A certain nation of Earth had, by sheer happenstance, discovered a new planet. An extraplanar one. They had then begun to plan an invasion to this new world for its resources.

Especially for the unknown new form of clean energy called ‘mana’. Seeing the potential military applications, the government, as well as the defense industry, had ‘recruited’ unaware people to gather mana as players in an MMORPG game, as well as one hundred children as live testers for a military experiment.

All of them were orphans, and all possessed some form of special ability.

Through studying their powers, fields of science and medicine entered an unprecedented golden age. But once the children were no longer useful, the corporation deemed them ‘disposable pawns’, and used them as such in an attempt to develop mana-using weaponry.

However, the plan had been forcefully brought to a stop by a single girl, the final and only survivor of the experiment. Multiple research centers of the corporation and the accompanying research data had been destroyed. Even the army of the nation that boasted the most powerful military in the world had also suffered heavy losses.

The only facility to have escaped destruction was the game department, which had been left alone as her eyes to monitor the situation of Earth. Otherwise, facilities with either the equipment to connect to the new world or to collect mana, as well as the knowledge about the technology itself, had all been thoroughly wiped out. Now, even if they could revive the plan and keep it hidden, it would still take them at least decades to get back to the stage of practical applications.

Furthermore, those involved in the plan now feared the shadow of The Girl of White. The very idea of resuming the plan already terrified them.

Yet there were those who hadn’t known that fear. There were those who were unaware of The Girl of White that had returned to this world.

No matter how much they’d tried to control the information, the more people involved, the more chances it had of leaking. Secrets had a tendency to percolate, like water through stone.

They had been doing their utmost to defend themselves from foreign espionage. Industrial spies and similar infiltrators snooping around had been a constant threat, but the intelligence departments of the corporation and the military had always been prompt in their countermeasures. As such, there had been no major problems.

But the destruction of the chain of command by the girl of white had become a vulnerability to be taken advantage of by the foreign agents.

And today was the day a certain militaristic nation in the Orient began their first connection test to ‘The New World of Yggdrasia’. This achievement had been built from the information they had stolen, as well as the cooperation of the researchers they had bought off.

“Begin operation test.”

This nation sold a lot of cheap electronics as one of its main industries, and by hiding tiny organic chips inside their products, they’d learned of the secret of the new world that a certain Occidental country had been hiding.

Year by year, they’d slowly gained more and more of the related information and technology by bribing researchers and high-ranking government workers, and a few months ago, they’d finally succeeded in acquiring a researcher possessing critical knowledge of the technology.

Yet the equipment they’d developed were still several generations behind, as shown by their need of a facility so enormous it took up a whole baseball field. Perhaps the researcher they’d bought off hadn’t been that involved in the really important research.

If one of the main researchers of the Western corporation was here to see this facility and the equipment it contained, they would have thought it would be several decades more before the Eastern people could even begin sending avatars to the new world and gather mana.

But the Eastern country’s leader and higher-ups coming to observe the operation test hadn’t known that. They were only imagining the bright future waiting for them ahead with grins on their faces.

“So this will allow us to send more of our citizens…”

They had been making use of their overwhelming population to execute a policy not unlike a human wave attack, sending their people as immigrants to other countries and using them to take control of the country from within. However, these last few decades had seen fewer and fewer countries willing to take immigrants, and their overcrowding population was growing out of their control. They needed to find a new land to be their citizens’ destination.

None of them had been aware that they wouldn’t be able to send live people to Yggdrasia, much less that the atmosphere itself wasn’t even breathable to Earth humans.

They believed that their problem would be solved as long as they could send their people. They had proceeded with their plan upon that assumption, and finally, they began their operation test to connect to the new land today.

The enormous screen started to show images, albeit still blurry, of a gigantic tree that pierced the sky.

The room was astir with astonished exclamations. “…the World Tree…” whispered one of the governmental higher-ups. All were beaming, certain that this sight would soon belong to them.

But then, the scenery on the other side of the screen was suddenly fogged in white, as though covered by a mist.

“…what… is that…?”

And then the screen showed a life-sized silhouette of a girl with drooping long ears that looked like they belonged to a rabbit. A crimson crescent of a smile abruptly appeared where her mouth would be.

A white finger poked out of the screen. Somebody squeaked in fear.

Next came a pair of deadly sharp pin-heels, red as blood. Scarlet eyes, snow-white hair, and long rabbit ears poking out from her locks. The rabbit girl looked about mid-way through her teens, and she wore a crimson dress reminiscent of a tailcoat.

The girl of white gave a faint smirk, her gaze frosty. The researchers and engineers around her were frozen, spellbound expressions etched on their faces, and they crumbled into snowy powder.

Screams rang out the next moment, mixed with shouts of the soldiers.

“FIRE!”

There were enough bullets to pulverize the enormous screen behind the girl, but she stood unharmed. The girl of white gently spread wide her arms and clasped her hands before her chest as though in prayer.

“—[Nadir Beyond]—”

The next instant, all was white ice.

People, machines, grass, even the ground — flesh and iron froze all the same. The largest military compound of the country, together with many, many soldiers and high-ranking officials, were within the freezing sphere of dozens of kilometers in radius. All vanished as dust.

.The moment had been captured in real-time by the eyes of multiple military satellites.

But the instant the image of a girl standing in a desolate, white-colored crater appeared on-screen, her head turned to look at the satellites’ cameras. The last thing the satellites saw was her smile as she touched her index finger to her mouth. The very next moment, all the military satellites in orbit ceased operation, terrifying the operators affiliated with the armed forces.

***

Yggdrasia, the new world. A world held up by the World Tree and ninety-nine Saplings. A world slowly on the path toward ruination due to the human race monopolizing the World Tree’s boons, as well as the nations of Earth seeking to steal the unknown form of energy called ‘mana’.

Yet Yggdrasia’s fated end had been averted upon the appearance of the Girl of White, that small girl who had been called a ‘demon’, who had suffered from the cruelty of others. In time, she had walked through the door of godhood, and it had been by her hands that the Evil God summoned to this world by the sins of mankind was repelled. The path toward apocalypse had been closed shut.

The battle between the goddess and the demon had been truly fierce, and it had left behind a severe wound to the planet. But the reborn World Tree Saplings had healed the scarred lands, bringing new life to the world once more.

The human race that had monopolized the Saplings, those who had built their prosperity on the suffering of other life, had rapidly declined upon losing their blessing.

They had been dragged into the worldwide conflict, losing their barriers and their protection from monsters, and so it was no surprise that many lives had been lost. And with how dependent they had been on the Saplings’ blessings, many more would.

Still, it hadn’t been enough to make up for the crimes the human race had committed. Many demihumans and sapient life still bore a grudge against the humans. In a way, the humans’ true ordeal was only just beginning.

Nevertheless, their experience of this disaster had taught many among the humans to realize their sins.

These people had then gathered under the leadership of Tischlar, the former emperor of Touze Empire, and the Warrior Hero named Gold. They searched for the path of survival together with, and helped by, the elven and beastman people.

“So this is where you are, sir Tischlar.”

“Sir Gold…”

The two men said no more, standing in silence to watch over the town being restored.

Even if the settlement could be repaired, there was no longer any barrier protecting the people from monsters, and neither did they have the magic to power all the magitools of convenience that they once had. People once more survived by burning firewood for warmth and for cooking food.

On the other hand, it was fortunate that they still have a place to return to. Gold’s hometown, the desert country, was no longer an environment to live in. The overuse of magic had turned the land into a lifeless desert, and it would be centuries before people could make it their home again.

At the moment, the revived Saplings were beginning to regulate the environment once more, although now they no longer focused their blessings only on their surroundings, instead spreading it to the whole planet.

The people had been lucky to have survived, and many of them knew it.

That was to say, however, that some still didn’t.

Humans were weak. It had been the reason why the other races had allowed the humans to leech off the World Tree.

Among those who had gotten used to their former life of abundance, there were surely some who still hadn’t learned their lesson, who were thinking of taking the Saplings’ magic even now.

And perhaps it would be the demihumans this time, of which some had already turned the tables on the humans and had become oppressors themselves. Perhaps one day, they would be the ones to desire the Saplings. If it happened, it would be a true war between all the races, one that would spell doom for this world.

But Tischlar and Gold knew that such a future would never come.

Their eyes were drawn toward the new temple that had been erected in the reviving town. People were praying, wishing that they would never see war again. They prayed in front of the statue of the Girl of White.

As long as the new Goddess born of this world still existed, they were sure that such a future would never be.

“As long as Shedy’s here…”

“Indeed. She would never allow it.”

