Chrysalis Heart

by Yincira

AU. What if the story was about the plight of the demons? Nina's more heroic, Azazel doesn't disappear, Belphegor doesn't die, Kaisar's more self aware.

16. Forgiveness

· · · · · · ·

Drums and pipes thrilled into the night, confetti rained all around. They swung through a festival full of cheers under the firelit sky. He was the way she liked him best, smiling gently but guiding strong. Even in the heat of dance and feast he was only ever the perfect image of calmness and control, each step calculated as he led their dance.

Something cracked below Nina's feet. A glimpse of a small white wing and Mugaro's lifeless eyes before Chris swung her onward.

She matched his pace to the ever more cheerful music, even as shrivelled demons cropped up the crowd begging for mercy.

Right past emaciated Jeanne on her knees, praying under the rising shadow of Dromos.

Chris twirled her around.

And here, Azazel in a collar thrown to the ground as an arena built around him.

The crowd parted to give room to Nina and Chris's dance.

"Wait ... " Nina said, but everything else she ought to say died on her tongue.

Onyx Knights lined the edge and in passing Chris told them, "Kill them all."

They didn't move, but all else did.

Dromos fell on Jeanne and a dozen swords skewered Azazel. The demons in the crowd were trampled. Siem and Kiprio and others she knew only a little strung on the gallows. Dante and Eligos's flesh melting away under charged arrows, wings tore from children and whips cracked on broken backs as thousands of slaves pulled up a hollow tower surrounding the dance. In the shadow of this all, Chris lay spun countless laws that threaded into the celebrants, became their guidance and wisdom and permission to destroy lives as they saw fit.

Gods lay sacrificed on the altar of his empire, and demons stripped of their wings, horns, culture, their strongest and weakest, their home and kingdom. Humankind would build on bones to rise to heaven.

Still Nina and Chris danced, and she felt only the joy in her heart at his sincere smile.

Why? Nina asked herself. What about the others?

"They don't matter," Nina said.

But he turns all the world into Gehenna.

"Peace would be great but if I have to choose, it is him. It always will be him."

They don't matter anymore.

The world around them erroded until only skeletons remained and Chris was still untouched in her arms.

The carnage might as well not exist as he leaned down to kiss her. In the promise of his devotion to her lay a sense of power and a desire for kindness only between them, that she was special when no one else was.

The others did matter, but only to contrast her importance to him. All she had to do to earn love was respond in kind. To let him be everything to her, and she would hold all she wanted. The rest would come, maybe he would change, but even any other wish she held was secondary to him.

For him, she would betray everyone.

Maybe she already did so.

When Nina opened her eyes to the darkness of her room, fear kept her frozen.

She lay breathing deep to the merciless pounding of her heart. The dragon clawed behind her eyes to get out. She began forcing the power away before it pushed her any further. Claws dug into the mattress and her neck was too long already, but she could still think and realize.

She shouldn't change here, bad place, too small ... people died if she transformed in places too small. Her father had. Some man whose name she had never learned, too, but if she was honest only her father's death hurt.

And Chris hurt, but not in a way she could use. If only she could reach into her chest and out this feeling that she didn't want. But she was not of divine origin at all, and it hadn't even worked for Azazel the way he'd wanted.

All the hatred she had felt for Charioce still lived, her feelings on his regime had not changed, so why couldn't she connect Charioce to Chris?

The pulse of her power slowed down. To wash the desire for him away, she tried to put her mind to her friends instead, to her mother, even her father.

Knowing the truth of her father's death hadn't made it better, rather, it drove home that however unintentional she hurt people. The dragon wanted out so much more lately, but this night was the worst.

It wasn't even the first nightmare she had had of Chris. It built with every day she met gods who had lost loved ones to him, and saw Azazel deny he was sick and Jeanne flinch at the sound of anything like a whip.

She tried to force the thoughts back down along with the dragon, but it thinned her strength. Some selfish part of her wanted to talk with Jeanne and pour it all out. Her mother too perhaps, but she wasn't sure whether that was right anymore. Her mother had left her in the dark for years. But Jeanne was not here, she had been gone for a few days now. According to a messaged, she tried to ally humans and demons in a city and she wouldn't be back soon.

Even if Qhispe was awake, she would only give sagely advice and Azazel was the last person she could tell about Chris.

The eb came about slowly on her own call. Pink light rolled over her arms in the same rhythm as the pounding of the pulse in her veins. She tore the tangled blankets as she sat up.

The room had felt too sterile before, if pretty, now it was welcome to the rolling thunder in her head.

Curling her wings out, she surrounded herself with the translucent membrance. Wings were more like hands than she had expected, or maybe that was her mind trying to make sense of them. They didn't really fit still, but she could move them like she moved her fingers.

A queasy rhythm in that was her needed distraction, untill all that was left was her human form.

Dawn probably was around now, though it was difficult to see since it was always starry yet radiant up here. She stood up anyway. Another day, another time to argue with stubborn gods and see how many might give earth and hell a chance.

· · · · · · ·

Sofiel descended from her gate above the cathedral just to collide with a demon in mid flight. When he saw she was a god, he quickly apologized and flew off.

"Down below!" another called.

Sofiel barely dodged a falling beam. It never hit the ground, a gigantic ghoul caught it and easily lifted it back up.

What in the world was going on here? She'd been told of a disturbance, not of this!

Granted, she understood a construction site when she saw one, Valeria had skyscrapers ever since demonic labor became available. Just, the old churches had not been upgraded. So far. Now the walls went much higher, and to the side was a whole outcrop.

She flew on. The demons stared at her with suspicion and fear.

At ground level, Sofiel folded her wings and conjured up her human clothes, trying to blend in. She did not want some random nut deciding she would be the perfect way to get back at heaven.

It proved a little difficult to find Jeanne in the crowd. Most were demons, but there was a significant amount of humans, including a so called civil rights group; they were much more enthusiastic about this than the gods they pestered about supporting projects. They even had demon members.

When she finally found Jeanne, it was within the now open ceiling cathedral's main room. Benches and ornaments had been cleared out, leaving space for rubble. The windows were removed for safety reasons as well. A skeleton of wood and stone, it hardly looked like progress for the church.

Jeanne wore the clothes from Nina's village too, blending more with the humans surrounding her. A pastor, a bishop, a number of city officials and two demons, peering over a map on a table. Impatient, Sofiel waited until they were done.

When Jeanne at last walked off, Sofiel sided up. "Jeanne ..."

"Ah, lady Sofiel!" Jeanne lit up at her presence, and Sofiel hated to break that mood, but she had to.

"When I agreed to help you get back Précieuse, I did not think you had plans to this."

"I did not bring it in for defending myself against demons, but to give myself some legitimacy before the gods. Nina surely thought the same. I may not be a saint anymore, but there are many things I can do without the magic of war."

Sofiel blocked her path. "Jeanne, please listen to me. Undermining the old way we do things in a time of crisis is not the best course of action you can take. You've been here for days and, well, we cannot remove you while you have all these obligations. It would look bad, but we would prefer you return to enforcing the more general religious ties between heaven and earth. What are you even doing here?"

"The freed demons must go somewhere. I arranged for them to be sheltered by the church, but there is too many and I'm afraid the local clergy has too much prejudices. So we're expanding the shelter. A number of the demons are already familiar with construction and we have an architect." Jeanne pointed at a wrinkly green demon, who half raised his hand in acknowledgement.

Jeanne darted past Sofiel, having caught the arrival of food sacks. Some donated mushrooms, which Jeanne insisted on going through until a demon told her the poison didn't matter.

That should've settled things, but Jeanne just went on to peel potatoes while a demon started a fire in the middle of the hall. A bunch of kids and eldery demons flocked by to help out, and an adult brought in a massive cauldron. Jeanne began instructing them on a recipe she knew with these things, citing her life next to the woods. Most of the demons had never known woods, and that became a topic.

Honestly, how absurd. She should be in throne rooms if anything.

"Why are you cooking?"

Jeanne gave her a look that could only be described as, how could you possibly ask?

It was a little dirty here. Sofiel wiped the bench and sat down at the edge.

"Jeanne, one city cannot change this all."

"But it can inspire change elsewhere." Nonchalantly, she tossed the potato pits in the cauldron, as if to accent that. As if it would be that easy.

"Right now, a demon has taken hostage part of Anatae. Charioce and his court are using this to counter any claims demons can be trusted free, and I have no doubt humans will find that much more persuasive than anything you do here, because it builds on centuries of evil from the demon tribe."

"Hey! Don't give us that shit, lady," the demon at the cauldron snapped. "You guys keep dumping your criminals with us and you're complaining they get a government going that sucks? First Satan, now Lucifer. And we owe Belzebuth to that fun little system too, birds of a feather, you know. So you shut your pretty mouth with the 'tribe' thing."

"They don't even have centralized political system the way heaven does. You see ... " Jeanne frowned to herself, and kept quiet.

"That may well be, but it is not your concern. Have you not done enough for them? Why not move on? Perhaps free more than just here?"

"Set them free and then what? Have you ever lived in poverty? Without freedom, on the brink of starvation? Valeria might not be as bad as what I've seen in Anatae, but it will be worse for those I freed if I don't attend to them. I am not leaving here until these dem— there people have a roof over their head and enough food coming. Even if it doesn't change the whole world, it's worth it for them. But I will change more than just this, on my oath as a knight."

Jeanne wouldn't have been a saint if she hadn't been like this, but Sofiel inexplicably couldn't accept her perseverance. She would only be disappointing, and her next words were not chosen wisely.

"Like what your friend tries to do in heaven by yelling at gods? Do you have any idea what trouble she might cause? The public forums are already buzzing with theories on Qhispe and some of her words in the mausoleum got out. Unconfirmed, of course, we can't have the public knowing sensitive information already."

"Nina only means well," Jeanne said. "And I've been told making friends is something she naturally does. Honestly, she should be with me, not on some stale forums."

Sofiel leaned closer to her ear, but not too close. "No, on Indra's Net's forums. It's information, like letters sent to one another, but faster and more expensive. People get together and theorize and unite in ways you can't predict. Part of my job is keeping an eye on that. Nina going down here would cause all sorts of complication, and we're certainly not letting her on Indra's Net."

Maybe she just imagined it, but Jeanne appeared to be slicing a little harsher. With a sigh, she added, "Look, Jeanne, you must not place too much hope in this."

Jeanne dropped the knife in the bowl. "What should I place hope in then? Lady Gabriel dragging my child across the world for inspiration and having humans pray to nur under the wrong name? Until she throws my child, my seven year old child, back into a battle against something on par with Bahamut? We should be finding out what causes the resistance."

"Your child may be the only hope for the world," Sofiel said, as she had been trained to, but she wasn't so sure herself. Nina's existence called into question the special destiny that Michael allegedly figured out in the afterlife. It also meant the immunity wasn't unique, and they might find others yet. Maybe they even could figure it out with magic.

Jeanne deadpan said, "I'm seriously starting to consider leaving my child in Azazel's care."

Did she imagine an unspoken again? Had Jeanne heard rumors in the inner circles or was this just an off mark joke about her old enemy?

"That seems like a bad idea, lass," the demon at the cauldron said. "I can name you a dozen better options who aren't part of the damn elites."

