"I didn't know a True God had so much time as to be following a pair of mortal siblings. Enlighten me, what exactly gives you the courage to stand before me? Aren't you afraid I'll kill you off in the next moment?" The golden suns seemed to hold some degree of curiosity as they fixed on the old man in the sky.
"Lord 5th must be joking. I've known Lord 5th to be a reasonable person after all, I'm sure you would at least give me the chance to explain myself." No voice came from the sky as though a silent consent for him to continue.
"I found this boy and girl a couple of years ago or more aptly put they found me. You know how much I love the taste of the centennial spring water found on mount kyoshu and so I go there every 100years to indulge myself..."
"Hmph, what taste? The centennial spring water has no taste, you only like drinking it every 100 years cause you use it to commemorate surviving another century." The voice seemed to be laced with disdain but the old man wasn't angry and just smiled sheepishly.
"Hehe okay you got this old man. So back to my story while I was indulging myself....." He explained to the golden suns what happened on that mountain without adding or removing anything from it.
"....in the end I placed the dial to suppress his gift since I am unable to completely go against the natural order. However, it came to mind that you have been searching for gifts or abilities that can improve your odds against that-"
"What that! Are you so gutless you can't even mention it's name?! Hmph I should kill you where you stand." The voice seemed to be furious as violent Gale's surged through the gray world.
"Hehe not all of us are Devils and have the ability to go against it. Even among True Gods we can't use that name so casually. Anyways after realising that, I did a closer inspection and while you had unfortunately already acquired the boy's gift from someone else, the girl's gift was something you hadn't found yet according to my knowledge but there was also a chance you had found it in recent years so I left a reminder on the boy. When his dial finally breaks the commotion it will cause will definitely attract a Lord like yourself as you pay great attention to things involving fortune and misfortune and when it does, if you still need the girl's ability you would show up."
"Hmph I hate being schemed at. You know that right?"
"I understand how irritating it must be but you are a scarce man yourself, I had no choice and I only placed my mark on the boy, I did nothing to the girl lest I taint her and make her disgusting in Lord's eyes." The old man smiled ingratiatingly at the golden suns as he spoke.
"Hmph. Alright you've seen me now, what do you want?"
"A Life Writ. I want a Life Writ." The old man's eyes glazed with passion as he spoke.
"Ha. Greedy bastard, you must be joking. A life writ? Why would I give you a Life Writ?"
"Lord 5th should be able to see how strong the karma ties between this girl and her brother are, if something unfortunate were to happen to her brother I'm afraid that not only will she break down but even her gift would be complicated." The old man's voice at the end where as soft as a whisper. He knew what he was doing was extremely dangerous but whenever he thought about the future he realised he had no choice but to brave this danger.
"You, a coward actually dare to threaten me." The voice was not as angry as it was inquisitive. It seemed completely baffled that a man who would flinch at the slightest sign of violence would take an action like this.
"Sigh... this old man knows he is taking a big risk doing something like this but I have no choice. I am someone who values his life greatly, above anything else. The reason why I am a God and not a Devil despite me having the chance to have been one is also reflective of this. I always thought that we were stupid to go against something like the will of an entire plane. We were just mere humans brought about by the plane's will, how could we go against it? I don't regret my actions at the time as many Devils have fallen to the might of it but now the momentum of the Devils is surging and I no longer feel safe. Such a feeling doesn't stand right by me and as such I felt the need to get some insurance." There was a silence that lasted for about 10minute with neither side speaking. Eventually the voice echoed from the skies.
"Knowing you, one Life Writ will not be enough."
"Hm. I want 3."
"This girl although useful to me can barely exchange for 1. How do you intend to exchange for the remaining 2? Why aren't you satisfied with exchanging for just 1?"
"As I said the momentum of the Devils is too strong especially after the 10 of you became True Devils the entire order of things was destroyed. The 1st Lord raised his blade and destroyed the pool of fate, The 2nd Lord struck out his fists and destroyed the balance scale, The 3rd Lord reached her hands to the skies and tore apart the veil that hides the stars, The 4th Lord tore apart the fabric of space and charged out into the starry cosmos and he declared that he will return and destroy the order of the world completely.