Men would always desire. But the new Goddess of this world would surely not forgive fools.

“Sirs, the conference is soon to commence,” said a voice behind them. Tischlar and Gold turned around.

It was the elven princess and her brother, the prince. Near them were demihumans that seemed to be their bodyguards: Selille, the former leader of the rural resistance, and Isaac, the young man who had introduced himself as her adjutant.

A connection from Yggdrasia to Earth still remained. A small group of players were continuing to log in even now.

The MMORPG game World of Yggdrasia had had their ties to the defense industry cut completely, and the scale of the game had been dramatically reduced.

The country never wanted to let go of their access to the new world, of course. Regardless, the development team, which had since gone independent from the corporation, continued to maintain the game. Their expenses were paid with donations from those who knew the truth, and a neutral observing organization to watch for invasion attempts from both sides had been established.

The game was now completely pay-to-play with a service fee, no longer freely opening its doors to anyone as it had before. Nonetheless, the more respectable players such as Sandrea and Weed continued to enter the game, helping to keep the peace for the locals by hunting savage, unintelligent monsters.

As the representative for the players who knew the truth, Isaac had come to this town together with Selille.

On their way to the joint human-demihuman conference, Tischlar spoke.

“Which reminds me, sir Isaac. You have gone to inspect the countryside, if I’m not mistaken. Has peace still not yet return?”

Isaac smiled as he replied.

“There hadn’t been any conflict between demihumans and humans. The region had calmed down, relatively. There’s been rumors of a swordsman going around subjugating dangerous monsters with a horde of women behind him… would you happen to know who he is?”

“No?” Tischlar said, tilting his head in puzzlement.

Walking behind him, Gold wryly smiled in remembrance.

*

Upon defeating Fiorfata, I returned to my home. The World Tree.

“I’m back…”

The World Tree replied with a gentle shake of its vast canopy, welcoming me back.

The World Tree. The one single green giant that held up this whole world. I squinted, looking through the swaying leaves and the rays of dappled sunlight that danced as though a kaleidoscope, and I gently took a seat on the immense root.

I had been an unwanted child.

Born with my albinic looks and the power to bring misfortune to others, I was shunned by my own birth parents, scorned as the “demon child”, and thrown away as they told me they “never wanted me”.

I had wanted to be irreplaceable to someone. I had wanted a place where I belonged, a place just for me.

But nobody looked at me.

I never knew how to communicate with others.

That corporation only ever wanted me for my power. It was why once they finished analyzing it, they could so easily throw me away and into another world as a disposable pawn.

Even when I became a demon, even when I became a Dark Lady, the demihumans only wanted me for the power I could wield.

I knew nothing of people’s feelings.

I had only ever known humans as creatures that did nothing but bring suffering to others. But slowly, as my opportunities to talk with them became more and more frequent, I’d learned that it hadn’t been all that they were.

All the same… the only one who would hold me dear, who would protect me, was you alone.

*boing.*

“Ook.”

“Yes, yes, you too.”

Blobsy and Panda leaped into my chest as soon as they returned. I kissed them, lightly and full of gratitude, and I gently brushed the white sword faintly trembling on my hips.

The only ones I could trust in this world were Blobsy, Panda, Palesnow, the secret alpha testers… and you…

“…the World Tree…”

With my kins in my arms, I closed my eyes, surrendering myself to the world.

I’ll protect Yggdrasia.

Now that I’d become the goddess of this world, I would protect you, forever.

Embraced by the World Tree, I dreamed.

I saw humans aware of their crimes, sweating as they fixed up the streets with their own hands.

I saw demihumans handing out bread to human refugees, even when their own grudges were still yet to clear.

I saw monsters trying to protect the Saplings, trying to keep history from repeating.

I saw the secret alpha testers smiling as they greeted me in my dream. They took my hand, pulling me into their circle.

—thank you—

—you’ve worked so hard—

—rest—

—and let’s play when you wake up—

—we’re here—

—we’ll always be here—

—welcome home—

My eyes turned watery.

“…I’m home.”

I had been an unwanted child, a ‘demon’, and now, with my transformation into a goddess of this new world…

…finally, my wish, the wish I’d had for years, had been granted.

I had a true family. I had a true home.

Author’s Note: Apotheosis of a Demon — a Monster Evolution Story ends here. Thank you for following me all this time.

I wrote this in a bit of a hurry, though, so there might be some fixing later on.

This story is about a girl who’d lost everything and her journey to find a true family and a home to return to. I might have gotten distracted a few times, but I think the story pretty much went how I planned it to.

A lot of my stories are comedies, so this one might have been a bit unexpected to some, but a departure could be interesting once in a while, right?

While this is the end of the main story, I’m also thinking a bit about writing an after-story kind of thing.

Well then, let us meet again in the other stories that I am and will be writing, too. And if it’s not too much to ask, I hope to see your comments and rating.

Previous Chapter | Index | Extra Chapter

“—Load—”

I activated the four evolved abilities I had — Causality Alteration, Dimensional Manipulation, Consumption, The Divine Language — in parallel, and my magic power surged. Demonic power covered my right hand in a glove of faintly-red flower petals, while divine power covered my left hand in another one of the same, only azure-colored.

“――̴̨∋̕∮̕͝͞‡̴∩∝̡͢‡͘͏―̛―̸”

In response, Fiorfata released its own outpouring of magic from its whole body. Our powers clashed, sending the earth and the skies of the Central Continent trembling.

“Hah!” I shouted, dashing as I tore through the air, rolling forward during my charge to bring my heel down on Fiorfata. It snapped its long, withered arm like a whip in defense, vibrating its wings just a fraction to repel me with a shockwave.

“Firebloom!”

Mist flowed from my left hand. As the white petals touched Fiorfata’s miasma, they blackened and burst into flames.

Yet the blast was still not yet entirely nullified, flinging us away from each other once again. Fiorfata released beams of light from its right arm, and I answered by thrusting out my own.

“Rimeblossom!”

The blizzard coming from my right hand clashed against Fiorfata’s lasers.

Its magic power was converted into icy petals as its lasers seared away my magic power. The collision resulted in an explosion that reverberated all across the Central Continent. The shockwave tore trees off the ground, enormous trunks tumbling in the air as though they were nothing more than leaves. Hills were grated away and the land flattened.

We slammed into each other once more, ignoring the damage we had taken. Fiorfata’s fist hit my stomach while my kick crashed into its face.

[Shedy] [Race: Bunny Girl] [Joker]
[Magic Points: 453,000/500,000] 
[Total Combat Power: 503,000/550,000] 

[Unseelie Lord・Fiorfata] [Race: Dark Pixie] [Demon Lord]
[Magic Points: 431,000/600,000]
[Total Combat Power: 501,000/670,000]

Fiorfata had answered my provocation. It hadn’t tried to attack anything else to recover its magic, instead agreeing to fight me head-on.

Was it the pride it had as a pinnacle being? Or was the cruelty of demons spurring it on?

As a demon, I’d always thought my aspect was ‘ruthlessness’, and now, I could feel that I’d gained the aspect of ‘rationality’ as a goddess.

Our combat power were about the same. Yet I was taking slightly, but distinctly, more damage that Fiorfata was, perhaps due to its superior experience in being a pinnacle of demons.

Which was why I knew that to have a chance of winning, I had to fight with an actual plan. I had to be as ruthless as demons and as rational as machines.

Fiorfata once more split its face apart in a smile. Had it noticed my determination, I wonder?

…fine then, Fiorfata, let’s get to it!

“—[Nadir Beyond]—”

I clapped my hands as though praying, teleporting a freezing mass of space to cover Fiorfata whole in an instant, engulfing it in white frost.

“―̡―͘∋̨̛͜∮◆̨̢͘―͠―̧͘”

Fiorfata shook it off with brute magic force and countered with lasers, but I was no longer there. I was already charging forward the moment I made my attack. The multiple beams of light changed their directions to chase me.

I dodged, grazing them, and got into melee range with Fiorfata. I used [The Divine Language] to create a five-meter chain of cold iron, throwing one end like a whip to wrap around Fiorfata’s left arm.

“Well then, let’s see who last longer.”

“◆̢l̨ơ͘̕☆n̶̵͟‡g̸͜◇̴̢e̕͢r̴̀?̸̸”

I pulled my left arm wrapped with the other end of the chain and slammed my right fist, wreathed in magic, into Fiorfata. It answered in kind and swung its right arm, which I blocked with my left.

Our attacks blew us away from each other, but the chain held us back.