The conversation that ensued on that left Sofiel out. Jeanne set aside her work to pull out papers to write names on, and asked for descriptions and others to talk to. None of the right questions were asked. Jeanne knew town life, and knighthood, and the army, but she hadn't even thought of the political ramifications. The religious ones she left aside, Jeanne wanted to uproot those anyway. The demon she spoke to had just been a civilian in hell — hell having civilians felt so bizarre — and had even less , if it had to be. Sofiel picked up a pile of carrots and a knife, unsure how to handle it but intent to not just sit here useless.

"You would need to organize more than just soldiers in ranks or civilians in towns," Sofiel said. "Remember, nobody signed up, they were all abducted."

Jeanne could only haphazardly point out professions, none of which sounded qualified to unite a larger group of freed slaves. They would need a center point and — oh why was she even thinking about helping demons? They'd just backstab them once it was all over.

If. If, if she had to be honest. Charioce's threat was far greater than anything, sans Bahamut perhaps.

"What do they want at the end of this?" Sofiel asked Jeanne.

"We want to go home, and I'm standing right here," the demon said. Sofiel looked at vun first the first time. The demon was stocky, old, and full of contempt. Hardly an interesting conversation partner.

"We'll need a little more than that." And Sofiel knew exactly what, but had very little taste for articulating that to someone who'd probably be dead in a few years anyway.

Shouting from above disturbed them, some kind of argument. Without missing a beat, Jeanne stood up and called, "I need a lift!"

Sofiel was on her feet, wings unfolding, but too late. A nearby demon had already scooped her along a few levels up. Sofiel felt a twinge of unreasonable spite over that, before deciding she might as well follow and see what was up, maybe bring Jeanne back down, and maybe see whether she could help resolve that issue.

· · · · · · ·

Ambrosia was apparently very difficult to get, so Nina insisted on Jeanne being around to try it too. This was a thing now, going to a secret underground picnic with Lucifer's right hand, whom she was hiding in heaven. On top of reforming the entire structure of heaven's approach to earth and hell. Oh gods. Might as well bring candles for ambiance.

Getting excuses to run off with Nina was even easier since Jeanne's return, since Nina was on the brink constantly. She couldn't help feel a little bad for suggesting she learn the truth, since it unravelled more than it restored. Nina glowed pink all the way into the lair, where Azazel kept losing snakes. Shouldn't he have overcome that poison by now? There were times where he didn't grow any snakes from his arms, but the longer he was in heaven the more steady it became in frequency.

Might El be able to help either of them? Oh, she wanted to just bring her child here, away from the strange philosophies and back to humble roots — literal ones even. Maybe she could suggest Nina needed the help, but they wouldn't even let Nina spend time alone with El.

Nina coaxed some roots into a round table and started unpacking one of her bundles. She had one big cake with multiple layers and a few small ones.

Azazel and cake sure was something. The whole image of stoic dark demon crashed down into a lot of second hand embarassment.

"Who raised you?" Jeanne couldn't help but ask. Normally he had better table manners than Nina, but this made her question how much of that was an act.

"Shnuddup," he said while stealing some of Nina's cake by means of snake. "Or actually, talk about something else. Nina says you're breaking chains?" Not that Azazel had been disinterested in what she told of El, but this was the first time he needed to know.

She went over her actions only, not her plans yet. One city where she had convinced the nobles to allow demons to do paid work under supervision of the gods, and she had arranged food, shelter and medicine for them. Some bishop had suggested they expand the church, keeping the paid work 'under supervision' most easily.

"And you got the gods on board with this?" Azazel asked. "Really?"

"I'm unsure yet. Lady Gabriel, Odin and many others of her council are displeased, but they do not want to appear as if they can't control me. To be honest, I'm more nervous now than I was when I stepped out of that church. But I've managed to have a few who agree with me, and some of Nina's friends have an interest in descending too."

"Tch. And what makes you think gods are the best for it?"

"Gods by nature tend to the world. Regardless of whether they've not kept me in mind, the gods have always taken care for humankind. I cannot say the same for demonkind," Jeanne said. "If we can have them accept demons as people too, it will be better than humans." She almost had said sinful humans, but kept the word safe behind yet.

Azazel finished the last of his serving, grabbed the big cake and put it so he was between it and Nina, and settled to talk. "No, gods keep humans if they are pleased, they get rid of them if they don't. That's how it worked four centuries ago, and it still does. Those two drunkards were the only gods living among humans and they are exiles under special circumstances. Everyone else follows Raphael's doctrine to keep distant from the humans so they don't advance too much and continue needing the gods. The more familiar humans get to gods, they more they demand. Just look at the drunkards, nobody prays to them. Humans are the smaller mice of the magical ecosystem : there are lots of them that keep the fewer but stronger creatures sustained. That is true for both heaven and hell. Fate and fear feed each other."

He held up his darkened arm. "And they love rot if it happens where they want it. Rot makes the most bombastic kind of enemies. It was fun even, I revelled in it and let them live it. They got exactly what they asked for, to their regret."

"And ours," Jeanne said. "Regardless, this is what I want to remedy. I need to know what to expect, so why not start by telling me what happened to Belzebuth's followers?"

"They joined the alliance under Lucifer, of course."

Oh, that was a problem. She'd assumed they'd been killed on principle, save for who ever got away.

"I need to know more, if you please."

"There were seven tribes who serve as overseers. Currently there's just four left, led by Grigori, Amaymon, Saleos and Bifrons. Allied to them are a few dozen tribes each, some of which are alliances of smaller tribes. Since the death of Belzebuth they've been assimilating and distributing his allies to avoid an internal rebellion.

Not that we avoided all strife, but that was my job : beat up anyone who misbehaved. I had to a lot, it was a cold war for the first three years. Who was gonna provoke Lucifer into acting, and if so, which allies would and would not join him? The idea an alliance of several of the strongest could team up against Lucifer floated around. Just when we were getting somewhere, Charioce invaded hell. No alliance mattered anymore."

"What do you mean with assimilation?"

"For example, there was a bunch of barbarians who got assigned on guard duty for squishy wizards who spent most of their times in laboratories, so they were forced to tone themselves down just to do their job right. Some liked it, some didn't, either way they weren't in a position to start infighting. They were under Saleos, whose alliance tended to already favor the innovators. The same didn't always work with other cases."

"Ah, a little like when I moved knighs between sub orders to optimize teamwork?"

"Cultural instead of tactical."

She might have to make calls on who to set free first and where, a task that felt far beyond her rights.

If only Nina or Azazel were better sounding boards for brainstorming. Maybe she ought to take this to Sofiel, who had more experience ...

Speak not only of the devil and he shall come, but of the goddess too, apparently. A cream circle of familiar ornamenets opened straight ahead of Jeanne, just beyond Nina and Azazel.

"Azazel, hide."

One glance back and he was gone, leaving behind feathers as his wings grew out. Nina shifted in his place, knocked over the cake to cover up most of the feathers and curled her wings ahead, so Jeanne could set her hands on them. Oh, please let the pretense pass ...

Sofiel stepped out of the circle and looked around in utter confusion.

Nina stood up a little too quickly and said, "Hey, hello, why are you joining us?" She flared her wings a little, throwing demonic energy all around.

"My apologies for trailing you, but ... what is happening here?" Sofiel said to Jeanne, while looking at Nina and the mushed up cake.

Oh. Oh no. Sofiel had been able to subconsciously trail Jeanne and El's presence two years ago, of course she could still do so. Urlain wouldn't be the only one sensing demonic energy either ...

"Just practice," Nina said. "We had a small accident when your circle disrupted our concentration."

Sofiel took one long look at Jeanne and Nina before slowly turning around, prying the darkness of something.

"I came to talk to you concerning your plans," Sofiel said.

Nina had to lean in an awkward position to hide one of the fallen feathers, and her grin did a poor job of not looking forced.

Sofiel frowned at Jeanne. "You two are hiding a matter. Do not deny it."

Jeanne tensed up. "It's nothing big. Only about on the level of uh, when I was little I once hit a a stray dog in the barn from my parents. Can we talk of this later, lady Sofiel?"

Sofiel still peered through the dark. Tapping her staff, it went alight, but she found only shadows of roots.

"Someone else is here, Jeanne," Sofiel said.

Nina leaned against Sofiel's arm, her own crossed. Her smile was sly. "Maybe. And maybe you followed Jeanne here because you want to talk about something you don't want Gabriel to hear?"

Beyond offended, Sofiel stepped away. "Why, you ..."

Jeanne took Sofiel's hand, clasping it in her own and had her instant attention. "Lady Sofiel, no good will come from pursuing this. Yes, we have help from someone regarding Nina's issues. They do not wish to be revealed. Please trust me when I say there is no danger."

Sofiel sighed, turning her eyes down. "Michael has always only praised your judgment on the battlefield."

Jeanne feared her judgment on Martinet would be brought up, but Sofiel went on to say, "I wished to discuss something with Nina and you both, but I would prefer to do it between only the three of us. I'll take your word, but I will not expand my trust to this stranger. Please meet me at the same place where we unlocked Précieuse for you. Nina too."

Jeanne nodded. "Thank you for your faith, lady Sofiel."

She walked Sofiel out through one of the passages, since Sofiel had some trouble with the excess of dark energy around here, and told her Nina had found this place. Another lie, she wanted to cease more than ever.

Sofiel left, still suspicious.

Once Jeanne had enough demons on her side and Azazel had returned to full health, she would send him to whatever new group of demons would come together. Then she would tell Sofiel about this. As much as she wanted to fully trust her, she wasn't certain yet to what degree Sofiel adhered to Gabriel.

Or how to make anything with these two work.

Upon return, she found them eating the mushed cake off the ground.

"Oh for goodness sake, why?"

"What? You've seen me eat worse," Nina mumbled through the chewing.

"When we had nothing else to eat!"

"It's good cake."

Azazel just moved the dirt off with snakes and stuffed his mouth again. "We're demons, you can't expect divine actions like wasting good cake."

Neither of these two would be very good for the reputation of the demons, but somehow, she would have to get them involved. Nina despite her immunity, Azazel despite his (in)famy with the demons and both despite their, ahem, lack of presentableness. She'd skip bringing this up when praying to Michael.

· · · · · · ·

Do not let her go any further. Those were Gabriel's orders on Jeanne's project. Select a few strong demons to be freed, maybe see whether some could be put into an army. Perhaps they could throw those as cannon fodder at Charioce during the next siege? Gabriel put a lot of that to work herself, but Sofiel was to oversee secondary arrangements. Finances for buying anyone free, potential spells, having demons checked for presence in the hall of sinners ...

... and well, she did think Jeanne should have a little back up. It wasn't encouraging her to expand or anything. Just ... help.

Besides, Jeanne was already doing something behind her back. Whomever she hid — and Sofiel was inexplicibly certain it was another living being — didn't appear harmful. Maybe another god from a distant area? A demon who had sneaked into heaven somehow, once or now? Someone she had summoned?

She would honor Jeanne's request to trust her, for now.

And maybe some other requests.

Really, she had to admit she kind of already was granting the expanse thing. Maybe. Potentially.

So Nina was in her office on invitation this time. She might as well have broke another window, what with this crowd. She had brought along friends, friends of friends and just about anyone who wanted a job on earth.

