That instant, the Sky Dome shattered, and an enormous shadow was cast over every stunned face.

Accompanying the malicious daylight that tilted like a deluge, dozens, even hundreds, of massive spots emerged on the scorching, parched earth. These spots moved across deserts, swamps, poison pools, and even decrepit cities, converging into formations and slowly gliding forward to a desolate and dim chorus.

Those were gigantic whales!

Rotten, bloated, and even grotesquely overgrown, the deformed whales had layers of Dendrobium, strange eyes, and twisted faces. They displayed their enormous bodies in the Sky Dome, bodies so vast they could drive one to despair. They cried out loudly, their voices overlapping into a vast and desolate song.

When they moved their bodies, they gave rise to howling gales.

They merely shook off dust, but by the time it settled on the earth, it had become a foul rain, devouring everything in the mortal world.

An indescribable Abyssal sediment wafted out from them, causing the eyes of every Member of the Astronomical Society to twitch, along with the depth indexes on their sensor-augments, which jumped wildly.

A few drops landed on Huai Shi, causing his Iron Armor to sizzle and rust rapidly, giving him quite a fright.

But soon enough, a barrier of Psychokinesis rose from him, isolating the rain.

The Great Spirits on the battlefield were not so lucky. They leaped about and scattered in all directions. Those with inherent evolutionary defects or signs of parasitic infection even began to mutate on the spot…

The dispersed packs of beasts caught the attention of those terrifying whales in the Sky Dome. Suddenly, one of the smaller whales swooped down, bringing with it a fetid gale.

Huai Shi felt nearly blown away by the hurricane-force winds.

Upon its approach, the desolate song changed, becoming akin to malevolent mockery from the Abyss.

That whale was mocking them.

Mocking all the insignificant ants of the mortal realm.

It observed their struggles, pitied their inevitable doom, and ridiculed their worthless resistance.

Even the seemingly smallest whale, when plunging down, possessed an imposing momentum like that of a collapsing skyscraper; compared to it, even Huai Shi's large frame seemed as tiny as a doll.

The giant whale brushed past the top of a wall and charged into the battlefield. Its long tail swept carelessly, turning half of the city wall into ruins amidst earth-shattering tremors that scattered debris everywhere.

Huai Shi and the others madly retreated. When they finally had a chance to look back in panic, the whale had already soared back into the sky.

Only a ravaged battlefield was left.

The Great Spirits who had just been lingering in the earth's crevices had already been reduced by at least half; countless once-invincible Giant Beasts had been swallowed by the whales, meeting their demise.

The recently commenced Eternal War had thus come to a hasty, temporary halt.

In the dead silence, only the malicious laughter and the sorrowful whale song gradually faded into the distance.

Huai Shi stared blankly at the pod of whales, now just tiny black specks in the distance. He stiffly lowered his head to look at the High Priest, who knelt trembling and wailing beside him.

"What are those?"

"The Bell... the Bell of Destruction... the toll that heralds destruction's arrival..."

The High Priest shrieked, his voice a sharp wail, "Those are abominations created by the Demon, the shepherds sowing destruction upon the land! Oh God, is God going to destroy this world? Why? Why inflict such a harrowing Punishment? Is it to chastise us for our original sin?"

No matter how many times Huai Shi asked, the High Priest only mumbled scriptures and prayers.

Huai Shi's patience eventually ran out, but he had gleaned no useful information.

These Lizard Men are unbelievable...

"Great Spirits, sacred beasts who protect the nation..."

A hoarse, deceptively familiar voice reached the ears of every surviving Giant Beast on the Lizard Men's side. The voice sounded as if it were at its last gasp, as if each breath took all its strength.

"Please come to me."

After a moment of stunned silence, Huai Shi and the surviving Great Spirits exchanged glances. They finally recognized the King's voice and simultaneously turned towards the Capital City, now being drenched in the malicious rain, and the silent Grand Hall within.

As the great doors burst open, the Giant Beasts re-entered the desolate hall. But when the hanging screen was drawn aside, everyone froze.

Upon the throne, the old man who should have been at death's door showed signs of life. A faint glimmer of light sparkled in his turbid eyes.

Though his breath still carried a rattling sound from deep within his lungs, his complexion had a bizarre flush, as if he had just feasted gluttonously.

In stark contrast to his frailty the previous day, he looked as if he had just recovered from a severe illness.

He was slowly reviving amidst the Abyssal rain...

This sinister scene sent a chill down everyone's spine.

On the throne, the aged King spoke bluntly, "Presumably, everyone now understands... exactly what has happened...

"I believe this nation—no, this world—is rapidly approaching its end. Doomsday is coming, and everything will perish..."

