Chapter 109 - 108: First Adventure: NovaDescubrimento

Chapter 109: Chapter 108: First Adventure: NovaDescubrimento

"Taraaaan!"

"What is this place?" Yuuji asked.

The place Lala had taken them to shortly after leaving Earth was a planet that did not seem too different from Earth, at least on the surface.

"Yuuji, welcome to NovaDescubrimento, it is a very special place to me"

"NovaDescubrimento? Like ’New Discovery’ in...?"

"No, no, no" Lala interrupted. "It is not any language from Earth, it just seems like it at first, this place has absolutely nothing to do with Earth.

It is a special planet where reality constantly fluctuates, every time you come to this planet it will be completely different from the previous one.

It is a planet that Mona and Nana discovered a long time ago, and they introduced it to me for my twelfth birthday because they thought I would find it fun.

And they were right, definitely, this place is incredibly fun, reality completely changes every time I come back, whether it is the rules of the world, the power system, mythology, living beings, absolutely everything, isn’t it incredible?"

Lala explained with unrestrained excitement, clearly this place meant a lot to her.

"It is incredible" Yuuji nodded after hearing that. "And do you know how it works?"

"No" Lala shook her head. "I never investigated it"

"Seriously? Why not?"

"If their planet works like that, it is not my business to interfere, besides, that could ruin all the fun"

"That sounds more like the second reason is the real one" Yuuji raised an eyebrow.

"Hehe, let’s explore" Lala chose not to answer, taking Yuuji by the hand instead and pulling him along to explore.

At first glance, the entire place was nothing more than an enormous green meadow, with a forest not far behind them, while if they continued forward for a while there seemed to be a village.

As they headed toward the small village, they encountered a small gelatinous blue ball that was moving on its own.

"Ooh, a slime, are we in a world of magic?" Yuuji murmured with interest upon recognizing the creature.

Lala also recognized the creature, crouched beside it, and extended a hand toward it with interest.

"Are you a bad slime?"

"Kjjjjjjj"

The slime did not answer, only releasing a high-pitched cry before jumping toward Lala, being stopped by an invisible barrier. The slime bounced off it and was then pierced by a bullet that killed it instantly, melting into a hot blue puddle on the ground.

"It is a bad slime" Yuuji confirmed.

"Yuuji, do you think there is magic in this place?" Lala asked after seeing the slime.

"Don’t you have an invention to find out?"

"I do, but that would be boring" Lala pouted.

"I wonder if we could learn magic from this place, learning abilities without needing tickets could be useful" Ignoring Lala, who had no intention of ruining her fun by taking out an invention, Yuuji asked himself another question.

But Lala immediately ruined his plans.

"Impossible, I have already tried it before. This world’s power system only works for its inhabitants, who also cannot leave the planet for some reason" Lala explained.

"Wait, seriously? You never investigated something as strange as that?" Yuuji immediately reacted, wondering what kind of strange function that planet had.

"Eh? You’re right" Lala said in confusion, realizing that she herself was involved and wondering how she could have let something so interesting slip by. "How strange, why did I never investigate this?"

[About that, I can actually answer that] Peke said, gaining both of their attention.

[The truth is, Miss Lala, you did investigate the origin of this planet’s anomalies, but after seeing the result you decided to erase your own memory]

"Why would I do that?"

"You can erase your own memory?"

Yuuji and Lala reacted in unison, although both were surprised by two different things.

"I have a machine for that, well, I have a machine for everything" Lala proudly nodded at Yuuji’s surprise before turning her attention back to Peke.

[Apparently, Miss Lala, you decided that the answer was not something you wanted to know. Besides, you also deleted it from my data, so I have no idea what the truth is.

You only left me with the memories of having erased the memories so I could warn you not to investigate it]

"I see" Lala nodded in understanding before linking her arm with Yuuji’s with a motivated smile. "Yuuji, change of plans. I only wanted us to have fun in the current reality of this planet, but instead let’s discover the logic behind this planet’s strange workings"

"Didn’t you hear what Peke said? You yourself didn’t want to investigate this"

"I know" Lala nodded with a smile full of excitement. "Doesn’t that make it much more fun? It is not just a mystery, but one that involves me"

"You are incredible" Yuuji sighed, knowing there was no way to make her change her mind now. "Fine, then where do we start investigating? You know this planet better than I do"

"First, let’s try to reach the end, let’s go to that nearby village and investigate that"

While Lala pulled him toward the village with incredible strength, Yuuji only had even more questions than before.

