"It may be a little improper, but since my Elf friend who wishes to remain anonymous refuses to appear, I'll speak on her behalf…"
"…Fine. I don't care who explains it. I only want the information I came here for."
Giada gave the smiling Laugus onstage a long, searching look, then nodded and sat back down.
Seeing that the Third Primogenitor had no intention of causing further trouble, Laugus casually gestured and snapped his fingers once more.
The projections above the rooftop shattered, dispersed, then began to gather again. Countless particles of light rearranged themselves into new forms.
"Now, where were we? Ah, yes. An unknown Root world and the World's Corrective Force that encompasses both worlds, imperceptibly determining the direction in which they develop."
Turning toward Giada, who had just retaken her seat, Laugus pointed at the images forming from the light above. The Three Primogenitors, along with phantoms of Angels, Devils, God, and Vampires.
"Now that you understand the premise I've laid out, Your Grace, the Third Primogenitor, what do you think you otherworldly visitors represent from the perspective of the World's Corrective Force?"
Giada raised an eyebrow.
Meeting Laugus' gaze, she considered the question for a moment before giving a soft laugh and shaking her head.
"Something like a computer virus, I suppose?"
It wasn't difficult to guess.
Although Giada had acted furious earlier, as though Laugus had been playing her for a fool, she had already pieced together the truth of their past from the conclusions he had presented.
No wonder Laugus had described them when they first met as explorers who had been wiped out by the natives.
They had indeed discovered and enslaved the natives, only to be manipulated in turn by the World's Corrective Force and ultimately destroyed.
That was the only explanation for how the Deva Clan, whose civilization had surpassed the modern era by such an enormous margin, could have perished in such an inexplicable way.
"Half correct, Your Grace, the Third Primogenitor. Then let me ask you another question. What do you think the Three Primogenitors represent to the world as it exists now?"
Giada had been privately reflecting on the destruction of her civilization when Laugus' question interrupted her thoughts.
She raised her head, glanced at him, and frowned.
"ROAR!"
A terrifying Beast Vassal suddenly manifested overhead.
Its deafening roar shook the air as it opened its enormous jaws and lunged straight toward Laugus onstage.
"Hah. I don't have the patience to keep playing games with you. If you can't give me what I want and you don't have the strength to make me wait, then die."
Giada's voice was perfectly calm.
What she said, however, was nothing less than a death sentence.
"Boom!"
Several layers of protective barriers appeared high above the stage, attempting to stop the terrifying attack.
They managed to weaken its power slightly, but not even the slightest reduction in the Beast Vassal's speed could be seen.
Still, the sheer number of defensive barriers made a difference. By the time the attack shattered through every layer and finally struck Laugus, its strength had been reduced to a level he could withstand.
"BOOM!"
Dust and debris filled the venue.
Epsilon, who had been deliberately suppressing her presence while watching everything unfold, immediately brightened.
She signaled to her two subordinates, then shot toward the stage like an arrow released from a bow.
Omega and Chi understood instantly and moved with her.
But the moment Epsilon and the others sprang into action, Azazel stepped into their path.
He still remembered what he had told them when they first came here.
They had arrived with him, so even though he found the whole situation troublesome, he was still obligated to stop them.
As for Giada, he hadn't brought her here.
Whatever she did had nothing to do with him.
"I'll hold him back. You two move quickly!"
Epsilon narrowed her eyes.
Without the slightest hesitation, the instant Azazel blocked their path, she changed course and charged straight at him.
In the blink of an eye, she was already in front of Azazel.
The slime covering her body transformed into a scythe and swept down toward him.
She had no intention of defeating him.
If she could keep Azazel occupied for just ten or twenty seconds, she was confident Chi and Omega could kill Laugus.
She had already sensed his Magical Power.
It wasn't particularly impressive.
Unless he was carrying a ridiculous collection of strange gadgets like Eta, he was dead.
Besides, his research had nothing to do with Shadow Garden.
They couldn't care less what he intended to reveal.
Kill him, then leave.
Who could stop them?
Huh?!
Azazel hadn't expected Epsilon to abruptly switch targets and attack him.
He had thought he would be the one making the first move, so he froze for a fraction of a second.
Then he saw a scythe descending toward his face.
Acting on instinct, he stopped reaching for his Sacred Gear and blocked the strike instead.
The impact sent him flying more than ten meters before he finally came to a stop.
While Epsilon occupied Azazel, Chi and Omega rushed toward the stage.
