In a way, when I found out that Sophocles hadn"t come here in order to kill me… or at least, his main goal wasn"t to kill me, then I already knew what this would be about.What would a Chaos Main G.o.d possibly have to chat with me about? The weather was quite nice today? How about we go out for a walk together?
Chaos Main G.o.ds would only be interested in slaughter and souls, and how to better conquer territory in the mortal plane. On a grander scale, basically they would only be interested in how to obtain more power, a higher status, and even more territory.
Did this sound quite similar to how a wild beast would behave? The Chaos Abyss was ruled by the law of the jungle, so this indeed created a large number of highly intelligent wild beasts.
Sophocles might be known as the slyest and most intelligent demon who was the demon that was closest to being a devil, but foundationally speaking, he was still a demon. What demons wanted and needed was something I knew better than anyone.
"Afu, which powerful demon do you want to kill that it requires my a.s.sistance?"
That was right, I was certain that he was here to betray one of his allies. For the most powerful demons, their true mortal enemies were never anyone in the mortal plane, but rather other residents of the Chaos Abyss.
Back in the Chaos Abyss, they had forever been at war with each other. When talking about grudges and clashes of benefits, the demons themselves would be each other"s true mortal enemies.
As for their battle with the mortal plane? From a certain standpoint, maybe it was quite accurate to describe the Order Faction in terms of a "war" between one country and another, but using the same description on the Chaos Faction would be quite laughable.
Considering the context of the overall situation? Being willing to sacrifice oneself for the sake of the greater good? What a joke! How would I benefit if I sacrificed myself? If I thought about the overall situation, would other b.a.s.t.a.r.ds do the same? Long-term benefits? We care about the long term? In this war, everyone was fighting for the same territory by force!
From the very start, the Chaos Faction couldn"t even be described as a pile of loose sand. They consisted of b.a.s.t.a.r.ds who would attack members of their own side at any moment. This was the foundational reason why the Order Faction had been able to maintain a subtle balance with the Chaos Faction for so long despite the Order Faction actually being far weaker overall than the Chaos Faction.
Of course, the Order Faction wasn"t much better. The Holy Church had just betrayed San Antonio. There was also the previous anti-Mist Alliance Divine Northern Battlefront Alliance that the Holy Church had established. I also couldn"t remember just how many pitfalls I had previously dug for the Holy Church. Plus, Seraphim Winton had just tried to a.s.sa.s.sinate me recently… But at the very least, on the surface we would still all appear to be "allies". Even if we had just both tried to backstab each other before going to sleep, on the next day, if neither of us were dead, we would still smile and eat breakfast together in a friendly manner.
"Are you trying to compare who"s worse?" Harloys commented.
"Indeed, this is comparing who"s actually worse. That"s how it is for most things in the world, especially for something like war. Isn"t war just a comparison of who"s more foolish and who makes more mistakes?"
When compared to the Chaos Faction, the Order Faction already seemed pretty good. At the very least, those of the Order Faction were still invisibly bound by certain rules and morals. It wasn"t to the extent where anyone who showed weakness would instantly be devoured by a pack of ravenous wolves.
And with the disappearance of the will of the Chaos Abyss, all of the most powerful Chaos Faction existences no longer had any restrictions at all. However, some things still wouldn"t change. When they came to the mortal plane, they would all still have the same goal, wanting to conquer everything.
Their benefits would be a direct and b.l.o.o.d.y clash against the benefits of those in the mortal plane. It was a relations.h.i.+p like that between the hunter and the hunted, the invader and the invaded. Anyone who was known to be connected to demons would immediately become a mortal enemy of the entire mortal plane.
With this as the backdrop, Sophocles coming to find me meant that he definitely wouldn"t be hoping that I would target some faction or individual in the mortal plane. I would never possibly agree, even if the target was the Holy Church. This was for the greater good of the entire world. Anyone who broke this unspoken rule would be inviting endless trouble.
