Chapter 805

【 EPILOGUE 】

Azazel had lost his position as the manager of the Demon Lord Labyrinth and had once again become nothing more than an ordinary employee within it.

From now on, together with Samael, the two of them would personally serve as dungeon bosses, responsible for providing Golden-class advancement slots and creating exciting challenges for the players who ventured into the labyrinth.

It was a considerable fall from grace.

However, Evé ultimately decided to show Azazel some mercy.

If his betrayal had occurred when she had only just arrived in this world, she would have erased him without the slightest hesitation.

But things were different now.

The Abyssal Myths within the Demon Lord Labyrinth had already grown in number to the point where they could almost form two complete football teams. If she truly wished to replace Azazel, she only needed to select another Mythical-rank demon and have them devour Azazel’s core. From there, she could nurture a new Demon Lord under her command.

After all, the moment Evé obtained control over the core of the First Layer of Hell, Azazel was no longer an irreplaceable existence.

However, demons were ultimately demons.

They were creatures whose very nature made them difficult to trust and nearly impossible to completely control.

Perhaps they were truly sincere when they lowered their heads and submitted.

Perhaps their loyalty was genuinely heartfelt when they pledged their allegiance.

But the instant an opportunity appeared, they would still turn against anyone without the slightest hesitation.

It was simply their nature.

Born with an instinctive desire to resist and rebel, nothing could describe demons better than that single trait.

Therefore, even if Evé replaced Azazel with another Demon Lord, she did not believe the outcome would necessarily be any better.

Moreover, Azazel unexpectedly possessed excellent learning ability. He seemed to have quite the talent for being a game administrator and had managed the Labyrinth in a surprisingly organized manner…

After considering these factors, Evé decided to spare his life.

After all, cultivating a competent manager wasn’t easy. Even Feynir, the Fairy King whose managing the game system within the Garden of Eden, might not necessarily do a better job than Azazel.

However, although Evé ultimately chose to spare Azazel’s life, allowing him to continue existing was not the same as letting him escape without consequences.

A certain amount of punishment was still necessary.

After all, betrayal was betrayal.

Even if his actions had not caused irreparable damage, there still needed to be a proper price for his actions.

Therefore, during this period of punishment, Azazel would once again have to experience the “joy” of personally interacting with the players.

He would return to his former duties, facing the endless waves of adventurers who entered the Demon Lord Labyrinth, allowing him to once again recall all the hardships, suffering, and frustration he had endured in the past.

Hopefully, this time, he would not be driven to the point of losing his sanity.

After all, the players’ methods of dealing with demons were no longer the same as they had been before.

By now, the various tricks, schemes, and unconventional strategies they came up with had reached a level where even Evé felt that enduring such treatment for too long would likely leave anyone with some form of psychological trauma.

As for whether he would ever regain his previous position as the manager of the Demon Lord Labyrinth in the future…

Well, that would depend entirely on his performance.

Regardless, after obtaining control over the core of the First Layer of Hell, Evé had completely seized control over Azazel’s existence.

The authority he once possessed had vanished, and his very foundation was now in her hands. Even if he wanted to cause trouble again, he no longer had the ability to do so.

Compared to the other demons, his reliability was still relatively higher.

Of course, expecting him to sincerely pledge absolute loyalty to her was impossible.

But that was fine.

As long as they could maintain a stable relationship, complete loyalty was unnecessary.

Plus, with the establishment of the Dimensional Gate to Hell under her control, the First Layer and the Wasteland of Desolation had finally become completely connected.

The barrier separating the two regions had effectively disappeared, allowing players to freely travel between them.

Combined with Samael’s Sixth Layer of Hell, this meant that the players would now have access to two completely different regions within Hell.

For Evé, this was an extremely valuable development.

She planned to permanently maintain both Dimensional Gates, transforming these two layers of Hell into long-term training grounds for the players.

There, players could hunt monsters, accumulate experience, obtain resources, and continuously grow stronger while exploring the endless possibilities that the Abyss had to offer.

As for completely conquering the two layers, she had never considered such a possibility.

The Sixth Layer of Hell contained countless powerful demons and was located deep within the Endless Abyss.

The players simply did not possess the strength to conquer it.

