Heavenly Yard (story)

Heavenly Yard is a short story included in Waltz of Evil: The Deadly Sins of Evil Guidebook, released on December 24, 2013. The story details the creation of the world that Evillious exists in and elaborates on Sickle, the god who created the world and observes all the characters and events in the series.

Plot Summary
A long time before, scientists discovered a large bat with unusually thin and streamlined wings, calling it "Sickle". The bat, though neither truly a bat nor actually named Sickle, flies through the Bolganio continent and keeps a watchful eye on all corners of the world, being its creator.

Sometime after forming the world, Sickle assigned himself the role of an observer and made a rule not to interfere with the Third Period, to see what path it would take. Because of this, and because no one knew of Sickle's existence, he called upon friends from the Second Period to act as temporary gods and guide humanity in the early stages of their existence.

As part of this, the two gods in question, Levia and Behemo, although on bad terms with each other, were both merged into the form of a twin-headed dragon dubbed Levia-Behemo and sent down to earth. Due to their ugly form and being merged with their hated sibling, the twins grew furious and caused havoc in the world.

To stop their rampage, Sickle reluctantly sent down a relic from the Second Period that sealed the twins. From that spot, multiple humans gathered around the relic and formed Levianta, which became the most powerful country in the world. To keep watch over Levia-Behemo, Sickle incarnated another friend, Held, into the world as an immobile tree.

Afterwards, he turned into a bat and descended into the world to observe its course. Since then, hundreds of years passed; during that time, Held departed from the world and left Michaela behind as his successor, while Levia and Behemo wait within Elluka Clockworker, who ignores Sickle's rule of time along with a red cat. Sickle ponders the actions of Elluka, the red cat, and the spirit Gumillia, one of whom may hold the "key", and hopes to someday bring Levia and Behemo back to the Heavenly Yard.

Meanwhile, Sickle watches the Lucifenian Revolution, the conflict in Marlon, and the riot caused by Neo Apocalypse in Levianta. About forty years later, he visits Jakoku, and observes an old woman with red hair meet a young man with purple hair just outside Enbizaka, giving him two pairs of scissors. After the young man departs, another woman with the red cat on her shoulder arrives. The two speak briefly, and "Malice" kills the other woman, leaving only Sickle to witness Chartette Langley's death.

Seeing the woman seemingly look straight at him in the sky, the god feels her hatred in her look before she continues on. He watches over a battlefield in Jakoku as the country descends into civil war and observes the purple-haired youth in the center of the fight, killing indiscriminately.

The creator deity flies aimlessly for some time, reflecting on Banica Conchita and her transformation into a demon, her acquiring the twins, and her future goal to be Master of the Graveyard. He also reflects upon her servants themselves and their own limitations. After the civil war in Jakoku ends, he leaves and ponders why Held wished to leave a successor in Michaela.

Sickle soon arrives in the Heavenly Yard and turns back into his human form, meeting with Held and reaping from a rice field growing in the area. Also in a human form, the former Millennium Tree greets Sickle and chides him for farming in such a place; the two then start to argue about Sickle's decision to let everyone, even HERs, into the Heavenly Yard after death, neglecting the Hellish Yard.

Their discussion shifts to Michaela, with Sickle asking Held in vain his reasons for appointing a successor. Held redirects the conversation onto the black box found floating in the Heavenly Yard, noting the boy's special treatment. Sickle explains the boy's "irregular" circumstances of being outside the range of his creation, and then refuses to speak more on the matter to Held. After the other god leaves, Sickle unlocks the black box using a golden key and opens it to reveal a blond boy sleeping inside. He smiles and greets the boy, calling him Allen.

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Conceptualization and Origin

 * The story's title is shared with the name of one of the afterlives in the Levin religion.

Curiosities

 * When turning the short story's pages, the illustration of Sickle as a bat is seen moving along the edges, giving the allusion he is flying around the entire plane; after making his full circle, Allen is seen alongside the bat under the author's comments, bowing with a snack in-hand.