First Disciple, First Divine Servant, First Best Friend

Yicha once again felt that he still knew far too little about humans.

The speed at which they changed their attitudes struck him as utterly bizarre.

For instance, after Nese was brought back to life by him, he seemed like a different person. He adamantly insisted on becoming Yicha's student, spouting lengthy speeches about "forgiveness," "loyalty," "wisdom," and the like.

A student... He had had similar experiences before, but Yicha had never considered taking on any formal students... Still, now that Nese mentioned it... he suddenly felt that perhaps he really would make a good teacher.

And then there was Xiqisi. When Yicha intended to keep his promise and release her blood pact as agreed, she actually refused.

This was what she said: "No other meaning. I just think being with you might be more interesting."

Fine. He truly had not figured out what "no other meaning" was supposed to mean.

He needed to contact the other demons. The prewar mobilization meeting for the Apocalypse War might already be over, and Beelzebub, the King of All Demons, might have noticed his absence. No demon would want to oppose Beelzebub, and no demon would refuse the call of the Apocalypse War...

He really did not want to go.

There was one more thing he could procrastinate over.

"Set up a divine descent scene?" Xiqisi clearly did not understand what Yicha meant.

"It means that if others discover that the prisoner under my watch disappeared together with me, I'll end up on the entire Warlock Association's wanted list," Nese immediately explained for him.

"But if you can leave behind a divine miracle in the prison, everyone will only think some other faction took Teacher and me away. Teacher is doing this for my sake."

Xiqisi nodded coolly, pretending she understood.

"Thank you once again, Teacher." The plane warlock bowed to the demon.

Yicha held back a laugh. He slightly raised an arm, and the Joyful Saintess slid over like a purple spirit serpent, hooking herself around it.

"Let's go."

A warm breeze. Three figures vanished from the study.

With a few simple tricks, Xiqisi turned Yicha's cell into something that looked as though it had been ravaged by an alchemical bomb, leaving a massive hole in the wall.

Judging from the traces she left behind, it looked as if Yicha had been flattened by a giant dragon dripping copious amounts of saliva, dug out of the floor, then smashed through the wall and thrown outside.

Nese shook his head at the floorful of vomit-like "divine miracles." During their brief time together, his respect for Xiqisi as a goddess had rapidly dwindled.

A saintess... She was practically no different from a witch...

"Why would a god like you even have followers..." the plane warlock muttered quietly.

"Human nature is complicated. They have all kinds of desires. Every human god comes from the power gathered by some form of human will," Yicha answered.

It was all written in books, even books written in human languages. Yet Nese and Xiqisi nodded repeatedly, as though he had spoken some holy scripture he had invented himself.

This feeling of teaching and answering questions was indeed rather nice. He reached into his robe. Of the three books he carried with him, The Nine Planes Handbook should be suitable for Nese to read...

The sound of flapping wings caught his attention.

He immediately turned toward the enormous hole in the wall.

White light spread before his eyes.

The white light of Order.

It was close to midnight, yet the sky was suddenly lit bright as day. Strangely, the entire city was silent, without the slightest reaction.

Xiqisi flashed to the edge of the hole, and Nese ran over.

Once again, they saw the demon's true form.

"Hah!"

As the demonic cry rang out, thick black mist surged forth from nowhere and swept toward the pale sky.

Within the black mist, Yicha reappeared in demon form. He spread his enormous black wings, the fiery red patterns on his robe trailing afterimages as he shot forward.

Bang—

A dull thunderous boom rang out.

The white light was divided, weakened, and obscured by the black mist. The sky darkened.

Only a single white figure remained brilliant. His form was flawless, a pair of dazzling white wings spread behind him. The black-and-red demon hovered before him.

Chaotic air currents swept gray clouds through the air.

"An angel..." Nese was knocked to the ground by the pressure of the wind.

Xiqisi had already reached Yicha's side, ready to support him at any moment.

Yicha and the angel merely stared at one another.

