking Cecilia's condition in his pocket and finding that she had simply fallen into a deep sleep due to exhaustion, Roy was relieved and then turned his attention to the Starfire Blade at his waist.

"Tonnie, are you alright?"

He asked nervously, afraid of not getting a response.

"I am here, Lord Roy."

A mechanical, flat voice rang out, and pale blue light and shadow, resembling a data stream, flew out from the Starfire Blade and coalesced into the girl's complete human form.

"call……"

After confirming that none of the three women were in mortal danger, Roy finally felt completely relieved.

This relaxation nearly caused him to faint, as his nerves, which had been stretched taut like a bowstring, were about to snap.

Gritting his teeth and enduring it, Roy finally recovered after a few seconds.

Looking around, he asked with a puzzled expression, "Where am I?"

“Based on information such as climate and vegetation, this place should be the eastern coastal region of the Radiant Empire,” Toni said, noticing Roy’s confusion.

“The eastern coast…” Roy nodded.

Although it wasn't a return to Blackrock Territory, being able to teleport back to the Radiant Empire under such harsh spatial conditions was already a lucky thing.

"Anyway, let's find a place to rest first."

Roy said.

The girl in the form of pale blue light and shadow did not speak, but silently floated in mid-air, following behind Roy.

There are fishing villages along the coastal beach, but Roy did not go there to stay temporarily. Firstly, he was afraid that his whereabouts would be exposed, and secondly, he was afraid of implicating these innocent fishermen.

It's important to understand that the threat posed by the temple still exists. Although it has become a universally hated entity within the Radiant Realm, after hundreds of years of accumulation, who knows if those who outwardly join you in condemning the temple might actually be devout followers and spies of the temple behind the scenes?

Finding a secluded cliff, Roy flew into the air and, dozens of meters above the ground, used his Starfire Blade to carve out a stone cave large enough for the three of them to rest.

Roy carefully placed Latie, whom he was holding, on a makeshift bed by cutting a few stone slabs. He also placed Cecilia's doll on her special little stone bed. He then went to the entrance of the cave, leaning against the cold stone wall, acting as a guardian.

As he absorbed the remaining blood essence from the chief researcher, Mono (absorbing the blood essence of a demigod takes an exceptionally long time), he looked at the girl who was quietly floating in mid-air and said with concern:

"Tonine, without a physical body, what will you do next?"

"Please don't worry about me, Lord Roy." Toni shook her head; in her energy form, she appeared translucent and ethereal.

Her hands hung at her sides, her hair swaying gently: "My current state is quite unique."

"I can possess any metal object."

"Once it's safe, I can use enough metal to rebuild a metal body."

"Thanks to this experience, if I had enough metal materials, I could even handcraft a simplified version of the Thunder God's body."

Upon hearing the last sentence, Roy immediately became interested: "A mechanical god? But without the 'Heart of God,' can you still control such a massive machine?"

“The existence of the Heart of God is a symbol of divine status. This is knowledge that I spontaneously understood when I was the control center.” Toni shook her head: “The simplified version of the machine that I made by hand could not possibly reach that level. However, it should not be difficult to have the combat power of a demigod.”

"I see." Roy sighed.

This should be considered one of the few pieces of good news.

"You must be tired. Take a good rest. The conditions are simple right now, so make do with yourself inside the Starfire Blade for now."

Toni nodded, without refusing.

Although she remained conscious, her condition was actually extremely poor.

As the control center of the God of Thunderstrike, the Pope's act of forcibly separating the Heart of God caused her severe trauma. Her subsequent actions of opening the protective shield to resist the heat of the "Blazing Sun" and detonating the damaged body of the God of Thunderstrike in order to protect Roy and the others made her already poor condition even worse.

Her translucent, almost ethereal body was proof of her extreme weakness.

Transforming into pale blue light and shadow, it flowed into the Starfire Blade, and soon, Tonnie fell into a deep sleep.

Roy leaned against the stone wall, the cool stone stimulating his skin and relieving his drowsy mind slightly.

He turned his head to look at the endless waves of the sea below the cave and fell into deep thought.

Although they successfully rescued Tonnie during their trip to the Colle Empire, they also paid a heavy price.

Almost everyone was seriously injured, and Tonnie even lost her physical body.

Looking back on the experiences of this trip.

Several doubts suddenly surfaced in Roy's mind.