Fiorfata immediately tried to cut the chain. I ran reinforcing magic power through it and while Fiorfata was distracted, I whipped a kick toward its head with all my strength.

[Shedy] [Race: Bunny Girl] [Joker]
[Magic Points: 442,000/500,000] 
[Total Combat Power: 492,000/550,000] 

[Unseelie Lord・Fiorfata] [Race: Dark Pixie] [Demon Lord]
[Magic Points: 418,000/600,000]
[Total Combat Power: 488,000/670,000]

As I expected, I had a much better chance when it was a melee fight. If my guess was correct… then Fiorfata was only making do with the experience it had gathered during its long, long life, and that it hadn’t had much experience in close combat itself due to being originally a dark pixie.

Cold iron could suppress evil, and could be strengthened due to its high affinity with magic power. I wasn’t good enough with the material to make a weapon, of course, but I could make a very tough chain.

“HAAAH!”

I unleashed the whole of my magic to swing the chain and Fiorfata with it, slamming and burying the Demon Lord into the ground. It pulled at the chain to bring me close and released a blast from beneath the earth.

The ground exploded. I was blown into the sky, and the taut chain brought Fiorfata with me.

The next moment, both of us pulled at the chain, flinging us together. Once we were so close our hands could touch, Fiorfata released beams of light at point-blank range.

“Rimeblossom!”

I didn’t care about offsetting its attack. The blizzard released from my right hand was purely to whittle Fiorfata down.

Two immense sources of magic power clashed with barely any distance between them. The violent explosion cut into both our magic reserves. For an instant, I took a defensive stance to minimize the damage—

“Wha-?!”

—but Fiorfata took the opportunity to pull at the chain to throw me away, taking me by surprise.

Fiorfata followed, connected by our binding. It snapped its long arm at me like a whip while I was still unbalanced. I strengthened the cold iron chain as much as I could and held it up to block. The impact rang in my ears.

I followed through, wrapping the chain around Fiorfata’s neck, pulling its face to meet my knee.

“―̀―̴‡̵̷̀◇͞――́？͘҉”

The impact cracked its head. It tilted its head just a fraction.

Too bad for you, Fiorfata…

“Looks like I’m better at fighting dirty!”

Once more, I jerked the chain back and slammed my elbow into its face, creating another crack. Yet even fractured as it was, its head once more split open in a smile.

It headbutted me in my face.

“Oof!”

I held back my reflex to bring my hand to my nose, instead swiping at Fiorfata with a kick. Both of us crashed into the ocean surface at such speed it felt like solid ground, the water erupting violently. I idly wondered how long ago we’d left land.

We were sinking deeper and deeper. This was bad. Underwater was bad. I couldn’t turn into mist to dodge with water around me.

But just as I struggled to rise from the water, I heard a heavy crash. Something had just chomped at Fiorfata underwater.

“GRAAAAAAGH!!!”

A sea dragon?! There were still monsters trying to help me!

Get away! I shouted, but underwater, all that came out were bubbles. The sea dragon broke the sea surface, dragging the chain — and me with it — out of the water.

Fiorfata struck, and everything above the neck of the sea dragon just vanished. Some of the splattering blood hit me.

I slammed both my hands at Fiorfata in anger, using Rimeblossom and Firebloom at the same time.

Crack! The fractures on its face widened. The cold iron chain was torn apart, the stress finally too much for it, and Fiorfata was flung away.

“…̸…́͢‡◆̢́∮͘◆̶∋ヾ̡͏̸∬́†̷―̨―́́͡？͠”

We floated above the waters, once more facing each other from a distance. Fiorfata stared at the torn chain in apparent puzzlement. Then it smirked, an enormous amount of magic power suddenly surging from it.

“――͜∬̷͜ヾ̵́‡͡͡͞―̧͟―̷̶̵ńu͟͟i̸͟͡s̀͡͠a͏̷͜n̷̛c̛͠͏e͟͝――̵͞͡”

Crap!!

Thousands upon thousands of beams of light shot out from Fiorfata’s whole body to pierce into the sea dragons that had been lurking beneath the ocean, waiting for their chance.

For the first time, the sounds coming out of Fiorfata weren’t the bizarre noise it had been releasing, but instead a recognizable word in the common language of Yggdrasia.

We had been completely ignoring our defense in our brawl, and both of our magic reserves had gone down quite a bit. But Fiorfata still chose to remove everything that could disturb us first, so that it could put a decisive end to our battle.

With most of the larger creatures under the sea eliminated, Fiorfata now turned its lasers toward land.

“—[Nadir Beyond]—!!”

A glacial cold covered Fiorfata. It didn’t take more than a few moments for it to be dispelled, however, and Fiorfata once more cracked open its head in a smile and resumed attacking the continent.

All the dragons that I could see, waiting for their opportunities as the sea dragons had, were being shot down, their wings full of holes. They fell to the ocean.

This was really bad. This was exactly what I had been trying to prevent by keeping its focus on me, but Fiorfata finally realized this whole world was against it.

Even if I had arrived at Fiorfata’s level, I had only just evolved. I didn’t have the experience. I had no way to prevent the Demon Lord’s wide-range attacks, nor a method of assault powerful enough to stop it.

I stared at my hands.

The right hand of demons, and the left hand of gods. A while ago, using both of them at the same time had allowed me to deal quite a bit of damage to Fiorfata.

But… should I use it?

It had been more powerful than I expected, that was true. But it had also been more unstable, more than what I thought I could control.

The demon inside me was whispering to me, telling me that if I did it right, I had a chance to win. But the goddess inside of me disagreed, telling me that in the worst case scenario, I could inflict a serious wound to this world.

But I couldn’t do nothing. At this rate, this world would—

—believe—

A voice interrupted my thoughts, covering me with its warmth. My hesitation and worries melted away.

It wasn’t the voice of the secret alpha testers. It was…

“—Load—”

Once more, I activated all my abilities and charged up my power.

Yes… I’ll believe. I’ll believe in this world, and I’ll believe in you, its protector.

Through the World Tree, I saw flashes of images from throughout the world. Everyone was looking at the sky, offering their prayers for their home to be saved.

As Fiorfata continued its onslaught, I poured all the magic I could into my hands and charged at the Demon Lord.

A demonic frost erupted from my right hand, and a divine flame burned on my left. They crackled in contact with each other, but I forced them together, weaving them into a single mass. My hands touched as though praying to the sky.

“FIORFATA!!!”

Upon my shout, its beams of light converged upon me.

I charged forward anyway even as the lasers threatened to burn holes through me, slamming the volatile demonic-divine mixture of power into its face, putting all my weight behind the blow.

Both my arms shattered under the overwhelming force.

At the same time, a large crack formed on Fiorfata’s head, which then soon expanded to cover its whole body in a spiderweb of fractures. The Demon Lord began to crumble from its extremities.

But it wasn’t enough. Fiorfata still lived.

The light of magic shone from its arms. As soon as I saw it, rather than using my divine power or my demonic curses, I was already stretching out my fractured hand into my inventory in a reflexive return to what I was most used to: fighting with weapons.

Space clattered and shivered. I took out a sword and threw it with all my strength, shouting in pure effort.

“HAAAH!!!”

Tiz’s enchanted sword struck Fiorfata’s magic in a flurry of sparks and shattered into pieces. The magic that the Demon Lord had been charging was scattered, glittering in the air together with the fragments of the blade. I hid behind the dazzling sparkles, squeezing out what strength I had left to draw the black-scabbard sword on my hip.

The blade tore through space, absorbing my now-godly magic power, Fiorfata’s own scattered magic, and even the flying fragments of Tiz’s magic sword to evolve, transforming into a slim longsword of pure white. Its name, the name of the sword that was my kin, rose unbidden in my mind.

Palesnow.

The blade cut into Fiorfata’s crack-filled face and became a channel for me to slam my demonic and divine magic power into the Demon Lord.

Fiorfata’s head shattered as my magic power erupted from all the fractures on its body. As the Demon Lord crumbled, it chuckled, whispering to me its final words.

“.̢́͘.̶̢.̛͟w̨o̷̡n̵̕d͏è̸͠ŕf͝͏͞u̷̡҉l͘..͝.̢́͟”

The Demon Lord’s body collapsed into particles of black light, and they too soon vanished.

Goodbye, Fiorfata… if you hadn’t agreed to face me head-on, I would have lost by now.

I raised my right hand to the sky to absorb all the miasma that Fiorfata had left behind. Then I pointed my left hand toward the ground, sharing power to the lands wounded in our battle.

My mist covered the world. The life-giving mist healed the wounded earth and creatures, and from the scorched dirt, the ninety-nine young seedlings of the World Tree rapidly shot up to maturity to heal the world.

