Hataraku Maou-sama! - Volume 21 - Chapter 6

THE DEVIL AND THE HERO CHALLENGE THE GOD

It’s said that one should prepare as much as possible for the future; but the bigger the thing one is preparing for, the harder it becomes to keep everything organized. Now it was late July, a bit over a week after Maou and company went to the Sasakis to apologize. The day had finally come.

Three days had now passed since the red moon had reached its closest point to the blue moon. The two had reached a stable balance, and once they stopped moving around, the group of Heroes planned to storm in. Maou’s party wasn’t sure if they were outside the Roche limit Ashiya and Emeralda had worried about, but either way, they set off a week after the demon realms stopped gaining ground over heaven. The storming party consisted of Maou and Acieth, Ashiya and Urushihara, Emi and Alas Ramus, Laila and Gabriel, Copyhara and Amane, and Camio and Farfarello. Amane would not fight; instead, she’d observe and defend herself, while keeping watch over Copyhara.

So Devil’s Castle was launched once more from the demon realms—and even when the party plunged into heaven, there was no reaction on the other side. Considering the vast amount of time and effort they’d spent launching from Ente Isla, they ran into no obstacles at all, and after a short voyage through space, Devil’s Castle landed in heaven.

“Well, you’re just outside the demon realms. How do you feel?”

“I’m fine. Don’t distract me.”

That was the exchange Emi and Maou had as they surveyed the surface of heaven. Neither of them would ever bring up that night again. They had both decided that, even if they looked at or spoke to each other, they would never rehash the words and memories from that early evening. That was what enabled them to gaze at these enemy lands in full possession of their serenity. They both encouraged each other to act that way.

If Maou had to describe the landscape, the only way was to compare it to a field of ice. The land was a cold shade of blue, one that froze both time and hearts.

“Coming here sure was easy, wasn’t it?”

“I suppose there won’t be a welcome party. I was pretty nervous about this…”

The quiet surface of the heavens was rocky, a uniform light blue in color. This, they could tell, was why the moon looked blue from the surface of Ente Isla.

“Y’know, this… This is just too weird. I expected something a lot crazier than this…but I don’t even see any of the Heavenly Regiment.”

Even the normally garrulous Gabriel seemed quizzical as he looked around for signs of life. They had brought along squads of Pájaro Danino fighters, along with a Malebranche platoon led by Farfarello, but it was so quiet that they wondered if it was worth tapping their ranks at all.

“Yeah, so over there is where the Tree of Sephirot is. And over in that direction is the administrative research unit Ignora and the rest of us live in.”

“Well, Devil King?”

“Obvious, isn’t it? We’ll check out the Sephirot. Our mission isn’t to wipe out the angels. We’re here to release Alas Ramus’s family…and if we’ve got Copyhara, that oughtta help us against any other Sephirah.”

“Whoa, though,” protested Urushihara. “Maybe Ignora trained more guys like Erone. If she throws all of them except Yesod, Gevurah, and Da’at at us, we’re gonna have trouble taking ’em out.”

He turned to Gabriel.

“Whaddaya think about that? And what’s up with the guardian angels? You took Yesod, and Gevurah was Camael’s responsibility. I don’t really get the whole guardian angel thing in the first place, but what about all the others? Is there anyone else I know?”

“Ahh… Well, no point keeping it secret now, but there’s one more guardian angel. That’s ’cause there’s just one more Sephirah that’s manifested as a ‘kid,’ kinda.”

“…Malchut?” Emi asked.

“Oh, hey, you knew?”

Gabriel blinked, surprised that she had the answer—but this wasn’t news to her.

“Well, Alas Ramus has had Malchut’s name on her lips pretty much the whole time I’ve known her. Bright yellow, the symbol of Malchut, is her favorite color. It’s funny that the Malchut Sephirah’s name is just the same as the Sephirah itself, though, unlike her and Erone.”

Alas Ramus had been name-checking Malchut since back when she lived in Villa Rosa Sasazuka.

“Malchut, well… I’ve never really made contact with her, either. Her guardian is a guy named Sandalphon, but unlike me and Camael, he ain’t really suited for battle.”

“Sandalphon? I don’t really remember for sure, but isn’t he pretty old by now?”

“Do angels age, really?”

It was a simple question from Emi, but Gabriel gave it a serious answer.

“Well, we’ve obtained immortality, but we can’t turn back the clock on aging, mm-kay? And Sandalphon was already gettin’ on a fair bit by the time we left our home planet.”

“About that,” Maou said, this talk of their planet jogging his memory. “I’ve been wondering, Gabriel… Why are you able to cast holy magic?”

“Huh? You’re askin’ that now?”

“If my landlord is correct, humans lose their holy and demonic forces as they mature. Your planet had a huge disease hit it, but it was way more advanced than ours. And if you can cast all this holy magic, why couldn’t you use a Gate or something to find another planet?”

“Ahh, umm, I don’t know how that whole system works, really. But the reason we didn’t open any Gates is easy—we didn’t have a Gate spell, and we couldn’t use it if we had it. Like, we had no idea at the time where a habitable planet even was, y’know?”

“Oh, no?”

“Nah. Lemme tell you guys, you were damn lucky to get blown from Ente Isla to Japan. Normally, you gotta define a set entrance and exit for a Gate to work, along with enough force to get you the distance you want. If you don’t have control over it, then for all you know, you coulda wound up on Mars or Saturn instead, mm-kay?”

“That’s how it works, huh?”

That sounded plausible enough to Maou. Maybe it meant Earth and Ente Isla were pretty close to each other on an interstellar scale. A Gate journey between them took about forty minutes one way—and come to think of it, Olba managed to single-handedly trace Maou and Ashiya’s Gate to come here with Urushihara in tow, no angel’s feather pen required.

“As for using holy magic, that’s a little outside my area of expertise, but we were definitely able to tap it since birth. If I had to guess…I’d say our planet’s Sephirah saw that we were gonna have a crisis way before it happened. Maybe they figured we needed some kinda non-standard power like holy magic, or we’d never be able to cope. That’s just my guess, though. But we went and killed Caiel and Sikeena, so we’ve got no way to find out now.”

It was rare for Gabriel to talk this soberly about anything, as he stared at the blue lands around him.

“Well, shall we? I know the Tree of Sephirot and our Sephirah administration zone pretty well.”

“Ooh, yes, I would bet!”

Acieth, who had kept her mouth unusually shut up to now, didn’t bother hiding her resentment as she glared at Gabriel.

“We were born from the fragments, too, so what you have done, I don’t know. But depending on everybody’s condition, maybe you prepare to die soon!”

“Eesh. Scary.”

Gabriel, having already lost a very one-sided match against Acieth in Efzahan, quivered underneath her burning rage. It made Maou quiver for much different reasons. If, by some happenstance, the Sephirah children sided with the angels and Ignora in some way, they’d have to face an opponent as powerful as Acieth.

“Calm down, Acieth. Don’t kill Gabriel. He’s a lot more helpful to us alive.”

“Wow, nice of you to actually sound like a Devil King for a change! Like, I’m sure Ignora thinks I’ve betrayed her by now. I’m literally between the devil and the deep blue sea, mm-kay?”

“Look, I sympathize for your plight, but even with that in mind, what you did in Ente Isla was horrible. You more than deserve payback for that.”

“You think maybe my contributions to this make up for it a bit?”

“What?”

“Okay, okay, they don’t. I get it, I get it.”

Gabriel’s shoulders slumped. One look at Acieth, and he knew almost anything could set her off right now.

“Ughh. What’s the deal with this?”

It was Amane who first appraised the scene before them. Her voice sounded so disgusted, it honestly puzzled Maou.

“What’s wrong, Amane?” he asked.

“This isn’t saying anything to you or Yusa at all? What about you, Copyhara?” she asked back.

“Huh?” Maou asked. “No, um… This is certainly a first for me, yeah, but…”

“Me too,” Emi agreed. “All I can say is it’s just like how Gabriel described it.”

“I knew it was like this from before I was born, dude.”

“Oh. Wow, really? Maybe it’s some psychological thing for me, then,” Amane said.

They were in a vast, soundless wasteland, not even a breeze in the air, and in the middle of it loomed a single large tree, the same color as the land. It seemed gigantic in this otherwise flat plain, and from all the many years it had lived, it looked like a lifeless husk at this point, despite all the energy it still contained for the countless years to come. No leaves covered its branches, no flowers heralding the arrival of spring, no fruits symbolizing its living bounty. It was just a dejected-looking tree, sitting here in the middle of nowhere.

Surrounding this giant tree were ten small shrines, each with a name carved into the entrance.

“Acieth says she feels sick…but probably for different reasons than Amane,” Maou said.

“Please don’t take her out right now, okay? I’ll be killed before we ever run into Ignora.” Between that and the step back he took, Gabriel seemed honestly petrified of the girl.

“So is there some kinda system where there’s a guardian angel covering each shrine and we have to beat each one in order to free the Sephirah?”

“What kinda video game setup are you picturing, huh? I just told you, we don’t even have that many angels. And the fact nobody’s even here kinda tells the whole story, mm-kay?”

“So why were you a guardian angel at all?”

“I volunteered. Ignora appointed Camael to the role. And I think Sandalphon volunteered, too, maybe?”

“It was on a volunteer system?”

“Not really a ‘system.’ I wasn’t a scientist or a doctor or anything. I just didn’t wanna die from the boredom.”

Gabriel gazed at the horizon.

