The Plague of Oblivion
Umjeory’s demon race could possess animals. While feeding on pain and despair was an innate racial trait, this particular ability had been learned and refined.
When they possessed a creature, they absorbed the pain and despair it felt, converting it into power. The demon stayed well-fed, the possessed creature found relief from its suffering and felt happy, and the demon gained a stable vessel in the material world that allowed its unstable spiritual form to anchor itself and wield greater mysteries with reliability.
Thus, every demon that had risen to the surface was currently possessing one of the local monsters.
The monsters had their egos stripped away and their bodily freedom stolen, but that was simply the life of livestock. The demons, for their part, seemed to find the bodies they possessed quite comfortable.
Each body was spacious—thirteen layers stacked together, like thirteen studio apartments joined into one. They weren’t lonely either; twelve companions besides themselves lived inside, gathering to play or working at their own stations. When needed, they could torture the monster, extract pain and despair, and enjoy a leisurely life far removed from the ration-scarce existence underground.
The problem was that, regardless of the above, this was still military service—fighting and monitoring the enemy on the surface. Yet many demons treated it as a “sweet posting.”
More precisely, they thought, “At least we should break even.” In other words, the demons who had been painstakingly trained and dispatched to the surface were slacking off instead of doing their jobs.
The national discipline was in complete disarray. How could discipline be this lax in the middle of a war? That was the perspective of a god.
From an ordinary demon’s viewpoint, war was something “those above” handled. It was not the civilians’ concern. Even after being trained and turned into soldiers, they lacked any awareness that their world was facing extinction.
After all, they had comfortably won the previous ten collisions. The strong had carried them through, the matchups against the Dessert Desert had been favorable, their superhuman forces remained intact, and although the capital had been raided, two cities were still perfectly fine…
If Umjeory lost, the cause would be one hundred percent because he had never raised Politics and failed to maintain discipline among his creations.
It was a crisis of national survival. While the soldiers sent to the surface were busy building their own honey pots and lazing about inside them—
—roughly halfway through the sixth year of the dimensional passage, a single rift opened in the sky.
“Huh. Doesn’t that look weird?”
“What does?”
Still zero sense of crisis. Then a colossal eye appeared beyond the rift. The demons were briefly flustered, but quickly rationalized it away.
“I-it’s fine. Something that powerful can’t cross over at this stage. I learned that…”
Yet magic, not the main body, could cross. Yogur-tosoth unfurled a massive magical formula beyond the rift and unleashed Yogur-tosoth’s Majesty, an explosion of power that spread across the entire world.
“Kneel!!!”
As his level rose, the spell’s range expanded far more than its raw power. It was the manifestation of his desire to impose his majesty upon as many beings as possible.
Even so, this magic had always been a grand spell capable, from its lower levels onward, of paralyzing national functions, plunging cities into panic, and causing the mentally frail to faint or die outright.
When it detonated across Umjeory’s world—whose dominant race consisted of spiritual bodies and whose livestock had been weakened by constant torture—an entire province was overturned.
“Kuaaaaaagh!”
“What?! What is this?!”
“Uh, uh??? The possessed livestock are acting strange! Wait, everyone grab them!”
The monsters went berserk. Demons close to the epicenter of the magic evaporated under the overwhelming pressure, while livestock that could not endure the mental strain perished on the spot.
Demons fled in panic. Once their possessors vanished, the livestock grew even more frenzied. Yogur-tosoth judged that he could strike again and glanced at Biin, who gave him permission to do as he pleased.
Yogur-tosoth immediately opened another rift and rained Majesty down upon a different province.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Four times.
Five percent of the livestock died from the repeated preemptive strikes that Yogur-tosoth normally used only for intimidation. Five percent of the food production capacity had vanished. Nine more barrages would halve it; nineteen more would leave them all starving.
Every region struck fell into a comatose stupor. Biin wished Yogur-tosoth would continue, but the commander withdrew of his own accord.
【What’s wrong? I thought you’d keep going, given your personality.】
“My creator, it appears the enemy is absorbing the majesty I spread and converting it into resources.”
