Arthur caressed her soft cheeks while softly smiling at her. She knew that he'll definitely come back but she couldn't bear to see him leave. They've reunited a short while ago yet they're forced to separate again.

Against her will, tears started running down her cheeks, nonetheless, she showed him a smile.

"This will be the last time, I promise."

"En! I know."

Lucy nodded her head and planted her lips on his, giving him one last kiss before he disappears. Next time they'll meet, things will be chaotic, the war between the dead will rage on and when everything is settled, they'll go and live a peaceful life.

'One way or another, it'll end.'

"Here, keep him with you at all times."

He handed her Evil Wind, which was wrapped with numerous dark talismans. Confused, she said

"Don't you need it more than I do? I can manage, you don't have to have him babysit me."

Seeing the pouting Lucy, Arthur chuckled:

"It's just a precaution and it'll be my trump card later on."

She took the black sheath and put it on her waist. Makaze showed no resistance and remained silent, choosing to follow his master's will.

So, after five days of his wife's imprisonment, Arthur left the Winter Prison, heading toward Astria. However, he has to leave the Divine Planet first as using Space Magic is not only forbidden, but it's also very difficult.

****

Fifty angels, each with at least four wings, stood outside of Astria. There was three distinctive figure that led this big group, they were six-winged angels.

After the disappearance of a six-winged angel in this area, Heaven sent even more people to investigate. The probability that the World Tree became higher when the higher-up confirmed the death of the six-winged angel that led the previous group.

As the three stared at the small world, they warily looked around, expecting to meet some resistance but no such things happened.

When they felt safe and were about to enter the world, the fifty or so angels suddenly halted.

There was one blue-haired woman that led the whole group, the aura she emitted was a bit stronger than the other two six-winged angels.

"Sir, how can we help you?"

She spoke with the utmost respect, her aura almost vanished and she looked no different than an obedient child. The other angels quietened down too although they couldn't understand why would that woman, who's almost an Archangel, would speak like that.

They were fully aware of the identity of the youth that appeared out of nowhere but they were angels, beings created by 'God' so they felt superior to this human, no matter how strong he is.

Clad in jet black armor and a thick sword on his back, the youth stared at the woman and clicked his tongue:

"Tsk! This isn't even your Universe. Go back where you came from."

The blue-haired angel bowed and added:

"Sir, we suspect that the World Tree we're looking for is in that world. Our comrades went missing around this place, too."

Still uncaring about her reasons, Leiu spoke again

"Do I look like I care? Go back where you came from, this is my second warning.

The angel remained silent for a few seconds before slightly bowing her head and saying:

"Yes, sorry to bother you, sir."

She signaled the others to leave while she followed right behind, not daring to remain there for another second. Since the Nameless Knight 'kindly' sent them off, there's no reason to force their way in.

…

Only when they were a great distance away from Astria did the angels start protesting, the first two being the two six-winged angels.

"Why did you listen to his words? We have 'God's Verdict' with us. We could have temporarily sealed him while we investigate that world!"

The woman scoffed at his words, she pointed to the direction of Astria and mockingly said

"Oh really? Go use it, then. I'll wait here for the good news."

"…"

The angel who just objected to his leader's previous actions could only gaze at her with a strange gaze. He noticed her slightly shaking her hand, which she tried to hide.

He was well aware of the knight's true strength but even someone like Leiu isn't able to resist God's Verdict, or so he thought.

…

"What took you so long?"

Why tapping his index on the table, as usual, Isadore asked the straw-hat wearing Overgod, who fell on the comfortable sofa while biting an apple and ignoring his King. Dan stared at the nothingness in front of him, lost in thought and unable to hear Isadore's voice.

Only when Taliya raised her voice and asked him, did he snap out of it.

"How's the situation on Astria?"

Dan lifted his head and stared back at the anxious demon while saying

"Death… it's ruled by death."

She misunderstood his words and began panicking. She didn't want to hear anymore and immediately started preparing to go back there. If not for Isadore, who held her wrist and stopped her from leaving the office, she would really have left.

"Let him finish before jumping into conclusions."

Wrath, who was leisurely dozing off on the corner, started sniffing the air before saying

"Indeed, there's a thick scent of death coming from you. It's giving me goosebumps ugh…"

What the others didn't know is that Dan wasn't in this state because of what he had seen on Astria but due to what he talked about with the Nameless Knight.

After taking a bit of time to compose his thoughts, the Overgod said

"Don't worry, the evil race was repelled, more or less. The Death I was talking about was an army."

With creased brows, Isadore tilted his head and asked in confusion

"An army?"

"Yes, an innumerable army of undead. There must be at least a hundred million and there aren't just skeletons but there's almost every kind of undead there, however, they're motionless."

When he heard that, Isadore closed his eyes and pondered for a few minutes before bursting out in laughter, startling the worried Taliya.

"An army you say? An army that can't die? Very clever."

He turned to look at his adviser and asked

"You previously mentioned that Arthur can use Necromancy?"

She nodded her head and replied

"Yes but I've rarely seen him use it. It's usually used to do manual labor rather than fight."

"Figures… someone like him doesn't need Undead to help him fight. But I thought there's a limit to how much undead can a person summon?"

Wrath butted in again and said/

"Yes, there should be a limit. The summoned undead usually come from the Underworld since there's an abundance of them there, however, in some cases, they come from other places, it all depends on the means used to summon them. I've rarely seen Necromancer but any Necromancer who reached the God Realm can summon around ten thousand Undead. An Overgod can summon a million but that's only because they don't have a Celestial Body so they rely on numbers, instead."

"Still, an army of a hundred million undead is enough to…"-Isadore

The king looked at Wrath and asked

"Do you think you can handle a hundred million undead?"

Wrath shrugged his shoulders and replied

"I get stronger the longer I fight so I can handle that many but there's a strong chance I'll be weakened for years due to the excess of Death Energy."

Isadore closed his eyes and started to think again…

"No way…"

Wrath frowned, not understanding Isadore's exaggerated expression

"What?"-Wrath

"He couldn't be thinking to face the White Specter Clan, could he?"

Wrath denied this almost immediately

"That's impossible. It ain't easy to move such a large army, he'll be noticed in less than a day. The Holy Dominion will reciprocate and send a resistance army. His army won't even reach the Divine Planet."

The worried Taliya covered her mouth as she seemed to think about a crazy thing.

"W-what if you add four undead Divine Beasts?"

What his adviser just said allowed Isadore to think outside the box and come up with many more speculations about Arthur.

'What if he can't transform into those Divine Beasts? What if they're only corpses in his possessions and he can bring them back to life through special means? Is he crazy enough to show that army to the world and have it march to the Divine Planet? A hundred million is a big number but it isn't enough to face the world… Does it have a relation with him going to the White Specter Clan?'