Behind him, on the altar, the eye of the seemingly still-living Divine Body quivered slightly, as if scrutinizing the fierce, savage face of each beast.

"But war..." After a brief pause, he gathered his strength and laboriously said, "War... is not over. The Eternal War must continue. And our struggle... must not stop..."

On the Lizard Man's decaying face, an eerie fervor flickered in his cloudy eyes.

He continued, "—Even if everything is destined to be destroyed in the coming devastation."

His withered fingers slowly rose, pointing at Huai Shi amidst the throng of beasts.

"Great Spirit, please step forward," the King said, "Receive this Blessing from God, the reward you so rightfully deserve."

Huai Shi's first instinct was to turn tail and run.

He felt there was nothing good to be gained by stepping forward at this moment.

He was quite clear about his own role as a tool—no, a tool-dog. Their relationship was merely cooperative, not even close enough for casual meals, let alone any emotional bond.

At this moment, Huai Shi wouldn't doubt for a second that they might be planning some bizarre sacrificial ritual, a desperate last resort.

But after hesitating for a long time, he finally stepped forward.

His good brothers were still here!

At worst, he would just gobble up that son of a bitch, snatch the Divine Body, and run. Who could catch up to him then?

As the Wolf Beast approached, a pair of indifferent, Amber eyes scrutinized the King, who was mere inches away, guarding against any sudden move.

Then, he saw it—the King began to tremble violently.

As if high on drugs, his eyes rolled back, and his limbs twitched.

Then, as if connected by that thread of bloodline, an ever-growing, savage, bestial nature surged from his small frame, as though the will embedded within the Divine Body had possessed his aging vessel.

This caused his deteriorating frame to proliferate and transform. Countless scales peeled off and regrew. One eyeball burst with a POP, and disgusting fleshy tendrils wriggled within the empty socket.

The Abyssal aberration descended upon him.

But it was forcibly suppressed.

And a blood-red Crystal Stone, the size of a sand grain, appeared in his hand.

A sweet scent spread out.

It made all the beasts present let out thirsty growls, their eyes turning bloodshot.

In that moment, Huai Shi had a sudden realization.

He abruptly raised his head, looking towards the eye on the altar.

This is probably…the true way to utilize the Divine Body, right?

Those fools who wanted to snatch the Divine Body and run hadn't even considered why the Lizard Men dared to display it so openly before them.

The entire city, the King, and this Divine Body were already inextricably linked.

Indispensable to one another.

The city was used to gather the Source Substance from the Abyssal sediment and channel it into the Divine Body. The King, in turn, bathed in this overwhelming Blessing, using his own body to strip away the Abyssal mutation aspects. What remained was the Divine Grace Crystal, pure and free of any negative repercussions…

Now, without the King needing to act, the Divine Grace Crystal had already flown up on its own and into Huai Shi's body.

Huai Shi raised a paw, swatted it, and stuffed it directly into his Bell.

His massive frame blocked most lines of sight. Only the King witnessed this, but he said nothing, merely giving Huai Shi a cryptic smile.

Beneath the wrinkled and shattered skin, new scales were growing.

He was resurrecting from the brink of death.

No, more accurately, from a dying Lizard Man, he was slowly transforming into something else… When he truly revived, all the hidden dangers would likely erupt completely, right?

He would become this nation's most powerful beast.

And, simultaneously, its strongest Erosion species.

The Abyss's agent on the mortal plane.

He could almost be called an Owner of the Great Mob.

An Owner of the Great Mob undergoing Metamorphosis…

This made Huai Shi want to strike several times, yet he found it difficult to make the decision.

"You… have a problem?" the King asked.

"Everything you've done, what was it all for?" Huai Shi was silent for a long moment, then suddenly asked, "Or rather, does any of it truly have meaning?"

Since Doomsday is approaching, all of this will be utterly destroyed.

No matter how futile their struggles, their actions are meaningless.

Whether it's their homeland, their Capital City, or this Palace City, all of it will be swept from the face of the earth.

Perhaps all of this is merely a fleeting dream of the Creator.

"Meaning?" The Lizard Man King's lips curled with difficulty into what might have been a self-mocking smile. "I thought… for ants like us… our very existence or non-existence… is hardly worth discussing in terms of 'meaning.'

"What counts as meaning? To live? Or to live better? Power? Wealth? Fame? Or to become a great, unparalleled existence? To leave behind a unique monument? Those are all forms of meaning, Great Spirit. But for us, none of that is our meaning."

He answered hoarsely, "To exist. For… us… existence *is* the only meaning.

"We *want* to exist.

"We *will* exist."

As the old King—wavering between aging and death, between aberration and evolution—made this declaration, his cloudy eyes flashed with a chilling conviction and resolve.

He declared, "—We *will* endure!"