With the question of why exactly I picked this place in particular at the forefront of my thoughts, I gazed up at the world tree, absurdly tall as always.

“Why’re we here, Master?” Davna asked, tilting her head. Nyx, who seemed to have chosen my shoulder as a perch, made a similar expression of puzzlement.

Good question.

Well, I was able to come up with a convincing enough excuse with little trouble, anyway.

“To avoid prying eyes. Come, follow me.”

With a couple of leaps, I was already high in the tree’s branches, and a couple more brought me above the clouds. Davna opted to use her wings, instead.

Some of the elves tending to the tree—they looked to be high priests or something—looked at me with apprehension in their eyes as I climbed, but since none of them had the backbone to call out to me, I ignored them and soon left their vision.

I stopped once I judged we were high enough, took a quick look around—sadly, though Lady Entropy’s castle was big, it was not big enough to be seen from here, even if it lay above the cloud line—and cleared my throat.

“GAME.”

«Understood.»

«Goddess of Darkness, Entropy has bestowed upon you the Aspect of Improvement. You will gain three skills.»

«You have gained the skill [Improve]. Improve all parameters of yourself and as many allies as you like. It lasts an hour. The more targets you choose, the more mana is consumed.»

«You have gained the skill [Reinforce]. Wrap yourself and as many allies as you like in a protective film of light. It lasts for an hour and reduces all damage taken. The more targets you choose, the more mana is consumed.»

«You have gained the skill [Miasma Sword]. Wrap the weapons of yourself and as many allies as you like in all-corroding darkness. It lasts for an hour and increases all damage dealt, in addition to applying the darkness attribute to all attribute-less attacks. The more targets you choose, the more mana is consumed.»

An all-rounder buff, a defense buff and an offense buff… Well, they were not useless.

«You have evolved into the ‘Divine’-Grade species Prince of Darkness. Magical and mental parameters will increase greatly. Physical and spiritual parameters will increase. Your soul will be refined. You will gain new skills, and your existing skills will improve.»

Without even a shred of my consent, my wings appeared. They were even less logically-shaped now, but more importantly, I found I could not put them away. It seemed they were a permanent feature, perhaps all the way until I gained the ability to change shape at will. At least they folded away into a relatively compact form.

«The skill [Overlord’s Authority] has evolved into the skill [Dark Prince’s Authority]. You may give absolute orders of up to fifty words that monsters of the 9th rank or below or equivalent rankless magical beings must obey. If a monster is 7th rank or below, or a magical being without a rank has equivalent power, you may ravage its soul, leaving only loyalty to you. Such puppets will no longer have any autonomy, although it is possible for you to return their autonomy to them. More detailed manipulation of souls is also possible—you may interfere with even the smallest of parts.»

Magical beings without ranks? Few candidates came to mind, but the place we were in just happened to be filled with them…

«The skill [Aura of the Overlord] has evolved into the skill [Aura of the Dark Prince]. Passive: your mana is of much higher density and purity. You may lower or heighten the threshold for your mana to turn into miasma at will. Spreading mana into the environment for any purpose is second nature to you. If your mana is run into certain equipment, such as a crown, a staff, or a cape, you will gain the impression of being a ‘ruler’. Magical beings under a certain power threshold will instinctively submit to you.»

Miasma at will, or absurd amounts of mana without a hint of corruption. Ridiculous mana control. The impression of a ruler, along with instinctual submission… This skill on its own was just unfair.

«You have gained the skill [Dark Prince’s Etiquette]. Passive: you will inherently understand how to perform actions that may be considered high-class. Performing these activities will cause you to give off an aura of refinement. Examples include dancing, polite language, dinner etiquette and chantless casting.»

… This skill off-handedly granted me the ability to cast magic without chanting? These things were getting more broken by the second.

«As you have taken significant steps towards becoming a god, more features of GAME will be made available.»

«You may now make use of the GAME feature ‘Suggestion’. It is a feature which can tell you the actions that are likely to lead to a desired outcome. Your knowledge will be supplemented with knowledge from the Akashic Records.»

«You may now access the Akashic Records. Unless you have specific permission, forbidden files may not be accessed. The interface will be based on previous experiences and your intelligence level. Taking those into account, I have created a computer interface.»

«You have been granted access to the forbidden file “Luciel’s Origins: A report on the events of 9.118 A.A.”. This is something I have done at my own discretion.»

It was granting me permissions at its own discretion, now. The world’s system acting on its own, and in my favour no less…

In any case.

Davna and Nyx were looking at me with puzzled gazes, but I just gave them a few rubs on the head before clearing my throat.

