Revenge

Terry country used to be the strongest nation regarding economic power and technology.

But that was in the past.

Nowadays, the country has declined significantly.

Its military strength is much weaker, with most weapons not adequately maintained. Its economic power has plummeted, and it's mostly isolated from other countries.

The fall of Terry country is an unusual event.

With the people being immortal, one would expect them to be wiser than to allow such a thing to happen. However, being older doesn't necessarily mean being more intelligent.

After the wood elf attack, the entire nation felt humiliated, and the fact that its people were immortal exacerbated the situation.

Fewer young people mean more power for older individuals, who will remember their humiliation and vote accordingly.

They continued to elect 'Great Terry' without paying attention to their undemocratic tendencies. Eventually, 'Great Terry' accumulated enough power to dispense with elections altogether.

After that, many people protested but were all killed by the army, which was entirely controlled by 'Great Terry.'

Then, Great Terry began changing policies.

The goal of these policy changes was to increase the death rate of the people, essentially killing their citizens.

However, they tried to target only the brave and outspoken ones.

This way, those who remained were more obedient.

One of the policy changes was related to who could have children.

Only those loyal to 'Great Terry' and non-humans, whose children would be raised by the country and adequately brainwashed, were allowed to have children.

It also provides an additional incentive for people to be obedient.

Today, those in power enjoy amazing lives at the expense of the poor.

One of these individuals is Steve Green, who holds the position of prime minister.

While the title "prime minister" sounds strong, in reality, he doesn't wield that much power.

The power is dispersed and relatively decentralized. The actual

power is in the hands of the 12 marquises of the country, all of whom are over 100 years old.

They are the ones who select the prime minister.

...

Steve Green in a government building in Green City, the new capital of Terry country.

"What?" he shouted.

Just a few moments ago, someone came and reported the destruction of Wood City.

"You said one person did it? Is it her?" he thought with fear.

That year, when Bertha attacked, he was a member of parliament.

He could never forget her power.

They were so terrified that they waited twenty years before daring to invade the Wood Elves.

"We are finished!" he almost cried.

Then, immediately, he took a lot of gold, and with a few servants and guards, he ran away!

...

Bertha moved from city to city, destroying and reducing them to rubble, one after another.

It was her revenge.

"Bertha, please don't! These people are innocent!" said Rachel.

"They may not be directly responsible, but they are not innocent! Being silent in the face of evil is a sin!" she replied.

In her view, merely standing by had contributed to the destruction of the Wood Elves.

She planned to destroy these cities and then explore the continent. The continent is vast, and she believes other Wood Elves must exist.

She would find them and bring them here to revive Wood Elves to their former glory.

But...

"Bertha, a very important matter is happening! Immediately go to heaven!" said Rachel, who had received advance notice of what was happening.

"What? I want revenge! How can I leave?" Bertha said, not even thinking of leaving.

"You will forever lose the chance to see Milan and your children if you stay here! You don't have much time!" Rachel said.

"What do you mean?" Bertha asked with confusion.

"Heaven is going to be inaccessible forever in about a minute! We should go now!" Rachel urged.

Bertha struggled, but faced with the possibility of not seeing her children, she decided to do both.

She cast an incarnation spell, placed a rank 1 incarnation here, and left for heaven.

Rank 1 incarnation is the best she can do at the moment. It's an incarnation independent of her, able to operate independently.

A few seconds later, the world shook, and heaven split off. Bertha's incarnation looked on with amazement.

"Something big happened! I don't know what, but my main body may never come back! I should be careful now!" she thought.

Before, she was at rank 5, so she didn't need to be careful, but now, with only rank 1, it's not entirely impossible for mortal weapons to kill her.

...

Her speed in destroying cities had decreased, but still, it only took her a day to destroy a normal-sized city.

City after city, she finally reached the capital, Green City!

By the time Bertha reached the city, the higher-ups had all fled.

After all, they could live forever, so why risk death by staying?

As for ordinary people, most had run away, with only those too poor to move remaining.

When Bertha saw this, she thought, "This revenge isn't very satisfying. I'm just killing poor humans while those guilty have long run away! But still, this city must be destroyed to make way for a Wood Elf civilization. Let's force them out and destroy the city."

This time, she took her time to ensure that everyone had left the city before leveling it. Still, with their homes destroyed, their chances of survival were small.

"Now, let's travel through the continent to find Wood Elves," she thought.

Bertha is different from before.

Being with Milan, a human, and even having a human child, she doesn't harbor any hate toward humans.

But she cares deeply about Wood Elf culture.

Wood Elves's villages were destroyed because of what she did. She must rebuild them; otherwise, she can't live with herself.

...

John's kingdom used to be the second-strongest country on the continent. After the fall of Terry country, it became the strongest country in all aspects.

