Joining the War

"If Igola and I were caught in a hopeless situation at the same time, which one of us would you save?" During their travels across the Nation of Stars, Rose usually booked hotels by reserving two presidential suites—one for the men and one for the women—only splitting them up if there were no large suites available. This arrangement was for security. The premise of many locked-room murder cases was that everyone stayed in separate rooms; although staying together meant they might all die together, sticking in a group always brought a bit more peace of mind. Thus, after spending the day out enjoying themselves, Yaxiu, Igola, and Harvey would return to the hotel, take their showers, and usually gather to shoot the breeze. Truth be told, Igola still needed personal space, and the massive presidential suite had more than enough room to carve out private quarters for the three of them. Yet Yaxiu and Harvey were always chatting right near him, giving Igola the distinct feeling of a man who had worked all day only to come home and have to walk two dogs. Who knew what there was to talk about, especially with Harvey. Taciturn by day, the moment the women left in the evening, his urge to speak flared up dramatically, as if he had been bottling up countless raunchy topics just waiting to chat with these two blokes. The trouble was, Harvey was a necromancer whose sexual function had long been pickled by preservatives. The topics he brought up couldn't be called entirely unrelated to smut, but at most they had only a tenuous connection. After all, what seemed completely non-erotic to an ordinary person could be deeply erotic to a necromancer. If some people could get off on keyboard politics, was it so strange for a necromancer to get excited discussing thirteen different ways to dismember a corpse? Returning to the hotel in the rain after a day out, Yaxiu stepped out of the bathroom in a bathrobe. Rubbing his hair with a towel, he opened the fridge and took out a can of coffee milk. Igola sat on a beanbag chair by the window, listening to the rain as he read, while Harvey was idly stitching the back of his hand with colored needle and thread. He had recently become fascinated by this brand of human tailoring. As he stitched away, he had suddenly asked this bizarre question. Yaxiu took a sip of the coffee milk, his tone rather complicated. "I never expected a man to ask me a death trap question like that." Igola closed his book as well—perhaps to see what antics Harvey was up to, or perhaps to keep it ready to hurl as a weapon at a moment's notice. "Just say what you think," Harvey said. "I'm only curious whether you think the same way I do." "No one in this world thinks the same way you do. Humanity isn't ready for your kind of logic yet," Yaxiu quipped before giving it serious thought. "Even if you were both in a desperate situation at the same time, there'd definitely be a difference in who was in greater danger. Even if the danger was equal, I'd instinctively judge who needed help more... I'd prioritize saving whichever of you was in the more perilous spot." Harvey nodded, then turned to Igola. "What about you? Between Yaxiu and me, which one would you save?" "I wouldn't save either of you," Igola said calmly. "It's not like you two are going to fall into water and drown. Anything that threatens you would have to be a formidable enemy. At most, I'd put all my effort into attacking the enemy; I wouldn't waste my energy trying to save you. Whether you survive or not is none of my damn business." Harvey nodded again and pointed at Yaxiu. "Then you're out. As expected, Igola makes a better teammate." "Huh?" Even though Yaxiu didn't care in the slightest about Harvey's approval, he still felt a bit slighted. Leaning against the wall, he asked, "Why? Shouldn't my answer be the better one?" Biting off the thread, Harvey inspected the black lotus embroidery on the back of his hand and said, "Ordinary enemies wouldn't drive us into a hopeless situation. If it's a mighty foe we can't resist, our only path to survival is to attack with everything we have without fretting over anyone else's safety. The sharper you are, the safer everyone else is." Yaxiu drank the rest of his coffee milk in silence, crushed the can, tossed it into the trash can nearby, and asked, "So if Igola and I were in danger, you wouldn't save us either?" "Save you?" Harvey blinked, his gaze holding the pure innocence of a necromancer. Yaxiu instantly realized he had suffered a moment of brain death—Harvey had been coveting their corpses for who knew how long, counting on his fingers every day waiting for them to die. If they died, Harvey would be the happiest person alive! Igola hurled his book across the room, striking Harvey right in the skull. Harvey rubbed his head and muttered, "The reason I wouldn't save you isn't just because I want your corpses." "'Isn't just'...?!" "The main thing is, I'm a clean necromancer. I could die cleanly at any time, and I don't want to owe anyone or have anyone owe me. I don't want you to save me, so naturally I won't save you either," Harvey said. "Besides, there's a truth passed down from Häagen-Dazs to this day..." * No matter how hard he tried, Yaxiu couldn't remember what that truth from Häagen-Dazs was. It wasn't that Harvey hadn't said it, but that he had forgotten. By selling half his soul, Yaxiu had also lost half his memories. His memories of Vichy and Weise were only a tiny portion of it; far more consisted of his recollections from the past twenty years, as well as the tumultuous storms of this past year. He still remembered the important events, but the details within them were now difficult to recall. People were bound to forget things eventually. The present always replaced the past. On the train of life, passengers were always getting off; as long as the seat next to you wasn't empty, that was enough. Having already gained so many wonderful things, and with countless beautiful futures left to create together, why fret over lost memories? When Yaxiu thought about it, he felt utterly ridiculous. He currently had four lovers—each more gorgeous than the last, and each more troublesome than the last. He might not even be able to finish all four of their main storyline quests in a lifetime. In fact, lately Yaxiu had rarely thought of Igola and Harvey. He was a very devoted man; when he was with women, he didn't think about men... The ecological niche those two men once occupied had been completely replaced by his lovers... So why should he throw away his life for them? Yet Yaxiu had still entered the fortress to search for them. He could come up with a hundred reasons to talk himself into giving up, but just as Igola and Harvey had both chosen not to save anyone while his first instinct had been to save them, Yaxiu didn't fail to understand what the rational choice was. It was simply that when he was supposed to be impulsive, he was impulsive; when his blood rushed to his head, it rushed to his head. In an instant, he could cast all hesitation and deliberation to the winds, and by the time he came to his senses, his body was already moving. Why overthink it? Did you become a sorcerer to hesitate and look over your shoulder? You became one to create miracles! Yaxiu didn't know if Igola and Harvey had already perished as cannon fodder, nor did he know if the two bastards were even inside the fortress. And even if he found them, he currently had no way to help them leave Hell. Yet he had come all the same. If they were here, he would find a way to send them to the Fifth Hell to take refuge; if they weren't, he would take over the fortress and plunder its resources. Regardless of what happened, Yaxiu was unwilling to remain an onlooker, picking at carrion like a ghoul... He was going to enter this war—and even dominate it! He had every right to. Capable of defeating a six-winged Law Angel, Yaxiu no longer had any equals in Hell. Without the slightest restraint, Yaxiu unfurled his void wings, releasing the brilliant radiance of seven wings before the gods of Hell. After the Six-Winged Trial, Yaxiu's Level 5 bond with Sonia had stabilized completely. Even in Hell, he could borrow Sonia's void wings... Gathering the might of the two of them together, Yaxiu had more than enough power to reign over Hell!