Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

Of all the people still alive in the entire Southern Territory, only a handful were left.

Just minutes earlier, the destruction of a major Western power on the other side of the continent had been transmitted through this blurry network to the hearts of everyone interconnected within 'Zhonghuang Taiyi'. This brought utter anguish and despair to countless people within this blurry network.

People shouldn't be that strong.

Just as a small shrine cannot contain the magnificent golden statue within the main hall, or a three-meter-deep pond cannot nurture a dragon from the East Sea, an empire that has enjoyed a thousand years of peace, barely touched the edge of industrialization, and whose overall technology has actually been gradually declining, should not breed such powerful monsters. Defeating an army of a thousand, destroying a fortress garrisoned by a few hundred, and ravaging the ground within a radius of a hundred meters should be the limit for the strongest beings in this world. Not like this… a single thought can upend the heavens.

Whether it's Esdeath, the unknown powerful figure who fought her, or Alice, who no longer exists in their eyes—these three beings with mortal appearances have clearly surpassed the limits of what mortals can achieve. They are no longer human, but gods, immortals, ancient evil beings that should only exist in legends. And when they enter reality and begin to interfere with this world, it also means the demise of all mortal achievements.

Ideas, culture, technology, and institutions—these precious treasures, acquired through generations of human effort and struggle, are reduced to utter garbage under absolute violence. And regardless of which side remains in the conflict, these treasures, representing human history yet utterly useless to it, will likely also turn to dust.

They don't need these things—that's the best-case scenario. In a slightly worse possibility, humanity itself is meaningless to them. If they were children, then mortals would be as insignificant as dust, less than ants. Children might pity the lives of ants and choose to ignore them, but dust—they might not even be aware of their own demise.

“All our struggles, all our sacrifices… all in vain.” Someone lamented, the weapon in their hand falling limply to the ground with a dull thud. “Those two monsters have already destroyed the western countries, and soon it will probably be the Empire’s turn. I really hope… they can perish together.”

"That's impossible." Kuroko didn't give them a chance to continue their fantasies. "The General... she simply wants to become stronger, stronger than ever before. So she won't let go of any opportunity to improve herself, nor will she let go of any opportunity... to help her enemies improve. And such a habit is fatal in an evenly matched battle."

She took a deep breath and whispered, "I feel... the general may already be dead."

The already frigid air around us suddenly froze.

“Yes, I feel the same way. I can’t quite explain it, but Esdeath probably doesn’t exist in this world anymore.” Akame chimed in. Her fingertips gently grasped her sister’s hand—their eyes met, and in that instant, their feelings were instantly understood by each other. The deep barrier that had once separated them by life and death vanished completely.

The sisters' reconciliation should have been a joyous occasion, but at that moment, only sorrow filled the hearts of everyone present.

They weren't sure why they were grieving, but the emotion was definitely there. The Teigu users of the Night Raid Assassin Group were surprised to find that they no longer hated Esdeath, the woman they had once called an executioner. Meanwhile, some of the Imperial troops were even weeping softly.

—What else can we do?

Is there anything else we can do?

What will become of us... our world?

—There's nothing we can do!

"Perhaps you shouldn't give up like this." A voice suddenly came from behind the group—it was a familiar tone, but it contained a calmness and confidence that would never be present in normal times—the group instinctively jumped up, only to see a familiar purple figure.

"Sheele... No! Who are you!?" Akame instinctively reached for Murasame, but to her surprise, she found herself utterly devoid of any killing intent. Her fingers gripped the hilt, unable to budge an inch; her mind was solely focused on listening to the voice the person before her was about to utter!

"What did you do!?" Akame was both shocked and astonished—she couldn't muster any anger.

“It’s not what I did, but your own decision.” ’Hill,’ appearing before the group, casually tossed aside her glasses. A vibrant patchouli blossom adorned her temple—she bowed slightly to someone in the crowd. “Nice to meet you. I am Patchouli Knowledge, one of the weavers of this world, or rather, one of the primordial creators. I’m here to discuss a business deal with you.”

"What do you want?" Akame asked instinctively. Only when she spoke did she realize that she hadn't questioned the grandiose titles like 'World Weaver' and 'Primordial Creator'. What was even stranger was that everyone else remained silent.

