"Zariel, I'm afraid your wish will be very difficult to grant."
With that single sentence, Anbaixiu plunged Zariel into despair. Yet the angel fought down her emotions and asked, "Where does the difficulty lie? I know your character well enough. Whatever the price, you can name it plainly."
Anbaixiu shook his head. "I am a businessman, and I truly would love to turn a profit on the difference, but that's on the premise that I can actually deliver what you want. I might hike up my prices, but I never deceive my clients with something I cannot provide. Mount Celestia's reply was quite clear: you are currently not qualified to return."
"On what grounds?!" Zariel demanded agitatedly. "Have I not suffered enough torment during all these years in Hell?! What wrong did I commit that requires me to remain fallen in Hell for all eternity?!"
In Zariel's eyes, she had been an angel of Mount Celestia who came to Hell on a sacred mission to oversee the war. It was those damned devils who had captured her, forcibly turning her into a fallen angel, a hideous devil. She had fought to the death all the way until she was exhausted and captured; she had never broken Mount Celestia's laws.
It was bad enough that the gods had never lifted a finger to help, but after she had endured endless suffering to strip away Hell's power, she only wanted to go home—and now even that request was denied?!
"Don't shout at me," Anbaixiu said helplessly. "I didn't make the rules; I'm merely the messenger. Though, as it happens, Mount Celestia already anticipated this question of yours."
Text and images cascaded across the magic mirror, depicting precisely what had occurred when Zariel first entered Hell.
Anbaixiu explained, "Zariel, when you initially entered Hell to oversee the war, your purpose was to monitor the devils' Blood War. But you believed the devils were slacking and passive, and that your fellow angels were turning a blind eye to it, so you decided to take matters into your own hands. You led your Hellrider legion in an invasion of Hell... On the surface, it might have seemed like a righteous act, but the actual consequence was disastrous devil casualties, the total collapse of the River of Blood front, and demons breaching the First Layer of Hell to pour into countless worlds, inflicting horrific and irreversible devastation."
These were not exaggerations by Anbaixiu; they were the recorded findings from Mount Celestia's official investigation.
That an angel of Zariel's standing had fallen into Hell and been left unrescued was largely due to this very reason.
Otherwise, with an entity as colossal as Mount Celestia, it wouldn't have been impossible to retrieve a single angel. The Lord of the Dawn alone commanded an enormous host of allies; had those deities combined their influence, how could Hell not grant them face?
Falling eternally into Hell and guarding the River of Blood was the punishment Zariel was meant to endure, as well as the unspoken understanding between Mount Celestia and Hell.
And now Zariel was tossing her duties aside, demanding to go home just like that.
Forget whether the Lord of Hell would agree—even Mount Celestia could never sanction it!
Yet Zariel showed no surprise upon hearing this. Instead, she said impatiently, "The same tired excuse. I grew sick of hearing that long ago. Those devils' passive resistance against the Abyss had already allowed demons to run rampant everywhere. Had I not chosen to invade back then, the Abyss wouldn't be contained in its current state. I was the one who shattered the so-called tacit agreement between Mount Celestia and Hell! I was the one who forced Hell to truly shoulder the responsibility of resisting the demonic invasion!
"Without me, demons would still be overrunning countless planes. It was I who suppressed those demons at the River of Blood across countless ages! I have never believed I was wrong back then, and even if I was, after all these years, I have long since atoned for it! What right do they have to stop me from returning to Mount Celestia?!"
Anbaixiu could only sigh in helplessness. This was a negotiation that could not be quantified by numbers.
Both sides had their own justifications. Mount Celestia and Hell believed that muddling through the Blood War was standard operating procedure, while Zariel believed that doing so was no different from offering no resistance at all.
Anbaixiu had not personally experienced the situation back then and could not offer his own verdict. But looking at it now, there probably was no absolute right or wrong here.
So Anbaixiu simply reiterated, "Don't shout at me. I didn't set the rules. If you have the strength, go smash Hell and Mount Celestia to pieces and make your own rules. The problem right now is that whatever you say, those greater deities won't even look at it, let alone acknowledge you. Put bluntly, Zariel, if Mount Celestia doesn't open its gates, you can't return. The only result will be that you sink back into Hell, get dragged away, and be broken and corrupted all over again."
Zariel fell silent for a moment before declaring, "I will not. I will die right here, consign my soul to the flames, and burn this River of Blood front to ashes."
Zariel had made up her mind. She would never become a devil again—never become that cruel, venomous, tormented, broken thing. If an angel burned away everything she possessed, the unleashed power could completely obliterate the River of Blood front. What might unfold after that was impossible to predict.
Perhaps the devils would be completely wiped out and the demons would surge forth unchecked; or perhaps the River of Blood would be destroyed, causing the tributary of the River Styx to divert and leak into other planes, sparking catastrophic disaster.