"…So, if you"re looking for me, but not trying to kill me, then it can only be for the purpose of setting a pitfall for one of your allies."
Sophocles was currently standing before me in the form of a middle-aged gentleman with slightly dark skin and two horns on his head. He even had a pair of gold-rimmed eyegla.s.ses to help him pretend to be gentlemanly.
He even brought out a white wooden table covered by a parasol that we were sitting at in a stretch of endless barren wasteland. Sophocles was trying his very best to pretend to be gentlemanly in his human form as he was even drinking tea while reading a newspaper.
He frowned when he heard my comment. Just what was Roland saying?
Betraying his ally? But, that person was no ally to begin with. Sophocles organized his thoughts for quite a while before he finally stated his objective.
"…Karwenz is far too dangerous."
That was how Sophocles began his description. Just what exactly had Karwenz done in order to make a Chaos Main G.o.d view him as dangerous, when Chaos Main G.o.ds would view destruction as a normal daily occurrence?
"…He"s trying to shatter the dimensional barriers protecting the entire Eich universe?"
I was the one who said that in a definite tone rather than Sophocles.
I figured that I already knew why Sophocles had come to visit me.
Sophocles paused in surprise for a moment, but then showed an expression that this was only natural. It seemed that he was also expecting that I already knew some of what was happening.
"…Mortal, I have seen countless talented individuals throughout the endless eons, but none have ever been comparable to you two brothers. Even Karolan from back in the day wasn"t as ridiculous as either of you. In such a short 400 years, both of you have grown to such an extent…"
As expected, any undying individuals would always love to chat about old history when they started chatting. Even demons were no exception.
Such a short 400 years? Did he even have any idea of what I had experienced over the past 400 years?
I smiled without responding since I knew that he wouldn"t care at all just what a mortal had experienced. The upcoming topic of discussion was what this expert schemer truly cared about.
Not long ago, Sophocles and Karwenz had just teamed up together in a scheme against San Antonio. But now, Sophocles was immediately trying to backstab Karwenz, so Sophocles must have definitely obtained something already.
"…I am not from the first generation of immemorial demons who experienced the most ancient Holy War of all. However, I have previously devoured immemorial demons and learned from their memories about how powerful and frightening the invaders from other universes could be. I have no desire to meet such powerful enemies like in the memories…"
Sophocles described the ancient dimensional invaders and how powerful and frightening they could be, how they destroyed everything that they came across, demolis.h.i.+ng all cities and devouring all the residents… but wasn"t this identical to what demons would do?
It seemed that Sophocles simply didn"t want any additional compet.i.tors from joining in.
"Most of all, Karwenz shouldn"t have tried to shatter the dimensional barriers. What "true evolution"? What "breaking past the Creator G.o.ddesses restrictions"? Those pretty words might be able to fool some young demons from this new generation, but saying such useless things to me…"
Sophocles was now chatting on and on, with lots of anger and complaints. In a way, he probably had it really hard as well, as he was one of the really rare highly intelligent powerful demons, while the rest of his own kind were all really berserk and chaotic musclebrains.
I wouldn"t treat his complaints or whatever as real, but judging from the current situation, he was indeed intent on killing Karwenz in order to foundationally remove the threat of someone wanting to shatter the dimensional barriers.
Even a demon wanted to save the world right now. Wasn"t there something wrong with the style?
Sophocles then naturally thought of me in his plan to kill off Karwenz, who was incredibly difficult to deal with to an almost unfathomable extent. According to Sophocles, there was one other Chaos Main G.o.d who had also agreed to help in this plan to "eliminate that maniac".
As long as we found an opportunity to ambush him as three against one, then even Karwenz wouldn"t have a chance of victory, Sophocles claimed.
Since Sophocles was saying so much, it also meant that in his mind, I was pretty much on par with a Chaos Main G.o.d.
I indeed wanted his information"s a.s.sistance, but I didn"t want to become his personal fighter, so I sunk into hesitation…