Even with Eve’s assistance, it would still be impossible. Although she could temporarily dominate the Abyss and sweep through enemies without resistance, she could not remain inside Hell for a long period of time, since doing so would consume far too much of her divine power.

According to Eve’s plan, she would transform the demon fortress within the Fallen God Canyon into one of the front-line bases against the Abyss. There, the players could simply level up right outside their own doorstep and occasionally make exploratory attempts into the Sixth Layer of Hell.

As for the First Layer of Hell, a base was already located within it, thereby allowing players to move around freely.

Moreover, most of the high-ranking demons within this layer had already been eliminated after the war. Even its Core was now controlled by Evé, meaning there were very few remaining beings capable of threatening the players within the First Layer.

Of course, for the players, this only meant that their activity range had become larger.

But conquering the layer itself was impossible. The corruption caused by Abyssal power was simply too strong, and there was no possibility of completely purifying it.

Compared to each other, the two layers were basically like two maps of different difficulty levels for the players.

As for the Core of the First Layer of Hell, after some consideration, Evé ultimately sealed it once again within the Lava Palace.

She then relocated the Lava Palace deep within the base fortress she had personally created using divine power.

A holy statue of her also was enshrined within the fortress. As long as anything happened, she could descend there with an incarnation at any time, making the location extremely safe.

Evé named this fortress the Eye of the Abyss.

Additionally, Evé left Meryer behind to guard the place.

He was now the Black Dragon God and also possessed the bloodline of Nidhogg, the Dragon of Despair. His resistance to the corruption of Abyssal power was extremely high, and the volcanic environment of the First Layer of Hell was also quite beneficial for his growth.

The only problem was that eating grilled meat in the future might not be as convenient.

Hmm… Actually, that might not necessarily be true.

As long as they could exchange something valuable with Meryer, the players would be willing to do anything. Perhaps they might even establish a trade route specifically transporting grilled meat from the First Layer of Hell to the World of Seigües…

The Demon Lords returned to their respective layers to recover and rebuild, while the gods also withdrew their armies one after another.

Even Evé returned to Seigües, leaving all the miscellaneous affairs to Feynir before concealing her identity and descending onto the continent to slack off.

With this, the war between the Gods and Demons, which had lasted for an entire year, had finally come to an end.

Of course, some skirmishes still continued in certain regions. For example, some of the affiliated sunken realms favored by the gods, especially those near the First Layer of Hell, still had the gods leading their armies to compete with demons for control over these worlds.

Unlike Hell, these fallen realms had the possibility of being restored after the Abyssal power within them was purified. They could potentially be brought back into the Prime Material Realm, allowing them to recover and eventually become affiliated worlds belonging to the gods.

Including the Wasteland of Desolation that Evé had her eyes on.

The Wasteland of Desolation was roughly the same size as the mainland continent of Seigües, perhaps slightly smaller. Fortunately, it had once been an elemental-balanced material world, meaning it possessed great potential.

Once the players had spread her holy statues throughout this entire world, Eve would attempt to pull this sunken realm out of the Abyss.

Although the distorted flow of time was extremely beneficial for players when it came to leveling up, this distortion of space-time came at the cost of accelerating the world’s deterioration.

Considering that she might need more worlds for future development, it would be better to extract the Wasteland of Desolation from the Abyss now as soon as possible and send elemental fairies to purify the Abyssal power within it.

The battles within the Endless Abyss had more or less ended. However, the Abyssal armies that remained stranded within the Seigües had still not been completely eliminated.

Not only that, the remaining demons had actually begun showing signs of stabilizing their forces and forming an independent faction…

In fact, somehow they had even built up a city.

“Morudo?”

Inside the Black Dragon Tavern in Chosen City, Evé, who had transformed into her player incarnation, lightly sipped her elven flower tea while looking at Little Salty Cat sitting across from her with a hint of surprise.

“Yeah, Morudo. Apparently, it means ‘Demon City’ in the demon language. I heard it was built around the former capital of the Empire’s southern border territory, and there are several Abyssal Brood Nests located there.”

Little Salty Cat stirred her cup of milk coffee with a wooden spoon as she explained.

It was not actual coffee, but a substitute discovered by the players in the Southern Mountains. It came from a plant similar to a coffee tree, one that had existed in this world for countless years but had never been utilized by the natives.