No matter the scenario, Zariel was playing a game of mutual destruction.
It was precisely because this was a possibility that talking to her held any purpose for Anbaixiu.
Neither Mount Celestia nor Hell wished to witness such an outcome. The gods were not omnipotent. No matter how fallen Zariel was, she was still a deity.
No one could guarantee one hundred percent that they could suppress her before she committed suicide.
"So there is still room for negotiation," Anbaixiu sighed. "Zariel, what is your bottom line?"
Zariel shook her head. "I can give up everything. I only wish to return to my homeland. I miss the skies there, the sunlight, and the flowers. I don't want to be wrapped in brimstone and blood anymore, rotting away in Hell."
"So as long as you can return to Mount Celestia, you would even give up your angelic form?" Anbaixiu asked.
"Appearance is meaningless to me. Could it be any uglier than a devil?"
Anbaixiu nodded and said, "Alright, I'll see what I can do for you."
On the other side of the magic mirror, within the divine realm of Elysium belonging to the Lord of the Dawn, Anbaixiu shrugged. Addressing the radiant deity bathed in holy light, he said, "As you can see, Zariel has truly thrown all caution to the wind. This time, there is no chance she will remain trapped in Hell. So, could Mount Celestia perhaps make an exception?"
The Lord of the Dawn shook his head. "This is not a matter of my personal will, but the laws of Mount Celestia. Just as Hell has its own rules, so too does Mount Celestia. Zariel's actions have been too extreme; she is no longer accepted by Mount Celestia. Whether I permit it or not, she cannot return."
Thus, the lawful alignment in this world harbored virtually no hypocrites. If you violated your own divine portfolio, you couldn't even remain in your plane and would be kicked straight out. Back then, Anbaixiu had desperately wanted to work for these lawful deities, but he had constantly run into goddesses of the evil alignment instead.
But things couldn't be resolved this way; he couldn't actually let Zariel self-destruct.
If the River of Blood front truly blew up, Anbaixiu himself would be dragged down with it. After all, Zariel was his partner. When the Lord of Hell awakened and settled scores, Mammon would be the first on the chopping block, and Anbaixiu would be second.
And worse, Anbaixiu couldn't even extricate himself from Hell.
Therefore, no matter what, Anbaixiu had to resolve this matter properly—and at the same time, reap plenty of benefits.
Yet in Zariel's current state, getting her to let go of her obsession was utterly impossible. And the more extreme she became, the less Mount Celestia would accept her. It was a complete dead end on both sides, offering no win-win solution.
"Then I have no choice but to settle for second best."
Anbaixiu vanished from Elysium, his consciousness returning to Hell. He said to Zariel, "Good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?"
Zariel snapped impatiently, "Drop the games. Speak plainly... Tell me the good news first."
"Haha." Anbaixiu couldn't help but chuckle. The angel was rather stubborn after all. "Fine. The good news is that the Lord of the Dawn explicitly stated that the gods of Mount Celestia are not stopping your return. They have no objections."
Zariel's expression turned pleasantly surprised, and she quickly asked, "Truly?"
"Of course. The Lord of the Dawn told me with his own mouth that he has no objection to you returning to Mount Celestia," Anbaixiu said decisively.
Zariel waited for a moment, and once she confirmed that no beam of holy light struck down upon Anbaixiu's head, she tentatively believed his words.
"Then what is the bad news?"
"The bad news is more troublesome. While the gods have no objection to your return, Mount Celestia has its own laws—and your homeland has rejected your return."
"How can that be?!" Zariel's expression grew even more despairing than before.
Facing the gods as enemies, Zariel wouldn't have batted an eye. At worst, she would fight to the bitter end, just as she had when she charged into Hell back then. She had never feared death.
But her homeland had rejected her. This was the place she had yearned for across untold ages; this was a truth she could not accept under any circumstances.
Seeing the holy light surging wildly around Zariel, as if she might detonate herself at any second, Anbaixiu hurriedly said, "Don't panic! It's not like there's no way to solve it."
Zariel sneered and said to Anbaixiu, "Do you have any idea what it means to be rejected by the laws of a plane?"
Anbaixiu, however, appeared brimming with confidence. "It means you also have a chance to be accepted by that world, just like when I arrived in Hell. Just now, I inquired with a friend. The only reason you offered to give me the authority of the First Layer of Hell was because you couldn't hold onto it yourself. Hell accepted me, desiring me to become the master of the First Layer."
Anbaixiu's illusory figure floated out from the magic mirror, expanding into a giant matching Zariel's size, and reached his hand toward Zariel's heart.
A cluster of crimson light flew out from Zariel's body, rushing eagerly toward Anbaixiu's projection.
This was the manifestation of the First Layer of Hell's laws—an artifact resembling a heart. Upon merging into Anbaixiu's projection, the illusory silhouette began to grow flesh and blood, coalescing into reality.
