The Villains Need to Save the World?

er than the ice demon from earlier.
Be careful!”

“Understood, we’ll regroup later! Elaine, you need to be careful too.
Make sure to escape with Roxanne as soon as you get the retreat signal!”

Elaine released a swarm of dozens of puppet birds into the sky.
The flying puppets attracted the gaze of the Frost Serpent, and enraged, it spat out bursts of billowing frost at the airborne nuisances.
Bella and Noreya took advantage of this distraction and charged the entrance to the lower layer of the tower.
The guards at the gate didn’t even have any time to react before Noreya pierced them through the head.

The corpses of the three-meter tall Snowmen guards didn’t have the keys on them.
As a result, Noreya had to use her assassin abilities to force open the lock.
Just like that, the Soul Tower that had remained impervious to outsiders for ten thousand years was opened.

On the topmost floor of the Soul Tower, a black, human-shaped shadow roamed freely.
This thing didn’t actually have a physical body; rather, it was a Hollow Man that wore a black cloak.
This was the fourth generation Radiant Pope, Douglas.
Back then, he had sacrificed his fleshy body in order to curse his slayer, fifth-generation Radiant Pope Roxanne.

The platform on the topmost floor was built as a replica of the Chamber of the Pope of the Radiant Church, and there was a Radiant Throne sculpted from ice in its center.
At the moment, there was a grey-haired beauty affixed to the top of the throne by chains of ice.
She was the daughter of the tower master of the Skeleton Tower, part of the Big Four, Kleina.

Kleina stared fearfully at the enormous dark shadow looming over her.
Her clothes had suffered the same fate as Bella’s—they had been torn apart by cold qi.
Her naked form was wrapped in frozen chains, unable to move a single muscle, and even her mouth was gagged with a special demonic core.

Ever since she had been kidnapped by Douglas, Kleina had been imprisoned on this frozen throne, shackled and unable to move.
Every so often, Douglas would force-feed her several strange medicinal concoctions, and then gag her with various demonic cores.
As someone relatively knowledgeable in this area, Kleina had a rough idea of what he was planning.

“I’ve waited for ten thousand years, and now, I’ve finally found a vessel.
Little girl, I’ll be taking over your body.
You should have absorbed enough energy from that demonic core by now!”

Douglas stepped in front of Kleina and raised a curved knife high into the air.
He had lost his body ten thousand years ago, and now, at last, he would have a new one.
It didn’t matter that it was a female body; he could just remodel it later.
Kleina had a compatible natural talent and didn’t waste all of the precious medicines and demonic cores that he had been feeding her since yesterday.

“You should feel honored, little girl.
Although I still don’t know your name, you are no longer important.
From now on, you will be the second coming of Douglas.
I will take back…”

The floorboards underneath Douglas suddenly split open.
Before he realized what happened, he fell straight through the floor.
Bella crawled out from the hole in the floor while Noreya hid behind a far pillar, ready to move on command.
She didn’t want Kleina to see her real appearance just yet.

“I thought that guy was a heavyweight, but he only weighs as much as that cloak! Kleina, I’ve come to rescue you… Hey, don’t shed tears of joy just yet.
After all, I’m like the brother that fell through the floor; I’m not a good person.”

Seeing Bella appear, Kleina began crying in relief and didn’t realize the hidden meaning in Bella’s words.
Bella didn’t have time to undo the chains on Kleina’s body and simply hefted the entire frozen throne onto her shoulder. 

“My Radiant Throne! You ugly bitch, release my throne!”

The Fallen Pope’s spirit swiftly returned to the scene and saw Bella carrying away his dearest seat.
Douglas was infuriated! Back then, when he was defeated and lost his position to Roxanne, he had developed an antipathy toward women approaching his throne.

Fallen Pope Douglas shot dozens of black spears toward Bella in a magical assault.
Bella set the throne down behind her and crossed her arms in front of her chest, blocking half of the black spears with her own body.
They exploded on her, raising a cloud of dust.

At that moment, a dirt-yellow defensive array appeared around Bella, fending off the Fallen Pope’s attack.
It was a defensive array summoned by the Sacred Object, Crystal of the Earth, the “Earth Guard” array.

Bella used her elbow as a weapon and charged straight at the ethereal pope.
Their clash sent the fallen pope flying six meters away.
His spectral form could only negate the attacks of humans and was useless against the power of a Demon Lord.

“Impossible! A human can’t possibly hit a spirit with physical attacks! You… Unless you’re not…”

Bella’s attack sent Douglas flying off of the tower, and his landing impact sent up a flurry of snow.
Bella knew that this attack wouldn’t kill him, so she turned around to pick up the throne with Noreya in order to retreat.
Before they left, Bella recovered Pope Roxanne’s personal cross, the “Adjudicator of Light,” from the frozen throne. 

Elaine saw Bella and Noreya successfully leaving and retreated as well, leaving behind her puppet birds as she escaped with the black sarcophagus.
They couldn’t destroy Soul Island right now; otherwise, the demonic beings and undead sealed underneath the water would wake up and escape, resulting in painful aftermath.

“Despicable! Reynolds, freeze them.”

A disheveled Douglas commanded the Giant Frost Serpent coiled around the Soul Tower to attack Bella.
However, Bella attached the sacred object, Sky Feather, to the frozen throne, turning it into a flying treasure.
Immediately after, Bella and Noreya stepped onto the flying throne and flew towards the Floating Cathedral.

The Frost Serpent was afraid of the Floating Cathedral and broke off its attack.
After all, that was the floating city of the second pope, Aesop.
Taking advantage of this lull in the offense, Bella and the girls escaped into the Floating Cathedral.

“That woman wasn’t sent by Aesop, was she…? Didn’t we agree not to interfere with each other?! That guy actually struck first.
Reynolds, freeze that cathedral out of the sky!”

Douglas, who had lost both his throne and his replacement body in one fell swoop, was infuriated beyond reason.
In his view, Bella wielded demonic power against him and was very likely one of Aesop’s underlings.
Aesop must not have been satisfied with the quality of his own captive, so he sent someone to steal Douglas’s material.

The Giant Frost Serpent Reynolds was raised over the past ten thousand by Douglas.
Therefore, it could only follow his command and rush forward.
It realized that having his throne stolen from him again after ten thousand years had enraged Douglas beyond all reason.
While lampooning, it opened its jaws toward the Floating Cathedral and shot out a stream of frozen light.

However, the Floating Cathedral was also guarded by a ten-thousand-year-old demonic beast.
Sky Dragon Emperor Omnis immediately retaliated with a blast of hellfire.
Since ancient times, dragons and snakes had had an intense rivalry, and he had long hated the snake that lived on the Soul Tower.
If it wasn’t for his master, Evil Pope Aesop, commanding him to stay put, he would’ve killed that snake long ago.

The two ten-thousand-year-old demonic beasts fired their orbital cannons at each other in an awe-inspiring clash.
Since the duo was equal in power, they entered a stalemate, and Pope Aesop never appeared.
This led Douglas to believe that Aesop was afraid to show his face, so he decided to continue the attack.

Bella and the girls flew past the Sky Dragon Emperor on the frozen throne, covered in the dark aura of the Sacred Object, Ghost Demon Stone.
The dark aura led the dragon to believe that they were on the same side, and it simply let them pass.