“GAME. The Akashic Records.”

«Understood.»

A translucent window, similar to the status system. Complete with a keyboard. A bit of prodding lead me to the conclusion the keyboard was functional, and it was essentially a search bar.

“Then, I suppose I shall have a look…”

Fuck off.

In consideration for Davna’s upbringing… Well, not really, I had all but forgotten she was even there, but I did not say it out loud in any case.

“Master? What’s wrong? Your face is really scary…”

I failed to acknowledge her presence.

“GAME. Verify the integrity of that file.”

«‘Verification’ has not yet been unlocked. However, as I am the one who granted you access, I declare that that is a factual recording of events.»

The sound of a fist striking wood resounded through the air.

“M-Master…?”

Yet again, I did not even hear her voice. Without a single reasonable thought in my head, I spread out my wings, and—

The world tree I left behind had one fewer branch than before, a burn mark in its place.

The direct route from the world tree to Sylph’s shrine was, for the most part, uninhabited.

Given I spent much of the time above the clouds, this figured. The only things I encountered were the occasional stray birds with poor luck.

I could not be bothered to find the door, so I entered through the nearest window and arrived right back at the Heroes’ and Salamander’s side.

As might be natural, the Heroes and Salamander were arguing about something or other. I could not bring myself to care. Feno and Ilgri stood off to the side, not very invested.

“Salamander.”

Had I been in a state of mind to think about it, the coldness of my voice would likely have surprised even me.

“Wh-what’s up, Lord Astaroth…?”

The mage and the sword-wielder seemed to forget all about their little argument with Salamander and froze in place.

“Out of my way,” I hissed in the Heroes’ general direction before grabbing Salamander’s wrist. “Come with me.”

“I-I’ll come with you, so let go, that hurts!”

“Shut it.” She recoiled a little, but she did stop struggling—I may have been no match for a real god, but she herself had ridiculed me on the idea of a full god descending to the surface world. “Why, pray tell, are you two still in the way, and why is that door still closed?”

The Heroes, at my polite smile, practically dove out of the way, and the elf guards on either side of the door—probably more high priests or whatever—opened the door with trembling hands.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that I threw Salamander into her throne before reconstructing my own.

Sylph appeared still to be sleeping, so I tried out my new skill and cursed her without so much as a chant.

“[Darkness-Attribute Magic: Curse of Sleeplessness].”

“Mmh… Lord Astaroth?” Sylph said, rubbing her eyes. “Mwu… If you do that, I can’t-” she interrupted herself with a yawn- “Sleep.”

“That is the point, Sylph.”

“Lord Astaroth,” Salamander said, “is there any particular… reason you’ve decided to drop the honorifics?”

“Why should I show deference to the subordinates of my equal?”

A clearly uncomfortable expression on her face. “Could it be you’ve…”

“Yes. GAME has granted me access to the Akashic Records, as well as “Luciel’s Origins”.”

The goddesses looked to each other, then back to me.

And then they both sat up straight, serious expressions on their faces. With that unusually grave expression, Salamander spoke, “Sadly, everything in that file is true.”

I snapped.

“Then why are you not doing anything?!”

“Like what?! Luciel controls more than three-fourths of the humans! It’s not like we let Astal get that big because we wanted to!”

“If you keep waiting, both that number and the kingdom are just going to get bigger!”

“You try coming up with a plan in our situation, you overdramatic baby! If we fight her, we’ll just get annihilated! We need a champion!”

“Wha- If you cannot beat her, what will a ‘champion’ accomplish?!”

“The champion is you! As long as we have you, we can motivate Entropy to-”

An unpleasant gust of wind struck my face—judging from Salamander’s sudden stop, the same applied. A moment later, three small bodies piled onto me in what I would loosely describe as a group hug—from what I could tell, one was furry and a fair bit colder than a normal body temperature.

“Fighting is, bad?” Sylph said, shaking her head. “Don’t.”

Though her words rang true, I was more interested in the idiot trio who had somehow gotten into this room—at least, that was the only identity I could think of.

I pulled them off me and set them in front of me.

Indeed, the idiot trio—that is, Asami, Nexu, and Alpine. It seemed the one with the low body temperature was Alpine.

“Asami I can understand,” I said, “but how did you two get in here?”

“The president gave permission,” Nexu said.

“Hmm.” I shook my head. “And why are you here?”

“Davna told us you looked really scary,” Asami said, “so Nexu said we should come and calm you down.”

Nexu, in turn, looked away, a faint blush on his face.

“In that case, I think your job is done. I am plenty calm now.” I stroked them on their heads in turn. “That said…”

“Leave the important stuff to the adults, right?” Asami said, a cheerful smile on her face. “Got it! If you feel angry again, just tell us and we’ll hug you again!”

