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Humans tended to only realize what they cherished the most when their time was limited.

Antonio had his answer to this question—Astrid. He wanted to put on his best look for Astrid while preparing for the upcoming decisive battle with her.

As for Roel, his decision was to spend some time with the unconscious Alicia.

So, he stepped out of the room and found himself standing in an illuminated corridor. For a brief moment, he hesitated before heading left or right, but he quickly noticed Alicia’s mana from the left.

“I’ll take you there. This place can get a little confusing,” Antonio said.

“Thank you.” Roel nodded and followed Antonio.

As Roel made his way through the barrack, he noticed that all of the soldiers were rushing to and fro, with noises to be heard everywhere. Many injured personnel were being carried into rooms similar to the one Roel was previously resting in to undergo emergency treatment.

“Those are…” Roel eyed the faint black aura on the injured soldiers’ bodies with narrowed eyes.

“Those are the soldiers who were ambushed by the Fallens while trying to rescue the scouts. They were caught unprepared, or else we would have had more survivors…”

“How’s their mental state? Are they severely affected?”

“Fortunately, these Fallens are different from the monsters who attacked Brolne four hundred years ago. They are powerful, but our soldiers won’t immediately descend into madness upon coming into contact with them. Even so, they were still inflicted with traces of the Savior’s mana,” Antonio explained.

“I see.” Roel nodded.

In a Witness State depicting Brolne’s tragedy four hundred years ago, Roel had encountered black-robed figures and black-armored soldiers.

Though these monsters were nowhere near as powerful as the Ancient Austine Empire’s elites, their ability to spread the Savior’s madness was terrifying. Just coming into contact with them was enough to erode one’s sanity. The only way to safely deal with them was to resort to long-ranged attacks. Those were the worst enemies to go up against.

Power came at a price, however, as their powerful ability to spread madness came at the expense of their defensive prowess.

In contrast, the Ancient Austine Empire’s Fallens went down another evolutionary pathway. Their power was focused on strengthening their body and raising their fighting prowess, though that severely reduced their ability to spread madness.

“I’d say that these Fallens are easier to deal with than the black-robed figures and black-armored soldiers,” Roel remarked.

“Yes, we can at least rally our forces together to fend them off. Had our enemies been the black-robed figures and the black-armored soldiers, our morale would have plummeted.” Antonio nodded as he remembered the tough time he had been through four hundred years ago. “But we’ll likely suffer far more casualties against such opponents.”

“We definitely will,” Roel replied with a heavy heart as he thought about the tough battle they would have to fight soon.

Antonio finally stopped before a door and said, “Alicia is in there. She should wake up soon.”

Knowing he ought to grant the two youths some privacy, Antonio took his leave. Roel hesitated in front of the doorway before finally entering.

…

Roel had been swept away by Alicia’s beauty from their very first meeting, but he probably never expected that he would still be as vulnerable to her ravishing appearance even after so many years.

This was how addictive Aliciatonin was.

Looking at the silver-haired woman and feeling her mana pulsation, Roel took in a deep breath, and it made him feel much lighter, both physically and spiritually.

Alicia’s safety came as a consolation to him, no matter how tired he was feeling. At the same time, she had inherited a portion of the Mother Goddess’ powers, so her mana was antithetical to the Savior’s. Her presence kept the mana in the room pristine, unlike the turbid mana outside.

Roel slowly made his way up to Alicia.

She was an adult by now, but her frame remained petite. Her silver hair cascaded smoothly down to her waist, complementing her fair skin. Her cherry lips glistened under the light, tempting one to sneak a taste of them. Her little chest moved rhythmically at a calming tempo.

Looking at her, Roel couldn’t help but think that it had been a long time since he paid close attention to her sleeping visage.

Other than the night they had spent inside Shrouding Fog’s body, it had been a long time since the two of them shared a bed. The subtle changes to Alicia’s appearance brought a mysterious feeling of curiosity that besotted Roel.

He was only able to snap out of his trance when her eyes finally fluttered open.

“…Lord Brother?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

Alicia’s eyes were dazed, looking like a half-awake kitten that couldn’t distinguish between its dream and reality. However, as she heard Roel’s response, her eyes slowly widened with clarity.

“!”

“What’s wrong, Alicia? Did I disturb you?”

“Not at all, Lord Brother! This is…” Alicia shot upright and grabbed Roel’s hand, as she scanned her surroundings with worried eyes.

Roel belatedly remembered the circumstances that Alicia had fainted in, so he consoled her with a smile, saying, “You can put your mind at ease, Alicia. The battle is over.”

He grabbed Alicia’s hand and patiently told her everything that had happened.

