Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

She didn't actually unleash the full power of Aurora Execution, nor did she deliver that truly transcendent, absolute zero strike. She merely approached that point infinitely, pushing her strength and spirit to their absolute limits.

Ascending to the transcendent is not like going to the market to buy groceries; it's not something that can be achieved by simply standing still and unleashing a burst of energy. What she actually longed for was the moment of collision between her and Alice's powerful magical energy, which was at least equal to, or even slightly surpassing, her own. Only at that critical juncture of life and death, when all her vital energy, spirit, will, and even her intangible fortune were boiling at their peak, did she have the possibility of transcending the realm of the divine. And now, all of that had been destroyed by this suddenly appearing individual!

The fact that the followers are Alice's energy source is something even Najenda and her mortals could guess. How could Esdeath, as a direct combatant, not know this? She didn't act because she knew very well that Alice hadn't made any deliberate attempt to conceal this fact, and Esdeath also knew that Alice must have countermeasures. At the same time, she was even more clear about her own purpose in fighting Alice.

What she wanted was defeat, a death match, sublimation, transcendence. She wanted to reach a higher level through this battle, not simply to seek victory—she could have reached that goal very quickly, and even gained a fellow traveler on her path to transcendence, making her quest less lonely. But now, all of that is gone!

Everything was ruined by this despicable, weak nobody who ambushed others with only a set of equipment he stole from who-knows-where!

This is an act of obstruction. And an act of obstruction is an irreconcilable enmity. She was prepared to crush the person who interrupted her ascension into dust, centimeter by centimeter.

“If you don’t answer, I’ll take that as a yes. Now, just look forward to your death, because it will be a long way off.” Esdeath raised her hand, and an ice rapier fell into her grasp. At that moment, she finally heard a panicked male voice coming from within the Supreme Imperial Arms.

"Wait! Wait a minute!" Logand shouted anxiously, "Your opponent isn't dead! She's in the sky! She's in those golden clouds!"

"What!?" Esdeath whirled her head, only to see the yellow sky above rapidly fading, its energy dissipating. She sensed no warning signs or unusual energy. This couldn't possibly be a prelude to some ultimate attack being unleashed.

She shook her head, turned around, and smashed a massive iceberg that had suddenly condensed towards the location of the Supreme Imperial Arm!

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

Mountains collapsed.

The earth was torn apart and shattered.

As the overwhelming bombardment from the Supreme Imperial Arms bombarded the camp area, and the turbulent energy aftershocks swept outwards, Cheng Xiao immediately activated the aura shield he had acquired after obtaining the identity of the leader of the Anning Dao, and spread it outwards as much as possible. Whether it was the Night Raid Assassin Group, who were considered allies, or the Imperial Arms user squad that came with Esdeath, they were all within his protection range.

He made great efforts, but human strength has its limits. When the bombardment ended and the situation developed in a direction that they could neither understand nor observe, these Imperial Arms users, who should have dominated the world stage and left a lasting mark, suffered considerable damage, just like innocent mortals who were usually caught up in their battles.

He kept the Imperial Arms users loyal to the Empire on the other side to prevent the two sides from continuing to fight—he didn't feel he needed to deliberately favor either side. But he felt these people didn't need to die here meaninglessly.

His efforts were commendable; the two sides remained far apart, each tending to their own wounded. Among them, Najenda, the leader of the Night Raid Assassins who was not a Teigu user, was the most severely injured.

"I'm going to die." She lay on a wooden plank covered with a makeshift canvas, her face pale and her voice calm. Lubbock, holding her still-intact left hand tightly, knelt beside her, his one hand dangling from his side. The right side of her body, including both legs and one hand, was missing. Although the wounds had been treated with a secret medicine, it was clear to everyone that she had no chance of survival.

She was just a mortal, and the only witch who could possibly save her wouldn't offer her help at this time.

"Are the others alright?" she asked, looking at her companions surrounding her—each of them had sustained injuries of varying degrees, with broken limbs being commonplace, and Leone the Leo even having lost a portion of her lower abdomen. The most seriously injured, besides herself, was Hill—a rock had shattered her aura barrier and struck her on the head, causing her to lose half a liter of blood and fall into a deep coma.

Of course, it may not be just a coma.

