[You have completed the Main Mission - Power's Route (3):
Issei Hyoudou's Fate Similarity Index: 80% (Minimum required to complete the mission: 80%)]
[As long as the similarity index reaches the minimum requirement, you may end the mission at any time and return to your world, or try to raise it even further for better rewards]
Yuuji looked at the notification in front of him, surprised for a few seconds before turning to Lala.
"How did you do it?" he asked, unable to understand what had happened.
Knowing what he meant, Lala smiled confidently.
"Hehe, Yuuji, you don't know how rulers think. So, as the daughter of the King of the Galaxy, allow me to explain" said Lala before beginning her explanation. "A ruler considers two things when taking someone as a subordinate.
Their power and their control, which are actually closely related.
The easiest way to control someone is through power. No matter how dangerous someone is, as long as you can defeat them, they're just a useful tool.
The problem usually comes from potential. If someone has the potential to surpass you, then taking them as a subordinate would be foolish. That's where control comes into play. Even if someone is ten times stronger than you, if you have a method to control them, then once again, they're just a useful tool.
Based on what you've told me, Issei falls into the second category. He has the potential to become very strong, but he's easy to control through both the chess pieces and his lust."
"But we were the ones who introduced him to them. Won't they think it's a trap?" Yuuji asked.
"They will" Lala nodded.
"Then..."
"But they won't care." Seeing Yuuji's confused expression, Lala continued explaining. "Because the fact that it's a trap isn't confirmed. Once that happens, it stops being a fact and becomes a risk.
This is where what we said earlier comes into play, the fact that he's easy to control, the fact that when they investigate him everything will point toward it not being a trap, and finally, his enormous potential as the Red Dragon Emperor. All of that reduces the risk and increases the rewards more and more.
And a ruler acts when the potential rewards are greater than the risks."
"Ooooh, amazing" said Yuuji, clapping with exaggerated dramatics.
"I know, I'm amazing" said Lala, puffing out her chest proudly. "Do I deserve a reward?"
"I'll think about it when we get back" Yuuji joked.
"Eh? Why not now?" Lala pouted and threw herself at him.
[Master, I have the information.]
Upon hearing Mona, Yuuji stopped joking around and became serious.
He sat upright on the sofa as if that somehow made the matter more serious, while Lala simply took the opportunity to get more comfortable leaning against him at his side.
"Go ahead."
[It all started at the end of the Great War, there...]
During the next hour, Mona dedicated herself to explaining the current state of the world to Yuuji and Lala, which Yuuji could only describe as catastrophic.
After the Great War, the demon population was greatly reduced, and their low fertility made it impossible to replenish their race through reproduction alone.
As a contingency measure, Ajuka Beelzebub, one of the current Four Maou, created the Evil Pieces. A system in which every high-ranking demon receives a set of chess pieces that allows them, for each piece, to reincarnate a member of another race into a demon as their subordinate. Not only expanding their race, but also empowering the strong even further.
One of the races most coveted by them is, of course, humans with Sacred Gears. After all, Sacred Gears are literally artifacts stolen by the Biblical God from other mythologies and transformed into tools before being forcibly implanted into the souls of random humans.
Up to this point, everything was normal. The plot remained the same. The problem was that, because of their intervention, the demon race developed a weakness that other races exploited during the Great War, resulting in their numbers being reduced far more than in the original storyline.
If the demons in the original story were already psychopaths who treated their subordinates like slaves, here they were even worse. Moving like vampires through the Human Realm searching for blood and preying on anyone they could find.
Humanity did not take long to notice this and, while they were planning how to defend themselves, another race extended a helping hand.
A race that had profited greatly during the Great War and knew what it was like to be treated as slaves by demons.
The Youkai.
Thus, the Anti-Demonic Alliance was formed, an alliance between the human race and the Youkai race dedicated to exterminating any demon they discovered daring to set foot on Earth.
Using a mixture of human technology, Youkai magic, and Sacred Gears, they managed to keep the demons at bay, entering a state of balance between the two groups.
Even so, the current level of hatred between both sides was such that the moment either side obtained something capable of breaking that balance of power, they would declare total war and destroy the opposing faction.