Even a goddess’ power couldn’t revive the dead. But it could allow new, strong life to be born into this world.

And so it was that my battle with Fiorfata came to its end. The world was saved.

I, the girl who was once called a ‘demon child’ that brought misfortune to everyone else, had become a goddess, protector of a new world.

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

Tiz stood in the castle’s courtyard. He whispered, staring at the remains of the destroyed Sapling.

“…Shedy?”

Shedy had used the magic sword to cut down the final Sapling, taking something from within the vanishing light into her hand. Then she disappeared into the cocoon of light.

She wasn’t gone. She was there. He could feel the enormous weight of her magic power, the presence of a true Dark Lady, still there.

But she wasn’t moving.

She was frozen as though a victim to her own power, as though her snow-white form had meant something far more literal.

As worries gnawed on Tiz’s mind, he, together with everyone else still staying behind in Touze Empire, all shivered as they suddenly felt a malevolent presence outside the city.

“…the Unseelie Lord…”

Fiorfata, the Unseelie Lord. A pinnacle of demons, a terrible being worthy of the name Evil God, summoned by mad humans. It wielded enough power to swat down the prided battleships of humans as though they were nothing but flies, and to bring cities and countries to ruin with a flick of its hand.

It was the face of the sins of the human race, the sins of mankind.

The humans had claimed the World Tree, what should have been the very lifeline of the world, as their own; had brought suffering to so many lives; had set the world onto the path of ruination. And now their sins had manifested themselves in the worst way possible, to enact indiscriminate retribution upon the whole world.

Despite how irresponsible it might sound, this was no longer a matter that humans could solve. And even if they had the power to, in all likelihood they would have used it only for themselves.

They had done it for their citizens. For mankind to prosper. And it might have even been necessary to some degree, but to the world of Yggdrasia, it was nothing more than a sin.

This was what Tiz had realized. It was the reason while despite being the emperor, he had abandoned the very keystone of his country that was the Sapling, gambling everything on the only one with a chance to win against this apocalypse: Shedy.

The Evil God Fiorfata silently floated above the city.

It didn’t need to do anything. Just the sight of it had sent people shivering, and those unfortunate enough to be showered in its overflowing, malevolent miasma soon decomposed, even as they stayed conscious through it all.

Fiorfata pointed its featureless face toward the white cocoon of light.

“――̀͟͠∴̀͞͡≠̸̡∬̧͢†̨‡∝̶͞∮̛̀―̵―̸”

A vast amount of magic power gathered at Fiorfata’s fingertips. Nearly a hundred beams of light shot toward the castle, centering on Shedy.

Just as Tiz readied himself for his impending death, he sensed a powerful surge of magic from behind him, from the light that had been the remnants of the Sapling. And he finally heard the voice he had been waiting for.

“—Bend—”

Upon the voice, enormous crystallized snowflakes appeared, each around a meter in diameter, and they instantly dispersed to cover the castle. They reflected Fiorfata’s beams of light away and into the sky.

Then they shattered. The fragments glittered in the light of the scattering lasers, turning into white, powdery snow that danced as they descended. And just as the first specks touched the ground, the cocoon of light slowly gave form to a person.

The girl of white stood there, with skin and hair of snow. Her eyes gently opened to reveal a vivid scarlet.

A pair of fluffy rabbit eyes draped on her lustrous, somewhat-messy locks of hair. When she had looked about fourteen before, now she had grown to fifteen, perhaps sixteen, the childishness fading from her features. The survivors of Touze all released an unwitting sigh as they saw her.

Her scarlet dress, modeled after a bunny girl outfit, had had some changes. Her bunched-up skirt had unraveled to resemble a tailcoat, with the long-extending hem wrapping around her legs. Depending on the angle, it almost looked like a gown.

Powerful magic surged from the white girl — from Shedy, the magic different from what she had before. The skies trembled in front of her.

From above, Fiorfata showed a fissure of a smile as it looked upon the birth of a new God-class. It pointed toward her and toward the city stretching below it, and it released an enormous magical blast.

Facing the approaching sphere of magic that was dozens of meters across, Shedy silently raised a finger of her left hand toward the sky.

“—Firebloom—”

With the power of The Divine Language — the evolution of Materialization — a glove, resembling azure flower petals, appeared to cover her left hand from the wrist.

A pure white mist burst from her left hand. As the mist touched upon the foulness, it transformed into black petals as though absorbing the malevolence and erupted in blazing flames.

The white mist purified, sealing and burning the wickedness. It clashed against Fiorfata’s magic power, and the two opposing forces sputtered and died out.

Space twisted, and a vast swath of the sky shuddered. Shedy suddenly flew out from the haze toward Fiorfata from the front, and a kick struck it in the back.

Fiorfata instantly reacted to the spatial reversal, blocking Shedy’s kick with its own arm. The two’s magic power clashed in flickering sparks of lightning.

Both were blown away several hundred meters from the impact, but Shedy had rolled with knees hugged to reduce the force. She forced herself to a stop in the air and pointed her right hand toward Fiorfata.

“—Rimeblossom—”

Her right hand was covered by a white glove glowing faintly red, and from it came a raging blizzard that shone with a similar shade. All the miasma in its way were transformed into petals of ice, and the storm lunged toward Fiorfata.

“‡̵∴̸*͟∋͟͠＊＊̢͜†̢”

Fiorfata released a sound that sounded half-singing, half-laughing. Its wings flapped at blurring speed, and it released a wide-ranging magical blast to blow away Shedy’s curse, that which turned everything it touched into icy petals.

Her left hand was the merciful hand of a goddess. From it came a mist to heal all living beings and to turn all evil into flower petals that burned in eternal purgatory, burning until they were no more.

Her right hand was the ruinous hand of a demon. From it came a blizzard to bestow a peaceful death to the sinless and to turn the wicked into flower petals that froze, annihilating them to their very souls.

The left hand of gods, and the right hand of demons.

The flames of mercy that burned all into nothingness, and the blizzard of destruction that brought death equally to all.

The power of gods, and the power of demons.

Gods purified one’s sins by granting never-ending suffering, while demons cared nothing for purification, only granting equal destruction to all.

An artificial goddess faced a demon of the Netherworld. The clash of two absolute powers had cleared away the clouds of the whole Central Continent, and once more, they took to the skies of Yggdrasia to resume their battle.

*

[Shedy] [Race: Bunny Girl] [Joker]
・Dea Ex Machina. An artificial goddess born in cyberspace. Possesses the right hand of a Demon to destroy all, and the left hand of a Goddess to save all.

[Magic Points: 489,000/500,000] 
[Total Combat Power: 539,000/550,000] 
[Unique Skill: <Causality Alteration> <Dimensional Manipulation> <Consumption> <The Divine Language>] 
[Racial Skill: <Fear> <Mist Form>]
[Simple Identification] [Deity Form (Lovely)] [Subspace Inventory]
[Overlord]
[Goddess from the Machine]

[Unseelie Lord・Fiorfata] [Race: Dark Pixie] [Demon Lord]
・One of the seven Demon Lords ruling Netherworld. A god of the Netherworld.

[Magic Points: 445,000/600,000]
[Total Combat Power: 515,000/670,000]

Under the cloudless sky of Yggdrasia, we faced each other with nearly a hundred meters between us.

With my evolution, I finally gained power equivalent to Fiorfata.

…and as traditional whenever this happened, another one of my abilities evolved weird…

…so anyway, I got the evolution for my final ability. I’d arrived at the same plane of existence as Fiorfata, and I had gained the power to defeat it.

But… without Blobsy and Panda, without the dragons’ sacrifices, without the many, many monsters and demihumans, and without the help of some humans to grind down Fiorfata’s magic power, I couldn’t have stood in front of it as I was now.

I had evolved. I was a Joker. I was the final and the greatest trump card.

I was both a deity and a demon, a man-made goddess born from the world of cyberspace.

I was dea ex machina.

My new power had been granted to me by the secret alpha testers… no, not just them, but by the whole world of Yggdrasia.

All the same, even if we were now on a level playing field, I still only just evolved. I didn’t know how much of my power I could use. Still…

“Fiorfata. Ready yourself.”

I wouldn’t let it recover any more magic. I would end this, here and now!

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

Everywhere I looked, I saw only white, except for the girl holding my hand. She told me she was number 99, and that she had been waiting with “everyone else”.

“Where is this…? And what do you mean, ‘everyone’…”

—we are inside of the World Tree. Open your eyes. Open up your heart… if you’re scared, just a little bit is enough… don’t worry. All of us are on your side—

Deep inside me, I knew she was speaking the truth. So she must have known, too, that I still could not trust, still could not let anyone into my heart.

