Chapter 268 (2/2)

On suddenly being tossed into another dimension, oni-kun and the others were flustered and simultaneously extremely tense. I’m sorry to confuse them, but I want to get started already.

「The world is kept alive by the System. But, even so it is on the verge of death.」

While speaking, I put an opening into the other dimension, showing this planet from high above. Looking at this planet from space. At the other side.

Vampire girl and oni-kun gasp. There, the oceans are withered, and the land is covered in fissures across half the world.

Both in the human territories, and in the demon territories, only in those places are there no obstructions to abundant life. However, that’s limited to only those territories. If you take one step outside from there, then the land of this planet is completely barren. If you cross over the ocean, there is no ocean. The oceans are withered, and dry land spreads out. Even that land is covered in fissures, creating enormous valleys. Those rifts break into this planet. This broken form of a planet. The territories that can sustain life, are nothing but a small part kept alive by the System. For this planet which is in a state close to death, that is the limit of what the System can forcibly keep alive.

「Using the energy gathered by the System, restoration is performed on the planet. That is the main function of the System. However, in the current situation only enough energy is being collected to keep the System operational, and performing restoration is out of reach.」

In order to attack D, the majority of that energy was expended, and as a result the restoration of the planet was stopped. Vampire girl and oni-kun are looking at this scene with their breath taken away, but in actuality a considerable amount has been recovered. Based on sneaking a peek at the System logs, at the beginning, half the planet was literally broken. Broken and one step short of collapse. Since that period, it’s been recovered to the level of merely being fissures.

If a massive quantity of energy hadn’t been expended, complete recovery using the proper method should have been possible. Even so, that would likely have resulted in the souls of many people being unable to tolerate the strain and falling by the wayside. That couldn’t be helped. If the same soul is forcibly reincarnated too often, it’s inevitable for the soul to suffer abrasion. D also expected that to happen for sure. In the System, a facility was prepared in advance to shelter souls when they reached the limit. I activated that, and sheltered the souls of the people that oni-kun massacred. The sheltered souls will be rested for a while, and then reincarnated into this world. Although saying that, because a significant amount of time is needed to recover the damaged souls, in practice it’s better to think of them as having fallen by the wayside.

In the situation now with a massive quantity of energy having already being expended, we can’t anticipate complete recovery using the proper method. Saying it’s impossible, would be going too far, but at a minimum it would result in at least a quarter of the current population falling by the wayside. That’s the absolute minimum, and in the worst case it’s not impossible that they would be completely annihilated.

On top of all that, the soul of the Goddess, who functions as the core of the System, is worn out. Even now the Goddess’s soul suffers from considerable abrasion. As the Divine Word Religion determined, the Goddess does not have long to live. Currently, the Goddess is wasting away while keeping the System running after all.

If the Goddess’s life is exhausted, Kuro will succeed her position. Then, if my prediction is correct, Kuro will rapidly waste away, sacrificing all of himself to decisively restore the planet. For Kuro, watching over this world is for the Goddess’s sake. He won’t try to live in a world without the Goddess. Then, in order to save this world that the Goddess wanted to protect, he’ll die. To die in the same way as the Goddess, is probably the ultimate suicide method for Kuro. Then, with the two gods who serve as pillars sacrificing themselves, this world would be saved. With their souls dying out, they cannot even be reborn, imposing complete death upon them.

With my proposed method to destroy the System, using that energy to restore the world, the Goddess can be rescued without sacrificing her. However, with the Goddess already having exhausted herself to the extent that she cannot sustain her life, in the end she’ll only be able to return to the cycle of reincarnation. Her death cannot be averted. Still, complete extinction can be avoided.

However, that would be accompanied by sacrifices when the System is destroyed. For creatures with many skills, they would die from being unable to tolerate the shock the moment those skills are collected. In the worst case, their soul would also collapse. Because the System would be destroyed, it wouldn’t be possible to shelter their souls using the System either.

In short, with my proposed method, it means that many will be sacrificed in order to save the Goddess. If you object to that, then you have no option but to sacrifice the Goddess and Kuro. At the end of the day, those are the only two options.

I explain that without concealing anything.