Pan Long gazed at the vibrant star and instantly received information about it.
["The Hero's Teacher" world: completely cleared.]
"Completely cleared? What does that mean?" he asked.
There was no answer.
He frowned and considered the question.
By rights, that world's story had already ended the last time he entered it. As far as he knew, in every ending, the Heroes-in-Training had killed only the Demon King's Incarnation, not his true body.
Stories of swords and magic often worked that way. At first glance, everyone lived happily ever after. But look closely, and the danger was still there, never truly resolved.
Take the "Sword and Lament" world he had entered first. In every game ending, the Gods and Demons still existed. The struggle between light and darkness had merely subsided for a time.
Even if a player took the most difficult "Conqueror" route, crushed both factions, and killed their spiritual leaders—the "Reincarnated Sage" and the "Dark Prince"—it only suppressed that cycle temporarily.
The Conqueror would eventually grow old and die. Once he was gone, no one could keep light and darkness in check. The Sage of Light would reincarnate, the dark fiend would return, and everything would fall back into the cycle.
As for severing that cycle for good... Pan Long could think of no way to do it, at least not yet.
The same was true of "The Hero's Teacher" world. No matter how many times the Demon King was killed, his true body remained alive in the Demon Realm. At most, he suffered a grievous injury.
Once the Demon King recovered, he could invade the human world again.
Even killing the Demon King would not be enough. So long as the Demon Realm remained barren and desolate, another Demon King would eventually burst onto the scene