"@Rias Gremory."
After crawling out of bed and having breakfast, Rias spent some sweet time with Serafall before Serafall went to work. Now, Rias was leisurely and lazily basking in the sun.
A vibration echoed in her mind; it was a message sent by Jibril.
Rias: "What's wrong?"
Jibril: "I challenged my Master a few days ago, and the result was a loss."
"That's only natural. Setting strength aside for a moment, you're still far too lacking in terms of status."
Wait, Jibril just said she lost?
Could it be that the two of them had actually fought a real battle, rather than Jibril throwing a single Heavenly Strike and then shrinking while Artosh didn't even move a finger?
According to the deal made when first joining the group, the third stage of the Fusion Equation, if completed, would grant the Dominion to shake Artosh.
But it was merely'shaking' him.
It meant moving him from a state of complete immobility to a point where he could be held back with a bit of effort.
Equivalent to the level of him raising an arm?
Even so, for Jibril, it was equivalent to a sublimation.
After completing the Fusion Equation, Jibril focused all her attention on rewriting her core Magic Formula.
Especially since Rias had given Jibril a 'Conceptual Perceiver,' which allowed her to obtain corresponding information and gradually possess more superb technique manipulation and rewriting abilities.
As early as three years ago, Jibril's concept of space had become complete and touched upon time.
And it took two years for her to reach the domain of the Dragonia.
Afterward, she simulated and observed the core of Artosh's mount, Avant Heim. Based on space and time, she gave her own core the characteristics of a Phantasmal Race and extended this to her body.
At this point, Jibril's individual strength had already reached the level of a Phantasmal Race.
Even so, Jibril shouldn't have been qualified to 'battle' Artosh.
"Has your strength improved again?"
Rias couldn't help but ask.
Jibril: "Yes, thanks to the system Little Rias created and the analysis of my Master Artosh's divinity, I have successfully condensed complete concepts."
Artosh really dotes on you... Not only was Avant Heim's core analyzed, but he even let Jibril act recklessly on himself.
Thinking about it, Artosh seemed to treat the Flugel as his daughters, and Jibril, who possessed 'uncertainty,' was his most pampered youngest daughter.
When thought of that way, there was no problem.
"Concepts in what areas?"
Rias asked curiously.
"Space, time, and destruction."
Good grief, she condensed three complete concepts in one go.
Although part of it was due to Rias paving the way earlier, being able to achieve this was still quite remarkable.
It was enough to show how hard Jibril had worked over these years.
Of course, this wasn't something that could be achieved through pure hard work; her flexible mind was also extremely important.
"I discovered a problem during the battle."
Jibril said, "My Master feeds on war and hatred. Even if his Dominion is exhausted, the concepts within his divinity will continue to expand, allowing him to become infinitely stronger."
"But once my strength reaches a certain range, my body and core limit the expression of the concepts, thus reaching a limit."
"Hmm... That's a true divine biological being for you," Rias murmured.
Rank 3, the Elementals, are themselves a part of the Planetary Corridor and energy cycle.
Rank 2, the Phantasmal Race, are equivalent to a living Other World.
Therefore, the rank of the Phantasmal Race exceeds that of the Elementals.
And the Rank 1 God Species are themselves concepts, the incarnations of laws; energy itself is just a form of expression and is not important.
Even without spirit power, they can transform into divine Dominion, magic Dominion, and other energies.
And their composition is likewise not about matter and energy, but the substantialization of concepts.
If it were an ordinary god, they would soon face their own limits.
But the war that has shrouded this world for countless years is itself the source of His Dominion.
Because of this, no matter how Jibril modifies her core, even if the core possesses complete concepts, she still won't be Artosh's match.
Because Jibril's limit exceeds that of ordinary God Species, yet Artosh's limit far exceeds Jibril's upper bound.
So—
"It's simple: continue to raise your upper limit, and sooner or later, you'll reach the same domain as Artosh."
Rias said.
"I can't, I've already reached the limit."
Jibril said distressedly, "If I continue to condense concepts to form Dominion fragments, the essence of my life will no longer be able to accommodate that powerful force."
"And my life form has already reached its limit."
"Although I could abandon my current life form and transform into a God Species, not only would my previous efforts go to waste, but even if I did so, it would be difficult for my Dominion intensity to exceed my Master's."
"And there isn't much time left before this planet collapses."
I see... Rias understood.
Jibril didn't want to become a God Species because that would be equivalent to following Artosh's old path.
Having finally carved out such a path, she didn't want to give it up.
Another point was that time was running out for this planet.
The Dwarf Race had created the Marrow Blast, a weapon that ignites the inactivated divinity of the God Species to trigger an explosion.
It was equivalent to a nuclear weapon.
As for the Sylph, although Rias had taken Think away, resulting in the 'Void Zero Divine Protection' not being born among them,
The final war was still inevitable.
The balance could be broken at any moment, because if it wasn't, the planet would 'collapse'.
Jibril had worked very hard, but no matter how hard she worked, it would likely be difficult to catch up with Artosh.
"Do you want me to help you?"
Rias asked.
"If it's not becoming strong in my own way, such strength is meaningless."
Jibril said, then added, "However, the current state of this world must be changed."
"After that, I will have infinite time to challenge my Master until I surpass him."
In that case, it was indeed a method.
Rias understood.
Jibril was not interested in external Dominion.
If it weren't for that, as long as Jibril became Rias's peerage, she could possess the system Rias had organized and reach the end directly.
Although Jibril had received a lot of help from Rias, it was all in terms of resources.
She was walking a path no one had ever trodden; having walked it and seen the scenery along the way was what mattered most.
Being the strongest was meaningless, but the path to becoming strong was meaningful—this was Jibril's understanding after fighting the White Dragon.
"Do you want to come to my world, Little Rias?"
Jibril said, "It's a world that's about to break anyway, so you can do whatever you want with it~"
She had been inviting Rias since she was very young, and until now, perhaps it was time to head to the world of No Game No Life.
"Ding, Jibril invites you to enter her world."
---------------------------------
I hope you're enjoying the fanfiction so far! If the story has you hooked and you can't wait to see what happens next, you can unlock 30 chapters in advance over on my Patreon: patreon.com/TLHimejima1
Every bit of support means the world to me so if you're loving the ride, don't forget to drop a Power Stone and let me know.