But… even when I knew she was truthful, my door had been shut ever since I was born. I no longer knew how to open it.

—don’t worry—

Someone touched my shoulder. I turned around to see that it was a boy who looked about the same as the age of my current appearance. He was looking at me kindly.

Was he… number 01?

And it wasn’t just him. An Asian boy about ten years old and a slightly-older black boy were holding my hand in encouragement.

Number 17…? Number 08… ?

Their thoughts poured into me from their magic stones that I’d taken into myself, and my sight expanded as the world was painted over.

The ground was thick with green foliage as far as I could see, dotted with beams of dappled sunlight that had found their way through the green canopy covering the whole sky. Above the labyrinthine and enormous branches of the World Tree were many, many children. They all greeted me with a smile.

The secret alpha testers… the ninety-nine orphans who had died to the corporation’s betrayal…

There were kids from ten to fifteen years old, both boys and girls, of all nationalities and races. I only barely managed to recognize where they had been from by looking at the traditional clothing that they wore.

—thank you—

—thank you—

—thank you—

—number 13… you have saved us—

—you have saved—

—you have saved our souls—

The secret alpha testers spoke with gentle voices, full of warmth.

I see… so what I’d done hadn’t been for nothing, then. I did it… I actually saved them.

I closed my eyes, immersing myself in the warmth of their gratitude, the warmth of the sunlight.

The sun then darkened for a fraction.

—sorry—

—sorry—

—sorry—

—we’d let you be in pain alone—

—we’d forced our burden on you—

—we’d made you bear the resentment, the hatred, all by yourself—

“That’s not true!”

I was just trying to survive. I’d even told myself it had been for you, when all I was doing was justifying my vengeance.

“I… I don’t deserve your apologies…” I said, biting my lips.

The girl of number ninety-nine gently shook her head.

—we were the same—

—it hurt. It was unbearable. It was terrible—

—we died, bearing dark hatred for the world, cursing it—

As the other children followed up with their own words, the sun once more darkened.

But then… the light slowly returned together with its warmth. The ninety-nine secret alpha testers gathered around me, touching my hands one after another.

—but we were saved—

—you have freed us from our hatred—

—you have taken us away—

—from the darkness—

—so now—

Their voices joined together as one.

—it is our turn to save you—

—take it. Take our final power—

[Shedy] [Race: Bunny Girl] [Archdemon Lv. 100]
・The demon of Laplace. One who had ascended beyond an Archdemon.

[Magic Points: 338,000/338,000] 3,000 ↑
[Total Combat Power: 371,800/371,800] 3,300 ↑
[Unique Skill: <Causality Alteration> <Dimensional Manipulation> <Consumption> <Materialization>] 
[Racial Skill: <Fear> <Mist Form>]
[Simple Identification] [Human Form (Wonderful)] [Subspace Inventory]
[Dark Lady] 
[Final Evolution Available]

***

My vision blanked out. Once I could see again, the World Tree and the secret alpha testers were already gone, leaving me once again in a world of white.

It wasn’t the blind whiteness as before. Instead, everywhere I looked, I saw geometric shapes and lines with the same basic white tone, as though I was inside the world of cyberspace. So I wasn’t inside the World Tree, then. This must be my own personal mindscape.

“…final evolution…”

It was the last bit of power given to me from all the secret alpha testers. This was probably where my final evolution would happen, then, and the reason why it looked like cyberspace was probably because I was an artificial demon, and the evolution process had based itself on that same artificial system.

Evolve.

I focused on my decision. Boxes of text appeared, floating in the air to my left and right.

[Demon Lord]
・The pinnacle of demons, a ruler of the Netherworld. The diametrical opposition of gods. The granter of the fruit of wisdom to mankind, and the devourer of their ripened civilization.

[Beast]
・The pinnacle of demons, one who takes the shape of an animal. Savage and cruel. A predator and a destroyer, eternally seeking conflicts.

[Devil]
・The pinnacle of demons, the traveler of dimensions. One who gorges on souls of humans, who understands and charms the hearts of humans, who grants otherworldly knowledge on a whim.

These boxes were filled with red text and were on my right. Next were the blue-colored boxes on my left.

[Draconic God]
・A supreme creature, one who has lived through an eternity to acquire a spiritual body. Possesses great wisdom and force of will, as well as immense power.

[Minor God]
・An intelligent creature who had reached the threshold of godhood. The protector of life, and the ruler of the cycle of reincarnation. Rarely is there a natural Minor God, as most manifest by stealing power from another god. Called a [Goddess] when female.

[True God]
・A Major God born from the minds of intelligent beings. A true god, one created solely for the sake of those who are both their creators and their worshippers. Possesses no physical form. Power drastically fluctuates depending on worshippers.

“Umm…”

On the right side were demons, and the left were… gods? So I could evolve into these?

I was honestly surprised becoming a god was even a choice for me. I guessed I had the secret alpha testers to thank for that.

But could I win against Fiorfata as a god?

Among the choices was a Demon Lord, the same as Fiorfata, and the explanation mentioned being diametrically opposed to gods. If Demon Lords were godkillers, then I didn’t think becoming a Minor God would be much of an improvement from what I was already. Draconic Gods had the same problem.

True Gods were born from the thoughts of their worshippers, so I might not be able to keep myself as me if I chose that.

If I wanted power to fight Fiorfata, then perhaps I should choose to become the same Demon Lord as it was. Being a Beast or Devil might be good too, though I felt like a Demon Lord was the most balanced in terms of offense and defense.

Artificial or not, I had been evolving as a demon in the first place. I should be able to get used to the new power right away if I continued that line of evolution.

But I’d already made my choice. Not out of these six.

I chose the seventh option hidden among the others.

I had been a human who had no understanding of humans. I had only gained my insight into the hearts of others after discarding my humanity. From my wavering heart came a fragment of itself…

I took it. I grasped the white box of text hiding itself right in front of my eyes.

Then the white space that was my mindscape shattered. A vast world stretched out in front of me as I looked down on Yggdrasia, my new home.

I will protect this world. I will protect it for you.

[Shedy] [Race: Bunny Girl] [Joker]
・Dea Ex Machina. An artificial goddess born in cyberspace. Possesses the right hand of a Demon to destroy all, and the left hand of a Goddess to save all.

[Magic Points: 500,000/500,000] 162,000 ↑
[Total Combat Power: 550,000/550,000] 178,200 ↑
[Unique Skill: <Causality Alteration> <Dimensional Manipulation> <Consumption> <The Divine Language>] 
[Racial Skill: <Fear> <Mist Form>]
[Simple Identification] [Deity Form (Lovely)] [Subspace Inventory]
[Overlord]
[Goddess from the Machine]

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

“Old man… how many countries have agreed by now?”

“I would say about half.”

“Damn it, half of them still believe they can win even now…?”

“Most of the small countries have joined in. I believe the large countries with powerful militaries would be more stubborn, however.”

“Well, ours is as well, isn’t it? Anyway, you’re certain the hardliners in the army haven’t found out about this?”

“I… would not say they absolutely haven’t, though I do believe they are currently much too occupied for that.”

“At any rate, we don’t have much time. Continue with the plan.”

“Understood.”

The presence of a person vanished from the hidden room. The man remaining behind leaned deeply back on his chair. He sighed, whispering a name.

“…Shedy.”

***

I’d entered the Central Continent. I continued on my route to destroy the Saplings starting from the north, all the while dodging Fiorfata’s attacks.

“―́́͠―∴̀́͟≠∬̶͢†̡͟‡∝͟∮̢͡―̡―̧”

Fiorfata’s magic surged, and the night sky fell. The wide-ranging meteor shower tore apart the forests and the geography.

“—[Absolute Nadir]—!”

My mist of extreme cold froze the scattering earth and trees. Then Fiorfata just swatted it aside.

“Gah!”

Our powers clashed. I crossed my arms to protect myself from the shockwave several kilometers away that was racing toward me.

I took damage, but not as much as before. With Absorption evolving to become Consumption, I could now convert even a portion of the damage into magic power and take it in myself, giving me more power to fight.

The small country Dixseld was virtually empty of people by now, and I freed its Sapling. Then I headed toward my next target, Quinze Kingdom. It was the large country that had been sending its battleships at me multiple times, and perhaps that had been the reason why it no longer had any firepower to resist. The whole capital city of Quinze disintegrated as it got swallowed up in my battle.