“Emilia… Satan… Gabriel was just a normal person, you know? Not a scientist—just normal. That’s why, unlike Ignora and Camael, he didn’t truly think it was right to keep the Sephirah this way. That much, at least, I hope you’ll understand.

“In the end, I…was just the type of guy who didn’t wanna die. I didn’t wanna leave my safe little environment. I told myself it was for the team, and it’d keep me fed, too…and that let me ignore the ethical issues. I’ve always been this kind of conniving peon, so, like, coming this far and getting to live this long… I never imagined it. And even now, I have no idea why I decided to side with Satanael.”

“I never heard of a peon who attempted to lead Efzahan and the Devil King’s Army by the nose.”

Ashiya frowned. But Gabriel seemed to be telling the truth.

“Speaking of which, what was all of that? Whatever you used Efzahan and the Malebranche and Olba Meiyer for? I know that you used my liege to deliberately destroy the original plan. But I don’t know what the plan was. I don’t know what you were blocking, exactly.”

Gabriel looked ready to answer honestly for a moment but promptly thought better of it. Instead, he looked at Copyhara, standing behind Ashiya.

“Basically, Ignora wanted it made clear in everyone’s minds that angels are higher beings than the natives of Ente Isla. And, you know, I was, like, ‘Hang on, is that really right?’”

“It doesn’t seem to me that it matters much anymore. Not if it led to Copyhara here,” Amane added.

Gabriel was definitely close enough to Amane to hear that. But he didn’t turn her way.

“Well, forget about the details for now. Those shrines are still the root cause of the strife Alas Ramus and Acieth have gone through, right? So we take those down first. Then our quiet friends on this planet have to make the trip over, right? Then we beat ’em all, and then we win.”

“Sounds good to me. Let’s get going. Alas Ramus’s family needs freedom.”

“Yeah. Just watch for the space suit guy. And if that underground base in the demon realms really was Satanael’s, that means heaven has the tech to cancel out demonic force, too. If that happens to us, sorry in advance,” Maou said.

“If it does, I’ll scream at you for being so useless, but I’ll protect you. Don’t worry. I need you to pay Alas Ramus’s child support,” Emi quipped.

“Wow, I’m about to cry here. Acieth… Let’s go.”

“Okay!”

The next moment, a Better Half appeared in Maou’s hand…along with horns from his head. His legs turned demonic, but the rest of him stayed human.

“I’ve never actually seen it before… Oh. Never mind.”

If Emi manifested her own holy sword with Alas Ramus, she and Maou would be a “pair” in pretty much every way. But she had nothing against Acieth, so she just barely avoided commenting on it.

“Bit too late for all that…”

Chiho, Suzuno, and Emeralda weren’t here. Nobody was going to make fun of them for being a pair, and now wasn’t the time for it anyway. For just a moment, Emi flashed back to that secret encounter she’d had at the apartment that evening, but she managed to push it deep into her memory and bottle it up.

“All right, Alas Ramus… Let’s go. Let’s help out your family.”

“Okeh!”

Emi’s entire body shone. She transformed into Emilia the Hero, with her holy sword, Cloth of the Dispeller, silver hair, and eyes of scarlet. And the moment Alas Ramus’s Better Half sword appeared in her right hand:

“Oh, my! Look at you two people, carrying matching swords for the final battle. That’s kind of nice! Like a pair of wings being brought together for the first time! Almost reminds me of marriage, in a way!”

““…””

At that moment, the two people with the weapons that could change the fate of the world were almost brought to their knees. They both glared at Laila.

“Wha… What?”

She stood there puzzled, unsure why everyone was so angry.

“I had forgotten… You’re that kind of person, aren’t you, Mother?”

“Can you please quit with that?”

“Huh? What?! What’s gotten into you two?”

Having so much wind taken out of their sails reddened Maou’s and Emilia’s faces just a bit, for reasons only they knew. It’d be ridiculous to explain matters now, but bringing up marriage made those bottled memories of that night—sealed away by their mutual trust in each other—spring right back to life.

The life seemed to drain from Maou and Emilia a bit as they marched over to the nearest shrine. The sign on it, in writing neither Maou nor Emi could decipher, read Keter—the number one, the color white, symbolized by a diamond. The first Sephirah.

The shrine wasn’t large inside, its décor a familiar sight to everyone on hand.

“Oh, right! This looks like the terrarium with the Yesod root.”

Emilia’s words made Maou remember as well. The shrine was far smaller, but on the far end of it was what looked like a large aquarium tank. Amane winced at it, looking even sicker than before.

“You okay, Amane?” Gabriel asked anxiously.

“Urp… I dunno how to explain this…” Amane glared back at him. “But I feel like I’m being shown all my relatives being tortured.”

“Ahh… I see. Yeah. It’d be funny to say sorry, but sorry. If you could keep Mikitty in the dark about this, I’d appreciate it a bunch.”

“How could I ever describe something so cruel? Maou, Yusa… Destroy this at once.”

“O-okay. But are you sure? Because I see a little bit of a root poking out over there…”

The big difference between the shrine and the demon realm terrarium was that, while the terrarium had a chopped-off root kept in a tube with soil, this looked more like a capsule that grew from the earth itself. The inside was filled with dirt, and the tiniest tip of a root was peeking out from it.

“It’s fine,” Gabriel said, keeping a watchful eye on Amane. “These buildings were plopped down over the roots wholesale. We’ll destroy them in order…but make sure not to damage the roots, mm-kay? Oh, but leave shrines five, nine, and ten intact. That one, that one, and that one. I think you get why.”

Shrine number five was Erone’s Gevurah. Shrine number nine was Alas Ramus’s and Acieth’s Yesod.

“So Malchut, the tenth…?”

“Yeah, keep your guard up for ’er. Like I said, I don’t know the girl or what she looks like. The only one who knows the Malchut kid…”

“…Is Ignora, and this Sandalphon guy who might be around here?”

Alas Ramus had clearly “learned” something from Malchut. She and Acieth had obtained bodies as Sephirah children only recently, but based on what they said, they were likely conscious and self-aware well before that.

“All right. Amane can’t take much more of this, so let’s get crackin’, mm-kay? But keep the roots safe.”

“We go all the way to heaven and the first thing we do is building demolition? Ah, well. Guess the bad guys aren’t gonna make it that obvious where they’re hanging out.”

“You sure made it easy for me, Devil King.”

“Stop comparing us.”

The memory of the Devil King waiting on his Devil’s Castle throne for the Hero was nothing but an embarrassment now.

“All right, Acieth! Let’s do it!”

Then, deliberately raising his voice, he kicked things off by smashing the capsule in the Keter shrine.

“All this, and still nobody? Is that even possible?”

“Hmm… It is weird, yeah… I can’t see how it’s possible at all…but should we bust up the final three while we’re at it? I don’t think it’ll be a problem…”

“Well, I sure have no problems, and judging by the holy swords, Alas Ramus and Acieth are okay, too. I think we’re good, dude.”

Copyhara, content with watching all this wanton destruction from a safe distance, seemed awfully casual about it.

“And me, I am the very perfectly fine. Let us do the more of it, Maou!”

Acieth, inside Maou’s mind, was out for blood.

“…All right, then. And maybe it’s a bit late to ask, but what’re these shrines for anyway?”

“Ignora said they were sense-canceling anchors,” Laila replied.

“Anchors? How so?”

“They function as a sort of blindfold to the Tree of Sephirot, giving it the wrong idea about the world’s condition. I heard a long time ago that the capsules were constantly pumped with holy energy to convince the Tree that the planet and its people still require supernatural force.”

“Pumped with holy energy?”

“Yes. That’s what I heard before Satanael split heaven up. The device wasn’t done yet, but that was the plan at the time anyway.”

“…So it’s deceiving the Tree…? Why would they do that…?”

Maou’s head was full of intertangled bits of data about heaven and the Sephirah, but none of the pieces seemed to quite fit together. He couldn’t come to a conclusion.

Amane, who had silently watched the shrine demolitions from the side, chose that moment to speak up.

“I think I have an idea of what’s happening…and I think their scheme succeeded, right at the point of no return.”

“Huh?”

She wasn’t looking at Maou. Her eyes were sharpened upon Copyhara. And he, fully aware of what Amane was looking at, had his own eyes on Emi.

“Yeah. It worked, all right. But she made all that work moot. Didn’t she, Emilia?”

“Huh? Me?” said Emi, blinking at the sudden accusation. Amane gave it a disinterested shrug.

“Don’t ask me. It’s all somebody else’s story. All my relatives come from different situations, y’know.”

“No doubt. Anyway, let’s get the last three shrines broken up. I think that should make something happen. No more half-measures, okay, dudes?”

At Copyhara’s signal, the less-than-satisfied group somewhat reluctantly sprang into action, destroying shrines five, nine, and ten. They demolished their bulb-like exteriors, and for the first time in centuries, millennia, or even tens of millennia, the Sephirot of Ente Isla was fully exposed to the atmosphere.

At that moment, the exposed roots began to quiver—and once they did, the entire Tree of Sephirot began to change rapidly. The group’s ears were greeted by high, soft sounds playing in staccato, like bubbles popping. They were coming from the edges of the Sephirot’s branches.

“It’s gotta be the first spring in ages for this guy. As much as it’s been saving up, it’s gonna come in an instant.”

Above Copyhara’s head were groups of flower buds—small, but growing in all their countless numbers, in just the hour or so since all the shrines were destroyed.

“Now all the other siblings will be born. But the order’s all messed up.”