"Tell me, did you have to make an entrance like that?" the demon broke the silence.

"It's cool." The angel spoke innocently. "Since when could you harmonize the power of Order?"

Xiqisi and Nese could hardly believe their ears.

Wait, why did you two seem so familiar?

The Joyful Saintess's eyes widened.

Where had the eternal opposition between angels and demons, Order and Chaos, gone...

Nese climbed up from the ground, beginning to doubt his entire nineteen years of life.

"Let me introduce him. Keir. My loyal reader, academic rival, and friend." The demon flew back into the cell and returned to human form.

An angel friend! Xiqisi and Nese were dumbstruck.

The angel nodded elegantly and landed beside the demon—right on top of something that looked like vomit.

"Fuck!" Before the word had even finished leaving his mouth, he turned into a fat rabbit, and the divine light vanished.

"Still can't swear?"

"Damn Thirty-Five Thousand Unholy Utterances, it's such a pain in the ass..."

The sheer blasphemy of that sentence turned the angel directly into a winged pig. Yicha understood this well: it was a code of conduct built into every angel. Using his newly discovered theory to neutralize and guide it, he made the angel-pig hop twice before returning to human form.

Xiqisi and Nese's eyes nearly fell out of their heads.

Yicha brushed the soot from his robe and looked at Keir. He had many questions to ask, but all of them required careful consideration. "What are you doing here?" In the end, he chose the simplest opening.

"Of course, I heard you were in trouble."

Keir looked around, searching for the culprit. His gaze swept over Nese, and he winked at him with glittering golden eyes. Nese trembled slightly, but did not move a single step.

"There's no trouble. It's all a misunderstanding. What else?" Yicha brushed him off rather coldly, earning the plane warlock's gratitude.

"Nothing. What else could there be?" The angel withdrew his gaze and said with a grin.

Yicha gave a mirthless chuckle, pulled the parchment prophesying the War of Dawn from his robe, and tossed it to Keir.

Keir glanced at the drawing in Purple Breath Leaf ink, and his smile turned awkward. "So you already know. But this has nothing to do with me."

Nothing to do with him? The error was so obvious that Yicha could not even be bothered to point it out.

"Did you receive the summons?"

In many ways, the War of Dawn resembled the Apocalypse War. For example, it also required mobilizing every member. Naturally, the War of Dawn had a summoning order for all angels.

Keir should not have been here.

"Ah, I..." The angel nervously rubbed his hands together. "I... I ran away... All that fighting and killing... it doesn't suit me... so I came to find you right away..."

Ran away? Came to find me?

That meant there was probably a large group of other angels behind him, ready at any time to punish deserters?

And then he came to a demon?

Yicha felt a very real headache coming on. In this regard, angels still thought as simply as they had six hundred years ago. Time never left any mark on this fellow's body or brain.

"Oh, right, where are you going now? I'm planning to follow you and hide for a while." Keir looked at him with holy, perfectly justified eyes.

"Please let me follow you and learn more things." The plane warlock Nese immediately realized something and hurriedly stepped forward to make his request.

"I don't object to playing a little longer." Xiqisi swept aside her silky hair and glanced at him. She looked exceptionally beautiful.

Yicha thought it over. He stood by the hole and looked outside.

The night was nearly over, and a flush of peach-pink appeared on the horizon.

Looking down, he saw the other buildings of the castle clustered densely and chaotically around this tower.

Beyond the training grounds, he could see the woods. Farther away, beneath the mountains, lay another city. Dogs barked, people propped open their windows, and someone loudly recited Twenty-One Ritual Precautions. With Yicha's enhanced hearing, he could catch the rising clamor.

Though not everything was beautiful, everything possessed its own coherent order in his eyes.

They absolutely had value worth preserving... didn't they? Besides, there were still people who needed his teaching...

A new plan rose within his heart.

Yicha smiled the smile only a demon could wear.

An angel, a warlock, and a human god were waiting for him.

So he said to them:

"Ladies and gentlemen, let's go to hell together."