"And will that change anything?" Kyle asked.
"No," Magic Lady answered. "While I could execute you for a Karmic reward, this is not how our company operates. Killing you for such a reason would be seen as an act of corruption. I am an employee, just like you, Mr. Freeman. I get far more out of being responsible for a Tertiary World's output than from the little bit of Karmic Luck I would receive from killing you."
Kyle was numb by now.
"Sure," he answered as he continued.
Kyle continued executing the targets until the next Transcendent arrived.
It was that one Transcendent who had wanted to put him under arrest in the past.
Kyle just got rid of him and continued.
After some minutes, another Transcendent arrived.
Kyle also dealt with that one.
As Kyle reached the middle of the southern world, a familiar face appeared in front of him.
The Chief.
"Kyle, what are you doing?" he asked.
Kyle just looked at him.
'Who cares?' he thought.
BANG!
The Chief's head exploded.
Kyle just sighed.
'Whatcha gonna do?' he thought.
Sadly, his trademarked phrase didn't seem as genuine as it usually was.
Before Kyle continued, he made a quick stop on the central landmass to kill the last Nobody.
"Good work, Mr. Freeman," Magic Lady said. "You have killed the last false Transcendent."
Kyle didn't answer and just continued.
He cleared the central landmass of the targets before returning to the southern half of the world.
More and more burning people joined the images of the other burning people whom Kyle kept seeing.
Every waking moment, Kyle was forced to witness his actions in the form of visions.
'How did things end up like this?' he thought with a sigh.
'Yeah, well, guess this is my new normal.'
Some minutes later, the south was also cleared.
Over the next minutes, Kyle flew around the world, killing the last stragglers.
And it was done…
It had just taken three hours in total to kill 500,000 people.
"Good work, Mr. Freeman," Magic Lady said. "The hardest part of your job is done. The remainder shouldn't be as bad."
Kyle didn't answer and just took out the device that told him about all the sources of information for the rituals.
The closest source was a library in a town.
Kyle simply burned the library down and continued.
The device pointed to something else, and Kyle dealt with that source as well.
Some Mortals, who hadn't undergone a ritual, knew things about how the rituals worked, which meant Kyle also had to destroy them.
From time to time, Kyle had to destroy some ruins or broken cities.
Some books in some chests.
Some prepared magic circles.
Some knowledgeable people.
Dealing with all of the sources was not as bad as committing a genocide, but it took far longer.
While he was following one of the last sources, he realized where it was leading.
He took a deep breath.
Below Kyle was a powerful Expert with an Aristocrat's Body, who was hiding in a cave.
"And you really don't know what's going on, mom?" a young man asked.
"No," the woman answered.
"Father hasn't returned yet," the young man said.
The mother didn't answer.
Selene Forthing.
Kyle could tell that her son had an Aristocrat's Body.
Most likely, Selene had learned about all of the rituals to help her son.
She was one of the sources.
Kyle sighed.
The next moment, a fierce flame consumed Selene.
The son just watched in horror as his mother vanished before his eyes.
'This sucks,' Kyle thought as he continued with his work.
He had become completely numb by now.
He was just done.
He just didn't care anymore.
Almost everyone Kyle had become acquainted with in the world was dead.
The only ones remaining were Sebastian and the Duchess of Twilight, but that was because they were no longer in this world.
Everyone else?
Gone.
Yet, Kyle just continued.
'I'm not a hero.'
'I'm just a rat.'
When Kyle dealt with the next source, he noticed that the device stopped responding.
"Good work, Mr. Freeman," Magic Lady said. "The false Transcendents are gone. The people who underwent a false ritual are gone. All traces of the false rituals are buried."
As Kyle listened to Magic Lady, his Ether Sense showed him many towns being attacked by beasts.
The people didn't have their defenders anymore.
Only the Warriors and Experts could defend the settlements from beasts, but there were not that many of them.
"The negative influences have been eradicated," Magic Lady said. "Now, we need to fix the population."
Kyle just sighed.
'More killing, huh?' he thought.
"I have noticed that the people in this world have difficulties breaking down the Ether inside beasts. This is not how things are supposed to be. Most likely, this was the saboteur's work."
The next moment, a mountain appeared in front of Kyle, which was just made out of green powder.
"Dump this into the ocean," Magic Lady said.
"What will this do?" Kyle asked. "10% of the people in this world can still consume beast meat but don't know that they can since they have never tried it," Magic Lady said. "These people will remain unaffected."
"Another 30% can technically train to unlock this ability via repeated exposure. There will be an 80% chance that they will be able to digest it after repeated exposure to the powder."
"The remaining 60% can not digest beast Ether."
"They die?" Kyle asked.
"No, Mr. Freeman," Magic Lady said. "I am not that cruel. That would be millions of people."
"If a person fails to digest the contents in the powder, it will stay in their body and eventually move to their reproductive organs."
"This will cause infertility."
Kyle took hold of the powdery mountain.
He was no longer surprised by anything.
The next moment, he simply threw the mountain into the ocean.
The powder almost immediately vanished, but Kyle could feel a tiny bit of foreign Ether attached to the Water Ether of the ocean.
He also noticed that the foreign Ether followed the Water Ether as it flew up into the air to create clouds.
"Now, Mr. Freeman," Magic Lady said. "There are also scattered tribes of people who have abnormal Aspects of Power. The local people call them dwarves."
"Your next task is to get rid of them as well."
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