"Anyway, we're fine here. Don't worry," Su'er reached out and wiped the blood oozing from the corner of his mouth. He turned his head and said calmly, "Don't worry. There was just a bit of a dispute while we were discussing some things. Can you give us a quiet space?"
"...Ah~, no problem. Then I wish you a pleasant conversation in advance, okay?" Think's gaze swept over Su'er, Riku, and the furnishings in the cave. She nodded and said. With her words, the wooden door that had been torn open flew up again and closed itself, completely isolating all the sounds inside.
He didn't know how Think, Jibril, and Schwi, who had completely revealed their true forms, would communicate with Couronne over there. He also didn't know how Couronne would try to mend the torn atmosphere when faced with this situation. What Su'er couldn't ignore at this moment were the two sentences that the Ex-Machina named Schwi had muttered softly just now.
Fortunately, when he was looking at the map earlier, he had lit a few more lamps to see more clearly. Therefore, there was still enough light in the cave after the table fell down and the things on the desktop were scattered. Besides the coldness that always lingered in the cave, there was also a new layer of silence.
Riku stood up from Su'er's abdomen. He wobbled and pulled up a fallen chair next to him and sat down. His arms were on top of his knees, and his fingers were buried deep in his hair.
"...Has it already spread?" Su'er finally broke the silence. He lay down on the ground with his hands spread out. He had no intention of getting up. He just said in a low voice, "Those ridiculous rules of yours?"
"...Ridiculous?" Riku smiled mockingly, "For now, only Schwi and I know. After all, the specific implementation of the plan requires your opinion and the power of the Elves... and maybe the Flügel as well."
Yes, the words that Schwi had muttered just now were the new rules that Su'er had just heard from Riku, the new rules that this man claimed to want to create, the new rules that could break the game between the Old Deus. However, they were rules that Su'er could not accept at all, along with the reason for their birth.
He even scoffed at them and treated them as a child's play.
"First, no one can be killed... because if you kill, you will be killed, and your heart doesn't want to kill anyone."
In a low voice, Su'er repeated the rules that Riku had formulated without any emotion.
"Second, no one can be allowed to die... because if you let someone die, they will die, and your heart doesn't want anyone to die."
He wanted to laugh so badly.
"Third, you cannot be seen through by anyone... because if you are seen through, you will die."
"Fourth, using any method is not cheating... because as long as you are not seen through, it cannot be counted as cheating."
"Fifth, their rules have nothing to do with us... because if we compete on the same stage, we will definitely lose, and our hearts will be denied by those races that kill each other."
"And sixth, anyone who violates the above rules will be considered defeated... because an incomplete rule is meaningless, and a victory that violates the rules has no value..."
Su'er spoke faster and faster. He repeated the rules that Riku had formulated in a dense manner. They did not just pass through his mind, but were carefully thought about and judged. And it was precisely because of this that Su'er found them even more unacceptable.
"Are you playing a game, Riku?" After a moment of silence, Su'er asked softly, "You want to end the great war, but you don't want a single person from any race, including the Old Deus, to die... What do you think a serious war is?"
"...It's a gamble of either we win the war or we perish, either we get everything or we lose everything... There are no ties and no forfeits. It's a capriciousness that is more fantastical than a fantasy," Riku replied word by word.
"However, that's impossible," Su'er denied Riku's words without hesitation. He stood up from the ground and gritted his teeth as he repeated, "A victory without death and without sacrifice is absolutely nonexistent."
There has never been a revolution without bloodshed.
"...We just need to guide the battle from the side," Riku was still insisting.
"Even if it's just guiding, wouldn't there still be individual deaths during the races' retreat and standoff with each other? Or does it not count as a violation of the rule as long as it's not a death caused by your own hands or something you see?"
However, such a self-deception was obviously not going to work. It had already violated the second rule that Riku had set for himself - a world where no one dies. The 'people' here referred to any individual from any race.
"Let's take it a step further. According to your plan, we are the 'ghosts' who guide the actions of the various races from the side. In order to avoid being found out by the Elf or the Flügel, we can't even use magic to disguise ourselves. We can only disturb the spirits inside and outside our bodies by covering ourselves with black ash or even ingesting it directly, so we can deceive and frighten those races with sensitive senses."
"Even if we can immediately use the decontamination fluid from Schwi or the spell formulas from the Elves to dispel and heal the damage caused by the black ash afterwards, this is only if everything goes smoothly and the time of being contaminated by the black ash is not too long... How can we assume that every guidance will be successfully completed in a very short time?" Su'er asked further.
Considering the worst-case scenario is the quality that one should have when formulating a plan.
"Once the time is too long, neither the decontamination fluid nor the healing spell formulas will be able to save a body that has been excessively eroded by the black ash. This process can even be accelerated due to the different constitutions of each person. And at that time, it means the arrival of death - the death of a 'ghost'."
[After obtaining the throne of the Only God, these physical injuries can be healed in an instant]—these words were stuck in Riku's throat and he couldn't say them. He understood the meaning of Su'er's words. It meant that once the worst-case scenario appeared, a 'ghost' would definitely die before the Only God appeared.
Returning to the sea of spirits, being indistinguishable from everything, unable to be healed, and unable to be resurrected.
"...Or do we just need to consider ourselves non-existent people, consider ourselves invisible ghosts, to avoid this kind of death, and consider it as... not a violation of your rules...?"
Su'er watched Riku's fingers gripping his scalp hard and asked softly.
Su'er was not casually refuting Riku's plan. He had even carefully thought about every corner of it, which made him even more unable to agree with it. He could not accept this kind of battle, and he could not convince himself to step onto the battlefield with this kind of reason.