First, there's that so-called "life crystal".

Chief Researcher Monod rambled on and on, but the most crucial information was just one point: the "Life Crystal" is composed of the life force and soul power of countless living beings.

Although Roy was hearing the name for the first time, he wasn't exactly "unfamiliar" with it.

On the Life Crystal, he sensed a faint trace of the power of the mutated Abyss, which, combined with the life force and soul power of countless living beings, made the origin of this thing obvious.

Last winter, the scourge of monsters swept across the entire Radiant Realm, and countless unfortunate people perished in this disaster.

Roy didn't know the exact number of deaths, but given the vast empire, it was certainly in the tens of millions, perhaps even hundreds of millions. After all, apart from the province of Rafa, the monster calamity in the other provinces had not been contained beforehand, which was truly terrifying.

Previously, Roy was wondering what the purpose of the person behind all this was, but now, the appearance of the "Life Crystal" has revealed part of the answer to him.

The diverse life force and soul power of countless ordinary people come together and, through special methods, can be sublimated into "Life Crystals," a "treasure" that enables beings below the level of demigods to break through their own shackles and reach a new realm.

While it's unclear whether beings who advance using "Life Crystals" will experience any side effects, it's foreseeable that the Pope of the Temple will still possess Life Crystals.

Yes, the Pope of the Temple.

At the last moment, the appearance of the Pope of the Temple directly exposed his identity as the person behind the scenes, and also revealed that he had cooperated with the high-ranking officials of the Kolei Empire and jointly participated in the Mechanical God Project.

Otherwise, the Life Crystal wouldn't have ended up in the hands of Chief Researcher Mono.

Everything is like a spider web spreading out, seemingly unrelated, but if you follow the clues, you can discover the hidden connections.

As for why the Pope of the Temple would cooperate with the Colley Empire.

The answer is not hard to guess.

The Pope's final appearance was intended to take the "Heart of God" from the body of the God of Thunderous Mechanism. However, due to Roy's interference, the struggle for control of Toni, and the threat of the "Blazing Sun" composed of ten "Falling Stars," the Pope ultimately did not achieve his goal of obtaining the complete Heart of God, but only a fragmented one.

Although in terms of status, the damaged heart of God is still a true "divine status", its "quality" has fallen to the lowest level among the gods.

As for the Pope's purpose in seizing the "Heart of God," Roy also had some guesses.

In reality, people at the level of the Pope in the temple don't ask for much anymore.

The Pope of the Temple, who had already reached the level of a demigod a hundred years ago, felt more clearly than anyone else the unbreakable nature of the world's barriers.

No matter how much one cultivates, it is impossible to break through the demigod realm and embark on the true path of a god through human effort alone.

How could someone as extraordinary as the Pope of the Temple possibly tolerate being confined to one realm and eventually die of old age?

Therefore, everything the Pope of the Temple has done has ultimately had only one purpose: to break through to the level of demigod and embark on the path to godhood.

Roy didn't know the specifics of the Temple Pope's methods, but he figured it must be related to the Abyss.

"call……"

Take a deep breath.

Roy knew.

Having obtained the "Fragmented Heart of God," the Pope of the Temple will likely begin his true plan soon.

And what will become of me and the witches then?

Although the situation has become clearer now, the temple is lurking in the shadows, and even if Roy wanted to stop it, he wouldn't know where to begin.

This is the culmination of hundreds of years of temple history and planning over a century, naturally taking into account everything that might happen.

With a sigh, Roy stopped thinking about it and focused his attention on his own body.

Given the current situation, we can only deal with things as they come.

All he could do was to increase his own and the witches' strength as much as possible before anything happened.

It took a full four minutes, plus the initial period in the Mechanical Holy City, a total of five minutes, before Roy finally completely absorbed the Blood Soul Essence of Chief Researcher Mono.

A demigod truly lives up to his name.

Roy can fully absorb the legendary Blood Soul Essence in just over ten seconds, while the Blood Soul Essence of a demigod requires a full five minutes.

A comparison over time reveals the vast difference between the two.

With such a long absorption period, the final harvest is naturally exceptionally gratifying.

Roy's physique received unprecedented nourishment.

Based on the assumption that a demigod's basic physique is 100, Roy's basic physique before absorbing this Blood Soul Essence was between 11 and 12.

And now, his basic physique has reached a terrifying 62!