The classic main events of astronomy—solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, meteor showers—are often observable only under certain weather or geographical conditions. But if you have enough will and a decent method of transportation, it’s not hard to see whichever you want. That’s what Maou and Ashiya were doing right now—sitting atop the roof tiles of Heavensky Castle in Efzahan, over on the Eastern Island, taking in the sights up above.
It was far too distant to see with the naked eye yet, but as Ashiya put it, Efzahan’s astrological observers were already in a panic over how the positions of the moons had changed.
“So what do you think’s gonna happen?”
“About what?”
“The demon realms are red, and heaven’s blue, right?”
Ashiya looked up at the corner of the sky Maou pointed at, toward two particularly bright specks of red and blue. He used his own finger to circle the blue point of light.
“I think it will be far more than a matter of ‘red and blue make purple,’ my liege. There might be some more purple light in the night sky, but I am not sure the naked eye could detect it… But either way, the color will be little different from how it is now.”
“Yeah? Well, that’s boring.”
“That is the prediction, at least. Depending on the state of the atmosphere, it may not look red or blue at all afterward. That, and something called a Roche limit. The angels of the ancient past may have had the technology to move an entire moon, but considering they failed to save their home planet, it’s unlikely they were able to cancel out the Roche limit. I doubt we are going to see a single celestial body, when it’s all said and done.”
“No? What’s that Roche limit anyway?”
“It is the minimum range that two objects with mass in space can approach each other without one being torn apart by the gravitational pull.”
“Whoa. Where’d you learn about stuff like that?”
“I read about such research in the library once. Although the red and blue moons will come close to each other, they are unlikely to merge into a whole. If they do, in fact, it would wreak havoc on this world.”
“Ughh… So we’re not gonna have a giant purple moon, then?”
Maou looked up at the night sky.
“No, my liege, but things will look different indeed. The minimum and maximum orbital distances from the planet will have to change, in order to reduce the effects on the tides, and thanks to that, they will look fairly different in size from before. Have you ever heard terms like ‘supermoon’ or ‘strawberry moon’?”
“Yeah, they mention those on TV sometimes. But it’s, like, I remember stuff like that when I leave for work but forget about ’em by the time I’m off duty. Then I recall it late at night, and I’m not gonna bother going out again to see it.”
Maou shrugged, took a flip phone from his pocket, and looked at the calendar.
“So we’ll just barely have enough time?”
“I cannot offer guarantees, my liege, but assuming the two moons do not come together, I think we should delay our plans until we are sure they will not come any closer to each other.”
Ashiya nodded to himself, looking at his own smartphone.
“I still can’t get used to the sight of you using that.”
“Oh, I’ve rather mastered it by now.” He flicked around on the screen, bringing up his schedule app. “Alas Ramus came to Villa Rosa in July of last year, in the middle of Tokyo’s Obon holiday. It would have been ideal if we’d assaulted heaven before that day, but apart from Acieth and Erone, we all have adult responsibilities, so…”
This whole assault on heaven had gotten its real start because Maou had wanted to give the greatest present ever to Alas Ramus, his beloved daughter. Her birthday was the deadline for this endeavor, but…
“Based on my ballpark calculations, unless we delay our invasion of the heavens by at least a month and a half, launching Devil’s Castle and landing it on heaven will both come with some measure of danger.”
It was already mid-June. A delay like that would push the mission toward the end of July.
“If we give ’em that much time, won’t they try to hatch something on us?”
“By this point, that possibility is rather low. We have made a rather bold move, but ever since they tricked the Archbishops before the Crusade began, the heavens have done nothing. I reasoned they may attempt some form of sabotage, but we’ve heard nothing from any of the summit participants. I believe the enemy faces personnel shortages even worse than what I surmised from Gabriel.”
“Yeah, sounds right…”
“And however poor the enemy’s detection skills are, even they must know Devil’s Castle was launched toward the demon realms. And yet, still nothing. I put all of this data together to analyze every angle I could think of, but I sincerely doubt refusing to act against us offers any strategic advantage. Essentially, I have concluded that our enemy has no option left but to meet us on their home territory.”
Maou seemed convinced but still attempted to counter: “Do you think they’re waiting with some kind of all-powerful force that could wipe us out if we all struck at once? Maybe using some other Sephirah children or whatever to build a massive arsenal? Or a weapon only heaven can use?”
“I cannot completely disavow that hypothesis, but the probability is low enough to safely ignore, I believe. Based on their previous movements, whenever the heavens reached out to Ente Isla, they have preferred sowing confusion indirectly over staging a direct attack on mankind. They use little in the way of real force at all, and it is hard to believe they will begin to just because they are being cornered.”
In the past, they tried having Olba eliminate Emi. They tried seizing Emi’s holy sword. They tried stealing Alas Ramus and her Yesod fragment. They tried having Ashiya and Emi stage a second demons-versus-humans war. They messed with the Archbishops’ dreams in order to trigger a Crusade…
“…Yeah. It’s all petty like that.”
“Right?”
The heavens had tried to create chaos in Ente Isla many times before. The conspiracy in Efzahan caused heavy damage there, and in the demon realms—although most of the casualties were caused in battle by the two sides being tricked into warfare. As far as Maou’s team could tell, the only person to lose his life as a result of a direct attack from heaven was Robertio Igua Valentia, de facto leader of the Six Archbishops…and even there, they had no incriminating evidence.
“But enough about that,” Ashiya said, suddenly brimming with enmity. “What scares me far more is Emilia, demanding you pay child support in the midst of all this.”
“You’re pretty petty, too.”
“If our enemy causes trouble, we may solve it by defeating them. The only way you can solve money problems is to get more money.”
“Yeah. And no matter what I tell her, all I’m doing is delaying those payments.”
“Reality can be so cruel,” Ashiya all but cried out.
“Well, apart from that cruel reality, there are some crimes I need to account for, too.”
“Mmm…” Now Ashiya looked distressed. “That is a thorny issue. Not one caused by the enemy, nor one driven by money. Or perhaps wealth was involved at first, but… What do you think?”
“Not power, not money… Something from the heart, maybe? Trust? That kind of issue. So while I have the chance, I want to settle one more past sin as well.”
“Another past sin? …Ah.”
“Yeah. Everybody’s coming back to Sasazuka for their own reasons…but for this problem, it’s just you and me.”
Maou looked up at the blue moon.
“We’ve learned the hard way how tough it is to make money. And what do you think’ll happen if we wind up dying in battle?”
“Please, do not speak of such horrid things, my liege.”
“Look, it’s a possibility, isn’t it? And I don’t wanna die without apologizing for stealing.”
“There is no reason for you to have feelings of guilt toward any human…”
The sentence sounded more contrived than anything.
“…is what I would have said a year ago, I imagine.”
“Well, right now, I’m a ball of guilt. Especially considering the victim. I mean, really, I just wanna apologize for that, you know? It doesn’t need to be this big ‘atonement’ thing, but I still feel bad about it.”