A sinister countenance, deep and abyssal eyes, draped in robes reminiscent of a starlit galaxy—were it not for the devil horns sprouting from his forehead, Anbaixiu's devil form would have looked more like an enigmatic mage.
Anbaixiu touched the horns on his forehead and said to Zariel, "See? Getting a plane to accept you isn't that hard. Look at how long I've even been in Hell."
Zariel remained silent.
Although she had willingly stripped away all the laws of Hell, this thing had originally been sealed within her body; she had intended to detonate it at the critical moment to completely obliterate everything around her.
Yet when Anbaixiu merely beckoned just now, the Heart of Hell had flown straight toward him, and Zariel had been utterly powerless to stop it.
Just as Anbaixiu had said, he was a sinner favored by Hell. All of Hell welcomed his arrival, yearning for him to become the master of the First Layer of Hell.
At this very moment, Anbaixiu was no longer a mortal, but an existence akin to a deity.
Zariel tightened her grip on her dual swords, regarding this newly appointed Archduke of Hell warily. "Do you intend to help me, or do you intend to suppress me? You had better hurry. Once the Lord of Hell awakens, there will be nothing left for us to discuss."
"Rest assured. I just stabilized the tremors throughout the First Layer of Hell. I believe the great Asmodeus will give a newly hired employee like me a relatively generous probationary period. Now, let us discuss your situation. Zariel, if you had a chance to regain Mount Celestia's approval, would you be willing to work for it?"
"You just said I was rejected by Mount Celestia's laws!" Zariel said angrily. "The laws of a plane offer no room for negotiation. That tongue of yours, craftier than any devil's, is utterly useless against them."
Anbaixiu shook his head. "You still underestimate me far too much. Back when I was in the Prime Material Plane, I became a world-saving hero in the form of a lich; even the Ryan Empire, which worships the Holy Light, had to kneel and kowtow before my statue. When I came to Hell, you all treated me as an ordinary sinner, yet I earned Hell's recognition and became the master of the First Layer.
"Do you truly think I accomplished all of that with nothing but my tongue?"
Zariel frowned. Why did those words sound so familiar? Had this fellow spoken in a similar tone before?
Before Zariel could recall, Anbaixiu continued, "You still know far too little about me. Not only can I make every world I inhabit accept me, but I can also make an entire race change its alignment. Have you heard of the drow elves? It was I who reintegrated them into the elven race. Now, all it takes is a single opportunity to make the elven pantheon whole again."
Zariel was at a loss for words. Although much of that sounded questionable, no one could refute the contributions Anbaixiu had made regarding the drow elves.
It was he who had thoroughly sabotaged Lolth, giving Corellon the opportunity to settle scores with his ex-wife. It was he who had cleverly exploited the internal strife of the drow elves to divide the race, initiating a gradual yet effective racial integration.
Now, a new deity of the drow elves was on the verge of emerging, and at least half the credit belonged to Anbaixiu.
Seeing Zariel remain silent, Anbaixiu knew she was swayed. He pressed on, "Mortals and gods alike spread rumors that I only have a sharp tongue. In reality, what I excel at most is completely transforming people—altering even their hearts and minds. To tell you the truth, that scribe in the Second Layer of Hell only ended up here because I killed him, yet today he still owes me a favor and helped me hold back the master of the Second Layer."
This was something Zariel truly hadn't known; her eyes widened in shock. The Iron Archduke rarely showed his face, leaving everything to the scribe to handle, making him virtually the ruler of the Second Layer of Hell.
Zariel was well aware of that scribe's capabilities and had even contemplated winning him over.
And yet that very scribe had died at this guy's hands?
He killed the man, sending him down to Hell, and the scribe not only bore no grudge, but actually stepped in to help?
Was this guy's legendary boon some sort of forced brainwashing, just like the Prince of Lies?
No wonder everyone said the Prince of Lies' divine portfolio ought to be handed over to him.
"After saying all this, I only wish to tell you one simple fact: there is no one I cannot reform if I set my mind to it—even deities are no exception. Mount Celestia does not accept you now, but after my reformation, it will undoubtedly open its gates and welcome your return. If you believe me, follow my arrangements; if you don't, go ahead and kill yourself right now. Either way, whether before or now, your self-destruction won't kill me."
Zariel frowned and pondered for a long time before she finally couldn't resist asking, "What plan do you have?"
Anbaixiu let out a hearty laugh, then said, "No rush. This will be a lengthy process. But before then, you must promise to obey my orders. And I promise, I will do everything in my power to help you return to Mount Celestia."
Hellfire flared in Anbaixiu's palm, condensing into a brief contract.
Anbaixiu extended the contract toward Zariel and said, "This is the very first contract I will sign after my ascension. I stake a devil's honor on fulfilling your wish. Zariel, are you willing to trust me?"
Chapter 618