Isekai Journey Of The Magic Archer

[Rein's POV: ]

For some reason, I had a thought one day…

'What if those demonic cultists did not attack Lakmer?'

We did not know if there was some elaborate meaning behind their attack on Lakmer but they most certainly were after the important people that were gathered there for the alchemy competition.

Perhaps they were after something else, perhaps they were after someone certain, perhaps there was a completely different objective of that attack and they were going to destroy all the evidence of their presence in that place.

We did not know why they did it, but they did destroy a great part of the city in the process.

They filled the city with their demonic energy and there could still be adverse effects of that demonic energy that they could not cleanse in some parts.

We are humans at the end of the day anyway. Even we could not detect the micro energy particles that were left in some of the corners of the city.

'We did prepare for anything that happens because of those things, but the deed was already done.'

They attacked, they used their powers, they caused problems and now they are gone.

An incident as big as Lakmer had not happened until now, but just as the presentation until now states, if they wanted, battles like that one could break out on various scales in various places throughout the world.

And unlike that time, we will not be able to stop it even if we know about it beforehand…

{ "Still, the question remains. What would have happened if those demonic cultists had not attacked Lakmer?" }

I was addressing some very powerful people right now, some that I have always looked up to and some that I alway wanted to meet at least once in my life.

This opportunity to speak before all of them… I did not know how much I deserve this, but, since I was given this honourable chance to speak before these amazing people, talk about something that might very well become the end of this entire world, I must not mess it up.

{ "The question has many answers and I know many of us would like to talk about it from our own perspectives." }

We can spend days speculating what might have happened had they not attacked Lakmer and revealed themselves.

But surely we can do that on our own later. All of those speculations were not needed in this conference.

{ "But, the main perspective that we will be talking about is actually related to the very nature that we all belong to." }

When I say nature, I am not talking about plants and greenery. As everyone present here knew, the Nature in my topic was the entire universe.

Not just our planet but the entire universe, the place beyond the universe, the entire known and unknown entity that is personified in various forms and exists even beyond all realms and reality.

Nature was the totality of this world.

And, the topic that I was presenting right now focused on that entirety with us as the centre of it all.

{ "If you will please take a look at this…" }

The scenery changed around us from the endless white room with no data hanging in the air, to the endless starry sky that everyone here might be familiar with.

{ "Let's say the demonic cultists did not attack Lakmer to begin with…" }

We are not talking about the case where their plan succeeds and they somehow completely erase their presence or display themselves as nothing more than rakshasas.

Most of the people must have already understood by now that a scenario like that one would result in various critical situations that would never lead to this grand conference.

We all were here because that shit happened in the first place. So, taking it as the point of inception, there were many smart people here who had already guessed how all of this world would already be walking towards its total destruction.

{ "They had their base in the woods near the capital city for over half a decade now according to the later findings.

They mainly were present in the city for over a decade, and if not for the attack, they would have stayed there for a longer time." }

I was talking right now, so Eon showed them the things that I was talking about. Data on how the environment around the town would be if they had stayed as they were.

{ "Some of them were good with people of the town, the bar that they ran- which though was serving them dangerous beverage- was a place of peace and comfort for many of them." }

Sure the drinks that they were serving were unconsciously turning those people into things like undead that they controlled with their demonic powers, but it made those people happy.

{ "Not just the three bases inside the city, if we talk about how all the individuals that were present there for many years, we can conclude that their presence in the society and their individual communities was very unique." }

Some were even famous among the citizens, and at the announcement time during the competition, the lord of Lakmer had to announce them dead along with the rest of the people– which was obviously difficult for him.

{ "After penetrating so deep into the society and becoming the reason for the happiness of so many people, had they continued what they were doing for over just a year, the capital city of Lakmer would look something like this." }

The scenery that was focused on the data changed into an imaginary picture of the capital city of Lakmer.

"..."

"What's this?"

"???"

The people around me were confused when I showed them how Lakmer would still look the same as it was right now with no big or even visible changes.

Everything in the city, the shops, the roads, the big and small structures, even the area was the same as the city of Lakmer that they had seen in multiple sections of the presentation until now.

{ "Does anyone know what's wrong with this image?" }

This was an imaginary image that we created with the data of right now and the predicted data that we obtained from various calculations.

This was not the same image, and yet, it was the same as they had known until now.

"There is no change."

"It's not possible. How can this be the city after a year?"

"Do you really mean with the presence of those demonic cultists in the city of Lakmer, the 'change' would become stagnant?"

They were smart people, alright.

{ "Not just stagnant…" }

They were right about the part where the eternal and perpetual 'Change' would stop being visible. But, the truth was even more horrible…

{ "I believe everyone here has some idea about what an undead is, correct?" }

When I first had this thought, I contemplated it on my own, asked Eon, headmaster and Branwen, and then we all contemplated it together.

We thought in scenarios, derived data and obtained some logical and mathematical conclusions from them.

We even went forward and used precious resources to create simulations of various possible scenarios that we had obtained from our data.

'We did not believe some of the results we got at first. The scale of data that we were getting made it difficult to set the dependent and independent variables according to what kind of results we wanted.'

But we still somehow got the results. And they almost gave the two of us a stroke.

{ "If the demonic cultist had not moved and stayed the same in their positions for two more years, Lakmer would look something like this." }

The city on display was now turning into a wasteland… a shocking outcome indeed.

The presence of these cultists did not just hinder the perpetual growth of anything or any place, it affected the very nature that we live in.

{ "If the demonic cultist had not moved and stayed the same in their poisons for five more years, Lakmer would look something like this." }

The city had now turned into a complete wasteland and the people of the city were now living like undead that did not even know what was going on around them, including the people of Lakmer household, and the president's house.

This result was horrible… but it was not the worst that we got.

{ "They are still people at this point, but, after just two more years…" }

The capital city of Lakmer that they knew until now, the political centre of the continent as well as the place that held the biggest alchemy competition in the world… had now turned into something that all of them would recognize as a demonic plain.

There were no houses in this city anymore, the central coliseum was turned into a demonic palace, the president and the ruling house were not present anymore, the citizens that used to be humans had also turned into something that could not be categorised as human, demon, or undead.

This scene that we were seeing right now… a lot of it was gruesome and those who were not expecting anything like this were disturbed by it on a deep level.

{ "These demonic cultists are a cancer for the nature…" }

Following Lakmer's situation after ten years, we showed them the state of the planet after ten years in case these demonic cultists never revealed themselves to the world.

"..."

"Oh lord…"

"Is… is this true?"

The results were devastating.

The planet full of life that we live on has become a dead mass of darkness in just a decade.

The beings that roamed the world were not human, not demons, not alive and not dead either.

'Somehow, merely an amalgamation of past desires that had manifested in human souls remains on this planet… Well, this is complicated to explain.'

Things were complicated. Very complicated.

Even through the simulated imagery, the level of disturbance everyone felt by looking at it was something we were expecting already.

That was the main reason that we waited till this moment to show this thing to them…

{ "Their presence is corroding the nature and it will continue like this if we do not do anything about them." }

Now a question should pop up into the heads of those smart people.

[{ "I'm almost done, Darling." }]

[{ "Yeah, finish it and I will take over." }]

[{ "Alright…" }]

The demonic cultits, at least those behind them holding actual power over all of them, should also be aware of what they were doing.

So then, why did they attack Lakmer?

{ "The question of why they would do it despite knowing the consequences of their action has a very simple answer." }

And, we know many of them have already figured out what I am going to say next…