【Ah. So they can do that too? But plenty of them still died, didn’t they?】
“Most likely their defenses were inadequate, or they simply could not withstand my majesty and perished.”
【They died because they couldn’t withstand the majesty?】
“Hmm? That was merely a figure of speech. In simpler terms, their minds collapsed under an impact exceeding what they could endure.”
【Even though they can use that majesty as a resource?】
“Well… one can drink a single mouthful of nectar, but if one were to be submerged in the spring itself, one would drown, would one not? It is the same principle.”
Biin’s eyes lit up.
【Hey, Yogur-tosoth.】
“Yes?”
【From what I learned from Sesaisa, I think it might be possible. Verify whether this is truly feasible.】
Biin explained the strategy that had just occurred to him. After listening for a moment, Yogur-tosoth replied.
“It is impossible.”
【Damn it. It won’t work? Without this, we have no path to victory at all.】
“Ah. To correct myself—on a theoretical level it is sound, I possess the ability to execute it according to that principle, and I have sufficient power to carry it out. The issue is a lack of the necessary materials to implement the plan.”
【So we just need the materials?】
“That would suffice.”
【Got it. Let me know once the requirements are met.】
Biin fell into deep thought.
∞
Meanwhile, Umjeory was far beyond mere contemplation.
“What are you all doing…?”
【Aaaah! O God, save us!】
“No, seriously, what the hell…?”
【Please grant us salvation! We beg you!】
“I asked what you’re doing?! Right now?! Stop praying to me and form ranks! Link your defensive spells and stop this! The army I sent to handle this chaos is busy praying to their god instead?!”
Faced with the successive catastrophes, Umjeory’s vision began to blur.
More than that, it was enough to drive him mad. He had given clear orders, provided guidelines in advance, and conducted training—yet everything had seized up.
This wasn’t a joke. He had done everything a god could do, yet if his creations were this incompetent, there was nothing left for him to do.
But was this truly just a problem with the creations?
The demon race was not unusually incompetent. In terms of basic character, they were not significantly different from most other races.
Then why did this only happen to Umjeory’s demons? Even though the Politics values of other races and worlds had not been particularly outstanding…
Looking back at Biin’s previous opponents, the answer was surprisingly clear. Umjeory had extremely few entities dedicated to Politics.
Mugite, Ogolraeot, Mitomok, Dindinaron—every single one of them had possessed Politics-related entities, or at least religious officials capable of making independent judgments instead of relying solely on their god.
In other words, Umjeory’s world lacked any middle-management entities bridging god and people.
There were only direct superhumans who faithfully followed the god’s commands, and ordinary civilians who vaguely worshipped the god and half-heartedly obeyed.
Even after reaching round eleven, none existed? One might ask, yet Umjeory’s system had functioned surprisingly well and possessed considerable structural integrity.
It was simply that its weakness had finally been exploited. For the previous ten rounds, the racial traits, vast resources, and the snowball effect they generated had allowed Umjeory to unilaterally crush his opponents. A system in which the chief god and subordinate gods issued direct orders had been sufficient—indeed, its directness had made it efficient.
But upon encountering Biin’s colossal force, the conflict had turned from a one-sided beating into a mutual brawl.
A theocratic system worked well when one could unilaterally pummel the enemy, but once the fight dragged into a prolonged dogfight, the absence of middle managers—combined with the fact that damage to the lower strata directly affected Faith—became a fatal flaw.
In the end, Umjeory’s world only managed to respond to Yogur-tosoth’s indiscriminate barrages of Majesty after missing the golden window by a full three years.
Ninth year of the dimensional passage. Livestock mortality reached 30 percent!!! Military casualties, including the defense forces, exceeded 70 percent! They had technically held their territory, but it could no longer be called holding.
Umjeory was on the verge of losing his mind.
“Are you all idiots, morons, imbeciles, and blockheads?! I told you this would happen and ordered you to prepare! What the hell are you doing?! Did you decide to commit suicide?! The fate of the world is at stake!!!”
