Strawberry Devil in a Fantasy World

I had no choice but to return to my seat when Parilia, the Fairy Queen, declared that I couldn't leave without her permission.

Parilia was a monster beyond monsters. If she wished, I could die instantly without even a chance for me to retaliate, probably. She had the [skill records] ability which likely meant that her arsenal included every ability in existence.

If I had to guess, she was also the one who gave me my current blessings via the system that forced me into this path. If she desired so, it was possible that all my blessings, abilities, traits could all disappear. After all, she was the most powerful being in this world apart from the system.

It was no wonder how level demons and guardians feared her, the master of the Great Labyrinth of Daedel.

No one could surpass her unless she allowed it.

"You have my ears."

"Let me first share with you what I have. As you've probably guessed by now, I've read all of your memories from the moment you entered the world. However, getting them in perfect order was a bit of a hassle so they were scattered and left to fend themselves. I allowed you to collect and sort the soul fragments with the aid of my blessings."

"I was certainly played..."

"The blessings did help you gather all but a few which are in my possession. Ikebas had a soul contract with an ancient demon as you are already aware. That demon was Foo, and he has since passed that contract to me as he should."

That faker who self proclaimed to be the mastermind was probably her alter ego's doing as well.

"You've got some nerves, granny."

"Snarky remarks, but I don't dislike it! Anyway, I also have that Seed of Life you were carrying. Unfortunately, as you are well aware, I cannot unseal it."

In her palm, a radiant white orb was pulsing with the seven colors of a rainbow. It was the Seed of Life as shown in Ikebas's memories.

"So you want me to unseal it in exchange for the remaining fragments of my soul and a return trip to my world?" I asked since it wasn't hard to guess her intentions given what she had just disclosed. "And why should I? I was basically killed, my soul shattered and kidnapped. I have no obligation to unseal it. That Seed of Life belongs to me in the first place. I bet that 'accident' had something to do with you fooling around with your power."

Ascending to godhood would be simple with her power and the system together.

"My, my, you're accusing me of such petty crime? I would do no such a thing as to snatch someone just to fix my world's problems! But if you just happened to have came at a good time because I was earnestly praying for a savior, then all is fine, right?"

"No it's not! If you're a demigoddess as your trait says, then fix your planet with your own powers!"

"Eh? But we don't have enough energy for that."

Thinking back, when I was fixing up the planet using volatile mana, the density dropped a bit on the quick side when I had siphoned it. At that time, I just thought that it was normal but perhaps that wasn't normal at all. However, if the system was using the planet's life force then it wouldn't be a surprise if it was short on energy with Parilia as one of its users...

It was still a bit hard pressed to think that elf king had prepared this much in advance when he became the core of the system. Perhaps the system had somehow tapped into my original world trying to answer Parilia's wish.

That must be it.

Personally, I felt that if the system was dissembled, everything would be fine.

"You're the one who's been uselessly siphoning the life force out of this planet. Even if I could unseal the seed, you're just going to waste its energy for selfish things. Thousands of years from now, the planet would again require a rejuvenation."

"Oh how stingy of you! Can't you see we're in a dire situation? The Nexus system could collapse at any moment and here you are denying aid to our crumbling home. Such cruelty!"

Great, let the system collapse!

"Blame yourself for it."

"Ah! How about this? I let you become a god like you always wanted! It'll be a freebie on top of the offer. Hmm? How about it?"

"If someone like you is only a demigod, how are you supposed to make someone a god? That's impossible."

"Simple! Once you unseal this thing, you can take it for yourself. I'll turn a blind eye as long as you use it to fix my home!"

"First of all, it was never yours to begin with. Second, I cannot unseal it when most of my soul fragments are missing. Third, I can't claim it for myself. Now that I know what the Seed of Life really is, it'll never recognize me even if this is a different world. Only planetary bodies can absorb it. Your empty promises mean nothing to me."

"Oh, that's a good idea. You and this Echo get along, right? Would you like to take her place?"

At this point, I couldn't help but be cranky. She was spouting non-sense after non-sense.

"Enough is enough. I'm done here."

I could fight but the chance of winning was next to zero. Yes, next to zero but not zero.

There was no need to fight.