Alicia was relieved to learn that Carolyn had given up on the final plan. She leaped into Roel’s embrace and said, “Thank you, Lord Brother.”

“What are you saying? Isn’t it right for me to protect you? You don’t have to thank me.”

“I should compensate Lord Brother in other ways, then.”

“Other ways?” Roel blinked in confusion.

Alicia looked at Roel with a mischievous smile and blushing cheeks, as she leaned on his chest and murmured, “You saved my life, Lord Brother, so it’s only right for me to pay you with mine.”

“Pay me with yours? Ah…” Roel awkwardly turned his head away and softly knocked Alicia’s head with his knuckle. “What are you thinking? You only just regained consciousness.”

“Lord Brother should know better than anyone what I’m thinking.”

“…You haven’t recovered yet.”

“I only passed out due to Ancestor Carolyn’s soul attack. It has no effects on my physical body.”

“That still won’t do.” Roel sighed as he held Alicia’s squirming body down. He looked at her with a grim expression and said, “Alicia, I was only halfway through my words. Even though we have settled the matter with Ancestor Carolyn, there’s still a larger problem at hand… You can’t sense it yet due to your mana cleansing this room. Hold your mana back for a moment.”

“I can’t sense it?” Alicia was confused. Moments later, her ruby eyes widened, as her mana began fluctuating intensely. “Lord Brother, that aura! Is it the Fallens?!”

“If only that were the case…” Roel bitterly replied. “The Savior has awakened. On top of that, someone has transported the Ancient Austine Empire’s imperial capital to Tark Prairie, causing widespread corruption of the eastern border’s mana. Furthermore, there are hundreds of thousands of Fallens roaming Tark Prairie at the moment.”

“How could this be…” Alicia was dumbstruck.

The hundreds of thousands of Fallens were formidable, but humankind would find a way to deal with them given sufficient time. However, the same couldn’t be said about mana corruption.

Transcendents were humans whose bodies had mutated from assimilating mana. The stronger a transcendent was, the greater their dependency on mana. For instance, Carolyn had needed a huge amount of mana just to sustain herself in the Abyss, and her inability to do so forced her to go into a pseudo-death state so that she could survive.

Most soldiers wouldn’t require as much mana as Carolyn, but the more they fought, the more mana they needed to replenish their energy. That would mean taking in the Savior’s madness, until they eventually became Fallens themselves.

“I talked to Principal Antonio earlier. Based on the intelligence from the united army, we’ll have to make a decision soon.”

“What decision?”

“We could either pull our defense line back from the eastern border, or stand our ground and do our best to cleanse the corrupted mana,” Roel said.

“…” Alicia fell silent.

Obstinately defending the eastern border was an unwise move. As much as they could try to cleanse the corrupted mana, it was impossible to keep the three million soldiers on the eastern border free from the Savior’s madness. Some were bound to fall into depravity as time passed.

But retreating from the eastern border could further plunge humankind into danger.

Humankind had spent a thousand years building fortresses on the eastern border. With the recent invasion, it had already fended off the deviants five times now. Giving up on this defense line would put humankind at a critical disadvantage, not to mention that there was no strategic terrain between the human world and the eastern border for them to exploit.

There was a risk they might be wiped out if the enemies caught up with them, since there was nowhere else they could form a resilient defense line and regain their footing. Furthermore, the deviants could exploit this lapse in defense to slip into the human world and cause destruction like never before.

Above all, the Savior’s madness wouldn’t just stop there. The corrupted mana would continue to spread, till the human world fell into the same state as the eastern border. By then, humankind would be powerless to defend itself or launch a counterattack.

With a heavy heart, Roel looked at Alicia and asked the most pressing question on his mind. “Alicia, do you know when the Mother Goddess will fully awaken?”

“I’m not sure about the exact timing, but it’s unlikely that Lord Mother will awaken soon,” Alicia replied.

“I see…” Roel sighed.

He was forced to confront a truth—he might never be able to meet the Mother Goddess again.

Humankind was being cornered.

One possibility was for humankind to stall for time till the awakening of the Mother Goddess, but there was no guarantee the Mother Goddess would save humankind, or that humankind would even survive till that day.

With the doomsday prophecy at hand, it looked like taking a passive stance would only lead humankind to obliteration. Thus, Roel was more inclined to take the initiative to make one last stand against the enemy.

“Alicia, there’s something I’d like to trouble you with. Can you bring me to Sia’s altar?”

“I can do that, but what do you intend to do?” Alicia asked.

Roel looked at her with calm but determined eyes as he replied, “I’m going to awaken the Six Calamities.”