They were fortunate.

King Arthur Johns was highly competent, and he happened to be the king when everyone became immortal.

With him in charge, without any worries about the next successor, the kingdom began to prosper.

There are advantages and disadvantages when people are immortal.

The advantages include that everyone gets better and better at their work, eventually becoming experts.

The country can be much more productive with everyone working and no need to care for children and seniors.

When everyone became immortal, older people gradually turned young again.

Children also stop aging when they mature, so today, everyone is young.

However, it doesn't mean everyone is healthy.

If you eat unhealthy food every day, you will still die. Diseases, food poisoning, accidents, and many other factors can lead to people's deaths.

People won't die of old age.

What does It mean?

Every time a cell divides, the resulting cells are imperfect.

These imperfect divisions accumulate throughout life; eventually, cells become so damaged that they can't divide anymore. That is when organs begin to fail.

That is what longevity means.

Immortality means that now, cells divide perfectly, so in a perfect environment, one can live forever.

People do still die; it's just that they live far longer than they would otherwise. If one is careful about what one eats and does, living for thousands of years is possible.

But eventually, toxins will build up to the point where one dies. There are ways to solve this, such as if mortal technology advances to the point where they can cleanse the body or with spells that mages cast.

For a country, there are disadvantages to its population living forever or for a very long time.

One is that only the body changes and the brain stays the same.

What is the point of life?

Many have this question.

The answer is simple: It's an opportunity to pursue your goals.

So, if one has a goal, people don't want to die, and they work hard.

But most people you see don't have any goals.

People get tired after living for hundreds of years and working every day.

Many people may want to commit suicide from living too long.

Mages solve this problem with spells, and the pure energy removes emotions.

But it's a big problem for a mortal country.

Also, people living for a long time means that new ideas rarely come to society.

Also, there are no low-skilled workers.

John's kingdom has addressed this shortcoming to some extent. They've made significant investments in technology to fill the roles of low-skilled workers.

...

In a room filled with numerous artworks, a man sat on an elegant throne, listening to a woman with red hair.

"Allow them in!" ordered Arthur.

"Your Majesty! We need to adjust our childbirth policies if we allow them in!" Erika, the First Minister, said.

The land of John's kingdom is limited, so if they allow new people in, they must restrict childbirth further.

Childbirth control used to be a matter of personal decisions, but now, every country strictly controls how many children can be born.

As countries become more technologically advanced, the birth rate naturally comes down.

But when every child can live up to hundreds of years, even if people with the ability to give birth have one child per century, it's still more than the replacement rate.

After everyone became immortal, it didn't fix the problem of menopause. Women who had experienced it didn't get fertile again after they became younger. So, all those who were born before that day are infertile today.

However, girls born after that day don't experience menopause at all.

It means people over a hundred years old can get pregnant.

Scientists researched this and realized it's because new eggs are created throughout the lives of women born after that day.

This is unlike Women born before that day, who have a limited number of eggs already there from birth.

The people coming from Terry's kingdom are nearly all young, born after that day, which means most would be fertile for their entire lives.

As the death rate in John's country is much lower, they should be cautious about the number of newborns.

"Do it as appropriate. We cannot reject them, Erika. They have nowhere else to go." said Arthur.

Today, rejecting people from Terry's country is no different from personally causing their deaths.

With Terry's country destroyed, no one is left to control pests persistently. Without pest control, insects will take over, making any farming impossible.

Erika nodded.

"I just hope that the Wood Elves don't come here," said Arthur with worry.

"We haven't heard from her for a few months, so she is probably gone," said Erika.

Arthur nodded.

...

With the destruction of Terry's country, most of its population fled to other countries. Bertha also killed many in the process of 'undeveloping' the land.

Almost all countries rejected the people of Terry country, except John's kingdom, which accepted most of those who arrived.

This revenge by Bertha can be considered a failure.

Most of the people who were responsible took a lot of gold and fled. With her rank 1 power, she was unable to find them.

All she accomplished was killing many innocent humans and clearing the land for future Wood Elf settlements.

She started traveling the continent to find Wood Elves and rebuild what was lost.

As for the real Bertha, she was far away in heaven.

...

Dyer was examining the river of time.

"It's perfectly separated, without any flaw! Heaven is now a complete world!" he thought.

The secret weapon amazed him. He didn't expect it to be so perfect.

"With the danger of destruction finally off my shoulders, now I can finally think of reaching rank 10!"

With his many rank 10 spell crystals, he is not afraid of the gods!

He doesn't want to fight the gods.

It would be best if everyone could help to research rank 10.

but if needed, Dyer does have the power to suppress the gods.

With the resources of heaven and the knowledge he obtained from Doris, he finally sees hope in reaching rank 10.