"In 7 days from now, 99% of mankind will have been exterminated."

Although her old goal was to willingly create The New World, Aniik now understands how foolish that idea was. You could justify her actions by arguing that she didn't know what would happen if it was created.

And yeah, I mean, the casualties Sachrist now sheds light on were unheard of, unbelievable for her at the time. But in no circumstances could you ever justify the deaths of billions of people. Be that 2, 5, or 10 billion (99%) deaths, in all cases, it is inargueably unethical and indefensible.

But now, Aniik has learned how to love and to be loved. She has made memories she doesn't want to forget. She has made friends she can't bear losing. Instead of feeling excitement over the idea of The New World, she now feels utter disgust and sorrow.

Aniik clenches her right hand into a fist. She averts her gaze and closes her eyes. Similar responses we can see from Yonuro and Ramael. It is all unbelievably cruel...

But suddenly, Aniik rises her tone of voice and loudly asks Sachrist with determination.

Aniik- Tell us Sachrist. What casued all this? And what can we do to prevent it?

Sachrist presses a button on the luxurious desk they are all sitting around and a projection of Holy Energy manifests as a floating bright board that Sachrist uses to write and draw on.

Yonuro- That's—

Sachrist- It reminds you of Samei, right Yonuro?

Shocked as she is, Yonuro slight opens her mouth but she can't say anything.

The omniscient Archangel pats Yonuro's shoulder and says "I know everything, silly..." and covers his mouth with his right hand as he silently giggles.

Yonuro's heart rate increases as she is amazed by the absolute power of omniscience.

Yonuro- Speaking of Samei, are they—

Sachrist- Yes, it's as you predicted earlier, 43 minutes and 20 seconds ago. The "psycho" Geord has a hidden sturdy basement, that he used to hide from the Faith Organization in. He and your friends are safe in there.

Aniik- That's a relief. Phew..

Sachrist- I wouldn't mind answering all your questions, but we have no time to spare.

Sachrist taps on the board, writes down some names and draws scuffed maps of the worlds, all while explaining.

Sachrist- I'll be now explaining the root of the problem. Our enemy consists of two federated groups that made an unlikely alliance. The goal of this alliance was to make the New World a reality, in which they unfortunately succeeded.

Even though they don't have a name, henceforth, I'll be addressing them as the Demonic Organization. And the individual groups that merged together are of course the Demonic Council and the Faith Organization.

Yonuro- How... How is that possible?

Sachrist- Two major events happened the one after the other and lead to this tragic union. They both originate from your step-sister's death, Yuri Keller's. Let's look at both sides one at a time.

After, Yuri's death, the Faith Organization, which you all know about, took control of all the satelites detecting Dark Essence in the Overworld. But they also got all the information from Casey and Yuri Keller's experiments.

Based on those results, they perfomed experiments on their own and uncovered a hidden property of the Dark Essence, that even you Aniik don't know about. That is otherworldly communication. In other words, telecommunication between worlds through the Dark Essence.

Sachrist draws two lands and separates them with a vertical line. He then draws a symbol of Dark Essence on each land and connects them with a dotted line. He then writes teleportation → telecommunication as a headline. Now the others can better understand what's going on.

Sachrist- On the other side of the equation, we have the Demonic Council. After Yuri and Aria's deaths, the number of the Demonic Lords was diminished by two. That's what you're all thinking, but it is unfortunately incorrect.

Yonuro and Ramael are confused, but Aniik nods in agreement with Sachrist.

Then, Sachrist starts drawing circles, arrows, Demonic Lord names, and much much more throughout his explanation.

Sachrist- All Demons possess some amount of Dark Essence, that can be either negligible (normal Demons) or significant (Demonic Lords). The Dark Essence represents the soul of a Demon, and all Dark Essence is connected in a cycle by the Original Sin.

We all know how the Demonic Lords' powers are preserved. The trial of execution. But what If a Demonic Lord dies of natural means? What happens then, do they just disappear?

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

No, even if they commit suicide, their significant and potent Dark Essence won't be lost, but transfered to a random Demon, through the connected cycle. Only one Demonic Lord, Yahin, was able to escape the cycle by destroying his soul, in this way disconnecting his Dark Essence from the Original Sin.

That's not the case with many other previous Demonic Lords, however, including Yuri and Aria. Therefore, it was only natural that after a month of Yuri and Aria's deaths, two random Demons gained the powers of those two. And the Demons who happened to inherit them were 14-year-old twins, named Akane and Aoi.

"And how does that affect the Demonic Council, you're wondering?"

Aniik/Ramael/Yonuro- There's no point in even asking.

Sachrist- You'll see soon enough. If the previous Demonic Lord is not willing to give over their Dark Essence to the next one, it brings about unwanted consequences. The previous Demonic Lord affects the future one's character and personality. The inheritor loses their usual self and becomes something different. In this case, something beyond sinister... The one twin, Akane, suddenly became a narcisistic monster with a tar soul, stemming from the combined Dark Essence of Sadron and Yuri.

Aniik- Ouch...

Sachrist- Akane lost sight of herself and brought revolutionary changes to the order of the Demonic Council. Her sister, Aoi, took after Aria's character and was quite reserved and calm at first. She had nothing in common with Akane's goals.

But as she is her twin sister, these two couldn't separate. In the end, Akane brought Aoi to her side, she made her the same monster as herself. And the Demonic Council took a steep turn towards revenge and domination...

Yonuro can't believe that even after her death, her step-sister still impacts the World negatively.