【Ugh… O God, we have no words to offer.】
“It’s not that you have no words—it’s that—haah, forget it! From now on, if anyone slacks off after being sent to the surface, I will slaughter their entire family first! At least five times as many people will be able to eat if we squeeze the pain out of such morons!”
【Huuuuh……】
Yet, surprisingly, after being struck once, discipline snapped back into place.
Having never witnessed their god so enraged, the demons ceased all complaints and devoted themselves to their duties more thoroughly than ever before. Voices blaming others for insufficient rations vanished entirely.
Perhaps it could be called a blessing in disguise. While the Politics value had actually decreased slightly—since the demons had lost their sense of self and now obeyed the god absolutely—Faith had surged dramatically.
The problem was that Umjeory no longer had any choice.
Originally, he could have simply holed up and defended. If he had refrained from expanding and conserved resources, he could have stably dispatched higher demons and attempted his “main plan” once the dimensional rift stage arrived.
But now that he had expanded, defense was no longer an option. Withdrawing here would only reduce resource supply and end everything.
He had to push forward. The damage would be significant, and the risks were real… but retreating now meant death.
“Dwyero. Move. We will pressure the enemy before the dimensional rift opens.”
Dwyero, the sole legendary entity in Umjeory’s world—the demon of madness—finally emerged from training.
His level was 12. Still far from the target of 14, but at this point he would finish leveling during the dimensional passage stage and subjugate the enemy world outright.
∞
Ninth year of the dimensional passage stage. With roughly two and a half years remaining, I was scouting the enemy world when I noticed something strange.
Something had emerged from underground. It was a colossal entity forced to inhabit an enormous monster patched together from the strongest surface monsters like a ragged quilt.
I recognized it as the legendary entity of the enemy world that Wafflach-Nacha had observed—the demon bearing the mystery of Madness.
So they were finally going to make a move? I placed Yogur-tosoth on standby and watched to see what it would do.
The entity slowly approached the creatures of the Dessert Desert and murmured.
【Do you know what the most powerful disease in this world is?】
……?
【Do you know what the most powerful curse in this world is?】
Was this some kind of incantation trigger?
【Do you know what the most powerful pain in this world is?】
I examined its name through divinity. ‘Dwyero.’ A powerful demon—powerful enough to reach legendary status. And when I invested excessive divinity, I could also see the legendary trait it possessed.
【Do you know what the most powerful despair in this world is?】
Mimetic Plague: Can convert diseases or symptoms of the Madness lineage into materially transmissible illnesses and spread them.
Dwyero stood before the creatures of the Dessert Desert that had gathered around him. Then he violently unleashed his magic power and activated the mystery.
“Yogur-tosoth! Suppress that thing immediately…!”
Yogur-tosoth, who had been stockpiling energy while consuming nectar, hurriedly manifested through the rift—only for dozens of other high-ranking entities to swarm and block his attacks.
They had clearly timed their appearance to coincide with Yogur-tosoth’s resupply period, willing to accept casualties to do so.
And at last, Dwyero completed the incantation.
【We call it oblivion……! Because one does not even realize one’s own wretchedness, it is the most terrible disease, the most terrible curse, the most terrible pain, and the most terrible despair……!】
A disease named “Oblivion” spread outward. Every creature of the Dessert Desert it touched became infected by the mystery of Madness given the property of oblivion, losing everything they possessed.
They lost the experience they had accumulated.
They lost their memories.
They lost their instincts.
They lost themselves.
Those who forgot even how to breathe or stand collapsed in seizures or thrashed about, spreading the vicious plague.
In a single phrase: “contagious dementia.”
Among the livestock and monsters that had once existed in Umjeory’s world, some had originally belonged to previous opponents’ races. Yet how had they been turned into livestock?
This was the answer. They had been struck by Dwyero’s mystery, which stripped away human reason, and had been reduced to livestock that could only produce pain and despair.
“An interesting method. But what does it matter if you strip intelligence from beasts that had none to begin with?”
Well, even so, completely paralyzing the already meager intelligence of the Dessert Legion and reducing them to something below beasts—below plants, below minerals—would still be dangerous.
But just wait a little longer. I would make his eyes go wide with shock.