Their romance storyline only begins on the second playthrough

Her gaze met Rhodes's instantly.

In an instant, like a flash of lightning, the two locked eyes with a rare gaze.

Cecilia will not give up on her goals; she will continue to fight, kill those who need to be sacrificed, and love those she loves.

Because there are two enemies in this world.

The first one is the "Dragon God," who slaughtered those who came after him in order to "break through the limits" and achieve "absolute immortality."

The second issue is the problem of the [Demon God].

What she needs to solve is the problem of the Demon God's death.

In fact, she knew perfectly well that saving the world was utterly boring, and she wasn't an idealist, just an ordinary girl.

Her actions were essentially no different from Ivina's "dream".

After all, her "original" self was "Ivina," and Ivina's dreams were, in essence, her most sincere dreams.

It was only because, under Rhodes' influence, she became increasingly greedy and increasingly understood that power was in her own hands, not something to be avoided.

Being a couple in a small town might seem like a wonderful thing, but the world isn't a safe place.

That's why she greedily tries to change things and wants to gain more—

The fallen demon succumbed to humanity's boundless greed; the gods created by desire collapsed amidst human madness.

The twelve gods joined forces to besiege the mad demon god, ultimately causing him to disappear from history.

The Demon God is the strongest.

In other words, once she obtains this power, her strength will be enough to make everyone fear her.

Moreover, she can also fix the flaw that demonic seeds must devour spirit-type creatures, so that even if a person falls into the demonic seed, they will not become a pure monster.

In fact, the original Demon God species was not a cannibalistic species. The origin of the Demon God species eating people only occurred after the death of the Demon God.

Because humanity lost its direction of faith and the ability to transmit resentment after the death of the demon god, the resentment accumulated within them grew wildly, turning them into demons.

Once she becomes the new [Demon God], a vessel capable of containing all the [resentment] in the world, then even those like rats will not have to worry about dying after becoming a Demon God, and normal people will not have to worry about the people around them suddenly turning into monsters.

There will be more witches and more demon men in this world in the future... They are all lives that have gained power in the shadows and are barely surviving.

When Cecilia's words echoed in his ears again, Rod remained silent.

He knew, of course, that Cecilia was an unkillable cockroach, and it was unrealistic to expect her to give up voluntarily.

But he knew even better that Cecilia was an incredibly stupid person.

Even if her talent reached its peak, what use would it be to have twelve clones to disperse the resentment of these demon gods? The upper limit of her talent was fixed, and she couldn't do it no matter what she did.

Let her walk step by step toward destruction, and then plunge the world into calamity?

He wasn't stupid; he was determined to stop her no matter what.

In fact, Cecilia's other bodies had already been preparing to obtain the [Fragment of the Demon God's Position].

At least, the one-twelfth fragment sealed in the [Demon God Curse Realm] of the Linlank Empire's capital had long been under the watchful eyes of these witches.

Therefore, Rhodes must thwart the witches' plans before they break through the [Demon God Curse Realm] and obtain the Demon God fragment that is no longer protected by any god.

This is a difficult task, but it is also a task that must be completed.

The difficulty lies in the fact that obtaining the Demon God Fragment is an operation led by one of the three founders of the Witches—the Night Owl Witch, an eternal sage who has ascended to the peak seven times.

The reason it had to be done was to prevent Cecilia from continuing her antics.

The threat had been closing in step by step, and he had no time to relax here. Not to mention the obvious enemy, the witch, it was also difficult to know whether anyone had been resurrected in the Dragon God's Kingdom.

Not to mention the terror and chaos of a coup that would erupt in the capital just over two months later... These are monster enemies, like the Demon-Sealing Tower.

For him now, becoming stronger is the only way out.

The most important thing now is to complete this task with the marine species and then obtain Merrick's reward.

You must reach the level of five upgrades after this process, which means you must be strong enough to truly fight Cecilia one-on-one.

Rhodes shook his head, his eyes serious:

“I know you won’t give up no matter what I say, so… let’s wait, wait for the day when things will turn around.”

Once he can truly ensure that there are no problems with the fusion with the Demon God, then all the bad things Cecilia has done will be meaningless.

“Really?” Cecilia smiled.

"Alright, there's no need to talk about these things anymore. There's nothing we can do about it now, isn't there?"