“Everyone else… is fine. Hill too—” Akame, who had the least injury, said in a hoarse voice. She glanced secretly at Brand, who was taking care of Hill, and the latter shook his head slightly—“He only had a head injury, but it’s nothing serious.”

“Is that so? That’s good.” Najenda sighed softly and looked up at the sky—the golden sky was gradually changing from a bright gold to a clear yellow—“Just now, I had a dream.”

"No insects appeared in the Southern Territory of my dream, nor did the Path of Peace rise. That Arya... or rather, that Alice never existed in the first place. What we had to deal with was that still-corrupt empire, still just Esdeath relying solely on the brute force of her Imperial Arms and the conservative Grand General. We suffered many losses, but we also gained new comrades, and in the end, we—our Night Raid Assassin Group—successfully overthrew this decaying empire."

“That was truly a beautiful dream…” she sighed, the veins in her remaining arm bulging, her voice gradually rising from a low tone to a high one. “We paid the price, we won. We… decided the future of this world and established our own nation. We are the true protagonists of this world!”

'Boom—' In the far distance, the iceberg hurled by Esdeath slammed the Supreme Imperial Arm and its wielder into the ground. The powerful shockwave instantly traversed the vast distance, passing beneath the feet of the group—everyone clearly felt the power contained within this strike. And just as clearly, everyone felt their own insignificance.

"...So it really won't work?" Najenda's voice turned low again, her fighting spirit and vitality rapidly draining away. "Such power...this level of power! With them in this world, what's the point of our resistance!"

"Are we... just a bunch of ants from beginning to end?!"

“It makes sense!” Lubbock gripped her hand tightly. “The rebels… are finished, but our fight won’t end here! We can rebuild the rebels, rebuild our legions! We… still have a chance to start over! We can continue fighting!”

His words grew increasingly rapid, each syllable more forceful than the last. Yet, a hint of sobbing gradually crept into his voice, for he could clearly sense the hand he was holding rapidly growing cold. And the life within it was slowly slipping away.

Mine, who was standing to the side, had already turned her head away and was crying silently.

“A battle… I hope so. If there is an afterlife as Anningdao speaks of, I will definitely…” Najenda’s voice gradually weakened, her pupils dilated, and the words she uttered became increasingly indistinct. But in the final moment, she suddenly opened her eyes slightly.

"So the afterlife... is golden? Then... there's a battle..."

Her neck tilted to the side, and she breathed her last.

The Night Raid assassins, now leaderless, were plunged into grief. And for that very reason, none of them noticed that Hill's fingers trembled slightly.

A wisp of patchouli scent drifted through the air, seemingly out of nowhere.

Chapter Sixty-Eight: Before Coming

As it turns out, the so-called Supreme Imperial Arms, the last trump card used by the millennium-old empire to suppress the nation's destiny, was as fragile as a piece of paper in the hands of Esdeath, who had been fully enhanced and whose genetic lock had been unlocked to the third stage limit. In less than two minutes, this pathetic giant bio-robot had its limbs and sensors easily severed, and its power reactor and main control core frozen, leaving only a desperate Logando trembling in the control room.

"Exus! What should I do!? Help me!" Logan's voice was filled with terror. He watched as Esdeath slowly and methodically dismantled the compartments of the Supreme Imperial Arms used to protect the pilots, layer by layer, outside the control room. The deathly breeze licked at his ankles, and he was powerless against his impending fate!

"Exx! Save me!" he cried out desperately. "I'll do anything you ask! Help me! Let me get out of here alive!"

You've probably misunderstood something. I haven't asked you to do anything—you made the wrong judgment, so you must bear the consequences. After all, we have an equal contractual relationship, and since it's equal, it means I don't need to provide you with protection.

I am a person who abides by rules and order. I treat friends in a certain way, collaborators in a certain way, and servants in a certain way. You are merely my collaborator; I have no responsibility or obligation towards you. Your fate is yours to bear.

Esdeath's voice remained calm as always, her pace neither quickening nor slowing. Just as she finished speaking, Esdeath completely excavated the cockpit from the Supreme Emperor's body—the Imperial General stared at Logan through the semi-transparent final protective layer, his gaze as if he were sizing up a sheep to be slaughtered.

Luo Gandao instinctively shut his mouth.

If I die, your plan will fail!