"The end? What do you mean by the end?"

"Every reality has an ending, an objective that, once fulfilled, causes reality to change almost instantly. There is a kind of energy that changes everything, like a video game glitch. The moment it changes, we could try to discover something if we go there"

"Wait, are you saying they are stories? This planet changes every time you come here and each time it shows a different story with different characters and genres?"

"...It is one way of putting it" Lala realized it, but she did not pay much attention to what to call it, as by then they had already reached the village.

The village was surrounded by a rather weak and old wooden wall, with two guards on each side of the gate dressed in armor.

"Travelers, present your identification or pay the entrance fee" they both said upon seeing them approach.

Lala reached into her pocket and threw them several golden coins, which they quickly caught. Even beneath the armor’s helmets, Yuuji could see their eyes widening in astonishment.

"M-Mister travelers, the toll is only twenty coppers, this is... this is too much"

"It’s fine, just keep the rest" Lala replied dismissively, walking forward with Yuuji without even saying goodbye.

Once inside the village, Lala finally stopped pulling Yuuji along and stopped running.

"You’re in too much of a hurry. Where did you get money from here, by the way?"

"The money automatically transforms into this world’s money when you give it to someone from here" Lala quickly explained. "Forget that, Yuuji, let’s investigate.

Let’s see... Ah, let’s ask that person"

Without the slightest respect for anyone else’s personal space, Lala approached a girl who was standing there, dressed in a long, thick brown dress with a white apron over it and a basket of flowers in her hand.

The woman had brown hair tied up in a bun and did not appear to be more than 18 years old.

"Excuse me!" Lala said, touching the woman’s shoulder from behind.

"Eh? Ah, me?" the woman asked in surprise as she turned around.

"Yes, you" Lala nodded. "What’s your name? We want to ask you a question."

"Ah, I’m Marianne, one copper for each flower except jasmine, which costs two. I know it seems a little expensive, but they are very high quality, grown with care, and the money is to support the orphanage" Marianne immediately responded.

"I am not interested in your flowers at all"

"You don’t..."

"What Lala means..." Yuuji interrupted, seeing that the girl looked like she was about to cry at Lala’s blunt response, "is that what we want is information, we will pay for it, of course"

Yuuji gave his best business smile as he handed her a golden coin.

"One gold?!" Marianne reacted in astonishment, unable to hide her surprise before covering her own mouth and quickly looking around, afraid someone had heard her. She sighed in relief when she saw that nobody had heard her and then returned the coin. "S-Sir, I cannot accept that much money. I wouldn’t be able to keep it safe and it would only bring trouble"

’It seems this is going to take longer than expected’ Yuuji realized.

Lala, on the other hand, seemed to grow impatient while waiting and took some small rings from her D-Dial before giving them to Marianne.

"Here, they are magical, they will do anything you can imagine, now answer our questions" Lala urged her, surprising Yuuji somewhat with her haste.

"What?" Marianne could barely react before the rings moved and placed themselves on all her fingers, passing directly through them without touching them. The moment this happened, information on how to operate them and all their functions appeared in Marianne’s mind as if she had used them her entire life.

"What do you think? I created them based on a story Yuuji once told me" Lala said proudly.

Marianne stared at the rings in surprise, but with even greater surprise she looked at Lala and Yuuji. Her gaze, which had already contained a hint of respect since they handed her a gold coin without batting an eye, was now filled with admiration.

"A-Are you mages? I’m sorry for my disrespect, if I had known I would never have dared to refuse.

But with that appearance, no, could it be that you have reached the pinnacle of magic where mages can live for hundreds of years and control their apparent age?

Not only that, but you also possess the rare talent of alchemy and spatial magic.

Could you perhaps be a Level 100 SSS-Rank Archmage, bearer of double Golden Spiritual Roots?"

’What the hell is with that ridiculously long name?’ Yuuji barely managed to stop himself from reacting out loud, while Lala widened her eyes in equal surprise before immediately nodding in agreement.

"That is me, what a cool name" she lied shamelessly.

"I knew it. Only a Level 100 SSS-Rank Archmage, bearer of double Golden Spiritual Roots, could create something like this" Marianne nodded. "Of course I will tell you everything you need, Miss Mage, just ask me"

"Tell us the history of this world" Lala said without caring how strange her question sounded from the outside.