After discovering its value, some players quickly brought the plant back to the Elven Forest for cultivation, intending to develop a proper coffee industry while improving its quality through selective breeding.

Although the drink was still far inferior to the coffee from Earth, it had already become quite popular among some players.

Little Salty Cat was especially fond of it.

However, Evé was not particularly interested.

Adding milk and sugar was acceptable, but drinking it completely black was something she could never understand.

Thinking about it, she realized that she had never really liked coffee in her previous life either.

“The Holy Maniya Empire and the Eternal Church are way too inefficient. Numerous Abyssal Myths have already been killed by the Goddess, and the demon army has been heavily weakened by us. Yet they still haven’t eliminated the remaining demons and even allowed them to establish a city inside their own territory. Honestly, their faction is just too weak.”

Little Salty Cat shook her head and curled her lips.

“Exactly. The entire human faction has a population of several hundred million. Even if the proportion of extraordinary beings is low, they should still be able to gather an army stronger than ours, right? But after such a long time, they still haven’t managed to complete the subjugation.”

Dōngdōng, who was sitting beside Little Salty Cat while eating snacks, repeatedly nodded in agreement.

After the mission in the Mindel Realm ended, these two top players from different guilds had become friends. During their free time, they would occasionally meet up in Chosen City, and sometimes they would even invite Evé, who had disguised herself as Féng, to relax with them.

Sitting across from the two of them, Evé could only let out a helpless laugh.

The efficiency of the human nations had clearly disappointed Little Salty Cat and Dōngdōng’s expectations. However, Evé faintly understood the reason behind it.

The various human nations of Seigües indeed possessed no shortage of powerful individuals, and their potential for war was extremely high.

Especially after the resurgence of mana, extraordinary beings had appeared throughout the continent like a sudden tide. Their strength was not inferior to the players at all, and their highest-level combat forces were even stronger.

However, the World of Seigües was still comparable to the late feudal era of Earth.

Although the existence of extraordinary powers meant that their potential for war far surpassed that of Earth during the same period, their ability to mobilize forces was extremely limited.

Many extraordinary beings were independent adventurers who completely ignored official orders.

As for the authorities themselves, their ability to organize armies was also restricted.

This was because most human nations on the continent still operated under a noble feudal system. Centralized authority was extremely limited, causing extraordinary power to become heavily fragmented.

Take the Holy Maniya Empire as an example.

The central region directly controlled by the imperial government was nothing more than the current Empress’ personal territory.

It was only a single region, and its total area might even be slightly smaller than the Maple Moon Territory.

The remaining lands were controlled by various powerful nobles, such as dukes, marquises, and certain counts with special authority.

The Empress could only manage them indirectly, receiving their loyalty while obtaining a certain amount of taxes and conscripted soldiers from them.

As for the smaller and middle-ranking nobles beneath them, the current young Empress practically had no direct authority over them.

“My vassal’s vassal is not my vassal.”

This rule, which existed during the feudal era of western history on Earth, was exactly the same in Seigües.

And the human nobles of Seigües…

Many of them only cared about matters as long as the war did not reach their own territories.

Not to mention, after the resurgence of mana, many nobles had begun growing restless themselves. Internal conflicts had erupted, with territories fighting over resources and countless small-scale wars breaking out between different factions.

From the perspective of players from China, this might have been difficult to understand.

Why were nobles under the same country fighting against each other?

But this was simply how human societies in this universe operated.

The imperial center still possessed the authority to mediate conflicts between major nobles. However, if smaller nobles beneath those major powers fought among themselves, the imperial government could often do little.

These conflicts varied greatly in scale.

Some involved only a few hundred people, while others could involve tens of thousands.

Throughout the Holy Maniya Empire, and even the southern Kingdom of Aries, such conflicts had only increased with time.

Furthermore, the resurgence of mana had brought countless new problems.

Beast tides, mutations, newly awakened extraordinary beings, and ancient forces returning from obscurity.

While these changes strengthened humanity as a whole, they also disrupted the stability of human society.

Under such circumstances, it was understandable why the war had dragged on until now.

“Probably… their ability to mobilize forces is too poor. Besides, the mainland hasn’t exactly been peaceful recently.”

Evé took another sip of flower tea and calmly explained.

