Chapter 145: Big Sister Underworld-Earth's Long-Term Vision
Inside a quiet gazebo in the back garden, Underworld-Earth was leisurely sipping a glass of red wine, her face completely clear of her earlier stress.
"Ah~ I haven't been able to unwind like this in forever."
She leaned back, stretching her arms above her head while holding a slender pipe between her lips, lazily exhaling a cloud of smoke. Sometime during her break, she had kicked off her shoes and hoisted one leg over the other, propping her foot right onto the stone bench in a thoroughly unbothered, nonchalant posture.
Looking at her features, she was the textbook definition of a refined, high-born lady. She possessed flawless, exquisite skin that looked smoother than fine porcelain, bright eyes that shimmered like stars, a sharp, elegant nose, and full, tempting lips. Yet her private behavior was completely unhinged and unruly—acting exactly like a casual street punk, which was a massive contrast to her appearance.
"Ahem..."
Shirazawa let out a couple of tight, awkward coughs. Was this really a scene they were allowed to look at? He couldn't help but wonder if they were going to get silenced permanently just for seeing her break character.
"Here~ The Evil God explicitly told me to hand this over to you guys. Keep it safe." Underworld-Earth slid a small glass bead across the table toward them.
Shirazawa picked up the object with a look of curiosity, closely inspecting it under the light. "This is..."
"Don't look down on it just because it looks small. This is a True Soul Orb," Underworld-Earth explained lazily, blowing out a flawless smoke ring. "It contains the complete divinity and authority of a fallen deity. Consider it a personal bonus prize from the Evil God."
"The specific authority sealed inside this particular orb is 'Contract.' If I remember correctly, the Evil God manually extracted it from the true soul of that bird-man, Metatron."
"Metatron?" Shiro asked, thoroughly surprised. Hadn't she completely erased that guy using her Annihilating Evil Eye? If his entire soul was supposed to be completely annihilated, how was it sitting right here?
"Physical termination doesn't mean a definitive end. A true soul is permanent, and only the waters of the Underworld Springs can thoroughly grind it down into nothingness," Underworld-Earth patiently clarified. "The primary function of your Annihilating Evil Eye is simply to act as a direct transit lane, sending the true soul straight into the Underworld Springs. Once the waters thoroughly wash away the original identity and clutter, you're left with a perfectly pure True Soul Orb."
The couple finally caught onto the trick. It turned out absolutely nothing went to waste around here.
"By absorbing the authority packed inside the True Soul Orb, you instantly inherit the specialized capabilities that the original deity spent an entire lifetime mastering—in this case, the absolute power of contracts."
"Once you fully master this authority, you can create your own personalized, unique binding terms and permanently write them straight into the world's core laws."
"From that point on, whenever anyone uses your contract format across the realms, you automatically skim a passive profit from the transaction. Of course, you can also intentionally draft heavily skewed, unfair terms to systematically enslave living entities. As for the precise operational details, you'll have to mess around and figure that part out on your own."
Underworld-Earth smoothly laid out the general methodology for absorbing the True Soul Orb, and the couple listened with absolute focus. This was a massive development opportunity for them.
"If a person stacks too many different authorities at once, will it cause any negative feedback?" Shirazawa asked, hitting on a crucial point. He was slightly worried that gathering an excessive variety of attributes would clutter his baseline power, ultimately doing more harm than good.
After all, once you reached their current tier of strength, the logical progression was to trim away the fat and focus entirely on mastering a singular domain to scale the absolute apex. That was universally considered the fastest route to true power. Once you had enough strength to guarantee your personal safety, you could always loop back and study secondary authorities down the line—especially since a deity possessed an infinite lifespan and had nothing but time.
"A grand ocean welcomes all rivers. Other people's authorities are merely meant to serve as a fertile layer of soil to nourish your own growth," Underworld-Earth explained with a knowing smile. "You simply harvest the absolute best parts, filter out the useless garbage, and use that raw material to forge a unique truth authority that belongs entirely to you."
Looking directly at Shirazawa, she continued, "Working entirely in isolation will only get you so far. As long as you don't grow overly dependent on external abilities, the two concepts don't conflict at all. In fact, they perfectly complement each other."
"Thank you for the guidance." Shirazawa nodded, feeling a major wave of clarity wash over him. Her explanation was incredibly thorough, and he had almost run straight into a mental bottleneck.
"Oh, right. I actually have a severed head sitting in my storage space as well." He suddenly recalled that Mael's divine core and true soul were still locked away inside his pocket dimension. Since they were currently sitting across from a powerhouse like Underworld-Earth, he figured he might as well pull it out and see if she could help refine it.
