The deathly silence inside the workshop was suddenly broken by Darius’s sick, ragged breathing.

He stared hard at the Scarlet Skull Goblet in Aiden’s hand, his eyes burning with an almost insane obsession.

"You want it?"

Aiden played with the goblet in his hand. A thin thread of golden Divine Golden Sunflame moved around his fingertips like a small snake. His tone was calm, almost teasing.

"Give it to me... With it, I can bring Tasha back!"

Darius let out a low, hysterical growl. His dried-up face twisted with excitement until it hardly looked human anymore.

"Tasha?!"

Syed, who was standing nearby, shook all over and cried out in shock. "She was turned to ash in the lava riot three hundred years ago! You’ve lost your mind!"

"Shut up! What would a fool who only knows how to swing a hammer understand?"

Darius snapped his head toward him. A dark poisonous mist burst from his eyes, eating into the air with a sharp hissing sound.

"I used a secret art to keep her soul in the deepest part of the Abyss. As long as I have the purest Crimson Blood and the Dawn Society’s Spirit Summoning Array, she can rebuild her body!"

"For her, I would trade anything! Even my soul. Even the entire Red Dwarves Clan!"

Madness. Obsession. A will that would stop at nothing.

He was a madman who had fallen completely into darkness. But he was also a tragic soul, tortured by the same obsession for hundreds of years.

Aiden looked at him, his eyes cold and calm."So you chose to become the Dawn Society’s dog and hurt your own people?"

"A dog? No. This is the only way to save her!"

Darius suddenly let out a strange laugh. His voice was sharp and full of despair.

"Human, do you really think you can sleep in peace just because you hide behind that Golden Great Wall?"

"You have no idea what true despair really is!"

"The merging of Earth and the Abyss was never an accident. It is the beginning of an irreversible Great Destruction!"

Great Destruction!

The moment Aiden heard those words, his pupils shrank, and his heart seemed to skip a beat.

In an instant, the prophecy written on the dark-gold scroll in the forbidden area of Miko City exploded in his mind.

Great Destruction... the war of the myriad races rank... Earth as the final pure land...

And Yves reforging the Golden Great Wall, along with the mysterious [10,000x critical hit system] inside Aiden himself.

At that moment, all the clues finally connected.

So the so-called system laws had been reshaped by Yves. And this coming apocalypse had already been set in motion a thousand years ago!

"A new Great Destruction is about to arrive. When it does, both the Abyss and Earth will completely collapse and turn into nothing."

Darius spread his arms wide, the madness on his face almost sickening.

"The Heavenly Demon Clan at the top level of the Abyss is trembling. The Dragon Clan in the upper levels is afraid. And we are nothing more than tiny specks of dust in this storm!"

"Only the Dawn Society’s ’Project Ark’ offers a way to survive!"

"Project Ark?" Aiden’s voice was low, and a dangerous light flashed in his eyes.

"That’s right! They will gather the fortune of the myriad races rank, drain all the law fragments of the Abyss, and use the bones of dead gods to build an Ultimate Void Ark that can survive the Great Destruction!"

Darius gave a cruel grin, his eyes filled with chilling coldness.

"But the Ark can only carry so many. It only needs the very best elites."

"As for the other ninety-nine percent of ordinary races, they will become sacrifices to build the Ark. They will become trash to be thrown away!"

"Sacrificing the myriad races rank to save a few elites... So this is what the Dawn Society truly is."

Aiden sneered. The killing intent in his heart was already boiling.

These lunatics were willing to bury every living being in two worlds, all for a slim and uncertain chance to survive.

"Enough talk."

Darius stopped laughing. In an instant, the death energy around him surged, turning into countless black skulls that wailed in the air.

A strong wave of dark law power spread out, pressing down so hard that the lava in the workshop stopped flowing. Cracks spread across the floor of the great hall.

He looked down at Malcolm from above, then glanced at Aiden. A cruel smile curved across his lips.

"Right now, the Demon army is already closing in. The will of the Dawn Society cannot be defied."

"Malcolm, my dear little brother, will you bow to the Demons and be turned into a mindless puppet..."

"Or will you join the Dawn Society, give up everything, and earn a ticket onto the Ark?"

Darius’s voice rang in the ears of every Red Dwarf like a funeral bell from hell.

"Do you have a third choice?"

Inside the workshop, the air grew so heavy that it felt like solid lead. No one could breathe.

Malcolm’s face turned pale, without a trace of blood. The staff in his hand shook violently.

Syed clenched his teeth, but under that terrifying dark pressure, he could not move at all.

Three sides faced each other, and killing intent filled the air.

...