“It’s simple,” Patchouli nodded gently. “The nature of this world is too fragile; you cannot survive the aftermath of a battle between two extraordinary beings. So, rather than letting your children perish with you, why not cooperate with us? You will work with us to accomplish one task, and I will be responsible for bringing your few remaining chosen ones out of this world. In this way, your existence will be continued, and if these chosen ones perform well, you might even have a chance to be resurrected.”

She glanced at the Imperial Arms users present.

“My partner has gone to great lengths to gather all the potential chosen ones in this world here. There shouldn’t be many omissions. And now that ‘Zhonghuang Taiyi’ has been activated, even if you are in the deepest sleep, you will inevitably be awakened in this artificial Alaya. So there’s no need to delay, because time is running out for both you and us.”

She spoke softly, her gaze sweeping over everyone present.

"Make your decision, will of the world. You should know that opening the 'door' is a dead end for you. You cannot maintain your integrity after connecting to the outer world. So, you should know very well which to choose: total annihilation or leaving a spark to await a chance for survival."

A few seconds later...

What do you want us to do?

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

Just by looking at the word count, you can tell it's more than two sections.

Chapter Seventy-Three: The Decisive Battle

The collision between extraordinary beings was earth-shattering.

A war between extraordinary beings, capable of destroying the world.

When Alice reached the Demon Lord rank, her control and manipulation of energy reached an incredible level. The staff of domination in her hand finally unleashed its true power—she softly called out the true name inscribed on the staff, causing it to burst forth with dazzling light.

"True Name Liberation, Star Weapon - Ten-Pointed Seven-Crown".

A massive, ten-thousand-meter-long Satanic red dragon materialized suddenly at her will, with seven heads and ten horns, each head adorned with a crown. As it appeared, thousands upon thousands of crimson meteors rained down from the sky—the earth was torn apart, and devastating natural disasters spread everywhere. The red dragon's seven heads roared in unison, spewing sulfur and flames—constructed from conceptual art—at the last remaining living beings on earth.

On the surface, it was sulfur and fire; in reality, it was a high-energy impact where every trickle of energy was imbued with a cursed poison. That seemingly endless tide of energy relentlessly ravaged the earth beneath their feet—stone, soil, and other organic structures were all shattered under this terrifying impact. Then, they all ceased the moment they touched Ex.

"In an instant." Exus flicked her finger through the air, and a huge, narrow black rift opened in space, engulfing the sulfur and fire. She took a step forward, traversing the sky to the red dragon's side, and with a single strike, pierced through the dozen or so energy barriers erected by the witch, aiming straight for her forehead!

'break--'

One of the seven heads of the red dragon, along with its crown, shattered. In return, a thin layer of light shielded Axe's seemingly effortless attack—the witch abruptly raised her hand, and a sharp, black scythe emerged from the end of the staff of domination she held. However, the seemingly inevitable slash was easily dodged by Axe; instead, a streak of emerald light appeared, and in an instant, another dragon head, along with its crown, was destroyed.

"I remember you seemed to use a spell that manipulates information, piling up concepts to create effects. Why haven't I seen you use it?" Ex chuckled, easily dodging several tricky scythe slashes in succession, and unleashing a massive storm in the void with a clenched fist. The space in front of her shattered into pieces, and Alice, the target, was sent flying backward for over ten kilometers before barely managing to regain her footing. The second attack arrived in an instant.

"Is the effect too weak? Or is it unusable?" Ex asked, grabbing the red dragon's tail and dodging a breath attack that would burn the continent behind them into a basin before slamming it down with tremendous force. The red dragon's form immediately tore a massive rift hundreds of kilometers long into the earth. Immediately following, a sudden, devastating explosion forced her to retreat slightly.

Only three of the red dragon's seven heads remain, and where she once stood is now a massive, abyss-like crater. Perhaps this place will become the Dead Sea of ​​another world—if this world survives until the day a sea forms.

“You truly disappoint me, Alice Margot Lloyd.” Ex flicked her fingers lightly. “My effort is less than thirty percent of my normal level. And you can’t even inflict any damage on me.”

“Thirty percent.” Alice gritted her teeth slightly, and the remaining three heads of the red dragon simultaneously spewed sulfurous fire to withstand the level 40 storm unleashed by Ex’s kick. This level of storm was enough to break molecular bonds directly, triggering small-scale fission reactions in the air. And when it transformed from calculation into reality, what covered Alice’s eyes was a series of chain reactions of nuclear explosions!

