“Huff... huff...”

Having escaped by the skin of her teeth, Eliana gasped in terror. Right now, she was inside a hollow underground chamber over a hundred meters below the surface.

At the very instant the lightsaber was about to cleave her in two, she’d used a secret art to teleport into the earth’s leyline—what people usually called an “earth-burrowing technique.”

“Damn it!”

Covered in dust, her pathetic escape left Eliana deeply unwilling. She bit down on her teeth in anger. Ever since she’d become an Abyssal bishop, when had she ever suffered this kind of humiliation?

But after a few seconds, she calmed down. She knew that facing an opponent of that level head‑on was just walking up to get slaughtered. There was nothing she could do about it.

She spread out her mind to check the array’s current state. Every node and passage had already been washed clean by that torrent of moonlight, and the main vein used for pollution and transmission had been erased with a single sword strike.

The plan they’d prepared for so many years had been formatted in an instant, everything thrown back to square one.

“Still... at least we’ve got a backup.”

A trace of hope lit up in Eliana’s eyes. Manipulating the secret stone in her hand, she followed the leyline to the mountains north of the town.

The cramped space suddenly opened wide. A hundred meters underground lay a primitive altar for sacrificing to an evil god—the very origin of their entire plan.

So long as she used this place as the new base point, rebooted the array, and borrowed the power of the Lord’s descent into the world, even if it only lasted for a short time, it would be enough to get rid of that annoying cow.

The Lord’s body wouldn’t be complete like that, of course. But as long as the Lord existed at all, using the entire Demon Race as a sacrifice to make up the rest of the Lord’s body wasn’t just a fantasy.

When that time came, the whole world would be shrouded in the shadow of the Abyss.

Fanaticism filled Eliana’s eyes. Without hesitation, she lay down in the center of the altar. Filthy, evil murals and statues surrounded her, like a living human sacrifice taking her place in a crime-ridden ritual.

She squeezed her eyes shut, ready to offer herself as a vessel for the Lord of the Abyss’s temporary descent—only for a certain pure‑white cow’s words to suddenly flash through her mind:

“Right now, you’re just a lost wandering soul.”

“If you want to oppose me, you should at least figure out what you actually want, don’t you think?”

The intrusive thought made her brows crease slightly. She hurriedly shook her head, like she could shake that annoying echo out of her skull.

No. No. Right now, the Lord’s descent was the top priority.

She forced herself to empty her mind, folded her hands in front of her chest, and began chanting an ancient and complex spell. The general meaning was that she would offer herself up.

But Noah’s words clung to her like bothersome ants. Eliana messed up twice in a row. Luckily, she was still in the prelude, so the mistakes didn’t matter much.

If she messed up during the conversion phase, she’d probably turn into a twisted monster between man and god, without a shred of reason left.

This time, she had to succeed. Eliana silently steeled herself.

Just as she was about to chant the spell on this unknown, undisturbed altar, Eliana suddenly felt her body grow light, as if she’d slipped free of gravity and begun to float.

But it wasn’t that she was floating up—everything around her was moving upward. And she was being carried along with it.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!?”

Pinned firmly to the altar by gravity, she watched the surrounding statues and murals crumble under the rising force. The massive magic power unleashed by the ancient spell was lifting the entire mountain.

Once the whole underground chamber was buried back into the earth, Eliana shot straight up into midair. Noah hovered there, dressed in a frilly dress and smiling, dragon wings beating lightly behind her as she looked at Eliana.

It felt exactly like a cute girl doctor smiling down at Eliana on a hospital bed, just one line away from saying, “You’re awake. You’re a girl now.”

A round, pure‑white moon floated behind Noah. The boundless night sky, scattered with dim stars, framed her beauty and made her look as holy as a goddess.

Is this woman just tossing around forbidden spells like they’re toys?

Eliana tilted her head to look at the mountain peak now a full hundred meters lower than before. Her eyes went hollow with despair.

Forbidden Spell: Moving Mountains, Shifting Peaks.

This was absolutely not something a single human or Demon Race mage could ever pull off. The caster would be drained dry before it even activated. That was why it was classified as a forbidden spell.

Yet the woman smiling sweetly in front of her didn’t show the slightest sign of strain. Her perfect, delicate face was still as fair and rosy as ever, and the plump, soft mounds on her chest bounced with a slight, springy jiggle, as if announcing a girl’s carefree mood.

So Eliana shut her eyes in despair and, like a burnt‑out flame, turned into pale ash.

In front of a monster so far beyond common sense, what else could she do?

All she could hope was that whatever happened to her next wouldn’t be too weird or too harsh.

A coffin like carved white jade imprisoned Eliana inside. The girlish decorations made it look less like a coffin and more like a bridal carriage.

Humming a little tune, Noah floated forward with the white‑jade coffin trailing behind her. The full‑moon night sky shifted once more into a cloudless blue, the kind of perfect weather that made people want to go out for a picnic.

“Well then~ the ritual’s wrecked~, the mastermind’s caught~, and the cleanup can go to those loyal knights~. I’ll pop around and see if I can find Crenina, then head back and ask the Demon Lord for a reward~.”

Landing on the now‑peaceful town street, its miasma dispersed, Noah walked toward the nearby blood coffin. Her absurdly over‑the‑top, almost explosive curves trembled with each step, threatening to burst free as they rose and fell in time with her humming.

It was like they were about to jump out at any moment. Even that pure‑white strapless top was almost unable to restrain the waves’ freedom.

“Hm?”

Noah’s humming cut off. Her smile froze. With sirens blaring in her head, she flickered aside in a blur, dodging a hand that reached out from the empty air.

“You actually noticed me. That’s incredible.”

From formless to visible, the man who had tried to take Crenina’s soul and had cooperated with the Abyssal Church appeared in the air, as if stepping into reality.

The man’s features were gentle and refined, with a faint, almost casual smile at the corner of his lips. Burgundy slacks and vest, white shirt, black rectangular frames—he looked like a good‑natured artist.

Only, Noah’s smile felt sincere and pure, while his seemed to hide something. It was friendly, but there was an unpleasant sense of a flimsy mask over his face.

“You’re... a player?”

Noah stared at the man in front of her, a bit stunned.

Since she’d become Noah, this was the first player she’d ever met.

“Exactly. Nice to meet you—or rather, long time no see, Baitong.”

The man’s pleasant smile didn’t waver as he casually exposed Noah’s other identity in a single sentence.

Normally, having her identity exposed should’ve made her tense and wary. But Noah, with her big heart, only tilted her head in confusion.

“And you are... who, exactly?”