Sachrist- To make matters worse, in the one month that passed with the only Demonic Lord left being Hellva, the Underworld met a state of crisis once more. The chaos that had risen up from the Demonic Council's radio silence made the Demons lose all hope. As a result, all order had been lost...

This anarchy made the Demons more aggressive and dangerous than ever. And when Akane came up and reformed the Demonic Council, the Demons' savage nature was awakened and the council's absurd ideals spread like a virus.

"All Demons are evil at heart. This fact was proven once again..." says Sachrist and pauses for a bit.

The reactions of Ramael, Aniik and Yonuro are completely different, due to their own unique experiences and different beliefs.

Ramael deeply nods as she is reminded of the long war in which she had helped Sachrist thwart the Demons' evil schemes 410 years ago.

"I'm half Demon. Should I feel offended?" murmurs Aniik.

Yonuro finds it hard to believe all this and she's lost in thought. "But the Demons seemed like normal people... Is this the reason why Ramael was afraid of them when we first encountered Shrem? I can't tell truth from lie at this point..."

Sachrist- And as if that wasn't enough, the Faith Organization managed to communicate with a Demonic Lord. And out of all of them, it was Akane... The worst Demonic Lord in all of history.

The Faith Organization has a long history that I won't get into detail, but their goal is to gain absolute control of the masses, absolute power. All these years, their ideals are founded on the importance of keeping their identity hidden, while maintaining power. That way, they can neither be targeted, nor defeated.

But Akane's pursuasive way of speech and her tempting proposals changed the Faith Organization's ideals. Akane had a scheme, that she needed their help with. She had thought of a way to break the Barrier. And if she succeeded, the demons would join forces with the Faith Organization and become unstoppable. The Demonic Coucil would thrive again, like the old days, and the Faith Organization would reach new inconceivable heights.

And this proposal, the Faith Organization accepted. Their growth in power was slow and steady. They wanted more. Rapid growth. Absolute control. More power. And Akane's plan satisfied all their selfish wants...

The girls feel a chill run down their spines... It is really straightforward now. Why Sachrist has become so desperate and needs their help. If it existed, nobody would ever want to mess with so powerful a force as the Demonic Organization...

Aniik- We've got to assume that whatever her plan was, it worked out. The Barrier is... gone... How the hell did they manage to do that, though? When I tried to do the same, I ended up failing. Twice...

Sachrist takes a deep breath and answers Aniik's question.

Sachrist- The feraderal group, the Demonic Organization has strength in numbers. I'll admit, their plan was smart, but it was not original. It had been contemplated before, even though it didn't work. What made them succeed was the combined efforts of corrupted Humans and Demons...

Many years ago, when the Demons found themselves in a state of crisis for the first time, the Demonic Council tested the Barrier. They tested Its strength, its resistance, its durability, everything. They wanted to get rid of the Barrier and expand their horizons elsewhere, the Overworld. They tried to send Demonic Lords, create portals to Overworld, or even transport the population of Wargram with a Grand Portal.

Among all those fruitless ideas, they attempted another crazy idea. Teleporting the entire Underworld to the Overworld.

Yonuro / Ramael- ?!

Aniik- It was a total failure, wasn't it?

Sachrist- Yeah, it was impossible the way they tried it. But Akane thought of a different way.

They all gulp after hearing that.

Sachrist- Akane's goal to break the Barrier was not to teleport the land itself. That is really diffucult to do. Her target was a hidden property of the Barrier, that you hear these days as the Barrier's Effect. The Barrier, of course, prevents the parallel Worlds from converging, stopping their connection by any means possible. But it also prevents Demons or Lingerians from staying in the Overworld, by forcefully sending them back if they attempt to teleport there.

Aniik- Yes, that's what the Pandonomicon reads. "When a Demon teleports to the Overworld, they are violently sent back to the Underworld due to the Barrier's effect."

Sachrist- Fending off one Demonic Lord is extremely easy for the Barrier. The Barrier's Effect gets rid of them without any problem.

But stopping the teleportation of an entire land together with all its population puts a ton of pressure on the Barrier. The Barrier's Effect has a limit, it cannot withstand everything. But even that, it is not enough to break it...

Aniik- How did Akane bring the Barrier on its knees then?

Sachrist takes a brief moment before presenting the final truth of his story.

Yonuro tries to keep up with the information and puts her hand under her chin while thinking about it all. Ramael has her undivided attention on Sachrist, but she isn't commenting much. Aniik, on the other hand, has read the Pandonomicon and is able to easily keep up with Sachrist, so she is the one to often ask the questions. The questions that Sachrist answers upfront by presenting the raw truth.

Sachrist- Akane knew that the barrier wouldn't break so easily, just like it happened in the past, that's why she sought the aid of the Faith Organization. She came up with a disgusting idea, this crazy abomination of a demon.

She asked the Faith Organization to do the opposite action at the same time. The Faith Organization gathered all the Dark Essence left over in the Overworld with their satelite and did the same thing. They attempted to teleport a huge part of the Overworld to the Underworld.

As a result, Akane doubled the amount of pressure and the Barrier started slowly but surely breaking.

Sachrist then tightens his fist and says the final sentence to complete this tragic story.

Sachrist- And due to the already huge impact it had withstood from Aniik's past interference— the "wounds" that it was already trying to "heal"— one day, the Barrier... perished...

The girls gasp as the revelation behind the Barrier's destruction is finally illuminated...