Dual Destruction

"As a human god, you'd lower yourself to serve a demon?" Nese failed to hide his emotions.

That gave him away. Yicha realized that this powerful planar sorcerer sounded like no more than a young man of around twenty.

No wonder. He could sense that although Nese could employ many profound spells, his understanding of energy conduction still had many flaws... those chains brimming with energy had been an absolute mistake.

Yicha watched Xiqisi kick the groaning priests, piled in a heap, out the door one after another—because they had been scrambling to touch the goddess's calves. "Can we talk now?"

Nese remained silent. For a moment, his shoulders and back tensed, as though he were about to attack.

Sensing the fluctuations of Law Energy, Yicha wagged a finger. "Don't do anything pointless. Your energy conversion rate is still far too poor."

Then something occurred to him, and he smiled. "Want to improve it? I can teach you."

A gaze flickered beneath the hood. "Is this a deal?"

A demon's deal. That was as far as humanity's understanding of demons went. Yicha merely felt regret at seeing talent wasted; this sorcerer seemed only one step away from the heart of the matter.

He only needed to read Me and My Eighteenfold Energy Conversion Rate.

Nese sat down, because Xiqisi had already flashed to his side, her pointed nails resting against his carotid artery.

"Never mind that. I remember you said this demon sacrifice was meant to be offered to the angels. Who told you that?"

That was also what Yicha wanted to find out.

Sooner or later, he could ask Keir, but he wanted to know humanity's version of the answer. The demons were about to launch the Apocalypse War, yet on the eve of this great war, the angels had made such a strange provocative move. It was hard not to be suspicious.

After a long silence, Nese tossed out a scroll of parchment.

"A shared dream prophecy made last month by the five greatest prophets."

Purple Breath Leaf ink sketched an intricate image:

Dark clouds churned. Led by an angel who resembled a child, more than a dozen angels descended from the sky amid a white tempest. The continent below had been blasted into several pieces and torn apart.

There were many people on the ground—but not a single one was standing. They had either been decapitated or burned black. In one corner lay the corpse of a demon, hacked to pieces.

Yicha rolled up the parchment, his expression utterly blank. "So this prophecy made you think that angels wanted to destroy humanity and required a demon sacrifice?"

"Isn't that the case? That was the prophets' interpretation..."

"Why did you choose me?"

"Choose you? No." Nese's voice lost its confidence. "Your location was simply closest to the planar spell trap we set..."

Yicha found it utterly absurd. Their interpretation was completely wrong, and their methods were so sloppy. Why were humans so cunning in one regard and so blind in another?

He then arrived at an easy conclusion: they needed a better education.

He walked over, suddenly pulled off the planar sorcerer's hood, and studied him.

A head of golden curls was revealed. Nese's face was unexpectedly youthful, even younger than Yicha had imagined. Of course, every human was as young as a caterpillar before him.

Nese's eyes revealed panic he was trying desperately to conceal. It had to be said that among caterpillars, he was a relatively young one.

A caterpillar in need of education.

Yicha sat back down and patiently asked, "Do you know about the Apocalypse War?"

Nese shook his head blankly.

"All right. Apocalypse War is our term for it. The angels have a similar legend, called the War of Dawn."

Yicha shook the parchment scroll in his hand. "In short, one day, those kind-hearted angels will launch an all-out war under the leadership of Order's Holy Child, unify all nine planes, and turn the world into one single heaven."

He tapped the childlike angel at the front. "This is Order's Holy Child. This is the symbol of the War of Dawn."

He was not joking. That was what Keir had told him. It sounded remarkably similar to the Apocalypse War, making Yicha begin to wonder whether all nine planes possessed similar legends of a child of their respective plane leading them to unify the universe.

This also accelerated Yicha's loss of interest in things like this-or-that war at the speed of freefall.

Nese stared at the scroll in Yicha's hand in astonishment. This meant the prophets' prophecy had another interpretation.

"So that means..."

"Exactly." Yicha spread out the drawing and pointed to the battered demon corpse in the corner. "This isn't a sacrifice. It merely shows that during the War of Dawn, we will also be one of the angels' targets. So there is no need for any sacrifice at all."

It would be useless even if they did, he thought. The legendary Apocalypse War and War of Dawn seemed destined to occur at the same time. Perhaps they had always been the same thing. Either way, humanity's pitiful plane would face a terrible double baptism.

After the war, the entire world would be left with either one sole hell or one sole heaven.

He rejected that ending from the bottom of his heart. His new research had not even been published yet.

"That's far too much of a coincidence." Xiqisi raised her brows as she looked at the picture. She knew the Apocalypse War would begin in the next few days as well.

"Maybe Order's Holy Child and the Chaos Child arranged to be born together." Yicha was joking. The timing was indeed suspicious, but for now, they could only handle matters one step at a time.

Nese wanted to doubt him, but the demon's explanation was highly convincing.

The True Silver Coin once again gave an "honest" answer.

The sorcerer slumped against the back of his chair like an old man.

The interpretation of a prophecy made by great prophets had actually been wrong, and the demon before him had pointed it out directly. At the same time, he had brought news a thousand times worse.

The Prime Material Plane where humanity lived was about to be destroyed. Twice.

...What should they do?

"All right. Thank you for pointing out your mistake. Now please remove these unnecessary spells from me." Yicha spoke to the stunned Nese.

"Why are you telling me this?" Nese stared at him and spoke after a while.

Because you are a caterpillar in need of education. Yicha looked at him kindly.

The young planar sorcerer said nothing more. He fell silent for a while, as though in mourning, then took out a jeweled dagger and cut open three fingers on his left hand.

The incantation flowed forth.

A seamless black wind began circling Yicha. The books on the table, the dagger, Xiqisi's long hair, and several other scattered little objects began to tremble.

When the black wind was wiped away in midair, the lean man in the armchair had become a well-proportioned demon.

A robe patterned in scarlet flames and dark clouds perfectly set off his figure, echoing his bright crimson horns. His tail was graceful and powerful, while mesmerizing azure flames burned within his eye sockets.

"Ah. Much better."

Yicha sighed pleasantly. He spoke those words in the demon tongue, filled with the power of Chaos.

Then he saw Nese coughing and covering his ears in resistance, while Xiqisi stared at him blankly, her face flushed.

"Sorry." Seeing this, Yicha smiled and returned to his human appearance. "This might be more convenient."

Xiqisi shook her head hard, then grabbed Nese by the throat.

The attack came exceptionally suddenly.

Yicha only had time to raise a finger.

"Urgh..."

"Crack!"

"Smack!"

Nese's choking sound, the sound of breaking bone, and the sound of Xiqisi being struck rang out almost simultaneously. The Joyful Saintess tossed aside the unconscious planar sorcerer and leaped away, rubbing the wrist struck by the demon as she looked at him in confusion.

"You don't want to kill him? He has no use left." Xiqisi's voice softened as she lowered her head. "And even though he knew you were innocent, he tried to hurt you several times..."

"If I were like that, your soul would already have scattered."

Yicha leaned closer and glanced at the planar sorcerer. The caterpillar's cervical vertebra had been broken. He twitched as blood poured from his mouth.

Disorder Energy would not help in this situation. Yicha took a crystal vial from his robes, drew out a Quick Rune for a Vine Spirit Spell, and flicked it toward Nese's body.

A healing blue-green radiance enveloped the golden-haired young man.