Calamity Stone Floating Island, Demon Courtyard

Yicha decided to go see Beelzebub directly.

He had yet to choose among them, but all six options seemed like they could begin with confronting Beelzebub. Of course, he could also start by searching for the Chaos Child. But confronting Beelzebub was clearly simpler and less time-consuming.

Confronting Beelzebub would not be easy. He glanced at Nese.

After thinking it over, he snapped his fingers. The top of a crooked Fork-tongue Willow some distance away ignited, turning into a blazing fireball in the blink of an eye.

"Learn what I teach you before that tree burns out."

The planar warlock had just turned to the second page when he heard this. He nervously raised his bewildered blue eyes.

"Otherwise, you'll return to my courtyard. With them," Yicha said.

Nese's lips tightened. "No problem."

Xiqisi was beginning to regret it. But if she had to do it again, she felt she would make the same choice.

The only problem was—there was quite a problem right now.

The main problem was Keir. He was basically in a state where he could not take care of himself and endlessly interfered with her flying. Then there was the matter of distance.

She had not expected Yicha's courtyard to be so far away.

Xiqisi felt she had already flown past at least forty thorny mountains sprouting enormous iron spikes and fifteen basins burning with undying flames. She had counted them. She had also passed six swamps, two emerald green and four pitch-black. Things resembling tangled intestines floated on the surfaces of all six swamps.

The bright red Marrowstone in her mouth continued to emit its signal, telling her: forward, forward.

She felt the upper two wings were about to cramp. That damned angel weighed a ton. She truly did not understand how something so heavy could become an angel.

It was all their fault...

As for losing her divine power because she had been cut off from the faith energy of her believers, that was merely a minor problem making an already huge pile of problems worse.

It was fine... She could still use the fairy tricks ingrained in her instincts. And the remaining demonic power in her blood, the bloodline of Yifomiet, the Hand of Destruction...

Father.

Damn it.

Her slender brows drew together. He had not even been willing to hear a single word of her explanation from beginning to end... Heh. In his eyes, she was nothing more than an ignorant, inexperienced, weak little wild god.

Because she did not have enough power, she had not even been given the chance to ask him to stay.

"This is the rule of demons." Yifomiet's unquestionable tone surfaced in her mind. "I'll ask you one last time: do you want to be a demon, a fairy, or some kind of god? If you want to be a demon, forget whatever you planned to say. I'll introduce you to the King of All Demons, and you'll join me in battle."

The Joyful Saintess licked the smoky Marrowstone, grinding her fine back teeth until they creaked.

Back then, she had been unable to answer, and the demon who was her father had departed with a cold sneer.

But she had still come now. Yifomiet was now on the same plane as her.

She had better run into him. She had better not run into him.

Forward, forward, forward...

Downward.

Huh?

The Marrowstone's direction had changed.

Xiqisi looked down with difficulty.

Through sparks and turbulent currents, a crimson, three-tiered Calamity Stone Floating Island came into view in her black eyes.

A crystal-clear spell dome covered the floating island upside down, flickering with tiny pale-blue lights.

Looking down, the most conspicuous things were the thirteen circular pools in the ground-level courtyard, resembling the evil eyes of ancient beasts. Every pool bore its own runic seal, and the waters of various colors remained perfectly still despite the endlessly blowing Yan Feng.

Xiqisi recognized that one of the pools actually contained ordinary water.

Twelve black iron demon god statues, some vicious and some exposed, lined the edge of the floating island's second tier. In Xiqisi's understanding, statues like these would surely have offerings placed before them, yet all twelve stood completely bare. Instead, their bodies were covered in strange symbols of all kinds.

Who knew what spell this was... The statues enclosed the entire second-tier space, which had been divided into irregular sections by vast quantities of densely packed, brightly colored round stones—cruder Marrowstones.

What was this for... Who knew how much energy these Marrowstones contained...

Xiqisi could not help but feel secretly alarmed. Her gaze shifted toward the center of the floating island, where a colossal tower vertically pierced through all three tiers. It was built from scarlet Disaster Stone, black-red sulfur seeping from its cracks, and a statue of ten snakes stood atop it.

More than a dozen reddish-brown lumps seemed to be crowded together in front of the tower's third floor. Against the backdrop of scarlet Disaster Stone, they were blurry and impossible to make out clearly.

The Marrowstone in her mouth guided her to fly in that direction.

Xiqisi tilted her wings slightly to change course—Keir's hand slapped against her face, and she roughly knocked it away.

The bright red Marrowstone began to release energy. The spell dome obediently rolled open a smooth round entrance, allowing the Joyful Saintess inside.

Xiqisi breathed a sigh of relief and descended.

The dozen or so reddish-brown, writhing things enlarged and sharpened before her eyes: horns, messy seaweed-like hair, tails tucked beneath filthy robes of the same color.

Demons. Many demons.

Even by demonic standards, their attire was strange enough. Demons did not wear robes. Such light, simple clothing, entirely dependent on one's bearing, was usually the choice of angels...

At that moment, the long-haired demons in robes were crowding before the Yin Iron gates leading into the tower, peering inside. Perhaps sensing the energy disturbance, a tall demon near the back raised his head, his deep dark-green eyes turning toward Xiqisi.

I should avoid contact with these people.

Xiqisi jolted awake in horror.

It was already too late. That heavy, gloomy gate powerfully drew the Marrowstone in her mouth toward it, while her four wings were too exhausted and weak to lift her body any higher.

She desperately gathered the last of her strength.

At this moment of disaster, the angel suddenly perked up—he struggled, trying to slide off.

That shattered Xiqisi's final effort, pulling her wings askew and sending her plummeting twice as fast.

Fall, then. Let everyone fall. To hell with it.

To hell with you, angel. To hell with you, hell. To hell with you, courtyard. To hell with my father.

To hell with all of you.

Xiqisi felt a helpless despair, then crashed heavily to the ground before those demons with Keir in tow.

The long-haired demons in robes gathered around them. Their faces were smeared with black ash from hell volcanoes. If not for their reddish-brown skin, Xiqisi would almost have thought she was seeing the staggering vagrants on the streets of a human royal city.

Countless impolite gazes swept back and forth over her body.

Xiqisi could not move, and she felt as if her entire spine had broken. Yet she forced her eyes open wide and met the gaze of every demon looking at her.

Several gazes withdrew. Other than one faceless demon, the rest began discussing her in low voices:

"I've never seen her..."

"Look at the feathers on her! This bird's thighs must be delicious."

"But she has horns on her head... And she's here to see the Duke too... We can't eat her..."

"Then what's with the one beside her? He doesn't smell like anything at all. And he looks human... He can't be human, can he?"

"Have you ever even seen a human? How can you say he looks human..."

"One bite and we'll know, hehehe!"

A four-fingered demonic claw reached out, only for another demonic claw to slap it aside.

It was the tall demon with dark-green eyes. He now stood at the front. His robe was cleaner than the others', fastened with a feather-shaped golden clasp, with a five-pointed star embroidered on the collar.

"Who are you?" he asked.