At the top of the World Tree.
Herodotus sat on the throne, motionless for dozens of days as he carried out his deductions.
Through the information provided by the spy Sylph.
They had witnessed those three forms of life. The hardest, the most undying, the most explosive—once they merged and fully awakened this Ancient Being, godlike and demonic, that brandished its blade against the gods, they would be utterly defeated.
A pressure of death lingered in the hearts of the gods.
"In terms of combat power, no matter what abilities we manage to develop in the short term, we still can't compare with them."
"Then our only hope is greater speed."
Only speed could give them a chance of victory.
No matter how powerful the Demon Lord was, as long as they overwhelmed him with speed, as long as they were faster, they had hope of winning.
Or perhaps they needed to enter the next age of civilization and find the third [Awakening] before they could hope to survive!
Herodotus had been secluded with half the members all this time, ignoring the outside world.
Over these days, they had constantly perfected their consciousness reaction speed and accelerated their limb movements—twenty times, thirty times faster.
At the cost of disregarding their lives, they seemed to have entered a high-speed track, and an entirely new world appeared to unfold before their eyes.
But.
Even though they had repeatedly hunted Thunder Spider Ilis and obtained her electrical genes, using electric stimulation to accelerate their reaction speed, thirty-three times was still the limit.
Yet that overclocked power inflicted immense damage on their consciousness and bodies.
Crack.
"We can't maintain it for long."
"Yes. For flesh-and-blood lifeforms, overloading ourselves like this means that once our bodies enter thirtyfold speed, they'll be ruined after a single