The Steel Lord stood alone in the middle of a pile of monster corpses as he held a smoking giant blade in his hand. He carefully pulled out a cigar that was hidden under his armor and pressed it against the flaming red blade and using the residual heat to light it up.

Biting into the cigar and taking a deep puff, he looked up to distance toward the miracle-like floating islands there.

“I like the cigs in this world, what a kick.”

He bit the cigar as he carried his blade and turned toward the wall leaving blood-soaked footprints in his wake.

…

Adolf had just put his head back on again.

His head had just fallen off earlier, but thankfully no one noticed.

If anyone were to see him surviving even after having his head lobbed off by monsters, he would probably be tied to a stake and burnt.

Of course, that was on the premise of his master not being around.

He then got up from the stream stained with black blood.

Adolf coughed a few times, feeling that his throat might not have been properly attached, and the position was a little off.

He looked up into the light that was gradually glowing in the sky, and let out a smile.

“F*ck me! Adolf, your head is the other way around!!” A horrified cry rang out behind him and immediately snagged him back from his smile.

Adolf looked down, and sure enough, his head was 180 degrees off…

His expression stiffened as he calmly turned over and smiled at the many teammates behind him with a look of horror on their faces.

“Don’t worry, I just wore it the wrong way.”

Everyone looked at his head that was facing the opposite direction of his toes, and they felt a chill in their hearts.

…

The Underworld.

The Dark Pantheon.

A massive skeleton stood by the gate of the black hall, looking into the shining lands leading to the human realm in the distance.

That was the place that could connect to the most dimensional rifts to the human realm using coordinates.

At that moment, a blurry white light seeped in through the dimension, penetrating into the Underworld.

“Is it shining through the remaining Hidden Realm passageways?”

The giant skeleton wore a large black cloak that covered his entire body without revealing a clear outline. Only the shadows behind him constantly twisted and wriggled.

“My Lord, it seems like something has happened in the human realm. I’m afraid that Saie’s mission might run into trouble.” Over in a dark corner, a white-haired woman with a translucent body walked out of it.

The woman wore fitting leather armor with twin blades on her back while six thin black swords hung around her waist, with three on each side.

“How many years had it been… An existence like that has finally appeared in the human realm.” The skeleton said calmly.

“If not for the rules of the two worlds binding me from manifesting, this probably would not have occurred at all…” The tone of his voice was neither rueful nor regretful.

“Then what should our response be…?” The woman frowned.

“After this, call back all operations against the Holy Sanctum of the human world. With such a powerful holy light, they have the right to speak on equal footing with me.” The skeleton spoke. “Send a formal letter of audience over.”

“I want the letter to appear on the Holy Emperor’s table this instant.”

“As you command.”

…

The Astral Mere.

Inside an independent white space.

A massive blue crystal tower constantly turned with its six wing blades. Above the wing blades was the golden age containing the supreme Crystal of Words.

Mayuko looked at the tower quietly. The Wise King had left for two days now, and there had been no news until now.

She was the only person who knew of the Wise King’s loss of contact.

“Still daydreaming? Mayuko?”

Behind her came the familiar voice of Tungus.

Tungus was a newcomer to the Astral Mere not too long ago. While a newcomer, he had powerful potential.

In just one short month, he had raised from the lowest ordinary member to the strongest level of the core Stellar Scars.

In the Astral Mere, there were no fears of betrayal due to the Crystal of Words. As long one had strength, everything could be arranged.

“Just normally daydreaming.” Mayuko recollected herself as she turned toward Tungus.

Tungus had a shoulder-length smooth brown hair. His features were handsome and distant yet he always wore a gentle smile.

The bizarre yet stark contrast gave him an inexplicable attractive charm.

He held a mysterious worn white bone blade and the blade was on his back never leaving his person.

“Daydreaming won’t help you grow taller.” Tungus approached and guffawed.

“I may be short, but you can’t beat me,” Mayuko responded calmly.

“Uh… that’s just…”

*Hummmm!!!*

Suddenly, a massive invisible wave blasted out from an unknown direction far away.

The strength of the wave and area it had covered had the two people within the Astral Mere to have a slight change to their expression as they held the strength of the wave.

“It’s the direction of the holy city!” Mayuko said earnestly.

“The holy city…” Tungus demurred, seemingly to be thinking of something before looking back in the direction of the wave.

“The holy city built by the Holy Emperor?” he asked.

“Are there any other fortress cities that dares to call itself as such?” Mayuko asked back.

Tungus fell silent.

And the two stopped talking.

…

Rays of red light radiated from the Tower of Dusk and painted the entire Henriqcal skyline red. Under the purification of the floating islands, the holy city had restored its order.

After Annihilatus disappeared, the remaining tide of monsters outside the city were lambs to the slaughter under the combined might of the Palatinates.

The remaining monsters were all slaughtered in a short period of them and were pushed out of the purification field.

The breaches in the city wall were immediately patched up using some powerful adhesive compound concrete as one heavy-duty pumping machine after another pumped all of the Blacktide waters out of the city.

The post-disaster reconstruction efforts needed more than just manpower and materials.

On a sentry tower at the tallest point of the city walls.

Lin Sheng, the Night Lord, Tenko Kasumi, and the Steel Lord stood side by side as they looked into the distance.

“It’s really bad this time. Who knows how much resources we will need for the reconstruction efforts. I can understand now why everyone is looking for a Hidden Realm and lock themselves in it…” The Night Lord sighed.

“Yeah, if this happens again and again, then everyone would have nothing else to do as the reconstruction efforts would take up all of our time.”

“How about now? The Blacktide had been warded off. So what are we doing now?” Tenko Kasumi was still recovering and she looked rather worse for wear, but at the very least her wounds had been stabilized and were not contaminated.

“Recuperate. Get well as soon as possible, and face the possibility of another wave of Blacktide.” Lin Sheng answered.

“I still have something to do. Thank goodness I managed to rush back in time.” He let out a tiny sigh of relief.

After he had consolidated his own divinity, he was supposed to continue absorbing the God’s Speed divinity in his hand, but he did not expect such turmoil to happen.

“Adolf will handle the reconstruction efforts. That aside, the Steel Lord should stand guard as well. We need to increase the resources and settlements for those who were killed in action.”

Lin Sheng pondered for a bit. “We don’t have to worry too much about the resources. The number of dead and wounded is too many, and the consumption will drop naturally as well. Add on the shares of the dead onto the ones still living.”

“Don’t worry, we will handle this.” The Steel Lord nodded. “How are we going to handle the Astral Mere and the Dark Pantheon? The Wise King of the Astral Mere had secretly mastered the holy power before he was cut down by His Excellency, the Night Lord before the sanctum.”

“Even I didn’t know who the Wise King was. Only after a defecting spy took the initiative to inform me that I found out that he was the leader of the Astral Mere…” The Night Lord sniggered in embarrassment.