"Ah, that was fast."
Aboard the Astral Express, Wakaba Hiiro propped up her head as she watched the group below.
"I thought they'd have a proper fight with Potimas or someone. Tsk, they've already uncovered the truth of this world?"
"You wanted to treat them as entertainment? The Trailblaze team still has to work efficiently."
Setsuna smiled.
"Besides, once we visit other worlds, there will be plenty of entertainment for you."
Had he not been keeping an eye on her, who knew what kind of trouble this thrill-seeker would devise next?
"True."
Wakaba Hiiro considered it.
Whoosh—
The two of them vanished from where they stood.
Bang, bang, bang—
Ariel was circling the magic formation restraining Sariel, occasionally testing it with magic.
Every contact caused the earth to shake violently.
She could sense that Sariel's fate had already become bound to that of the planet.
The planet's ecosystem, every individual's System, and the energy allocated to everyone by the System all depended upon Sariel's function as its core.
Without her, the entire planet might collapse instantly.
"Huh... So something like this happened in the past?"
Wait, if we live on this planet and even the System was created by someone else, doesn't that mean we're nothing more than characters in their game?
After learning the truth of the world, Spider broke out in a cold sweat.
Everyone, including the reincarnators, had unquestioningly accepted the System's settings, along with the titles and powers it bestowed upon them.
Yet no one had ever investigated how the System had been constructed or what the "Voice of Heaven" delivering their notifications truly was.
Now, the cruel truth of the entire world had been laid bare before them.
Has she been monitoring my every move?
What? Was she also the one who reincarnated me as a tiny spider, threw me into the depths of the Great Elroe Labyrinth, and gave every one of my classmates a different cheat ability?
In that case, doesn't that mean we...?
The more Shiro thought about it, the more terrifying it became. Several beads of sweat rolled down her round head.
"That's right—"
A soft laugh suddenly rang out.
Whoosh—
A portal opened beside them.
Wakaba Hiiro and Setsuna stepped through one after the other.
She rubbed Spider's head.
Then she crouched down and affectionately pinched one of her forelegs.
"Mm. Although the process was a little different from what I imagined, you've certainly evolved into something remarkable, haven't you?"
"You grew a little too quickly. I thought you'd remain in the Great Labyrinth for several more years, slowly evolving from a Small Lesser Taratect."
"Given the opportunity, you might even have met your classmates who reincarnated as humans inside a dungeon someday."
"But look at you now. Someone carried you through the Great Labyrinth at record speed. The other reincarnators can barely walk, while you've already evolved into an existence comparable to the Demon Lord."
"Eek?!"
Spider was horrified when she saw Wakaba Hiiro.
She immediately leaped backward.
"Y-Y-You... Who are you?"
"I'm Wakaba Hiiro, and I'm also this world's administrator, little spider."
What? No, that's not right. I'm supposed to be...
Shiro was somewhat confused. The memories she possessed were also Wakaba Hiiro's memories, implanted into her by the Evil God D while she was slacking off in the mortal world.
As though seeing through her confusion, Wakaba Hiiro tapped her head again.
"That was the identity I gave you. You are me, and I am you."
"Mm... To give you an analogy, you're my stand-in within this world. After all, the game wouldn't be any fun if I personally entered it."
"???"
Facing the world's administrator in person dealt an enormous shock to both Spider and Ariel.
[Appraisal]
[Unable to appraise target information.]
"Hm?"
Activate skill effect [Wisdom].
[Unable to appraise target information.]
As always, her skills had no effect on Wakaba Hiiro.
"???"
She then looked at Setsuna.
[Appraisal]
Boom—
An overwhelming torrent of information instantly flooded her mind, making her feel as though her head were about to split apart.
"Aaaaaaaaah—"
Within the framework of this System, there was no way to quantify information about either of them.
Spider rolled across the ground several times while clutching her head before finally managing to get back up.
She cautiously retreated two steps and stared at Setsuna and Wakaba Hiiro.
"Yo."
Setsuna patted her.
"Jibril should have told you about me, right? I'm the Commander of the Starsea Empire."