“You mean the Sephirot’s flowers?”

“Yeah. They’re finally blooming. Without them, there’ll never be any fruit.”

“Huh? Fruit? The Sephirah, you mean? Why do you need flowers?”

“With Malchut and Gevurah, I think they ripened early in order to protect the Tree. Keter didn’t make it in time.”

“There’s an order to them?”

“Except in extraordinary circumstances, Malchut is the first to wake up. Then, depending on what’s going on around it, either Keter, Gevurah, or Yesod will open its eyes first. Malchut functions as a vessel, and based on what the vessel needs the most, you’ll either have Yesod’s astral energy, Gevurah’s defensive traits, or Keter, the sword of the Tree. By the look of things, it’s decided to put defense way up high for now.”

Hearing it described as the Tree’s “decision” seemed to throw Emilia a little. She looked down at her holy sword.

“Well, no point thinking about it now. Trees are living things, too.”

This Tree was the “parent” of the Sephirah children, those bright, incredibly diverse personalities. A little bit more mystery wouldn’t change the overall picture.

“But still nothing’s happening?”

By this point, Maou’s group had essentially captured the Tree of Sephirot. If the flowers were going to bloom and give birth to Sephirah children, Maou’s original mission of getting Alas Ramus’s family back was as good as accomplished. By this point, the group wondered if they had to fight Ignora and the angels at all.

“Does the other side even want to defend this? Like, what’s the point any longer? It’s not like we need to keep prodding them if they don’t.”

Urushihara was an open book as always. Ashiya immediately shot him down.

“No, my liege. If we know the location of the enemy’s main base, we should attack it at once. We do not know how long the Sephirah need to grow, or how long it takes for them to become like Alas Ramus and the others. Better to quell any anxieties for the future while we can.”

“…Yeah. What a pain, though.”

“You really think so, don’t you? It’s kind of off-putting, dude.”

“Look, dude, if you have the same face as me, it’d be a lot easier if you thought the same way, too.”

“With you, it’s probably something like, ‘Ooh, I don’t wanna fight my mom,’ right?”

“Me? Not something like that, no.”

Copyhara, capable of reading minds, visibly winced.

“Watching them banter is kind of funny, isn’t it?”

“I don’t find it one bit entertaining. But what are we doing now?”

“Ashiya’s right. We gotta dive in and attack. They needed to build all this crap to milk the Tree or whatever, and it’s all destroyed now, so we can leave it be. It’s not like they’re gonna destroy the Tree because they couldn’t achieve their goals.”

“Yeah… But after all that effort, this seems beyond anticlimactic…”

And perhaps the sheer silence of the heavens was what made Ashiya notice.

“…! My liege!!”

Everyone moved at almost the same time as Ashiya’s warning. With the whine of solid metal, a large spear was now planted in the wasteland around Sephirot, its blades spread out in a trident.

“Camael!”

“No! Not him! That’s…!”

A vast number of figures—angels, apparently, dressed in just as much armor as Camael was—floated in the sky.

“The Heavenly Regiment. Camael’s troops are kind of special. Don’t write ’em off, or you’ll pay for it.”

“I know. Suzuno got her ass kicked once by them!”

Once, Camael had attacked Chiho’s high school in Sasazuka. When he did, he’d brought along just three of his Regiment—but together with Libicocco, who was more directly fighting her, they had managed to render Suzuno helpless. Considering that Gabriel’s three Regiment soldiers were no match at all for Suzuno while the archangel was hijacking the TV signal at Tokyo Tower, the difference in fighting power between his and Camael’s troops was clear.

But still:

“So you’re finally coming out. Well, sorry, but we’re sick of spinning our wheels down here!”

“You picked a funny time to pop up, you bastards. What the hell’re you thinking…? It’s freaking me out.”

Emilia was all but welcoming this army, appearing out of nowhere after they’d destroyed the ten shrines. To Maou, however, something wasn’t right.

“Hey, Ashiya, can you keep ’em occupied without killing them?”

“Yes, my liege. You wish to keep them alive?”

Ashiya, given his orders, fiendishly smiled.

“Gabriel, take me to where Ignora is. This is giving me the willies. We gotta whip ’em all and put an end to this.”

“Got it. I bet my Regiment’s with her. Now’s no time to kick back. You sure we’re good leaving things to Ashiya here?”

“Don’t treat this like Tokyo Tower part two. It’s time to show people in heaven what a Great Demon General with all his force back can do.”

Before he could even finish speaking, Ashiya transformed into Alciel, the merciless Demon General.

“Whoa, whoa! Your clothes!”

Not only did he transform—Shirou Ashiya tore through all his clothes, without a moment’s hesitation.

“A necessary expense, my liege!”

The black shell of the Iron Scorpion shone as he flew up like a shooting star.

“Let’s go while Ashiya’s stopping them! Gabriel! Where’s Ignora’s home base?”

“Follow me! It’s not far from here if we fly!”

“Gabe! I’ll stay here! I really can’t leave Sephirot alone like this!”

“Roger that, Amane! And don’t worry! I’m not gonna double-cross Mikitty!”

Demonic and holy force clashed violently in the skies behind them as they soared away.

“Watch out! We don’t know when Camael may strike!”

“With this many people, we’d definitely spot him! How far away is it?!”

“A bit over ten minutes at this speed!”

“That’s crazy close! Why the hell did they just let us destroy their shrines? I don’t get it! Laila! Is Ignora that stupid? Is she a science savant and really slow with everything else, or what?”

“No, she couldn’t be! It was her strategy that defeated Satanael…”

“Right! This makes no sense at all! But if we’re still just seeing Camael’s Regiment after all this, it must mean the enemy’s got nothin’ left to hide! They already exhausted all their forces on us!”

“Yeah, that’d be real nice, huh? But I think they got a lot of Regiment soldiers in reserve!”

Maou looked up. Several streaks of red light were visible in the skies ahead.

“Okay, I’ll take these! Acieth! Waste ’em in one shot!”

“Ready! Time for the death by a thousand butts!!”

“Wait! Actually, let me handle it! Also, it’s ‘cuts,’ not ‘butts’!”

Whenever Maou started fighting with Acieth’s holy sword, this is what she always did. This was a girl, after all, who overwhelmed Camael in a one-on-one fight. If she went that hard on the Regiment coming up to them, death was a pretty likely outcome.

“Aww, why?! Let me cut ’em!”

Acieth was starting to sound like a serial killer in a TV show. Maou hid the sword behind his back, focusing his force in his legs and fists. This was neither holy nor demonic force—just like the battle at Sasahata North High, it was pure, coercive power.

“Maou! Let me cut them!!”

“…This happens to her whenever I do this. I know it can’t be good…for her!”

Maou’s hooves sliced through the air with a loud roar. He suddenly disappeared—and then the streaks began to fall, one by one.

“So fast…!”

By the time Emilia and the others reached him, all the hapless Regiment soldiers were sprawled out on the ground.

“I didn’t kill anyone,” he said, sounding like he was making excuses.

“Did I say anything?” Emilia gave him a dour look. “You know, I don’t think I’ve been whining all that much at you lately.”

“Well,” the even more perturbed Maou replied, “it shows all the trust we’ve cultivated, doesn’t it?”

Emilia gritted her teeth at that remark, but they knew now wasn’t the time for infighting. So they flew alongside Gabriel, now finally caught up, and headed for their target.

“Judging from that, I bet Ashiya will be back with us soon. Are we there yet, Gabriel?”

“Yeah, there it is. Can’t you see it?”

On the horizon, past Gabriel’s pointer finger, was a large, broad, dignified-looking structure. It didn’t clear Maou’s or Emilia’s doubts at all.

“Man. It hasn’t changed at all. Most of the joint’s dead.”

Urushihara spoke up before they could put voice to those doubts.

“Even in my memories, it was pretty much like that. The lights are out in over half of the place.”

A large, abandoned, dilapidated flying saucer—that was the first impression it gave. Just a large, misshapen, Adamski-style UFO half-buried in the ground, covered in a dull metallic sheen. And who knew? Maybe it really did wash up on this planet after wandering around the vast reaches of space for years and years.

And Maou recognized that metallic shine.

“So I’ve been playing Devil King in the hands of these guys my whole life? Pathetic.”

It was a dead ringer for the stronghold of the ancient Devil Overlord, the place once called Satanas Arc. The domain of the Silverarms, the final enemy in his unification of the demon realms, was the very base Satanael used after breaking from heaven.

“I get it, Maou. It’s even harder for me. It’s time for me to go independent from my parents.”

Urushihara, reaching the same memory, snorted derisively.

“Let’s rip it apart before Ashiya arrives.”

“He’s serious, dude,” Copyhara added.

“And that’s a sign of the trust we’ve built. No doubting it now. Let’s go! Laila! I’m worried about you the most! Don’t freeze up when we need you!”

“N-no! Wait a minute!”

Only Laila demonstrated any alarm at Urushihara’s eagerness to kill his own parents. All anyone else in the group thought about was storming this crumbling, half-abandoned enemy base in front of them.

“If you don’t wanna die, get out of there! ’Cause we ain’t gonna stop until we crush all your boss’s plans at the root!”

Maou’s shout echoed across the skies of heaven.

“Hey, Gabriel! Laila! What do they call this town?”

“Town? We never really saw it that way. It was a research base at first. So we named it something you’ll probably find pretty ironic.”

“It was the last bastion of mankind,” Laila said. “A place of hope and dreams, built to combat the disease that took our home planet…”

The name was, indeed, fairly ironic.

