In the past 100 years, many countries on mortal continents have adopted very restrictive policies regarding who can give birth to children.
Some have imposed heavy taxes on children, which, in practice, means only rich people can have children; in others, innovators and scientists, and those who are considered 'smart' are allowed to have children.
The criteria vary across the board, but with few exceptions, today, having children is an absolute privilege, not a right.
Some other countries went down a different path. They established artificial longevity, which basically means killing people when they live 'long enough' from the government's perspective.
Those countries became unstable and collapsed. After all, enforcing such policies is impossible when there is no mage to oppress everyone with pure personal power.
In contrast, mage continents established artificial longevity, and no mortal could protest. With massive formations surrounding the entire continents, it soon became common knowledge that anyone who reaches the age of 100 drops dead.
The formation also limited all animals' and insects' lifespans. However, it didn't limit mages at all.
The approach of the mage world was not unified, in contrast to heaven and hell.
In hell, the demon king did precisely nothing. They all believed it would not be bad if too many demons survived. In any case, the fights among demons were enough to reduce the 'excess' population.
In heaven, the Wisdom Council passed a law by a vote of 5-4 that the 'excess' angel population would be sent to the mage world only in the case that heaven couldn't handle them.
As for killing them with artificial longevity or other cruel methods, they didn't even consider it. The only real arguments were whether to send them to the mage world now or when they had no more space.
There was no way to control the birth rate of angels.
Angels are born naturally by the operation of the world's laws, which cannot be interfered with.
After Dyer combined the two rivers, everything changed again. In hell, higher-ranked demons became very dissatisfied.
Now, the meaning of the words 'mortal and 'immortal has, in effect, been reversed.
Creatures below rank 0 can live forever, while those ranked 0 and higher can only live for a limited number of years. Technically, the previous mortals were now immortals, while the earlier immortals were now mortals.
Many mages also became upset about this, but they could do nothing.
...
Zagronan looked at the breeding ground.
All around, there were many eggs, some small, some huge. Once in a while, some eggs hatched, and baby demons not even rank 0 came out.
Demons born from eggs are more developed than demons born from the womb. 'Womb' here is used very broadly, as some male demons can also give birth.
As such, even those who had just hatched were strong enough to walk.
As they hatched, most ate their eggshells and instinctively moved toward the next area, which was their gathering place. As babies, these demons were not that aggressive.
They just waited in the gathering place, and once in a while, a demon general arrived and picked the talented ones. As for those without talent, some demon generals weren't picky and just took them all for cannon fodder use.
There is a lot of war in hell, but not everywhere. It solely depends on the noble in charge. If the Noble in charge were aggressive, then their slaves would always be used for wars, but if they were peaceful, like Iggad, then the slaves would live in relative peace.
Even if there is danger, there are hundreds of billions of unintelligent demons to go through before Iggad gets desperate enough to use the intelligent ones. By demon standards, Iggad was a saint.
Zagtonan reached the gathering area and looked at the land packed with baby demons. In general, demons don't need to eat, so they are not incentivized to fight. Only the ambitious ones might 'hunt' to grow faster.
Zagronan sighed and cast the spell he had learned specifically for this job.
His spellcasting ability wasn't only limited to adding more enhancing spells; he also learned spells with unbelievable speed. Today, he knows thousands of spells of all kinds!
"Super ultra wide expanded massive great huge-Detect strong!"
He cast a spell with 7 enhancements!
It cost a noticeable part of his energy reserves, but it was worth it. The spell, which got strengthened to be nearly as strong as rank 5 covered the entire gathering area.
A lot of information entered Zagronan's head, detailing information on every strong demon here.
"Someone is coming!" Rachel, who looked at the reflection on the River of Time, said.
After integrating the two rivers, not much has changed with her 'Dive in Time' skill. It still showed the reflection as always, only the ripples created were a little less than before. For this reason, she can now use the skill twice daily.
Zagronan nodded and took out a spell crystal.
It was a rank 5 spell crystal called 'Mass Teleportation.'
With one hand, he broke the crystal, and with his direction, all the strong baby demons teleported to the Hotblood City.
Today, Zagronan is strong physically, as the weakness of his 'spellcasting talent' went away when he reached rank 4.
The newcomer was a demon standing 7 meters tall, naked, and holding a massive mace in his hand.
Rachel could clearly see that it was a male.
"Another half-monster!" she said.
After looking through many books, Zagronan discovered that Horn from that year was a half-monster, a child of demons and monsters.
A child of demons and monsters is rare, but a Royal demon and a monster's child is almost legendary.
Horn was also a descendant of a demon king of anger, making her strength even more absurd. It could be said that if Horn had survived that day, she would have at least reached the rank of demon general someday.
The newcomer came and looked at Zagronan vigilantly.
Fighting in this place is not allowed, and anyone attempting to do so would be hunted down by the Dragons guarding the area.
