Chapter 95: Mad
Zagronan: He is a rank 10 demon and grandmaster of illusions. He is inherently evil, enjoying slaughter and destruction for no apparent reason.
Savior: Zagronan and Lana's son, who uses pure energy for meditation. Also rank of 10, he was once married to Martha but no longer is. He is currently searching for a partner to love. He is a generally good person, inclined to help others.
Lee: A mage and the founder of the Humanoids Academy. She is rank 10 and has mastery of various concepts. Her complete law is related to dreams. While not good, she is not particularly evil either.
Doris: A transmigrator who reached rank 10, but her complete law was stolen by Rachel. Well, technically, from the beginning, her complete law was not hers, so Rachel technically didn't steal anything. Doris now resides in heaven. She doesn't harm or destroy without reason but lacks concern for evil and has no specific moral code.
Pig Head: A transmigrator born with a pig's head. Captured and taken to the Great Dream for experimentation, he was once evil as a demon. However, his nature is not inherently bad. He died saving someone from being hit by a truck.
Bertha: A wood elf deeply committed to elven culture, she is rank 9 and resides in heaven. While not evil, she can turn evil if grieving. For instance, she once attacked humans without killing them, but when humans destroyed wood elves, she retaliated by attacking and destroying many human cities.
Emma: Bertha's daughter in heaven. She is very naïve and pure, born in heaven, unaware of the notion of evil.
Alex: A child made of Carl's dream. Lee wants to make him real as a favor to Carl, whose masteries she possesses.
Carl: A host of Rachel with a mysterious origin. Formerly rank 13, his masteries transferred to Lee. He dreamed of having a child, a dream he never realized.
Lewis: A mage, and co-founder of the Seven Lights Academy. he was in a relationship with Dyer, but he left him and now resides in a snow elf world in peace. Holding the rank of 10, he lacks the drive to advance further and, if not for Dyer, wouldn't have reached rank 10. Alistair is with him in the elf world. While not inherently bad, he is numb to evil like most high ranks and barely cares about others' pain.
Dyer: A rank 10 mage working as a contractor with Great Dream. He helped Lewis reach rank 10, but Lewis left him. Lacking morals, he cares only about Lewis and himself. He doesn't enjoy harming others without reason but won't hesitate to destroy a world if it benefits him or Lewis.
Alistair: Ancestor of Rachel#1's first host. He was a rank 4 mage then, taken as a 'disciple' by Lewis. Lewis brought him to heaven and then to the elf world. Considering himself a scientist, he is highly driven to advance, doing anything that helps him without enjoying evil.
Lin Ming: A rank 13 cultivator and leader of the Clear Water Sect, known as the strongest in the universe. Collaborating with Rachel, he has acquired knowledge on reaching rank 14. Currently, his clone is usually in the Anti-Rachel Alliance. Like most high ranks, he does whatever helps him.
Lana: A rank 9 demon with the particular talent of childbearing. She is with Zagronan and is exceptionally evil, deriving pleasure from others' suffering.
Lazy George: A rank 13 former host of Rachel who killed her for unknown reasons. He possesses a troublesome universal law, even for Rachel. Not much is known about his personality.
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After a million years, Zagronan is finally on the verge of reaching rank 11.
It isn't easy to discover good, new complete laws that are not in Rachel's database every time. Number illusions like 'illusion x' are nearly useless in reverse engineering universal laws.
He had already tried many times; almost all the good illusion complete laws he found were already known by Rachel. As a result, she allowed him to start creating complete laws she already knew.
Zagronan quickly concluded that he would make 'Illusion Strike' and 'Illusion Shield' complete laws.
He can create as many as he wants, but it will take work.
The first time, he was helped by the universal laws of the universe, but now, he will no longer be helped; he may try 1,000 times and fail all of them; fortunately, he no longer needs to risk his life to do it.
Illusion Strike and Illusion Shield are two powerful laws that complement each other. With them, he will be slightly stronger.
Only slightly, because he is already as strong as top-rank 11s; He tested his infinite illusion complete law long ago.
Infinite illusion is tricky to work with because, unlike Illusion Shield and Illusion Strike, the illusions it creates are raw, without any attack or defense properties. It takes careful spells and formations to use it properly. But once one manages to do it, then they become very powerful.