She reached out her hand, and the red dragon's wings drooped, forming a solid barrier around her. And as the light and heat of the nuclear explosion erupted, Ex's figure appeared before her!

"You've used your full power! Because this world simply cannot withstand such excessive power!" Alice instinctively made a defensive move, and the red dragon protecting her tore a fiery tunnel hundreds of miles long through the atmosphere. She was sent flying like a baseball, and Ex's figure reappeared before her eyes.

"So what if it is? The blood sacrifice is complete, the world has to acknowledge me, and I've reached the limit the world allows—the ultimate power of the initial stage of the fourth tier. That's the difference between us, and that difference..." She suddenly threw a downward punch. "Irreparable!"

This time, it sank into the earth. A natural mine pit five kilometers deep appeared on the continent. The red dragon's wings were completely shattered, leaving only its three heads still roaring endlessly deep underground, several kilometers below the surface.

And Exus descended slowly.

“You are too weak. Although you are strong compared to others, you are still too weak compared to me.” She shook her head slightly and looked at Alice. “You still have a chance to repent and join me, and the conditions remain the same. But there will be no next time.”

She received no reply, for in the next instant, the three dragon heads shattered completely. A sun rose from the earth and gradually ascended into the sky, while all matter within a radius of three hundred kilometers was utterly destroyed.

Then, the newly risen sun quietly dimmed.

The outcome is decided.

Exx extended a hand, the emerald light shimmering at her fingertips forming a barrier that shielded her from all harm from the outside. Yet she was still injured—a black spot less than half a centimeter in radius appeared on her left little finger, and a faint smell of burning could be detected.

She stood, unharmed, while Alice sat less than ten meters away, the soul's obsession that had formed the witch's form vibrating so violently that she could not move.

"It's a pity. Breaking through my defenses was a huge breakthrough. Perhaps you could have achieved even greater results if you did it again. But unfortunately, you won't have another chance." She said softly, raising one finger slightly—the same finger that had once cleaved Esdeath and the continent behind her in two.

“Ah, that’s right, there won’t be another chance.” Alice nodded with difficulty, agreeing with her statement. “After all, the time has come.”

"What?" Ex frowned slightly.

The next moment, the Supreme God's notification sounded abruptly. Accompanied by several consecutive negative score notifications, a red light and a purple light directly crossed the world barrier and arrived in front of Ex!

"Why do you think I'm fighting you? My goal from the very beginning has been to make you unleash your power to the limit that this world can bear."

The two beams of light suddenly merged into Ex's body. Cracks immediately appeared all over the space around her. However, her suddenly surging aura then subsided again, gradually bringing her back to her original level of suppression.

"Don't think that I..." She gritted her teeth, reaching out her hand but then lowering it, finally uttering only these words between her teeth: "Can't control your own power!"

“Ah, that’s right, you can control yourself. I didn’t intend to kill you with this.” Alice chuckled, her form gradually blurring—her vessel in the Star River World began to awaken, and the obsessive soul she now possessed was beginning to emerge along the descent portal created by the Creator!

Countless enormous cracks began to appear in the sky. Destructive void storms spread everywhere, and all things would return to the void.

The world is being destroyed.

This isn't the kind of destruction that involves the disappearance of the Earth's surface ecosystem, but a far more thorough destruction stemming from the complete decay of the spatial structure. This isn't something humans can accomplish; rather, it's as if the world itself is yearning for death!

"What...did you do?" Ex reached out with difficulty, caught off guard by the sudden reversal of the offensive and defensive strategies.

“I didn’t do anything, it’s just that my partner convinced this world to take you down with them. You are indeed very strong among the fourth tier, but the problem is…” Alice tilted her head slightly, her form now reduced to a blurry blur of light and shadow. “Could you survive the void storm of a collapsing world without any warning? Especially… when the fundamental skeleton that forms your body was suddenly ripped away by the main god?”

Alice snapped her fingers.

The next moment, a cross-shaped light suddenly burst forth from Ex's chest!

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

Several days ago, in the bridge conference room of the HMS Ude-Cloe.

Before the Cross Star creation that created the 'Gate' world was about to be put into operation, Alice took some time to have a conversation with Logan.

“Your problem is serious, Rodgando.” Alice beckoned, and Shanghai and Penglai obediently poured two cups of hot tea and placed them in front of her and Rodgando, who was sitting restlessly across the table. She picked up her tea, took a small sip, and gestured for Rodgando to relax.