[Shedy] [Race: Bunny Girl] [Archdemon Lv. 70]
[Magic Points: 218,000/232,000] 12,000 ↑
[Total Combat Power: 241,200/255,200] 13,200 ↑

And then, in my expanded perception, I felt several flying battleships.

…four of them? Judging from the direction they were coming from, they must belong to Vingtuit and Battrol, the two countries that had also attacked me multiple times as Quinze had.

The humans were still thinking they could do something even now, were they…

Iron bolts were fired from the ballistae set up on the ships’ decks. They didn’t do anything to Fiorfata, of course, but they were also no longer effective against me as I was now.

Fiorfata ignored the battleships to continue attacking me. I did the same, putting the ballistae and magical artillery out of my mind to focus on my dogfight, dodging only Fiorfata’s attacks. One of its stray projectiles downed a battleship.

The humans’ military was nothing but a hindrance now.

“Leave!!” I shouted at them, pouring magic power into my voice. The remaining battleships abruptly stopped moving. One of them then charged forward at full speed, as though they’d lost their calm.

I was sure they must have their own reasons to fight, even if they fought only for the sake of the human race and no one else. A ballista bolt grazed me to fly toward Fiorfata, directly hitting its head by sheer coincidence.

Such feeble physical attacks weren’t even capable of scratching it, of course, but the fact remained that Fiorfata had been hit by humans. It had been hit by puny humans.

Its blank face slowly turned toward the ship.

“‡҉̶͜∴҉͞*͢∋͜͜◇̷̨∮！̡”

Hundreds of beams of light gathered together and with a wave of Fiorfata’s hand, they tore into Mount Leonard and its summit.

“Oof!”

I barely managed to dodge. The battleships weren’t so lucky; they took a direct hit, the lasers slicing all of them into ribbons.

But the lasers hadn’t stopped there. Fiorfata swung them horizontally, the beams of light extending far past what I could see to cut into the land thousands of kilometers away, and the Demon Lord continued moving its arm until it began to point south. The lasers touched the barrier of the World Tree that I could faintly see far off in the distance, sparking an enormous explosion upon contact.

My mind blanked out for a moment upon the sight.

“NOOOO!!!”

I tore open a hole in space and teleported to throw a punch into Fiorfata’s face. The direct clash between two sources of magic power blew away the dust and clouds for dozens of kilometers.

[Shedy] [Race: Bunny Girl] [Archdemon Lv. 73]
[Magic Points: 233,000/241,000] 9,000 ↑
[Total Combat Power: 257,100/265,100] 9,900 ↑

[Unseelie Lord・Fiorfata] [Race: Dark Pixie] [Demon Lord]
・One of the seven Demon Lords ruling Netherworld. A god of the Netherworld.

[Magic Points: 475,000/600,000]
[Total Combat Power: 545,000/670,000]

We stared at each other with only meters between us. There was a crack, albeit faint, on Fiorfata’s face for the first time. It grinned, its mouth opening like a fissure, as though it was delighted of the battle.

But it hadn’t been an equal trade. To deal just that little bit of damage to Fiorfata’s face, my right arm was crushed in exchange, turning grey as the curse spread through it.

“◇҉͏∝̕ヾ̴͏̢！̡”

Fiorfata kicked. I immediately blocked it with my right arm, sacrificing the cursed limb.

“Aagh!”

It was the first time I got hit by a direct attack from Fiorfata. I was blown away for hundreds of meters, the right side of my body was mush, and my magic power went down by several tens of thousands.

I gritted my teeth. The precious balance I’d been trying so hard to preserve was broken by my own hands. I’d lost control of myself when I saw the World Tree being attacked, and before I knew it, I was already charging in.

The World Tree was the only thing that must be protected, no matter the cost.

…no, not the only thing. There was another reason for me to protect this world.

—don’t worry—

—you are not alone—

“Huh…?”

The World Tree sent me more magic stones, and it wasn’t just one or two. This wasn’t the first time it gave me so much. Had Fiorfata’s long-range attack hit a country somewhere?

No… the new Saplings hadn’t reported being attacked by anything.

[Shedy] [Race: Bunny Girl] [Archdemon Lv. 81]
[Magic Points: 254,000/281,000] 40,000 ↑
[Total Combat Power: 282,100/309,100] 44,000 ↑

I used my refilled magic to turn mist and back to human, regenerating my right side.

People, beings all over the world were fighting for the sake of their home, even if I didn’t know who they were. I had help.

“∝̵̛́◇͞！͜”

“HAAH!”

Fiorfata closed the distance of several hundreds of meters in a blink of an eye, and I slammed into it in mid-air. While I’d nullified the worst of it, I was still the only one to be blown away.

That attack damaged me, but the magic-covered arm I’d used to block was still intact, and there were no signs of a curse on it.

I could fight… the gap was still there, still large, but it wasn’t insurmountable!

“—[Absolute Nadir]—”

“―̵͠―̵͘∴͜≠̵̵͘†̵‡͘∝̷͠∮̷―̧―͏͝”

My blast of cold and Fiorfata’s magical blast detonated as they came into contact. The impact ravaged the land for dozens of kilometers.

The World Tree once more sent me white magic stones.

I could see… something. Flashes of images passed through my mind, images of places, locations. Is that… Blobsy? Panda?

[Shedy] [Race: Bunny Girl] [Archdemon Lv. 83]
[Magic Points: 282,000/287,000] 6,000 ↑
[Total Combat Power: 310,700/315,700] 6,600 ↑

We wailed on each other as we flew in subsonic speed. The shockwaves alone were already enough to shear off the upper half of Mount Leonard.

More white magic stones. Still more unfamiliar scenes flashed through my mind.

This time, it was… the players? Isaac…? Even Weed and Sandrea… wait, was this monster Jennifer?

[Shedy] [Race: Bunny Girl] [Archdemon Lv. 88]
[Magic Points: 287,000/302,000] 15,000 ↑
[Total Combat Power: 317,200/332,200] 16,500 ↑

Demihumans, monsters all over the world were fighting to liberate the Saplings. I could see them! There were even countries among the humans who had allowed the demihumans in themselves!

I continued to consume magic power in my fight, and I continued to recover with the magic stones and the mana the World Tree was sending me.

I could still fight!

[Shedy] [Race: Bunny Girl] [Archdemon Lv. 92]
[Magic Points: 296,000/314,000] 12,000 ↑
[Total Combat Power: 327,400/345,400] 13,200 ↑

[Unseelie Lord・Fiorfata] [Race: Dark Pixie] [Demon Lord]
[Magic Points: 452,000/600,000]
[Total Combat Power: 522,000/670,000]

The gap was closing. I could handle close combat now. But as an Archdemon, I still lacked a decisive method to bring down the Demon Lord that was Fiorfata.

In front of me was a large gap that couldn’t be measured by magic power alone, the gap of existence itself. I knew that. I might not be able to close it even if all the Saplings were liberated.

But I won’t give up. I’ll fight until the very end!

As the fight carried me toward the center of the continent, a fleet of about ten battleships arriving from the west came into my view… more humans?

This direction was… Touze Empire? Tiz’s country…

So he was just another of the same, was he… I pushed my slight disappointment to the side, ignoring the fleet to head for Touze Empire.

The ten ships approached. As I dodged Fiorfata’s attacks, I pointed my hand toward the fleet, getting ready to deal with the distraction… when all their engines suddenly stopped working. The ships began to slowly drop out of the sky.

“What happened…?”

I used Dimensional Manipulation to take a look into Touze Empire. In the courtyard of a large palace, I saw Tiz holding something in his hand. It looked like a switch of some sort.

“Tiz… did you do that?”

The next moment, another whole bunch of magic stones were sent into my hand.

[Shedy] [Race: Bunny Girl] [Archdemon Lv. 99]
[Magic Points: 328,000/335,000] 21,000 ↑
[Total Combat Power: 361,500/368,500] 23,100 ↑

The humans… the remaining human countries had all set their Saplings free by their own hands at the same time.

They weren’t all rotten… they weren’t!

Just one more Sapling! I knew where it was, and it was right in front of me! Inside the palace of Touze Empire — right behind Tiz!

The barrier protecting Touze’s palace vanished. The door behind Tiz was open. I saw the final Sapling with my own eyes.

I was so impatient I didn’t even use teleportation, instead blasting magic power to propel me forward. Roofs of houses were torn off, and the royal knights protecting the emperor were blown away in my wake. Yet even within the tempest, Tiz was still there, kneeling to keep himself from the wind and taking not a single step back, waiting for me. He pulled out the sword on his hips and threw it above his head.

“Use it, Shedy!”

