The Rebirth of Nyaltartep

Nyaltartep’s body, once a tangled mass of vines and flowers from Tademoira, began to change.

The vines lengthened and transformed into jelly tentacles, taking on the glossy, chewy appearance of plant-based gelatin and gummies. What had been a monkey-like humanoid with a tail now saw that tail split into a third leg, allowing the creature to stand on three sturdy supports like a tripod.

Its limbs grew longer and more flexible, sprouting organs that could have been claws or gardening sickles. From the back of its head, long trailing tentacles ended in blooming flowers, and its face bore no eyes—only a mouth.

And so it descended. The Third Legion Commander of the Dessert Legion. The fruit-based commander who would serve as the final course—Nyaltartep.

Overall, it was a textbook non-combat creation. Its Health was horrifically low. Its Combat stat was equally pathetic. Someone might argue it was still stronger than a racial hero unit, but comparing an 8th-level Legendary Custom Creation to a mere racial hero was honestly embarrassing.

Its Authority stat was high, yet the powers it possessed mostly revolved around protection, healing, plant growth, selective breeding, and the like. This was not a being you sent out to fight and win battles.

But those powers were important. Because it had retained the trait Flower and Garden Spirit it originally possessed.

With that, it could cultivate weeds. It could bombard enemy worlds with pollen-heavy allergenic plants. In other words, this was the core piece of the main plan—a being that would grow plants in my stead.

And unlike Shuc-rimmurath, it could generate and nurture plants and insects, turning my entire ecosystem into a vast botanical field. They would either compete with the jelly creatures or coexist with them.

Still, it wasn’t enough. While each creation had its own traits, Nyaltartep had grown up in a civilized environment, so its abilities were overwhelmingly skewed toward healing and protecting civilized beings.

To align it with my build, which emphasized overall ecosystem development, some modifications were necessary.

Using the Extraordinary Life trait I had diligently raised to level 12 before Nyaltartep’s awakening, I strengthened it.

In simple terms, it was an extremely watered-down, bottom-tier knockoff of my own Deity-World Oneness. There was no sensory sharing with the avatars, they didn’t spawn automatically, and any consumed stats had to be replenished by devouring resources.

Even so, it could create avatars. By scattering Nyaltartep’s avatars across key strategic points in the ecosystem, they could faithfully carry out the role of cultivating the main plan.

And if dispersed like this, should an enemy attack occur anywhere, each avatar could defend, heal, and support the legion in its respective region.

“Nyaltartep. I entrust you with the management of this Sky Garden and all the no-man’s lands. Just like how you destroyed Mugite’s world, develop the most vicious, nightmarish, evil species of plants imaginable.”

“Ugho! Ugho! Ugho!”

“Nyal-tart-ep!”

The Sugar Lumps danced and cheered upon seeing the newly reborn Nyaltartep. Nyaltartep no longer seemed repulsed by the deformed Sugar Lumps that had once been the creations of its former master. It accepted their worship, momentarily extending roots and branches to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠claim them as offerings. It consumed them to create new avatars, allowing those beings to live on forever within itself.

With that, Tademoira’s full integration into the Dessert Legion was complete.

“How vicious.”

That’s simply the way of the Demon King… Tademoira hadn’t fallen. It had attained enlightenment.

“So the idea is that civilization is trash and only nature matters?”

Even the angel seemed to understand now.

“Probably not…”

I thought all the problems had been resolved, but suddenly Yogur-tosoth came flying in from afar, huffing and puffing. It had gotten much faster after its rank-up.

“Hey. You’ve already gained tons of worshippers and territory. Why are you picking a fight over this?”

This guy’s personality was seriously rotten. Did he really believe he had to be the absolute best at everything?

“If you want to brag about how great you are so badly, you should’ve crushed that one immediately during the last battle.”

“Who doesn’t know that? Is it something to brag about that you can’t win unless the conditions are in your favor? And I’m not scolding you for being incompetent. I’m saying that at the very least, Nyaltartep deserves respect. After all, it endured your ferocious assault and still joined the legion with such dignity.”

That arrogant personality was a bit annoying. Of course, I had provoked it and resolved the issue easily, but if that arrogance persisted, it might start causing trouble within my ecosystem or suffer a devastating defeat and fall into severe depression.

What should I do about it?

“You don’t know how to handle this?”

Things like psychological counseling or resolving human conflicts… weren’t really my area.

“Yeah, I guess not.”

Anyway, Nyaltartep faithfully carried out my orders. Rather than planting only ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠specific types of plants, it cultivated a wide variety of species in such a way that they could ‘somehow survive,’ dramatically intensifying the struggle for survival.

The Dessert Desert had previously lacked vegetation. Still, it had abundant water and plenty of nutrients in the form of Nectar.

Claiming it had a mountain of work to do, Nyaltartep continued to use Sugar Lumps as sacrifices to create new bodies. These bodies dispersed across every region, generating all kinds of plants.

They would become the ultimate invasive weeds, capable of destroying any terrain in an enemy world. If I raised just this one being, one major pillar of the main plan would be complete.

“You said the main plan wasn’t just about weeds, right?”

“Of course. We also need methods to wither spirit-based lifeforms. Beyond ruining agriculture, there are infectious diseases, parasites, worsening urban water quality, contaminating the soil, altering the climate, or wiping out all their livestock… There are many options. In the end, as long as the enemy starves to death, anything works.”