And Sofiel still hadn't reported this to Gabriel. She would have to, once Gabriel returned from another mission.

Or she could just send them off first, feign to misunderstand Gabriel's direction as not letting Jeanne specifically make decisions. With some luck Veritas would not be called in.

It didn't have to be any of the newbies who were just curious. Chiron and alike would do, they have experience with earth — Chiron himself had once trained heroes in the name of the gods and itched to do so again. Sending him along as instructor for Jeanne would raise Gabriel's hackles, but as supporter for the nobles who were to ally themselves with the heavenly armies ... she should be able to make such a move without much objections.

Still she hesitated, going over at length how to respond to all the ways Gabriel might object. It was only hours later that she opened a vision panel to Reinier and Urlain.

· · · · · · ·

A protest raged beyond the forest, barely visible but loud enough to carry up.

This evening he got through the important mail much swifter than once; a new usual since the war with the gods. The countries under the alliance were a little less open in their communication; the key allies of Gramgarz, Manaria, Valeria, Rogreshia, Gordina and Leydia all had provided requested back up but were a little more recitent than usual. Less royals visited, eagerly pointing out the crisis in Anatae even if their planned destination had been elsewhere.

Valeria in particular seemed to wend back to the grounds. How long until that would blend with the protest going down in the upper ring?

A hand set on his shoulder, giving a comforting squeeze. "Don't worry about it, you're doing fine."

Charioce turned away from the window, letting the corpse stand there. "The voice doesn't quite sound right."

Rita sat cross legged on the ground, surrounded by vials and potions and glass tubes filled with ichor. "You know your memory of how her voice sounded may not be accurate? You're only human, I'd be surprised if your memory was always accurate."

She liked to remind of him of that, thought her little taunts mattered.

"I know my mother's voice well enough, and you will continue until I am pleased."

"I can't say I'm pleased with Kaisar being on the front lines," Rita said.

"He is safer there than with the Orleans Knights," he said. "My task force is far more competent and he is kept out of confrontation." And stirring trouble on Essenbeck's behalf.

"Hmm. I don't understand why you don't just lock him up somewhere?"

Before losing Azazel — did she already know? — he hadn't needed that. Now he could fabricate something, but that was more complicated. Charioce had seen the reanimated hand when he visited the stand where Nina had worked with Rita; Essenbeck was lying about regeneration and implantations. And Kaisar since its aquirement had a peculiar tendency to want to talk to his knights a whole lot more.

How it stuck together was up in the air and he didn't have a clear plan on how to deal with it, simply since he didn't know what went down.

Rita made decent progress at least. The room was cleared of fog, and his mother could still pass for a living human. There were a few beauty flaws in the jerking motion and how rather than eat, she just froze at the table. But her eyes did not glow and she smiled like a living person. He didn't pretend she was alive yet, not untill she could form opinions on new information. If his mother were truly alive, she would have much more to say about his kingdom and throne than repeated old phrases.

Soon enough he would have no choice but to deal with Bahamut. He just wanted to leave his kingdom in more competent hands that some other bastard son of lesser caliber. If Rita could truly bring people back to life, maybe she could fix him afterward, or barring that he would leave his mother behind.

· · · · · · ·

"So I just stand in the circle here?" Favaro asked. Cerberus had at last found him at a point where he didn't have anything urgent enough to do, so he was biting the sword and hoped he came out looking cool.

Cerberus's new home was similar in spirit but not nature to her old : lots of incense and smoke and chandeliers, but it was all stolen from surrounding human houses as substitute, rather than crafted or imported. The walls and floor were sandstone, the latter which Cerberus now was drawing an elaborate circle on.

"That's it, all set! You stand a liiiitle to the left —" She shoved him a few paces. "—and swear loyalty to me."

"Do I have to?"

She flattened her ears a little. "Yes."

"Fine fine. I'm vowing loyalty to Cerberus or Naberius or whatever." Behind Cerberus, Amira's astral projection gave him a happy thumbs up. He'd be fine if Cerberus tried to screw him over, but he had to struggle to not look cocky.

"You're not gonna kiss me, right?"

"That how it happened the first time? Nah. It's an option because both breath and hands are magic keys, but I've had to kiss way too many lately. You get a poke to the head."

The circle lit up around Favaro and light drained from the already dark room, all nice and dramatic. He took a knee and spread his arms, which put him at eye level with her chest; too bad she wore a shawl. "My lady, I am ready to be damned."

Cerberus rolled her eyes, put her fingertip on his forehead and that was it. Favaro didn't feel any different.

Within a blink, someone teleported right behind Cerberus and shoved a sword through her gut. Cerberus froze, but only for a second. Reaching back, she did something that made Olivia scream and almost back away. Cerberus teleported ahead, grabbed Favaro and vanished.

They reappeared in the darkness. The loose echo indicated it was the caves.

"The hell just happened?" he asked, but Cerberus clamped a hand over his mouth.

Mimi and Coco scurried off and until they were back Cerberus kept herself and him stock still.

"No sign she followed, though one of her human servants is hanging around the entrance, ruff," one of the dogs said.

"Let's go deeper." Cerberus pulled him along through the dark, during which she teleported a few more times. When they stopped at last and Cerberus lit a candle, they were in a narrow crawlspace with old web all over the walls. It seemed closed off enough so Favaro lit a torch.

Cerberus still had the sword through her stomach, appearing in pain but not dying. One of her dogs popped up with bandages. She sat down, back towards Favaro. "Your first task : pull this thing out as soon as I say."

Getting the sword out came with a lot of blood and wincing, but she was still whole. Odd. The sword was definitely magic.

Cerberus pushed some goo in on both ends, then wrapped herself up.

"Why are you not dead or even immobile?"

"You know how my puppies are alive even as dolls without any organs?" Cerberus said through. "I'm like that with vital functions too, just a tad more convincing to be alive."

"Aha. And what happened just now?"

"She must've waited till I was distracted," Cerberus groaned. "Olivia cannot sneak up on me, even with teleportation. If anything teleportation makes her more easily to detect : it always displayed the air just before the body is transported. What I don't get is how she knew I was there doing something distracting."

"Yep, air magic is importants to our scent magic, ruff!" Mimi said. "She couldn't have had a spy in!"

"How long till she finds this place?" he asked.

"Depends on her sources, which I haven't been able to figure out yet," Cerberus said. "She's got her human followers wander around, they might be pacted in a way. But she doesn't want to face me without the element of surprise, or she would've done so already. Bah, and now she knows I can survive this. Maybe she'll bring those other two next time."

Favaro scratched his head, trying to think. Why was he doing this again? Olivia was probably another one less affected by fate and now she was gonna pay attention to him. He was inclined to just see where things went and wing it, but how long till that ran out? Besides, winging it meant fate dictated a little too much.

Amira wasn't here, yet, but she would find him soon enough. Maybe if he got some privacy he'd go over things with her.

What had that pact done for him anyway? Nothing really felt different ... wait. There was an increasingly agitating itch around his waist. He lowered his pants a little and out curled his old tail, now full of orange hair with a white tip.

"Aww, man, couldn't you have given me horns or something? I already had a perfectly fine demon tail."

"I couldn't get rid of the tail, that's some pretty powerful pact you got there," she said. "But I turned it all nice and fluffy. Come on, everyone has triangle tails, nobody has a fox tail. You'll stand out!"

Favaro swished his upgraded tail and stared at it. "I might be able to work this, but it's the itching I'm not looking forward to."

"You'll learn to fluff your tail right. Now, let's get to the orders of—"

"Why are you so keen on pacting with me anyway?"

"You're goddamn Favaro Leone, whoever gets you on the side of the demons will be hailed."

"Bragging rights, or maybe you need a cushion cause you fucked up something?"

And it was the second one, judging by her sudden prickliness.

"I'll have you know that ..." Her eyes widened in shock and her mouth dropped as she stared past Favaro.

He looked back at the arriving Amira, who stared right back in confusion.

Cerberus took a knee and lowered her head. "Lord Satan!"

"Huh?" was all Favaro managed.

"Why is lord Satan with you?" Coco squeaked.

Oh, to them Amira looked like their old boss.

It would be so easy to tell her that yes, this was Satan projecting out of Bahamut and just get her to obey him that way.

"It's not Satan. That's Amira using his power."

Amira looked between them, frowning.

And all the world be damned, she said and Favaro heard, "I can hear you?"

Now it as Favaro's turn to drop his jaw. Amira's voice ... damn, he'd missed it.

"Duh, of course you can," Cerberus stood up again, exchaing reverence for offense. "Why is lord Satan lending you his power?"

Amira smiled. "He is not. I am just Amira, both the god and demon key. Zeus and Satan are gone, all their memory and power is mine now."

"Oh. Shit. That's ... brutal. I can live with that," Cerberus said, flattening her ears in anxiety. "So what do you want?"

"We're trying to change fate! It's Favaro and my new quest." She turned to Favaro. "Oh, I need to tell you so much more! No more papers!"

Holy shit. "Yes, I guess we have a lot to catch up on."

Her face fell into that dreadfully disappointed pout. Had he said something wrong again?

"I can't hear Fava," said to Cerberus. "Can't you make it so?"

"I can hear you," he said, but at his words she sadly shook her head again.

Cerberus put a finger on her chin. "Hmmm ... okay, so there's a whole lot of magic types that govern the world. Voice reception is one of them cause it needs a separate package for spells or something. Sometimes there's glitches, in your case your voice isn't processed. Can you cast verbal spells?"

"Nope."

"Huh. Well, I bet you were one hell of a liar."

"Are you shitting me?"

"Not at all. What with you being a fate baby I bet you have all sorts of peculiar stuff going on. Here's my best guess : she's getting your senses through your pact. Now you have a pact with me and my magically enhanced senses, there's overlap. I don't have voice related magic, but my hearing related magic might be good enough to give her something to work with."

"What a hassle, but it's better than before." He pulled out his papers and started drawing. "Hey, Cerby, teach Amira how to read better, okay?"

"I don't take orders from you, human! Hmmph." There, he was already regretting the decision to be honest.

"Can you stop looking like lord Satan? It's weird to see his form act like this."

"I don't know how that works, and I'm not doing you favors," Amira said. "You weren't very nice when I was visiting your castle."

Cerberus seemed to process within a few seconds that she had a potentially very powerful half demon, half god who might end up in the world again, and did not like her.

"So what fate are you changing exactly?" she asked Favaro.

"Bahamut thinks we move too much and too little," Amira said. "As always. We are going to stop Bahamut differently. It won't take hundredsof years to return this time. Fate is a cobbled together mess, the first prophecy just a delay for the knight to show up : that nasty king. I don't like fate, it makes people suffer just like that for what's convenient. I don't like him either. We're fixing it all and then I'm going to come back and then Fava shows me that world!"

"Okay ... "Cerberus muttered.

"There are people are less supecible to fate's machinations, that's why Martinet was able to do what he did. I'm trying to be one too," Favaro said.

Her ears went flat entirely, her claws digging into the earth, less and and more as a cornered dog ready to bite. "You're putting our whole world at jeapardy because you don't like fate?"

He wasn't gonna appeal to someone like her by pointing out fate killed lots of people, and he wasn't gonna pretend that was his biggest concern either. They might have a common ground elsewhere.