“‘All a Lijeh,’ we call it. In your language, it means ‘Ship of Hope.’”

It wasn’t Gabriel or Laila who said it.

Instantly, everyone circled Laila, their noncombatant, and readied for battle. The man in the red armor who gave the answer floated above, looking down at them.

“Finally, some of the main brass? You know who you’re aiming for this time, right?”

It was the archangel Camael, nothing but sheer black behind his armor and full-face helmet. His aims were nothing short of inscrutable.

“Hey there, Camael. Long time no see. You been doing good? We wanna see Ignora about something, but…”

“…”

“…Yeah, I guess you won’t let us. And I doubt you’re here to negotiate an armistice, but it’s not like you can do anything about this force we got…”

“Gabriel, get back!!”

“Huh? Whoa?!”

Seeing the spear Camael had sluggishly readied, Maou grabbed Gabriel by the neck and pulled back hard. The next moment, the spear barely scratched Gabriel’s nose, the flame it emitted a completely different color from what they’d seen at Sasahata North High.

“Wh-wha?!”

As far as everyone knew, Gabriel had never been hurt by anything but his own Durandal weapon. Now there was a notable hole in his toga.

“Huh? You… Huh? That…!”

Camael’s three-pronged trident was now shining in golden light, something it had never done before.

“His flames have gotten pretty heavy, y’know. I think there’s some more backbone to ’em now.”

Urushihara, who had his own experience fighting Camael, was showing signs of deep anxiety.

“This isn’t gonna be as easy as Ashiya mowing down the Regiment. I’ll handle this. I gotta pay him back for Chi’s school, and I bet he wants to say something about ‘Satan’ to me.”

Maou motioned the two of them to fall back, prepared his holy sword, and moved forward. He may have overwhelmed Camael once before, but he couldn’t underestimate this foe.

“Yo, Camael. Remember me?”

“Devil King… Satan…”

“Right, right. Y’know, I’ve really been wondering; what’s your beef with the name ‘Satan’ anyway? I think we only met for the first time at Sasahata North High…”

“…Satan.”

“What? Are we ever gonna hold a coherent conversation, or what?”

“Satan… The name of the betrayer… The unenlightened one that failed to see Ignora’s ideals… The man…who killed my wife…”

The revelation spoken by that grating voice came as a shock to everyone on hand.

“I will never forget having to leave my wife’s body on the red moon.”

“Your wife? What?”

“Those who block our way…who block Ignora’s way…must fall. Every single one of you… Ignora has sacrificed everything for her lofty ideals. I will never let you impede her will!”

“Whoaahh?!”

The next moment, his divine speed closed the distance between them as he thrust his weapon. Maou blocked it with Acieth in sword form, but it still sent him flying toward the ground.

“Ugh! He finally starts talking sense, but that’s all he’s got?!”

Spreading his wings in the air to stop his fall, Maou flew behind Camael’s back, drawing out the edge of his holy sword. Camael easily blocked it with the prongs of his spear, but that single moment was all Maou needed.

“Come on, guys! Let’s go!!”

Emilia didn’t fail to notice Maou’s signal with his eyes. Despite Camael’s improved power, the Better Half was still effective against him—that’s why he stopped that blade with his spear. He would never let the sword escape his sight.

Emilia, immediately recognizing Maou’s intentions, held Laila under one arm as she flew straight for what looked like the main building of All a Lijeh.

“Here’s your chance to kill that ‘Satan’ you hate so much! You ain’t gonna get distracted now, are ya?”

Maou saw the helmet swiveling his way. He landed a powerful hoof kick on Camael’s chest. It didn’t seem to cause any damage at all, but it was enough to divert Camael’s attention.

“Come on! My main general’s gonna be here once he’s done crushing your soldiers! Where there’s life, there’s hope! And it’ll be a lot easier for you to live if you surrender like Gabriel did!!”

“I…have long since thrown away my life!!”

“Oh, how nice to hear! So you’re ready for me to pulverize you, huh?! All the way…”

All it took were a dozen or so clashes of sword and trident for the battle to be decided.

“You’re wasting your life!!”

“Face the death! Hraahhh!!!”

Listening to Acieth’s war scream, Maou unleashed a thrust aimed straight for the middle of Camael’s chest. But:

“Ngh?!”

A small hand stopped the holy blade.

Maou’s Better Half, infused with Acieth Alla, had been completely invincible up to now. It had been halted by a human palm, one that didn’t belong to Camael—in fact, the arm extended out from his chest, like an illusion.

“Hey… Hey, hey, hey, hey, what the kind of funny business is this… This is the betrayal! We were gone for little bit, and what you do to us now…!”

“Whahhh?!”

The next moment, the holy sword disappeared from Maou’s hand as Acieth decided to separate from him. At the same time, he transformed from half-man, half-demon to his full form, brimming with demonic force—and for the first time since Heavensky, Acieth gave Camael a truly ominous look.

“Maou! This is the little bit of problem!”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

The hand that stopped the blade slowly extended, bringing the rest of the body behind it from Camael’s chest, as if there was a door made of thin air on the armor. She was a girl who looked a bit older than Acieth, around the same age as Chiho. Her short, crystalline white hair included two-toned bangs—one half bright yellow, and one half a dim shade of black. Her eyes were both that same eye-catching yellow, and she was dressed in a sheer, almost transparent robe of white, the same color as her hair.

“Acieth, I don’t know much about theology, but do those colors mean what I think they mean?”

“Huh? What? What do you mean?!”

Now, perhaps, wasn’t the time to ask vague questions to Acieth in a situation as charged as this.

“It’s her, isn’t it?” Maou said, not taking his eyes off the new girl. “It’s Malchut.”

“Huh? You did not know, Maou?!”

“No, all right? I’m sorry I asked you in a funny way! Just stay focused!”

“You are one who asked me… Ah, but now is not time… Hey, Malchut. Do you have the name? You recognize me?”

“Acieth Alla, younger sister of Yesod,” acknowledged the girl, her first words. The voice sounded dry to Maou.

“Okay, sister, then I ask. Tell me your name. Also, you tell me why you protect our enemy. It better be the convincing, or else death by a thousand butts!”

“My name is Eleos. I must protect him. He is the latent force I selected.”

“That is the bullshit! Have you eaten the strange thing or something, Malchut—I mean Eleos?! They are the demons! They blocked our growth and tore us apart!”

“I know.”

“In last planet of theirs, they did such stupid thing, their own Sephirah nearly kill them all! Why protect them?!”

“I never intended to, until a little bit ago.”

“Huhh?!”

“Acieth. I’m sure you must be aware. Da’at flew off with your companions. He is the last member of our family.”

“So what?! I do know that! He look just like Lucifer! We all rolling on floor laughing ass off!”

“We didn’t laugh that much, you know…”

Satan’s rejoinder was ignored.

“Lucifer is the problem, Acieth. Do you know what kind of being he is?”

“Yes! He unemployed bum!!”

“Well,” Maou interjected, “I think he’s actually been working pretty hard lately…”

“Then what else do I say to her?!”

This time, Acieth bothered to react to him. But Maou didn’t know what to say next.

“…Look, what’s going on? Because Amane looked pretty floored by Copyhara taking on Urushihara’s look, too. Is there some important meaning to it?”

“Da’at is the result of the selection.”

There, for the first time since Eleos’s appearance, Camael spoke up.

“Ignora had waited long for that selection. She spent many months and years, blocked by so many obstacles, betrayed by so many people, almost fully giving up. But…after this near-infinite span of time, we finally have a place of our own again.”

“The hell does that mean? A place of your own? We smashed up all that junk you attached to the Sephirot. You’re not getting your way in Ente Isla. You can try fighting us now, but you know it’s just a matter of time. You seriously think Malchut alone is gonna change anything? How can you be sure of that…?”

“Da’at picked Lucifer, leader of the second generation of angels, as the primary race of human beings on the planet affiliated with this moon. It has been decided that Lucifer and his kin are the race that will evolve and commandeer the planet.”

That stopped Satan’s childish taunting quickly.

“Your companions may be traveling to Ignora…but killing me, or killing Ignora… It does nothing to threaten our victory.”

For the first time, Maou thought he saw Camael’s face exhibit a genuine emotion. It was a cruel sneer, showing total contempt for his enemy—but it was vacant, withered, and a sense of resignation seemed to rule over it.

“Devil’s Castle is sure a lot nicer than this. I mean, just ewww.”

“I can’t believe what’s happened to it…”

In the central core of All a Lijeh, Emilia and Laila winced as they looked around. The area Gabriel called the “research unit” didn’t look anything like the home of the world’s greatest enemy or the mastermind leading the world’s angels. The air was dank and moldy. Thick layers of dust occupied the corners of the hallways. The shine to the metal used to construct this certainly spoke of an advanced civilization, but the sheer lack of maintenance meant this setting was like nothing they’d pictured for the final “assault on heaven.”

“Was it always like this?”

“I don’t think it’s changed much since Satanael took part of the research unit to the demon realms. But…”

Laila hesitated a bit as she looked around the entrance.

“It was definitely a lot busier. I left here a long time ago…but even that was after All a Lijeh landed here. I can’t believe everyone disappeared in such a short time… Gabriel, what happened in here?!”

“Yeah, I’ll admit that the maintenance wasn’t exactly first-class…but this is just weird. I’ve only been involved with you guys for the past year. The first time I went down to Sasazuka, it was nothing like this… Hell, it hasn’t been half a year since that battle in Efzahan… Hey, and where’s my Regiment…?”