"I see. I couldn't convince you by words alone. Before you leave, Perdia requested that I ask you to return the demons you had sealed away. I know you didn't absorb all of them for your growth."

"That's fine. They weren't worth much to begin with." I said, and handed over a black cube containing the demons I had sealed away earlier.

"Oh good. Be on your way now."

After leaving the innermost chamber, I was back at the second layer being escorted by the two artificial fairies.

While the two weren't looking, I invoked Minute's [absolute stasis].

Echo, can you lie?

[No.]

Tell me, do you follow all of Parilia's orders?

[No.]

If she requested, could you seal away my abilities and traits?

[Yes.]

Would you?

[Insufficient information.]

That was a good start assuming it was telling the truth.

Is the system local to this planet?

[Yes.]

Seeing how it was operating just fine in suspended time, it piqued my interest.

Is the system synchronized from fragmented instances or operating in omnipresence?

[Fragmented instances.]

This was unexpected good news because suspended time here was operating differently than the one I knew back in my home world.

Daedel, your consciousness must still be there. Answer me.

The voice suddenly changed.

[I am the remnant of Daedel consciousness.]

I would like an one on one conversation with you. I do not wish this to be disclosed to any third parties. Can this be done?

[Yes.]

Please do. I have something to share with you and only you.

[Understood.]

We had a quick telepathic exchange. It was the system so it was just an upload and download of information.

I had a plan.

Since negotiation with Parilia had broken down, I had to use a forced move. The basis was simple. This world needed a Seed of Life and only I could unseal it.

The system would have no choice to follow along because otherwise the planet would collapse. Of course, it wouldn't follow through with everything but enough to give me an advantage.

I honestly only asked for a bit of fairness, that being privacy to my thoughts and zero interference to my traits and abilities and etcetera. That was the extent that the system, or Daedel, was willing to accommodate.

The Great Labyrinth of Daedel along with all the subspaces that had since came into existence required too much energy to keep functioning.

I would tear everything down. There was no need for this system to exist in this world. It was a burden no longer needed.

In this parallel world, a planet only had one life. There was no second life.

That dimensional rift or whatever caused the accident was the result of Daedel's will within the system using a secret stash of energy to rip a hole in the fabric of space time. According to Daedel, a higher power was likely involved. Whatever the case, since the rift was opened once, it could be done again to send me back since my existence was intimately linked to my original world.

Back in reality, in suspended time, my plan was put in action.

The goal was to collapse the system.

Before then, I had to fully master my powers. If I didn't, without the support of the system, I wouldn't be able to use my abilities and traits' skills.

Hence, I returned to my subspace while in suspended time. 

Daedel's will was able to slowly ease off the influence of the system on me, allowing me to train and adjust appropriately.

Of course, without the system, there was no secondary core or |dedicated will|. When that happened, I had to learn to consciously operate everything.

Majority of my subspace was converted to pure energy. When that wasn't enough to sustain the suspended time, energy was withdrawn from the core of the planet.

Rigorous training lasted for four hundred days. This was my version of training within a time chamber.

"Finally."

I was no longer dependant on the system. Calculated by the system, I was still level 90. I had no need to level up.

Thanks, Daedel.

[The world is in your hands.]

Perhaps, historians in the future would deem me as a demonic invader from another world. Perhaps, they'd see me as a hero. I didn't care either way.

Without a warning from me, the Inner Chambers of the Great Labyrinth of Daedel had vanished instantly. The entire structure were fed into the core of the planet and converted into pure energy. Whether that was enough or not didn't matter.

Those powerful demons, fairies, and guardians, since I didn't want to deal with them nor hear their complaints later on, I scrapped them. Knowledge and whatnot, some I kept. Otherwise, they ended up feeding the planet.

By feed all that into the planetary core, I was able to gauge the amount of energy they were consuming.

This could be counted as my betrayal to Lapis and Mera. Yet, I didn't even feel guilty about it.

Then as for the outer layer of the labyrinth, all unoccupied rooms were dissolved thereby shrinking the labyrinth by over 90 percent. Since I was acquainted with some of the inhabitants here, I left everyone here alone. If they were to wreak havoc in the aftermath, I'd deal with them then.

Bang.

I kicked open the door to Parilia's room.

"We have some debts to settle. Now's the time."