"Look, this shit is creepier than hell. My sudden change of mind about pacting with you was fate, but I went against my first impulse of using your pact magic to break Nina out myself. We're pieces that it controls and discards," Favaro said. "It affects our freedom and our will, we're just cogs in the wheel against Bahamut. What if we could get rid of both?"

"What's Fava saying?"

"He's talking rebellion," Cerberus said. "He sounds like a fool about it too."

"Bahamut can do worse than it already does," Amira said. "All it needs to do is turn over. It will try eventually."

"Do you understand that?" Cerberus asked.

Favaro shrugged. "Nope, there's limits to her pointing at pictures. But listen, fate already put Dromos in place. We can use that once we figure out how it's controlled, we just don't do it fate's way. Fate likes Charioce and he's no good for us."

Cerberus pulled her dogs closer, eyes still fixed on Amira.

"Coco, go to Valeria and see whether you can get in touch with Jeanne d'Arc. There are a few things you'll have to tell her, and ask."

· · · · · · ·

It wasn't that El disliked being able to heal. Short of peace, ne had wanted nothing more, but restoration was far more than the simple kiss of death.

Wanting to heal was just the start of it, like wanting the Onyx Knights to stop hurting those ne loved. One step further and the complications sprung up. In the way undoing Dromos was mending the world, healing wounds was encouraging growth potential that already existed, but healing illnesses was different. Some illnesses were caused by tiny little living things in the body, pushing those to grow could make it worse. Then there were the body parts itself that grew wrong, those should not be encouraged to grow either. Sometimes, ne could fix those by thinking about how it used to be before the sickness. Like grabbing something from the past and applying that template to the present, but that didn't work on people born with an ailment. There was no universal definition of illness. Wound, tumor, infection, body overreaction, all different.

Today's problem was yet another thing ne couldn't just heal away because it was the very principle gone askew : a pulsating blob of flesh, hair, malformed metal and blood explosions. It was kept in a dome deep inside the city, underground, and the walls were cracked. Plaster had been applied to mend old tears, but many were new.

"Oh dear lord Michael, what happened?" Jeanne where El's words failed.

"Lord Odin had an early encounter with Charioce, " Gabriel said. "See, lord Odin and others of his court have the ability to turn into giants. He was caught between transformations by a field of Dromos and held down. Too large and to regenerative to kill, he survived, but he has been stuck like this for the past six years."

"Shapeshifting can cause instability, I did hear of that," Jeanne said. "Kaisar once told me how they defeated Gilles de Rais using a bounty bracelet. It worked because he was already on the brink of death, yet he hadn't died for centuries because he would just transform ailments away."

"Ah, exploiting the fragile transit of the soul," Gabriel said. "Stealing imago does not make one physically fit for actual transformation, but lord Odin is. It should be possible for Jegudiel to undo this."

"I'll try," El said, giving a look at nur mother, who nodded.

The blob floated behind a marble railing. El stayed behind it, just out of reach of the things shooting out, but wings stretched just inside it.

El set both eyes alight, the red to pry for the disruptive Dromos and the blue to mend.

At first nothing made sense, because there was no illness to detect.

"I need some time, this is new," El said.

"Take what you need," Gabriel said.

Ne would need to adjust engaging with nur magic again, during which ne lost track of time.

There. A tangle of contrary information because Odin was caught within configurative matter magic and adjusting imago magic. He couldn't just blow up the small one to larger, there had to be this extra layer of gravity magic to keep him upright. That last one was what kept him from collapsing under his own weight right now, so it had to be kept active. Having him go to giant form would probably be better.

El began to push against the disruption first, then sought out Odin's awareness. Honestly, it was a little outside of nur scope, but Odin caught on somehow and pulled himself out of the chaos.

And promptly turned into a much bigger giant than El had expected.

The ceiling collapsed, but no pieces hit them as Odin took on humanoid form. His massive arms folded over and shielded everyone from the debris.

El lowered nur power, and the glow around Odin faded. He shrugged off the debris and carefully turned back to smaller form. Once he was only about two meters, he let go a relieved breath and within a flash, the armor was exchanged for a regal tunic. He jumped up to the walkway.

"Lord Odin, we are greatly pleased with your return to health," Gabriel said.

"Likewise."Odin cracked his neck. "Did we win yet?"

"The human king is still in power, but we are no longer helpless. This child is capable of undoing the power of Dromos." Gabriel gestured at El. "Ne has also developed the ability to heal. The powers may be related."

Odin looked down at El, smiling. "Really? Thank you a great deal, little one. Your name is?"

"Jegudiel," Gabriel said.

"After the old one?"

"We felt it appropriate due to the destiny before nur."

Odin frowned. "Since when do we dabble with destinies? We craft destiny for humankind, why speak as if we are beholden to it?"

Gabriel sighed. "Lord Odin, must we go over this again? The way the prophecy has unfolded with Favaro Leone at the center, we must admit we are not the machinators of fate itself. We did not see him coming and I am ashamed to admit, we missed the existence of Jegudiel too."

"How so?"

"Well, lord Michael appears to have used the guph walls we built within Jeanne's womb so we might remanifest lord Zeus." Gabriel gestured at Jeanne. "Jegudiel was born on earth and we had no idea. We didn't even sense the inception."

Odin looked like he'd been served soup with not one but five spiders in it when he spat, "Michael had a nephilim?"

Tension cut through the air, and more alarming yet, Gabriel stepped between Odin and them. "I assure you that this child is nothing like lord Zeus's ... ahem, accidents."

"What accidents?" Jeanne asked.

"Zeus liked to get it on with humans. The ensuing nephilim brought a foul name upon divinity. After he became the god key he could no longer reign them in, for they did not respect the rule of either Hera or the four archangels. We had to wage war to get rid of them. That you four put a stop to fornication with mortals is one of your best achievements, only for Michael to do this?"

"Lord Odin, with all due respect, this topic is hardly fit for a child's ears," Jeanne said. "Let me bring my child and leave the lords to discuss this matter."

Flanked by Sofiel, they left the hall as quickly as possible.

Once out of the dome, Jeanne knelt before nur and said, "El, you are neither misbred nor born savior. You're just you, understood?"

Nur nodded but didn't believe it. Odin was just wrong, and Michael was fixing old mistakes. Maybe those old nephilim were just sick with darkness. El couldn't ever become so anymore.

· · · · · · ·

Kaisar hadn't counted on being shoved into the Onyx order right away. He had all these plans to speak with his old knights and make them see the need for rebellion for a worthier kingdom and truer life to the code. Now he barely saw them. Probably should have done this any time in the past seven years. All he could do was channel insider information to Essenbeck, but that wasn't satisfying.

He wasn't sure how he'd begin advocating a resistance now, though. With that demon holding the city hostage, the only ones rising up against Charioce wanted to overthrow the entire king system, the most loyal to the gods. No way he could even begin suggesting cooperation with the demons.

Every day, Olivia hung new victims over the wall. Still no demands. She hadn't even placed guards at the barrier.

The Onyx Knights had been trying to find weaknesses ever since its inception. At first it was theorized the surface was too smooth and the zommorods couldn't encapulsate it. Eventually they found it weak against demon magic, but only insofar it thinned a little. The zommorod power still didn't have much to hold onto.

Kaisar had come to understand the power of Dromos as something like claws. That barrier was like jello and ice at the same time. Malleable but always reforming, like it just shrugged Dromos off.

So today it as Merlin's turn. Nobody confirmed it really, but there was word of her mixed heritage. Maybe that might matter.

She arrived on horseback accompanied by the Orleans Knights. They brought her to the habor, which lacked the separated wall between the housing districts. The place had been emptied for the Onyx Knights to work, and now for Merlin, but her presence had drawn a crowd. Overhearing the murmurs, many of the citizens were curious for what she would bring to the table. Tales of old glorious knights warmed Kaisar's heart, but the woman herself looked cold as she stepped off.

Dias sided up to Kaisar. "How are you holding up, captain?"

"As well as I might," Kaisar said. "Have you asked around with the demon division?"

"The collarless don't want to take risks. The collared are as you'd expect : obedient out of fear but eager to leave. None of them are close to the human divisions. Among those, there are doubters though. Quite a lot, especially with the rumors of saint Jeanne's appearance. Some have seen her themselves."

Merlin cast them a sharp sideglance and they shut up. Dias went about ensuring the area was clear from spectators, while Kaisar held a back line defense for his new unit.

Flanked by top Onyx Knights, Merlin placed her hands on the invisible barrier. At her sign, they launched another barrage of green power at it.

To outsiders she looked lost on concentration. Kaisar couldn't really sense anything of what she did, but Rocky twitched in odd ways as she worked.

A strangled noise behind had Kaisar turned around. A young knight gasped for air, but nothing appeared wrong.

A little further down the docks, another knight started swaying on his feet to the confusion of those around.

Even Dias acted strange, turned around as if looking for something, but there was nothing. Commoners clearer, there were only knights on the docks.

"Did you know you're going to destroy the Orleans Knights?" something whispered in his ears. "Did you know—"

Rocky did something, pushing the rushing blood to his ears. The magic weakened, but only for himself.

When Merlin removed her hand, the Onyx Knights ceased their attack. They had made no progress.

"As if it comes from nowhere," she said.

"What does that mean?"

"When a demon casts a spell that lasts in their absence, they create a channel to the forces of hell to power it. The more powerful a demon, the stronger the channel they can create on the spot. This has all the makings of a powerful demon, but there is no flow. Hell wants for fear, it should be weak if there was one, but this ... " She tapped the thin air. "Even if a demon was right here to fuel it on its own power, I should be able to detect a flow. There is none."

"The demon is right here in the city."

"If that demon was so powerful that they could host their barrier perpetually on their own reserves, we would stand no hope of defeating it. But I have reason to believe the assciated demon has left Anatae at least once, all the way to Eibos. This barrier has never faltered in their absence, so it must be something else."

"Eibos? Would that coincidence with his majesty's recent visit?" George asked.

Merlin nodded. When she turned away, she froze.

All the Orleans Knights around him seemed to barely hold it together. Dias's eyes twitched and Allesand was already reduced to a sobbing wreck.

"You're no good here either." The thing chuckled in Kaisar's ear, barely audible through the rush of blood. "You never did what you had to do, not once. Tear them down with you."

Merlin's shoulders dropped and she sighed at the sky. "Oh for goodness sake."

She cast a circle on the ground and chanted some invocation, eyes closed. Once she opened them, she said, "To anyone still with their mind clear, the peculiar behavior of the healthier folks here is caused by Furfur, a demon of madness that feeds on despair. There is nothing to aim at, it whispers at you."

"Since when can demons do that?"

"Magic of the mind was what appealed to Belzebuth, those following him scattered upon his defeat. You would not have faced much like this in the cities under Lucifer's alliance. It works on similar mental levels as this blasted mist. Well, all I cared for has burned to the ground," she said. "This thing has nothing one me, but it will on you young people. Get the anyone without a zommorod away from this barrier, I will cast my own to diminish this foul radiance."

"Should we be worried for what it does to those in the upper district?"

"It likely already works on them." Merlin peered around the buildings. "I shall prepare some potions, if you will arrange for visiting hours. This demon is not very strong yet, a few potions will do, but I need time to make them."