Gabriel could no longer hide his agitation. If he had gone down to Efzahan, he must have been ordered to. At that point, All a Lijeh was still in its normal, familiar state. Or it should have been.

“So where would Ignora be?!”

“Well, up to now, she had her own floor in the general research unit, but…”

But if Gabriel was acting this concerned, it was safe to assume his assumptions about All a Lijeh no longer applied. After all, no matter how well-built this research unit was, they were non-military buildings—they’d fall quickly if subjected to intense warfare.

“Where’s Raguel? Or Sandalphon, even. They’ll know what’s going on here. I’m sorry, Emilia, can I go look for Raguel and my Regiment?”

“…You want to go solo?”

“Please,” Gabriel replied, expecting this. “Like I told Amane, I’m never gonna double-cross Mikitty.”

“Maybe I could join him? I could probably handle Raguel by myself if I needed to, and Gabriel’s Regiment wouldn’t try to defy me.”

“All right,” Emi said, Urushihara’s offer quelling her concerns. “You do that, Lucifer. But if you find out anything, come back to me immediately.”

“I’ll join them, too. If I follow the internal voices of the angels, maybe I can find where people are.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

Emilia, not wanting to waste a single moment, accepted Copyhara’s request as well.

“Oh, good. I might look the same as him, but you actually trust me, huh?”

“Stop reading my mind.”

“Okay, Gabriel, let’s go.”

“Right. Thanks, guys. But, really, what’s going on…?”

Watching Lucifer, Copyhara, and Gabriel disappear into the research unit, Emilia turned to Laila.

“We should look somewhere else. Gabriel acted like nobody’s around, but we just ran into Camael’s forces, so watch out for others.”

“Yes… I remember here very well, too, and I think I know where people would be. There’s a residential floor adjacent to the research unit. This way!”

Emilia let Laila guide her along. They snooped around, carefully looking for signs of life. But all they found were the classic signs of abandonment—damp, heavy air, and clouds of dust rising with every footstep.

“Why is nobody here?! It’s so strange… Walking this far, and not running into anyone…”

“Gabriel said there weren’t many survivors in the first place, right?”

“Yes, but we still numbered nearly a thousand living here. They didn’t all have the power of Gabriel or Camael, but most of them were at least strong enough for space travel and long, healthy lifespans. And there were just as many Heavenly Regiment members called in from Ente Isla.”

“Seeing this so deserted is weird, then. If it’s a research unit, you’d think they would at least clean it…?!”

In a flash, Emilia caught up to Laila, grabbing her waist and pulling her to a halt.

“Look out!”

“Ahh?!”

Then, with a loud roar, a giant hole opened in the wall Laila was just walking past. Satan and Acieth barreled into the corridor.

“Damn it… What a punch…”

“What on the earth is going on?!”

“Satan!”

“Devil King?! Acieth! What happened?!”

“Emi, get back. He’s become a pretty decent fighter. Don’t bring Alas Ramus to the front…”

Satan slowly hefted his large body up from the rubble. The scratches and bruises here and there indicated he was struggling.

Emi, sword at the ready, carefully peeked through the hole to the outside. There she discovered two figures floating in the air.

“Who’s that next to Camael?”

“Yeah, that’s a problem. We gotta rescue her.”

“So is that Malchut?”

“Her name’s Eleos, apparently. She’s way more of a handful than Camael.”

“Wanna tag out?”

“Acieth’s pretty helpless. I think Malchut’s a measure stronger than Yesod…but they’re still just the foot soldiers. You guys need to find Ignora now!”

“Why she joins their side, I have none of the ideas! Eleos! Please, open the eyes, you!”

“All right. Acieth! Take care of the Devil King for me!”

“Aye, the stick, I drew short end of it! Eleos! Round two! Hngh!”

Acieth got up before Satan, zooming toward Camael—but Eleos stepped in between, parrying her closed fist. There was a loud thunderclap, but even Emi could tell that Eleos was overwhelming Acieth. She tried her best to target Camael, but Eleos refused to give her an inch.

“So Camael is fused with Eleos?”

“Maybe. But let’s leave this to those two and find Ignora! We can worry about other people later! I have to make Ignora tell us what’s going on!”

“Y-yeah… You’re right!”

Emilia gave Laila a hand over the rubble as they ran for the research unit. Acieth and Eleos were behind them, and they could hear what were likely the sounds of Satan and Camael fighting.

“Ugh, I’m completely lost! What is Ignora thinking?! What’s going on?!”

Laila was almost in hysterics.

“Hrraaahhhh!!”

“Speed and power are important…but without technique and a cool head, the moment you are surpassed, you lose.”

“Ohh?!”

Acieth unleashed a flurry of fists, faster than even Satan could keep up with. But Eleos stopped them all then pulled Acieth’s leg out from under her.

“You see? If she wasn’t fighting me, Acieth would be in trouble.”

And so Eleos lunged for Acieth’s wide-open side…

“Hyee-hee-hee-hee-hoo-hee?!”

…and nimbly began tickling her.

Even as she dopily laughed, Acieth’s face twisted in anger, her arms blindly swinging around. But she never had any chance of hitting Eleos that way.

“Acieth. If you are a child of the Sephirah, you have to realize—there is no point fighting Ignora any longer. Da’at has already given his judgment.”

“Who cares?! My sister, how long was I separated from you?! Gevurah, Erone, how terrible was it for them? I know you know!”

“…”

“If you help angels, then you betray everyone! Eleos! If you not join us, at least let me hit this angel!”

“No.”

“Why?!”

“Acieth. Have you seen a mirror?”

“Huh?! What is…?”

“If Yesod, with its astral energy, is as polluted with demonic force and negative emotion as your eyes are, any Sephirah would stop them.”

“What?!”

“You have a deep affinity for that demon. If Yesod is taken by negative emotion—the hatred that drives the power of any demon—it will hurt all of the Sephirah. No matter how much I hate the angels, if I let you have your way right now, you and that demon may destroy all of them.”

“So what?! I use this hand, and I take them all…!”

“Da’at has chosen the form of Lucifer. If you are Yesod, then please consider that. Listen to me, Acieth the Yesod…!”

“Gah…!!”

Without any advance warning, Eleos brought her palm to Acieth’s forehead. That was all she needed. Acieth’s vision faded with her consciousness, the power draining from her body.

“Our Sephirot has chosen Lucifer. Angels shall be the ‘humanity’ in Ente Isla.”

“What…are you…!”

“And I can’t have a Sephirah like you kill the angels when they’ve only just been chosen.”

Just before the light fully faded from Acieth’s eyes:

“Mm?”

Her body disappeared.

Eleos looked away. Satan was there, hand in the air. Fusing with Acieth, he was half-Satan, half-Maou again, his glowing red eyes glaring at his foes as he growled.

“You… What the hell are you doing to our girl?”

“She is my sister first.”

“Shut up. Ignora, the Ente Isla humans… Even you Sephirah… You all look down upon us, don’t you?”

Spitting out some blood from the side of his mouth, Maou readied himself.

“Why are you guys actin’ all bossy after choosing Urushihara, of all people?! Why’re you leavin’ the future to some guy who sits in the closet in the middle of summer and plays games all day?!”

“Mngh!”

With an explosive sound, Maou shot off from the rubble and lunged for Eleos.

“I know the truth! No matter what kind of special power you guys, or the angels, or I, or the Hero have…!”

“Ngh… This power…!”

“You all still have to eat and sleep to be healthy! You’re all just humans!”

“What are…you…!!”

“And humans shouldn’t dare look down on other humans! You’re just a little brat lettin’ the angels use and abuse you!!”

Maou grabbed hold of the right side of Eleos’s head and slammed it against the ground. The powerful, deafening force put a small crater in the hard surface of All a Lijeh.

“Kahh!”

“Wait… Maou, it is too much…!”

“This is still the only way I know how to make a bratty kid listen to me!”

“No, but…”

“I want to know some other way, but all these bastards…!!”

“Ngh!”

Before Eleos could get up, Maou shot back into the sky and confronted Camael.

“These kids keep getting into trouble because you’re not setting a good example for them! If you’re gonna try conquering worlds, do it without enslaving these goddamn kids!!”

“Silence, Satan! It all began when Satanael sided with you demons…!!”

“You got a beef with my dad, so you’re gonna make little kids settle the score? Don’t give me that shit!!”

Weaving out of the way of the golden trident’s tips, Maou connected his fist cleanly with the chinstrap of the helmet. With a surprisingly soft sound, it came flying off.

“Gnnnh…!!”

Under it appeared, for the first time, the face of a crazed archangel—a stout, masculine man, with silver hair and red eyes. Nearly half of it was covered with painful-looking burn scars.

“So the helmet hid that? If you’re gonna explain, now’s the time!”

“You… Satan… Satan!!”

“If this is about some battle in the past, I’ll hear you out after it’s all over! I just wanna get this over with, go home, eat, take a bath, and go to bed!!”

Camael, deflecting Maou’s follow-up punch, swept ahead with his recoiled trident. Maou stopped it with his re-manifested holy sword.

“So I guess you’re Malchut’s latent force? Well, I’m Yesod’s latent force. We’re even. Right, Camael?!”

“Satan! I’ll kill you! I swear I’ll kill you!!”

“Yeah! Do it! And let’s hope this is the last death duel this world ever sees!”

Satan’s holy sword and Camael’s trident collided, a murderous clang echoing across the starry sky.

