That day, the chief astronomer at Sankt Ignoreido, headquarters of the Church, submitted a very strange report.
The chief astronomer’s job was to observe the movements of heavenly bodies, craft weather forecasts and calendars, and divine good and bad fortunes. His words and predictions would occasionally carry more sway than even input from the Six Archbishops of the Church. What he reported to Archbishop Cervantes Reberiz and the assorted bishops and cardinals of the headquarters was so unusual that, at first, it made everyone doubt their ears. But perhaps the chief astronomer had anticipated this disbelief. And that was why he concluded his report with the following statement:
“There has been no error made in this observation. All observational equipment is in full working order, and all personnel involved with this observation are of sound mind.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Ur, urgghh…”
When Urushihara all but fell out of his capsule, everyone staring at the “root” of the Yesod Sephirah suddenly shivered and turned toward him.
“Ahh… I think the reason I get carsick so easily is because I’ve got an extreme case of claustrophobia.”
“After holing up inside that closet for half your time there? C’mon… And don’t scare us like that.”
“Look, there’s three aspects to claustrophobia, okay? Fear of dark places, fear of tight places, and fear of being constrained. I’m the last one—I feel sick if I’m in something I can’t get out of on my own volition. I think.”
As he made this rather sensible-sounding statement, Urushihara flapped his arms out, stretching all the joints in his body.
“Did… Did you know this was here?”
He winced at Emi. “I told you a million times, dude. I forgot about this entire setup. All I remembered was that my dad hid this relic, or something, around here.”
As everyone watched, Urushihara slowly gazed up at the Yesod root and the small bud growing from it.
“Or maybe I was right all along. He never told me how to claim this relic. Like, you see it in TV dramas and stuff a lot, right? Without a will, you can’t inherit what’s owed to you.”
“Lucifer, this is serious…”
“Stop acting like I’m always joking around, dude. I am serious. Because I never got a will—because no one ever told me about this—I never knew how important this place and its relic were to my life. That’s what it is.”
Urushihara had no time for Emi right now.
“The ancient Devil Overlord Satan was Satanael Noie, the angel who split from the heavens. He befriended the demons in their realm in order to resist Ignora and her continued research into immortality. But you can see how it’s working in here. No one person could lead the demon realms until Maou made Satanas Arc his home base. In other words, Satanael lost.”
Gabriel and Laila hadn’t spelled it out for him, but he had put everything he knew together, and that was the conclusion he made.
“All the broken robots around here were troops that invaded from heaven. So are the guys we and the Malebranche called the ‘Silverarms’ ages ago. Those things that caused us so much trouble after we merged with the Malebranche were probably the pawns of Satanael.”
“Those, huh? That means the Devil Overlord must’ve caused all kinds of chaos in the demon realms. But the way Gabriel put it, Satanael didn’t really have the time or resources for that. And why did the angels have to wage war against each other anyway? Up on Ente Isla’s moon, they didn’t have to worry about that killer disease any longer, did they?”
“…You’re surprisingly slow sometimes, Maou. Doesn’t Camio always chide you about not paying attention to people’s feelings?”
“Wh-where did that come from?”
“Don’t you get how much fear Caiel and Sikeena put into Ignora and everyone else? Gabriel, trained for battle and all, couldn’t take them. Neither could Satanael or Sariel, even in a one-on-one match. I guess you forgot this, but without Alas Ramus’s and Acieth’s power, even you and Emilia couldn’t have beaten Gabriel or Sariel—and the Sephirah children from the angels’ home planet beat the crap out of them. You know, Maou…”
Urushihara pointed at Amane, frowning as she looked at the Yesod root.
“…If Alas Ramus and Acieth weren’t around, could you even beat Amane? Or the landlord?”
“No way,” Maou immediately replied.
“You know, as a fetching young lady, I don’t really like being sized up like that. I wouldn’t lose, no, but…”
Not sure how Amane wanted to be treated, Urushihara soldiered on.
“Satanael thought that if they kept up with their immortality research, it would inspire the anger of the Ente Isla Sephirah. So he stole the root. But the angels freaked out. If the tree wasn’t operating right, they thought, who knew what was gonna happen? So they opposed Satanael by accusing him of messing up the Sephirah. If anything else happened, after all, there’d be no way for them to escape. Maybe it’s unethical, or whatever—but unless you’ve got an advanced society and order and stuff, that’s meaningless. Instead, they prioritized what was endangering their lives. They all nearly died once, you know.”
“Man, what the hell? That’s not very brave of them. It’s real ugly.”
“Could you say that to Chiho Sasaki?”
“Huh?”
Maou knew the angels only as they existed now. Urushihara rejected his observation out of hand.
“Could you say to Chiho Sasaki, like, ‘There are these guys who keep wanting to destroy Sasazuka, and you and your family with it, but you’re just gonna have to accept that, okay?’”
Maou winced. Emi gasped a little as well. There was no telling whether Urushihara meant what he’d said, but there was no way Maou or Emi would tell that to Chiho at this point. They couldn’t, they both realized at once.
“No, you’d try to do something about it, wouldn’t you? Not that I’m one to talk, but…”
Again, Maou and Emi realized that they had once put Chiho in that situation—a girl who knew far less than she did now, and who was nowhere near as strong in heart and body at the time. Back then, they had Urushihara under Maou’s control…but could they have really said that Chiho was safe, just because they took care of Olba the traitor? No, they couldn’t…and she wasn’t, hence why Sariel came along soon after. And until he did, Maou and Emi pretty much left Chiho in the lurch—not revealing anything, not doing anything.
“Most human beings, you know… They’d be terrified. Chiho Sasaki was all alone, and maybe it was hard for her, but it didn’t affect her surroundings. But once you get more people involved, that’s when consensus sets in. People start agreeing that they don’t wanna see that horror again, and that shuts their minds away from exploring other avenues. And if you think it’s someone else’s problem, you can say whatever you want about it ’cause it’s a faraway issue to you. Ignora and Satanael were afraid of Caiel and Sikeena’s return, for opposite reasons, so they fought things out in a hurry. The demons fought with Satanael after gaining his powers and those of the angels on his side, but in the end, they lost. And when their defeat was set in stone, the ‘will’ was lost, so to speak. This.”