For Duanmu Huai, killing the white whale was easy—but cleaning up this mess was a real problem.
After killing the white whale and Goddess Alice, Duanmu Huai reclaimed the world's creative authority and began rewriting the settings of the entire world.
First and foremost, naturally, were the gods.
Only after killing the white whale did Duanmu Huai fully understand the divine system it had created.
Simply put, the white whale had first used parts of its own body to create the Three Super Gods. Acting as its avatars, they were responsible for creating the species the whale desired.
Super God Harmonite created the gods, angels, and Kara.
Super God Planar created monsters, the Demon King, and the Hero System.
Super God Loben Pan created the Ball-Ball Tribe, dragons, humans, dwarves, and other races.
Incidentally, those walking televisions and similar things Duanmu Huai had first seen in this world were not monsters created by the Three Super Gods. They were native species—strictly speaking, those things counted as "animals."
Another side note: demons were not the same as the demon race. Demons originated from leftover residue when the white whale first created the Three Super Gods. Therefore, demons deeply hated the gods—but conversely, they did not hate humans that much.
This was the opposite of the demon race. The demon race deeply hated humans but had no particular hatred toward the gods.
Beneath the Three Super Gods were the Eight Eternal Gods, essentially their subordinates. They did not interfere with the surface world.
Next came the Level 1 and Level 2 Gods.
At the top had been Goddess Alice, whom Duanmu Huai had already killed, and the extremely important Level God, responsible for raising human levels.
Because Duanmu Huai had completely killed the white whale, its avatars—the Three Super Gods and the Eight Eternal Gods—were destroyed as well. Among the Level 1 Gods, only the Level God survived, since she had originally ascended from humanity.
Perhaps because of her human origin, the moment she saw Duanmu Huai, the Level God immediately knelt and begged for mercy. Considering she had not participated in harming humanity—and that leveling up was crucial to this world—Duanmu Huai spared her.
Handling the Saintess Monsters, however, gave him a bit of a headache.
The Saintess Monsters were creations of the Three Super Gods. Their purpose was to mate with others, absorb genetic material, and give birth to new monsters. In a sense, these four Saintess Monsters were the mothers of all male and female monsters on the continent…
In the end, Duanmu Huai decided to erase their powers and turn them into humans. Otherwise, he couldn't just let them keep reproducing endlessly… there had to be a limit.
As for the female monsters—depending on circumstances, their race could be preserved. If they bore no hostility toward humans, they could even be accepted as demi-human races.
But male monsters were a different matter. At least female monsters still looked human.
As for male monsters… well, looking at those red sausage-like things with a single eye, Duanmu Huai didn't need to check their skulls to know they had nothing to do with humanity.
Moreover, compared to female monsters, male monsters were more aggressive toward humans. Better to eliminate them outright.
As for the demons, Duanmu Huai had originally intended to negotiate. Unfortunately, although demons bore no malice toward humans, their goal was to overthrow the gods and rule the world themselves…
So there was nothing to discuss. He killed the Demon King of demons, and the rest scattered like birds and beasts.
After that, two issues remained.
The Demon King—and the demon race army.
Right now, Duanmu Huai's biggest headache was the Demon King. Though he now possessed authority to remove Demon King blood, he still had to find the person. But the little Demon King was nowhere to be seen, leaving him with nowhere to apply his power. Worst case, he could just wait. Ultimately, she was still mortal—she couldn't suppress the violent Demon King blood forever. If necessary, he'd wait until she fully transformed, then deal with her.
As for the demon race army… Duanmu Huai wanted to eradicate it completely. But after some thought, he decided that the world's affairs should be handled by its own people.
Thus—
"A coalition army?"
Inside the Inquisition's conference room, everyone looked shocked.
"That's right."
Duanmu Huai nodded.
"In Herman, our joint army performed well. This time, we can scale it up. With the Inquisition at the head, Lisas, Sest, Herman, and the Free Cities Alliance will form a grand coalition. We will march into the Demon Realm, kill those arrogant demon lords and demon race forces, and drive them completely from this continent!"
"This…"
Before they could recover from the shock, Duanmu Huai dropped another bomb.
"Of course, this won't be unpaid labor. After victory, each side may choose territory in the Demon Realm according to their contribution. Everything there will belong to you. First come, first served. If you drag your feet, that's another matter."
"Darling, you don't plan to rule the Demon Realm yourself?"
Lia asked curiously.
Duanmu Huai shook his head.
"The Inquisition is not a ruling power. It's not our role. Of course, if you're unwilling, that's fine… I'll have Manaria and Regnis participate instead. Once the demon race is eliminated, the land will go to them."
He smiled at Guleya, who lowered her head shyly. In fact, after hearing his proposal, she had already considered following Filene's example and establishing a homeland for dragonkin. Such a thing wasn't possible in Regnis—but here, it was.
"I'm in! I'm in!"
Lia immediately jumped up.
"Lisas joins the coalition! We're the strongest nation in the world—we're not afraid!"
She cast a provocative glance at Sest's princess, Magico.
"Of course, Sest is still rebuilding and short on manpower. I understand…"
"What nonsense! Sest never said we wouldn't join!"
Magico leapt up as if her tail had been stepped on. Sest bordered the Demon Realm. If they abstained and Lisas won and chose their land, Sest would be sandwiched on both sides. That was unacceptable.
Even if Sest was rebuilding and short-handed, they could still squeeze out one army.
"Th-this…"
Watching Magico and Lia clash, Herman's Emperor Shira hesitated—but finally resolved herself.
"I'll speak with General Kriorev. Herman will not be absent."
Though Herman had vast lands, they were barren and harsh. If they could seize the fertile Demon Realm, their people's lives might improve. Though the nation had just ended civil war, Shira steeled herself.
Finally, Copan Winter joined on behalf of the Free Cities Alliance. A coalition required unified logistics—and they had experience.
Of course, nations dared attempt this partly because of the Inquisition's power in Herman's civil war. Duanmu Huai hadn't even deployed Sky City against humans. Against demons, he certainly would.
A grand coalition of Sky City and steel legions might truly eradicate the demon threat once and for all.
Forming such an army would take time. Duanmu Huai told them to return and deliberate. He himself returned to his warship to study his new divine authority: [God of Joy].
At first, he hadn't thought about how to raise its experience.
But soon he noticed something strange.
The authority was gaining experience on its own.
Yes—even though the progress bar crawled at 0.001%, like a snail—it was increasing.
Earlier, it had even accelerated, jumping to 0.015%!
That's weird. I didn't do anything. Why is it gaining experience?
He opened the system log.
The only clue was that in the past three hours, there had been a large influx of experience notifications—mostly small amounts like "Gained 100 EXP" or "Gained 50 EXP"—but collectively significant.
Why???
What did I do? I did nothing! Where is this EXP coming from?
Walking down the corridor, Duanmu Huai pondered.
Just then, a cheerful voice sounded beside him.
"Ah, big brother, good evening!"
"Oh, Teio."
Seeing Tokai Teio step out smiling, he nodded.
"Still not asleep?"
"Mm, just finished streaming. Going to rest."
"Mm… mm?"
Duanmu Huai froze.
"How long did you stream?"
"Just now? Three hours."
"… … …"
Silently, Duanmu Huai scrolled back through the system log to three hours ago.
Sure enough—that was when [God of Joy] experience began accelerating.
Which meant—
He looked at the system log.
Then at Tokai Teio.
Completely dumbfounded.
So the EXP… was from her?
(End of Chapter)