Hasturd, Lord of Cariccotta

Hasturd wasn't particularly strong, if you looked at it coldly. His stats alone made him a non-combat legion commander on par with Nyaltartep.

But being weak didn't matter. After all, I never intended to send his main body out to fight in the first place.

The core role of his main body was to smooth the flow between the no-man's lands: Great Universe–Milky Way–Cariccotta–Great Firmament.

In other words, he served as a midway stop for the dairy products like milk and cheese that Yogur-tosoth produced in the Milky Way, and also as a transit point for flying species rising from the ground. That was why his highest stat was Charm. He possessed an authority that let him command countless species.

Since his main body stayed so high up and direct control was limited, he sent out avatars when he needed to act on the surface. Those avatars possessed considerable combat power and could use all the abilities of the demons from Umjeory's world, including Dwyero—curse, disease, poison, madness, and so on.

Think of it as form-changing.

His main body was a massive, tentacle-laden mass that filled Cariccotta entirely. Something that controlled the Great Firmament. I spoke to it casually.

“Hasturd. How's the new body?”

Unlike the fourth and fifth legion commanders, Hasturd was relatively sociable.

【An excellent vessel and a powerful authority. This Hasturd shall praise the Creator who has allowed all the merged entities to be reborn.】

“Good. Fulfill your duties. I'll give you any knowledge that might help. From now on, you're the core of our asymmetric disruption force, so you'd better grow well.”

【I am grateful for your grace, my Creator.】

Using the authority of his main body, Hasturd created zones across the world where flying species could live and built several air elevators that allowed travel between the surface and the sky.

It was a bizarre ecosystem, but it made sense in its own way. Even Bisyakheet seemed pleased, gorging on the yellow cream Hasturd produced instead of nectar.

Pop!

“Hm?”

When I checked, the Creamland that had been connecting the sky and the ground had been completely severed, triggered by Hasturd's full-scale movements.

Until now, Creamland had been handling three tasks at once: producing cream for Yogur-tosoth to eat in the sky, producing cream on the ground, and endlessly supplying magic ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to the Nectar Well. Now it was perfectly divided between the sky's Cariccotta and the ground's Creamland.

“The world has split. Still, it used to feel like everything was one.”

Wafflach-Nacha tried to reconnect the severed sky and land, but it seemed to consume too many resources for too little effect, so I stopped him.

【……Is this acceptable?】

“Doesn't matter. So what if it split? The Nectar Well can be fully supplied by the ground's Creamland alone now, so there's no problem. If anything, I'm happier that a magic ecosystem has formed in the sky centered around the Milky Way and Cariccotta. Even if the Nectar Well gets destroyed somehow, not everything in the Dessert Desert will collapse.”

Reducing dependence on the Nectar Well had been one of my long-standing wishes. If I divided the legion commanders' domains roughly like this—

Fairy Abhojuth & Guremmy Bear Reefs: The Nectar Well and its basin.

First Legion Commander Yogur-tosoth: The Milky Way connected to the Great Universe, most of the sky, and the majority of the mysterious terrains on the ground.

Second Legion Commander Shuc-rimmurath: The entire Creamland that had widely encroached upon the surface.

Third Legion Commander Nyaltartep: The Sky Garden, mountainous and grassland regions, and all areas where plants grew.

Fourth Legion Commander Chaltteoggua: Swamps, plains, areas near deserts—low-magic zones centered on the Great Nature.

Fifth Legion Commander Wafflach-Nacha: Mitomok's jungle and the Creamland connected to the Great Boundary.

Sixth Legion Commander Hasturd: Cariccotta and the Great Firmament as a whole. Multiple domains belonging to the Great Phantasm.

I needed to accelerate the rivalries between the legion commanders and keep developing the ecosystem by scattering more avatars.

Now that plague and madness terrorism were possible, the strategy had become almost certain.

First, suppress enemies with Yogur-tosoth and Wafflach-Nacha, weaken enemy worlds with Hasturd, then block incoming attacks with Shuc-rimmurath and Chaltteoggua, and finish with Nyaltartep's weed strategy at the end.

That was the basic framework, but I'd have to adjust it depending on the opponent's strategy. In reality, Umjeory hadn't been finished off by Nyaltartep alone—he'd gathered resources with the legion commanders' power and won by reversing the flow.

“Heh heh. How about it? Are you satisfied with the compensation?”

“Of course. Mihun. It seems the price I'll have to pay is quite high.”

The method of using ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cosmic celestial bodies to create the structure called Cariccotta, and the method of creating minds using celestial magic along with Dwyero and the demons.

I'd paid for all the materials, but I never would have known these methods without Mihun.