"T-The history of the world? What do you mea... No, I mean, immediately" Marianne was unable to hide her confused expression, but quickly seemed to make a mental decision and began speaking. "Our world, Sim887, was created millions of years ago by the Goddess of Life, Eve, the creator of everything.

At that time, the first humans did not yet have such developed minds, so they only fought among themselves and hunted animals for food, basically just following their instincts. But that did not remain that way forever, slowly, they discovered everything that existed on the planet, originally provided by Her Holiness Eve, and how to use it. For thousands of years, humanity evolved until it finally became a thinking species that not only fought for no reason but was also capable of thinking, devising strategies, planning, and so on.

But with that also came the bad side, just as humans learned to think, they also learned to lie, just as they learned not only to kill because of their instincts, they learned to do it for pleasure, instead of thinking for the good of everyone, they began to think about how to take advantage of others for their own benefit.

Of course, that does not really matter, but the problem was that Her Holiness, the Almighty Goddess Eve, was also affected by this, being the provider of all life on the planet while also having life itself sustain her divinity, the corruption in humanity also affected her.

The Almighty Goddess knew that if her body became corrupted everything would come to an end, for her power is immeasurable, so she decided to perform the greatest act of love ever described, done, or yet to be done, she trusted in humanity and its goodness. She divided all the corrupted part of her body into another separate being, a being impossible to kill unless evil disappeared from the world. The Goddess Eve trusted that good would always triumph over evil on Earth, so that this new being, whom the ancestors called the God of Corruption, could never surpass her in power and take her place as the main god and controller of Sim887, thereby losing its source of divinity and consequently its life. From that day onward, the fate of humanity was left in the hands of humanity itself and no one else. It is said that half of the evil in our world is actually caused by the God of Corruption, while the other half feeds the God of Corruption in a closed circle of evil"

While Marianne continued speaking, Yuuji had already taken a chair from his own D-Dial and sat down to listen in silence. Lala’s terrible question made Yuuji think there was no way Marianne could understand, but somehow Marianne seemed to be leading the story toward something important.

In reality, Yuuji was almost certain that at some point Marianne simply decided to tell Lala the world’s theology, or perhaps in this world there were no doubts about such theology and it was simply called history, there was magic here after all.

Even so, as Marianne continued saying more and more, Yuuji frowned with an uncomfortable feeling.

’Please, let this whole story not end with a simple demon king and hero’

"How do you know all this?" Lala asked while Marianne spoke.

"Of course, it is part of the Mythical Tales, the book that summarizes the entire history of the goddess in human terms, endorsed and officially provided by the Church of Life.

The Church of Life is not only the image of the goddess in Sim887 but also her oracle, the Saint of the Church of Life is capable of communicating with the goddess and transmitting her messages. That is how we know all this history and more.

Also, it is the duty and honor of the church to find the hero of each generation."

’Damn it’ Yuuji sighed to himself as soon as he heard the word, putting a hand to his forehead.

"Hero?" Lala asked with interest.

"The hero is the purest person on the planet, their purity is so high that the amount of corruption within them is completely nonexistent. Thanks to this, the goddess can grant them part of her power.

"Of course, Miss Mage, I am not forgetting the most important part, the reason a hero is necessary.

This is because every 100 years, the God of Corruption seeks out a being corrupt enough to give them his power and spread terror throughout the world. Someone like that can only be defeated by the power of the wonderful and absolute goddess, and since the sovereign of divinity cannot descend directly into the world or it would explode from her mere presence, the hero is necessary.

Of course, this herald of corruption has never succeeded, always losing to the hero. Whenever the demon king is defeated, the magic of Goddess Eve manages to pass through the bond that grants him his power and reach the God of Corruption, leaving him with a wound that takes around one hundred years to heal before he can try again.

Of course, although it sounds quite bad, it is actually not that problematic since the hero has never lost against a demon king.

Furthermore, it is also said that when the God of Corruption was created, he tried to attack the goddess, only to be easily stopped.

However, the union of these powers created an extremely small amount of a new form of energy when they fused. Of course, the energies of life and corruption are so incompatible that this energy was not only minuscule but extremely weak and useless to the goddess, so she simply threw it onto Sim887 without giving it much importance. This is what we now know as magic. To think that something the most powerful and righteous of divine beings considers so useless is the pinnacle of human strength, as expected of Her Holiness Eve, the Goddess of Life and Creation"

"Ooooh" Lala reacted with interest. "And what happens with..."