"That doesn't matter as long as they aren't driven against us."

"Pardon? Your own citizens? I think not. I will employ the Orleans Knights if you do not help me. Athos?"

Athos stepped ahead, more or less fine as far as Kaisar could tell. He lightly smirked. "Yes, my lady magician?"

"Good, you're stable yet. Listen ..."

Rocky felt like he crept further up Kaisar's arm, fighting something ...

Orders for further actions drifted in and he obeyed mechanically. Back to the castle ...

Kaisar struggled to get back onto his horse. The pain in his arm went further than the stump, into Rocky.

Rocky was an independent mind, but he found it difficult to tell where he ended and the entity Rita had created began.

The fog drew together into a monstrous shape, some dark deer like thing that smelled of rot. His horse startled and he fell.

"Got you!" the voice said, and he stood before the iron bars in the rain, where the executioner or judge or whoever passed the sentence spoke.

On decree of the king, Laurus Lidfard is hereby condemned to death for failing ...

The sensation on his arm didn't fit, what was — Rocky pulled him out of the way but it wasn't right.

His father's body fell with a tud and he wanted to watch and hope for life and yet he gave up ...

Rocky was gone for a moment.

The pain of reattachment crept up his veins into his mind, and the illusion faded for the gray sky.

Somewhere beyond his awareness, Merlin said, "Why is this man even on your force?"

· · · · · · ·

The arrival of Jeanne and Nina was always kind of offensive. There they burst in with their yellow and pink and sickeningly hopeful plans for the future. It wouldn't bring back Dante or anyone else.

The worst and best part was that those plans might do something.

Jeanne using her heroic status to sway humans was. working. It just figured his old enemy would best him even on this.

Nina carried a backpack with some foods, but mostly stacks and stacks of paper, and a few human books. "No flying lessons today, Jeanne wants to talk about who to free first."

"What?"

"About four countries are receptive to the new divine creed that I'm making up as we go. So far, I've been playing up Lucifer's faction as the non evil one, but to be honest I'm not sure that's deserved," Jeanne said. "I can't sell it in moral ambiguity though. I need to assure the people they are safe. In order for that to be true, I have to know whether those I buy free — on heaven's cost — are in fact safe."

She began laying a line of papers on the most level root near him.

He sat up. "Lord Lucifer's side is the less aggressive anyway, you're not lying by pointing that out."

"I didn't quite get the impression you were nice when you invaded my city. We need better than that."

"That wasn't usual. I was physically blocked from entering Cocytus. Martinet gave me the impression lord Lucifer would not see me if I did not have the god key, so I grabbed an army." He didn't outright say he'd been stupid, but it drooped from every word nonetheless. He should've known Lucifer better.

"Martinet ... you mean Gilles de Rais, no? He has manipulated me too. Now I wish I could have faced him, though I don't know what I'd say or ask." Nina took over laying out the papers, so Jeanne could focus on talking. She sat on a lower root next to him, close to the papers. "Anyway, Nina says you killed Belzebuth."

"I didn't do it for noble reasons," he said. "And if I'm being honest anyway, it was Bahamut that felled him. I just finished an already dying demon."

"Do other demons know about this?"

"Never kept track of that. Anyway, why did you mark that one?" He tapped a drawing of the distantly familiar Mammon; Jeanne was pretty good at drawing so he didn't have to guess much

"I didn't see her directly but she was described by a demon who's been in the same mansion and assured me of her power and rank. Her master—"

"Slavedriver," Azazel said icily.

"He only wants to set her free if he benefits from it. I don't know what to tell him. Will she make trouble or assist in uniting?"

"I don't know. I bet she's going pretty mad from being property though." He half smirked.

"Azazel, please take this serious. If freeing this one goes wrong, we will lose a lot more progress than we can catch up to in one go. Help me think here."

"What Jeanne said." Nina pinned the last papers to the roots. By now they had a small plotting room, with more paper than root. Most showed faces, but others had descriptions, laws, demands and bits of trading history. "How about we just focus on the ones you're more sure about? These are all ordered by country. Jeanne's most active in Valeria, cause Reinier's got all these old ties he's raking up."

"Fine. Her name is Mammon. She's one of the princes and incredibly powerful, and also greedy. Lord Lucifer periodically hired her to do the finances. She'll get all the resources you'll need, but you might not like the price. I really can't tell you what changed about her, however." Hell knew he wasn't quite making the same decisions as five years ago either.

He continued looking over the papers, turned down a few Nina wrongly thought looked nice, and found a familiar nuisance in Valeria.

"Mirin. She only fell because she indulged in orgies with the moon folk. A total sap who helps whatever random human she takes a liking to, and they tend to be heroes. She's bloody stupid too. I once had to host her in my castle and when she found my torture dungeon she assumed I was a masochist. I told her I really torture humans in there and she didn't believe me. Put her free, ask her to help keep people in line, introduce her to lively humans but never trust her judgment."

From there on it was less easy, but he knew a few who got along with Mirin, owed her favors or might tolerate her.

"Oh, and I pointed Jeanne at the bounty hunter hall," Nina said before they moved on to other countries. "Did that checkout work?"

"As well as I was able to from a guided tour," Jeanne said. "I'm uncertain how many of those crimes should be attributed to the demons. Azazel has a clear pattern to who he pacted with. Are there any demons who pacted with, uh, better people?"

When he and Nina had broken in there, he had taken along all of his own that he knew weren't likely to run off to do evil, as far as they could be recovered. Those he had targetted because they were fun to break, or just useful in some cases. No point bringing that up. "Again, I rarely interacted with the middle or lower classes. Most on the upper echelon fit in, but there's Belphegor whom I had no idea about."

He almost mentioned Eligos, but of course, he was dead thanks to him.

"I had a look at Belphegor, yes. Her only pattern was sages and scientists. If I assume that her contractees were only those who committed crimes and there might be others still free."

"Manaria," Azazel said. "I think she was active there a lot. The place practises magic at a much higher rate, they even have schools where they send their nobility."

"Ah, maybe we will find more allies there. Princess Anne sounded rather receptive according to Sofiel, and there's word of changing the civil laws there already. Nothing has happened, but their attitude to demons is less severe apparently."

"How so?"

According to Jeanne, countries other than the one directly governed by Charioce were more open to actually use the unique talents of enslaved demons. Architects might be put to work on architecture and forgers on weaponry, bringing their unique magic to human hands. Those left alive weren't exclusively those just one notch above weakest, lest they got into the arena.

On one side, Azazel despised that humans were getting the best demons could offer for nothing on broken backs. On the other side, those weren't dewinged, dying backs. There would be more alive, more to rebuild a thriving nation once they could return home. A bitter comfort as long as they were still enslaved and with Charioce now possessing a weapon of mass destruction.

Jeanne wanted to form the freed demons into a self sustaining community, who could eventually move outside the cities or settle in separate districts, or renovate local slums; rather than rely on human charity for everything, which would be sparse, and heaven was only as giving as Jeanne could get away with promising. Not ideal, but it would do until everyone could return home. Trouble being that she had no idea about larger scale economics or politics, but was catching on quick and he could fill her in a little. Her expertise was with the laymen : farmers as she had been, and soldier with no name.

Azazel remembered more relevant things than he would have guessed. Tidbits here and there that never had fit into a bigger image. Even if only by name or in passing he knew ceremony masters, judges, healers, traders and tamers. He'd had to manage his own castle when he was about, which connected to a lot of businesses he'd found trivial and boring in the past. Now his people mattered more it was a need he could throw drive behind.

He would run out of knowledge soon though.

Jeanne didn't write down any notes, but tried to memorize it. They went over details until she had them right.

"This will not be an easy task. What this really boils down to is choosing demons who can give off a good reputation. Humankind has a lot to forgive demonkind for."

And here he'd been thinking Jeanne was quite okay for a human. "We are not a uniform tribe, you said that yourself!"

Jeanne held up her hands. "I am aware, but not only do many see it that way, nations are a thing and representatives of them should take responsibility. If Lucifer will not step in, someone else has to, and it is up to me to choose how that will unfold. Like it or not, forgiveness will have to play a part in the negociations that are to come. People forgive those with certain looks and qualities more easily than others, and—"

"That's not the job of my people," he snapped. "If anyone it's humans who need their forgiveness!"

"The point is that this can't be solved if both sides don't—"

"Don't talk of both sides, this isn't the same. It was just me and a few others from Cocytus running loose, most of our people never even left hell and even the worst of us we have never enslaved your tribe or tried to annihilate them."

Jeanne stood up. "Azazel, can you try hearing me out?"

He glared at her, but made an effort. "Fine."

"Fine. Let's talk about what you owe to humankind. If you don't want you innocent kin to bear that responsibility, why don't you step up and take that responsibility?

"What, you want me to do go put myself on display?"

"It would help if you were to get involved once I have anything going, and did so in a more congenial way than you usually are. Maybe some show of remorse—"

"Don't be ridiculous. I don't want their forgiveness. What would I even do with it?" Ugh, that would be so degrading. He had some pride left. "All I want is my people free."

Jeanne pinched the bridge of her nose, as if trying to hold back a headache. "Azazel, whether you like it or not, getting there requires some bending to what my nation expects."

"It's not—"

A flare of pink cut them off. Nina glowed into the early stages of transformation. There were a few scales already, and her wings were out. Why ... ?

"Nina, are you alright?" Jeanne asked.

"Yes, but I need your attention. I tried to say something and you didn't hear me."

"Sorry. What was it?"

"Azazel, my mother always says apologies are not about getting forgiveness, it's for the benefit of the one you hurt," Nina said. "I've never had to meet any of the people I hurt as a dragon. But I would say sorry, because I want them to know I'll try better and they don't have to fear me any more. But Jeanne, I shouldn't do that looking like a dragon, right? I'd just be stomping into their village and maybe ruining more. Azazel's not really in a good shape to be not scary."

"That is similar to my point, yes," Jeanne said. "Admittedly, I wanted it to be him because I know what to expect, and El is safe around him. He just sits there."

"Tch. What could I do anyway? I offered Kaisar my life, he didn't want it," Azazel said.

"You're missing the point. It's not about you as an individual, but as a representative of a nation," Jeanne said. "Only Lucifer outranks you—"

"So what? The gods have a fine record of my past, and I bet Gabriel isn't happy with you already. You can't afford bad association? You can't afford me."

That got her to back off. Jeanne started pacing. "I suppose we have some time to think this through better."

"The nation representative thing, it doesn't have to be Azazel. Actually, it's probably better if it's not him. He really sucks at tact," Nina said.

"Thanks for that," Azazel said, even as he had to quietly concede. Lucifer never sent him for sensitive missions, just violent ones.

Jeanne started collecting the papers, separating them further into piles of trustworthiness. She paused as she placed a particularly dangerous demon into the least pile.

"I hate having to suggest this ... but what if you were to go back to the vigilante justice routine? Go break free all demons whose owners refuse to sell them, lead away the dangerous ones if you must. Surely you can do so without killing any humans? That way they'll know they can't go on, but it won't turn them against demons so much they won't cooperate with those we free."

Maybe. It would mean leaving here, likely only ever see Mugaro from a distance. He should, really. Mugaro associating with him would do nur no good.