“That’s true. According to the game’s setting, the resurgence of mana is accelerating faster and faster. Even in Gray Haven, I’ve heard many strange stories about the continent from passing merchant caravans. I guess simply dealing with their own internal problems is already enough to keep them busy.”

Dōngdōng nodded while stuffing snacks into her mouth.

At the same time, she quietly took the pot of elven flower tea in front of Evé, poured herself a cup, and happily began drinking.

“However, this also gives us more adventure material!”

Little Salty Cat’s eyes lit up.

“The war in the Abyss is over, and the entire map of Seigües has finally been completely opened. Isn’t this the perfect time to explore the continent?”

She said this with a hint of anticipation while picking up her spoon and tasting the coffee.

The moment it entered her mouth, she slightly frowned.

It was a little bitter.

Without hesitation, she took out two pieces of sugar from her pocket, dropped them into the cup, and stirred.

The sugar had been purchased from a human merchant caravan.

The human nations of this world possessed surprisingly advanced sugar-making techniques, and their products were far better than the improvised versions created by players.

“Ugh, I still haven’t finished exploring the Demirealm of Ouros and the Mindel Realm. I saw on the official forums that players discovered many beautiful locations in those two maps.”

Dōngdōng finished her flower tea in one gulp, then excitedly gestured as she continued.

“Mindel even has a beach perfect for diving. Apparently, you can see mermaids there!”

“Mermaids? Seriously?”

Little Salty Cat widened her eyes.

“Of course. Boss Cat, haven’t you checked the official forum recently? They aren’t as beautiful as elves, but their appearances are still quite impressive.”

Dōngdōng smiled.

“Ah… I’ve been busy dealing with real estate matters recently. After the teleportation array connecting Crystal City and Rivendell was completed, I got completely screwed over. So now I’m trying to figure out how to deal with the situation…”

Remembering something troublesome, Little Salty Cat slightly frowned.

Dōngdōng: “…”

“As expected of you…”

“Ahaha… I was just trying to get some benefits for my guild, hehe! Anyway, forget about that. Dōngdōng, where exactly is this diving spot you mentioned? How about we go together in a couple of days?”

“Sure, sure! I was already planning to check it out soon!”

The two female players quickly began discussing their plans, one speaking after the other.

Meanwhile, Evé watched them excitedly plan their next adventure with a gentle smile.

She continued drinking her flower tea while listening to the beautiful melody played by the bard inside the tavern.

The bard was a Frost Elf hired by the Black Dragon Tavern, and the song being played was the popular elven melody among players:

“Summer in the Forest.”

Cheerful and melodious.

Outside the window, brilliant sunlight covered the beautiful city with a layer of golden radiance.

The trees were lush and vibrant, their branches filled with countless leaves swaying gently in the summer breeze.

Summer had arrived.

Evé turned her head and looked toward the bustling streets filled with people coming and going.

Lively.

Crowded.

Full of energy.

The city had already taken on the appearance of a true fantasy metropolis.

It had been exactly six years since she arrived in this world.

The scene of Chosen City when it was first established still appeared vivid in her memories but in just half a decade, the Elven Forest had already undergone earth-shaking changes.

The original three hundred players had expanded to two million, and their numbers continued to grow steadily.

And Evé herself had transformed from a goddess on the verge of eternal slumber into a mythical being possessing Higher Divine Power, standing above countless others.

However, everything was far from over.

Obtaining Higher Divine Power had once been her goal.

But it was only a new beginning.

Mana throughout Seigües was rapidly recovering.

The day when this world’s planetary seal would be broken was fast approaching.

Extraordinary beings were awakening, ancient gods were returning, and Evé’s true identity was gradually becoming suspected.

The upheaval of the entire world had only just begun.

And this upheaval would not be limited to Seigües alone.

It was destined to sweep across the entire universe.

As for Evé herself, she would inevitably step onto the center stage once again…

Not as the Goddess of Life.

But as the World Tree, Evé Yggdrasill, this time.

“Hey, Sister Feng, are you free the day after tomorrow? Want to go see the mermaid diving spot together?”

Little Salty Cat waved her hand in front of Evé’s eyes, interrupting her thoughts.

Evé slowly turned back and looked at the two expectant faces before her.

“Of course.”

She smiled gently.

Well, an occasional moment of relaxation was also necessary in life.