You Lord 5th already gambled against the heavens once and although you didn't win, you can't be said to have lost and the essence of the world was greatly damaged. It is unknown who will be left standing when you two clash for the final time.
The remaining Lords are also causing no small problem. The 6th Lord's Sabers have cut down many powerful Gods and the Asuras he lead have brought no small problem to the Heavenly Court. The 7th and 8th lord have established a nation where the 7th is worshipped as a diety and the 8th as their sovereign. They are using the will of the people to influence the heavens and heavily affecting its control over the realm.
The 9th Lord seeks to corrupt the world and destroy it completely. If the world is destroyed Lord 9th and the Devils will be able to escape but most likely us Gods and humans will die. The 10th Lord is extremely temperamental and acts willfully, although not causing any chaos on par with the other Devil Lords, her acts have caused the Heavenly Court no small problems."
"Where exactly are you going with all this? I know everything you have already said and it gives me great joy. It is unfortunate that we Devils cannot unite our strength if not we would have since destroyed this dastard world." The voice seemed to hold resentment towards this.
"Haha the way of the Devil is to control it's own fate. How can a Devil control it's fate if it is under someone? I said all that to emphasize the issue here. If things continue like this, sooner or later I would be forced to go against one or more of these Devil Lords and my life might end up forfeit. So I decided to acquire a Life Writ from you. Although the other Devils may seem independent they will still respect your authority as not respecting it will be offending you, a being who lacks only one step to become a planar devil on par with the 1st to 4th Devil Lords. With a Life Writ I can ensure my life will be kept against them, of course that doesn't mean I will go ahead and provoke them with this. I just want a way out for myself."
"Hmmmm. Alright it's not impossible for me to give you 3 Life Writs. The girl can count as one but what will you use to exchange for the remaining 2 Life Writs?"
"Hehe I believe in Lord 5th so I won't hold back. The first is information concerning a Dimension Gate the Heavenly Court has discovered. The Gate leads to a Divine Order world and although I don't know the exact grade of the Divine Order, I believe it would be very useful to you because even though the Gate hasn't been explored before but the preparations for exploring it have been in the works for years now so I believe there is something very important to it in that realm. This is the coordinates of the Gate, although you could use your own resources to get to the realm I would advise you use that of the Heavenly Court's as the realm has set up no small number of traps. The Heavenly Court invested a lot to clear this traps."
"Interesting..haha I believe such an information as this would be under strict control but you would even tell me this? Alright that's one Life Writ, one more remains." The voice seemed to be ridiculing him but at the same time very joyful.
In actuality, just this information is enough to exchange for the remaining 2 Life Writs but why would he do that when there were benefits to be had besides he's a Devil not a saint.
"This information is not as important as my life. The second information will be more crucial to you however. It would seem that on one of her episodes of chaos, Lilith, the 10th Devil Lord was captured by the Heavenly Court. She is to be used as a sacrifice by a False God to ascend to the True God realm. The coordinates where she is held as well as where the sacrifice would be held is here."
The voice said nothing but the pressure released from it was suffocating. If he were not intentionally holding it back the very space here would have collapsed.
"Hmmm I was indeed wondering where that lass had run off to. I initially thought she had gone to another dimension but instead she was captured by those fellows. Interesting, really interesting. I know I gave her my seal so whoever was dealing with her should know they would offend me but they still did. Very good, they planned this quite well were it not for you I would have been oblivious of this up till she was killed. No small planning was done for this indeed, even being able to keep this from me. Very well your information is worth it, here are 3 Life Writs. Remember what you said, you can't use this to provoke my juniors. They are only to ensure your life and if you are killed before you can use them then I am not to be held accountable neither will I pursue your death. Leave."
The old man caught 3 rays of light that shot down from the sky before giving a bow and leaving with a smile.
'It seems the rumours are true. Although the 5th Devil Lord seems less concerned about the other Devils he is very doting towards the 10th Devil Lord. Haha let me see how you will take that step Mael, when you have Baalberith on your neck.'