Rhodes walked to the stone slab, sat down slowly, and watched Cecilia get dressed.

“…I still get shy if we get this close.” Cecilia bit her lip.

"Anyway, I've already seen everything I needed to see, so what else can't I see?"

“Hey.” Cecilia took two steps back, her face flushed as she felt a little defensively vulnerable to Rhodes’s attack on her with his own words.

High offense, low defense.

"What are you 'hey' for? Don't forget that this body of yours is already my slave." Rhodes looked at Cecily calmly.

"I'll do my best to help you, so don't look anymore! But... it'll probably only last seven days, right?"

"I will have seven days to atone for my sins."

Cecilia pointed to the lines on her lower abdomen. "I'm going to wipe these things off eventually. They're so embarrassing."

"Seven days from now, you'll be going to the capital to fight against us witches. Get ready, my dear, for the sake of the Demon God's fragments."

"Try your best to stop me from killing those victims."

Cecilia smiled slightly, then rolled up the black stockings that were lying to the side and put them on her legs.

Still dare to provoke us?

Rhodes was a little helpless, but he also took it all in stride.

Because Cecilia at least revealed the timing of the witch's actions, it's clear that compared to her previous life, the witch will definitely act quickly instead of waiting.

After all, it is already clear that Lilith has lost her divine power, so there is no need to be afraid.

"If you provoke me again, you'll regret it." Rhodes reached out and yanked her sock, making a snapping sound.

"Huh...!?" Cecilia didn't expect Rod to reach out, and her leg bounced back. "Wrong."

"It would be good if you really thought you did something wrong."

"Of course I know, but there are some things that you can't just stop doing because you know you're wrong."

"For example, marine species? Marine species are currently making frantic attempts to land. Did you do that?" Rhodes said, resting his chin on his hand.

Cecilia's fingertips trembled slightly.

Although a fleeting moment of distraction crossed her eyes, she maintained her smile almost unaffected.

"Marine species landing? I only know the general idea. Why do you think it was me? Because I was in the academy?"

Honey, don't make me take all the blame just because I made a few mistakes.

"If you're honest, I might consider giving you some dignity in my presence."

"Oh, darling, how could you..."

"Sheila and Mira, they should have information too, right?"

Cecilia panicked for a moment, her delicate body trembling.

Eh?

She immediately changed her tune:

“I didn’t do it, but it was definitely the witch. Isadora kidnapped a sea creature girl and killed her, which caused the sea creatures to go mad.”

"...So that's how it was." Rhodes breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Rather than other enemies, Rhodes preferred that the problem stemmed from this already dead enemy.

If that's the case, then let's try our best to resolve this issue within five days.

"Alright, we'll analyze the remaining details thoroughly with all of us when we get back to the academy. Get ready, it's time to go home."

After saying this, Rhodes got up.

This one sentence froze Cecilia in place for a long time, unable to move.

My heart was stirred, deeply moved.

She lowered her eyes: "Going home...? I feel a bit emotional. Is this what it feels like to be forcibly dragged back after years of being a rebellious daughter who hasn't been home for so long?"

……

...

Merrick is using a restoration sorcerer doll to desperately restore the Duke's mansion to its original state.

After bidding farewell to the Duke, Rhodes packed his things and prepared to return to the St. Starson Academy.

To be precise, it was Felicity and Ivina who packed up the things they had left at the Duke's mansion.

But in reality, after this battle, most of their belongings were burned and little was left.

Nothing has changed, it's the same as when I first arrived, except that a few more people have joined the itinerary.

Rhodes, Lilith, Felicity.

Then, Cecilia, Ivina, two maid witches, and Merrick, who was temporarily traveling with them, joined them.

Ivina stood to Rhodes' right, Felicity to his left, while Lilith and Cecilia walked side by side behind the three of them, their expressions cold towards each other.

They left the Duke's mansion, crossed the river and the arched bridge, and this time, there was no longer the witch's watchful eye or any hidden hostile aura.

Can……

Things were clearly getting increasingly heated.

Cecilia's next steps, the issue of marine species, and—

“Rhodes.” Merrick caught the returning sparrow, carefully examining the message it was carrying, his eyes narrowing—

"The Church's Holy Maiden has come to stay temporarily at our Stasen Holy Academy. Did you summon her?"