Death... and me



On the northeast side of the Realm of Gods, the three forces kept advancing deeper into the Devil's Territory. However, moving billions of beings in a place as big as the Realm of Gods took time, so even though they had the advantage, progress was slow.

It wasn't a problem for them, though. From the very start, the Demon Beasts, Humanoids, and Spirits already expected a war to last decades or perhaps hundreds of years. As long as they could keep pushing forward with not many losses, they would eventually win.

Of course, the Devils knew that as well. They also had countless Devils who were living here already and were defending the frontlines. As the owners of the place, the Elder Devils worked to make this a war of attrition. They had access to the resources, while the attacking forces had to bring their own from far away. Just like that, the war continued at a slow pace.

Near the center of the Devils' Territory, there was a continent called Glunfitea. There, five Elder Devils gathered in a room, followed by thirty or so Space-Time Realm subordinates. Even though it would take a long time, they couldn't just wait until they were completely defeated. This meeting was to discuss a new plan regarding the outcome of the war.

"Abaddon, how is it? Do you think it will work?" One of the elder devils asked, looking at the devil on the main seat.

Abaddon nodded with a serious expression. "It should, Asmodeus. After so many years collecting Living Souls, their energy should prove to be big enough to pull off this strategy."

A female elder devil called Echidna couldn't help but express her concerns. "That's exactly the issue, right? During the time we dominated this region, we kept some of the produced Living Souls at a steady pace. Now, we can't even count of many of them are. If we truly try that, we might be shooting ourselves in the foot. Would we be able to stop such a thing?"

Ahriman, another Elder Devil, agreed with Echidna. "She is right, you know? You all remember very well just how much trouble Beelzebub caused us. He will eventually escape and appear in the Underworld again. If we go ahead with this plan, we will have to deal not with one, but two Soul Devils."

Ahriman then looked at the last Elder Devil. "Kanpishi, you aren't as good as Belial regarding soul cultivation, but you aren't that far. What do you think?"

Kanpishi shook his head in response. "Even I can't say the outcome. The plan is to create a Soul Devil and use all the collected souls to strengthen it. With that many souls, it sure will be a powerful ally. Perhaps even the five of us wouldn't be its match. However, all Soul Devils up to this day were born from dead souls. Not a single one of them came from living souls. I'm not even sure if Living Souls can give birth to Soul Devils."

Abaddon understood that. "I know. But the part about whether it will help us or not is irrelevant. That's because it will not be sentient enough to think about such things. You all know how Soul Devils work. They are a collection of all the memories of the souls used in their processes. That huge amount of information makes them go crazy for many years before they start to put consciousness together."

"What we need at the moment is exactly that. We need it to go crazy!" said Abbadon. "It is exactly because it will be made out of Living Souls that we are creating it here in the Realm of Gods. If there is one thing it won't lack, it is Living Souls. Perhaps it can grow strong enough to completely divert the attention of all the Divinity Realm cultivators of the Realm of Gods. Take Beelzebub as an example. In th end, sealing him was the best we could do, and his start wasn't so full of souls as this new Soul Devil will be."

"What if it diverts its attention and decides to attack our Devil Armies instead?" Echidna asked. "I know, it is made of Living Souls, so it truly shouldn't attack us while it doesn't have a stable sentience. It should follow its instinct and try to take Living Souls instead. Still, it is not guaranteed."

Abaddon didn't seem worried. "That's why we aren't going to try to create it here in our territory. Kanpishi and I will leave the control of the armies in your hands. Before, it was possible to tell if someone at the Elder Devil level entered your continent because of the fluctuations left in the Continental Barrier. However, the continental barrier that we relied on so much is now gone. It is bad for our defenses, but it isn't all bad news. Now we can definitely leave the Devils' Territory and enter the other three forces areas without being noticed. Since they opened a path for us, why shouldn't we use it?"

Kanpishi agreed with him. It was obvious that Abaddon had talked to him about this plan before calling everyone to the meeting. "The time to act is now. We are Devils, and Devils always put themselves as the highest priority. The Devils at the front lines are constantly fleeing as soon as they see things are turning worse, and that is speeding up the invasion. I know it will take many years until we reach a desperate situation, but I'm truly not in the mood to wait for that to happen."

Ahriman had to admit they were right. "This is good. However, there is another thing we are missing here. Let's say the plan works, and this new Soul Devil causes all the havoc in the Living Beings' territories. Then what? Exactly what will be our next steps when that happens? At some point, the Soul Devil will gain a stable consciousness, or the Divinity Realm enemies will find a way to deal with it. What can we do while they divert their attention away?"

Sure enough, that was a necessary question.