The Outer God Needs Warmth

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Jeber’s experience in a wizard’s fight goes like this.

First, they head to someone else’s city and start casting spells like crazy.

An angry wizard comes out to fight.

Whether they win or lose, that’s the end of it. The loser simply loses.

However, the dynamics of war have already changed.

And fortunately for Jeber, the new strategy is in his favor.

Plus, he has some prior experience.

It was when Jeber almost got killed.

They trained him on what to do, and then they died. Thanks to that training, Jeber quickly recovered from his earlier frenzy and took command of the artificial humans.

Various types of artificial humans head out to defend the city.

Reflecting on past failures, they mix up their attributes.

Learning from previous dangers, they band together as one team.

Even if a special unit made up of citizens is strong, it’s impossible for them to defeat a wizard on their own. The citizens’ goal is to cut off the wizard’s supply lines.

Otherwise known as production facilities, or some might call it backstabbing.

If the city disappears, no matter how great a wizard, they can’t eat bread.

Of course, a starving wizard will come down to the villages to raid food storage, but what happens if an unfriendly wizard has laid traps and is waiting there?

They’re doomed.

The duel that used to end battles with wizards has now transformed into a more basic fight for survival.

And the wizards who previously won in the same way have never faced a wizard capable of countering their tactics.

The same goes for the citizens, who have gained confidence from their multiple assists in capturing wizards.

“Craaah!”

“Uuuhhh! You said we only have to fight people like us!”

“Here comes another purple ghost!”

“Help! I came here just for some cash for setting the city on fire!”

“A wizard fights wizards! Where did our protective wizard go!”

That wizard is dead.

One ordinary person against a hundred wizards.

But fights don’t work like addition or subtraction. Just because a thousand ordinary people gather doesn’t mean their strength sums up to a hundred or even ten.

However, if five artificial humans with a strength of about 95 charge in, they can beat a hundred-point wizard.

Especially if those artificial humans aren’t afraid of death and attack with reckless abandon?

Even if they manage to squeak out a win against one or two, they’ll eventually get overwhelmed by numbers.

This is the method developed by the Rempinion Family for hunting wizards, operating in teams of around eighty or so mediocre wizards.

That’s the strategy they use.

Of course, you can’t win in every battlefield.

There are wizards who simply cannot be defeated, even if ten artificial humans rush them.

But in those kinds of battlefields, Jeber makes an appearance.

With his psychic power, he can instantly defeat them, and then head to his mansion to create artificial humans using that power.

Using existing technology to produce artificial humans like this is impossible.

To ensure there’s no onset of cancer or anything that might result in missing organs, it would take at least five years to properly create one.

Moreover, such artificial humans are typically less intelligent than humans. Smart ones may reach dolphin level intelligence.

Normally, or at the current technological level, Jeber’s actions would be impossible.

No way could he produce countable soldiers by the dozens every day like some newly inducted rookie on the battlefield.

If there were wizards capable of doing that, they would have long since dominated the Rempinion Family.

Jeber has gained an edge purely through sheer luck, and he’s a creature without a clear expiration date, so he stepped down from the throne.

Research notes.

Or more like a diary; there’s a record of his anguish.

When he writes down his thoughts, I can see them too.

Hmm.

If I had the position to manage the sector, I’d definitely make a point for him to keep a diary.

Anyway.

Since he’s not relying on sustainable technology but rather on a weapon he stumbled upon, he managed to escape from the throne’s seat by keenly discerning the situation.

He was smart enough to gauge his power levels and anticipate his future.

However, he lacked understanding regarding the honor and power possessed by the Rempinion Family. And the time for him to pay the price has arrived.

Jeber was no genius capable of both research and politics. Even if he’s become smarter.

Nevertheless, his defeat wasn’t definite.

His psychic powers are still intact.

He can still churn out mediocre wizards.

With every mediocre wizard he creates, citizens are disappearing from the village, but when fireballs rain down on the city and water swells, who’s going to question the disappearances?

So surprisingly, Jeber has achieved a balance of power.

Strictly speaking, if a group of wizards attacked in unison, Jeber would surely perish regardless…

But the group of wizards operates individually.

It’s not a military but a free-for-all.

Thus, they found it impossible to capture Jeber all at once.

Even if a wizard has an underling wizard, they don’t send them all out simultaneously.

Why, you ask?

Because there’s an enemy beside them.

Right now, they’re attacking Jeber, but if pushed, they could capture the nearby wizard too.

Why do I say that?

There’s a wizard who sent out a subordinate, only to have that subordinate wiped out.

With no one left, a nearby wizard attacked. And they asked if they should surrender or fight.

The wizard chose to fight and got killed instead.

And the harvesting machine that wizard had brought along perished too.