Wind howled past their faces.
Omega, who was slightly ahead, suddenly noticed something was wrong.
She stopped instantly, grabbed Chi, and threw both of them toward the ground beside them.
"Buzz!"
Almost the instant they hit the ground, a flash of sword light swept through the place where they had just been standing.
A pitch-black Knight appeared there, longsword embedded in the ground.
It slowly turned its head toward them.
"I can sense my Master's presence on you. Why are you interfering with us?"
Chi rose from the ground and coldly called toward a certain direction behind the Dark Knight.
Still seated in her chair, the Witch Guardian and contract Witch of the Dark Knight, Aya Tokoyogi, looked directly at Chi and Omega with a faint smile.
Her eyes, however, were ice-cold.
"Don't try to intimidate me by invoking His Majesty. His Majesty told me to handle matters as I saw fit. So the two of you will sit down quietly and stop getting in my way!"
Aya Tokoyogi showed them no courtesy.
During her time inside the Prison Barrier, her only daily entertainment had been secretly monitoring Netheril's development through the devices she had left behind with the Witches' Association.
Naturally, she recognized the two women before her.
They were among the few high-ranking members of Netheril who, despite not being Witches, had still received seeds.
Under normal circumstances, Aya Tokoyogi wouldn't have minded yielding a little out of consideration for the fact that they all served the same leader.
But this concerned the origins of the Witches themselves.
She had personally provided some of the materials used in the investigation.
So this time, the ones who would have to back down were Chi and Omega.
"…"
"Now, now. Everyone, there's no need to get so worked up. That was merely a minor accident. Nothing serious."
Laugus' voice suddenly came from the stage.
It interrupted Chi and Omega just as they were about to attack.
Epsilon also separated from Azazel, ending their brief clash and turning toward the stage.
Contrary to Epsilon's expectations, Laugus had not been badly injured after taking a direct attack from the Third Primogenitor.
He hadn't even lost the ability to fight.
In fact, his clothes were barely disheveled.
He simply stood there holding a small device, watching the audience below with obvious interest.
"You certainly carry plenty of toys with you. But how many times can those things save your life?"
Giada looked unsurprised as Laugus emerged from the smoke and spoke with disdain.
"Nothing more than a few petty tricks. Naturally, they can't compare to the mighty Third Primogenitor. Hardly worth mentioning."
Laugus dismissed Giada's earlier attack with a casual smile, then turned toward the others.
"What just happened may have caused some members of the audience to worry about me. Please rest assured, I'm perfectly fine. Let us continue the presentation."
Understanding the implication behind his words, Epsilon exchanged glances with Chi and Omega.
Without a word, they put away their weapons and found seats.
The situation was obvious.
They weren't going to be able to kill him now.
If Azazel were the only obstacle, Epsilon could still try to hold him off and create an opening.
But with Aya Tokoyogi interfering as well, that was no longer realistic.
More importantly, what had just happened made one thing perfectly clear.
Laugus was the same type of fighter as Eta.
He relied on gadgets.
How were they supposed to kill someone like that under these conditions?
They might as well sit down and see what information he intended to reveal.
"Since my audience has made its choice, allow me to reveal the answer to the question I asked earlier."
Seeing Epsilon and the others return to their seats, Laugus smiled and brought his attention back to the presentation.
This time, however, he stopped deliberately provoking the Third Primogenitor and went straight to the answer.
He did have plenty of trump cards.
The problem was that he hadn't brought many of them today.
He still wanted to finish this presentation alive.
"Under the theory of the Root world's corrective force, consider the following facts."
"The Three Primogenitors clearly never intervened, yet Contract Demons that form pacts with Witches appeared out of nowhere. Humans can ascend into high-dimensional Faux Angels. Spirit Users wield an entirely different power from Magical Power."
"World No. 2 as a whole has continued developing toward the mythology of the God of the Bible."
"But there is one problem."
"In either the Old Testament or the New Testament, was there ever a group of extraterrestrial visitors from outer space?"
Laugus' voice gradually rose.
Above him, the projections of the Three Primogenitors lit up.
They slowly moved toward the image of the Vampires beside them until the two projections overlapped and merged.
"Your Grace, the Third Primogenitor, the impact you have had on this world is far greater than you realize."
"If the original Gods of the Deva Clan, the extraterrestrial visitors who appeared on this planet, were treated as foreign viruses by the world and subsequently eliminated, then the Three Primogenitors who remain have already become part of the world's developmental path while retaining the characteristics of beings who came from beyond it."
