170 Local problems

Starring at the familiar symbol she could have seen everywhere nearly half of a year ago, she wondered if it was too obvious or not. However, with the missing parts where no stones were present, it would be extremely hard for anyone that didn't know about it to find the solution. Even then, there was still a few other figures that would make sense, as she reorganized the circles of stones again to see if she was right.

By the time the demons figured out that there was a problem and came back, she had already left the place, leaving behind her one of those fake symbols. However, since someone would need to be up in the air to truly notice all the patterns, the only thing they realized was that the stones seemed to have been moved. Left with no choice with the disappearance of the intruder, the last remaining action they could do was to report this to their superiors.

Leaving Leilade free to roam as she pleased. Not that she was particularly thrilled when she noticed that not only time was strangely behaving, but space itself was not doing any better. Only then did she realized she had not traveled to another planet, just to another reality altogether. Truly cursing the sheer bad luck of Candaith for this one, she now understood how even he failed to at least contact the Demonic Empire.

Using the term reality was maybe not that appropriate, as it was not as much as different timelines or alternative realities than completely different universes. Taking the example of a bubble, multiple bubbles can still exist all in contact with each other or floating freely in the air. When they were alone, everything was fine, but when they touched, strange things began to appear. And if one tried to create a portal with a path crossing one of those intersections, it would most likely end up in the other bubble.

It was not unheard, only extremely rare to witness it. For the record, the Venerable Ones, the Demon Gods came from one of those other bubbles. In fact, they pretty much fled it, as their own universe had been destroyed completely, leaving them no choice but to run. Only to happily discover a very young universe, ready for them to claim. Of course, their happiness instantly decreased when they met the Ancients that had made a vow to destroy all the gods, almost making them regret their former lives.

As for how it was, apparently, not really that different from this realm. They even had managed to gain full control, through a collaboration between multiple gods, permanently manipulating the population living across the planets. The only thing they had to fear was an opening that they tightly defended, only to have an unforeseen event happening. As for the details, no one really knew, except that everything seemed to have been caused by one creature whose name shall not be pronounced.

This also explained why even decades and even centuries after the disappearance of the Ancients, the Venerable Ones were not that eager to expand their grip toward the former territory of their enemies. Letting their other competitors grab many unknown technologies, such as The End. Provoking the current state of Leilade and the rest, including her disciple Akama.

The more she thought about this, the more she came to the conclusion that the three portals still active on the planet she left, like the one in the Forbidden Mountain should also lead to other planes. The smaller the bubble was, the most likely it was to gather in a group. Otherwise, the pressure would be too high, reducing it into nothing. Even then, she was not really sure about the exact behavior, as it was too rare to be studied. Probably only one race could come up with a real answer, unfortunately, she was not part of it.

As she flew for hours, she began to be more and more confident that it was a really small plane. Basically, it was completely flat, something that should not be possible for a planet. That also meant there were no spatial nor gravitational laws applied to it. In fact, she wondered if there really was a sun. Floating upward to uncover the truth, she was soon blocked by the red clouds.

"No sun then." Using magic to pierce through them, she felt an extremely strong resistance, making her immediately stop. If she inadvertently collapsed the plane, she wouldn't even know how she died. But for her, that was still a piece of extremely good news. First of all, whatever was hidden in here would be easy to find, as it was not an entire planet to search. Secondly, she was almost certain she could create a portal to at least go back to Archet, where Malakov was. Almost confident.

With that in mind, she resumed her travel, while looking down to see the surroundings. Noticing the first buildings she ever saw in here, she also spotted humans painstakingly farming something while demons were keeping an eye on them. Even then, the difference between the fearful face of the humans and the impassive expressions of their jailers were easy to spot. After all, both of them needed something to eat.

Leaving the air above the farm, she kept going, only to find more and more of those. A river painted red, looking almost like its liquid was blood, had been modified to conduct water to those plantations. Even it seemed basic, at least, it proved that whoever was in charge realized that if the humans were happier and well-fed, they would have more meat on them. For she had seen stupid races seeking instant profit running out of resources and disappear because of it.

