Chapter 27: heaven
Doris's system, the 'mark of justice,' was complex.
It took her a while to learn precisely how it works. First, the more intensely people felt emotions about 'justice,' the more points she received.
It didn't matter whether they felt angry or satisfied with her; as long as the emotions were intense, it worked.
Non-humans generally gave more points because they often felt stronger emotions due to their dislike of humans.
Non-humans have become more accustomed to humans in recent years, so the difference is negligible today.
Doris set up everything in the government to harvest as many points as possible. She allowed companies to commit crimes and secretly publicized their acts, then punished them, thereby reaping a lot of justice points.
Then, she spread the news that she secretly controlled the companies, causing many people to hate her. She subsequently arrested those who spread the gossip and 'justiced' them, harvesting a lot of points from those who hated her.
She also received a small number of points passively, depending on how people felt about her, but the amount was small.
She did her best to squeeze as many justice points as possible at every opportunity. The entire Robels kingdom was her justice points farm.
But still, it wasn't nearly enough! Items in rank 7 were far too expensive.
Doris planned to use this opportunity to enlist the help of rank 9 mages to expand her justice point base. It was a risk, but without taking this risk, she would be destined to remain in rank 7 for countless years.
She wouldn't die of old age, but now that many high-ranking mages were present, she could be killed.
"My method of obtaining the spell crystal involves harvesting mortal emotions. This special method I've devised requires mortals to experience intense emotions, which is why I was so focused on ruling over them," she explained.
Dyer was paying attention to her luck and realized that her statements were true and false.
Another rank 9 mage, Elaine Eaton, who specialized in the fragment law of motionlessness, which is composed of the way of ice and coldness, spoke, "How many mortals are we talking about?"
Doris answered, "Perhaps millions of times the current population of this continent."
Everyone nodded. For a rank 10 magic crystal, it wasn't strange that it would require so many.
Another rank 9 mage with black skin and white hair spoke.
She was Darcy Reese, one of the older mages present, specializing in the fragment law of void, a combination of the way of nothingness, emptiness, and imposing. She said, "There are many continents with many mortals; we should act quickly and colonize them."
The mage world was composed of innumerable continents separated by vast oceans.
Most were utterly devoid of pure energy, thus lacking any mages altogether. On these continents, mortals lived and thrived. Mages didn't need to interfere with them.
The most significant constraint on mage training was not the scarcity of talented individuals but the need for more resources.
Therefore, mages allowed mortals to live as they pleased and didn't intervene in mortal continents.
Dyer said, "Taking over that many continents would arouse suspicion. I suggest we inform other academies and enlist their help. Do you agree with me?" he asked.
Everyone agreed, and thus they began to plan. Doris was delighted that her plans had worked!
Dyer was paying attention to her and secretly observed his luck.
With surprise, he thought, "Why has my luck increased? Is Doris going to help me so much in the future?" He was very doubtful.
The next day, they began sending mages to other continents and spreading the message that Doris was the new King.
The system's requirement was for mortals to acknowledge her as their ruler, which could be achieved through the efforts of the mages.
…
The fourth day of the first month of the year 1000002
Today was the day of a great match between two royal demons. Many demons had come to watch the two fighters.
Zagronan asked, "This is going to work, right?"
"Yes, I've already checked. This is the best way," she said.
The pills helped increase the speed of breaking through.
However, there was no replacement when it came to royal demon blood. There was no pill named "Royal Blood Pill" that she could produce.
Right now, the only obstacle to breaking through was Royal blood. With it, she could quickly help Zagronan break through ranks 2 and 3.
"As I said, use only fire spells! Also, when she tries to run out of the arena to surrender, don't stop her," she said.
"Why are we fighting if we cannot kill her?" he asked in frustration.
"What we're aiming for is the next match that you get. If she dies, you'll get 5 points and miss the next opponent," she said.
Every win with the opponent surrendering gives 3 points, with the opponent dying giving 5 points, and every loss will decrease the points by 10. Each year's champion would get the opportunity to make one request from the baron.
The matches were set to start at the same time, so one could not know what happened in the other match to strategically let the opponent live or kill them.
But Rachel could see the future.
Zagronan agreed and went into the arena.
His opponent was a female demon who stood 4 meters tall.
She looked exactly like wood elves, only much bigger.
"That is the opponent?" Zagronan was stunned.
"Yeah, that's the one!" Rachel said.
"She is so beautiful!" he remarked.
Rachel was stunned.
"Pay attention! You could still lose if you're not careful! Use fire spells!" she shouted to wake him up.
Zagronan snapped out of it and prepared himself.
A loud bang sounded, and his opponent drew her mace and attacked like lightning! He dodged, but when the mace struck the ground, it made a loud bang.