Zagronan, as a grandmaster, succeeded quickly. For example, he has the spell 'Illusion Armor' based on the 'infinite illusion complete law.
Infinite illusions from the complete law come out and form the spell. The spell completely covers him, and nobody can damage him unless they first break through the armor or crack the spell in other ways; as almost nobody in rank 11 is as good as him in illusions, nearly no one can crack his spells.
The strength of spells such as 'Illusion Armor' comes from what they are based on: infinite illusions. Because it's infinite, even most rank 11s don't have enough firepower to break through the spell. The only way to break through it is to destroy it faster than it can recover; the law can provide endless illusions, but Zagronan's output is limited; still, it's enough that very few in rank 11 can do it.
It goes the same with offensive spells, like 'Trap,' which covers the target in illusions. This spell is deadly even for strong rank 11s because Zagronan can infinitely draw illusions, and most cannot break through them.
For Zagronan, new complete laws don't improve his output. He already has a rank 11 body, which increased his output.
...
Zagronan is in the endless space.
He has come to try out his hand and vent a bit. Although Rachel doesn't allow him to slaughter, he must do it.
So, he takes missions occasionally to gain contribution points while venting. Sure, there are some dangers, but he needs to vent somewhere.
Of course, he does not know that he is always being watched.
His tasks aren't risky; if anything goes wrong, Rachel will save him.
This time, the task is visiting a rank 11 world. It is independent, not owned by any big civilization; his mission is to act as an emissary.
Of course, he hates these jobs; his real reason for taking this mission is to participate in the matches.
This rank-11 world is big! It is made up of 10,000,000 complete laws!
One must recognize the difficulty of reverse-engineering universal laws. For example, if one wants to uncover the universal law of water, one must have complete laws related to water.
Complete laws related to rain, rivers, ice, and vapor will be helpful. But when considering broad terms like 'relating to rain,' one must know millions relate to rain. 'Rain strike,' 'summon rain,' 'one raindrop,' 'two raindrops,' 'rain erode,' 'rain shield,' 'rain umbrella,' etc.
One must have many, many complete laws all related to the subject of universal law that is sought. Complete laws related to fire are unhelpful to reverse-engineer the universal law of water.
And for civilizations that appeared later, it's much more difficult. Most common and broad universal laws have already been discovered. General universal laws are far easier to reverse engineer.
For example, nearly all complete laws can be used to reverse engineer the 'universal law of existence .'But when trying to reverse engineer the 'universal law of time limited to five seconds,' only complete laws that limit time to 5 seconds can be used to reverse engineer it.
General time-related complete laws are not helpful because the function is specific, not general. One has to resort to complete laws such as 'five-second deadline,' 'trigger in 5 seconds', a duration of 5 seconds, and such complete laws.
Clearly, it's tough to discover millions of complete laws based on a time of five seconds. It doesn't need to be millions; the number can be less if the civilization has better computing ability.
Situations of civilizations with millions of complete laws and no universal law are not uncommon.
This rank 11 civilization is called 'Arena,' and it is mainly known for facilitating fights. It has a big area fortified and coded to resist anything below rank 12. Many participate and watch. Of course, killing is prohibited, and everyone fights to gain experience.
...
Zagronan reached a world in the shape of a giant glowing ball.
"This is it!" He smiled.
He is used to seeing worlds from the outside. From the outside, they are usually shaped like glowing balls.
"Yeah, now knock!" Rachel joked.
"I am going to knock!" Zagronan took the joke seriously.
He cast the spell 'Illusion Knock'!
The world shook a tiny, tiny bit; after all, it's made of millions of complete laws, so shaking it is no easy task.
A man with no head came out. The man looked unsatisfied.
He knew of Zagronan's identity as a rank 13 civilizations emissary but still was dissatisfied with his rude manners. There are ways to enter the world peacefully; what Zagronan just did could have caused damage to the code.
Still, he talked respectfully, "Honorable emissary, please follow me!" he said.
Zagronan nodded and followed in.
They flew, and a door appeared on the ball's surface; both entered from it.
They reached an isolated area.
