"Huh?"
The medical Angeloid Ariel had grabbed was completely bewildered.
The two sides stared at one another for a long while.
"My apologies. I am a MK3 medical Angeloid assigned to the Starsea Empire's advance team. I am unfamiliar with the name you mentioned."
"Ah..."
Unwilling to give up, Ariel looked toward the group of Angeloids surrounding her.
There were medical models, housekeeping models, and combat models. The sight of those beautiful angels with pure white wings left her utterly astonished.
"Then where do you come from?"
"Do none of you truly know her? But you should be of the same race... Angels? Yes, you are angels, aren't you?!!!"
She climbed to her feet, took the Angeloid's hand, and scrutinized her from head to toe.
She then looked at the other Angeloids nearby and reached out as though intending to touch them, only to withdraw her hand in awe.
She could not perceive their identities or understand information such as their race. It was extremely strange.
"Uh..."
This was the first time an Angeloid had encountered someone so fixated on her, leaving her rather confused.
A little Angeloid with blue twin-tails parted the crowd and stepped forward, examining Ariel.
"We are Angeloids of the Starsea Empire. We accompanied the advance team to pioneer this world and provide them with support services. Is there a problem?"
With a lollipop in her mouth, Nymph looked up at Ariel.
"I don't recall us ever meeting before. We came from another world."
"Ah..."
Ariel's expression grew dazed once more.
She crouched down and stared at Nymph for a while, shook her hand, then used perception magic to examine the Angeloids.
[Angeloid (LV???)]
[HP: ??? MP: ??? SP: ???]
[Average Offensive Ability: ???]
[Average Defensive Ability: ???]
[Average Speed Ability: ???]
In Spider's eyes, the Angeloids remained a group of incomprehensible monsters covered in question marks. Aside from their names, she could not discern any information about them.
"You... have never seen me before?"
The Angeloids shook their heads in unison.
Only after repeatedly confirming the matter and receiving Nymph's explanation did Ariel finally understand that Angeloids were not the same species as the angels and goddess she knew.
She sat back down in disappointment and sighed.
"Mm..."
Then her gaze sharpened once more as she swept her eyes across everyone present.
"Then who are you?"
She realized that the other party was far stronger than her, yet they had not killed her after defeating her. It was extremely strange.
They had even brought along a little Taratect.
"The Starsea Empire. We came to pioneer this world."
Jibril answered concisely and instructed the Sophon to transmit information to Ariel.
"We were originally heading to the Elf Village, but then you intercepted us here. Tch."
"Hm?"
Ariel became even more astonished.
"Are you the ones who have recently been attacking the human kingdoms? I thought it was the work of some demon army."
"Mm-hmm. We have the Hero here as well."
Jibril shrugged and pointed in a certain direction.
All the reincarnators retrieved from across the world were gathered there. Since Schlain had not yet inherited the title of Hero, his elder brother, the legitimate Hero Julius Zagan Analeit, had been brought aboard as well.
He was huddled in a corner, trembling.
"!"
The instant Ariel sensed the Hero's presence, she became alert.
Although the Hero was still very young and possessed pitiful combat power, his title granted him a special advantage against the Demon Lord.
No matter how overwhelming the numerical disparity might be, she could not afford to lower her guard.
"Relax. They'll all be working here in the future. We could also ask the Commander to alter the System's parameters."
Jibril patted her chest.
"More importantly, why did you mistake our Angeloids for Sariel just now?..."
"..."
Ariel fell silent for a while.
"I want to save her, then kill the Elves and humans."
Ariel was not a native Demon Lord born naturally in this world.
She was the product of human experimentation conducted by the Elf chief Potimas using his own genetic material. At first, the toxins within her body left her confined to a bed.
After Potimas discarded her as a failure, the goddess Sariel took her in, and she began living with the other test subjects at the orphanage Sariel operated.
Over the long passage of time, Ariel became the strongest existence within the System.
As for the angel Sariel, her origins dated back to an even more distant age.
During the previous era, the planet had once possessed another, far more advanced human civilization. Humanity rapidly developed its technology by extracting MA energy, eventually entering into a severe conflict with the Dragon race that had descended upon the planet.
When the conflict became impossible to reconcile, the Dragons drained the entire planet of its MA energy and fled to a distant star system, leaving the world on the brink of destruction.
The lower god Güliedistodiez from the original story was one of those Dragons and was revered by the Divine Word Religion as the Black Dragon.
To save the planet, Sariel sacrificed herself and became the core of the System. By extracting portions of the souls of the dead and returning that energy to the planet, the System kept the dying world barely alive.
When the angel sacrificed herself, Ariel had still been weak and powerless to intervene, leaving her burdened with immense guilt.
She despised the humans who continued living peaceful lives only because of the goddess' sacrifice. Their entire existence rested upon the angel's suffering and torment.
She harbored an even more intense desire to kill Potimas, the Elf chief responsible for every problem, along with the Elves themselves. Her lifelong wish was to exterminate the Elves and rescue the goddess.
"Uh..."
Silver Wolf, Seele, and the others exchanged glances. Spider's world appeared to be a classic fantasy setting of swords and magic, yet its underlying history was remarkably complicated.
The Dragons and angels were little more than background elements. Sariel herself was a solitary angel separated from her kind, whose race had never appeared. No wonder Ariel had been so astonished when she first saw the Angeloids.
However, according to the Starsea Empire's usual methods, even background elements would be dragged onto the stage.
The same had happened with the VIRM aliens in the DITF world, the gods of the Goblin Slayer world, and Unicron.
"The System encompassing this entire world was created by the Evil God D with Sariel at its core. It is also a mechanism for recycling souls."
"Hmm... More precisely, this thing that grants everyone power, skills, talents, and titles is essentially nothing more than another means for D to amuse herself."
"Tch. We treat the world like a game, yet someone is playing with us as well."
Silver Wolf clicked her tongue.
Her gaze pierced through the clouds and sky, meeting Wakaba Hiiro's eyes across the distance as the latter watched the spectacle from aboard the Astral Express.
"How clever. They discovered the truth of this world so quickly?"
Wakaba Hiiro applauded several times from afar.
"We gather intelligence before pioneering a world."
Setsuna was unsurprised, then added another remark.
"You certainly know how to entertain yourself."
"...Uh, thanks for the compliment?"
"Right."
Facing Ariel, who made no attempt to conceal her hostility toward humans and Elves, Jibril extended a hand.
"That means we can work together."
"Hm?"
"Look, you want to rescue Sariel, then kill the Elves and the Elf chief Potimas, correct? Fundamentally, our objectives are the same."
"Moreover, we have far more efficient ways of dealing with them than simply killing them."
"As for the humans here... they should also live under the Starsea Empire's rule. I believe the Commander can resolve the planet's problems."
The depletion of the planet's energy was irreversible to the natives, who could not even conceive of a solution.
Yet from Wakaba Hiiro's perspective, it was merely a trivial problem she could solve with a wave of her hand. She had only done all this for amusement, a fact everyone who knew the truth understood perfectly well.
"Mm..."
Having regained her composure, Ariel considered the matter seriously for a while. She realized that, assuming Jibril was telling the truth, their objectives were astonishingly similar.
Most importantly, the Starsea Empire was already preparing to attack Potimas and the Elf Village, the enemies she hated to the very core.
With a common enemy, negotiations became much easier.
"You have a way to defeat him? Potimas has existed even longer than I have. I have no idea what he may have become by now."
Ariel asked.
"Don't worry. We've already reserved a VIP life-support pod for him."
"Now then, why don't you greet your granddaughter?"