Chapter 148: Exploiting D's Backdoor
"Follow me."
After a brief moment of hesitation, Güli-güli ultimately decided to lead the group toward the absolute deepest sector of the mountain range.
"My Lord, you're finally here! Please, help me teach this brat a proper lesson!"
As a localized healing spell washed over her, Nia—who had been left seeing absolute stars from the assault—scrambled up from the ground, her draconic frame instantly shifting into the form of a highly attractive, stunning woman. She wore a brilliant, crystal-like gown that clung to her snowy, delicate skin, showing off a pair of perfectly straight, alluring legs. Every single movement she made carried an innate charm that made it incredibly difficult for a person to look away.
Faced with Nia's sudden glamorous display, Güli-güli simply chose to look right past her, completely ignoring the act.
Seeing his lack of reaction, Nia could only casually glide over to the group, extending a slender, graceful hand. "Please follow me," she offered with a charming tone.
The group exchanged a series of brief looks before quietly filing in behind her.
"Big brother~ Big brother~"
Leest tugged playfully at Wrath's sleeve in an affectionate manner, her eyes welling up with a few stray tears. "Leest has grown up a lot, you know!"
"You sure have." Wrath smiled warmly, reaching out to gently mess up Leest's smooth, glossy black hair.
"Hehehehe..." Leest giggled foolishly, a look of absolute happiness plastering her face.
It was as if the siblings had an infinite number of things to talk about after their long separation, seamlessly sharing everything they had experienced over the past two years as they marched along the snowy trail.
Following Nia through several jagged, snow-capped peaks, the group finally breached the core coordinates of the Demon Spire Mountains. Standing directly in the middle of a brutally freezing ice plain was a fully functional human-style settlement.
"This is..." The group was thoroughly bewildered. Why on earth would anyone establish a fully populated town inside such a brutally hostile environment?
"This is where the Demon reincarnators live," Güli-güli explained patiently.
"Due to the fact that their souls are systematically and relentlessly drained by the central system, the native demon population has been experiencing a catastrophic decline. A massive variable in this equation is that an immense portion of their spirits have simply fractured under the constant strain, completely stripping them of any future chance to enter the reincarnation cycle."
Güli-güli sighed softly before continuing. "Once I found out the reality of the situation, I established this isolated settlement deep within the mountains to shelter those whose souls are sitting right on the verge of absolute collapse. I intentionally restrict them from acquiring any active skills."
"By minimizing their skill accumulation, we reduce the burden placed on their souls during the transition of reincarnation to the absolute bare minimum. This allows them to survive a few more cycles, hopefully buying them enough time to hold out until the day the world is finally restored. To ensure this sanctuary remains completely undisturbed, I specifically ordered the Ice Dragon clan to guard the perimeter."
Even though the Ice Dragons' presence naturally caused the surrounding climate to drop to absolute freezing parameters, creating an incredibly harsh environment, it at least guaranteed the inhabitants a peaceful, stable life without having to worry about their souls shattering into nothingness.
"Should we fill Ariel in on this development?" Shiro asked, shifting her gaze toward Güli-güli.
Ariel was currently working under the assumption that souls could enter the reincarnation cycle an infinite number of times, which was precisely why she was aggressively driving the demon forces to wage an all-out war against the humans. In her mind, that was the singular path to rapidly harvesting enough MA energy to patch up the planet's core deficit.
"The ultimate decision rests entirely with you two, but I would highly advise keeping her in the dark if possible," Güli-güli murmured with a heavy sigh. "She is already carrying a staggeringly massive burden on her shoulders. If she remains oblivious to this specific aspect of the truth, it will at least spare her from an additional layer of crushing guilt."
However, Shirazawa clearly harbored zero intention of playing along with that dynamic.
Information gap was universally the primary catalyst for massive tragedies. He absolutely despised the brain-dead mentality of "I'm keeping this a secret entirely for your own good."
Leaving behind a casual "I'll be right back," his silhouette instantly vanished from the spot.
Güli-güli's mouth twitched uncontrollably. "He really doesn't stand on ceremony at all, does he?" He knew better than to try and block him, choosing instead to simply let the man execute his play.
Exactly three seconds later, a thoroughly disoriented Ariel was dragged across space by Shirazawa, materializing directly in front of the group.
"Hey! Don't just start throwing around physical force the second you show up! I happen to be a lady, you know..." Ariel struggled aggressively against his grip, her face flushing with an annoyed, flustered tint.