"Hold it right there" Yuuji interrupted them before they could return to their conversation. "Marianne, thank you for telling us the history of this world and even explaining things as if we were not from this world"

"Of course, I felt like that was how I had to say it for some reason" Marianne nodded.

"Then, can you tell us what the current situation regarding the demon king and the hero is?"

"Actually, the hero of the previous generation died just yesterday. It is a shame, if he had remained alive until the next demon king, the goddess’s divinity could have rejuvenated him so he could fight again.

Ah! Sorry, I’m going off on a tangent again.

In short, the hero died yesterday. And today marks one hundred years since the death of the last demon king, by the way"

Why did the hero only live a little over one hundred years if powerful mages can live for hundreds of years? Doesn’t it seem suspicious that the hero dies exactly one day before he is needed? Are they seriously planning to live like this forever? Isn’t everyone a little too calm when a new demon king is supposedly going to appear today?

Those and several other questions ran through Yuuji’s mind at the strange situation, but he decided to simply ignore them so Marianne would not continue talking.

"Then we just have to defeat the demon king" Lala said with a resigned sigh upon understanding it. "I guess we’ll have to wait until tomorrow."

"Not necessarily" Yuuji shook his head before speaking to Marianne again. "Is there any sign when the demon king appears?"

"Yes, the God of Corruption usually manifests one ten-millionth of his power in the demon king’s village and kills everyone, leaving only the future demon king alive so they can experience absolute despair, why?"

"How does he manifest?"

"He normally appears as an eye through an elongated and ancient mirror, accompanied by red clouds that rain corrosive blood" Marianne answered with absolute naturalness.

"Like that one?" Yuuji pointed behind Marianne.

Marianne turned around with a confused expression, which instantly changed to terror when she found exactly what she had described. Red clouds had filled the sky, preventing sunlight from reaching the village. In their midst, a giant mirror with an irregular diamond shape and filled with luxurious decorations ruined by time revealed an enormous eye on the other side.

"Hyaaa, Mister Mages, please save us!" Marianne immediately reacted, hiding behind Lala and Yuuji as if that would help against the rain of blood.

Contrary to Yuuji and Lala’s calmness, chaos began spreading throughout the village instantly. Everyone around them began running in panic, trying to take shelter behind nearby houses that were also falling to the corrosive rain of blood, or trying to reach their loved ones. Screams of terror filled the place, and moments later, a sinister laugh seemed to resonate in everyone’s ears like background music.

The only ones who were unaffected were Yuuji, Lala, and Marianne, who was hiding behind them. It seemed that it had actually helped after all.

However, she only remained there for a few seconds before remembering something and running away while shouting things about the "orphanage" and "siblings."

Once she left the safe area around Yuuji, the rings on her fingers moved, grew until they were several meters in size, and rose into the air, lining up above her head while an energy shield inside them covered her from the falling blood.

"Quite useful" Yuuji murmured.

On the other hand, Lala regained the excitement she had felt minutes earlier, before forgetting about it because of Marianne’s story.

"Yuuji, how lucky. We won’t have to wait until tomorrow to finish this story"

’Does she seriously still think all of this is a coincidence?’ Yuuji raised an eyebrow while looking at Lala, wondering if she really did not notice the situation or if it had something to do with her having erased her memories about it.

"Now we just have to find the demon king and kill him" she said while looking around, but the demon king was not what they found.

Instead, in the direction of the mirror with an eye rising among the clouds and observing all the chaos with sadistic satisfaction, a golden slash cut through the sky and struck the mirror, cracking it and pushing the eye to the other side, causing its gaze to change.

Since the chaos and destruction began, for the first time, the manic laughter, filled with pleasure at the suffering of others, that had continued to echo in the ears of every living being as if it were background music, stopped.

"Divine Power of Life? Impossible!!! The Hero shouldn’t exist yet!!!" the furious voice roared once it stopped laughing.

In front of him, at ground level, a man dressed in white and silver armor covered in golden details, with a shining purple gem on his chest, confidently held a huge two handed sword.

"Not this time, God of Corruption. The Church of Life has decided that it is time to put an end to you once and for all.

I spent years training with the previous hero. He was even willing to sacrifice himself so that the divine power could change owners. This time... we will defeat you before you can create the Demon King and hide again like a coward."