"...and I just gave them exactly that" Yuuji muttered.
[Indeed.]
"That's right."
"I didn't need confirmation, you know?" Yuuji complained before sighing and closing his eyes as he leaned back on the sofa in the rented room.
Simply thinking and thinking.
...
"What are you doing?"
After a few minutes, Yuuji opened his eyes and found Lala's face only centimeters away from his own, staring directly into his eyes.
"I'm thinking about how the hell to solve this problem."
"Isn't that obvious?" Lala asked, confused.
Hearing that, Yuuji's eyes widened in understanding.
'Right, if it's about races at war, she should know more.'
"Lala!" Yuuji said, sitting up abruptly and grabbing her hands hopefully. "Do you know how to solve this?"
"Let's see..." Lala thought. "My father says the easiest way to stop a war between two races is to conquer both of them and forbid them from fighting, but... it doesn't seem like we want to do that, right?"
"No."
"Then the best option would be to balance the power between those two races. I have two options for that. First, we kill Issei, returning things to the status quo between both sides."
"Impossible. If we do that, we won't be able to return to our world" Yuuji rejected immediately.
"I thought so" Lala nodded. "Then the second option. Just as we increased the power of the demon race, let's also increase the power of the Anti-Demonic Alliance.
And about that, the Red Dragon Emperor was one of those two dragons fighting during the Great War, right? If God made a Sacred Gear out of him, wouldn't there also be one from his rival?"
Hearing that, Yuuji thought it was feasible, but upon hearing the target, he immediately shook his head.
"That's impossible."
"Why?"
"Because I am the White Dragon Emperor" Yuuji replied.
"Eh? You... never mind." Lala decided not to say anything. Every few days Yuuji would show or tell her about new powers, so she already knew how strange some of them could be.
"But it's a good idea. Let's just change the target" Yuuji said, taking an item out of his inventory.
It was a long, slender sword with a silver blade and a refined, pristine appearance. Its guard had a symmetrical blue and gold design resembling wings. The handle was wrapped in a dark navy-blue material and ended in a simple yet majestic golden pommel.
"What's this? It looks like the ultimate RPG sword" Lala asked while lifting it with interest.
"Excalibur, the Sword of Promised Victory" Yuuji replied.
"Eh? But wasn't Excalibur a massive two-handed sword with a rough and powerful appearance? How did it become elegant and refined?"
"That was the one from our dimension. This one is from another."
"Is it from this one?"
"No."
Lala stared at Yuuji for a few seconds, unsure what to say.
"So you just go around collecting artifacts from different dimensions?"
"Haha, it's a bit difficult to explain how I got it" said Yuuji. "The point is that this sword is literally the crystallization of human faith, activated by that same faith, which means demons can't use it. On top of that, it has several seals suppressing its power, and those seals can only be removed through determination."
"Determination?" Lala asked.
"Yeah. You know, when a protagonist is super determined to win no matter what while fighting powerful enemies to achieve their goal. That kind of determination."
"Isn't that a bit vague?"
"Well, it has more to do with human faith and the faith of other beings, the faith they have in you, the faith you have in yourself, the need for that power, the synergy between all of those things, and a bunch of other boring details. So let's just call it determination," Yuuji explained.
"I see. So you're just being vague because you're bad at explaining it" said Lala.
And honestly, she was right. Yuuji wasn't even sure what actually removed the sword's seals. The last time he held it, it had been nothing more than a beautiful decoration. Now its first seal had been released, and it was already quite powerful, to the point where simply wielding it allowed someone to defeat upper mid-class demons.
And the only reaction Yuuji had felt from it was when Kiba had been about to lose against Lala's dragon's attack. Once the first seal had been released, Yuuji had simply sensed everything that had happened in that moment through the sword and roughly determined what should work.
"So, what do you think? Does this balance the scales?" Yuuji asked somewhat worriedly.
"It's perfect!" Lala nodded. "Since it grows stronger whenever it's necessary, that means that even if the balance tilts toward the demons once Issei becomes stronger, the Anti-Demonic Alliance will also become stronger as a result."
"Thank goodness. Thank God it works" Yuuji sighed.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
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(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)