Because of the chaos energy, everyone who enters must be washed cleanly so no chaos energy enters; chaos energy in the world can cause disaster.
Zagronan got naked and threw away his clothes; he then took another set of clothes and wore them.
His previous clothes were rank 9 material. Rank 9 materials won't be able to resist chaos, so they should have been eroded, but he took advantage of his infinite law and shielded them with illusions.
Rank 9 materials are worthless for him now, so he doesn't care what they do with his old clothes.
"This way," the headless man said respectfully.
After a bit of a walk, they reached an office.
"Honorable emissary, may I know your esteemed name?" the man asked.
"Zagronan," he answered.
"Honorable Zagronan, I hope you enjoy your stay here; we will notify you when the time comes." Then he teleported away.
"Is this where I am supposed to stay?" he looked unsatisfied.
He went by the window and looked out.
It was a big palace. It looked beautiful by human standards, but Zagronan could only sigh.
"Why does nobody care about demons' tastes? It's discrimination based on species!" he grumbled.
"You mean they should have lined up a few people for you to torture?" Rachel asked.
"I mean more fire and lava, make it hotter, redder, and yeah, it won't hurt to have a few to play with," Zagronan said.
For some reason, she speaks contemptuously about demons's habits, like when she stopped him from sharpening his edges. By now, he feels his edges are rusted so much that he might need a transplant to fix them.
"Why is everyone looking down on demon culture? Just wait until I get to rank 13; I'm going to drill demon culture into their bones," he smiled evilly.
"The world is mostly human-dominated, so of course, they look down," Rachel answered.
"Why is the world human-dominated?" he asked.
"That's a long story," answered Rachel.
"Please, I really am curious how such a weak creature took over," he insisted.
He doesn't get why not demons; demons are better fighters, see things for what they are, and are more benefit-oriented. They should have taken over.
He still is a bit dissatisfied about the lack of demons around. He misses hell so much now; if given the choice, he prefers to go to hell for a while for fun. It's a pity he found no hell like the one he was born to.
In his current main world, there is a hell, but that hell is a joke; every demon there has a Rachel incarnation, and everyone is striving to suck up to Rachel as much as possible; it's a far cry from the chaotic hell he misses.
"In short, it's the 'office'. They are the first rank 14 civilization and the ones who caused humans to dominate the universe. At a time, they only allowed humans to register universal laws. This gave humans a headstart. This headstart is still why humans usually lead the most powerful civilizations." She said.
"The office began allowing others to register universal laws later, but humans were far ahead by then. Today, there are many rank 13 civilizations of non-humans, but the leaders are still usually humans. Of course, for rank 13s, species are irrelevant!" she said.
"One day, I am going to make the whole universe a giant hell," Zagronan said with expectation.
"Good, you seem to have the drive to advance." she nodded.
After a few decades, the matches finally started.
Zagronan was the spectator in the first few matches but then volunteered to fight. Just as he was about to fight, an edict came from Rachel.
"You can't reveal your infinite complete law!" she said.
"What? How am I supposed to fight?" he said.
"Don't ask me," she shrugged. It was the main body's order.
"But I already exposed it many times? What is the difference this time?" he asked.
"Some who are not supposed to know it are in the spectators," she said.
"Sigh," Zagronan was disappointed.
He cannot win without the universal law.
"Rachel?" he thought of something.
"What?" she answered.
"What if nobody lives? What if I kill everyone?" he asked as if he found the way.
"No! That is not going to happen!" she refused.
Zagronan felt as if his edges were wholly cut off; he got extremely disappointed and angry, and left the arena in a rage.
He feels he wants to destroy a few worlds, but Rachel limits him so much that he is about to explode.
"Rachel, my edges need sharpening; otherwise, I'm going to die!" he said while feeling suffocated.
He needs slaughter!
Rachel sighed. If Zag were human, then he would have been a sick psychopath who should be kept somewhere far, but as a demon, it's understandable. Still, she doesn't allow it; the more he does it, the worse this desire to destroy gets.
"No," she said firmly.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAA!" he screamed madly and attacked around.
Fortunately, it was chaos, so nothing was around to be destroyed.
After a few days of mad attacking, he got a bit calmer and managed to return.
Rachel is going to have to think of a solution for this.