Under the night sky, the white-haired witch watched as the Roel ignited the final dredges of his mana. She let out a soft sigh, knowing that he had already made up his mind.

  Between killing his loved one to protect himself and staking his life on a glimmer of hope, Roel had chosen the latter. Artasia knew that it wasn’t a wise choice, but she wasn’t surprised at all.

  “This again? You’re a greedy one, my hero. How do you intend to wake her from her reverie?” asked Artasia with a rare solemn look on her face.

  After Roel’s previous failed attempt to wake Nora’s humanity, her divine instinct still upped its vigilance to prevent any mishap. At this point, it was no longer possible to get to her with just words.

  Roel spent a second in thought before revealing his plan.

  Artasia’s madder red eyes slowly widened. She stared at Roel for a very long time before finally giving a nod of approval. By then, Roel’s mana had also crescendoed to a peak, ready for one last charge.

  A pale yellow glow descended upon Roel’s body, raising his fighting prowess to Origin Level 3. It was Peytra’s Blessing.

  Shortly after, the Crown’s Stone started glowing brightly.

  “Glacier!” muttered Roel.

  The Crown Origin Attribute began buzzing in resonation, propagating the power of the Crown’s Stone. Frost aura gushed out of Roel’s body toward the golden sky. A blurred cataclysmic beast manifested behind him, as if a terrifying existence from the ancient era had awoken to unleash eternal winter upon the world.

  As he slowly raised his hand, the amount of frost aura he was releasing intensified. It rushed upward to challenge the golden sky dominated by the Angel King, thus commencing yet another battle.

  The golden aura and the white aura muddled the sky.

  The Six Calamities were the envoys of the Mother Goddess. They were calamities manifested by the natural destructive forces of nature, putting it at an even higher order than gods. Even the Angel King’s assimilatory power couldn’t hope to undermine them.

  Roel consciously formed a dome of frost aura around Nora to sever her connection with the sky, but this didn’t plunge the latter into panic. On the contrary, she became even more aggressive in her stand-off against Grandar. Before long, Grandar started to approach his limit.

  His massive skeleton fists were already dyed with a layer of golden aura. This golden aura had started to permeate his body and ravage his insides, causing bits and pieces of his bones to fall to the ground.

  This wasn’t a good sign, especially since Roel needed Grandar for his plan.

  The first thing he had to do in order to awaken Nora’s humanity was to get close to her. That was the condition that had to be met before he could attempt anything. However, the only one who could help him achieve that was Grandar.

  “Are you able to hold on?”


  Roel looked at Grandar’s tattered body and asked.

  “Go and do what you need to,” replied Grandar with a deep and majestic voice.

  Roel nodded in response. He stepped forcefully against the ground and zapped forward with a burst of mana, reminiscent of a bolt of crimson lightning.

  His approach alarmed the Angel King. She immediately began compressing her mana on her hand before releasing it as a destructive gush of golden light. She was determined not to let Roel come anywhere close to her.

  The incoming gush of golden light blinded Roel, but he continued to charge forward without any hesitation. His golden eyes remained as calm as ever, seemingly unworried about the Angel King’s attack. He knew that there was a fearless giant behind him who would ensure his safety.

  Roel’s silent trust ignited Grandar’s fighting will.

  The Giant King let out a deafening roar. His massive body was crumbling at an increasing speed under the assimilatory nature of the destructive golden light, but even so, he still furiously channeled his mana into his right fist to hurl a crimson punch forward.

  With a burst of crimson light, his tenacious attack tore right through the incoming golden light, opening a path for Roel to advance. After accomplishing his final mission, the remaining half of his body started to disintegrate.

  100 meters.

  Roel quickly charged forward, determined not to let Grandar’s sacrifice be in vain.

  On the other hand, the Angel King swiftly switched from offense to defense in face of Grandar’s terrifying might, but she soon realized that the frost aura encircling her had sealed off her path of retreat. On top of that, she sensed that Grandar’s terrifying strength was starting to die down.

  These changes made her realize that the scales were tilting in her favor, so she changed her mind and decided to go aggressive.

  50 meters.

  The Angel King unfurled her light wings and gathered her mana, but before she could fully unleash her attack, the white-haired witch beside Roel released her spell.

  “Devour.”


  Artasia pointed her finger forth and murmured a spell. Countless enigmatic black butterflies emerged from the void, initially attracted by Artasia’s mana, but their attention was soon drawn to the person who had the highest concentration of mana here—the Angel King.

  They flocked toward the Angel King and feasted on her mana.

  The assimilatory power harnessed in the Angel King’s mana swiftly disintegrated any black butterflies that dared to feast on her mana, but with their sheer number, the black butterflies still managed to weaken her. The golden aura she had defensively wrapped around her body began to recede, weakening her defenses.

