this world screamed post-apocaliptic since the first episode, at least to me.

this is probably a really far shot, but what if the demon king was another him that had also regressed? it doesn't make that much sense but is an entertaining thought isn't it?
I mean, if we think about it his mom was an arch-mage, also in the first episode we see a shackled demon that could have been the "more moderate" demon king.
And in a timeline where the invasion didn't happen he could have followed on steps of his mom and learn about all the info on the spell, something that his mom already knows. The breaking point of this theory is what is his goal and how could there be two of them considering the soul fusion, so I don't think is likely unless it was another kind of time travel but is fun to think nonetheless.

same here, it felt a lot less corporate than previous episodes

nvm, it's chainsaw man XD

what does CSM stand for? an anime?

I hope they do more worldbuilding into the aliens tbh

yeah but I still recommend the manga, there are some stuff that was better done there, like the defense battle of the corps.

To me that's good, MMOs are too linear while SLF is non-linear (or would be if it existed but games like that will not be possible until AI gets a lot better) which is cool