Yui says "Affirmative. The empire's most powerful hero managed to fight his way to it and detonated ten mana crystals to destroy it."

"What a sacrifice! Didn't that change the course of the war?"

Yui says "Negative. Unfortunately, by that time millions of demons had already crossed over. Also, most of our gods had already died."

"So it was a case of just being too late."

Yui says "Not really. After all, some of the people were able to escape, if the gate had remained open the entire world would have fallen."

"That is true, at least his sacrifice wasn't in vain. Can the demons open another gate?"

Yui says "Negative. Only a demon king or queen can create a gate like that. Although the demon lords can summon more demons directly."

"So that is why they are all fighting to become a king or queen."

Yui says "Most likely. Although becoming a king or queen would only be the first step."

"Oh, what would the goal for them be?"

Yui says "As far as I am aware they would want to conquer the world and use it to gain strength before returning to their realm to attempt to become a god."

"A demon god, I hope I never see that."

Yui says "If you ever see one this world is doomed, so I hope you don't!"

"I know all that's left of your pantheon is the goddesses, but surely the other pantheons would be able to stop it?"

Yui says "Not a chance! A demon king is on par with a god already, a demon god is far stronger. For normal gods, fighting a demon god would be the same as a human child trying to fight a dragon."

"How do you know how powerful a demon god would be? Has there ever even been one?"

Yui says "There was one ages and ages ago. You may not know this but there was a civilization on the main continent that fell thousands of years before our empire was formed. Our knowledge comes from the ruins of this civilization, without that we would have never become as strong as we have in magic."

"So this ancient civilization was wiped out by the demon god?"

Yui says "Actually, no. According to what we learned the demon god did not appear in our world. The ancient civilization had advanced to the point of exploring other worlds, this is how they learned of the demon god."

"Ah, I see. Alright, can you tell me the story?"

Yui says "According to the records we found the demon god faced the gods of over fifty worlds."

"So, they managed to defeat him with numbers?"

Yui says "Negative. The demon god won the fight!"

"What? Then what happened to the demon god?"

Yui says "After winning the battle he was weakened, his generals chose that moment to betray and kill him."

"Ah, that makes sense, the demons always seek more power."

Yui says "Exactly. The generals split his power between them but they in turn were betrayed by the other generals and those under them. This led to infighting and weakened the demons enough that the god's followers were able to drive them back to their realm."

"I can't even imagine a war on that scale!"

Yui says "Neither can I, but the universe is far beyond my knowledge. I am only aware of other worlds, I know nothing of them."

"Was this story common knowledge?"

Yui says "Negative. This information was restricted to the archmages."

"So then why are you giving me this information?"

Yui says "I have decided to treat you as the commander of the mage knights. Since you will be leading the war against the demons I think it is fitting. The commander of the mage knights ranks as equal to an archmage so you qualify for this level of knowledge."

"Shouldn't you wait to see if I pass the test first?"

Yui says "Do you plan to give up on fighting the demons if you fail the test?"

"Of course not!"

Yui says "Then either way you are the one who will lead the fight against the demons. As such I will provide you as much support as I can."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense."

Yui says "Any other questions?"

"Actually, did your people discover the means to travel to other worlds?"

Yui says "Negative. Due to the level of monsters in the ancient ruins we were only ever able to visit the very edges."

"The monsters were that strong?"

Yui says "Affirmative. The popular theory was that the monsters caused the fall of the civilization. The weakest monsters recorded were on par with dragons in power."

"I can see why they weren't able to go deeper then. How many ancient ruins are there?"

Yui says "Throughout the continent only three ancient ruins have been discovered."

"Is one of them within the boundaries of your empire?"

Yui says "Negative. Why?"

"Oh, just a thought. If one was then it might be possible to lure a monster out and trick it into fighting the demons."

Yui says "While that would certainly destroy the demons, how would you put the monster back afterwards?"

"Honestly, I hadn't thought that far ahead."

Yui says "I see..."

After that Yui stops talking to me so I return to reading about the mage knights. Once the mana in the reading room recovers I enchant the next outfit. I continue this routine for the rest of the day, only stopping and leaving the reading room when I am called to dinner.

By then I feel like two days have passed so I am starving and practically run back to the suite. When I walk into the dining room Asuna runs over and rubs against my legs. So I pick her up and start petting her, which makes Kechara throw her a jealous look.

So I stop and give Kechara some attention as well, I have to remind myself that even though she is fully grown she is still very young. After spending some time giving them attention I take the long way around to my chair to give Bones a pat on his head. To my surprise he not only likes the attention but acts as if he wants more, so I spend a minute patting his head.

It feels really weird to be petting a skeleton, but who am I to deny him some attention. After putting Asuna on her high chair I take my seat and we all dig in like the greedy pigs we are. Considering my hunger and the delicious food, there is no way I can stop myself from eating to the point of bursting.