"Why didn’t only the Church or the Saint speak with the goddess? Wouldn’t that have prevented the previous hero’s sacrifice?" Yuuji muttered from a distance as he watched the drama with amusement.

"Yuuji, should we help?" Lala whispered beside him.

"It’s not necessary, it looks like they can handle it on their own" Yuuji refused.

"If you say so" Lala nodded. "By the way, isn’t this fun? I thought it was going to be the cliché Demon King versus Hero, but it looks like an interesting twist is going to happen"

"Yeah, it almost seems like someone is trying to make it entertaining on purpose" Yuuji agreed, with a slight ironic smile appearing on his lips.

Lala did not understand it and simply looked at him in confusion for a second before returning her attention to the main actors.

Meanwhile, while Yuuji and Lala were talking, the hero had not remained still. After introducing himself to the God of Corruption, he did not waste any time and continued attacking, taking advantage of his target’s complete lack of defensive ability. The hero’s repeated sword slashes had opened up most of the sky, allowing light to enter, but most of the damage had been taken by the mirror through which the God was watching. It was already deeply cracked and had reached the point where a single more hit would probably destroy it.

The God of Corruption could not intervene directly in the world, so he could only retreat to avoid being injured or trust that he would find a Demon King in time.

As for what happened, one only had to think about which possibility would be more entertaining for those watching.

The hero performed one final move. He jumped several dozen meters, rising above the buildings until he reached the clouds, and swung his sword in a perpendicular slash toward the almost destroyed mirror. An exaggerated move that he had not needed before, probably born from wanting to show off a little before his imminent victory.

Clank!

But just before the sword could finish the slash, it was forcibly stopped by a rounded metallic artifact.

"Yuuji, that’s..." Lala murmured from a distance.

"I know" Yuuji simply nodded, paying attention. It seemed to be getting more and more interesting.

To be exact, it seemed that the plot was not predetermined, but could adapt to external influences.

"Hahaha!" the voice laughed again, its confidence restored, its voice resonating throughout the city. "Too late, Hero. The most powerful Demon King of them all has been born"

The hero, still in the sky using his magical powers to levitate while surrounded by a golden aura, frowned at the sudden change in the situation. He looked at the young man in front of him, who seemed to be his complete opposite. He did not look older than fourteen, and had long, unkempt black hair that covered part of his face, while his clothing consisted only of old clothes covered in patches of fabric. And, unlike him, what kept him in the air was a black aura that seemed to dirty even the air around him.

Seeing such a young Demon King, the hero could not help but feel a certain empathy in his heart.

"Young man, I don’t know what happened to you or what your life has been like, but joining the God of Corruption is the worst decision you can make.

The Church has spent decades preparing for this moment. If we manage to land a direct blow on the God of Corruption, then we will have at least 1,000 years of peace, and we will even open the possibility of definitively defeating the God of Corruption in the future. This is the opportunity to break the stalemate that has existed between the gods for millennia.

We only need you to resist his influence, young man, and we can bring peace to the world. Think about your loved ones, what kind of world do you want them to live in?"

"Pffft, hahaha! You’re trying to convince the most corrupt person in all of Sim887 to resist my influence? You’re far too naive, hero, just like everyone else before you"

The hero ignored the God of Corruption and focused his gaze on the young Demon King, who had not moved since stopping his sword with one of his strange artifacts.

"Peace for whom?" he finally asked in a weak voice.

"What?"

"I asked, peace for whom? Peace for everyone? Do you think we live in an era of peace? Because I lived in misery every day"

"That..."

"Tell me, hero, where were you while all my siblings and I lived like that?

Where were you?

Where were you when Big Sister had to take care of us and work because the orphanage director ran away with all the money that was supposed to be used to feed us?

Where were you?!

When Marianne sacrificed herself to save me, where were you?!!

You’re not a hero, neither you nor the previous one. You don’t protect people, you’re just a puppet that protects the rich, those in the capital, those who pay the Church, those who eat meat every day, those who have never stepped into a dirty alley in their entire lives.

What kind of world do I want my loved ones to live in? As long as they’re alive... that would make me immensely happy"

"I don’t know your family and I don’t understand your situation, but I still insist that you should resist the corruption"

"Yes" the Demon King smiled. "Someone raised in the light wouldn’t understand the shadows even if they were right in front of them.

