“Native, you’re dead!”

“Besides yelling ‘native,’ do you actually know any other words? My ears are getting calluses from hearing it.”

Green casually poked his ear with his pinky, looking completely relaxed, like it was nothing.

Once he got in the mood to play, if he didn’t toy with his opponent a bit, he just felt… itchy.

“You…!!”

Indra was so furious he could barely string a sentence together.

He started panting heavily, unable to control it anymore. But with that octopus head of his, the way he panted in rage looked downright comical in human eyes.

Green didn’t bother hiding his mockery. He let out a low, mocking chuckle.

“Tch. Trash.”

“…”

After a few deep breaths to steady his mind, Indra finally calmed down.

He’d figured it out now. When it came to verbal sparring, he was hopeless. This damn native was shameless to the core, the kind of shameless that broke the scale.

Facing someone like that, the only answer was to erase him.

Indra didn’t believe Green would still be able to taunt him after he died.

“Oh? You finally cooled down? Guess my painstaking efforts weren’t wasted.”

Just as Indra gathered all his energy into his muscles, he suddenly saw Green show a gratified look, like an adult watching a child finally grow up.

“Anyway, you’re about to become the Universal Overlord. If you can’t even endure this level of provocation, won’t you be the laughingstock of all races in the universe?”

“You… so you were…!”

Hearing that, realization flashed through Indra’s heart, and he even felt a faint stir of gratitude.

His emotions shifted, and the energy around him weakened a little.

Right then, Green burst out laughing.

“Pfft—hahahaha! Don’t tell me you actually… pff—ahaha!!! Showing that touched expression—did you really think I was training your emotional control or something? Hahaha, I’m dying here…!!!”

Green floated in the air, laughing so hard his body twisted, his laughter carrying nothing but pure ridicule.

Indra’s expression froze. His mind was filled with Green’s laughter and that image of him slapping his own thigh in hysterics.

“Go to hell!!!”

Without another moment of hesitation, Indra threw a punch at Green with everything he had.

At Indra’s level, flashy moves had long lost any real combat value. Fists and kicks—the most primal way to fight—worked best, especially when the enemy’s size was similar to his own.

Green finally put away his playful mood. If he kept going, it’d get a bit too much.

The main thing was, he’d gotten bored of playing with Indra. He still had serious business to take care of.

Just as Indra’s fist was about to smash into Green’s face, Green tilted his head slightly and slipped past it with ease. At the same time, he let out a cold snort and taunted:

“Too slow.”

His right fist exploded forward, slamming into Indra’s abdomen.

Blazing pain erupted in Indra’s gut. His eyes rolled back on reflex, and under the massive impact, his body shot back the way he’d come, moving so fast he left nothing but afterimages.

Green didn’t let the chance slip. He instant-moved into Indra’s flight path and, in the span of half a second, landed hundreds of consecutive blows.

When Green finally stopped, Indra’s body hung in the air for two seconds, then dropped straight down.

From beginning to end, Indra’s subordinates didn’t dare move a muscle. But when they saw him fall, they seemed to see their own deaths at Green’s hands, and they went berserk, unleashing one useless attack after another at him.

Green wiped them all out without spilling a drop of blood.

The last thing Indra saw was Green stretching his palm toward him, source energy condensing into a glowing sphere.

After that, everything sank into eternal darkness.

Once he’d completely erased Indra, Green thought back to the exchange they’d just had and muttered to himself:

“Did I go too far…? No. Letting him die quickly was already the biggest mercy.”

The first half of his voice held a trace of apology. The second half turned sharp, icy cold to the ear.

Maybe because he was so strong, Indra’s actions didn’t really affect Green—he was watching it all with the mentality of a grown-up watching kids roughhouse. But to the people of this world, Indra was a real, solid devil.

Everywhere you looked, you could still see the ruins of freshly built houses.

Old rubble and new rubble mixed together, a scene of pure misery.

Sometimes, when you stand too high and the gap between you and others gets too big, your mindset twists a little, and your behavior starts to look strange. But Green was already used to that.

At least he hadn’t sunk to the level of butchering innocents for fun.

“Alright, next I’ll take care of this guy’s fleet, then I can finally start on the real business!”

Within a minute of Green making that decision, not a single soldier Indra had brought to Earth was left alive.

As Green basked in everyone’s admiration and gratitude, he finally got the chance to talk to this world’s version of himself and ask about the doubts that had been haunting him.

After a brief celebration of their victory, the two Greens sat down together and started chatting.

“So how long are you planning to hang out this time?”

“Hang out? No, no, no. I’m not here to play. I came because there’s something I need.”

“Need… me?”

Ever since he’d told the other Green everything he knew about the world’s origin power, he hadn’t thought there was anything else he could really help with.

Unless the guy was just bored and came over to have some fun, there shouldn’t be any other reason.

“Let’s not beat around the bush. I’ve got something I want you to appraise.”

With a wave of Green’s hand, a massive Heart of the Universe appeared in front of them.

The people around them noticed it too, but seeing that it was the two Greens talking, they held back their curiosity and didn’t interrupt, continuing to celebrate Earth’s narrow escape.

The instant the Heart of the Universe appeared, the world origin power inside it was clearly felt.

Seeing the change in his counterpart’s expression, Green’s heart stirred with hope and expectation.

“Well? Can you figure out what this thing is?”

“Of course.”

The other Green took a sip of plain water, then explained:

“I can feel the presence of world origin power inside. It’s obviously not from this world, but the common threads are easy to recognize. —Where’d you even get something like this?”

Green then gave a brief explanation of where the Heart of the Universe came from and why he’d come this time.

“I see. Still, didn’t expect your species to evolve from human into Demon King. No wonder your vibe feels different from before. So that’s why.”

“Honestly, being a Demon King feels pretty great. Even without maintaining my superpower state, this Demon King body can store a ton of source energy, and my strength’s way above what it used to be. Oh, right—why don’t you come to the demon realm too? I’ll figure out a way to turn you into a Demon King as well.”

The other Green froze for a moment at the suggestion, then chuckled softly.

“I’ll pass. I’ve been active for so many years I’m too lazy to fight aliens anymore. You, though—drop by here more often when you’ve got time. Who knows, we might run into another invader we can’t beat.”

“If that happens again, that’d be way too unlucky…”

“Haha, true. —Anyway, back on topic. This Heart of the Universe holds a good chunk of world origin power. It’s not enough to change the entire universe… actually, it’s way short. But if you only want to change a single sub-world, that should be doable.”

“So what exactly do I need to do?”

“Easy. Just eat it.”

“???”