Fortunately, the ground was made of reinforced material and could not be harmed by rank 1 demons.
"Fire spell," Rachel reminded him.
"Great-huge-double-ultra fireball!" he cast.
A massive fireball was shot towards the giant girl. She allowed the fireball to hit her and remained completely unharmed.
"Fire immunity?" Zagronan screamed.
"No, this is all an act! Fire is her weakness; continue with fire spells!" she said.
The giant girl didn't give him a chance, attacking with the mace at a much faster speed than before. Just as Zagronan was about to dodge, she shouted, "Mind distraction."
Zagronan felt his eyes go dark for a second, and when he could see again, it was already too late to dodge.
"Rock shield," he cast at the last moment.
He was a genius at spellcasting. If it had been anyone else, they probably wouldn't have been able to cast the spell at the last moment.
A rock shield appeared and blocked the mace. It broke, but by then, Zagronan was already gone.
The giant girl looked in the direction he had gone but saw another fireball coming. Her pupils dilated as she witnessed this.
She took this fireball without shielding it and rushed towards Zagronan.
But as she saw Zagronan preparing to use another fireball, she gave up and, with unbelievable speed, began running away, intending to exit the arena.
"Don't attack! Let her run!" Rachel shouted.
After a few seconds, the giant demon girl ran, and Zagronan earned 3 points.
"What happened there? Why did she run?" Zagronan asked.
Rachel sighed and said, "I was curious, too, so I checked her abilities multiple times. She is a royal demon descended from the demon king of envy. She has one special ability called 'Strength for Weakness.'"
"'Strength for Weakness' is terrifying if you don't know how it works. Everything you believe about her becomes real for you when you fight her. If you think she's immune to fire, she becomes immune to fire, and if you believe she's as fast as the wind, she becomes as fast as the wind. However, the cost of the ability is one true weakness. For her, it's fire! She is exceptionally weak to fire when she uses this ability. But this is mostly not a problem when she can deceive her opponents."
Zagronan was surprised and said, "So strong! Why don't I have any special ability?"
"You do have a special ability; it's your super strong talent for spells! It's just that your skill is passive, so you're used to it," she said.
"Will I get any other abilities when I reach rank 2?" he asked.
"I didn't calculate that. Now, go and take a rest and get ready for the next match," she said.
…
The sky was pure white, without a single cloud, and the earth was lush and green, covered in well-trimmed grass.
This is heaven!
Humans from hell believed that in heaven, everything was perfect. For once, what they thought was true!
Heaven was filled with light elements.
Food does not spoil here, people will not get sick, and negative emotions are significantly suppressed.
Just as the dark element corrupts, the light element also corrupts, but in the opposite extreme.
Angels are peaceful and benevolent beings who abhor wars and evil. For this reason, they disdain humans and demons who kill their own kind for various reasons. Consequently, heaven is the most isolated place in the world.
Heaven is inhabited by angels who are naturally born. Most demons in hell are also naturally born but can still reproduce.
However, angels cannot reproduce at all, as they are genderless.
When angels reach rank 9, they are granted a title and an inheritance. After that, they are referred to as gods.
At this moment, ten gods were sitting on the grass.
They all resembled elves. In truth, gods are genderless, like angels, but they can choose to take on the form of anyone.
In legends, one of the world's creators was in the shape of elves, so this form was popular among gods.
"The River of Time! It truly saddens me when I think about it!" the God of War said.
"Let them fix it! They broke it, so they should fix it," the God of Skies said.
The gods blamed demons and mages for what happened to the River of Time.
"What if they cannot fix it? Are we ready to use the secret weapon?" the God of Goodness asked.
"The secret weapon is ready but can only be used once. We should be careful," the God of Secrecy said.
He was the god responsible for safeguarding the secret weapon.
"We should help them fix it; otherwise, great harm might come to the world," the God of Magic said.
"But we have the secret weapon! As for them dying, it would be sad, but they have proven themselves to be a threat to everyone. If they can fix it, then it's good, but if they can't, we should let them perish," the god of the Sea said.
"How can you be so comfortable saying that? Many good humans and good demons are living down there! We cannot let them die!" the God of Kindness spoke.
She was always an advocate for all beings she considered innocent.
"I agree! We should let some of them migrate here," the God of Joy said.
"I also agree! We should establish objective criteria and allow anyone who meets them to enter," said the God of Connections.
"We should take a vote," said the God of Calculations.
Most nodded, and after a vote, these were the results.
The Gods of Calculation, Connections, Kindness, Joy, and Goodness voted to allow some humans and demons to enter, while the Gods of the Sea, Secrecy, Skies, and War voted against allowing them to join.
The God of Magic abstained. As a result, with a vote of 5-4, it was decided to allow some humans and demons to enter.
Then, they started debating on how and when to do it.