"Ahem, please watch your phrasing," Shirazawa coughed lightly, adjusting his collar. "I wouldn't want Shiro to get the wrong idea."
"Tsk~ Spoken like a true green tea manager." Ariel quickly dropped the matter of being forcefully abducted. Catching sight of the assembled crowd, her expression shifted slightly into a serious frown. "Has another massive crisis broken out?" That was her immediate assumption. There were very few variables capable of prompting Güli-güli to take action; her mind instantly jumped to ideas like, *Did they uncover another ancient ruin? Is there another UFO being unburied?*
As Güli-güli methodically laid out the reality of the soul degradation once more, Ariel's expression shifted, turning incredibly grim. "So, what you're saying is... there is absolutely no future left for the next generation of the demon race?"
Güli-güli nodded silently.
"Dammit! How could you keep something this massive hidden from me for so long?!"
Faced with Ariel's sharp accusation, Güli-güli could only offer a helpless shrug. "Even if I had filled you in on the truth sooner, it wouldn't have altered the ultimate trajectory of the situation."
Ariel went quiet for a solid two seconds before hitting on the definitive question. "Within my remaining lifespan, is there any realistic chance of fully recovering the entire deficit of MA energy?"
"Absolutely impossible," Güli-güli answered with absolute certainty.
Hearing his definitive verdict, Ariel fell straight into a loop of pure despair. To harvest that missing energy, she had fully committed to playing the role of an absolute villain, drawing the absolute hatred of the demon race, completely prepared to march down a path of no return. Yet in the end, the final outcome hadn't shifted in the slightest.
Since following the system's designated rules was fundamentally incapable of achieving her goals, she would simply have to look toward crooked avenues and exploit a different path.
Shiro quietly tugged at the corner of Shirazawa's sleeve, signaling her thought: *Should we utilize the unaligned divine cores sitting in our inventory to patch up the deficit?* It wasn't out of genuine sympathy for the random mortals of this world, but rather because she genuinely wanted to throw Ariel a lifeline.
"There's no need to overcomplicate things. We can just smash the central system entirely," Shirazawa stated, shaking his head as he voiced his proposal.
"Uh, isn't that... a bit too violent?" Shiro blinked, her voice dropping into a weak mumble. At the exact same time, both Güli-güli and Ariel went completely rigid with absolute shock.
Shirazawa was fully aware of D's incredibly twisted and chaotic personality; trying to clear the world quest via conventional ways was a fool's errand. However, she *always* left an intentionally hidden backdoor waiting to be exploited. The system itself was a massive, shaded backdoor that D had purposely left behind. As long as they managed their inputs correctly, there was a concrete way to pull off the play.
"Let's shift venues before we break this down further."
After a brief moment of contemplation, Shirazawa used his spatial magic to transition the entire group straight back to the Demon King's Castle. He had zero desire to plan out a grand cosmic strategy while standing in the middle of a freezing blizzard; that was entirely too much physical suffering.
Inside a secure conference room, the core members of the faction were systematically assembled. Merazophis and Agner—who hadn't been seen in a long time—alongside Felmina and the rest of the vanguard, quietly materialized to take up positions directly behind Sophia and Shiro. Even Nia had somehow ended up tagged along, completely baffled as to why she was sitting in on a high-level summit determining the literal survival of the world.
"First off, I need to thoroughly clarify the reality of how the system actually operates," Shirazawa began, setting the moo for the meeting. "At its core, the system is an exceptionally massive, complex spell designed to slowly restore the planet's vitality."
"However, it also happens to contain a massive array of completely useless, bloated features. I literally uncovered a built-in copy of a casual card game like 'Big Two' buried deep inside the structure of the spell, which has caused the entire system to become incredibly complicated, tangled, and inefficient."
"For a spell that ridiculous to maintain a continuous, perfect function, the sheer volume of energy it actively consumes is completely beyond anything your imaginations can conceive."
As Shirazawa exposed the true nature of the system, a collective gasp ran through the entire room.
"So, what you're implying is... if we systematically dismantle those useless features and redirect all of that salvaged energy directly into the planet's restoration, we can successfully save the world?" Ariel was the first to follow his logic, her tone laced with absolute shock.
Shirazawa nodded at first, before promptly shaking his head.
"It's a solid start, but still not enough. Even if we execute that perfectly, we would still require the permanent sacrifice of roughly half the human and demon populations to completely fill the remaining deficit."
"And to be crystal clear—I am talking about absolute, permanent death. The type where the soul itself completely fractures and dissolves into nothingness."
"..."
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