Don’t worry, I’ll take you to meet them personally"

As soon as he finished speaking, the corrupt energy surrounding the Demon King moved, dressing him in a cloak that seemed to be made of shadows themselves. At the same time, the ten rings he carried began rotating behind his head, preparing to attack.

As soon as he extended his hand, they all moved toward the hero.

The hero moved, attempting to attack with his sword, but one of the rings easily caught the blade inside itself, refusing to release it no matter how hard he pulled on it, while the others struck him with such force that his body crashed into the ground.

"How elegant, white, golden, full of shine" the Demon King muttered, playing with the sword in his hands before closing his hand tightly. The ring that had previously caught the blade obeyed and tightened more and more. "I don’t like it"

Crack!

The sword broke in two before the hero’s stunned eyes, but the Demon King did not plan on giving him time to process the situation.

In the blink of an eye, the Demon King was already in front of him, striking him and sending him flying into the air. The rings moved toward him as if they had a life of their own.

The rings surrounded him and caused explosions of energy that moved the hero through the air like a toy again and again. When he surrounded his fists with divine power and attempted to attack them, they extended and completely surrounded him in a formation before all projecting a shield inside themselves, enclosing him in an impenetrable transparent box.

The shield trembled under the hero’s attack, but not a single trace of divine energy escaped the box.

"Impossible" the Hero muttered in astonishment, his expression filled with fear. "This isn’t corrupt energy. How is this possible? No other energy should be capable of confronting the goddess’s divine power."

Once the attack was contained, the rings deactivated the shield and returned to their original size, causing explosions again and striking the hero throughout the sky. This time, the rings raised him thousands of meters above the ground before positioning themselves on his back and causing an energy explosion more powerful than any of the previous ones, destroying the hero’s armor and sending him toward the ground at astonishing speeds.

The Hero headed straight toward a house, but just before impact, the Demon King appeared in front of him in the blink of an eye, his right hand open as he caught him by the neck.

"Kughhh!"

He could only let out a cry of pain before his body was slammed against the ground with all his strength, pulled down by the neck.

With the Hero already on the ground beneath him, without weapons or armor, the Demon King smiled before stepping on his chest with his leg.

"Is that all, Hero? Then perhaps I should apologize to you. If you’re this weak, I understand why you only protected a few people in the capital" the Demon King mocked.

"Don’t underestimate me!" the Hero roared furiously, feeling humiliated. "I am the light that will put an end to the evil in this world. A simple child like you could never understand... kughhh"

Without letting him finish speaking, the Demon King transformed corrupt magic into a gauntlet with claws around his right hand and pierced his chest. The Hero could only open his eyes in shock, staring at his own chest in terror before the Demon King withdrew his hand.

The hero wanted to say thousands of things, but all he could do was weakly close his eyes. Most of his vital organs had been pierced, and there was no way for him to survive.

The black haired young man looked at the hero on the ground with disdain before kicking the body, leaving it beside the remains of his sword.

"Completely useless" he muttered with boredom and disdain before leaving the place without paying any further attention to the dead hero.

"Can we help now?" Lala asked after seeing this.

"We could have gone earlier if you wanted, more or less from when the hero started losing" Yuuji answered.

"Eh? Then why didn’t we go?"

"You were busy crying after finding out that Marianne died, and you only calmed down after I spent a while convincing you that everything was fine and that you should trust me, remember?"

"W-who cried? You’re remembering it wrong, Yuuji" Lala denied, pretending ignorance. "Let’s go help."

As Lala and Yuuji approached, something changed in the scene. The hero’s body suddenly began to glow, transforming into golden particles that moved toward the sword. As soon as this brilliant energy entered the sword’s hilt, the shattered blade began growing at incredible speed until it returned to its intact state, looking even better than before.

Likewise, another voice, different from that of the God of Corruption, whose presence had already disappeared as soon as the previous fight began, resonated throughout the village.

"You... the one who survived this chaos, please stand up, use this sword and bring peace to this world. It is... the only way" the voice said.

"So that’s the setup. Now you’re supposed to grab the sword and grow from an ordinary person into a hero to defeat the strongest of the Demon Kings, probably receiving guidance from the former hero through the sword at some point" Yuuji understood.

"Should we do it?"

"We had already decided that we have to finish the story after all"

"You’re right" Lala nodded. "Besides, it’s our fault that he’s so powerful, so we have to defeat him"

"Then let’s go right away" Yuuji smiled. "To defeat the Demon King"

"Let’s go!" Lala nodded as well before hugging Yuuji.

