Countermeasures [Two worlds, you mean]

Ria stopped Serge there.

[Wait, Serge. I dont get what hes meaning by dimensional boundary.]

[Ah, its like SciFi stories. Its 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 oneor even bothwill 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 dont collide, changing the path of our branch. This is the purpose of the Millennium its probably right to think of it like that, at least.]

Then, Haruto said something even more impactful.

[By the way, the Millennium isnt 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? Theyre 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 worlds residents move over to this worlds other continents at the same time. That should allow us to get through Millenniums for a while.]

Thats all I have to say.

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

*

While Serge summed it up to the three people that didnt understand Japanese, Ria was lost in thought.

And so she thoughtwasnt that beyond arrogant? The arrogance needed to destroy a world.

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

An alternate route wasnt 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 wouldnt 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 ones.

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. Theres already no way to go but to cooperate at this point, is there?

Ria held out her handHaruto gripped it.

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

Now that shed heard his story this far, she felt that they didnt have to fight against humans in this Millennium.

Haruto smiled wryly at her question.

Well, its mainly because of population. The Demonlands couldnt feed any more demons. Our population control policies arent 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. Couldnt 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 dont 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 wars compromise.

The demons didnt particularly want to rule the humans. They simply wanted to have land to live on.

And even if it overlapped with human areas, there wasnt any problem with.

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 couldnt 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, didnt overstep their demands, and just want land?

Listening to the opinions of her civil officialsthat is, Guinevere and FioRia 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?

Isnt it better for you two to fight as you are?

Although it was actually just that Haruto didnt want to add uncontrollable elements to his war potential, the two agreed with her statement.

Regarding Casalia, theyd probably be able to work something out through Rias 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, wouldnt the other countries naturally back off?

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

Its not as though they would surrender to demons so simply. The people wouldnt stand for it.

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

Ria might be able to somehow deal with the controversy Casalias 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 wouldnt 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 couldnt 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?

Thats 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 Rias 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 wouldnt 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 wouldnt 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 its 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 thats a digression.