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Last Embryo Volume 4 Interlude 2 Part 1

「. . . A time limit for humanity?!」

Heracles has been stunned speechless by the words that flew out of his old friend’s mouth. Not being surprised by this kind of reaction, Orpheus himself continued to talk with a face so warped as if he had just took a bite of an incredibly bitter worm.

「As much as I would have like it not to be true, then I am afraid so. That is right. At the very beginning of their existence, human beings had a strict time limit set on them by the stars.」

「That is the true identity of the 「Hell’s Kiln」. A cataclysmic eruption of an Ultra Volcano. Mankind was supposed to have been destroyed by the breath of one of the largest stars in recorded history.」

The largest aftereffects of the volcanic activity known to men are commonly referred to as 「Caldera Volcanoes」 or 「Calderas」. The debris that is ejected into the world by the power of the eruption of the giant star is one of the most destructive natural disasters that humanity ever had to face, possessing the power that would be enough to at times create a whole new chunks of land, and at times to wipe the entire continents, cities and civilizations off the face of the earth without leaving as much as a single trace of them behind, causing total annihilation. The name 「Calderas」originates from the shape of the scars left in the ground by the eruption, and it can be translated to a 「large bowl」. . . . . . . . . or a 「Giant Cauldron」. The torrent of power that is generated at the moment of eruption, which is estimated to be around three hundred billion times more powerful than the blast of a nuclear warhead is enough to turn continents to smoldering ashes, and the clouds of dust that are created as a side effect can block out the rays of the sun and cover up the entire sky and even the light of the stars themselves, for as long as several hundred years at worst.

「Great storms, deluges, plagues and epidemics, radiation. Gods and humanity have faced all those challenges before and always managed to come out on top of them, but this particular problem is the only one that they have yet to find a plausible solution for.」

「Hmpf! I heard the rumors that stated that 「Hell’s Kiln」 is going to be the thing that will finally bring mankind their promised end, but are those rumors not greatly exaggerated? Is it really that terrifying?」

In response to all those terribly-sounding words and doomsday prophecies, the young blonde vampire, Lamia said those words while puffing her chest out pridefully.

「Of course it is. It is a power that has already claimed hundreds of thousands of human lives across history, and it is something that mere mortals could not ever begin to hope to fight against in hopes of winning, even if all of them were to come together and try to stop it to the best of their abilities. However, recently, a certain human has come up with something that might just be able to do it, making the impossible possible. . . . . . .」

「. . . . . . . . . . . . . Environmental Control Tower. The modern Tower of Babel said to be capable of controlling even the stars themselves, created by the man called Saigo.」

Leticia continued while interrupting Lamia. Having been – in her own opinion at least – oh so rudely interrupted, Lamia pouted her lips and began sulking in the corner of the cove all of them were currently in, but when she sensed her chance, she immediately jumped back into the conversation as if nothing had happened.

「Hmpf! If aunt Leticia says so, then let us continue under that exact premise. So basically what you are trying to say is that the Environmental Control Tower, or rather, its construction, is one of the necessary turning points in humanity’s history that they have to achieve if they want to be saved from certain extinction?」

「「The Seeds of Mankind’s Destruction」. . . after successfully defeating these Beasts of Apocalypse, otherwise known as 「God Slayers」, Little Garden managed to succeed in correcting the course of history in such a way to ensure that the power of salvation would fall into humanity’s hands without fail.」

「But instead of salvation, the human being who have been bestowed with that power decided to use it to bring forth the future of self-destruction.」

That is what 「The Final Trials of Mankind」. . . the three Demon Lords who were supposed to wipe out humanity were.

『Absolute Evil』 Demon Lord Azi-Dahaka.

『Closed-off World』 Demon Lord Dystopia.

『Winds of Decay』 Demon Lord End Emptiness.

The three of them were the absolute pinnacle of what the true Demon Lord could be capable off, to the point that at one time they were all deemed as 「Absolutely Undefeatable」even in Little Garden.

「. . . . . . . I see. If humanity were to be deprived of their pseudo-etheric bodies, then they would most certainly be able to avoid self-destruction at their own hands. But in that case, they would definitely be wiped out by the Beasts of Apocalypse who had no problems with killing even the Gods.」

「That is right. The Demon Lord of the White Night thought exactly the same when we asked her about it on the way here. . . but that is beside the point.」

「The only way out of this situation was to evolve the ethics of humanity itself. In the end, Sakamaki Izayoi managed to defeat Azi-Dahaka and stop 「The Winds of Decay」as a result, which set humanity on the right course towards its peaceful conclusion. . . or at least, that is how it should have been.」

Both Orpheus and Leticia fell silent in depression.

Since they were both immensely kindhearted souls, it pained them deeply to talk about the future that awaited humanity from here on out. Because if nothing was done about it, then no matter how hard humans would struggle to avoid it, the current course they were heading along will only bring them to one possible outcome: the one of tragedy. And also never-ending sadness. Since both Leticia and Orpheus were the existences that were supposed to quietly sink into the darkness of human history without anyone ever noticing it, they were trying to think of a calm way of how they should explain it to Heracles, but just as they were in the middle of trying to come up with words that would not throw him into a fit of despair and rage, a mysterious voice echoed out from behind his back, followed up by a gust of wind.

「You are being so awfully roundabout about this matter that it is actually painful to watch, Orpheus. Do you not think that it would be both faster and better to tell him everything that you want him to hear clearly?」

「. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Huh?! Who goes there?!」

Heracles swung on his feet with incredible speed and delivered a powerful punch to the place where the sudden voice was coming from. His fist, which went against the horizon faster than anyone else could have reacted smashed the shore of the cove and sent violent waves through the sea with its pressure alone, but it never reached its intended target.

「Do not worry. Since you asked for my name, I will give it to you. I am Krishna. 「The Eighth Avatar」 of 『Avatara』 and one of the founding members of The 『Uroboros Demon Lord Alliance』.」

「One of 『Uroboros’』. . . founding members?!」

「Yes, you heard me correctly. When I heard you voicing your desire to join our Alliance so feverently, I could not help it but to come all the way here from across the sea in a hurry. Since you are the greatest Demigod of the Greek mythology and your very name is synonymous with the word 「Hero」, then you deserve to know all the facts exactly the way they are, without my associates here being too scared to ask you for your cooperation.」