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Evan vaguely recalled reading about the Tomb of Ascension years ago when he was still learning his way into the supernatural world.

Long before Emberlyn was established, the area where the town now stood was a vacation spot for gods and beasts. It was described as thedwelling of a heavenly cold spring, where any illness and all injuries would heal, mortal or immortal. By some silent truce established between the heavens and hell, gods and demons agreed to use the Tomb of Ascension without conflicts.

The Tomb of Ascension, as its name suggested, was a tomb-shaped, four-pillared gateway, with a channel of Heavenly Spring Water circling it. The summoning array on the floor of the Tomb enabled non-human beings to hail onto earth without hassle.

For centuries, everything remained peaceful between the two races until one day, a demon brave enough to dispute with the gods emerged. He argued that the “ascension” in the Tomb of Ascension suggested it belonged to the demonic race rising fromthe Demon Realm. It didn’t say “descending” from Heaven, did it?

Though merely an argument, shortly after, many gods and goddesses stopped appearing through the Tomb of Ascension, their prides bruised from even being associated with anything related to the lesser race. They were divine beings that ruled from over the clouds. Those beasts of hell didn’t even come close to their power and status among the mortals.

When the gods abandoned the Tomb of Ascension, the demons eagerly took over the summoning gateway, using it as and when they desired. Until one day, a bolt of lightning from heavens struck the Tomb, breaking the summoning array. And with nothing to summon the deities or demons, the Tomb of Ascension lay deserted.

In this era, it would be somewhere around the Old Temple ruins.

Evan had a feeling that the “sudden lightning from the heavens” wasn’t a coincidence. Someone up in the clouds was probably jealous of all the fun the demons were having and decided to act petty.

But if this woman, Florence, had somehow managed to restore the array with her own blood, it was definitely possible that what she saw at the Tomb of Ascension was the realm of demons. And if that was true, the three thrones of the underworld… Could she have seen the Abyssal Trinity?

But weren’t they a rare species or something? How had she sighted them so easily?

Oh heavens, she hadn’t fucked one of the Demon Kings, had she?

Evan read through the pages once again to make sure he’d not left out any part when he found a small note scribbled laterally at the end of the passage.

“One throne was empty.”

Even though they ruled at the same time? Maybe that Eternal had just retired, and they were waiting for the birth of a successor at the time.

As Evan pondered over the topic, his phone buzzed in his pocket. When he fished it out, his heart suddenly stuttered at the text message flashing on the screen.

Cici: Hey. Finals are over. I’m coming home this weekend. Can I bring some friends?

Evan almost slipped from his place at the window as he clumsily bookmarked a finger between the pages of the grimoire and typed out a reply with his free hand.

Oh God. Oh God. Oh God.

Okay. Don’t panic!

He typed a few words and deleted them. Typed and deleted again, then groaned low in his throat before forcing himself to calm down. After a moment as he regained his equilibrium, he typed out his response before hitting send.

Me: Sure.

Evan’s breathing turned erratic, and palpitations wrecked his arteries.

It was happening. Celie was finally coming home after a whole year of no visits or contact, and here Evan was having a heart attack. He glanced down at the book, then at his phone, and something struck him out of the blue.

Celie was coming home. Their home, which was infested with a demon peasant.

Evan bolted upright like a spring was let loose in his legs, and his panic doubled in intensity. “No. Fucking. Way.”

He didn’t know how he reached back home, whether he walked or ran or teleported. He just knew that he had to keep that damned demon away from his sister and possibly himself too. At least for the weekend.

As he hurried toward the main door of his house, however, he heard a few—two—familiar voices speaking inside.

Actually, one was speaking and the other was humming dryly in response. Recognizing both the voices, Evan dashed inside, praying for the first time in his life that he was hallucinating and hearing things. But when he entered the living room, he froze at the threshold.

Two sets of eyes turned towards him, one of them especially dark and fierce.

As soon as Xen saw him, his gaze softened infinitesimally, and he almost smiled like he usually did around Evan, but Aaron interrupted, throwing his arm around Evan’s shoulder. “Welcome back!”