"That sounds great! You can survive going down the storm, but you should probably be less sick first." Nina nodded at a recently emerged snake.

"They don't bother me," Azazel said, and managed to not wince when the thing dug back into his arm.

Jeanne gave him a stern look, not believing him. "I will try to persuade El to visit. Ne has escaped from guards before. Perhaps we can go in and out before they notice. Nina isn't under watch, we could slip by with El in the carriage."

"Nina is under watch, or there would have been curious gods on this island already," Azazel said.

"Huh? Really?" Nina asked. "I thought nobody paid attention to where I went."

"Oh, they do," Azazel said. He'd learned that the hard way once. "You really think they'd let a half demon run around unwatched, or that you wouldn't draw a crowd by now?"

Convenient though. Nobody snooping around as Nina was near him. If faith in heaven was strengthening, soon enough the security system would rile up stronger. He probably should get out of here. If they found him here that would get Nina and Jeanne and trouble.

But to go back to that life felt more hollow. Any sense of his rage came with the reminder of how easily he could ruin things.

It wasn't that he specifically regretted the past years as the rag demon. He knew more than a few would be dead if he hadn't set them free. But it didn't feel like it mattered when all that time, he could have just asked Jeanne. If Mugaro had trusted him with who ne was, if they had gone to that island and broken her out and sent her to heaven sooner ...

She might fail too, once her glory faded, once she made a mistake. It was never the kind who ruled the world.

Jeanne scribbled a few last notes on her papers, said a pointless thanks and went up into the forest. Nina was close on her trail.

Azazel almost let her go on, but only almost. "Hey, Nina ... "

She turned back. "Yeah?"

Dammit, this shouldn't be hard. He apologized to Mugaro all the time, for being late, for leaving again, for failing to find something. What the hell.

"I'm sorry," he muttered without looking at her. "For the thing. You know what."

Nina grinned. "I'd forgiven you already, but it's nice to hear. Accepted."

He gave half a smile and wanted nothing more than forget about everything.

· · · · · · ·

Rita's room had more in it now, so she could work all the time. Progress on Charioce's mother went slow but steady. She was interested enough to see what she could put together. Pretty soon she'd have functional vocal cords and ears, something Rita never had been able to upgrade before she got all these tools. It was worth sticking around for.

Mostly. Today she was brought to the infirmary of the Onyx knights again and found none other than Kaisar lying there. With Rocky attacked to him, sporting a zommorod.

Just wonderful.

"This was not part of the deal," Rita said.

"We will keep him alive, as dictated by his majesty," George said before moving on.

She had him lay Rocky out on a table, poking at the fused rim of Rocky and Kaisar's arm. All black, and veins stood out on both living and dead tissue. The difference between both diminished. Rocky bled now, while Kaisar's arm turned gray.

Rita picked up Kaisar's arm roughly. "Kaisar, your stupid moron, what did you and Rocky do?"

"It was Rocky's idea!" Kaisar said, too loudly.

Rita sighed. "And you just went along with it?"

"Do you have any idea how strong he is? I didn't have a choice! Lord Essenbeck was ..." He lowered his voice to say something, but across the room George scraped his throat. As normal level, Kaisar said, "Anyway, I got in a tight spot."

Something was missing here, hmm.

She flicked a finger at his forehead. "You fool, you and Rocky should have left the city."

"I can't just leave the Orleans Knights! And, uh, everyone else."

She tried to learn more, but Kaisar wasn't the best at implying things. She focused on could do to improve the situation; demonic power keeping Rocky functional meshed so poorly with the zommorod.

Kaisar wasn't safe anymore, even if they kept him out of combat. Kaisar claimed he wasn't really deployed into any fights yet, and the current problem was just a hickup from an encounter with a demon.

None of his nonsense mattered. She was going to have to figure out how to remove these damn life sucking parasites now. Maybe chop it off altogether?

"I'll be alright." He lied. He didn't know anything.

It had been long since Rita had been this pissed off. Couldn't even muster to respond to his pathetic goodbye and hollow promises of everything turning out alright.

Outside the door she was met by Merlin. That was a change of pace.

Merlin had a glance into the infirmary, before pushing Rita along. She waved off Rita's guard.

As they walked, Merlin said. "He is the other hostage, is he not?"

"Oh gee, how did you figure?"

"The king is aware that hand is undead," Merlin said. "And special treatment must be done on the implanted rocks, we know Essenbeck's story does not add up, and of course, I remember your requierements to the demonic rebellion. Is Kaisar your friend?"

"Evidently," Rita said, lamenting the loss of her sarcasm.

"And yet you worked for Azazel, and enemy of humankind?"

"I don't care for allegiances. They aren't out to kill each other so I can get what I want."

"Don't you understand what you're allying with? I've seen the world through centuries, what have you seen?"

"A town, a castle, the end of the world, and this city," Rita said. "As I'm not in need of wisdom for life, that suits me quite fine. What are you really asking about?"

Second thoughts on her own alliances, she would guess.

"I just want to understand how you can have no qualms about associating with such filth," Merlin spat.

Rita raised a hand and tapped the group. A single mosquito landed on her finger.

"Here's something fun : when I revived your dragon mount, I also revived every single dead mosquito in the castle and around it. A few thousand tiny zombies, just flying around until I command them otherwise or am destroyed. All waiting for permission to just bite unsuspecting people, who will then go on to infect everyone they come across. There, does that answer your question for why I am fine with even the worst of demons?"

Merlin's arms dropped as Rita made the insect fly closer, so Merlin would be able to see the tiny glowing eyes. "You ... how could you?"

"I could because I don't care for many." Rita gave her a rare smile. "So you see, this is more of a stalemate that the king thinks is a convenient hostage situation. He gains some trivial things from me and I get experiments with ichor. That is all of this is."

Merlin left, disgusting, but not that likely to tell the king.

It was a risk, of course, to let Merlin onto something, but if her reaction pleased Rita, she might just give her a token to win her over.

There was an element to this beyond playing with dangerous forces. Sooner or later, Merlin would figure out the fog didn't center around Rita. Investigations might just lead her to Azazel's ruins, where the Black Bible still lay. Athos as a knight would've had no idea what he was looking at, but Merlin might just plain sense it. A Merlin a little too loyal to Charioce might just hand it to him, and Rita could be assumed dispensible before she was done playing with ichor, or while Kaisar and Azazel were not yet safe.

Fortunately, Merlin could be poked in a more convenient direction due to be a tad good. It worked to point such people at their unsavory company.

· · · · · · ·

Good gods and heaven above, Jeanne finally had a reason to be happy she hadn't taken that land the former king had offered : the economics and politics of being a lord were a nightmare. Azazel had some grasp of how to run a castle and that was already a full plate. Reinier had been going on for the last hour about the intricacies of some tax system he was proud of having vaguely inspired, on top of more laws and regulations and economy she could keep up with. She sorely wished Sofiel hadn't been occupied elsewhere, she was good at diverting conversations in more interesting directions.

Discreetly, she tried to entertain herself with the sight outside the skyship's windows.

Valeria was such a different land from Teutoikas. Construction here relied on demonic workers to be winged now, and the heaviest lifting was done with invoked ghouls. As such, the capital of Valeria had skyscrapers as in heaven. Ghouls were also used to just shove large chariots across rails from one end to the city to another, making commuting between one end of the wide city to another more easier. And that was just what she could see from flying across the city.

Charioce's guidelines for disabling all slaves, allowing no magic and killing the strongest in the arena were not dictated by need nor innovatin so much as wiping the demons out just slow enough to get the barest economic cushion out of their presence. Once she overthrew Charioce, could she get the entire nation out of this system quick enough to avoid a war with the demons?

Would heaven care to help the demons, or even the humans? All of this could be achieved better with their technology, yet they never shared it. Architecture, economy, rights, infrastructure, all was superior in heaven while here on earth people suffered and died so easily.

The ship docked at the edge of a skyscraper, where they were met by a count. The man clearly wanted to show off his special visitors to his elite friends. Nobility of the typical kind, many of them accompanied by well dressed, non starved demonic slaves. These humans weren't nearly as reverent to the gods or her as those who had gathered to the churches on own volition. To them Jeanne and Reinier were curiosities, to be respected but not worshiped.

The count who owned Mirin talked price first, purpose next. Reinier did most of the talking since said count pointedly ignored Jeanne; after so long in heaven and underground, after years of solitude, the reminder that as a woman she was second class bit harder than it should.

"So you want to overthrow Charioce and seek to fill the gaps of your armies with demons?" the count said lightly. "How nice. I find it difficult to perceive how my Mirin serves that though."

"She has a positive reputation among both demons and gods, from before your time," Reinier said, because he left no opportunity untouched to remind humans he was older.

"Oh, I have no doubt. It is just that she is a little ... dense."

"We will not need her for anything complicated, but for unity only," Reinier said. That didn't fit Jeanne's plans, but she couldn't argue here.

The count snapped his fingers and one of the demons at the pool jumped to her feet.

Mirin was spritely young woman with cranberry page cut and a skimpy outfit to match. Her wings and horns were black at the base faded into teal. Unremarkable among the colorful slaves in the rest of the gathering, with the exception of her being a fallen angel.

She bowed formally, a polite smile on her face. "I welcome the master's guests."

Jeanne's stomach turned, knowing just how this attitude related to the wrist bands with the green gems. Standing up, she leaned ahead. "There is no need to bow, lady of the angels bygone."

Mirin looked up, confused.

"You'll be free soon, and may stand as our equal." Behind them, Reinier shifted uncomfortably.

"I will exchange her in return for those hover platforms and the knowledge how to control them. And ... I want visiting rights to heaven."

Reinier sighed, but Jeanne caught the relief; the platforms wouldn't be able to be reproduced by humans as far as she knew. She didn't say so out loud.

"Will you take the shackles off, or shall I do it myself?" Jeanne dropped Joyeuse from her hand and held the hilt, which got the first moment of true attention to her.

"The bracelets are welded shut," he said. "We did not see a purpose in doing it otherwise."

Jeanned turned to Mirin. "Hold out your hands on this table, please. Do not worry, I have done this before."

Mirin held out one hand looked ready to bawl. How well had they trained her to obey? All the more reason to do this where the other demons could see, regardless of Reinier's discomfort with Jeanne making a scene.

Holding the bracelet in place with one hand, she balanced the tip with the other. It took less prying this time, she'd figured out his to discharge power through it. After the rock crumbled, Mirin was much quicker to offer her other arm.

That one removed too, Mirin clapped her hands together. "Thank you!"

Reiner pushed her along between the wings. "Right, let's go now."

Before the ship's door closed, Mirin waved at the others and yelled. "I'll make'em get you all out!"

The scene changed not one with, and the feigned joy of the enslaved demons was all the more apparent.

Inside, Mirin poked at everything. "So, where are we going?"

Reinier pinched the bridge of his nose. "You are expected to lead the organization of liberated demons."

"Okay, but that doesn't tell me where we're going."

"We are uniting heaven and hell against Charioce and Dromos," Jeanne said. "And hopefully beyond that."

"Lovely!" And off she was to poke at more things.

"How did you get the idea of freeing this one?" Reinier asked.

