"White. You've been causing quite the ruckus, I hear?"
Those were the first words out of the Demon King's mouth.
The weight behind his voice was dark and heavy — nothing like his usual carefree tone.
No, this was probably the Demon King's true voice. The one he had before my clone mixed with him and things got… complicated.
Yeah, no wonder
If someone out there wasn't scared, it'd be one of those two cases.
I'm in the "no reason to be scared" camp, personally.
I ignore the Demon King's question and open my eyes.
He grimaced for a split second, but that was it. He withstood the terror in my gaze.
"What exactly are you playing at?"
A voice that could freeze you to the bone.
The implication was clear — depending on my answer, this wouldn't end painlessly.
"Hiding things."
I deftly dodged the Demon King's pressure and pointed at Black as I spoke.
His target shifted accordingly.
"What do you mean?"
Black stood frozen with his arms crossed, a furrow between his brows.
He was probably debating whether to come clean or not.
"At this point, keeping secrets would be tantamount to betrayal."
Black let out a heavy sigh and opened his mouth as though resigning himself.
"I'll get straight to the point. The degradation of souls cycling through this world is becoming critical."
No — isn't that a bit too straight to the point? Is anyone supposed to understand that?
"How bad?"
Someone got it!
Huh?
Since when was the Demon King this quick on the uptake?
Or was it one of those things — does he suddenly get sharp when things get serious?
"In some areas, we're already starting to see signs of soul collapse."
"And why wasn't I told about this?"
"What good would telling you have done?"
The two of them fell silent under the heavy atmosphere.
Ugh, this is uncomfortable.
Can I go home?
No?
I figured.
"Answer me honestly. If I act as the Demon King, can MA Energy recovery be completed?"
"Impossible."
Black answered without hesitation.
The Demon King sat with his head bowed, shoulders trembling.
How much resolve must it have taken for him to become the Demon King? That's something I can only imagine.
For the longest time, he'd followed the Goddess's orders and watched the world from afar. But now he'd finally acted against her will for the first time.
That must have required an extraordinary amount of resolve — especially for someone who revered the Goddess more than anyone.
And to do all that knowing that becoming the Demon King would almost certainly mean death.
And then I come along and show him a path.
"Just destroy the System."
To the two of them, trapped in a hopeless dead end, my proposal must sound like a dream.
So naturally, they'll bite.
"What do you mean?"
"The energy maintaining the System accounts for roughly ninety percent of total MA Energy. Which means if we can cover the remaining ten percent from somewhere, we can dismantle the System and still fill the MA Energy reserves."
It's simple, really.
That System was built by D — that rotten, degenerate bastard.
You don't take something like that on head-on. There's always a back door.
Knowing D's personality, it'd be hidden somewhere nasty, somewhere no one would normally think to look.
"Is that even possible?"
"White, can you do it?"
Both sets of eyes were on me.
One full of skepticism, the other full of hope.
"I can. As part of the preparation, I had Black's isolated group make the necessary sacrifices."
It wasn't exactly true, but it wasn't entirely wrong either. If I left it at that, Black would overthink it and reach the wrong conclusion on his own.
"So that's what that was about."
See?
"I'll handle all the groundwork myself. The remaining piece is securing the ten percent. Ideally, we'd pad it to fifteen percent to cover any unforeseen shortfalls."
And to do that?
War. One unlike anything seen before.
We take the plan the Demon King is already advancing and escalate it dramatically.
And one more thing.
"Expand the scale of the war. And kill the Hero."
Black twitched.
Right, of course he'd object to killing the Hero.
But this is where I can't budge.
"Before the System collapses, we shut down the Hero System. Reclaiming the energy invested in the Hero System should recover roughly three percent."
Three percent sounds like nothing, but in actual energy terms, it's an enormous amount.
I'd really like to secure that.
Besides, eliminating the Hero raises the Demon King's survival rate considerably.
The Hero exists to defeat the Demon King.
That's a rule that transcends power differentials.
The Demon King will always be defeated by the Hero.
Even if the current Demon King can defeat this generation's Hero, there will be the next, and the next after that.
With each successive generation, the Demon King's odds only go down.
This isn't about Skills or Status — it's baked into the system's design.
I don't think the current Demon King would lose to this generation's Hero, though.
But better safe than sorry.
"So we must produce that many sacrifices?"
"Technically, this all falls on the Administrator — on Black — for being negligent."
At my words, Black's expression twisted.
Harsh, I know.
It's true that if Black had done his job properly, we wouldn't be in this situation.
But there was no way he could have done that.
Just like the Demon King, he was a pitiful man who prioritized the Goddess's kindness above all else.
And because of that kindness, this world has been pushed to the brink of destruction.
What an irony.
You could even call it absurd.
So I'll destroy it all.
I'm not lying.
If we sacrifice the System, this world's energy will be replenished.
The thing is, destroying the System means erasing every Skill and Status in this world.
It means forcibly reclaiming what is rooted in people's souls.
Which means those with many Skills and high Status will place an enormous burden on their souls during reclamation.
Just like the Teacher from before.
I'm not lying.
Destroy the System, and the world is saved.
But the price is that a great number of the world's inhabitants will die.
And I'm saying nothing about it.