Laugus looked meaningfully at Giada.
A smile appeared on his lips.
For an instant, it reminded Giada of the smiles they themselves had worn when they first arrived on this planet and looked down upon the Humans of the ancient era.
"To quote the Master once again, courtesy of my Elf friend who wishes to remain anonymous, mythology is the evolution of civilization from strong to weak."
"Using that statement as a basis, the World's Corrective Force governing mythology also develops from strong to weak."
"It is like planting a seed. With time, it sprouts and eventually grows into a towering tree."
"But you outsiders, who never belonged to the world's original developmental path, entered World No. 2 when most of its seeds had only just been planted."
"The various races had barely developed intelligence. Spirit Users had not yet appeared. Neither Hell nor Heaven had taken shape."
"In the end, your habit of digging up the seeds planted by the world and turning them into bombs forced the world to eliminate almost all of you."
"However, the Three Primogenitors used those same seeds you had dug up and fused yourselves with the still-immature world, inserting yourselves into its developmental path and becoming immortal Vampire Primogenitors."
"Even so, your nature as outsiders remains unchanged, so the world still rejects you."
"Yes. That is probably why the Beast Vassals inside the Three Primogenitors repeatedly go berserk."
"You are outsiders to this world, yet you feed them with Magical Power that does not belong to this world either."
"There are simply too many incompatibilities."
Simply put, a young world still in the middle of growing had been violently knocked off its original path by a group of intruders.
It could still function.
But it was riddled with bugs.
Under normal circumstances, the world should have killed every last one of them.
But the world possessed no consciousness.
Only instinct.
Once those intruders exploited a bug and merged themselves into the world itself, it could no longer properly recognize them as hostile targets.
The only thing still going wrong was that the Beast Vassals kept running out of control because their systems were incompatible.
"I have to admit, your luck is absurdly good."
"You arrived in this world during an age when gold was practically lying everywhere for the taking, then developed and exploited a world that possessed limitless possibilities…"
By the time Laugus reached this point, there was a faint grinding bitterness in his voice.
He was genuinely jealous.
After verifying his theory that morning, he had shared his data with a certain Elf friend who wished to remain anonymous.
They had ultimately reached the same conclusion.
At that time, World No. 2 had been something akin to a sacred realm capable of turning almost any possibility into reality, possessing an extraordinary ability to develop countless possible outcomes.
And a group of idiots had squandered it.
Just thinking about it made Laugus' heart ache.
"The World's Corrective Force wiped out most of you viruses."
"The remaining Three Primogenitors then used the so-called The Cleansing to exploit a flaw and fuse themselves into the positions of the Primogenitors within the world's development."
"So the world simply continued running along its original course."
"But that created a small problem…"
A teasing smile appeared on Laugus' lips.
"Most of the seeds planted by the world had already been dug up by you and converted into Beast Vassal bombs."
"And World No. 2 possesses no intelligence, only instinct."
"As long as it can keep running, it will continue running…"
Laugus stopped there.
He simply looked meaningfully at Giada.
But everyone understood what he had left unsaid.
The world was riddled with bugs, yet somehow continued functioning normally.
Even though the Three Primogenitors already existed, the Church still emerged.
Mythology still developed according to its original trajectory.
Myth and reality each followed separate tracks, neither paying the slightest attention to the fact that the seeds those myths were supposed to grow from had already been dug up and had never sprouted at all.
Meanwhile, the Three Primogenitors themselves had become something like bugs in the world.
There was clearly something wrong with them.
But because they had occupied the positions of the Primogenitors within the development of the mythology of the God of the Bible, the world itself could no longer recognize that anything was wrong.
That was the truth of World No. 2.
"Of course, not every seed was dug up by those extraterrestrial visitors.
"A few had already successfully sprouted before they arrived."
"Well, they are the standard opposing sides, after all, even if the seeds beneath them were dug up…"
Changing the subject, Laugus snapped his fingers again.
The projections of Angels and Devils in the sky lit up.
"Devils born from the world's rules and Angels from a higher dimension."
"I suspect those were the two seeds that escaped being dug up."
"Of course, words alone prove nothing."
"So let me show you…"
Laugus' voice slowed.
Everyone raised their heads in confusion.
Then the space above them seemed to explode.
The fractured sky revealed the alternate dimension hidden beneath it.
The alternate dimension...
Had exploded!
***
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