Clang—
The tolling bell rang out, sharp enough to split a man's skull.
It was the middle of the night.
Yicha pried his eyes open, half-asleep, and saw the fine-gold ceiling of his cell.
His third day in captivity.
Pain seared through his whole body.
Grimacing, Yicha slowly sat up, carefully shifting the glowing chains so they touched as little of his body as possible.
He had to be careful. He had learned the hard way, many times over, just how dangerous these holy-water-soaked cross-shaped chains were. Forged from True Silver, they had a clear bloodstone set into them at regular intervals. They were excellent anti-evil restraints.
Hiss—
Yicha's exposed forearm brushed against a bloodstone, and a blister sprang up instantly.
Chaos above... He endured the pain and gently adjusted the shackles.
Bloodstones could suppress physical strength, while holy water and True Silver infused with order could block his innate Disorder Power. Made from such expensive materials, the shackles had been hammered, ground, engraved, inlaid, consecrated, and oiled. They were suitable for capturing and controlling creatures from the Chaos planes.
A demon, for instance.
Like him.
Honestly, Yicha had no idea why he was here.
Three days ago, while walking his Hellhound, he had fallen into a planar rift. When he woke, he found himself in the Prime Material Plane, occupied by humans, stripped of his freedom and power—and separated from his dog.
A human in a hood had told Yicha he was to be offered as a sacrifice to an angel, then dumped him in this expensive prison.
A sacrifice for an angel?
Yicha had thought it over, but it made no sense.
It was true that angels and demons wielded opposing energies, but the two sides had enjoyed a long peace for seven thousand years. They each managed their own affairs in the planes of the Source of Order and Chaos Hell, living side by side without incident.
For an angel to specifically demand a demon sacrifice from humans would be the most reckless way possible to tear up the truce. Why would those stiff, dogmatic, dull-minded creatures do such a thing?
If it was aimed at him personally, that was even less likely.
Yicha was a demon, and a scholar. There might not be another demon like him in the world.
He studied the power fields and energy-channeling methods of the nine planes, wrote up his findings, and walked his dog. That was all he did. Someone like him couldn't possibly have any enemies.
Incidentally, in his view, demons were simply beings who lived in Chaos Hell and used the power of the Disorder Domain.
The biggest conflict he had ever had with anyone was a minor argument across the planes with the angel Keir, after Yicha wrote Six Applications of Power Field Theory to Will Spells.
Even that little clash had made him friends with Keir. They often arranged secret meetings to discuss their academic interests.
At the thought, Yicha looked through the cage toward the narrow iron window in the wall.
Today was supposed to be their day for academic discussion. Keir must have realized he was missing.
The moment he fell into the planar rift, Yicha sensed traces of Law Energy—the kind often used in human incantations. Following those clues, Keir should have had no trouble finding him.
Yicha looked at the spell array on the fine-gold floor. Every restraint here had been designed to counter his Disorder Power. If an angel descended, they could undoubtedly break through it with ease and rescue him.
He looked out the window again.
Outside was nothing but a bleak, oppressive darkness. Nothing he was hoping for appeared.
Midnight had passed.
In six hours, they would take him away and bind him to a cold altar. The humans would raise their knives, and the soul he should have devoted to scholarship would return to Chaos.
It seemed the angel wasn't coming.
He turned his gaze away, silently reproaching Keir for being either disloyal or not clever enough.
He had no choice but to risk his last means of escape.
Fortunately, the knowledge he loved had given him one final option.
That was—
To summon a god.
Yicha looked at the exquisitely made, expensive anti-demon chains on his hands.
They repelled demons, not humans.
Holy water, bloodstones, precious metals, and restraints on demonic Chaos energy also made excellent materials for human Law spells. Thanks to years of accumulated knowledge, he happened to remember a little about those spells.
In a book he had read, he'd come across a method of praying to a human Main God so that one's voice would be heard.
As it happened, he desperately needed his voice to be heard.
As their name suggested, human Law spells placed great importance on procedure. Summoning a human god required blood to represent both an offering and an introduction.
Yicha recalled the details, steeled himself, and bit through a finger on his left hand.
He was under a Malicious Polymorph Curse, so his appearance and physical strength were no different from a human's. His skin split easily between his teeth, and a pungent liquid welled out.
Yicha dipped his finger in the blood. Half-sitting, he smeared it across the fine-gold floor, drawing the symbol of the god he wanted to summon.
A bull's head.
The book said it represented Yifomiet, the Hand of Destruction, one of the Twelve Human Main Gods.
He had considered this choice carefully.
Legend had it that Yifomiet was originally a wandering demon from Chaos Hell. Four hundred and fifty years ago, for reasons unknown, he descended into the Prime Material Plane, where humans lived, and became the god of destruction and chaos.
If the legend was true, communicating with Yifomiet, a fellow demon, should be much easier than with the other gods. Yicha had never met him, but Chaos above, he couldn't imagine why Yifomiet would refuse such an urgent request.
Yicha pressed both hands against the bull's-head symbol. He arranged the True Silver chains into an inverted triangle, representing destruction and disorder, with one bloodstone at each of its three points. Then he quietly recited the prayer he remembered in the human tongue.
He pushed down his emotions and waited in silence for something to happen.
After a while, Law Energy began to ripple through the cell.
Black-and-white wisps started condensing out of the air. Light and shadow flickered, sketching the translucent figure of a slender woman.
It had worked... Yicha let out a breath of relief. As he watched the figure slowly take shape, a twinge of confusion surfaced.
The book described Yifomiet as a broad-shouldered, towering figure, half bull and half man. The goddess before him was petite and graceful. Though she had horns too, she looked nothing like the figure in the book.
"Why have you called for me?" The goddess tilted her head back haughtily, her smooth, elegant neck in full view. She turned her face slightly, first studying him, then frowning as she stared. "A demon's body... You're no mortal."
As her words fell, her translucent form flickered. The air split open, and a warm breeze rushed over him.
Yicha turned away from the sudden impact. When he faced her again, the radiant young woman with horns had taken on a physical form. A pale-purple gown trailed across the floor, and a faint divine glow surrounded her.
This was... the goddess herself.
She had descended right in front of him.
Though she was a god, she was only a human god. Yicha wasn't overly surprised, but he felt somewhat relieved.
Good. She seemed to take this seriously, so she probably wouldn't refuse his request.
"Yifomiet, the Hand of Destruction. I'm your kind, the demon Echaint Sinkardesto. As you can see, I've run into a little trouble."
He lifted a hand in a small gesture. "Chaos above, if you're willing to help me..."
I could give you one of my books, Believer Management and Faith Energy Diversion, or The Charm of Demons. After all, I've heard you're not very popular among humans, your believers are dwindling by the day, and the upstart wild gods are about to push you out of the Twelve Main Gods...
In the end, Yicha decided it was best not to say any of that. "I'd be very grateful."
The goddess's expression turned strange. "I'm not Yifomiet. He was summoned away, so I've answered the summons in his place today."
"Summoned away? Where?"
"All demons have been called back to Chaos Hell." The goddess's gaze roamed over him. "I heard it's for the Apocalypse War."
The spell system, energy fields, rules, and species structures in this book have all been heavily altered for the story or invented by the author. They do not strictly follow DND modules or the usual rules for religious beings.
The reference points are the Pathfinder setting and Neil Gaiman's playful take on religious systems. But it's fine if you don't know them~
Before you continue