"Do you have a third choice?"

Darius’s hoarse voice echoed through the workshop, carrying the weight of a final judgment.

In the dead silence, the empty space suddenly cracked like a mirror.

A violent smell of sulfur and a sky-high wave of Demon energy rushed out from the rift. In an instant, even the lava in the workshop lost its glow.

"Heh heh heh... Darius, why waste words on these underground rats?"

A tall, monstrous Demon shadow slowly stepped out of the dark crack.

Dark red scales burned with raging hellfire. Behind him, a pair of torn Demon wings spread wide enough to cover the sky. A terrifying pressure swept over everyone at once.

Ethan!

The Demon Duke who should have been killed by Aiden had returned.

But now, he had come back in a strange form—half flesh, half skeleton.

His single eye burned with deep hatred as he stared at Aiden, the human who had destroyed his body.

"Aiden! This Duke has crawled back from hell. Today is the day you die!"

Ethan roared. His voice shook the lava hall until it trembled wildly.

In an instant, three terrifying auras crashed together inside the workshop—Aiden, Darius, and Ethan.

The golden Divine Golden Sunflame, the black death energy of darkness, and the dark red hellfire tore the space around them into pieces.

The air seemed to freeze.The three sides stood against one another, and the killing intent had reached its peak.

Malcolm watched the scene with a pale face, but his eyes became clearer than ever.

He was weighing his choices.He was making his decision.

The Demon Clan was cruel and brutal. If he submitted to Ethan, the Red Dwarves Clan would become slaves forever, with no hope of freedom.

The Dawn Society was mad and twisted. The "Project Ark" Darius spoke of was nothing more than using the Red Dwarves as sacrifices to forge the Ark.

Only Aiden...

This human held a Strength that could overturn everything, yet he had never shown even the slightest desire to take over the Red Dwarves’ land.

He had helped Karls. He had helped Syed. He had even dared to stand against gods, all for the sake of a single promise.

Who was the wolf, and who was the true friend?

The answer was clear.

Malcolm took a deep breath. At that moment, all the fear and struggle in his eyes disappeared, replaced by the firm resolve of a king.

He suddenly stepped forward and slammed the red-gold staff in his hand heavily against the ground.

Boom!

A violent wave of lava spread out from him, sweeping across the entire workshop in an instant and forcing the approaching dark death energy back by half a step.

"Warriors of the Red Dwarves Clan!"

Malcolm’s voice rang out like a great bell, exploding in the ears of every Red Dwarf warrior.

"The Demons want to enslave us. The Dawn Society wants to sacrifice us!"

"We, the Red Dwarves Clan, would rather die standing than live on our knees!"

He suddenly pointed at Aiden and roared with all his strength:

"From this day on, every member of the Red Dwarves Clan will honor Lord Aiden as our only ally!"

"By my command, we go to war against the Demons and the Dawn Society!"

"No retreat! No surrender!"

The moment his words fell, the entire Undercity went silent for one second.

Then came a roar like a crashing mountain wave.

"Fight!"

"Fight!"

"Fight!"

Outside the workshop, countless Red Dwarf soldiers roared together. They raised their forging hammers and giant axes, and their voices shook the underground dome as if they would tear it apart.

Karls’s eyes turned bloodshot. Bonerot Ghostflame surged wildly around his body."Kill them! Drive these bastards out of our home!"

Syed burst into loud laughter. Soul fire burned fiercely around his fists."I’ve wanted to smash these Demon dogs’ heads for a long time!"

At that moment, the three sides were finally clear.

Aiden stood at the center of the storm. The corner of his mouth lifted slightly, and the Scarlet Skull Goblet at his fingertips gave off a strange, eerie light.

"Good."

Aiden spoke calmly. His voice was not loud, but everyone heard it clearly.

"Since you’ve made your choice, I’ll clean up this trash."

Boom!

The 10,000x critical hit system roared to life inside Aiden. The Divine Golden Sunflame around him instantly surged ten thousand times stronger, turning into a huge golden sun that lit up the entire workshop like daylight.

Under the golden fire, Darius’s dark death energy melted like snow, letting out shrill screams.

"Damn human!" Darius’s face turned livid, and he clenched his teeth so hard they ground together.

But at that very moment—

Woooooo!!!

A bleak and violent horn suddenly pierced through layers of rock from outside the city, echoing across the world.

It was the Demon Clan’s attack horn!

Seeing this, Ethan’s huge, twisted mouth split open into an extremely cruel grin.

He raised his giant bone claw high and swung it fiercely toward the outside of the city.

"All troops, charge! Flatten this foolish Undercity!"

"Kill them all!"