The reclining seat looked hard and uncomfortable. That was Emilia’s first impression of it.

“What a fine morning, Laila.”

The woman looked up at a transparent ceiling, hazy in spots due to the lack of maintenance. Watching the cold night sky, a virtual copy of the heavens’ blue earth, the figure called it “morning.”

This figure, rising from the hard reclining chair meant for stargazing, was a far cry from the “angel boss,” the “puppet master ruling over history,” the “god that must be slain” that they had pictured. She was gaunt, and no strength was in her eyes. All the angels they had seen before—Sariel, Gabriel, Raguel, Camael—they all had their own self-serving drives, something they strove to fight for. Why did they ever take orders from someone like this?

“Your name was Laila, correct?”

“Huh?”

“Well, Laila? How does it feel to be a mother? Isn’t having a child wonderful? No matter how hard things get, it always feels like you can overcome them, doesn’t it?”

Her voice was scratchy, difficult to decipher; she spoke the words slowly.

“And do you see how, when you lose that, there is so much despair…?”

“Ignora, listen. I…”

“But the more despair you face… When the moment comes, that hope wells up anew…”

“Nngh?!”

“The happiness you feel is infinite.”

“M-Mother, what are you…?”

Ignora pointed a wispy hand at Laila. That alone brought Laila to her knees, making her cry out in pain.

“Emi…li…a…?”

“Mother?!”

“Emilia? I’m sorry. Your mother and I are having an important conversation. Can you go play over there for me?”

“Wha… Ah!”

The next moment, Ignora turned back the clock. Her body looked young again, like a dry sponge dipped in water. It wasn’t a transformation—her form blurred, overlapped, and separated.

“Nyx, play with Emilia for me, please.”

“Yes, Mommy.”

A little girl, with golden eyes and two curls of olive and reddish brown over her forehead, appeared in a burst of light.

“Huh?!”

“Emilia, you should introduce Nyx here to Alas Ramus. Last time…”

“Mommy! Here I go!!”

“…! Mommy!!”

“…she couldn’t play with you at all, so…”

The moment Nyx, another child of Malchut, confronted Emilia, a ball of purple light focused itself upon Emilia’s forehead, stopping Nyx’s fist from hitting it.

“Nng!”

“Ah!!”

Wincing, Nyx shook her hand to ease the stinging. There were tears in Alas Ramus’s eyes, but she refused to cry as she stared the other girl down.

“No mischief, please. Laila, over here.”

“Ah, ah…”

Maybe it was telekinesis. With a wave of Ignora’s arm, Laila lost her freedom, floating into the air…

“Mother!!”

…and then, before Emilia’s eyes, both of them vanished.

“Gnh!”

“Mommy, she told you. Play with me! You too, Alas Ramus!”

“Nyx… Are you a Malchut, too?”

Acieth had already confirmed for them that Eleos, the girl with Camael, was Malchut.

“Yeah! Eleos is my big sister! I’m the little sister!”

“Alas Ramus, are you okay? Is that really Malchut?”

“I dunno. The Malchut I know is Eh-os. But…”

“But she’s like you, too, huh? It makes sense. You and Acieth are sisters… It’s not like Yesod is the exception.”

“So what’re we gonna play?! Mommy said to play ‘tag’ with you.”

She never intended to take her eyes off her for a moment. But after a single blink, Nyx was right at Emilia’s side, a hand placed on her breastplate. At once, her entire Cloth of the Dispeller glowed purple and disappeared into a swarm of particles—and the next moment, Nyx’s hand contained a small stone, just small enough that her tiny fingers could grasp it. It was the largest Yesod fragment Emilia had seen yet—silver, the color of Yesod, but with just a tinge of purple, like Alas Ramus’s bangs. It was the Holy Silver that powered her armor.

“Aww, now look what happened… But Da’at has already appeared, hasn’t it? So…you’ll be back to normal soon.”

“Just one touch took the Cloth… The fragment… Nyx, are you…?!”

Nyx smiled. There was no light in her eyes. She seemed to be watching some point far, far away from Emilia.

“Uh-huh! This is the third time I’ve met you, lady.”

Only a fellow Sephirah could cancel out a fusion or latent force with another Sephirah.

“You were in the space suit!”

“My mommy puts it on me ’cause she doesn’t want me touching anything icky outside our home! So, lady…”

Nyx played with the Holy Silver in her hand, flashing a dry smile.

“You think I can have Alas Ramus and the Yesod back?”

“I don’t want to comment too much on other people’s children…but I think you need to learn some discipline.”

“Alas Ramus was part of our family. Besides, do you think you can keep me from taking her back?”

Nyx’s plastered-on smile battered Emilia. But:

“Taking, being taken… Why don’t any of you understand this? It’s so obvious.”

Everyone had feared the possibility of Alas Ramus being captured. When they didn’t know who was in the space suit, it was a clear and present problem. But now—well, all right, Laila was gone, but Ignora and Camael weren’t here, either.

“Alas Ramus… I’m going to save your family. You mind going over to the corner and being a good girl?”

“Mm?!”

Purple light shone on Emi’s and Alas Ramus’s foreheads. The child was instantly, awkwardly teleported to one corner of the chamber.

“Uh… Ah!”

Nyx, attempting to touch Emilia again, blinked helplessly. Emilia seized that moment’s hesitation, focusing her holy energy on her palm.

“Explosive Light Blast!!”

“Gaahhh!!!”

A strong light exploded directly before Nyx’s eyes, generating a shock wave that made her turn somersaults in the air.

“It’s so bright, Mommy!”

“Sorry, Alas Ramus. Are you okay?”

“Yeh!”

Then Emilia and Alas Ramus voluntarily split apart. Concerns that Alas Ramus and Acieth would be kidnapped were, in the end, more a worry about them being taken from Ente Isla or the demon realms over to heaven. The way Emilia saw it:

“There’s no way Alas Ramus or Acieth would do anything to betray me or the Devil King. If we’re fighting in heaven anyway, it doesn’t matter whether we’re split apart or not. After all…”

She gently picked up the unconscious Nyx, her eyes lolled back in her skull.

“We came here to save you the whole time, so we’re not going to kill you. I don’t have the power to do that anyway. But if we can neutralize you, at that moment, we win.”

This move was something she’d learned from Albert in the past—holy magic that rendered a foe powerless without killing them. The spell summoned shock waves of light to blow enemies away, but before the light was set off, Emilia pointed the shock waves at Nyx’s chin. Based on experience, no matter how powerful Alas Ramus, Acieth, or even Erone were, their physical structures were still those of human beings. And no matter how much more steadfast their internal organs were than your average Ente Islan’s, Emilia’s “full force” was perfectly balanced to “go easy” on the awesomely powerful Sephirah children. It was a nonlethal blow to the brain. The moment Nyx was sure she had taken Alas Ramus’s power and nullified Emilia’s, her sight was blocked by the light, and then she’d received a de facto concussion.

“But now what should I do? I want to know where Mother and Ignora went, but I can’t just leave Nyx here…”

“Mommy?”

“Yes, Alas Ramus?”

“Nux is off.”

“What?”

“Eh-os is with the angel. But Nux is off.”

“Um… You mean this child isn’t fused with Ignora right now? So what?”

Alas Ramus smiled warmly and placed a hand on the forehead of the fallen Nyx.

“Mommy, over here.”

“Huh? What are you… Ah!”

Invited over, Emilia brought her face closer to Alas Ramus. The child’s right hand was on Nyx’s forehead, and now she placed her left on Emilia’s. Then, her body glowed a golden yellow, while Alas Ramus’s glowed purple, as if serving as a conduit.

“Uh… Ah! Wait!”

Emilia could feel it. She could see that Alas Ramus was going inside of her…with Nyx in tow.

“W-wait a second, Alas Ramus! What is this?!”

“…They can split us up. But…”

Alas Ramus’s smile came through in her voice.

“Only Yeffod can bring them together. Connect heart to heart.”

“No, um, I understand the logic, but should we do this?!”

Certainly, nobody ever said that only one Sephirah could lodge itself inside a person’s body. And certainly, they couldn’t leave Nyx lying there. But considering how life with Alas Ramus currently worked…

“Owww… Ah… Huh?! Wait! Who am I in?!”

“Nux, this is my mommy.”

“You, you’re…!”

The voices of Nyx and Alas Ramus bickering echoed in her mind.

“Whoa! You can’t just do that, Alas Ramus! I’m together with Mommy! Take me back to her!”

“Mm-mm. Let’s play together. Let’s have snacks.”

“We’re not at the supermarket, Alas Ramus! Snack time’s later…”

“Quiet one minute, lady! Alas Ramus the Yesod! Get me out of here!”

“Nuh-uh! No bein’ selfish!”

“Let me out, let me out, let me ouuuutttttt!!”

“Mommy! She’s bein’ selfish! Don’t let her out!”

“Ah, um, o-okay… Sure… But can you keep it down…?”

The human body might not have been limited to one Sephirah, but having multiple personalities screaming and shouting in your brain would make anybody’s mental health suffer.

“A-Alas Ramus… Um, once this is all over, she can separate from us, okay?”

“Nuh-uh!”

“Ugh, none of that, please! I gotta find Ignora and finish this! Umm…”

“H-hey! You’re trying to hurt my mommy! Stop, stop, stoooooppp!!”

“Argh! What is… This is gonna drive me crazy!”

She knew it was futile, but she covered her ears with both hands as she all but fled the chamber. The hunt for Ignora and Laila was on.

