Where the Heart Leads

"How is it?" Keir asked cautiously.

Echaint noticed that Keir seemed to desperately want him to agree.

He did not dwell on it. This path of transformation offered him important hope, and he had to see it through.

Only by abandoning his current identity and giving up the use of disorder energy could he completely free himself from Hell Broadcast while avoiding the rank suppression of the King of All Demons.

No demon could escape the rank suppression of the King of All Demons.

It seemed he could only stop being a demon for a while.

As long as he broke free from the shackles etched into the bones of his race, even though they were still vastly outmatched by Beelzebub's legion, they would no longer stand no chance at all.

He passed through the mist-like mana dome, enhanced his vision, and looked toward the horizon. Something dark and dense lay there.

"Let's begin," Echaint said.

"Alright. Uh... let's go to the Law Field Energy Chamber. It's right..."

"This is my home."

"Right. Right, I forgot." Keir rubbed his hands awkwardly and changed the subject. "Everyone's there, doing some preparations."

"Preparations." Echaint repeated the words. "You started early. You knew all along?"

I didn't know. I'm sorry, but I hoped you would agree to what comes next with the Fallen Angel Cult, so I prepared in advance. Keir had wanted to say that. But he was somewhat flustered, so he said, "Uh."

"Fine." Echaint absentmindedly glanced at the sky again. The sulfur-flowing canopy had darkened. Its background was no longer blue-violet. He beckoned to Nese. "Villed, stay here with 'Goodbye.' Inform me of any changes."

Calamity Stone Floating Island, Demon Courtyard, Third Floor

Outside the Law Field Energy Chamber

"Wait." Keir stopped Echaint. "I'll go have them leave first."

Echaint gave him a questioning look. Keir smiled sheepishly. "They'll be too excited when they see you. Since you decided. And besides..."

Before he could finish, Echaint had already moved into a dark corner and concealed himself. "This will do."

The angel evacuated the Fallen Angel Cult's demons through another passage.

The two beings entered the Law Field Energy Chamber one after the other.

The third floor of the Demon Courtyard was filled with energy chambers personally designed and built by Echaint. Powered by vast quantities of marrow stones and statues, they steadily supplied various types of domain energy for different experiments and creations.

It had taken him several centuries, but he had time to spare.

Among them, this Law Field Energy Chamber, which supplied law energy, was one of the chambers Echaint used most often. The reason was the flexibility and malleability of law energy, which made law fields highly useful.

Echaint walked toward the center of the chamber.

He was very familiar with its structure:

The curved walls minimized energy dissipation. At the sixteen outer corners sat piles of marrow stones used for power supply. A continuous row of spell formations connected the marrow stone piles to the center of the chamber. Eight Calamity Stone rune pillars stood in the middle ring, amplifying energy. The inner ring held four transparent gemstone mana rings for concentrating energy—they could rotate in any direction.

At the very center of the inner ring stood a finely crafted black diamond platform, supported by countless carved, withered fingers.

In his energy vision, the formations on the floor, the rune pillars, and the gemstone mana rings continuously passed the same symbol toward the center—a single circle.

His horn chain rested atop the black diamond platform. He picked it up and examined it.

The chain had been reforged, and the shape of every link had been subtly adjusted. It was also saturated with order energy.

Order energy could no longer harm him at all. He cradled the horn chain in his palm and felt only something soft and cloudlike. Switching hands, he turned it over.

At the center of the pure gold chain was a section about a thumb-width wide, and his name was engraved on its back.

Echaint Sinkardesto.

"A new anchor?" He weighed the horn chain in his hand.

"Yes. It's already complete." Keir walked over. Whenever academic matters were involved, a clever gleam returned to his eyes.

With a wave of his hand, he shut down the four gemstone mana rings.

Then the eight rune pillars and the continuous spell formations on the ground were also deactivated. The single circles constantly being sent toward the center vanished from the air.

"This thing of yours was meant to channel energy in the first place. It was the easiest thing I had on hand to charge. And I thought it would be more convenient this way."

"Engraving a name makes it a new anchor? It can't be that simple."

"How could it be that simple?" Keir laughed. "It has to conform to the rank of the Origin Position."

The Origin Position—the first fallen angel.

Echaint suddenly understood. He knew why Keir had gathered all the Fallen Angel Cult's demons here.

Their legendary theory defined the first fallen angel as the Origin Position. Those single circles continuously gathered on the horn chain must have been the energy of the Fallen Angel Cult's members. They could stabilize the anchor.

"Not bad." Echaint offered restrained praise, unwilling to let the angel grow too smug. "The Origin Position's anchor is in place. The path is already within me. Let's change the Final Position now."

According to what the angel had said before, the Final Position was the destination, the place one was headed, "where the heart leads."

Echaint was not a stubborn person. This should be quite simple.

The angel's face flushed red as he grew hesitant.

He seemed to be trying to break through some obstacle.

"It's just that you have to accept this Final Position. You have to truly believe it in your heart. A decision. Right. That's how it is." In the end, he spoke in a disjointed rush.

"I can accept it. The first fallen angel, right?"

"Mm. Right. What I mean is—" Keir rubbed his hands like a huge white fly, "you have to actually do it. You have to make a promise."

"Fine. I promise." He sincerely hoped the conversation would move along faster.

"You said it!" The angel jumped, then immediately realized his loss of composure and cleared his throat.

"Alright, now listen—you have to promise that everyone in the cult will truly become angels. And you really have to think of ways to do it, and truly do it. Because that is the Final Position of the first fallen angel. That is what the first fallen angel must do. His destination, where his heart leads."

"Though he doesn't really exist. But that's how the cult defines him," Keir added hastily after a second's pause.

Silence enveloped the Law Field Energy Chamber for a moment.

Echaint felt his lips go dry.

Radish.

He should have known.

Radish Faith. Radish Cult. Radish Keir. Radish Theory. This theory was utterly idiotic.

Though there was currently no better way, this requirement...

He resolved to properly expand his energy-channeling transformation methods.

Next time...

"Don't tell me you believe in their religion," he said after a while.

"No." Keir answered sincerely. He was always so sincere.

Echaint gave himself ten seconds to consider—he could not afford longer, since the hell legion could attack at any moment.

"Fine." At last, he said it again. "I promise."

A smile spread across Keir's face. "That won't work."

"Still not enough?"

"If you want to transform into an existence of the order domain, all of this must be within order," Keir said.