Infusion

"Goodbye" leaped out of the pool with great vigor, shook the mercury from its body, and rubbed against Yicha's leg. Only Xiqisi was left splashed all over, dejectedly preening her feathers nearby.

"Did you bring them back?"

Yicha stroked the big dog's prickly head. The hellhound looked more than twice its usual size, its belly swollen tight.

It stuck out its barbed tongue and panted as it licked his hand, nodding vigorously.

Yicha led it to the side.

"Don't come over yet," he told the half-demon Xiqisi.

"Goodbye" obediently followed behind him.

They passed the remaining statues that had been erected again, the Disaster Stone ruins under reconstruction, over twenty demon privates clumsily sorting marrowstones, six barons lying on a suspension bridge complaining, and the commander of Hell's 664th Legion, a viscount.

"Move! Get to work!"

The viscount glanced at him, then turned and savagely berated his subordinates.

The ground demons around them made way for him fearfully, as though they had seen a real monster—the winged ones had all been reassigned to repair the ceiling of Yicha's tower.

Every now and then, one or two admiring gazes appeared among them—Yicha realized they were probably students he had taught before.

His gaze swept through the ruins.

He needed bodies.

Although the hellhound "Goodbye" was the sturdiest and most reliable energy vessel, and would not leak even a trace of Keir or Nese along the way, their original material forms would be destroyed as fuel.

This differed from when Yicha had first altered Nese's biological state. Back then, he had essentially used Nese's original material form as raw material to mold a new appearance.

But now—he glanced at "Goodbye," which let out a burp.

Nese and Keir were probably nothing but energy itself by now. Their matter had been destroyed. Well. Digested.

Energy beings also needed a form of manifestation.

They needed new bodies... new forms of manifestation...

Yicha's gaze passed over an unacceptable lump of mangled flesh—the commander of Hell's 665th Legion, killed by Yifomiet. A few low-ranking demon deserters, however, had died with their bodies fairly intact.

He crouched and began selecting among the corpses.

The demons' souls had already fled, leaving their empty shells sprawled crookedly together. Each had two holes in its head and chest, hissing black-red fragments.

The criteria were simple. Nese excelled at laws and spells, so he needed a body with better conductivity for laws and spells.

It would be best if it possessed innate law energy... but such aptitude was nearly impossible among demons. One sweep with his energy vision told him there were no exceptions.

Conductivity for law energy had to take priority...

He raised a finger and drew a simple concentric-circle sensing spell, testing the bodies one by one.

There were four empty shells in total. The three corpses arranged in a triangle showed no reaction to the concentric circles. The fourth had a pair of guileless ram horns and trembled when his finger approached.

The concentric circles of law geometry on his fingertip were drawn toward the corpse's head, shifting slightly off angle.

Its conductivity was inferior to a sorcerer's original body... but it was barely usable.

There was no reason to hesitate. This level was already rare among demons.

Yicha beckoned for "Goodbye" to come closer, preparing to have it vomit out Nese's energy before injecting it into the new form through himself...

The concentric circles of law on his fingertip suddenly shot away with a whoosh.

He swiftly turned in that direction.

"Holy Angel, is there anything I can contribute?"

Sankarabi had somehow appeared beside him.

The leader of the Fallen Angel Cult.

Yicha remembered him.

He stared intently at Sankarabi's head. Though thin, his features were well-proportioned. The concentric circles of law had been drawn to a spot slightly above his forehead and melted into his skin in the blink of an eye.

The cult leader gave a tiny, confused shudder.

He had no idea what was happening. The Holy Angel's eyes burned brightly, as though he had developed a profound interest in his hairline.

"I... You..."

"It's nothing." Yicha paused for a moment before speaking, then turned away and ended the conversation.

Exceptionally outstanding law conductivity... he thought.

With this level of conductivity, even without innate law energy, if he used an external energy source and received proper training—his training, for instance—he could easily become any type of grand spellcaster.

But...

He could not use Sankarabi.

According to the final stage agreed upon for Transfiguration into a primordial fallen angel, he had to eventually transform this fellow into an angel.

There was no need to think further.

Yicha put away his slight regret, lifted the ordinary corpse from the ground, and led "Goodbye" over. He had it consume the lingering destruction residue from the dead body, then vomit out the sorcerer's energy as he prepared to begin guiding it.

A transparent spring gushed from the hellhound's wide-open, bloody mouth.

This was Nese's energy form. It was still shapeless.

After Nese had been transformed into an energy being, Yicha had merely given him a demon-shaped disguise. He had not yet truly settled on a form. Thus, he was still weak. The advantage, however, was that such energy could be placed into any shell.

Yicha wound the horn chain around his arm and considered things as he followed the procedure.

Pure, unaffiliated energy beings did exist, of course. But few beings remained on such an unstable path for long, one that offered no special advantages whatsoever.

But there was no need to rush.

He had already discovered that humans thought quickly and followed short trains of thought.

Nese would make a decision soon enough.

"Soon" by demon standards of time.

The clear spring slowly flowed in. The edges of the ram-horned demon body on the ground blurred, and tiny bubbles began rising on its skin. Under the repair of the Vine Spirit Spell, the wounds in the shell's head and chest began to heal.

Ordinary, unchanged conduction was simpler than material conversion—such as transformation or conversion between different forms of energy.

Yicha did not take long to complete the injection.

The final droplets sprayed from the hellhound's mouth.

"Goodbye" smacked its lips and let out a howl, its body shrinking—this act also consumed its body, which was why Yicha rarely made it do so.

But today was exceptional.

Lately, circumstances seemed to be exceptional quite often.

The bubbles on the ram-horned demon's skin subsided, and one leg twitched slightly.

Yicha snapped his fingers to end the ritual.

Whoosh—

Azure flames lit up within the ram-horned demon's empty eye sockets.

After thinking for a moment, Yicha patted its head—the ram-horned demon's filthy black hair was replaced with golden curls. That would make the mark more obvious.

"Teacher?"

Nese spoke fuzzily, struggling to sit up. He was a little dazed, but he seemed fine.

"Mm."

Yicha was somewhat distracted. There was still Keir. His pure energy of order was definitely incompatible with these demon shells.