"What are you doing?"

"Hehe, walking is slow, let’s fly. Come on, Yuuji, toward the Demon King" Lala pointed.

"So you’re just going to skip the entire part about growing along the way?"

"Eeeh? That sounds like too much work. Let’s just defeat the Demon King quickly" Lala complained.

"You’re getting a little lazy, you know?" Yuuji joked before lifting Lala like a princess and flying toward the Demon King.

...

"Stop right there, Demon King"

Only three minutes later, after such a short journey and having found the Demon King so quickly that even the ellipsis seemed unnecessary, Lala called out to the young man who was walking slowly toward the horizon.

"Who are you?" The young man with messy black hair raised an eyebrow.

Once Yuuji placed her on the ground, Lala raised her sword and pointed it toward him. "I am the one who has come to defeat you"

"You have come to...? I see" the Demon King nodded without interest upon noticing the sword she was holding. "So that sword is still intact. I should have destroyed it completely"

"There is no time to talk, I don’t want to listen to your entire monologue" Lala interrupted him before running toward him with the sword raised like a novice who had never used one before.

The Demon King only moved two rings. One struck Lala with all its strength while the other stole her sword just like it had done to the hero before.

Lala crashed through some nearby trees before standing up completely unharmed and walking back to Yuuji.

"Are you alright?" the Demon King asked, showing a hint of interest in Lala after seeing her get back up completely unharmed. "It seems you’re quite strong, even stronger than the former hero. Perhaps, if you had been smarter, you might have been able to defeat me, but without this sword and the life energy it contains, it is impossible to harm me.

Let this serve as a lesson, hero, about what happens when you rush ahead without preparing. Perhaps we will meet again sometime in the future, and at that moment..."

"Yuuji, he’s talking too much again" Lala complained. "Those rings are way too powerful, how did you come up with something like that?"

"I just told you a story, you’re the one who came up with the idea of building them," Yuuji excused himself. "Besides, since they’re yours, you can’t...? you know..."

"Ah" Lala was literally stunned for a second before her cheeks turned red with embarrassment.

"It hadn’t occurred to you, had it?"

"T-that isn’t it. I simply thought we could have a little more fun"

"Really? Because you seemed pretty eager earlier to discover what happens in this world"

"S-shut up, Yuuji. Fine, since there is nothing in this world capable of defeating my inventions, I suppose I have no choice but to cheat.

Peke, activate Recovery Protocol"

[Understood, Miss Lala.

Situation 002 detected: initializing Recovery Protocol.

The young lady’s toys belong only to her, besides being quite dangerous in the hands of others (added by Gid), and no one else can use them.

Any artifact created by the young lady within a radius of 200,000 kilometers will be forcibly reintroduced into the D-Dial regardless of its condition, and its connection with any other person will be forcibly severed.]

The ten rings immediately disappeared from the young Demon King’s hands, causing him to panic.

"W-what happened? No, Marianne’s last memory! Give it back, it’s mine!"

On the other hand, Lala took out a gun similar to a water gun, whose rear section was a transparent container filled with an equally transparent liquid, and shot the sword. Immediately afterward, the liquid transformed into brilliant golden energy. Lala fired at the Demon King, and he did not even have time to protect himself before transforming into ashes.

The entire movement was perfectly fluid and was carried out within seconds, so much so that even Yuuji, a firm believer that it is better to interrupt the plot to avoid problems from the beginning, had to consider it anticlimactic.

"That’s for joining the team of the guy who killed Marianne" Lala said as she put the weapon away again.

"What happened to not wanting to cheat with your inventions?" Yuuji asked.

"Well, since I already cheated with Peke" Lala shrugged. "We might as well finish this quickly"

Once the Demon King died, the entire world began to shake, not like an earthquake, unless we were talking about a spatial earthquake, but rather as if a video game were suffering from glitches and the screen were bugging out, with the image shifting over itself.

On the distant horizon, a small point appeared, a point that seemed to be made of static. It immediately grew larger, hollowing itself out as it did so and transforming into a semicircle that engulfed the planet.

It was a kind of dividing line that crossed the entire planet from one side to the other, and as it approached the opposite horizon, the world of fantasy and magic disappeared, leaving behind a completely different world with a Cyberpunk appearance.

"Yuuji, quickly, to the dividing line" Lala urged him, pulling him by the arm.

