A drop of rain fell from the sky.

It pierced through the biting cold of the high sky.

Above the heavens, a magnificent temple could vaguely be seen rising from the ground.

Rain fell from the sky, traversed the spire of the temple, being blown afar by the wind.

On the mist-laden earth, a ray of setting sun illuminated this desolate city.

Temple, ancient castle, spiral tower...

In another area untouched by Louis and his group, a man in heavy armor knelt on the ground.

The sunlight of dawn shone through the thin mist, onto his uncovered helmet.

The corner of his mouth, stained red with blood, held a blade of dogtail grass.

A style of desolation and nonchalance naturally aligned on his face.

The ground, shrouded in shadowy power, completely dissolved, and bolts of lightning flashed, connecting heaven and earth.

The heavily injured armored warrior raised his head, looking at the figure approaching cloaked in lightning.

It started raining.

Raindrops fell on him, he looked at that person, his lips surprisingly wore a smile.

"So strong..."

Amidst the lightning, the emperor in crimson-gold armor walked step by step to him, the massive hammer hovered above his head, shielding the warrior from the rain.

The warrior barely raised his head to glance at the emperor, with the dogtail grass between his teeth, he forced a smile:

"Long time no see, Emperor."

Around him, a group of explorers lay on the ground wailing.

Other than the sounds of wind, rain, and wailing, there was no other sound on this ravaged land.

The armored warrior's name was Sardin.

A demigod of the Lokeshi Empire.

An existence at the pinnacle of the world.

Yet now, there he was, kneeling.

His closest comrades fell amidst the shadow surge turbulent as muddy waters, and the elite of the Lokeshi First Legion could not receive the applause of their hometown people.

Not every plan is exposed on the surface.

Upon realizing who the owner of the temple was, nations like Ense, Lokeshi, and Monet, would not foolishly place hope on others.

On the surface, various forces sent many people, even the Adventurer Guild directly using top adventurers as vanguards and as batteries for the heroic ritual magic.

Such a lineup was already quite extravagant.

But to deal with a deity, it was not enough, far from enough.

Even though everyone knew what was left here were the remnants of a deity, still, a deity is a deity.

Human strength has its limits, hard to rival gods and ghosts.

Even knowing it's likely just remnants here, they wouldn't pin hope on the deity's remnants being weak.

Thus, this secret battle emerged.

The Lokeshi Empire dispatched 1 demigod and 4 legends.

The East/West Monet Kingdom jointly dispatched 12 legendary black mages.

And Ense... provided a promise.

A promise that the Emperor would intervene at a critical moment.

Demigod Sardin, was Lokeshi's ultimate force in this attempt.

The Emperor squatted beside Sardin, taking the dogtail grass from his mouth.

He checked Sardin's injuries, during the fight against the divine spawn, the death light of the divine spawn tore apart the warrior's strong defense in a flash.

He was now like a balloon pricked by a needle, his aura rapidly declining.

"Truly worthy of a goddess from the Ancient Era, the divine spawn hatched is incomprehensibly strong..."

Blood continued to flow from the corners of Sardin's mouth, and as he spoke, there was a hint of bloody froth.

"If you had come a bit later, I wouldn't have lasted until you finished the fight."

The Emperor pressed onto Sardin's wound:

"Sardin, say no more, the Grand Priest is already on the way."

The Emperor's hand was lean but still warm and strong.

That warmth brought an unrestrained smile to Sardin's face, as he grinned and said:

"It's no use, Emperor, that's the spawn of the Dark Night Goddess, not the weak remnants of a statue bullied by younger folks."

"I'm done for, but at least before I die, let me complete the intelligence I've gathered one last time..."

The Emperor nodded:

"Alright, Sardin, speak, I'll pass on this intel verbatim to Lokeshi."

Sardin, with difficulty, threw a black lump of flesh to the Emperor.

"I think I've discovered the riddle of the Dark Night Goddess's death, this goddess from the Ancient Era possesses power unmatched by ordinary gods, a normal divine war couldn't possibly make her fall."

"But she did die, silently."

"It can be confirmed that her death is related to the Abyss, you should understand this."

"The four gods of the Abyss are the four gods of the Abyss, and the Abyss is the Abyss, they are not equivalent."

"The Abyss wanted to take the power of this Creator Goddess, which was very useful to it, even the Abyssal Evil God could be a consumable."

"Take this back and study it, remember to share the results with us."

"And also, remember to tell the empire, Sardin did his best, don't greed for my family's little pension..."

Sardin's voice grew softer and his eyelids began to feel heavy.

"It's not just the Abyss, at least not just the Abyss."

The Emperor said calmly:

"Some matters related to the Dark Night Goddess are secret to Ense, it's hard to disclose fully to you, but at the very least, it's certain, our enemy is not just them."

"The records on the temple also state clearly, the Dark Night Goddess died too suddenly, no divine war even erupted, the Divine Kingdom just suddenly fell."

"Shadow Country is a fragment of the Divine Kingdom, transformed rapidly when found by the then-panicked high ranks of the Dark Night Goddess Church into the appearance of Shadow Country."

"These foreign bastards... truly troublesome, afterward, you'll need to put in more effort." Sardin said.

"Hmm, have you thought of what to inscribe on your tombstone? My good son-in-law played around with an epitaph, I think you're quite fitting for it." said the Emperor.

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