It was… the magic sword that Tiz held as his greatest treasure, if I remember correctly…

As the naked blade flew toward me, our eyes met for a single moment.

I flew past Tiz, grasping the sword in my hand. I poured magic into it and slashed toward the final Sapling, shearing it into halves.

The Sapling vanished into glittering motes of light, and from within it dropped the final white magic stone. I dove toward it and took it into my hand.

I opened my eyes to a world of white.

The hand that had been holding the final white magic stone, I realized, was now being grasped by a girl I didn’t know, both of her hands covering my own.

The glasses-wearing girl seemed to be about ten years old, with a somewhat dark complexion and distinctly Indian features. Standing in the world of white, she smiled, looking truly happy.

—we finally meet. I’m number 99… I’ve been waiting for you, together with everyone else—

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

Seize Kingdom, a large country in the western region of the Central Continent, had been within the range of the large-scale summoning magic circle that had called up the Unseelie Lord. It had been attacked by hundreds of thousands of dark pixies. But as befitting the title of being a large country, they had succeeded in raiding the Origin point within their border, defeating the prison escapists and destroying the magitool that served as the Origin. Peace had returned to them for the time being.

The assaults by demihumans and monsters all over the world, as well as the battle between the Unseelie Lord and the Dark Lady Whitehare, had brought down over half of all the human countries. But chained by the pride of being a large country, the citizens of Seize Kingdom had still not yet been evacuated.

Yet they had heard the rumors, all the same, even when no one knew where it had come from.

The people had heard that there were signs the countries with weaker militaries were going to abandon their Saplings in order to avoid being dragged into the war. The people had spoken of their unease, their worries about the status quo to their lords and ladies, yet at the same time, they still prioritized their livelihood above all else. Their dependence on the Saplings were far more powerful than their concern of what was happening on other continents, and they would not let the Saplings go even when ordered by their own ruling nobles.

On top of the castle walls of the capital of Seize Kingdom, the general of the army, the man who had been dealing with the dark pixie stragglers, was taking a cigarette break. Then he took in the sight in front of his eyes and gaped, the tobacco pipe dropping from his mouth.

“…what the fuck is that?”

A green mountain was moving toward the city.

But as it got closer and closer, he realized it was no mountain. It was a massive slime. The people of Seize began to panic.

“A slime?!”

“How can there be one so enormous?!”

“What happened to the towns on its path?! Why hadn’t I heard anything about this?!”

“The outer towns seem to be unharmed…”

“That’s no illusion! It’s actually there! It’s coming!”

“Ready the artillery! NOW!!!”

As the mountainous slime came within several kilometers of the capital, the magic artillery set up on the walls fired.

*boing!*

“””…eh?”””

The enormous creature several hundred meters tall and several kilometers wide jumped, passing over the dozens of cannon shots. The ground shuddered as it landed.

Seeing the green mountain begin moving again, the general roused himself from his shock and once more shouted his order.

“…f-fire! FIRE!”

The slime continued its inexorable advance, at times flattening itself, at times twisting and warping to open holes for the projectiles to pass through harmlessly, and at times repeating its jumps.

Regardless, the bombardment continued to hit its target more frequently as the slime got closer and closer to the city. The moment evasion was no longer possible, the colossal slime suddenly split into hundreds of millions of small slimes, flooding toward the city as though a green tsunami.

The humans now realized the enormous slime was simply a congregation of small ones. Perhaps they had stayed separated on their way here, and it had been the reason why the outer towns hadn’t noticed them.

Why had they come here? Why had they merged into this… ‘king slime’?

At any rate, the humans found themselves not quite caring at the moment. They had been worried about the enormous slime, but now that the congregation had split, the barrier would surely repel the small creatures.

But the humans had underestimated the slimes. Once more, they were struck dumb by the impossibility in front of their eyes.

“””…huh?”””

The slime horde simply passed through the barrier as though it wasn’t there. They squelched, affixing themselves onto the walls and melting through the stone, and they flooded into the city.

A chorus of screams echoed as the soldiers and the townspeople were washed away by the tsunami. One of the soldiers watched a slime jiggling on his palm, and he realized what they were.

“…jelly slimes?”

Jelly slimes were a type of monster. They were calm by nature, and they could eat anything, including raw garbage, and so were quite prized by humans. Yet it was also the reason why there had been a period of time when they had been overhunted, and now jelly slimes were considered an almost-extinct species.

Where had they been hiding, and in such number?

Jelly slimes were much too weak to be considered a threat. Their lack of magic power was the reason why the barrier hadn’t caught them.

*boing!*

On top of the clock tower, a jelly slime with a color somewhat darker than its brethren jumped. The horde of slimes that had been indiscriminately cleaning people’s houses and laundering clothes of panicking citizens all stopped what they were doing to instead head for the palace.

—over here—

—quickly—

Several hours later, the capital city of Seize Kingdom had had its palace buried in the horde of single-minded slimes, its Sapling destroyed with barely any resistance. The jelly slimes then immediately left with such order as though following a leader, and they disappeared without a trace, leaving behind the dumbfounded townspeople without a single hair on their heads harmed, and a squeaky clean city without a single speck of dust.

*boing!*

***

The large country of Seize had fallen, and it hadn’t been the only one to be brought down by such circumstances. The same thing had happened to the small country of Harcinq to the north of Seize, only the culprit hadn’t been slimes. They weren’t even monsters that could be deterred by the barrier.

Harcinq had been attacked by dogs, cats, and similar near-magicless creatures, as well as animals resembling pigs and chickens that were being kept as livestock.

And not only that, wild rabbits, boars, monkeys, and many more had also come from their homes in the mountains and forests to join the attack. Aside from being normal animals, they shared no other commonality, though if somebody had looked, perhaps they would have noticed that the creatures were all munching on something.

Millions of animals entered the capital city, heading for the governor’s castle.

“Stop the damn beasts, now!”

The soldiers were running toward the donkey that was leading the horde, bows and guns in their hands, when they suddenly tripped on flat ground. The flock of animals went past them unimpeded.

One of the soldiers picked up the strange object on the ground where he had lost his footing. He tilted his head in puzzlement.

“…a banana peel?”

—over here, over here—

—no adults over here—

Even as the animals approached the castle, the soldiers still resisted, desperately trying to repel the chickens and wild rabbits. Some of the animals were wounded by spells and weapons, but after they retreated to a certain location and ate something to recover, they continued to head for the castle once more.

The townspeople weren’t unscathed, of course.

A three-year old girl was wandering, seemingly to have gotten lost in the chaos, when she stumbled and skinned her knee. As she cried, a monkey passing by gave her what he was holding in his hand.

“Ook.”

“…banana.”

The little girl took the tiny banana from the black-and-white monochrome monkey and ate it. As her scratch healed, her tears instantly stopped to give way to a beaming smile.

“Thank you, mister monkey.”

“Ook.”

The monkey shook his head as though telling her not to mind, and he gallantly leaped on the back of a donkey passing by to ride away. Several hours later, Harcinq’s Sapling was liberated.

—hang on—

—just a little bit more—

***

“—[Gospel]—”

My Gospel and Fiorfata’s Curse clashed. The blast covered the palace of the large country Dixhut below and wiped it out of existence.

“…urgh.”

I wanted to say I managed to cancel out its attack, but I’d be lying. It took everything I had to deal with its half-hearted effort, and I still received several thousand in damage.

“…got it!”

Our attacks just now had destroyed the Sapling of Dixhut, and it had been revived somewhere else. As always, the World Tree once more sent me a white magic stone, and not only that, it also sent me some mana to help me recover at the same time.

[Shedy] [Race: Bunny Girl] [Archdemon Lv. 66]
・The demon of Laplace. One who had ascended beyond an Archdemon.

[Magic Points: 213,500/220,000] 30,000 ↑
[Total Combat Power: 235,500/242,000] 33,000 ↑
[Unique Skill: <Causality Alteration> <Dimensional Manipulation> <Consumption> <Materialization>] 
[Racial Skill: <Fear> <Mist Form>]
[Simple Identification] [Human Form (Wonderful)] [Subspace Inventory]
[Dark Lady]

—watch out—

“!!”

I immediately gathered magic into my hand and parried Fiorfata’s magical blast.

That was close… while my body didn’t require sleep or rest, I’d still been fighting for several days straight without stopping. I was beginning to slip. Thankfully, as I gained more magic power, things were slowly getting easier and easier.

…and ever since I passed level fifty as an Archdemon, I started to hear a faint voice. With every level I gained, the voice got just a little bit clearer.

This wasn’t the voice of monsters… whose was it?