So after that, it became difficult to track how things went, but the war maintained a delicate balance.

Still, thanks to overwhelming production capability, Jeber saw potential in victory.

However, as is always the case, incidents that throw off the balance of a scale occur suddenly.

Jeber’s artificial humans were caught on camera abducting his citizens. It wasn’t just a few people who witnessed it.

Someone from another territory snuck in and recorded it with a video device, then used magic to broadcast it all over the city.

If it were a world flooded with fake news and AI-generated videos, maybe it would’ve turned out differently.

No, even in worlds swamped with those, far too many people get taken in.

But what would happen in a world without all that?

At best, the only visuals would be the photos posted in newspapers and then suddenly, a clear video appears. What happens next?

Suddenly a vivid projection appeared, showing citizens being kidnapped by artificial humans, edited to show that none survived.

On top of the already flimsy justification of condemning Jeber’s villainous behavior, some people left after the war. While others remained, doubts lingered.

But then that doubt was turned into solid belief by the video.

The citizens acted quickly.

They abandoned the city.

In a rush, Jeber sent Nephrabda to sway their hearts.

But a wizard who had been eyeing Nephrabda from the start took advantage of the commotion and abducted him. Even if Jeber was formidable, he had only one body, and

the other side had started using wizards tactically, so he could neither stop the sudden ambush.

Once Nephrabda was abducted under the guise of rescue by another wizard, nearly everyone who believed in Jeber vanished.

At best, he only had his subordinates left.

And as even those subordinates rapidly abandoned him, they fled.

I would too.

Those who had been helping Jeber kidnap people up until now were them. They directly abducted citizens at times.

Recognizing that people were used as raw materials, they were blinded by the benefits Jeber provided, putting them in that position.

That’s how they knew.

The longer they stayed with Jeber, the better they understood him.

If this continued, they too would become the next ingredients.

The barrier surrounding Jeber like a domino effect crumbled.

No matter how plausible the technology might be, it collapses if there’s no supporting foundation.

Jeber angrily threw things around his room or played with Aliura to relieve his frustration.

Still dazed and confused.

After all that fun, he gets tired and goes to sleep, right?

And he did.

Even though artificial humans were working tirelessly, they couldn’t do everything.

At the time when orders needed to be given to set policies, no one was left to give commands.

And during that time, resources didn’t stop depleting.

And the factory that was supposed to replenish them came to a halt.

To create artificial humans, various materials are necessary. There’s a lot of nutritional requirements, but fundamentally, two people produce one artificial human, so Jeber thought he had an infinite supply of materials.

He thought they’d grow on their own if left alone and could be harvested whenever needed, proving to be excellent raw material.

In fact, thinking like other wizards, he figured he wouldn’t need any special minerals or magical gemstones and thought it was fine even if numerous enemies approached.

But that wasn’t the case.

The raw materials began to flee, and those supplying those materials ran away as well.

When the factory stopped, the rate of decline in artificial humans noticeably increased.

At this point, if something had been done, Jeber might have been able to defend the city.

But he didn’t, and ultimately, the scale tipped.

The next evening, the walls separating the mansion from the outside began taking attacks from wizards.

Finally.

Jeber gathered what he could, albeit hurriedly. His research materials and Bardrol’s samples. Along with Aliura and his child.

Lastly, he dragged me from the factory and threw me down in one spot.

According to him, it was so that the mansion wouldn’t be destroyed even if it became a battlefield.

And he packed important things in his room and led the artificial humans out to fight.

There was no fear in his expression. Only rage and irritation.

Why is he filled with anger and annoyance when they’re on the brink of defeat, you ask?

“Obey.”

That’s all it takes to win.

Psychic powers wield overwhelming force against those who see them for the first time. Jeber began to sweep out the wizards while roaming his war-torn city.

Now, perhaps in such a hurry, some wizards suspended by his psychic powers were simply killed right where they stood.

Magic still flew towards him, but it was blocked by artificial humans, leaving Jeber unharmed.

Gradually, the harvesting machines were dwindling in number.

One by one. Piece by piece.

I estimated the remaining number of Jeber’s artificial humans and the scale of involved wizards.

Now, the harvesting machines are becoming scarce.

In a quiet room.

A baby is crying loudly in a cradle. But there are no artificial humans here to soothe the child.

Aliura gazes blankly at the door Jeber exited, indifferent to the baby.

I lie sprawled on the floor like a carelessly thrown mannequin. And there’s a bunch of cubes filled with dying, nutrient-deprived bodies.

From there, I stood up. Aliura didn’t pay me any mind, only a few eyes from the cubes on the wall glanced my way.

Hehe.

I looked at all the lives present and spoke.

“I’ll offer myself to you. But in return, when you finish everything later, I want everything you’ve got. What do you say?”