"My, look at you two, pulling in a massive haul~"
Taking the severed head tightly wrapped in layers of spider silk, Underworld-Earth casually tossed it backward into the void, where it vanished with a faint splash. "The refining process takes a bit of time. You two should hang around Hell for a couple of days before taking off."
"Thanks a lot." Shirazawa cupped his hands in gratitude, preparing to wrap up the conversation and head out.
"Wait, don't be in such a rush to leave. I actually wanted to ask you guys to handle a small favor for me!" Underworld-Earth quickly called out, cutting off his exit.
"Huh? With our current level of strength, what could we possibly help you with?" Shirazawa was completely stunned. He found it highly unlikely that an entity of her caliber would ever genuinely need their assistance.
"Sigh~ You two are heavily underestimating the sheer value of the assets you currently hold."
The couple exchanged a brief look before quietly settling back into their seats, silently waiting for her to elaborate.
"You've probably noticed it by now during your encounters—the capabilities of other foreign deities are incredibly flat and singular. Yet you two fresh ascendants happen to possess an endless arsenal of combat options."
"Especially when it comes to your Evil Eye sub-skills; you can effortlessly drop entities of the exact same tier with absolute ease. Do you even realize what that indicates?" She lightly cocked an eyebrow, an excited glint flashing through her eyes.
The couple shook their heads in a blank daze, but as they tracked her logic, they realized it was entirely true. Those Seraphim they fought seemed completely limited to basic Holy Light magic, Sariel could only channel moonlight, and Zeus was entirely centered around lightning. That was basically the extent of their arsenals.
But looking back at their own skill sets, they could casually cycle through practically any magical attribute whenever they felt like it, which was a massive anomaly.
"You two are incredibly lucky to have reincarnated straight into the Evil God's world."
"The central system she constructed safely encapsulates every single authority she has ever mapped out, and she even went out of her way to pack the Evil Eye systems and Abyss magic straight into the pool."
"Talk about absolute favoritism~" Underworld-Earth let out a heavy sigh that was laced with a healthy mix of envy and jealousy. If she had been given a luxury setup like that during her early days, she would have saved herself countless years of trial and error.
"So what you're saying is... we effectively bypassed thousands of years of grinding?"
"Uh... that's not exactly accurate." Underworld-Earth paused for a moment, carefully sorting her thoughts. "Your everyday attributes still fall strictly under the standard category of magic; they haven't been elevated to the tier of true authority yet, so learning more of them simply provides utility support."
"But the Annihilating Evil Eye and Abyss magic are entirely different stories. You two literally hold a direct portion of the Evil God's personal divine authority, which gives you an immediate, massive leap in quality."
"Relying solely on those two specific authorities is more than enough to guarantee your eventual advancement straight into the ranks of the High Gods."
"That is exactly why you two are entirely unique."
"The latent potential inside you both is completely staggering. With just a bit of proper development, you have a genuine shot at reaching my current tier down the line," she stated with absolute seriousness.
Shirazawa immediately recalled the parting words D had left them with when they first crossed the threshold into godhood: 'These basic magical frameworks can only carry you as far as the High God tier. If you want to touch the absolute apex, you'll need to forge a path that belongs entirely to you.' Now, the true weight behind that statement finally clicked.
At the exact same time, he also realized just how staggeringly valuable those basic magical reference books D had dumped on them truly were. That was an express train leading straight to the High God tier, packed with a sea of cosmic authorities, and she had casually thrown it to them like a pile of scrap paper. It left him completely speechless.
He honestly felt like crying tears of absolute gratitude.
"The specific world you guys were just fighting in happens to be our very next target. Any interest in joining our ranks?" Seeing the two spiders lost in deep thought, Underworld-Earth immediately threw out her bait, explicitly inviting them to participate in the upcoming divine war.
Being able to secure two wild cards who could actively threaten Middle Gods for absolute free was a massive win for her. As expected of the Evil God—she goes out to play hooky for a bit and casually returns with two subordinates packed with limitless potential.
Shirazawa and Shiro looked at each other, their expressions incredibly complex.
If a full-scale divine war kicked off, throwing themselves onto the frontlines with their current abilities meant they would be playing a high-stakes game of survival. Sure, Underworld-Earth made their latent potential sound completely out of this world, but anyone could map out a glamorous vision for the future. They weren't stupid enough to just recklessly rush forward and act as someone else's meat shields.
"Apologies, but I'm going to need some time to think about it," Shirazawa answered, not shooting her down completely. He needed a solid window of time to thoroughly scale his personal strength before making a definitive call.
"How much time are we talking about?"
"Roughly twenty years or so."
"..."
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