“The Central Plains team doesn’t tolerate idlers. If you continue like this, you’ll die sooner or later. Even if we help you every time out of humanitarian spirit, as long as you’re still in the cycle of reincarnation, you’ll eventually encounter a dangerous situation that you can’t handle. Then you’ll die, and we can’t waste resources to revive you—if you don’t make any changes.”

"I..." Luo Gandao opened his mouth, looking hesitant. Finally, with a pained expression, he weakly said, "...I didn't want to either. I tried so hard, so very hard, I really wanted to fight and become strong. But every time I encounter danger..."

"Your obsession with not wanting to die has taken control of your mind, hasn't it?"

"……Yes."

"This is really bad. It seems like we can't cure it without some drastic measures." Alice sighed softly, took a small silver cross from her pocket, and tossed it over. "Catch."

"Oh," Roger responded, instinctively catching it. However, the instant he caught it, his eyes widened suddenly, and his hand, which had been lightly holding the cross, clenched tightly!

"This...this is!?"

“The Rebirth Cross, a trophy we got from Neos of the Southern Flame Team.” Alice shrugged. “He also had a memetic virus—don’t worry about what a memetic virus is, it’s a really powerful thing—Neo originally planned to unleash the virus to kill everyone, including himself, and then use the Rebirth Cross to return directly to the God Space. But Patchi didn’t give him a chance, and the deal Patchi offered did meet his expectations. So it ended up in our hands.”

“Take this and die once, and I think you will no longer be afraid of death.”

Luo Gandao looked at her with a complicated expression, then glanced at the Rebirth Cross in his hand. After a long while, he managed to squeeze out a few words: "But I already know..."

“Then I’ll make sure you don’t know anything.” Alice looked at him with a gaze as cold as rotten wood—she used to look at Zheng Zha with that same look. “Later, you, Ba Wang, Cheng Xiao, and I will go into that virtual world together. I will physically sever a portion of your memories. They will only return when you are resurrected or awakened. And if I’m not mistaken, one of you or Ba Wang will definitely be targeted by some outsider.”

"If it's Overlord and his group that's being targeted, Patchouli will wake you up beforehand and transfer the Cross to them. We'll talk about your situation later. But if it's you who's being targeted... well, I feel the chances are higher for you. And you'll inevitably die in the end. And when that happens... you'll just stay in the resurrection waiting space until the main god notifies you that someone from another team has died before you can choose to resurrect. You can resurrect on the spot or resurrect in the main god's space, it's up to you."

"...Do you understand?"

"I understand!" Luo Gandao trembled. He quickly put the small cross badge close to his body, as if it were his heart and soul.

“Good, I understand.” Alice nodded and turned to leave. She planned to write a hidden oath into Logandao’s physically isolated memories to prevent him from bringing forward or postponing his resurrection—he would eventually be resurrected, as long as the most important consensus was reached. Then the remaining details could be easily changed.

"Wait." Just before she was about to leave the meeting room, Luo Gandao suddenly asked softly, "Why...why help me like this? I clearly don't know anything..."

“Because you are a resource in my hands, and resources must be used rationally.” Alice tilted her head slightly and replied, “You yourself know very well that you can’t do anything until you overcome your fear of death. But there is one thing that you are absolutely good at and that cannot be replaced—that is your extremely strong will to survive.”

She said seriously, "You, or Ba Wang, Cheng Xiao, I need you to completely conceal your identities as reincarnators in the virtual world. Simply isolating your memories isn't enough. If I want to catch the big fish I envision, the three of you, as bait, need to completely paralyze the other party with your actions and thoughts. Ba Wang and the others can use the 'transmigration soldier king' tactic, which has some flaws, but to increase the chances, we have to let him go. But you... your will to survive is enough to paralyze anyone."

“No one who is a reincarnator could be as afraid of death as you. Because repeated life-and-death experiences are enough to etch marks deep into their souls that cannot be concealed even if their memories are blocked. But you are different, and I need your uniqueness.”

"So... in the virtual world, you only need to do one thing, and that is to 'be Rodandao,' something no one in the world is more suited to do than you. Just struggle, fight, and yearn to survive as hard as you can. No matter how twisted and ugly you appear, no matter how lowly the promises you make... everything you do will become a sharp blade in my hand. And this sharp blade..."

Alice clenched her fists tightly.

"It will deliver a fatal blow to our enemies!"