"I heard a rumor of her and thought perhaps a fallen angel would be best," Jeanne said. "In Nina's village, some feathers were traded so I knew they were around. As for this one, she has a reputation in hell that carries far."

"Ah, I see," Reinier said most stiffly. "You must have talked to a lot of demons."

Awkward topic, time to dodge. "It is true that she fell for reasons that did not involve harming people, no?"

"I did not check."

"Perhaps you should, lord Reinier. Now, have you had word of Mammon's whereabouts?"

"I had word of her, yes. Her master will not give her up. See, he needs her as advisor for his financial endeavors. The crown relies on the stability of the ports too, and Valeria's strong economic position has been why Charioce was not able to push through the strict requirements of his allies so far here. There is no point in trying, the man was never very religious."

Of course. The way she approached this, there would still be many slaves by the time Charioce fell. How long until Azazel and the likes of him picked up murdering again?

Could she set up a justice system, convince them to just free slaves or deliver violators to a court? Would heaven even care to dispense justice for their old foes? Demonic slavery had not been law for more than five years and the values behind it had not festered for centuries, it should be possible to reset to old laws. But none of those were explicitly against slavery of demons either. Would international law work? If the existing alliances to Teutoikas were invoked, maybe but she had no idea how to start that.

Mirin leaned on Reinier's knees and stared. "Oh, you're pretty. I missed being around hot people."

This was going to be difficult in an entirely different way than anticipated.

· · · · · · ·

With weak motivation Azazel explored the caves, trying to find some nostalgia, but roots had overgrown most they'd built as children. A few feathers stuck from a attempt at a spell circle, some were missing. He knew whose, but the names and faces didn't mean anything anymore.

He thought of leaving to do what Jeanne had suggested. The snakes didn't get any better and the scabs on his face got worse, if anything. and he hadn't slept, but this wasn't the sort of weakness that would fell him on the way down. He hadn't really lost strength so much as focus. Charioce had stolen it.

He just ended up back in the same spot waiting for Nina.

He heard her before she appeared. "Hey, guess what?"

"Mugaro's not coming today either," he said when Nina entered alone. "What about Jeanne?"

"She's gonna stay on earth for a few days again." Nina didn't even try to make up excuses for Mugaro anymore. "Because guess what? She got Mirin out, and the angels agreed she can go lead the freed demons. She's still a pretty powerful demon so that makes them more safe, so I bet things will get better now. There's other groups going too?"

Nina sat next to him and gave an overview of what Jeanne got going. He didn't care for the human politics. Many humans were not eager to let demons run free, there were more prominent anti god movements now. Out of those Jeanne did free, some tribe members wanted to reunite, others were forming new tribes on the spot.

All quickly spiralled out of control in a way he had never foreseen. He had genuinely thought killing Charioce alone was enough to make his system collapse. One king down, everything else crumbles in their void, make sure there's no successors, and wham, they'd be strong again. Go home. End of it. He'd have just caused more chaos if he'd succeeded. Charioce wasn't dead, but by using the gods Jeanne was dismantling some of the invisible chains on the demons, and so the physical ones too. In barely a week, she achieved more for his people than he had in years. What he'd done to her city, to humankind, to their view of demons, she might just undo it in her lifetime.

"I wish they'd let me down there too," Nina said. "I'm starting to think Gabriel only keeps me wandering around to make a show of how I'm a light demon or something. She won't let me work on earth. And I'm not finding much new gods who are willing to give demons a chance, and there's more philosophical streams about what dark magic means and why demons are evil than I can keep track of."

The four archangels had considered themselves above petty philosophical squabling once. They knew what they wanted and put it through the law. He had a lot of cropped up rants about that, but no energy to unpack.

"You know, now Mirin's there to supervise, maybe you can finally go down there? Join forces with her. Or are you still too sick?" Nina tapped one of the snakes that emerged from his arm; the sting had gotten so familiar he only noticed because of her attention. "What is this anyway? The darkness you're made of. Some philosophies insists it's sin manifest, but Jeanne says it's shadow magic."

"It's ichor," he said, and because he knew she'd keep asking, "I don't really get what it is. Sometimes it changes us, gods and demons alike. All demons lost their second set of horns and wings at the fall of hell, and I used to wear the chains I was condemned in. Now I can't stand the idea of it and it went away with that. This ... this is something else that reflects me, probably."

"If it changed like this, you're really ill," Nina said. "It isn't that poison, is it?"

"That's as good as over," he said.

"Sure. But you're still sick somehow. Here, I'll teach you something too."

Nina put her fingers on the palm of his left hand, invoking his energy. He jerked his arm away and almost shot away, but Nina backed off herself.

"It's something Jeanne taught me, about eb and flow of transformation. I've made my own trick of it, and I've been using it to put the energy on my back when I grow wings," she said. "Let me try?"

He clenched his teeth and sat back, holding his arm to Nina. She pulled her knees up and laid his arm across. It was always the same places where the snakes emerged, Nina found them quick enough.

"They're scars, aren't they?" Nina asked. "Like on your face."

"You could call it that."

She ebbed away the small surges of power, preventing snakes from manifesting. Normally his energy didn't process consciously, but she forced him to be aware of it by tampering with it. Part of him wanted to bolt,

"You're getting extra energy from hell, right?"

"Hell is emptying," he said. "It has nothing to give anymore."

"Uh huh, no way. I can feel it from below, it's where your snakes are made off without taking away bits off of you."

"Oh ... must just be some spare ichor charge. Hell isn't dead, there still are humans who fear demons. Just less than before."

"Does it have to be fear though? Cause, it's supposed to be faith for heaven but there's some gods who can still do the things others lost."

That ... hadn't occured to him.

"It's always been fear that powered us."

But ... oh damn. Cerberus and her mutts could teleport further than he could. He had maybe a dozen meters now, and only a few jumps, but Mimi and Coco had been all the way into the castle. He'd assumed it took long cause they hd to recharge before returning, but what if it had taken long only cause they had to wait for some other reason? If they made that whole jump in one way ...

Nina was right, he could sense something, if only indirectly. She invoked that as much as his own.

"Whatever you did, do it again!"

"What?"

"You did something, and there was more flow. You heal better if there's more." Nina ran her fingers over a mending hole.

Fear wasn't the only negative emotion, after all. Rage too. Spite. Contempt. Disgust. Anxiety ... and others he couldn't put words too, which slipped even more easily.

Hell's power kept flitting in and out like that, as easy as wanting to move his limbs, but intangible. He couldn't make sense of what to think to hold onto it.

Godammit, why—

Too many eyes, he couldn't make sense of the perspectives, everything was bigger and further away and disjointed ... eyes to the side, blinds spots to the front and walls or bright sunlight stinging lamps both.

Kaisar?

A shackle tightened before a needle was stuck into his flesh. Human magicians or doctors crowding, vials and pipes as he began to dissolve.

A courtyard deep in the castle, high enough to have sunlight still, shouting and jeering from knights of different banners.

Here Azazel stood on all four, there he lay chained up.

The ruffle of feathers and snakes pouring from his skin, fed by defiance if nothing else. Chains rattled with every step and he tried to scream only to produce an incomprehensible wail. Another needle into his flesh, another leg dissolved.

Hooves on the sand, blood on the ground, and only one thing felt right : he had his forward horns here, the ones he'd lost since the fall of Cocytus.

Hooves on the dark, cold rock deep underground, and only one thing felt right, here he had the missing horns too.

He tried to grow his wings, but his back was different and he had no hands until he willed it.

In shackles he could do nothing, but on the sand he could pry into the chains holding him, find the weak spots, break free.

"Watch out!"

He launched for the edge of the pit, clawing out, wanting to go for the walls, the sky — Kaisar calling back his knights and raising his hand — teal power bursting forth another needle two kinds of pain of falling apart of being torn into don't go stay here cannot go go out he was out of the green ...

On the ground, too exhausted to move needed more energy and he brought it in, currents from below and he moved again, back at the walls, they screamed when they got in the way.

A mecha sleeker than any broke through a gate, on all fours and much faster than the others, right at him, tore him from clawing in the wall and back into the pit and syrine into his spine now and the spasms took over back into the cage bleeding ichor get out out now.

He couldn't move anymore, nowhere ...

... but here, in the dark of heaven.

He hadn't stopped being here, but the underground and Nina's light hadn't meant as much as the sharp presence in the castle. Far away, less prominent now, were the beasts trapped in the castle.

When the link vanished altogether he was left floating, wings painfully stretched and his back pressed against the roots above. Hundreds of snakes pooled out all around him and on the floor below.

"Did I cause this?" Nina asked in a small voice.

"No ... " At least he didn't think so.

He lowered himself and Nina pulled him faster down by the arm. Gravity didn't agree with him, he would've fallen if Nina hadn't stood there.

"You were out of it long enough for the rest of the candles to burn out," Nina said. "What happened to you? You looked at things, but you didn't really respond. You just screamed and trashed sometimes."

"I was in the castle again," he muttered.

"How?"

"Rita. Charioce had her reanimate my arms."

"He had what?"

"They're alive, I was them."

"I don't understand ..." Nina reached for his face, where the scabs were. "And this got worse too."

He shoved her away. "Leave me alone."

"But—"

"Go away or I'm going to risk flying to another island."

"Alright ..." she said, but she took entirely too long to just get out.

· · · · · · ·

The rebuilt church in Valeria became a centerpoint for the operation now Sofiel had sent along a few other gods. Chiron wanted to open a school for humans and was willing to hire demons, and maybe hold separate classes for the children. Not quite how Jeanne envisioned it, but far more than she would have expected from other gods. Reinier grudgingly permitted it, apparently only because it allowed him to return to his old position as revered guardian deity of the kingdom. Urlain was also assigned to the project, with even more grudging; sometimes Jeanne got the feeling ne wanted to be elsewhere altogether.

They arrived to the church by airship. The extra wing was almost done, taking up a fair chunk of what had once been a plaza.

Mirin leaned next to her to peer out the window. She was itchy, after having to spend a few hours being questioned and gone through anti curse routines, but altogether still in a good mood.

"Please don't hit on the clergy. We'd prefer it if you didn't hit on anyone, but especially not them," Jeanne said.

"I don't do that all the time, it was just a jest," Mirin said without looking away from the window. "I mean, I like pretty people but I promise I'll focus on the job, okay? Such a pretty church you're getting there."

"Alright then," Jeanne said, ignoring Urlain's skeptical stare.

There was an entirely different problem once they actually opened the door.

"Hai, Chiron, how are you doing?" And there flew Mirin off, not to any of the people she was supposed to meet, but to a god.

And he laughed and raised his hand. Reinier looked mortified, Urlain's jaw dropped.

By the time the three of them deboarded, Mirin and Chiron were far into catching up. Jeanne and the two angels joined them and the small group that had formed.

"I wasn't doing so good, but I am now! They want me to lead people, can you imagine? Lord Lucifer never let me do that!"

Chiron looked a little pained when he fell under the gaze of the angels, but told Mirin, "Well, let's introduce you to everyone."

"You know her?" Reinier asked.

"Uh ... yes? She once worked with one of my students," he said. "That's all. Really."

Urlain and Reinier both did that thing that Jeanne once had experienced as imposing and divine, but now only could call condescending staring.

"I had a lot of students, really. Thousands. And she was familiar with a hero or two, so I just ... ran into her. Sometimes."