"No, not at all." Ex replied lightly. "My goal is to awaken the will of this world, take control of it, and make it open the door to the outside for me. And to do that, I need to kill as many of the protagonists in this world as possible. And right now, the only protagonist left in this world is the one standing before me."

[Look, doesn't Alice harbor hatred towards her? Now, Alice is about to reach a life level equivalent to the fourth stage of the genetic lock. And this imperial general is completely unaware of Alice's ascension, so her defeat is almost inevitable.]

Even if she wanted to run away, the world's destiny within her would drive her to fight—after all, there's no such thing as a free lunch; having received destiny naturally comes with responsibility, and she probably wouldn't run away. Therefore, she will inevitably die, and with her death, my goal will be achieved—our cooperative relationship is over, so whatever situation you end up in is no longer my concern.

Ex's mood at this moment was clearly different from her outwardly calm and cheerful demeanor, because she was actually interested in explaining all the details to the dying man, Logan. And obviously, she wouldn't lie about this, because she didn't need to, and because she had no need to.

Logan realized this very clearly, and this made his heart tremble even more.

We... can be friends. I've done a lot for you.

Ex responded quickly.

"Humans might be able to befriend animals, but viruses and dust can never truly coexist." Ex replied lightly, "You don't really have many choices. Whether you live or die, it's up to you."

The next moment, Esdeath's fingers tore through the cockpit's outer shell, her icy eyes fixed on Logan, whose mere gaze made him feel as if his entire body was imprisoned, completely unable to move an inch.

"You're the pilot? A complete stranger." Freezing air emanated from her fingertips, shattering the cockpit's outer shell and inflicting severe frostbite on Logandau—his fingers and toes were frozen solid almost instantly, then detached from his limbs like poorly made popsicles. They fell to the ground, shattering into pink granules, and Logandau didn't even notice their disappearance at first!

All the nerves in the skin have died.

He felt as if a thin shell covered his body, and when he realized it was his frozen skin and instinctively tried to open his mouth to scream, he found that even his tongue was rapidly freezing. The power he had previously gained through his 'soul,' and the 'realm' that seemed to have been unlocked, all vanished from him in an instant. And the shadow of death then gripped his heart.

[No! I can't die! I can't die here!] He screamed inwardly, but he found his mind was becoming sluggish, and his head felt as if it were covered in frost.

"You couldn't even withstand the freezing air I couldn't control. So you're just an ant, a reptile that relies solely on this massive Imperial Arm to show off?" He heard Esdeath's voice, the emotions within which he couldn't discern, but it only deepened his fear.

"This kind of garbage..."

No, I can't die here!

"...Not worthy of being in my collection..."

I will live! Even if I am as lowly as dust, I will live!

"……So……"

Because if you die, then nothing matters anymore!

"……die!"

Let me live, Ex! I give you everything I have!

The next moment, an ice shard aimed at Logando's forehead was instantly condensed in mid-air. Emerald light radiated outwards from between his eyebrows, easily ejecting the unsuspecting Esdeath from the cockpit of her Supreme Imperial Arm. Following this, the highly penetrating light completely enveloped the already mangled Supreme Imperial Arm!

Luo Gandao opened his eyes.

His body, damaged by the freezing air, rapidly regenerated under the emerald light. The broken Imperial Arms seemed to writhe as if alive, quickly melting, coalescing, and recreating, instantly constructing another gigantic humanoid bio-weapon—much smaller in size and mass, but with all other parameters greatly increased—looking like a Gundam that frequently appears in mecha anime. And its head, like Logandao's brow, pulsed with emerald light.

"So this is the true power of the 'soul'..." He felt a resonance between his mind and the reconstructed, enormous weapon that transcended blood ties. It was as if the weapon was a part of his body, his hand, his foot, and he could control them at will without any hindrance.

He turned his head and, in his rapidly stretched sense of time, saw Esdeath readjusting her posture. He saw her silently unleashing thousands of beams of boson condensation clouds—enough to freeze a town to dust in an instant—at him. Instinctively, he raised his hand to shield himself, and the massive humanoid weapon mimicked his movement. In that very instant of adopting a defensive stance, he sensed the surging biomagnetic field within the humanoid weapon, like a tsunami.