“There are also many creatures you can provide to your world. In exchange, I'd like to receive many creatures as payment while training ascetics in your world. Would that be possible?”

“Doesn't matter. I don't have any points anyway, so I'd rather pay it off that way than go into debt.”

“Heh heh heh……. Then that's fine.”

That concluded the transaction with Mihun. The Gghouls and Tcho-cos that had crossed over to Mihun's world seemed to be living well. Ah, the Dangmil and Jogo races, was it?

How was I supposed to remember all these proper nouns that kept increasing by three or four with every collision anyway…… Even when I looked at the creatures in my own ecosystem, I sometimes couldn't remember where they'd evolved from and had to look up their names. Whatever.

Before shifting my consciousness, I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠saw Yogur-tosoth attempting to pick a fight with—or rather, establish dominance over—Hasturd. Instead of resisting, Hasturd had no choice but to suckle on Yogur-tosoth like Abhojuth did and offer up cream as tribute.

Poor bastard. From now on, he'd be squeezed dry until the Dessert Desert collapsed. He had no chance in a head-on fight, and his base happened to be too close…… Still, it was fortunate that Hasturd had absorbed the dairy legion that Yogur-tosoth commanded into his own forces.

──I shift my consciousness to the meeting room avatar.

In the meeting room, I continued having casual chats that doubled as strategy meetings with Mihun and Wahando.

“I didn't expect to receive a declaration of war right after the collision ended.”

Wahando had also received a declaration of war immediately ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠after the collision, just like me and Mihun. He seemed quite displeased about it, because his world had fought so frantically in the eleventh collision that it was doubtful whether it could even prepare its next system.

“Biin. I want to restart the factory I built in your ecosystem. Right now we're short on food, metal—everything.”

“The Tcho-cos in my ecosystem destroyed that factory.”

“What?”

“More precisely, they ran it, used the resources well for themselves, then something broke and they couldn't figure out how to fix it.”

“Damn it. Understood. Then I'll send one battalion of the Invincible Ironclad Frontline Army to the Dessert Desert. While they're repairing it, can you get the cooperation of those natives you said were operating it?”

“Hmm. Whether you get the natives' cooperation or use them as slaves, it doesn't matter to me. Do as you like.”

Wahando had also ordered his cartel subordinates to manage his own world, and while dispatching his own species to Mihun's world, he'd imported magical items called beopgi as well.

Mihun, in turn, imported resources from my ecosystem and turned them into beopgi and elixirs.

Honestly, things would be easier if Sesaisa were here for the exchanges. Because Sesaisa's Kogogi were masters at making magical items. I didn't know the details, but while Mihun's items were for the strong, Sesaisa's magical items were extremely versatile, so both Wahando and Mihun said it was better to import from that side.

“Sesaisa, that bastard. The dimensional rift phase should be ending soon, but he still hasn't finished?”

“That would be troublesome.”

“Either one member of the Meteors Cartel dies, or their momentum breaks— it'll be one of the two.”

Once they passed the dimensional rift phase and entered the dimensional fusion phase, coexistence with the opposing world would become certain.

Either Sesaisa would become the opponent's subordinate.

Or the opponent would become Sesaisa's subordinate. That wasn't good either. It would mean that after fighting so desperately, all they'd gained was a useless subordinate.

Or the two of them would continue clashing in a 1:1:1 format through the twelfth collision.

Either way, it was bad. With roughly one year left on the absolute time scale, I was staying tense when, a moment later, Sesaisa's massive elephant body entered the meeting room.

“Lament! I barely managed to return victorious!”

“Ah. That's a relief.”

“Heh heh heh. Still, I did win.”

“Good. Marquis Sesaisa.”

Sesaisa grabbed us urgently, as if that wasn't the issue.

“Everyone, listen! My world urgently needs support right now…… Something! This declaration of war is!”

“Ah. You got one too.”

“It seems we'll be fighting a corner of the Myth Alliance in the next collision.”

“We thought of it as an opportunity in our own way, but it doesn't seem so for you?”

Sesaisa clutched his head with his trunk as if it were throbbing. Then, as if it didn't matter anymore, he urgently called out to us.

“Anyway, it doesn't matter. Biin, Mihun, Wahando. And the other top cartel executives as well. I'll give you as many points as you want, so can you stop my world from falling apart any further?”

“Well. That much is fine.”

Since the meeting room avatar was separate, I postponed one task and sent it over.

So when I checked from the avatar's perspective, wow. What the hell? Ninety percent of the world's creatures had gone extinct?

Wahando's world had its infrastructure destroyed but preserved its population, but this side had really fought brutally.

