Chapter 358: The Heavens (3)

‘A different choice?’

Although Henry was clearly stunned, he bit his lips, trying to conceal his surprise. He pondered on what the heavenly being had said, but no matter how much he thought about it, it made no sense to him.

The heavenly being bowed and politely greeted Henry.

“In any case, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Virtus, and I’m a Virtue, a fifth-rank angel of the heavens.”

A Virtue and a fifth-rank angel of the heavens—these were all new words to Henry. The archangel was the only type of angel he knew about, having learned about that from his encounter with Ganisel.

As Henry rolled his eyes in silence, Virtus said, “I don’t expect you to know what I’m talking about, since you’re the first human, or god, to ever set foot in the heavens.”

Virtus explained how special of a guest Henry was with a composed smile, but his smile only managed to make Henry feel even more humiliated.

“...I don’t care about that, but what do you mean by a different choice?”

“It’s just as I’ve said. Sir Henry, you’ve already made the same choice five times, and this would be your sixth one. The Heavenly God is giving you a sixth chance already.”

“Five times...?”

“That’s right.”

It took Henry a while to realize what Virtus meant.

The angel was essentially saying that he had done the same thing five times ever since he had arrived in the heavens.

‘And so this is the sixth time the Heavenly God is stopping me?’

Henry didn’t understand. He didn’t remember repeating something five times, and he certainly wasn’t challenging anyone or anything a sixth time.

But suddenly, a few pieces of information assembled in Henry’s head, and like a bolt of lightning, he remembered something he had forgotten all this time.

“Damn it...!”

Just as he remembered what he had forgotten, Henry opened a dimensional gap and left swiftly without saying anything to Virtus.

The dimensional gap closed.

None of the angels that filled the sky were able to track Henry down, since none of them wielded dimensional powers. In fact, they didn’t even pursue such powers.

Virtus smiled bitterly as he watched Henry disappear.

“You finally realized.”

Twang-!

The melodious sounds of the lyre echoed softly through the skies.

***

Henry returned to the Demon Realm, breathing heavily as soon as he emerged from the dimensional gap.

The toxic air in the Demon Realm pierced his lungs, but that helped him return to his senses. After a few moments, when he had finally calmed down, he found a rock and sat down on it.

“Heavenly God, you bastard! How dare you...!” Henry muttered. He couldn’t help cursing at the Heavenly God after realizing what Virtus had meant earlier.

The angel had told him that he had displayed the same behavior five times and that he was on his sixth attempt at something. He had also urged Henry to make a different choice this time.

Virtus had spoken as though he was familiar with something that Henry had no memory of.

That meant that some kind of event that Henry wasn’t aware of kept repeating itself. Henry remembered that the Heavenly God possessed the power to manipulate time, and he figured that it had to be connected to that particular event.

‘I’m sure of it. He turned back time.’

As far as Henry knew, the Heavenly God was the only entity that possessed the power to manipulate time, so he had to be the one who had turned back time, not the Virtue.

Henry also remembered Virtus saying that he had learned about him not too long ago. That would mean that Virtus had also been sent back in time along with Henry, and he had only displayed his knowledge to Henry because the Heavenly God had ordered him to do so.

When Henry’s thoughts reached this point, he looked astonished. He was overcome with anger, futility, and shame.

Henry made up his mind to find Ganisel and consult with him. Of course, he had assured Ganisel of his success before departing the Demon Realm, but he had no other choice.

Henry got Ganisel’s coordinates and set out to meet with him.

***

It wasn’t hard to find Ganisel again.

He was diligently taking lessons from Gretel to become more powerful, with the goal of being a legitimate Demon King, just as Henry had told him.

Henry went up to Ganisel and got straight to the point.

“...I see.”

Ganisel’s expression darkened after listening to Henry’s story, but he also nodded in understanding as though he wasn’t surprised by what had happened.

During their conversation, Henry recounted how the cupids had inexplicably come back to life after being decapitated by Klever.

“What you saw was probably the power of the holy relic that Virtus received from the Heavenly God,” said Ganisel.

“Holy relic?”

“That’s right. Holy relics are only granted to a few angels, and they each carry a special power.”

Ganisel explained how the cupids had managed to come back to life and how holy relics worked.

Besides that, Henry learned more about the heavens, such as geographic features and the types of angels and their hierarchy.

After listening to Ganisel’s explanation, Henry realized that Virtus was a fairly high-ranking angel.

“A fifth-rank Virtue, huh...”

“He’s a fifth-rank, so he’s about in the middle. There are a total of nine ranks of angels in the heavens, and the Heavenly God is the only being in the ninth rank, right at the top.”

“So as an archangel, you were in the eighth rank?”

“That’s right.”

There were a total of nine ranks in the heavens, the ninth being the highest, and each of them having a unique title. Ganisel had been in the eighth rank, an archangel, and he had even commanded other archangels.

Listening to his explanations, Henry realized just how powerful Ganisel had been in the heavens. However, he sighed as Ganisel kept explaining things. After all, he hadn’t come all this way to hear about the culture of the heavens.

Seeing Henry look worried and impatient, Ganisel looked at him with pity and said, “Henry, that’s why I’ve been trying to make an army.”

“An army?”

“That’s right. As you’ve just realized, one cannot defeat the Heavenly God by oneself. He can manipulate time, so the number of tactics you can use against him is very small.”

“Number of tactics? What do you mean?”

“A single individual is bound to always lose against the Heavenly God because he can just rewind time and analyze your strategy and patterns. But with an army, it’s different. An army has numerous soldiers, which means that there would be far too many variables and possibilities for the Heavenly God to see through all of them. He wouldn’t be able to analyze and plan against everything.”

That was the reason Ganisel needed an army.

“Variables, huh...”

As Henry listened to Ganisel, he was forced to admit that he had been hasty. Ganisel had spent years strategizing on how to deal with the Heavenly God, and yet Henry had rushed to challenge the Heavenly God right away. The fact that he himself was a god and that he possessed dimensional powers had given him too much confidence.

Henry was ashamed of his arrogance, and he decided to make up for it.

“Ganisel...”

“Yes?”

“I should’ve thought this through more. I know this may sound strange, but will you lend me your strength?”

“Haha, that’s the best thing I’ve heard so far!”

Henry and Ganisel—the incomplete god and the Demon King candidate joined forces to deal with their common enemy, the Heavenly God.