The condensation clouds, reaching a temperature as low as -270 degrees Celsius, collapsed entirely in an instant. The escaping freezing air froze the air itself into large clumps of gas particles—they couldn't overcome the biomagnetic field wall created by the humanoid weapon. Luo Gandao also felt a rapid depletion of energy within himself and the massive weapon.

That does not work.

This can't go on.

To survive, one must activate their 'soul' and acquire more energy and experience through killing and devouring.

Fighting Esdeath was pointless. Not only was it uncertain whether he could win, but even if he did, killing her wouldn't bring any unexpected gains. He looked up at the sky, which had faded from bright yellow to pale yellow. He remembered that Esdeath had once said that Esdeath was her enemy.

How could I possibly fight more enemies capable of battling Exusiai? What I should be doing now is devouring more souls to gain more energy reserves and combat experience.

Without hesitation, he turned around, ignoring Esdeath's astonished gaze, and directly piloted the giant humanoid weapon towards the area with the strongest life force. Esdeath didn't stop him—and he simply increased his already supersonic speed by another third!

"Trying to run away!?" Esdeath gritted her teeth, quickly closing the distance to the giant humanoid weapon powered by her 'soul'. "You think you can just run away after messing with me!?"

She reached out her hand, and a chilling wave followed her toward the humanoid weapon flying south—she was unable to catch up with Luo Gandao immediately, but the distance between them was constantly shrinking.

The place with the densest concentration of life is the south.

Because the people of the northern South had been mobilized by Alice, and their physical forms had all been destroyed minutes earlier.

Logandal couldn't capture their souls, because their souls had already flown into the pale yellow sky. But Logandal's slaughter of the Zerg was still effective—and if he couldn't, Esdeath could.

The only fuel that 'souls' need is souls themselves. Moreover, it has no requirements regarding the type or strength of souls—it doesn't require Logando to do it personally; the swarms of insects swallowed by the cold tide controlled by Esdeath can also serve as its nourishment. As the two chased and fled, the number of souls increased dramatically as the cold tide moved south.

Ten, one hundred, one thousand, ten thousand.

100,000, 1 million, 10 million, 100 million.

Logand had never imagined that so many insects lurked in the Southern Territory—he knew there were many insects in the South, and he knew they planned to give Esdeath and Alice, the two combatants, a huge surprise. Esdeath had mentioned that these insects were the helpers he would have when he bombarded the fortified area. Although they hadn't arrived on time then, they were proving extremely useful now.

They are nutrients, well-nourished nutrients.

Indeed, these insects have become incredibly powerful, far surpassing the Araqi insectoids of the outside world. They can adapt to various harsh environments in an extremely short time. They can establish themselves in perilous conditions and mine vast amounts of resources, which are then transformed into their means of production in a very short time, allowing them to advance further on the path of bio-weapon technology.

However, faced with Esdeath, who was nearly at the fourth tier and, with the blessing of the world's fortune, equivalent to someone just entering the fourth tier, their fate was no better than that of a wilted eggplant—they all perished. Whether they were assassins skilled in stealth and capable of high-speed movement while shielding sound and light signals, artillery bugs equipped with bio-crystal oscillators that could act as plasma cannons, or dimensional bugs capable of short-distance spatial jumps and continuous maneuvers, they were all wiped out in an instant. Even with their enormous numbers and extremely tight organization, they were as fragile as sandcastles on the beach under the near-absolute-zero cold wave impact of Esdeath.

She quickly caught up with Luo Gandao.

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

Alice opened her eyes. In her vision, the golden light that filled the entire world was rapidly fading. And in the same vision, tens of millions of souls were swirling around her.

The plan was a success; the Apocalypse was successfully activated, and the concept of the Central Yellow Emperor was successfully constructed. Although this rendered all her other preparatory plans useless, the current situation was indeed guiding her in the most advantageous direction.

She lowered her non-existent eyelids, her gaze sweeping across the desolate landscape before settling precisely on the two figures battling in the depths of the frozen southern region—Esdeath on one side, and a colossal bio-machine on the other. Countless frozen, fragmented insects served as the backdrop to their battle. And it was clear that Esdeath was gaining the upper hand.

[Rogan said... He is the vessel, just as I predicted.]

The girl thought to herself.

His combat abilities were not outstanding; he possessed energy several times greater than Esdeath's but lacked experience, and coupled with his lack of divine favor and insufficient luck, defeat was only a matter of time.