Back when I played the game in the late stages, one strategy I enjoyed was using bird strikes to take down enemy aircraft. It was incredibly annoying for them—when the exchange rate reached one bird per plane, the only way for the opponent to secure air superiority was through magic.

Similarly, there were brutally vicious strategies like sabotaging ship propellers and engines or sending massive whale-like creatures to ram vessels. If the exchange rate became one whale per torpedo, did that even make economic sense? Since they couldn’t equip every cargo ship with torpedoes, the enemy’s maritime transport would be paralyzed. In the end, opponents who lost both air and sea supremacy often starved despite having food, simply because distribution collapsed.

“Ah. So there are strategies that cripple them economically as well…?”

There were. Biological resources remained essential to civilization even into the modern era. And even in the very late game, both plants and animals still had to be raised. Simply focusing on killing off livestock could completely paralyze an opponent.

It was obvious, but while medical science for treating the dominant species might be highly advanced, veterinary medicine rarely reached the same level…

Anyway. Things here were roughly settled.

───I shifted my consciousness elsewhere.

There were still many things I needed to do.

Shifting away from Biin’s somewhat confusing point of view, we turn back time to the moment of the seventh collision.

The other players were engaged in equally fierce battles. Among them was Sesaisa, who had earned quite a reputation in the community as a top-tier expert in spiritual realms and mystery studies.

Sesaisa’s seventh collision had been particularly intense.

“These bastards possess military strength that doesn’t lose out to my meat legion at all!”

“Indeed, Lord Sesaisa. In terms of material-world technological capability—excluding Mystery—they appear to be significantly ahead.”

One could even say the battle ended early precisely because both sides’ military forces were so evenly matched.

The reason Sesaisa won was entirely thanks to his trait, Avatar.

The mythic-grade trait Avatar allowed him to summon a mythic-grade creation with stats equal to the world itself. It even carried the player’s own ego and moved according to it.

Sesaisa’s world was, naturally, extremely high in Mystery and Faith. As a result, the corresponding stats of Authority and Magic Power were astronomically high.

In other words, the colossal elephant capable of wielding terrifying magic—Marquis Sesaisa himself—had personally descended and ground every invading force into dust.

The opponent seemed utterly dumbfounded. They must have wondered what kind of monster could possess a mythic-grade creation. The enemy was reasonably strong and had powerful creations of their own, but they were helpless before the mythic-grade Avatar.

As a result, the battle became rather one-sided. Sesaisa could single-handedly shred any incoming troops, while his elephant legions continued to pour into the enemy world. The opponent could only endure the relentless beating.

Although defense was supposed to be advantageous, Sesaisa knew how to manipulate the flow of the spiritual realm to alter the flow of dimensions.

A technique he had not taught Biin. It was a form of space-time mystery implemented purely through mystery theory and knowledge, without relying on traits or the spiritual realm.

When Sesaisa crossed over to the enemy world himself and unleashed magic indiscriminately, the opponent’s fortress fell. The vast forests, beautiful plains, and mining regions all became part of Sesaisa’s world. He accepted no surrender.

“Then I shall begin explaining the expansion phase.”

After listening carefully to the explanation, Sesaisa fell into thought. Choosing Spiritual Realm and No-man’s Land was already decided. The question was—which no-man’s land would be best?

Sesaisa consulted with his high-ranking entities. Thanks to consulting with the unusual player known as ‘Mihun,’ many of them had risen to epic grade.

Thanks to Biin’s consulting, he had turned the ecosystem of the meat creatures—which he had never been good at handling—into something astonishingly rich. For fields of knowledge where he was weak, he received consulting from Mihun.

And through yet another collaborator, he had gained knowledge on establishing order in society, industry, and technology. As a result, Sesaisa’s civilization was quite impressive.

Unlike Biin’s creations, these acorn elephants possessed high intelligence. They even had ‘religion’ and ‘society’ developed enough to make suggestions to their god, Sesaisa. Experts and scholars from every field would gather to debate, then offer their counsel to their god, after which Sesaisa would make the final decision.

The Avatar Sesaisa would listen, while the player Sesaisa focused on connecting his world with the enemy’s to build a spiritual realm.

“I have decided. We shall expand into the Great Boundary.”

“An excellent choice.”

In truth, objectively speaking, it was not an excellent choice.

Just as Biin’s ecosystem, which was strictly a desert, would have benefited far more from mystery-based growth, the world Sesaisa received—with its dense forests and coastal resources—would have been better suited to building a life-friendly world.

In other words, expanding into the Great Ocean would have been better in many ways. Similarly, Biin would have been better off expanding into the Great Firmament.

However, the two players had met unusually early and subtly ignited each other’s potential. In the end, it turned out to be quite an excellent decision.

When living beings died, their souls became currents that flowed into the afterlife. The path leading to that afterlife was precisely the Great Boundary.

By expanding his spiritual realm into the underworld, Sesaisa ensured that the dead did not perish in vain and could be resurrected with ease. Powerful meat bodies paired with spirits that could resurrect across generations would cause their species and civilization to flourish beyond measure.

“And thanks to that Biin fellow, I learned this as well.”

Methods to manipulate meat. Understanding of meat itself. Just as Biin had gradually learned spiritual realm knowledge from Sesaisa and could now perform basic tasks, Sesaisa had independently learned how to manipulate the flesh of meat creatures.

He would twist the lives of enemy ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠races and use them however he wished. He connected their brains into flows and turned their muscles into the most efficient motors.

A world gradually growing grotesque without its inhabitants even realizing it. Sesaisa was truly being reborn as the ‘Tyrant of Living Hell.’