“All right, let’s keep it moving. Next! Chief Reise, representing the ancient dragons.”
“I am Reise the dark dragon. A pleasure.”
Hrm.
If Chief Reise can participate in this meeting, that means that Ogiwara has met them before.
One of the caveats of Ogiwara’s Unlimited Telephone is that he can only connect and converse with individuals he has met in person.
In other words, since Chief Reise joined up with Sir Schlain, Ogiwara must be with them right now.
“Next, Pontiff Dustin of the Word of God religion.”
Ah, my turn has come.
“I am Dustin, the pontiff of the Word of God. Thank you for having me, everyone.”
Most likely, they are all familiar with me through the world quest speeches.
It would thus be pointless to introduce myself at great length.
“Finally, Miss Ariel, the Demon Lord.”
“Hey, I’m Demon Lord Ariel. Let’s do this.”
Lady Ariel sounds rather sullen in her short introduction.
I suppose that, too, is inevitable, given that everyone else here is technically her enemy.
“And I’m Kenichi Ogiwara, the reincarnation using this group call to connect everyone. I’m just here to link you all up, so I’ll leave the rest of the proceedings to Mr. Hyrince.”
“Thanks. Let’s get right down to business, then. As I believe you’ve all heard from Ogiwara, this is about the evil god plotting to sacrifice half of humanity, as described in the world quest. We all assumed it was referring to the ivory god at first, but thanks to certain information, it’s now clear that we were wrong. The real evil god is Administrator D, the creator of the system who outranks the ebony god.”
“Might I ask a question? Who provided this information? And are we quite certain we can trust it?”
“I’m afraid I can’t reveal the source of the information. It’s not that I refuse—it’s simply not possible. Additionally, if anyone does figure out who may have provided the information, please keep it to yourself and don’t tell anyone else. I hope that answers your question.”
Hyrince responds immediately to my question.
…I see.
So he cannot reveal the source, even if he wanted to.
Since we must also refrain from mentioning it if we figure out the source, that probably means there’s some sort of restriction involved.
And the person at this meeting most likely to be under such a restriction is Miss Filimøs.
Considering how quickly Potimas was able to collect the reincarnations, outpacing even our church, it’s clear that Miss Filimøs has an information-gathering skill of some kind.
And if she is the source of this particular revelation, it would explain why she is present at this meeting.
“As for the veracity of the information, I personally believe it is true beyond a doubt.”
“I see. If you of all people feel so strongly about it, I shall take you at your word.”
It would be best to assume that this information is true if Sir Hyrince, a double of the ebony god, believes it so confidently.
I would suspect anyone else of being deceived, but the ebony god has lived far longer than even I have, keeping watch over and protecting this world.
As a part of that ebony god, Sir Hyrince could never be deceived about a threat to our world.
“Unfortunately, all we know for certain is that the evil god is D. There is no indication as to how we might prevent the destruction of half of humanity. And if I may speak on behalf of the ebony god, if D intends to stand in our way as an enemy, then we have no hope of fighting back.”
D is the being who created the system: a god far stronger than the ebony god, and the savior of our world.
Since this planet survives thanks solely to the system, that means D could destroy the world just as easily as save it.
There is no question of who is stronger when D already holds all of our lives over a barrel.
“Therefore, we’ve concluded that the only way to do anything about this information is to attempt to make contact with D first. And so, the Spatial Magic master Elder Ronandt is currently searching for a way to teleport to D’s location.”
Hrmmm…
The ebony god has already lost all hope of conquering the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
Perhaps it would be best to give up on that matter and meet with Sir Hyrince and company instead.
I have no choice but to cooperate with them if the alternative is sitting and waiting for half of humanity to be destroyed.
But even if we on the ebony god’s side feel that way, the problem is whether the ivory god’s side will agree…
“So? What do you want us to do about it? You realize I’m still fighting to kill half of humanity either way, right? I’m not gonna change my plans at this point just because of something like that.”
Of course…
Lady Ariel has a point.
The ivory god’s side already intended to destroy half of humanity.
Whether D does it or not is none of their concern.
This doesn’t change the victory conditions for Lady Ariel’s side; thus, they can simply continue to defend the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
Though she will probably not actively hinder us, we cannot expect her to help, either.
Of course, since we are currently enemies, I could not ask her to do such a thing anyway.
“…About that, Ariel. I don’t suppose you could open up a path to the system core for us?”
“Excuse me?”
Lady Ariel’s voice takes on a dangerous edge in response to Sir Hyrince’s words.
Even through telepathy, it is intense enough to give one goose bumps.
“And why would I do that?”
“It’s the most reliable way to attempt teleporting to D’s location. D created the system, and controls it personally. By us directly accessing the core of the system, the chances of successfully teleporting to D would be much higher.”
Hyrince’s statement does make sense in theory.
But whether Lady Ariel will accept it or not is another story.
“Don’t make me laugh. We wouldn’t gain anything from going along with this.”
The ebony god’s side wants to save humanity, while the ivory god’s side does not.
And since the ivory god has to prevent anyone from entering the system core at the heart of the Great Elroe Labyrinth in order to be victorious in this battle, Hyrince’s request is an impossible one.
I am sure he is aware of this as well.
So why would he make such a request, knowing it would be rejected?
“I beg you to reconsider.”
“No thanks.”
“At this rate, half of humanity will be destroyed. Not just death—utter destruction.”
Hyrince’s words, and the urgency behind them, make everything clear to me.
Not just death…utter destruction.
In other words, their very souls would vanish.
From our perspective on the ebony god’s side, we ought to focus all our energy on stopping D, not the ivory god’s side.