The Nebula’s Civilization

Hegemonia paused for a moment to catch her breath and assessed the situation before ascending to the next Sky Castle.

-How are you both doing with XP?

-Um.

A few hundred meters away, Chistka, replied after retreating and smashing a charging Angel with a main cannon from a significant distance,

-I still don’t have enough. I barely managed Hierophany, and these Angels give too little XP. Nebula didn't completely annihilate my followers, which allowed me to achieve Hierophany, and now I'm barely maintaining it... Was this all calculated as well?

Further away, on another Sky Castle, Bolt pulled a gas grenade from their belt and said,

-It seems so. At the very least, without Hierophany, we can't stand against the old gods. It's a very meticulous plan...

Hegemonia stomped her foot, interrupting Bolt,

-Can you stop praising that guy? I'm the one working hardest right now, you know?

Bolt checked the next Sky Castle they were about to ascend to. Seven had been completely obliterated so far. With fourteen left until the last one, they had taken care of a third.

Bolt tossed the gas grenade overhand toward a Sky Castle hundreds of meters away. As the yellow smoke exploded, Bolt got onto it with a triple jump.

A few Angels attempted to attack Bolt in mid-air, but they were caught in Bolt’s grasp instead. Landing, Bolt slammed an Angel into the Sky Castle's surface. The trajectory Bolt took remained as a cluster of yellow gas.

Dusting their hands, Bolt stood up and said,

-...Anyway, we're still pushing it.

Meanwhile, Chistka also had to ascend to the next Sky Castle. Chistka checked for the optimal point to leap from and busily moved the pedrail. The corpses of old gods and Angels destroyed by Chistka were crushed under the pedrail, leaving no trace.

Without hesitation, Chistka ran toward a launch ramp at a 55-degree angle. The ramp crumbled under the immense weight of their Hierophany body, but Chistka didn't stop. This level of collapse was within their calculations.

Just before reaching the end of the ramp, Chistka swung their main cannon backward. At the moment the pedrail lifted off, Chistka fired the cannon. Defying gravity, Chistka soared through the air with the cannon's recoil. Then they plummeted, shaking the next Sky Castle.

Angels in hiding for an ambush revealed themselves due to the tremors.

Chistka said,

-We'll take our time ascending. You go ahead, Hegemonia.

Hegemonia grimaced within her horned helmet.

-Ugh, go ahead.

Hegemonia was dissatisfied with her comrades’ lack of abilities. She wouldn’t have been if it were Nebula.

In the game The Lost World, Hegemonia had once achieved an alliance victory with Nebula, though only once. She, too, was reluctant to play in alliances, mainly because of her goal to raise her rating score, but she had no choice in that game because her luck had been particularly bad. Starting as two weaker nations, Nebula and Hegemonia had combined forces for victory and, somewhat anticlimactically, won more easily than initially expected.

-Can't be helped.

Hegemonia also jumped toward the next Sky Castle. Suddenly, numerous Angels rushed to knock Hegemonia to the ground.

Then Hegemonia called out a name,

-Kazaha!

It was the name of her fourth apostle and her favorite mount, the divine beast Gytrash, who had died in the past.

-Death can't rid you of your duty.

At those words, her apostle, the decapitated black Horse, emerged and charged through the Angels. Hegemonia grabbed Kazaha's mane, wrapped her arm around its neck, and climbed on its back.

-Ugh, where did you leave your head?

-....

-Forget it. That's not important anyway.

As if in agreement, Kazaha lightly kicked in the air. Then as if it had exhaled a breath, blood spurted from the severed neck.

Hegemonia laughed, finding something about it amusing. As she restored his Divinity level, Hegemonia also regained her previous abilities. Most importantly, she had managed to gather quite a lot of Faith points while minimizing skill usage.

The presence of a Gytrash, known for bringing bad luck, interfered with the Angels' wing beats. Hegemonia, riding on Kazaha, skillfully slaughtered the Angels and dashed through the air.

After landing on the next Sky Castle, Golems made of white stones rose to their feet. Though the Golems themselves weren’t weak, their form was sloppy, perhaps because they were hurriedly made from stone.

-Were they hastily created?

Hegemonia scanned the area, looking for the old god who was the owner of this Sky Castle. Since they weren’t visible, they had either fled or were inside, manufacturing Golems.

-Buying time, it seems.

Hegemonia understood. The time given to her, Bolt, and Chistka was not abundant. Hegemonia wouldn’t be able to escape the Fall that even Nebula couldn’t avoid. Hegemonia still didn’t fully understand the concept of the system.

'Let Nebula do it his way.'

Hegemonia decided to solve the problem her own way. She checked the system window. Her Faith points were sufficient.

-Salkait.

Hegemonia called out to her first Apostle,

-War calls you.

Something slammed down on the Sky Castle. The impact caused the Sky Castle to shake violently.

…Boom!

A loud explosion erupted, and the edge of the Sky Castle crumbled. The Golems that were on it plummeted to the ground.

Hegemonia looked toward the attacker. It was Salkait of the Ears Cut Tribe, her first apostle wielding a sledgehammer. As soon as Salkait saw Hegemonia, they kneeled and slammed their head to the ground fiercely.

"O Angry One!"

Kazaha crushed the Golems with its hooves, and Hegemonia opened a path with her sword.

-You are angry.

"The bitterness of defeat has not left me!"

-Excellent.

Salkait lifted their head.

-That anger will make you stronger.

"...O Angry One!"

-Just, I am curious how great your fury is.

Hegemonia slightly raised her head. She had no intention of consoling her apostle. Their relationship was not of that kind.

-Prove it to me. Show me.

Salkait growled and revealed their teeth.

"By your command."

Salkait turned toward the center of the Sky Castle. To demonstrate their rage to their god, they needed to capture a grand offering.

