Last night, in Sixfold Hell.
"Why would you replace us if Hell disappeared?" Ash demanded. "Or rather, are you saying you can't replace us as long as Hell doesn't disappear?"
Death Frenzy leaned against a broken stone pillar and shook the ash from her hand. The ash vanished before it could hit the ground. When Death Frenzy had said, "We're going to replace you," Ash had attacked without the slightest hesitation, but his strike had cut through empty air—Death Frenzy did not exist in reality. She was a phantom only he could see.
Exactly the same as when he had first met her in Broken Lake Prison.
She could burn Ash's palm with a cigarette butt, but Ash could not even touch her.
"We've always been able to replace you," she said calmly. "The price we'd pay is simply different."
"The ideal situation would actually be to wait until all of you advance to Artifice Supremacy. That would be harvest season. Once you reach the upper limit we had before rebirth, we won't have to fear being restricted by Fate even if we take you over."
Ash's heart sank bit by bit, a bone-deep chill piercing through his spine.
"You were all Artifice Supremes before rebirth?"
If Death Frenzy and the others were only at the level of Divine Lords, then perhaps Ash's group of Demigods still had a chance to resist. But if they were a group of Artifice Supremes...
"You really don't need to be so surprised. It's not some great achievement. It was even far less difficult than you taking back half the Supreme Holy Grail from Starry." Death Frenzy chuckled. "As long as you can become one of the last five spellcasters alive in a civilization, you can also become an Artifice Supreme."
Alive until the