I first scattered the livestock I'd provided to Wahando's world and some of the plants I was cultivating so the Kogogi could eat them as emergency crops.

Mihun manipulated the broken flows in Sesaisa's world, while Wahando tried to salvage the destroyed social infrastructure. The lower-ranking members contributed what little they could and slowly began restoring the ruined civilization.

“Whew. We barely survived.”

“Really? It looks dangerous to me.”

“How disastrous! That is indeed true. But since this Sesaisa is the one who caused it, I'll have no choice but to endure it.”

No matter how hard the other avatars worked, the meeting room avatars could maintain their own egos and converse. Since all the bosses had gathered, I spoke up about the cartel's policy.

“Good. Now that everyone's here, let's establish our policy for the twelfth round.”

“Ah. Right. I just got here so I'm not sure, but what's the situation?”

Wahando and Mihun answered matter-of-factly.

“It's obvious. The Myth Alliance has challenged us. In the twelfth round, we have no choice but to fight the opponent with extinction on the line.”

“And against an opponent who's received sponsorship and possesses overwhelming scale.”

At those words, Sesaisa looked extremely anxious. After all, his world was in this state and he had almost no time to recover.

“For reference, squeezing resources from the lower-ranking members is also impossible.”

“Ah. Since they've received declarations of war. There's no way to threaten them.”

“That's not the problem. Even the cartel's lower-ranking members have all received declarations of war. Not just from the Myth Alliance alone, but from multiple top-ranking factions. In other words, those bastards also have their lives on the line, so they can't squeeze out resources just because their backer—us—disappears.”

Sesaisa's expression darkened considerably. Mihun, Wahando, and I had already grasped the situation and were prepared in our own ways, but this guy had only just learned the truth.

“Then what should we do?”

“Since the enemy will definitely try to increase their scale, we'll have no choice but to match them at least in scale. There aren't many who want to trade with our cartel, but even so, A'kraun of Pantheon Co. said he'd provide resources if we just gave him points. The prices are quite extortionate, but we have no choice in the current situation.”

Sesaisa groaned as if troubled, even though he was already losing points. But what could be done? They were coming to kill the entire faction on purpose.

The discussion had already concluded before Sesaisa arrived. I handed Sesaisa a piece of paper. It was a form for writing down the resources he needed immediately and the amount of points he could pay.

Sesaisa sighed, but as if there was no other way even if he thought about it, he wrote out the contract.

Then I combined the contract Sesaisa had given me with the contracts the rest of us and the cartel members had already prepared, and called A'kraun. The turtle-human arrived and greeted us politely.

“So Marquis Sesaisa has joined us as well. Does that mean the agreement is finally complete?”

“Yes.”

The guy smiled broadly, as if the deal made him very happy.

“Excellent! Then, as per the contracts received, I'll provide the goods in exchange for points. Since we can't gather everything immediately, the goods will be delivered in full within two years on the absolute time scale. Is that acceptable? (Truth Authentication).”

The recovery period after receiving the goods would be tight, but it didn't matter.

Honestly, I hadn't spent many points buying satellites from the pirates either.

“Doesn't matter!”

“This immortal has no objections.”

Sesaisa and Mihun spoke, and just as Wahando was about to speak—

—Shiver!

In that instant, an unknown chill swept down my spine.

“Of cou—”

The moment Wahando was about to say “Of course,” I immediately kicked off my seat and kicked Wahando's shell.

“?!”

Wahando was startled. Sesaisa and Mihun were startled too. A'kraun seemed startled as well.

Physical violence here wouldn't hurt or injure anyone, but they clearly hadn't expected me to do this.

“Wait!!! Hey. A'kraun!”

“Yes? What seems to be the problem?”

“I can't agree to the contract terms! Revise the contract! The clause where points are paid after the goods are delivered!”

A'kraun couldn't hide his bewilderment at that moment.

“Wait, Biin-nim. This is troublesome. We also need to receive investment first if we're going to do business. Preparing goods without any reserve funds is difficult……”

“Is that so? Then we'll pay the points in installments every time you deliver goods. I'll even pay extra fees, so change the contract to this clause. If not, this deal is over!”

When I took such a hardline stance, Sesaisa, Mihun, and Wahando seemed to realize what I was worried about. They all narrowed their eyes and stared at the turtle bastard.

The shell-less turtle-human blinked repeatedly with a dumbfounded expression, then grinned.

His turtle face rippled, then transformed into a vicious four-eyed humanoid face that might have been an orc or ogre.

“Whoa. Impressive. How did you figure it out?”

The leader of the interdimensional pirate crew. The Deceiver laughed after his scam failed.