  30 meters.

  The witch’s kaleidoscope of butterflies started to wear thin, but they successfully took away a huge amount of the Angel King’s mana with them to their grave. It was at this point that Artasia finally fully expended her mana, and her silhouette faded away with the wind.

  With the sacrifice of two ancient gods, Roel was finally ready to put his final plan into action.

  As he charged forward, he began to compress the frost aura he had been stacking around the Angel King thus far, attempting to encase her within it. The calamitous frost aura produced a layer of frost on the latter’s body and her movements began to stiffen, but it was unable to freeze her right away.

  But it mattered not. His goal was never to freeze the Angel King.

  Kacha!

  The biting frost sank its fangs into the Angel King’s light wings, freezing it solid before shattering it into bits. Just like a bird with clipped wings, she was now bound to the ground.

  Upon realizing that her mobility had been restricted, a crack finally showed on the Angel King’s unfeeling face. For a brief instant, she showed a hint of fluster.

  10 meters.

  By this point, the Angel King had lost most of her mana, her wings were clipped, and her body was covered in frost, but her disadvantageous position only further spurred her killing intent. She wasn’t frightened at all, for she knew that the person before her was a mere human.

  Humans were pathetically weak compared to the gods.

  She sensed that Roel had lost the protection of his ancient gods, and she knew that she could easily destroy him even in her weakened state. It was not arrogance; this was the physical difference between a human and an angel.

  Roel was also well aware that he wouldn’t be a match for the Angel King in a 1-on-1 battle, but the latter had made a minor but fatal miscalculation.

  “Have you forgotten about me?”


  A dignified feminine voice echoed beyond the multiple layers of frost aura encircling the Angel King, causing the latter’s face to warp in horror.

  The World Serpent’s body was still being assimilated by the golden aura, an inevitable effect from having swallowed the Angel King earlier, but she was still holding on. Her pale yellow snake eyes were glowing brightly like lanterns, and reflected in them was a young woman slowly turning into stone.

  Stone Gaze.

  That was a forbidden spell from the ancient era, one of the strongest offensive spells of the Primordial Earth Goddess. Not even the Angel King had the power to assimilate it.

  By this point, Roel was already standing in front of the Angel King.

  5 meters.

  With one last contribution from Peytra, they finally managed to curb the Angel King. It was no longer possible for her to move with her body petrified and covered in frost. Roel could now put his plan into action, and it looked like victory was finally within grasp.

  However, it would appear that he had still underestimated the prowess of a Race Sovereign.

  Just as Roel came into an arm’s length of the Angel King, the latter began focusing her mana toward the right side of her body. Just like how Grandar had chosen to cast aside his body to launch one last powerful punch, she was forsaking the left side of her body to forcefully regain partial control of her body.

  This marked the end of Roel’s journey.

  Even if the Angel King could only move half of her body, it was still impossible for a mere human to stand against it. Roel was well aware of that, and he was unable to do anything about it.

  Just like that, the Angel King’s hand plunged into his chest with ease.

  Blood splattered all over the Angel King’s face. A smile finally surfaced on her lips, as if mocking the weakness of humans. The next moment, however, her gaze fell upon Roel’s chest with a confused frown.

  “You must be baffled as to why you aren’t able to find my heart?” murmured Roel calmly.

  The Angel King quickly raised her head in astonishment to look at Roel with her glowing eyes, and the latter calmly revealed the answer.

  “That’s a simple question to answer. I moved my heart away. My body is the final chain to shackle you.”


  Right after those words were spoken, a blood-colored frost aura began rushing toward the Angel King’s outstretched hand, firmly locking the two of them together. With that, Roel’s plan was finally completed.

  0 meters. I’m finally close enough.

  Beneath the night sky that ironically looked as bright as day under the influx of white and golden, Roel reached out to caress her cheek. Before her shocked eyes, he suddenly lurched forward and sealed her lips, delivering his final sliver of hope.

  Witch’s Blood.

  It was no longer possible to undo Nora’s Seraphication with mere words, and Roel wasn’t that naive as to blindly stake his hopes on a miracle occurring. He knew that he would need a medium to connect to her if he wanted to awaken her humanity.

  Blood was one of the most potent magic materials, commonly used in the ancient era when resources were scarce. The Witch Queen’s blood was one of the strongest mediums in the world, and it was the only tool that Roel could rely on.

  The moment their lips connected, the droplet of blood Roel had been hiding in his mouth diffused into a burning flow of energy that swiftly permeated both of their bodies.

  Roel felt as if someone had set his innards ablaze, but the excruciating pain swiftly faded as his consciousness flowed through the blood medium into the young woman’s soul.