"Miss Tohru, I don't believe I've offended you?"
Gojo Satoru's mouth twitched, showing a forced smile.
"I always feel like you're just like those lunatics among humans..."
Tohru looked at Gojo Satoru warily: "The type who talks fine one moment and attacks the next."
Hearing this, Gojo Satoru's expression became even more strained.
He had sparred with Rias earlier, but that was just a spar.
He was just called 'weak' by Rias, and seeing her good attitude, she likely wouldn't hold it against him, so he had a bit of a testing mindset.
Now with Tohru's words, he really couldn't refute them.
"An illusion, definitely your illusion~" Gojo Satoru gave a forced laugh.
"Right, I almost forgot the main business."
Gojo Satoru gave up on dispelling Tohru's hostility.
For this type who relies too much on instinctual thinking, it was hard to change her mind just by talking; better to just avoid her in the future~
"What is it?"
Rias asked.
"I heard you broke the old order of the Devil race, and Castlevania is the symbol of the new order."
Gojo Satoru scratched his cheek with his index finger: "My world has a group of similar people, I wanted to ask how you handled it."
"The simplest way is to just kill them all."
Rias gave Gojo Satoru a strange look: "Given your personality, that should be normal, right?"
"..."
Gojo Satoru said speechlessly: "While I do have those thoughts, the problem is that after killing one batch, another appears. It just doesn't work~"
"And there are things like Cursed Spirits; those higher-ups still have their uses."
"Why wouldn't it work?" Rias said: "Just kill everyone who defies you, resists you, or is disobedient. When there are no good choices, a strong dose of medicine is also a good method."
"As you said, after killing one batch, another will take over. So, use fear to suppress them, and become the uncrowned king with invincible strength—"
"If anyone dares to make small moves, fails to do what they're told, or does a perfunctory job... give them a few minutes to handle it themselves. If they can't, purge the entire upper management again."
"This is the simplest method."
Rias said: "Besides, even if it really is useless, venting your frustration is enough."
"I feel like you're even more willful than I am." Gojo Satoru clicked his tongue: "How come I didn't hear about a batch of higher-ups dying during the Devil reform?"
"You want to ask why I didn't use this method? Isn't it obvious~"
"The commoners among the Devils see me as hope, the Four Great Demon Kings are on my side, and I have my people among the noble higher-ups. I didn't need such bloody methods~"
You might as well just say I'm incompetent~
Gojo Satoru's mouth twitched.
"And who says no one died?" Rias raised an eyebrow: "The Devil Council is almost disbanded, and those dissatisfied with me are suppressing it. When they rebound, I'll just clear them out in one go."
"Quite sophisticated~"
Gojo Satoru said in surprise.
"However, it does make some sense..."
Gojo Satoru murmured.
"Bottom-up reform is the hardest; a deathbed struggle might even waste all the hard work. It's better to have the sharp pain of pushing through in one wave. If you want to break deep-rooted class solidification and inner darkness, but find it troublesome and don't want to get involved in politics, and your means aren't enough to twist those fools who are incompetent at external affairs but experts at internal strife, then you can only use the simplest method: fear and deterrence."
"You've achieved deterrence, but I bet someone will definitely stroke your tiger whiskers, test your bottom line, and then you'll back down."
Hearing Rias's words, Gojo Satoru thought of the scene of his student's death.
This stirred his past dissatisfaction, and a faint anger rose in his heart.
"And your invincibility is clearly self-promotion. True invincibility is all-around, with no blind spots."
"Combat power, intelligence, courage, means..."
"An invincibility where people can find a weakness can't be called invincibility."
To call yourself invincible, you're still far from it~
Rias looked at Gojo Satoru's pondering expression and couldn't help shaking her head.
His approach wasn't decisive enough.
The premise of boiling a frog in warm water is that the frog doesn't know the high temperature waiting ahead.
But in reality, Gojo Satoru is a lone wolf.
For an individual to overthrow a group, bloody suppression versus bottom-up resistance—the latter actually results in more bloodshed and sacrifice.
Because the former is just one person's hell.
The latter involves the blood of countless people and continuous sacrifice.
Without continuing the idle talk, Rias walked around for a bit and then returned to the Lords Mansion.
After resting for a while, a vibration occurred in Rias's mind.
A message appeared in the group; Jibril was fighting the peerage of the Wise Dragon.
Kuro Usagi: "What's the situation? Is Jibril going to fight the Dragon Race?"
Hestia: "The dragon on the other side looks very strong. In terms of strength alone, it's not inferior even compared to us gods."
Morgiana: "Go Jibril-oneesama~"
Looking at the group members' messages, Rias focused her attention on the live stream.
"It's finally that time..."
Rias murmured.
Now Jibril has a Zanpakutō, the compressed energy blade of Shikai, and the energy concentration of Bankai for an internal explosion.
At the same time, after Rias perfected the Fusion Equation, Jibril had already touched upon the third stage of the Equation.
In terms of power alone, Jibril's performance had surpassed Azrael.
To put it another way, she was already considered a Transcendent among the Flugel.
Fighting would be much easier than in the original story.
Especially after knowing the information about the Dragonia.
Although Dragonia are 'multi-dimensional life forms' that exist simultaneously across past and future centered on the present, they have a huge flaw because their time needs a vessel to be converged.
First is the flaw in the vessel; as long as the dragon scales are broken and the vessel is damaged, time will continuously reflect within the vessel, reflecting the injury along with it.
As long as a crack is opened in the vessel, the Dragonia is basically doomed.
Because of the vessel, the Dragonia's output has great limitations. Even with extremely vast power inside, they still cannot fully utilize it, even with the life-discarding move 'Awasway'.
Because 'Awasway' only releases power exceeding the vessel's limit, not all the power in space-time.
If it were a true 'multi-dimensional life form', it shouldn't have such weaknesses.
A true king of time is immortal.
Even if killed or sealed, they can revive in the river of time with just a thought.
"This is the sixth time, and also the last."
Jibril's face was full of smiles, but also filled with a terrifying killing intent.
"Perish!"
The white dragon spoke, wielding the residual power of creation, the most primitive language of the planet.
Power was contained in the language; words alone were enough to severely injure an individual of the Flugel.
In the past, the Flugel resisted the language of the Dragonia with their collective power.
But now, Jibril withstood the Dragonia Language alone.
And she was completely unharmed.
"Now, it's my turn to counterattack."
After five defeats, a turning point had finally arrived.
This time, she would defeat this dragon fairly and squarely in front of Rias!
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