With some cheerful waves, they left the shrine.

I hated to admit it, but they were right, of course. While it was indeed true that this whole affair was truly disgusting, enough to make me want to wretch, it would do no good to shout at Salamander.

Careful thought and consideration were needed. Even if I eliminated Luciel as circumstances were right now, I would quickly find myself in her position.

Indeed, I would need to get the world to like me. Ruling a few places through force and fear was all well and good, but that was not viable on a global scale.

Thus, I should strike an alliance with the elves and the drakonids, now that I was here anyway…

“Um, Lord Astaroth?” Salamander said, “It’s very nice that you’ve started thinking rationally, but if you’re going to just think to yourself in silence, I might as well go back out and continue my, ahem, discussion with the Heroes, right?”

‘Discussion’? It looked like a fight was about to break out any second. To have the Heroes die here would be an issue, too…

“No, no,” I said, shaking my head. “There is still much to be talked about. For example… Ah, yes. You spoke of a ‘champion’ just now, yes?”

I assumed my usual, arrogant, semi-dignified position—one leg over the other, sitting straight up, a smirk on my face.

“Right, right. As I was saying, we need a champion if we wanna defeat Luciel.”

“And why is that?”

“To unite,” Sylph said, apparently deciding she was part of the conversation as well—a good thing, if anything— “the races? Probably.”

“Yup, that’s one point,” Salamander said, “and then there’s the matter of Lady Entropy.”

“Hmm…?” I said, licking my lips in what was probably a very creepy gesture, “by all means, do tell me more.”

“Gotcha. She blames herself, see. She thinks it’s her fault, how this all played out. It’s not, but good luck convincing her from our position. We couldn’t get through to her, so she locked herself away.” Her head hung low, as though the shame belonged to herself rather than someone else. “And then, because she was absent, things just got worse, ‘n she blames herself for that, too…”

“In other words, you are saying she became a shut-in,” I said in an entirely blank tone.

“W-well, yeah, that’s about the gist of it.”

“But-” Sylph said, before interrupting herself with a yawn, “Now she’s, coming out more? Probably. At least, there’s more monsters who’ve seen her?”

That was the result of my actions… It seemed I had already been conforming to that ‘champion’ or whatever role without even knowing.

“Then, one more question.”

“Mhph?”

“Sure, shoot.”

“Why are you two not helping me, again?”

Several seconds of silence.

Dry, uncomfortable silence. Even the various spirits froze where they were.

“We can’t fight her, if that’s what you mean,” Salamander said. “Just, fundamentally speaking. When she split off, she stole Lady Entropy’s commanding authority over us… Lady Entropy never used it, but you bet Luciel will if she gets the chance. At that point, we’d be more of a hazard than an ally.”

Narrowing my eyes, I raised a hand to one of the divine symbols on my face.

“Ah, don’t worry ‘bout those. The individual power in them isn’t strong enough to count as ‘divine’, so they’re fine. Of course, anythin’ you get from Luciel or Lady Entropy doesn’t fall under it, either. Just us four.”

“Right… But surely there must be something you can give me that is not directly related to you.”

“Like what? Give me some examples here, Lord Astaroth. Even if you just tell me to think of something…”

“Then, take Claiomh Solais, out front. It can probably cut at its target’s ‘true essence’, or something along those lines… Well, I am not sure exactly what it does, but surely you have some manner of powerful equipment you could give me?”

“Well, it’s not like we couldn’t make divine relics, but anythin’ more powerful than those rings’ll just…”

“Ah,” Sylph said, an expression on her face as if she had had the best idea in centuries. “We can’t, give him weapons… But, our races, don’t belong to us, right…? Then, their materials…”

“Sylph, that’s it!” Salamander said, “We can’t help you make a sword, but we can give you the materials you need to make your own!”

Materials… A fetch quest? Well, as long as it brings me closer…

“Make my own sword?”

“Yeah! If you took a branch of the world tree and some Spirit Steel, forged a blade in Drakonian Fire and then quenched it in Origin Water, you’ve got four of the six attributes already. You and Lady Entropy have got light and darkness, so it shouldn’t be impossible to make a weapon that has all six attributes! I’m not sure what that’ll do, but…”

A fascinating prospect. A weapon that contained all six attributes…

“I am going to assume that Spirit Steel belongs to the dwarves, while Origin Water belongs to the mermaids? Regardless, I shall accept your gifts.”

“Ah, those assumptions are spot-on.”

And in the end, it does still come down to a fetch quest.