Ch.297Created Humanity (Part 2)

A small island in the vast ocean, covered with palm trees and lush tropical forests.

On this island, where only the gentle waves and seagull cries had endlessly repeated, one man’s silent scream had continued for years.

‘AAAAARGH—!!’

Once a demon who had gained tremendous power by accepting a fragment of the Demon King into his body.

But now he had lost his physical form, reduced to wandering the netherworld like an invisible ghost.

No, it would have been better if he could wander freely.

He could have embarked on a long journey believing that freedom lay beyond the endless horizon.

However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t leave this island even a single step,

And despite using all his power and techniques, he couldn’t recover his lost body.

He even tried using the “possession” ability he had stolen from an undead monster, prepared to live as a seagull or fish, but the effect lasted barely a minute.

Before he could fully take control of a body, he would be ejected, making his plan to gradually evolve from fish or seagull back to his original form nothing but a pipe dream.

After repeating such fruitless attempts for over ten years,

Having tried every possible method without success, the man finally had to abandon his goal of recovering his body.

The words spoken by the girl swordswoman just before he was banished to this space—that he would be “separated from the concept of physical form”—was apparently something far beyond a simple spell or curse.

‘However, it wasn’t entirely without results.’

Although he couldn’t use it to recover his own body, he discovered it was possible to possess seagulls or fish and alter their physical forms.

Even though it was for just a minute, it was barely within the allowable range to process them as “raw materials” for creating life.

How much time had passed since then?

The demon man, even without a physical body, finally succeeded in creating the third type of the Third Eye race.

In fact, he even utilized his bodiless state and island confinement to his advantage.

First, since there was no need to deal with wild animals or monsters on this island, he lowered their physical abilities and growth rate to a level similar to ordinary humans.

By doing so, he was able to double their lifespan, which had been a chronic weakness since Type 1.

Next, he withdrew the feature where they were “born with abilities for their livelihood.”

The rebellion of Type 2 had occurred because he failed to predict the dangerous synergy between innate “abilities” and cultivated “talents.”

So he decided to wait for “talents” to bloom before granting “abilities” that wouldn’t cause problems, thus avoiding such risks.

Finally, the demon man added some variables to the “birth” and “growth” mechanisms.

They would be born without gender distinction, their physical growth would temporarily stop around the age of five, and only after their “talents” had sufficiently bloomed and they received “abilities” from their creator would their gender be determined and they grow into adults.

By forcing them through this unnatural growth process, he made them accept that they were beings different from ordinary creatures, thoroughly controlled by the will of their creator.

However, despite such thorough preparation, the results shown by Type 3 were not very satisfactory.

Although their society remained relatively stable, they couldn’t develop new abilities no matter how much time passed.

The cause was that in the process of verifying talents and granting appropriate abilities, he had thoroughly eliminated “unpredictability” in favor of safety.

‘I’m in a dilemma.’

If he allowed unpredictability in the combination of talents and abilities, there was a risk of dangerous synergy effects occurring again.

Conversely, if he eliminated that unpredictability, no new abilities would emerge, making the purpose of raising the Third Eye race meaningless.

While pondering how to solve this problem, the demon man found a hint from a school of fish swimming in the sea.

He observed that when the leader of the fish group became weak or injured, another fish immediately took over the leadership position, and the others naturally followed this role change.

‘I see! If the abilities I grant aren’t fixed but can be reclaimed or replaced!’

The demon man decided to use “masks” as props when granting abilities to the Third Eye race.

The “mask” received upon becoming an adult would merely be their initial profession; they might spend their entire life in that role, but it could also be replaced if necessary.

This way, if a dangerous combination emerged, it could be easily dealt with by taking away the mask, and when the population was small, they could efficiently maintain their society by changing roles.

Satisfied with his solution, the demon man discarded all remaining “Type 3” and began creating “Type 4.”

And this time, he finally achieved the level of success he desired.

To emphasize the significance of masks, he standardized the appearances of children, adult males, and adult females, and made losing or damaging masks a great sin.

Children discovered to have dangerous talents were denied masks, forcing them to live and die as children forever, while other individuals were made to treat such children as “non-existent people.”

Instilling a religious belief that they would be reborn after death was extremely effective in removing resistance to having their lives taken by the creator.

The standardized appearance of the Third Eye race made this religious view easier to accept and also helped suppress riots or impulsive actions from “failures” who had to die as children.

From the day the first “new ability” was harvested from the thriving Type 4, the demon man began calling himself the “Omnipotent Demon King.”

It was an expression of confidence that he had finally prepared to reach “omnipotence” through Type 4.

~ ~ ~ The Third Eye Race’s Remote Island, Present ~ ~ ~

“…What a disgusting story.”

Those were the first words I uttered after recovering from my dazed consciousness.

My companions who had witnessed the same scene seemed to share similar sentiments.

“A race bred to develop and have their rare abilities taken away—that’s worse than livestock…”

Jessica was furious about the fact that the Third Eye race was created and raised for their creator’s purpose.

“The third people didn’t do anything wrong, but he killed them all just because they weren’t helpful. That’s not what a parent should do.”

Seth was appalled by how “Type 3” was discarded as useless.

“And what’s with abandoning children with dangerous talents to die alone? Even we dwarves are often criticized for being careless with childcare, but this is just too much!”

Mina was outraged by how children deemed dangerous were treated.

“He even instilled false religious beliefs to make them accept being killed by their creator as natural. From birth to death, they’re thoroughly deceived and exploited.”

Phillis condemned the creator’s behavior of deceiving an entire race about their destiny.

Though each of us was angered by different aspects, we all agreed that the actions of the self-proclaimed demon creator were unforgivable.

But this indirect experience didn’t just provide us with anger and sympathy.

Through the events that unfolded after the “Type 2” rebellion, we obtained an unexpected clue.

“OK, let’s put aside the creator of the Third Eye race… the self-proclaimed Omnipotent Demon King for now. Did you all see it? The scene where the female swordswoman used that artifact.”

“Yes. Her name was Armedia.”

“And the woman in robes was Anastasia. It seems they formed a party like us.”

The Great Sage Deidric Asmad, the Pure White Demon King Anastasia, and the girl swordswoman named Armedia.

We don’t know if they temporarily joined forces to resolve the “Type 2” incident or if they had been working together as a team for a long time.

However, it’s certain that Armedia set the “taboo” of “separation from the concept of physical form” on the demon man.

And the artifact we’ve been using as a magical power generator belonged to her.

If so…

“Is it because we obtained that artifact that we can break the taboo and uncover the Demon King’s existence?”

“That’s correct.”

“!!”

The voice answering my question came from the empty space above my head.

No matter how much I looked around, the only person visible besides us was Shun trapped in the glass pillar.

This fact provided us with a decisive clue as to who the voice belonged to.

“Nice to meet you… should I say? Mr. Self-proclaimed Omnipotent Demon King.”

The creator of the Third Eye race.

The one who called himself the Omnipotent Demon King had addressed us.