At present, the greatest threat to the world was easily the invasive life form that had fallen from the sky. The Divine King was expending every effort to combat it. Raining down across the entire world at once, infecting and assimilating any life it encountered, there were no half measures when attempting to deal with it.
Being immortal, simply fighting the creatures was out of the question. Even incinerating them would result in them reappearing where they had vanished, so blowing them away seemed to be the only option. With the abilities of the Divine King and her Knights, the creatures could be thrown a considerable distance, and so they had managed to create a reasonably safe area. However, their efforts were all but trying to cool a hot stone with a few drops of water. They had persisted for now, but if they were to be attacked by a large number of the creatures all at once, they would easily be overrun.
However, the Divine King wasn’t just sitting on her hands. The events in the Crystal Plains had provided a hint for her. The invasive life forms possessed some measure of intelligence, as they attempted to avoid being crystallized. In other words, as immortal as they were, they couldn’t resist being transformed.
The current plan the Divine King and her Knights had concocted was to petrify them. If the creatures were stuck in place, it could limit the spread of damage. But there was no point if they were only petrifying the enemy one at a time. They would need to hit a huge area all at once.
And so, the Divine King began the construction of a new tower, a facility for the collection and amplification of a huge amount of magical energy. It was built on the plains outside the capital of Manii. They cleared the area and fortified it, keeping out the invaders while building the tower.
One day, while the Divine King was leading the forces protecting the tower, a young boy appeared in front of her.
“Do you have a minute?”
As a member of the Axis Church, the Divine King worshiped no particular god. However, she could still recognize such a being at a single glance.
“Yes, but I cannot speak for long.”
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that,” the boy explained. “The Seyla are gone now. You don’t need to finish the tower or sacrifice any more of your followers. That’s what I came to tell you.”
“I cannot bring myself to believe you so easily...” the Divine King replied.
“You can check for yourself.”
Without some sort of evidence, there was no way she would stop their plan partway through. The Divine King called over those who were responsible for defending their encampment. Apparently, there had been no attacks for quite some time. That in and of itself was abnormal. Until now, the invasive species had attacked quite regularly.
“Very well. I understand. I will not call the plan off entirely, but for now, at least, I will suspend operations.”
The Divine King gave the order, and work came to a halt. However, the tower they were building was not specialized for dealing with the Seyla. It could be put to use for a wide array of purposes. In other words, it would also help to deal with Yogiri Takatou.
Before the world reset, she had been making preparations to seal him away. The UEG had ended up interfering with her plans, but the threat Yogiri posed still remained. If the invasive species was gone, she could turn her attention to dealing with him now.
“The next thing is that Yogiri Takatou has left this world, so you don’t have to worry about him anymore.”
“Excuse me?” the Divine King stiffened at his words. “Has the Great Sage done something about him?”
She had heard the Great Sage’s message, that he would reset the world again after Yogiri Takatou was killed. That plan couldn’t have come to fruition yet, though—if it had, the world would have been reset. There were no signs of that happening now. That meant Yogiri should still be alive, which left her confused at Kouryu’s words.
“To tell the story in order, the Great Sage’s plan failed. After putting him into an eternal sleep, Takatou went back to his own world.”
“He is...no longer here?”
“That’s right. Takatou isn’t a threat to this world anymore. Okay, maybe that’s going too far. The threat he posed to this world is mostly gone. That should be safe to say.”
“That is absurd! He left without taking any responsibility for what he has done?!”
“No matter your feelings, he had his own reasons,” Kouryu said. “And in spite of what complaints you may have, the fact is, he’s gone now. So I’d rather you turned your efforts towards rebuilding this world. I feel bad for you, but this is your world, after all. It’s your responsibility to fix it.”
Having said his piece, Kouryu vanished.
“I suppose...we must first confirm the state of things, then.”
The world as it was faced a tremendous number of problems. There were plenty of complaints she had for Yogiri Takatou, but if he was never going to return, she couldn’t let herself obsess over him. Putting a hold on the construction of what now seemed to be a useless tower, she turned her efforts first to proving that the Seyla had truly been dealt with.