Demon's Test

Fang Desert.

The sickly Fork-tongue Willow was nearly burned to ash. Only a short stump remained, still giving off its last flickers of flame.

Against the gray-white desert backdrop lay an enormous sunken pit. Its uneven floor was crowded with roughly a hundred stone spheres, each as large as a small mountain. Even so, those hundred spheres occupied only a fifth of the giant pit's bottom.

On closer inspection, the spheres were not made of rock, but countless ghastly white teeth forcibly compressed together by some power.

In the gaps between the stone spheres was an irregular gray speck—that was Nese. From Yicha's perspective, the sorcerer was merely a tiny gray dot within the formation.

Nese sat on the ground in a twisted posture, covered in cuts. His left arm had been severed at the elbow, and white bone protruded from his right knee.

"One last chance, or I'll count this as a failed physique assessment."

Yicha descended a little to observe his student.

The sorcerer drew heavy breaths, trying to stop himself from trembling. He opened his mouth twice, but both times nearly bit his tongue.

"I want one last chance," he finally said.

Yicha folded his arms and watched him quietly. He knew the sorcerer would not make it, and that the next blow would most likely shatter his right arm.

Nese's physical abilities had not improved much even after becoming an energy lifeform, and his agility was far from sufficient. Still, Yicha had never held much hope for either of those qualities.

It was just that the young sorcerer did not seem to realize it.

Blind faith in the power of will was a common consequence of insufficient knowledge. Will was also a form of energy; anything that was energy could be analyzed and used.

But at the same time, it had to be finite.

The young sorcerer did not seem to realize that, either.

Fine. Then he could learn it now.

The demon bared his teeth in a grin, raised one hand high, clenched it into a fist, and swung downward.

The surface of the pit floor swelled like it had been stung, forming a massive bulge. In almost an instant, the bulge rose from the ground with a grinding creak, then, with a crack, was kneaded into a sphere like a lump of clay.

As Yicha's hand swung down, the newly formed stone sphere cleaved downward, carrying a howling Yan Feng as it hammered straight toward Nese.

Boom—

Gray-white debris burst apart, and sharp fragments sprayed in every direction.

The sorcerer was buried beneath a heap of fangs like an armadillo shot dead on the spot by a hunter. His golden hair, clotted with blood, stuck around his face, and his head lolled to one side.

Yicha dived down in a graceful arc, leaned in, grabbed the bit of Nese's front robe that was exposed, and lifted him into the air.

More precisely, he lifted Nese's upper body into the air.

The sorcerer had been smashed clean in half at the waist, and Yicha's pull neatly separated his upper and lower halves along the break.

Not much different from breaking his right arm... the demon sighed.

Nese's eyes were tightly shut, and there was no life in his face. His intestines hung down from him like loose strands spilling from an unravelled ball of yarn.

Yicha showed no reaction to this sudden display of food. His hands did not stop moving; he spent two Quick Runes and ten seconds fixing Nese, then gently tossed him onto the ground.

"I hope you understand now. Your talent lies elsewhere."

Yicha clapped once and stepped back. Black wings spread behind him, and after adjusting his position, he sat atop a towering pile of stone spheres.

The planar sorcerer opened his eyes and quickly scrambled to his feet, annoyance appearing on his face.

"Physique assessment failed. There's still one final and most important test."

Yicha swung his legs. The burning Fork-tongue Willow was almost extinguished.

Don't disappoint me again. This should be your strong suit, he thought.

He still hoped Nese could be of some use.

If he wanted to face Beelzebub, there was no such thing as too much help. He had originally expected Keir and Xiqisi to be of at least some use.

As for his fellow demons...

He often exchanged pleasantries with Malphas and Haures, and Xier often shared his experiences with him.

But between him on one side and Beelzebub along with the ultimate legend of Chaos Hell on the other, there was no need to think about which side they would choose.

Yicha looked Nese over from head to toe. There was quite a bit of blood on his nose and cracks on his lips, but his back remained perfectly straight.

No matter what, the current situation met every condition for forcing rapid growth.

Since inventing this process for converting material lifeforms into energy lifeforms, he had never achieved such a complete success.

The last test subject had been a Leaf Lizard egg—what eventually hatched from it was something like a starfish, and it could only survive if soaked in bat droppings.

But Nese looked excellent. His memories remained intact, his comprehension had not diminished, and he had not suddenly begun zealously searching for dung heaps.

He even knew a few useful little tricks. Sealing, isolation, transformation.

But these human law tricks all required meticulous preparation and specific stellar positions to perform.

That was definitely not enough.

He imagined Nese standing solemnly before Beelzebub, then pointing at her and saying:

"Just wait. Genas will soon enter the mass range of the Langlipha Nebula. I'll come fight you then."

Yicha laughed at the image in his mind.

Little sorcerer... you need to learn something real if you want to be useful.

Starting with being able to see them.

"The final test. Energy Sight. I hope you're ready," he said languidly to Nese.

The sorcerer closed his eyes and breathed heavily.

His body was indeed still aching faintly, but the deep breaths were more for maintaining his concentration.

He calmed himself and recalled the classifications of energy domains Yicha had taught him, along with the method of activating Energy Sight.

It seemed as though golden light danced behind his eyelids.

A strange cool sensation washed over him, cleansing his mind.

Nese opened his eyes.

The things in his field of vision were completely different from before.

He saw them.

The scattered sparks and faintly visible drifting wisps revealed their true forms in his new sight.

They were... energy itself.

The first thing he noticed was a kind of omnipresent white thread:

Extremely fine and crystalline, they crisscrossed one another to form a vast, sprawling network that stretched across heaven and earth. Each cell in that net was astonishingly huge; the pit he stood in occupied only half of one.

Nese's gaze shifted from one thread to another. He knew what they were, yet he was still awestruck.

Order-Domain Energy.

The angels' spontaneous energy domain.

It should be at its densest at the Source of Order, while here it existed only as fragile, slender threads.

"Nearly a hundred energy domains have been discovered so far, and nearly forty can be utilized. You've only just activated your sight. Identify and point out ten, and you'll pass."

Yicha's unhurried voice drifted over from nearby.

Nese reluctantly moved his gaze away from those white threads. "Are these energy domains related to one another?"

"No one has ever completed a comprehensive summary." The azure flame in Yicha's eyes flickered. "But that is one of my research directions."

The sorcerer focused his mind and shifted his gaze.

Under the calamitous sky, the largest things by volume were clusters of floating black mist.

Cluster after cluster, so numerous that they nearly merged into one continuous expanse. They crowded together and spread toward the burning horizon.

At the center of every cluster of black mist was a spherical core.

Looking closely, each core had an iris and pupil, twitching as it continuously swept its gaze in every direction.

The energy with the greatest natural reserves in Chaos Hell. It was also the first domain Nese had learned to identify.

Power of Disorder.

The demons' spontaneous energy domain.

Nese took a deep breath and raised his head to look at his mentor.

Yicha reclined leisurely. Yan Feng lifted the hem of his black-and-red robe.

In Nese's eyes, Yicha was almost entirely immersed in the dense black clouds and those wildly spinning eyeballs. Strangely, he could still clearly see the demon's expression and posture.

The sight that identified energy did not obscure the ordinary material sight he used every day. He realized it almost immediately.

The sorcerer examined Yicha with Energy Sight.

Upon a dark foundation of power, multicolored radiance flowed.

Aside from the Power of Disorder innate to demons, he also emitted the power of other domains...

"That works too." Yicha noticed his gaze and smiled faintly.

"I have six types of energy on me. Find them all, and you'll pass."