But it wasn’t the time for me to be distracted by my musings. Around thirty percent of the Saplings still remained. Even if I could free them all, I still didn’t know if I could even win. All the same…

“I won’t give up!”

—just a bit more—

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The war between the Unseelie Lord, the Evil God that had manifested itself from another world, and the Dark Army, led by the Dark Lady Whitehare, had intensified.

Or to be more precise, the war was between the Unseelie Lord and the Dark Lady alone while the Dark Army, being less an organized army and more a ragtag band of demihumans and monsters who were fighting for the same reason as the Dark Lady’s, attacked cities to liberate Saplings. The battle had gone far beyond the capability of humans, and both the battleship fleets of the Western Continent and the militant faction of the Central Continent deployed to defeat the Unseelie Lord had been annihilated.

The demihuman resistance force had further swelled in number, and with the dragons now participating in the conflict, the three countries of Cirquesant, Mersept, and Garbandeux, located in the central region of the Eastern Continent, had now fallen. On the northern side of the Western Continent, the remnants of the orc army had assaulted and brought down two small countries.

This had helped the Sapling-abandonment faction consisting of the Academy City Cinqres, Free City Seis, and Marine City Vingteun to gain further traction, with the City of Medicine Lantoure now joining them. This had resulted in some countries beginning to seek peace with the demihumans, at long last, who were willing to accept releasing their Saplings as a condition in order to secure their citizens’ safety.

All the same, there were countries who still hadn’t given up — in other words, leaders who hadn’t been able to stand against the public voice. They wished to continue the war to the bitter end, but as the final Dark General, the Ogre Lord, still remained as a threat, not many among them could spare the military force.

***

I spun and twirled in the air, barely dodging the lasers as they tore apart the ocean, boiling the seawater and creating a huge cloud of steam.

“Hahh!!” I shouted in effort, freezing the steam with my mist, and I threw the hail of ice spears toward Fiorfata.

“◇̧̕≠̧҉∬̷§̷̸͏§̧͜͢†̶̷͢‡̴͞∝̶̢̕”

Fiorfata again used its black miasma to evaporate them all in an instant. The very next moment, a meteor shower fell from the sky, its range covering everywhere I could see. Countless enormous pillars of water erupted from the sea as the projectiles slammed into the ocean surface.

“—[Nadir]—”

I formed limited areas of extreme cold, creating regions of disconnected spaces to reduce the damage to me. It was reckless, equivalent to blowing myself up to reduce the force of an external explosion, but it was still far better than getting hit by Fiorfata’s attacks directly.

I had been crossing the ocean for the last twelve hours on my way to the Central Continent, all the while trading blows with Fiorfata.

Although it wasn’t exactly an equal fight. The power gap still existed between us, so it was really more like an attack helicopter chasing around an infantry soldier with a gun. At least now I could dodge Fiorfata’s attacks, and my own were affecting it a little bit.

I continued flying, the ocean behind us raging as the water boiled and froze in rapid succession. After some time, a black line far away on the horizon appeared in my sight.

“…there it is!”

I could finally see the Central Continent.

I turned away from the island country closest to me, the Marine City Vingteun, to avoid bringing danger to the World Tree. Instead, I moved to enter the continent from the north.

As I approached the Central Continent, I was greeted by another airship fleet from some country somewhere from the landmass. The difference, however, was that this fleet was a lot smaller than the previous ones. Looked like the humans were finally running out of ships.

Three battleships approached. They shot their magical artillery at me, as I was flying in front.

And I felt a surge of powerful magic from behind me at the same time. Fiorfata was creating an enormous ball of magic power.

“―̶―̸͠͞∴̶≠̶̨∬͝͝†̛‡̵̢͡∝̶∮͏̴̀――̷̡͘”

“—[Consumption]—”

I was being fired on, both from ahead and behind me.

I let the battleships’ bombardment hit me, absorbing the mana from them, and at the same time setting off the magic power I’d been charging up to match the timing of Fiorfata’s own attack in a clap of my hands.

“—[Absolute Nadir]—”

Fiorfata’s magical blast came at me like a relentless, enormous wall. My own projectile of absolute zero pierced through it, reducing its power.

As our magic came in contact, the impact formed a massive tornado, bending the ocean surface downward for hundreds of meters within a range of several kilometers around us. The three battleships were battered around by the shockwave as though rowboats in a storm, and they met their final fates under the sea.

…I could only reduce the power of Fiorfata’s attack by thirty percent. On the other hand, it was a whole thirty percent.

I wouldn’t give up. There were people all over the world fighting together with me. Gold, the demihumans — they were liberating the Saplings, standing against Fiorfata in their own way.

“…they’re here.”

The World Tree once more sent white magic stones to me.

As I absorbed them, I released a wide-ranging mist to freeze the raging ocean, covering Fiorfata within the ice.

[Shedy] [Race: Bunny Girl] [Archdemon Lv. 56]
[Magic Points: 156,000/190,000] 18,000↑
[Total Combat Power: 175,000/209,000] 19,800↑

[Unseelie Lord・Fiorfata] [Race: Dark Pixie] [Demon Lord]
[Magic Points: 495,400/600,000]
[Total Combat Power: 555,000/670,000]

Still a long way away… but the gap was surely closing.

Now that it’d gotten serious, Fiorfata was consuming more magic than it recovered.

I left the frozen sea behind me and headed for the Central Continent, the land visible in the far distance. Not even seconds later, hundreds of beams of light shot out from within the ice, shattering the frozen ocean in an instant. As glittering fragments of ice fell to the sea, Fiorfata appeared, swiping at me with several lasers.

I rolled, looping in the air to dodge them. I could probably block a few lasers, but I didn’t have the guts nor the skill to parry them like Calimero had with his sword.

Upon entering the Central Continent, I headed right for the small country of Dansix.

There were less people than I expected. They must have evacuated. The only people walking the streets were soldiers, and there wasn’t a single soul on the road leading toward the palace. I entered the city’s center with zero opposition.

“—[Nadir]—”

Just as I unleashed the ball of cold air to freeze half of the palace, Fiorfata’s magical blast blew away the other half. The World Tree sent me another white magic stone.

So that was one country down without much fanfare. My next target, however, was going to be Varringt: a large country of the Central Continent.

Unlike the large countries I’d done the same to until now, I was probably going to have problems using brute force to deal with the large countries of the Central Continent. I expected their population and their military to be vastly superior to the other continents, and so I readied my resolve to once more take the lives of so many.

But just as I got close enough to Varringt for the capital city to be visible, what awaited me hadn’t been the orderly rows of soldiers that I’d expected. Instead, it was a ruined city.

“…huh?”

…what happened? As I entered the city’s airspace, I saw a lot of dead soldiers filling the urban area. Mixing among the human bodies were corpses of some kind of savage-looking monster.

Had these monsters attacked the city? Both armies were similarly annihilated, the battle seemingly ending in a draw. As I headed for the center district, however, I saw one of the monsters, one that was much larger than the rest, standing on top of a fallen palace.

Is that… an ogre?

[Ogre Lord] [Dark General]
[Magic Points: 1215/1250] [Hit Points: 3640/3700]
[Total Combat Power: 38800]

A Dark General… the Ogre Lord.

His combat power was pretty much equal to being a Dark Lord himself. I slowed down my flight, reflexively raising my guard in front of the Ogre Lord that I assumed to be the one to have brought down Varringt. But I soon found out I didn’t need to.

He stood, a greatsword at rest on his shoulder, and he gave me a silent flick of his head. He was telling me to go ahead.

“…”

My eyes met the sincere gaze of the Ogre Lord, and I flew forward, leaving the palace behind me.

As a living being of this world, he, too, was going to help me, putting his life on the line to bring down as much of Fiorfata’s power as possible, just as Calimero had.

I squeezed tight my eyes in prayer for the Ogre Lord and moved onward. It was up to him now.

Several minutes later… I sensed Varringt’s capital disintegrating in an explosion far behind me.

Once more, I closed my eyes for a few moments of mourning for the Ogre Lord. I received the World Tree’s gifts.

“…huh…?”

There were three of the white magic stones this time.

From the reaction of the stones, I knew they had been Saplings of the Central Continent. If one had been Varringt, the country I’d just passed by, then where were the other two…?

***

At the same time, two small countries to the west of the Central Continent were being attacked by weak monsters. They had been so weak that the barrier was likely to dissolve them upon contact, but the monsters had been a veritable flood. The small countries had been overwhelmed by their sheer number, and in the end, their Saplings were destroyed.

*boing!*

“Oook!”

A/N: Map update

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