"Eek—"
Suppose the planet's natives—the Demon Lord, the Hero, the Elf King, and the Pope—were all considered members of the same tier.
Setsuna and Wakaba Hiiro belonged to an entirely different class.
They were gods who possessed the power to construct and alter the rules of the world, administrators who observed everything below from a higher plane.
"Whaaaaaat?!—"
Gods! So these are gods?!—
Wait, do my skills work on them? Can I evolve into something like them too?...
Spider's thoughts broke into another rapid-fire rap.
Several of her minds even seriously considered whether they could defeat Wakaba Hiiro.
"Jibril contacted you just now? Can you... save Mother?"
Ariel asked cautiously.
She did not know where the two had come from. She could only sense that their abilities far surpassed her own.
"Of course. This world is essentially nothing more than the product of someone's twisted sense of amusement."
Setsuna glanced at Wakaba Hiiro.
With her power, reshaping the planet would not have been difficult at all. Yet in the original story, she had deliberately put Shiro and the Demon Lord through endless hardship simply for entertainment.
In the end, she had even dragged Spider to her side and made her work for her.
Boom—
He stepped forward and raised one hand. The restrictive magic binding Sariel shattered with a thunderous crash.
Crack, crack—
The sound of space fracturing echoed around them.
"Ugh—"
Freed from her restraints, Sariel fell from midair and was effortlessly caught by Setsuna.
After serving as the System's core for countless years, her body had become extraordinarily weak.
As an angel specialized in combat, Sariel had once been capable of repelling the entire dragon race by herself during the previous era. Now, however, she appeared considerably weaker than even an ordinary Angeloid.
"Wait... You can't..."
"The world..."
When Sariel saw Wakaba Hiiro, she opened her eyes and weakly murmured those words.
Boom—
The ground beneath them suddenly trembled.
"Huh?!"
After losing its core, the planet's energy began draining away at a rate visible to the naked eye.
The earth disintegrated, and space trembled.
Flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker—
The System interfaces before Spider and Ariel were instantly filled with garbled errors.
Their attributes, skills, and everything else could no longer be scanned.
The formerly boundless blue sky became covered in black patches, resembling broken textures caused by a game crashing.
"Ah, the game program and this world are about to crash."
Silver Wolf looked up at the sky as she spoke.
"No... Let me... go back..."
Sariel gripped Setsuna's arm and forced out each word.
"You're far too selfless. Truly."
Setsuna admired this saintly angel from the bottom of his heart. She had sacrificed everything to protect the planet without asking for anything in return or uttering a single complaint.
"Get some sleep first."
"Mm..."
He brushed a hand across her face. Sariel closed her eyes and sank into a deep sleep.
Then an enormous amount of energy gathered within Setsuna's hand.
Boom—
Magic power poured through the cracks in the formation and surged into the planet, scattering radiant streams of light.
Supplied with new energy, the collapsing planet gradually stabilized.
The chaotic tides of magic slowly subsided, and the surroundings returned to their former order.
"Oh."
Wakaba Hiiro studied Setsuna with great interest from the side.
She could accomplish the same thing, but Setsuna appeared far more practiced than she was.
Casually creating a galaxy was an everyday task for him.
"All right. From now on, this planet will be an ordinary world. It won't need to rely on the System for its energy anymore."
Setsuna cleared his throat.
"Then what about the System?"
Silver Wolf asked. She had found the MMORPG-like interface rather interesting.
"The System was only something Wakaba Hiiro created for her own amusement. Saving the world wouldn't have taken much effort for her."
Setsuna snorted.
"I've infused the planet with magic power again, so there is no longer any reason for a System that extracts power from souls to continue existing."
"Huh?"
Spider stretched out one tiny leg and tapped repeatedly at the air before her.
Sure enough, she could no longer summon the System interface, and the notification voice was gone as well.
Her HP, MP, attack and defense panels, skills, and everything else could no longer be viewed.
Although she could still use some of the skills she had acquired, she could no longer see their descriptions as clearly as before.
"So this place is going to change from a game world back into reality from now on?..."
After pondering for a moment, she suddenly turned pale with horror.
"Wait!!"
"I haven't evolved yet! Aaaaaaaaaah!!!—"