Salkait let out a long howl. Warriors from the past, resonating with their fury, rose from the shadows beneath the ruins Salkait had already shattered.

"Move. The Angry One commands war."

***

"Argo! Argo Charul Dome!" The old god, Argo, heard Bifnen calling out to them.

Observing from the second position of the Sky Castles, Argo was surprised to see Bifnen stepping onto their Sky Castle. Bifnen rarely ever left his own Sky Castle. He had a phobia, considering other Sky Castles unclean.

However, whether that character trait was genuine was doubtful to Argo. To Argo, it seemed that Bifnen merely used it as an excuse to further insult others whenever possible. Regardless of the truth, Bifnen stepping onto another Sky Castle was a rare occurrence.

"Father, what brings you here..."

Bifnen said, "Release the Myriad Demons."

At those words, Argo froze, and then slightly shook their head. “That’s not possible."

"Look down there. See what those bastards are doing."

Argo again observed the scene they had been watching for a while. Three new gods were indiscriminately killing old gods and destroying Sky Castles. Moreover, one of them, wearing a horned helmet, had even summoned her apostles and armies that used to follow her. They had to admit those new gods were powerful.

"But Father, didn't Aldin go to the Demon World?"

"Are you talking about that idiot who made this mess?"

"...I know Aldin often makes mistakes. But there's still time left, and as long as we make them Fall before that, it won't matter. Even if they come up here, isn't releasing the Myriad Demons too much?"

Argo thought that even if the new gods managed to reach right below them or even killed themself, as long as they could manage to make the new gods Fall, it didn't matter. The system would resurrect them, and it would also neatly repair the Sky Castles.

Then they could play with these newly Fallen gods. Thinking about the pleasure of revenge, Argo could accept the painful death now.

It’s not like such events had never happened in the past. The evil gods, while inferior to these new individuals, were more persistent. Occasionally, the evil gods had even achieved victories against the old gods.

Some of the old gods retained memories of those times. Revenge was a delightful thing. Argo had a bit of a fetish for it.

But Bifnen was not like that. "There’s no way that idiot will solve anything. She'll just fail again. The mere thought of those bastards stepping onto my Sky Castle is humiliating."

Bifnen, as a judge, had never been defeated. Instead, memories of near defeats existed as traumas. The memory of the Returner was one of the few topics that stressed Bifnen.

But even understanding that, Argo had a duty as a gatekeeper. "If we release the Myriad Demons, who will gather them again?"

"We can just sleep once more."

Argo furrowed their eyebrows. Bifnen was suggesting they sweep away the Myriad Demons with magic that ignored causality and then sleep once more in the Demon World to avoid the storm of causality.

But they had already slept for too long, 40,000 years. The idea of sleeping again right after waking up didn't sit well with Argo.

"We should just wait a little longer. Aldin will..."

"Aldin is exactly the reason things have gotten to this point!"

"Yes, that's right." Argo sighed and pondered how to persuade Bifnen.

The Myriad Demons referred to either the software rot itself or the evil that infiltrated through the software rot. The software rot had been damaging the Demon World for a long time, and the old gods had collected the byproducts of resolving software rot in one place.

The problem was that these byproducts of evil were too close to the source of magic. When evil accumulated, it exerted a strong influence on each other, increasing its power.

Unlike the time when a caretaker called the Returner was in charge, the old gods didn’t know how to solve this problem. The Myriad Demons had bred among themselves, endlessly increasing their numbers within the sealed area.

There was an even worse possibility. Still unknown even to the old gods, the sealed area where the Myriad Demons were could have already connected to another world, a larger space of evil. If this was true, releasing the Myriad Demons could lead not just to their use as a weapon, but to the true end of Avartin. When the old gods became aware of this fact, they were terrified as if they were mortals again.

However, fortunately, the necessary system was functioning properly. Though it wasn’t a solution to eliminate them once and for all, the Myriad Demons couldn’t escape from the sealed area managed by the system.

Bifnen said, "Answer me, Argo. Will you release the Myriad Demons or not?"

Argo opposed without a second thought.

'Father is afraid.'

Releasing the Myriad Demons was simple, but it could create irreversible problems. There was a reason they hadn’t released them even during the toughest times of the war with the evil gods. Moreover, deceiving causality, as Bifnen suggested, was not easy.

Argo replied, "Father, if needed, I can go down to the Demon World and check if Aldin is handling things well..."

Before Argo could finish, Argo realized that their vision was rotating to the right, regardless of their will. Only before losing consciousness did Argo understand that their neck had been cut.

Bifnen looked up from the system window, checking if his deed had been done correctly.

[Argo Charul Dome: Status Change – Dead]

As the highest authority of the system, even other old gods seemed like ants to Bifnen. Although he had been with them for a long time, and he wouldn’t say that he had no affection for them, once he overcame the slight constraint of causality, he could repeatedly kill and revive at will. With such power, it was natural that Bifnen didn’t view all beings managed by the system equally.

Of course, Bifnen didn’t think so deeply.

He grumbled and clicked his tongue, "You should have just released them when I told you to."

Bifnen stepped over Argo's corpse and headed toward the center of Argo's Sky Castle. He entered the sealed area skillfully and began the simple task of unsealing. For Bifnen, who monopolized the system's authority, it was an easy task.

***

Hegemonia sensed a change in the second Sky Castle.

The upper part of the Sky Castle filled with something dark, and she saw something strange jumping down to Sky Castles that Hegemonia and her comrades had not yet conquered.

-What's that weird thing that just appeared?

Chistka and Bolt paused for a moment to observe the second Sky Castle upon Hegemonia's remark.

Chistka seemed intrigued, pointing their muzzle in that direction.

-They look like...

Bolt succinctly expressed their impression,

-They look like devils.