Countermeasures

[Two worlds, you mean—]

Ria stopped Serge there.

[Wait, Serge. I don't get what he's meaning by dimensional boundary.]

[Ah, it's like SciFi stories. It's the boundary that separates worlds… right?]

Even Serge only really understood it as a feeling.

[Pretty much.]

In poor manners, Haruto spilled a few drops of tea onto the table.

[In what Valis said, there is a massive, thick root (origin) for all worlds. Or perhaps it would be better to call it a trunk?]

He drew a thick line.

[Thin branches grow out of it. Many, many of them. They eventually collide with each other. And then one—or even both—will collapse. That is the great collapse.]

Twisted and tangled lines came out from the single line.

[The power of the Soul Cycle is used so that we don't collide, changing the path of our branch. This is the purpose of the Millennium… it's probably right to think of it like that, at least.]

Then, Haruto said something even more impactful.

[By the way, the Millennium isn't something that happens once every thousand years. Every time a crisis occurred, wars between humans and demons took place on the other continents as well. As a result of that, there are virtually no humans nor demons on the other continents right now.]

[Then that means…]

[Yeah, the next Millennium will happen in less then a thousand years. You know about the survivors coming here from another continent twelve hundred years ago right? They're the survivors of what were used for the Soul Cycle.]

Without the Soul Cycle, the world would have perished.

[How did we survive the Great Collapse from 3000 years ago? Ten thousand humans came over from that world, but…]

[The past Fire God Dragon exchanged her life to destroy that world. Until then, this world was making it through the Millennium through conflicts between demons.]

Amazing, God Dragon-sama.

Huh? But that means…

[The one to prevent the next Great Collapse… is going to be Valis?]

Ria quickly realized it.

[Yeah. She will destroy the other world using her power, letting that world's residents move over to this world's other continents at the same time. That should allow us to get through Millenniums for a while.]

"That's all I have to say."

And, like this, Haruto was finished with his story.

 

*

 

While Serge summed it up to the three people that didn't understand Japanese, Ria was lost in thought.

And so she thought—wasn't that beyond arrogant? The arrogance needed to destroy a world.

In response to Ria's thought, Haruto only responded by telling her to figure out an alternate route.

An alternate route wasn't something that could be so easily figured out. Even Haruto had been trying to think one up for a millennia.

It was the same for many others.

The three continents' permissible population was estimated to be below a sum total of 600,000,000. That was almost the same amount of humans on the Dragon Bone Continent.

What kind of world would they brush against in this next Great Collapse? There might only be creatures living there that wouldn't be able to cope with this world. Or there might not be any intelligent life.

But what Haruto said was the problem was completely different from those.

Namely, the humans of the other world were far stronger than those of this one's.

"But the Dragons are here for that right?"

The sight she saw in Valis' dwelling. However many strong humans there were, compared to a single dragon, they were but ants.

But.

There was a but.

Those assembled right there were people that surpassed even those Dragons.

For enemies that could not be handled by Dragons, humans had produced living weapons.

—Oh. There's already no way to go but to cooperate at this point, is there?

Ria held out her hand—Haruto gripped it.

 

*

 

"By the way, why did the demons head south for the Millennium?"

Now that she'd heard his story this far, she felt that they didn't have to fight against humans in this Millennium.

Haruto smiled wryly at her question.

"Well, it's mainly because of population. The Demonlands couldn't feed any more demons. Our population control policies aren't working out too well."

It was a simple reason.

"Also, when I first wanted to spread the Demonlands' technological developments to humanity, I had a thought. Couldn't humans and demons live together?"

"Demons' technology has developed that much?"

"To the point that we can build robots. Want to see?"

Serge, who was shown one in the courtyard, was very excited.

"You have enough mana to ride it, I don't mind giving you one as a present."

It was just a verbal promise, but it was decided that Serge would be given a Machine God. Demon King-sama was generous.

And finally, their talks lead to this war's compromise.

The demons didn't particularly want to rule the humans. They simply wanted to have land to live on.

And even if it overlapped with human areas, there wasn't any problem with it.

Some humans had no problems with allowing the existence of demon-kind. Although there were many acts of brutality unleashed upon them by feral demons in the Millennium one thousand years prior, it was something that couldn't be helped as they were at war.

"Come to think of it, those humans that got sent to the Demonlands seem to be adapting well."

Haruto spoke about them as well.

"The demons won, didn't overstep their demands, and just want land…?"

Listening to the opinions of her civil officials—that is, Guinevere and Fio—Ria thought.

"We want to scout out people that have the makings of being able to be our pilots."

Ferna spoke up.

"What about me and Carla?"

"Isn't it better for you two to fight as you are?"

Although it was actually just that Haruto didn't want to add uncontrollable elements to his war potential, the two agreed with her statement.

Regarding Casalia, they'd probably be able to work something out through Ria's influence. The problem was the other countries.

The biggest problem was Lemdria. It had a large swath of land, strong soldiers, and enormous political might. It could probably even be called the strongest country on the continent. It was a country that exceeded even Ogress and Casalia.

"If you defeated them, wouldn't the other countries naturally back off?"

Although Ria felt that would happen, Guinevere thought about it more politically.

"It's not as though they would surrender to demons so simply. The people wouldn't stand for it."

Really?—Ria, the queen of Ogress, was baffled by that. Ogress had both beastkin and ogres, the source of the country's name, so their resistance was much less.

Ria might be able to somehow deal with the controversy Casalia's citizens have towards demons through her royal bloodline, but what about Lemdria?

It had both a capable royal line and a powerful army. And quite a population. It definitely wouldn't yield so easily.

"Come to think of it, how much can we delay the Great Collapse?"

Ria and the others had entirely forgotten to ask about that.

"The delay will be longer the more people die, so…"

The Soul Cycle certainly was something that couldn't be relied on, even given what it did.

"The demons will triumph over humanity with their overwhelming strength, then only wish to unite through peace?"

"That's right. And playing the role of mediator will be Ogress."

Haruto gave his conclusion, everyone else agreeing with him.

"By the way…"

A rather ferocious smile crept onto Ria's face as she looked at Halt.

"How about we have a fight?"

"No way. What would happen if something went wrong?"

"We have a revival magic user right here."

Ria motioned towards Carla. But Halt just shook his head.

"Revival magic stopped working once the Millennium began."

Even Valis wouldn't be able to resurrect the dead once the Soul Cycle ramped itself up.

Although something could be done if they were dealt with just before they died, if they did die, it wouldn't work even if they attempted to revive the person immediately.

"So you all should be careful, alright?"

Haruto spoke with a carefree tone.

 

*

 

"Now then, guess it's time for us to head back?"

That much was obvious since their discussions had come to a close, but Guinevere was trying to stop him from leaving somehow.

Because of that, she ended up getting into a cat fight with Ferna, but that's a digression.