Yuuji opened a Gate and moved both of them to the farthest point from the dividing line, and where it should eventually end, they headed toward the edge of the sky where it crossed. When the line reached them, they both passed through it.

On the other side of the line, everything was a world filled with static and glitches, as if they were inside a television that did not work. It extended as far as the eye could see without seeming to end, no matter how far you walked.

But in this infinite static void, there was a white door that was completely out of place with its surroundings. No matter how much you moved, it always remained about five meters away from you. However, if you tried to walk toward it, it would remain still so that you could reach it.

Yuuji and Lala would have to be idiots not to go toward it.

Once they passed through it, it disappeared behind them as if it had never existed. Instead, they found themselves in a black room with an enormous sphere floating and rotating on its own axis in the center. Thousands of images could be seen on its surface, as if it were a screen.

[Security alert!!! Security alert!!!]

As soon as they arrived, without even giving them time to discover where they were, the sphere changed to red. Warning voices resonated throughout the echoing room, and the images changed into yellow warning signs.

Almost immediately, hurried footsteps could be heard approaching the place.

Yuuji and Lala looked at each other and both nodded, having decided to hide first before discovering where they were, but when they heard the following words, they stopped their plans.

"Big Sister, if it’s you again, I’m going to get angry" said an irritated young voice as she forcefully opened the door to the place, a door identical to the one Yuuji and Lala had passed through.

A girl with two pink pigtails entered the room and, upon seeing them there, sighed helplessly.

"Nana? What are you doing here?" Lala asked, surprised by her appearance.

"The simulation world alarm went off, so I came to check what was happening. Momo and I are in charge of watching over this because we asked Dad to give it to you. It’s like this because, unlike you, Deviluke’s technology isn’t capable of creating AIs that can live on the network without needing servers. Yes, we created that world specifically for you, and it is a simulation with a predefined story each time, but one capable of adapting in real time. Yes, you had already asked all these questions before, which is why I’m answering them. And finally, this is the twelfth time you’ve come here, i would really love for it to be the last" Nana said in a tone that showed how tired she was of repeating herself.

"This..."

"Completely random, sometimes once a year, sometimes five times, it depends on your mood" Nana answered before Lala could finish asking.

"I-I ruined my birthday present, I’m really sorry!" Lala immediately apologized, bowing.

"It really doesn’t matter. It was a gift from when you were little, so it’s been quite a while. Besides, big sister, please stop erasing your memory every time. I swear, we really don’t care if you know that it’s not real"

"Don’t worry, Nana, erasing my memory doesn’t affect me at all" Lala said with a confident smile.

"But it affects me when you come back every time and worry us because we think someone accessed this room. It’s right next to the source of Deviluke’s entire network, and if an enemy got in, it would be dangerous" Nana complained. "I shouldn’t have agreed to Dad making us responsible for all the rooms in exchange for lending us a single AI"

"I-I’m sorry" Lala apologized, feeling guilty. "Ah, I know. I’ll make sure to tell Peke to warn me that I mustn’t investigate how NovaDescubrimento works no matter what, so I won’t do it next time"

"You said that every single time before!" Nana snapped.

"To be fair, she did warn herself, it’s just that the warning made her even more curious" Yuuji said, having only been listening until now.

In reality, he had already figured out what was happening, it was pretty easy to guess after all. Although he decided not to ask Momo, who could have immediately confirmed whether they were inside a simulation, simply because he wanted to confirm it on his own.

"Speaking of that, Yuuji, you were right, Marianne is fine after all"

’Well, fine wouldn’t exactly be the word, but at least she was never technically in any danger’ Yuuji thought, deciding to simply let Lala enjoy herself.

"Yuuji, how about you warn her next time?" Nana asked, remembering that Yuuji was there this time as well.

Her gaze was filled with such hope that it even made Yuuji a little uncomfortable.

"I definitely will" Yuuji nodded. "Lala gets incredibly restless when she wants to discover something"

"Hehe"

"With my personality, do you seriously think that was a compliment?"

"Oh" Lala realized with disappointment.

"Let’s forget about this, not literally, please, and get out of here before Dad gets angry" Nana said, hurriedly leading them out of the place.

______________________________________

+10 Chapters in advance on Patreon.

p-atreon.com/IAMME26

(just delete the hyphen)

80 power stones = 1 extra Chapter (cumulative)