When Ignora stepped into the large room, she never expected it would be occupied. By three people, no less.

“Uh-oh. You came here ahead of us, huh?” she quipped.

“Nngh… G-Gabriel…”

The only people that could’ve gotten ahead of her were Gabriel and his team.

“…Ignora. Can I ask what the heck is going on?”

Gabriel, ignoring Laila’s pain, approached Ignora, a frantic look on his face.

“What’s going on? Just what we’ve always been doing, isn’t it? I had everyone pitch in to help us through a difficult situation.”

“Wait. Wait, Ignora. If you’ve done something like this, then…!”

Raguel was right behind Gabriel. But he was unconscious and stuffed inside a capsule, much like the ones that had once housed the Tree of Sephirot’s roots. Next to him was another capsule, and inside was an old man, clearly a generation or two older than the other angels.

“Why’d you do this to Sandalphon, too…?! He was one of the moderates who supported you to the end! What do you expect to accomplish doing this?! Look! Look at this! After all this… After Da’at finally did what you hoped for…and picked us!”

“…”

Was it Urushihara who reacted silently to Gabriel’s words? Or was it Copyhara?

“Gabriel… What are you talking about?”

Ignora lightly smiled.

“Aghh…!”

Then Laila fell to the floor, groaning. Nobody else paid her any mind.

“Doesn’t our true challenge begin once we’re selected? I’m certain you know what kind of shape Ente Isla is in right now. You’ve seen just how many of the ‘unchosen’ run rampant over that planet. Don’t you? And you, too, Laila.”

Ignora grabbed the hair of Laila, who was crawling on the ground away from her, pulling her up.

“Right, Laila? It was you, wasn’t it?”

“Wh-what… Ah!”

“I had everything set up just fine, and you used me as a front. How very nice of you! Without that, I’m sure this would have been done far sooner… Nobody would’ve had to suffer like this.”

“Ow, owww!”

“You…and maybe Gabriel, and these people…” Ignora flashed an abject, brittle smile as she peered at Laila behind her. “I really didn’t need any of it… All they needed was a little glimpse, but you had to grow the Church into this big thing…and it’s cost us so much. Right?”

“Ah!”

Ignora let go of her hair. She placed a foot on her back, lifting her head high.

“Right, my boy?”

There was no expression on Urushihara’s face as he said:

“Maybe so, Mom.”

“Hmm?” “Huh?” “Oh?”

“What’s up?”

On the way back from Tokyo Station, as they switched to the Keio Line at Shinjuku, Maou, Emi, and Chiho all let out little yelps of surprise as they looked at their phones. When Laila asked why, the three of them exchanged glances before Maou dared to ask the question:

“Urushihara called you, too?”

“Yeah. It would’ve been right when we left Tokyo Station.”

“He called me then, too. A few times.”

Urushihara’s phone number had called all three of them.

“Yeah, mine, too. Some kinda emergency? Lemme call him back.”

Stopping Laila and Nord for a moment, Maou called Urushihara’s number. Nobody picked up.

“Well, huh. After calling all of us ten minutes ago…”

“Did you get any texts?”

“No. But I’m kinda worried now. This isn’t like him.”

Although even Maou had upgraded to a smartphone by now, Urushihara was still going around with an old-fashioned clamshell phone. Maou had bought it for him, of course, and Urushihara certainly had a number of complaints about not being given a smartphone. But he wasn’t in the habit of reaching out to people in general; as a rule, he and Maou spoke over the phone only for urgent matters. Emi and Chiho had known him long enough to have his number, but they had never talked on the phone. If he was trying to call them, too, that seemed like a real crisis.

“What should we do?”

“We can’t do very much here. Why don’t you call him when we reach Sasazuka?”

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

But neither Emi nor Chiho looked too concerned.

“All right. I’ll text him just in case.”

Maou didn’t have any faster way to physically reach Urushihara, so they stuck to their original plan, boarding the next train bound for Keio-Hachioji. It was midafternoon, so the train car was nearly empty—even the Justina family (with all their luggage) and Suzuno (in her pilgrim’s outfit) had no trouble finding seats.

“Come to think of it,” Suzuno said, “if you were in Kobe, did you visit Rika? How is she faring?”

“Yeah, she’s bursting with energy as much as ever. She said she’d be in Tokyo soon, so you oughtta go out to eat when you’re free, Chiho.”

“That sounds great! I’d love to visit her, too. I’ve never been to Kobe.”

Urushihara was forgotten after they boarded the train, as the conversation turned toward other topics. Once they had reached Akebonobashi, the next station, Maou’s phone started vibrating.

“Damn it, don’t call back just as the train’s about to leave…”

It must have been Urushihara. They didn’t have time for a long chat, though. Maou looked around to ensure the coast was clear then took the call.

“Hey, sorry, I’m on the train. I’ll call back once I’m at Sasazuka.”

“No, wait…!!”

The panic bounced off his ears, but Maou mercilessly ended the call. They were on a train, and the signal was about to drop out anyway.

“Hey, y’know, I’ve never been to Kobe, either. Kobe beef’s supposed to be really good. Didja eat any steak?”

“Mostly I was out sightseeing and visiting Rika’s family house, so all the Kobe beef I tried was in this boxed lunch I bought at the station. But their other Western-style food was really good…”

Once again, Urushihara vanished from the conversation, as Emi discussed all the restaurants in Kobe she’d gotten to try out.

A little while later, once they had reached Sasazuka Station, Maou called Urushihara back.

“Dude, didn’t me calling Emilia and Chiho Sasaki give you any clue how freaked out I am?!”

He’d picked up before the first ring ended.

“I’m at the yakiniku joint by the station! Get over here right now!”

Then he hung up, leaving Maou helplessly looking at his phone.

“What’s with him? What kind of emergency is yakiniku? And also…”

Maou’s eyebrows furrowed as he stuck the phone back in his pocket.

“Since when was he back in Japan?”

Chiho, meanwhile, gave everyone a concerned look.

“Wouldn’t Urushihara have Acieth with him…?”

Suddenly, the words “emergency” and “yakiniku” linked together in their minds.

“…Let’s go.”

Maou, head hung low, began to worry about how much money he had in his wallet.

“Ooooh! Maou!”

“Laila, Nord… Hey.”

“Oh! The Devil King! Whoo-hoo!”

“…Hello, Alas Ramus. Guys…”

Leaving the others to wait outside, Maou entered the yakiniku restaurant by Sasazuka Station, only to be greeted by a scene straight out of hell. At a six-person table, Acieth, Erone, Nyx, and Eleos were all cooking their own meat—and at the far side, Urushihara was slumped against the table, a mug of oolong tea in his hand. A tower of plates was stacked by the lone empty seat.

“Urushihara… What made you think taking these guys out to yakiniku is a good idea? You knew full well this would happen.”

Clearly, Urushihara’s attempts at resisting them had failed.

“Dude, you know none of them listen to me,” Urushihara said, his face a bit hollow. “And lemme warn you, I’m broke.”

“Huh? I know you get a salary.”

“Yeah, but I don’t make enough to cover Kobe beef courses the way they run through them!”

“A-are you serious?! How much did they eat?”

Kobe beef returning to the conversation this fast staggered Maou.

“I stopped counting midway through…but all those plates are Kobe beef. The good parts.”

Maou shuddered. The dishes suggested they had gone through an entire cow all by themselves.

“Guys… Can you hold back a little? You’re not the ones who have to pay for all this.”

Even he had to complain to them about it. But:

“S-sorry.”

Only Eleos seemed apologetic at all. The other three barely even slowed their chopsticks.

“Boy, I feel the sorry for Iwaki, but me, I’m a little sick of MgRonald, so…”

“If we’re going to another world, it’s just boring if we eat the same thing every time, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I wanted to eat something besides MgRonald, too, so… Hee-hee!”

Acieth and Nyx were shameless. And Erone smiled, much brighter than he used to be, as he chowed down on some white rice.

“Hey, Urushihara, you think we can split this? Is this the tab?”

Maou snatched up the receipt slipped tableside. Then he felt the blood slowly drain from his upper body.

“How’s it look?”

“I can’t cover all of it…but hey, good news for you. I’ll call for help.”

Leaving the anxious Urushihara, Maou went back outside and dragged the reluctant Laila back in.

“What? What’s going on?!”

“You’re responsible for ’em, too. You help cover this. I’m not gonna let you say no.”

“What happened in here? …What?! Four of you?! Huh?! Where did this check come from?!”

The four members at the table shocked her. The tab shocked her again.

“Divided by three, I think we can manage.”

“…Guys, please, make this the last round.”

Laila’s shoulders dropped in defeat. In the end, a pretty impossible amount of 10,000 yen bills flew out of their wallets—far more than an average Tokyoite’s meal would normally be—but the culprits still complained about wanting more.

“But why the hell did you take four people here?”

The three grown-ups, pale and not even getting to eat anything, began marching straight for Villa Rosa Sasazuka after leaving the restaurant.

“It was supposed to be just Acieth, dude. She fired that hunger beam again.”

Those purple beams Acieth shot out when she was peckish had acquired a rather ominous name over time. Even after the assault on heaven, they had never stopped.

“Eleos and Copyhara said that three years aren’t enough for the Yesod to fully adapt to the current Ente Isla, so it’s not gonna go away that easily. But if we’re managing her, having stuff destroyed every time it happens is kind of a bummer.”

“You should’ve eaten something, too.”

“I was worried they’d take a bite of me if I tried taking anything.”

