I wonder what's taking them so long to break the sealing barrier? Do I have to lend them a hand? Seriously! Those incompetent demons...

In real time, at least five demons had been hammering away at the sealing barrier over the Abyssal Gate for two hours no less. During that time, I had completed most of the work beneath the surface.

Seriously, this was too much construction work for one day. The backlash from the |dedicated one| was more than I had expected.

Of course, I didn't neglect Kanoko who was still in my little bubble somewhere far away from all these construction work. After I squashed those tiny shadow snakes, I had Kanoko rest in her office.

"What..."

Flabbergasted she was, I disclosed the situation from the guardians to the Abyssal Gate to the demons. Somehow, she was witnessing history in the making.

She was holding her head with both hands, "Berry... I think I'm getting too old for this..."

"Is it time for your retirement?" I teased.

"Retirement?"

And so, I explained to her what retirement meant.

"... It's basically a super long rest."

"A super long rest?" She sighed like an old woman, "I suppose that's for the best. It's time for young folks to take up the rein. Yeah..."

"Let me know if you want to live in my subspace, Ataraxia. I'll always welcome you there."

"I'll think about it."

"Alright, I'll be right back. I still have some work to do."

Back at the Abyssal Gate, I created small ducts for volatile mana to steadily seep out from the planetary shell. The shell itself was impermeable and normally indestructible but I was able to work with it.

For the layer above, I filled it up with alternating dense crystalline sand and aquifers which totalled up about a hundred kilometers in depth. They acted as energy regulators and converters for volatile mana. And finally, on the very top layer was a lake, likely the deepest lake on this continent. With all that done, the crisis had been averted.

The volatile mana originated from the core of this planet. Perhaps it was better to call it the will of the world or maybe the will of the planet. The planetary shell contained the will to prevent the core from dissipating.

Theoretically, the planetary core shouldn't dissipate since it could self regenerate but reckless and power entities existed in this world. Not to mention, in the future, as civilizations advanced, they might start tapping into the planet's soul as their energy source once they learned how to convert said volatile energy.

Looking at the planetary shell and everything as a whole, it reminded me of a fey core.

Anyhow, all that was left to deal with the clueless demons still trying to penetrate the sealing barrier.

"You know what!? The tournament is going to start soon. I can't have you delay this any further so I'll give you all a hand."

My exasperation knew no bound. With how much |dedicated one| I had been using, I was feeling groggy and annoyed. Actually, I still needed it to maintain for this mega illusion which was why I wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.

Roughly speaking, I figured out what the demons were trying to do.

At first I thought they were trying to penetrate it with super magic since I saw energy accumulating in those magic circles. However, that wasn't the case because attack magic was prone to interruptions.

What the demons were doing was deconstructing the sealing barrier. The easiest way to destroy a magical barrier was to destroy the basis of the magic itself. In this case, the floating islands acted as the base of this magic construct. Yet, those chunky rocks were within the barrier.

Now, how the heroes created it was beyond me. They must have had some cheats.

To deconstruct a magical barrier of this caliber would be equivalent to deconstructing several traits and abilities managed by the system. Of course, I could also copy and replicate a few of those but to a limited degree.

Now, with five demons, I would say they'd need at least half a day to deconstruct this sealing barrier. For me, I had my |void| trait to do that which was superior to |chaos| in terms of disintegrating things. As for demons, they could either rely on |chaos| or an ability like [sage] to systematically dismantle the barrier by tackling its weaknesses.  

On a side note, demons generally had no access to world travelling abilities so I didn't consider that possibility. Seriously, if they did, they wouldn't dare causing trouble of this magnitude and risk losing it all. Demons kept minions for good reasons. I nearly became a minion thanks to that rabbit demon. 

After leaving the barrier, I tossed the black cube containing the snake guardian and his temple directly at the centre of the demons' magic circle.

Hehe... They never saw this coming. Kaboom!

With a snap of my finger, the next instance, the tiny black cube or the cubic void barrier disappeared. Without the black cube containing the matter and energy inside, the content was only trying to return to its original size. And, since I released it smack dabbed in the centre of that magic circle, I completely overloaded it resulting in an explosion that rivalled a tactical warhead.

Well done, me! What a beautiful mushroom cloud! Amen.

If I had to be accurately describe the scene, it should be closer to an volcanic eruption. After all, rocks and boulders were raining down on the surrounding area.

Regardless, this much damage was hardly enough to kill demons and guardians. It would injure them at best. In fact, the energy was mostly scattered and directed into the sky above. If it had been a concentrated blast directed towards a guardian or a demon, the likelihood of death would be much higher. Also, because there were no shadows for the snake guardian to hide, he likely took the most damage. However, he also boasted extreme high defense with the |adamant scales| trait meaning the damage was actually fairly minimal.

An unconscious snake came crashing down into the still intact sealing barrier.

"And just who in the world said the barrier couldn't hold much longer? It's obviously still going strong." I murmured to myself.

The sealing barrier was to remain there acting as a deterrent for mischievous and curious ones from messing around in that area. With time, it should dissipate by itself.

As much as I would like to collect a few cute demons, I refrained myself from it. They were too peculiar for my taste. Oortez and that future assistant of his was already more than enough on my plate.

With my work done here, I removed the illusion and returned to Kanoko's office.

"Back! And, my work there is all done!"

I excitedly greeted Kanoko who was lying in bed in her private room next door. It had only been a few hours since she last slept in my subspace but she seemed exhausted nonetheless.

Speaking of exhaustion, I too was exhausted. Different from her exhaustion, my exhaustion wouldn't go away with sleep.

I waited a few seconds for a reply but she seemed like she was asleep. Well, it was still dark outside.

I quietly snuck up next to her and rested my elbows on her bed. A huge grin was plastered on my face. One simply didn't get to watch an ancient fey being sleep.

"A soundly asleep Kanoko... How adorable! Ehehe."

"How long do you plan to remain like that?" A voice came from Kanoko who should have been asleep.

"Awwh... Why did you have to ruin the mood!? It was such a delightful sight for a tired soul."

Her eyes shot open as if she had been pretending to sleep all this time. "Quit joking around. So, what happened?"

I sighed in resignation. "Fineee... I'll give you a rundown but please do not report everything to your superior, okay?"

"I'll be the judge of that," she said as she got up, already partially dressed, much to my disappointment.

Frankly, there wasn't much for me to disclose. I simply retold her everything from the moment I kept her inside my void barrier up to now, excluding some minor details. When I had finished, she seemed to have zoned out.

I could totally understand why she zoned out though. Fixed up the planet all in a day's work? Defeated wicked demons and fried a revered guardian with a custom made bomb? Not to mention, my level shot up again.

"Kanoko, are you feeling okay? Do you need a hug?" I whispered to her with great anticipation.

"Berry."

"Yes, yes?"

"I think I'm ready for retirement."

blanksphere

Next day will have another chapter.