Only after two days like that did the farms and small towns let places to more fortified positions. Even then, there was an impressive lack of cattle or farm animals, as she had not spotted anything but demons and humans. However, there were stables here and there, and some buildings definitely looked like they could shelter those animals. Right before she bypassed completely one of those fortified small hamlets, she spotted a gathering of demons around two humans.

It was a couple, one man and one woman. Both were fearlessly starring at a demon that had his sword raised above them. From the looks of it, they didn't seem to be scared of dying, and even from the distance, she could see their wide smiles. Getting closer, she still hid her self, to not perturb the ongoing event.

"YOU WORMS! YOU STUPID WALKING MEAT! ARGH! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH YOU RUINED AGAIN?" The visibly angered orc was walking in a circle, stomping the very ground with his feet. Even then, each time he wanted to cut the two in front of him, he restrained himself and shouted to release his wrath.

"The Resistance will free all our brothers and sisters! You will lose against the One Reborn.!"

"Even after killing us, you will only rekindle the flames of rebellion! All of our kin that will watch us will take arms and fight back!"

Such theatrical sentences almost made Leilade laugh loudly, but when she saw that none of the demons looked confident, she realized the situation was not really good for them. It also seemed to not be the first time this happened, otherwise they would have sneered at such grandiloquent prose.

"THAT'S IT! GIVE MY REGARDS TO THAT DAMNED UNDEAD!" Finally snapping out, the red orc that was visibly in charge almost cut down the woman in half, leaving her with half of a breath. Her companion immediately approached her, not restrained by the other demons.

"Oemor ... oh my Oemor ..." With those last words, she left this world, leaving behind her a grieving man. Right next to him, however, a creature similar to a ratman approached the supervisor, a bit fearful. "Commandant, with all due respects, the orders were to ..."

"I know what the orders are, so you can shut your damned rotten mouth. I don't need a rat from the capital to tell me what to do in my domain. And what would be the point anyway, to let them rot in public? More of them will just see their pitiful states, have pity and it will increase their desire to fight us. Their masters. No, you can tell them it had failed. It has been years now, and the attacks are only increasing."

Swinging his sword still red of the blood of the woman, he quickly cut beheaded the last remaining human, finally stopping his noisy cries. Starring at the two corpses, he looked back, only to see some humans slowing down while passing nearby. Sensing their gazes on him, the anger that was still present began to grow once more.

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"GET THEM OUT OF HERE! NOW!" Hearing the orders, the group of demons was dispersed, with some picking up the bodies to hide them from the eyes of the public while other picked up their whips, making the slow humans immediately increase their speeds. "All of this because of this damned One Reborn. If we had killed that undead while we had the chance." Sensing the eyes of the ratman on him, he regretted saying those words. "I take back what I just said, you're happy now? Now go and bother other people. I think the one fighting in the frontiers would be thrilled to have you on their sides."

"We are not your enemies, commandant. We are all on the same side, facing the threat of the undead. Just ..." Looking at the red pond that had been formed by the leaking blood of the two humans, the small green demon didn't really know what to say. Turning his head left and right, he realized they were finally alone, just the two of them. "I will take your advice back to the capital. But just between you and me, the situation is also deteriorating near the capital. And no one knows how to fix it, even the Demon Emperor."

For the first time since she got here, she saw the red orc not angered but surprised, as his two eyes were wide open. "Are you saying that ..." Just at this moment, another demon passed nearby, prompting him to shut his mouth. However, his message had already been transmitted, as the ratman nodded his head. "We'll all be damned. Even they failed. But we still need more and more demons just to keep in check the ever-growing population of humans. And the ones in the frontiers are still asking for more and more of my men. What am I supposed to do?"

To this, the other party didn't possess a solution. Feeling small tap on his bulk arms, he saw the ratman beginning to leave, to let him alone to handle his problem. If he hadn't been informed of the bigger picture, he would have probably been mad once more. But now, all he did was just looking at the skies with a worried expression.

As for the hidden listener, she was contemplating whether she should kill one of the two or not. But with their two targets soon entering the crowded hamlet, she did not want to bother slaughter everyone. However, her interest was increasing slightly, knowing that humans and undead were working together. As for the One Reborn and the Demon Emperor, she did not have to worry that much. Their very survival will only depend on whether they were concerned with the plans of Candaith.