It didn’t sound like a joke. That was the scary part.

“Erone, did you say thank you to Urushihara?”

“Yes, Nord. I’ve always been saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you,’ haven’t I?”

“Yeah. He and Eleos. The other two are animals.” Urushihara shrugged after chiming in. “So anyway, Acieth was in bad shape, so I tried to sneak her out, but then that idiot Nyx found us, and… Agh!”

“Oh, come on, Lucifer! Don’t call me an idiot!”

Suddenly, Nyx jumped on Urushihara’s shoulder from behind.

“Y’know, I always thought something was up! Acieth would just disappear on regular occasions, and so would you at the same time, Lucifer. Erone seemed to know what was up, so I pressed him, and now I know. Stop spoiling the Yesod all the time!”

“He is not the spoiling me! This is valid treat! Based on trusting relationship!”

“She’s talking as crazy as ever…”

Acieth was being so outlandish, even Emi felt obliged to join in.

“Acieth, did you have a lot of meat?” asked the sleepy Alas Ramus in Emi’s arms. Her sister smiled back, her lips still a little glossy from the grease.

“The Kobe beef, it was so good! The Wagyu grease, it is sweet taste! True!”

“Hmm… Mommy, can we have Kobe beef for dinner…?”

“Didn’t I say we were having ramen?!”

Acieth’s review sounded more like a taunt to Emi—and Alas Ramus’s urgent plea floored her. Chiho, meanwhile, was taking an apologetic tone with Urushihara.

“Let me cover some of it, too. It’s partly my fault for introducing Acieth to MgRonald in the first place…”

Urushihara seemed ambivalent about it. After a great deal of thought, he shook his head.

“You’re fine, dude. I get to expense Acieth’s food bill, so it’s all good. And Nyx finding me is my fault as their supervisor.”

“It’s my fault, too. As Nyx’s elder sister, I should have stopped her…but I’ve never tasted anything so good before, so my instincts kind of took hold.”

Only Eleos demonstrated even the slightest hint of remorse. But:

“Let’s come back again soon.”

“Yeah. I wanted some more.”

Already, Erone was readily agreeing with Nyx.

“…Considering your ‘expense account,’” Maou blurted out as he listened to the Sephirah, “you sure racked up a huge bill. We got one more wallet we can hit up, y’know.”

“Oh. Yeah, perfect. Hell, I shoulda called him first.”

Urushihara, realizing who this “wallet” was, smiled grimly.

“Besides, logically speaking, he’s the one who needs to take responsibility for this.”

He took the receipt out from his wallet, playing with it between his fingers. There was a glint of pure evil in his eyes.

“Man, oh man, oh man. This is a mean prank to pull, mm-kay?”

Emerging from Room 103 of Villa Rosa Sasazuka, looking like he just got out of bed, was Gabriel, being rather immodest with his T-shirt, boxers, and hair flying every which way.

“If you wake me up in this heat with this tab, I’m liable to have a heart attack, y’know.”

“Have it after you cover your share, dude.”

“My share…? How much can four kids even eat? I ain’t gonna cover you, Lucifer.”

“All I had was oolong tea! This isn’t the yakiniku I wanted!”

“Hey,” interjected Maou, “next time, take them to my favorite horumon place, okay? I’ll tell you where it is.”

“Yeah, I know it, dude. We already got banned from there! And that was a solo trip for Acieth!”

“It was?!”

“But all of you guys went together? If it was all of you, it can’t be that bad if you split it.”

If Emi, Alas Ramus, Laila, Nord, and Chiho were there, then yes, a yakiniku party split evenly wouldn’t break the bank. But before anyone could set Gabriel straight, it was (for some reason) Acieth who first took offense.

“No, this price, it is the true blue what four of us eat. When I eat, I not rotten enough to take help from others!”

“What are you talking about?” Gabriel asked. Everyone else could sympathize for him, but Acieth couldn’t.

“Now, you pay the money we eat! In full!”

“Not even demons are this cruel, you know. Ugggh…”

Resigned to his fate, Gabriel took out a long wallet atop the stand by the front door—brand name, much to everyone’s chagrin.

“Is 20,000 yen all right? That’s all I have on hand.”

“Tch! How the broke you are! Okay, Lucifer, thanks for lunch!”

Acieth snatched up the bills and politely gave them to Urushihara with both hands.

“Dudes…don’t try pulling this act with anyone else, okay?”

Even Urushihara, who had eagerly come here to take Gabriel for all he had, felt a little guilty. He felt it proper to turn around and give the other three Sephirah a warning.

“We won’t, I promise. I’m not that much of a dummy, Lucifer.”

“Acieth, I really don’t think that was very nice to do.”

“I felt bad for Gabriel from the start.”

Watching Nyx, Eleos, and Erone plead their cases, Urushihara breathed a sigh of relief. The others looked at him.

“Urushihara’s sure matured, too, huh?”

“Yeah, despite it all, he’s become a good caretaker.”

“I’m glad to see that. I mean, Lucifer, of all people! What an amazing person he’s become…!”

“It’s really true, isn’t it? The worse a kid is, the happier you are when he grows up.”

“Lushiferrr, you’re like a big brother now!”

Chiho, Emi, Laila, Suzuno, and finally Alas Ramus all showered Urushihara in warm praise.

“I totally regret taking this job, dude!!” was the reply.

“Yawwwn… What a terrible way to wake up. On my day off, too…”

“What’s it like upstairs, Gabriel?”

Gabriel winced as Maou pointed at the second floor. He followed the finger upward, one eyebrow raised.

“I think it was quiet. I didn’t hear any noise. Hope she didn’t die in this heat…”

The building had been fairly extensively renovated, but it was still decades old, so the first floor could hear almost everything that went on upstairs.

“All right. Thanks. I know she’s eating, but…”

“Is she? Hopefully that’ll make my shift easier, starting tomorrow.”

“I’ll go check on her later. Sorry to spring that on you. Rest up, okay?”

“I don’t have the nerves of steel to go back to bed after this. Yawwwn… I’m all sweaty, too. Maybe I’ll go to the bathhouse. When I’m helping Mikitty with her work, I barely have enough time to bathe.”

The gutted-looking Gabriel waved a hand at Urushihara and Acieth, shooing them away, and promptly closed the door.

“Keter’s been growing little by little lately. Sandalphon says it’s just a matter of time now. But that makes Acieth hungrier, and that’s what led to today. I dunno what to do, dude.”

Maou, talking alone with Urushihara in Room 201 for the first time in a while, offered him some iced coffee from the fridge.

“Is that from your café?”

“Kind of. It’s a blend of beans I’ve been testing out for sale.”

“Oh. You’re sure dedicated.”

Urushihara noticed an unfamiliar machine sitting in a corner of the kitchen. It wasn’t there when he was still a resident. Picking up the glass (straw and all), he took a sip and nodded, convinced.

“It’s good, yeah, but do you really need to go through the trouble? You can get something this good in the refrigerator aisle at the supermarket, if you don’t mind payin’ for it.”

“That’s not really the point, man. This is a hobby, but it connects directly with the work I’m doing. It’s a hobby like the video games you’ve been playing since the freakin’ moment you came here.”

“Oh. Yeah, it’s not nice to make fun of people’s hobbies. I’ve really come to think that lately.”

Urushihara looked out the closed window, peering into the backyard.

“I never thought I’d keep up the gardening Bell taught me for so long, dude.”

“Yeah, and I doubt Suzuno thought you’d be taking care of the Sephirah, too.” Maou sipped his own iced coffee. “I thought trees and vegetable gardens would be totally different, but I guess the fundamentals of plant care are the same anywhere. When Keter began growing little fruits, I couldn’t help but think they looked like the eggplant at Komagane, kind of.”

“Yeah. And Kazuma threw out the eggplant that didn’t make the grade, right? I think about that a lot lately. You can’t coddle these guys too much.”

“You don’t think? Because I don’t think you can group Sephirah with eggplant.”

“Sure you can. Keter’s been growing fine since I’ve been managing it, right?”

“Mm… Yeah, I guess so.”

Maou didn’t have anything particularly convincing to dispel Urushihara’s pet theories with. And if he was the one dealing with the Sephirot every day, that must’ve been backed up by experience.

“But it’s really true. Gardening is a good way to get off your ass and start working. You can do it at your own pace.”

“Ahh, shut up.”

Urushihara finished the remaining coffee, then turned back to the wall behind him, over toward Room 202. Suzuno used to live there.

“But how’s she been?”

“Hard to say yet. She’s eating now, but… You worried?”

“A little,” Urushihara said, giving him an honest nod.

“…Yeah. But maybe you bringing Nyx here will be a good influence on her. She’s really her only ally, in a way.”

Maou tried to cheer up the slightly downcast Urushihara. But his reply wound up surprising him.

“Huh? So how about we just bring Nyx back to the other side, then? I don’t want her recovering that fast.”

“Huh?”

“When my work’s going this well, it’d be annoying if she recovered and started griping at me.”

“…Yeah, sounds true to me. I don’t need to be Copyhara to see that.”

“You lie a lot more than I ever did, Maou.”

Maou put a hand to his head. “Wait… You’re not actually Copyhara, are you?”

Urushihara attempted to deny it, but seeing Maou’s confusion inspired something within him. His evil grin was there as always.

“Well, who knows, huh? If you think I am, you’d better not think anything too mean, y’know?”

“Stop it, you asshole.”

No, he couldn’t help but implicitly threaten his old master.