It's known throughout hell that dragons work for demon kings, so even if it's a low-rank dragon, most don't dare to fight it.
On the other hand, the dragons are so overbearing that they even eat royal-blooded demons.
The other demon vigilantly took out a spell crystal and crushed it. Every single demon baby disappeared!
"This guy is not picky at all! Is he preparing for war?" Zagronan said to Rachel vigilantly.
Rachel didn't answer.
The 7-meter demon retreated, and soon, he was gone.
"Let's return!" Zagronan cast a teleportation spell and returned to the city.
Teleportation to a place you've been to before is possible but impossible to a place you've never been before.
...
Bertha was in a room with 10 other humans, 6 women and 4 men.
They were the negotiators discussing the matter of control of the forests.
"Ahem, Chief Bertha, this matter has an easy solution. Just allow our agents to enter at the agreed-upon time and 'clean' the forest," a man said.
Bertha was mostly pleased with the humans' attitude. They at least tried to be understanding and careful.
It should be noted that if the humans wanted, they could quickly destroy the elves. They didn't need to negotiate, but they were doing it anyway.
She smiled and said, "It should be no more than once a month."
As the chief, she has to negotiate as hard as possible, even if she likes them personally.
"Once a week! A month is very long!" the man said again.
After some back and forth, it was decided that humans would be allowed into their territory for cleanup purposes once every 10 days, and also, they could only enter the settlements of wood elves with express authorization from Bertha or the settlement's regional chief.
Soon, the meeting finished, and Bertha left.
The man named Sion sighed and said, "It's ridiculous! We have to be harder on them! If it weren't for that court order!"
They are the biggest and strongest country in the Lam continent, the country of Terry.
Terry was founded by a human many years ago, but after a long time, technology progressed, and the system of government became a representative democracy.
Humans, who in the past were very prejudiced against the elves, the biggest non-human group in the continent, changed their minds.
Today, it is established in the country's constitution that non-humans are rulers of the lands that they historically resided in.
This is the main reason why Sion has to try so hard to get consent to enter their land. Even if the non-humans reject them outright, he can do nothing, legally speaking.
The current elected head of the government tried to use the emergency of a pest invasion to 'temporarily' enter the wood elves' territory, but the courts stopped him.
And as the Terry country is known everywhere as the country of strict laws, even the head of the government couldn't get around that court decision.
"Did you see it? She wasn't respectful enough to at least wear some clothes!" a woman named Eva said.
Everyone nodded.
The official uniform of government negotiators is a furry robe. All 10 wore these clothes, even though it was hot. But the wood elves chief didn't bother wearing anything, disregarding human culture.
"It's a pity that the voters don't know the truth! These Wood elves don't respect us at all!" a woman named Judith said.
"Okay, let's end the meeting here. I will relay the result to the director of pest control," said Sion. Everyone nodded and left.
...
Bertha returned to her house.
"Bertha, what do you think about integrating your Wood Elf tribe with humans?" asked Rachel.
She thought briefly and said, "Our culture is too far apart. We, as Wood Elves, cherish nature and despise human exploitation of resources. Hell, the clothing problem alone is enough to make it impossible for Wood Elves to enter any of the human cities! Even though they can enter our cities with clothes, they don't allow us to enter their cities as we are comfortable."
Wood Elves allowed some humans into the city for tourist purposes, but they had to reserve early to be allowed in.
Bertha generally liked humans a lot, but they were far from perfect.
She was a true believer in the Wood Elves' culture, and even her drive to get stronger was mainly to be able to defend her tribe and other surrounding tribes.
Rachel, who knew that Bertha wouldn't wear clothes even if her life depended on it, sighed and didn't talk about it anymore.
...
God of Fate was looking at the River of Time with amazement.
"It's fascinating!" she said.
Before the two rivers merged, rain poured down in the River of Time. God of Fate had never seen such a thing, so when she saw it, it changed her worldview.
"Luck is a combination of space and time; rain is luck, just much more concentrated. Normally, luck will never truly mix with the River of Time, but when that rain happened, a lot of luck mixed with the River of Time permanently! How fascinating!" she thought.
"What do you mean by 'rain is luck but more concentrated'?" Rachel asked with some confusion.
"Don't you get it? It proves luck has three forms: solid, gas, and liquid, like every other element! Does that mean luck is also an element? Or does that mean every other element is also created from a combination of time and space? There are so many things one can derive from this! Why are you so dense?" she asked Rachel.
"I am not dense; it's you who likes to overthink everything!" she said.
"Now, this combination of space and time entered the River of Time. What does that mean?" the God of Fate asked.
"Nothing," Rachel answered while distracted.
"It means now the River of Time is also created by the combination of time and space! Does that mean the River of Time itself is also an element? A lot of experimentation is needed!"
Just as the God of Fate was about to do some experiments, a colossal explosion's sound rang out.
"What was that? Argh! Mages attacked again!" Her face twisted as she recalled terrible memories.