"Yeah, and we always had a great time. He kept me up to date on heaven and sometimes taught me new stuff and I met a lot of nice people through him!" Mirin clapped her hands and wings together. "I'm so glad we'll be working together now!"

"Hmm." And there was the angelic disapproval.

Reinier and Urlain sharply turned back to the ship. Jeanne stayed to talk to the overseers and the architect about Mirin, which took a while. Mirin was oblivious to the tension of everyone, Chiron included, as she went about meeting everyone. At least she was sociable enough, and the telekinetic magic she displayed would be of good use.

Jeanne returned to the ship with a heavy heart.

"Why does he have to defend himself for this?" Jeanne asked when she closed the door behind her.

"Gods are forbidden to hold any close relationships outside the realm," Reinier said. "It is already a disgrace to love a human, but congenial relations to demons? He has violated our trust."

"Is this about Zeus's children?" Jeanne asked.

"That is a factor but not the sole reason," Urlain said. "If we come too close to humans, they lose the respect we need more than ever. One does not religiously practice faith in friends."

"Do you know lord Michael told me before he died? That he regretted the distance that had grown between humans and gods. He asked for my forgiveness for this. I believe it is time heaven begins to honor that sentiment."

"We shall see how the masters of heaven respond," Reinier said.

Not Gabriel. Strange.

The trip back to heaven was silent and tense more than any other. Urlain vanished the moment the door was open, while Reinier escorted Jeanne to a hall before a platform with two stairways leading up. A sword embled lay before it, but nobody was there to speak.

"Why are we here?" she asked.

"It's just an assembly. Your child will be here too."

The wait was long and tense. Over time, gods entered the hall on floating platforms of their own. A few congregated under the pillars to either side, talking among themselves. Jeanne only recognized a few.

Odin in particular had a solid group around him, and it was his voice most prominent. It surprised her, he had hardly been part of palace life up until now.

"How sad, we never knew Chiron had such loose morals," Odin said.

"Indeed," Baldr said. "He is unfortunately not the only one. Have you already heard of the ties of Jegudiel?"

"How could I not? A nephilim and an angel who fell for a human's love, hardly a surprise such things draw together."

All the gods around him murmured agreement, while those off the side were less enthusiastic.

Gods kept filing into the hall, ignoring her as they chatted. Only when Gabriel and El arrived did things become more quiet.

El's lone voice echoed as ne flew to Jeanne. "Mother, I heard you're making a new demon tribe? A better one?"

Jeanne ruffled El's head. "I hope so."

She couldn't promise.

A ring of gods formed around them, where Jeanne still stood with El. Nobody specifically looked at them, but it felt like closing them in.

What was going on?

A theme in all the conversations was what to do with the demons.

Gabriel's voice carried when she said, "We'll get rid of the demons once we have established devotion. We cannot yet do so since too much humans are accustomed to employing them."

"No, I'm going to purify them," El snapped at Gabriel. "I need to learn how and you should give me demons to practice on. Let me go with mother and I'll prove it!"

"El!" Jeanne said. "You are not being given any people."

"They are not worth to be called people," Odin said.

"With all due respect, lady Gabriel and lord Odin, I do not believe we should turn down any potential allies," Jeanne said. "They are sapient beings as we are, as we are."

"Demons are only reliable when their own life is at stake," Gabriel said. "They only aided in the shield against Bahamut at the very last minute, and as of now their strongest survivors hide out in Helheim. If they wanted an alliance they would have already approached us. Lucifer knows where to find us."

"Lucifer might be the chief of the current coalition, but he does not rule the people brought away in captivity. If they would have their own leaders, free from the influence of the past, they will turn out different. Give us a chance," Jeanne pleaded.

"A chance?" Odin's face twisted in distaste.

"Hell isn't strong right now, we should!" El said.

"Hell is not strong, but we are not weak either. We are still shaped by the culture around our powers," Gabriel said. "Of course your mother would like her fantasy of unnaccountability to be true. After all, your mother, under influence of demonic forces, has killed your father. We cannot be certain where her so very human heart lies. Hers might just lean towards the darkness a little too much, despite her skills with the light. I can imagine she would like to think demon nature is not that bad."

El turned to her. "Mother?"

Jeanne scrambled for words as the memory of Michael fading drowned her, mingling with the idea her child might die at a similar battlefield. She reeled but had nowhere to fall.

"It's true, I did—"

"There is no need for you to confirm it is true. I have never lied to Jegudiel," Gabriel said.

All El did, bless nur, was embrace Jeanne, but it did not undo all this bitterness. "It's okay, mother, I know about what the darkness does to souls. You're better now, and I inherited Michael's powers so I will learn to do the same. And once I do, Azazel will be back to this old self. Then we can all live in heaven."

She couldn't tell El the truth right here without handing Gabriel something much bigger to condemn her for.

How to even begin fighting this? She couldn't even shake the past.

· · · · · · ·

Nina was in the middle of going over with Aurora and Qhispe how to spice up the play when Jeanne entered the room, looking about as miserable as a soaked cat. Nina got up at once.

Nina ran up. Jeanne shook a little and wouldn't look up.

"Jeanne? What's going on?" Nina pulled her in a hug.

"I couldn't ..." A sob broke from her, which she quickly put under control. "I couldn't do what I had to do. I'm sorry."

This was all wrong. Nina led Jeanne into her room, away from the curious gods.

As she closed the door, Jeanne sat down on her bed. She didn't really cry, but kept staring listlessly at the floor. Nina sat next to her and waited for her to talk.

"El thinks I'm nur father's murderer now," Jeanne said. "And as much as I want to say I'm not, I can't do so without explaining how I know ... and it still feels like I did it. I did do it with my own hands, and I could not stop it."

"How did that come to be? Gabriel didn't bring it up before, did she?"

"Odin put Gabriel in a tight spot and she doubled down on darkness being a force of evil," Jeanne said. "And I just ... froze. I shouldn't have. They don't want the demons to actually organize, they just want an army of cannon fodder. This isn't what I wanted for them."

Nina planted her hands on her hips. "I guess I'll have to step up my game."

Nina was out of patience. First Azazel got worse and now Jeanne. She threw open the door where her godly friends waited.

"Hey, Aurora, I wanna go out. Where can I get the most people to hear me without breaking into a new station?"

"Well ... we actually can't. We're uh ..."

"You're what?"

"Not allowed to talk about events outside the formal zones of the government."

"Formal what? I'm just a guest."

"Aside of the mausoleum and your remote island, which was placed under fly ban, you haven't been in places not directly under jurisdiction of the palace, and you are not considered a free citizens," Aurora said. "Lady Gabriel prefers to keep military matters strictly within the government."

"Is that so?" Nina spun on her heel and threw open the door of Qhispe's room. "Hey, old lady, would you mind giving me a small lift? Please?"

"Sure, but where to?"

"It's called a new station. Let's try to make it today."

· · · · · · ·

It had been inevitable Gabriel would do something to assert social control over Jeanne. Sofiel had hoped it wouldn't be this. If only she could drop her work and go to here, try to dissuade her or maybe even explain why it was so important Gabriel's reign wasn't challenged, or ... or ... oh, there wasn't anything that met both needs. Either Jeanne was displeased, or Gabriel would be. Restoring Odin had seemed the obvious choice too, surely the right hand of Zeus would lend credence. But now, Sofiel's secretary reported a high code.

She set aside the register of earthly staff to read it : Ninati and Qhispe had gone out of supervision, burst into a news station, Ninati declared her immunity to Dromos and was now in the middle of an interview.

El Elyon help us.

Sofiel opened vision views to both the new channel and Indra's Web, monitoring the popular forums to get an idea of the population's response. Ninati complained loudly of her resistance not being put to use, informed everyone that no she could not turn into a dragon right now because of her hybrid nature, but Qhispe could (and did) only to lack the immunity, and within minutes a new theory took hold : El's resistance was just a quirk. A side effect of human heritage. Others said Michael just deduced what caused the resistance and acted on it, since unlike Ninati El was much more equiped to effect it on a grand scale. Others said this indefinitely proved there was no fate. Yet others said Ninati looked older than she was, and the demons has just done the same as Michael.

The worst that came out of this was, if hybridzation with humans came with an immunity, would a saint work too? There were no saints anymore, but humans who had pacts with demons, well, there was a whole hall of sinners. And weren't we already recruiting demons?

It was a complete PR disaster because one thing they all agreed on : Gabriel had tried to keep Ninati's abilities under wraps, which Ninati confirmed because someone apparently had told her of the non disclosure forms.

Jeanne refusing to call her child Jegudiel in favor of El Mugaro made a whole wave of extra trouble when Ninati also kept referring with Mugaro to the savior of heaven. A name given by a demon, she confirmed. And everything Jeanne had told those on earth was true, demons were their allies regardless of magical natures. What she said wasn't so different, but it came from the mouth of a technical demon whom Gabriel had invited into heaven.

Cue forums pointing out holy dragons existed too, but that was difficult to push when Qhispe sat right there looking decidedly monstrous.

Nobody had inside information of the hall of sinners databank, but plenty of people had visited it as kids. Mirin's presence in the hall of sinners was meager and mostly related to lust. Mirin had exactly one pact who turned out to be a criminal, and she'd broken it before his capture. Other names had similar dubious connections. Ninati claimed that demons didn't control what anyone did with their pact and cited Belphegor as example. Dante and Eligos didn't even have records.

There was a lot the citizens didn't know they didn't know.

To make things worse, Chiron just had to go online and — already in possession of a group of warriors and sages — politely voiced the opinion he had trained some great heroes among humans and why wasn't he permitted to live on earth anymore? This spun out a section of opinions who didn't agree with heaven's seclusionism.

Some of the eldest gods remembered Hera and wondered whether she could be convinced to revoke her self imposed exile to take her husband's place.

A small group wanted to just get things over with and outright suggested an alliance with Lucifer.

Most of these were not even new opinions, just slumbering ones given an outlet.

The other heavenly realms started pitching in too. Soon a wham arrived through an anonymous recommendation from Kunlun, brought about a human sage who had figured out how to control one of the so called zommorods. Within minutes the venerable Lingbao Tianzun had this person tracked down, found another rare god to teleport to heaven, and put this person before Ninati. On heaven wide vision. Where they proceeded to prove that yes, Ninati did in fact have an potent immunity.

Next, Sofiel got a report various gods had gone down to earth to follow rumors of nephilim.

Sofiel sat back, head in her heands, as Gabriel's began to crumble. El was not the grand savior set upon the world by fate, just a hybrid with the same immunity as all others — factions now split into those believing Michael had just figured that out and those who thought it was pure chance. Either way, Gabriel had taken a random, untested child to war.

Sofiel expected Gabriel's call all along, but still startled when it happened. She took a deep breath and opened the channel. When she saw black hair instead of mint, she took a double take.

"Lady Schwertleite?"

"You suspected, didn't you?"

"Suspected what?"

"Don't deny it. You went behind Gabriel's back to give Jeanne back Précieuse. I deserve to know what you're planning. Is it a coup?"

"Don't be ridiculous! So Ninati Navrátil also has a resistance to Dromos. That does not mea—"

"Our entire strategy was built on that child being created to take down that infernal king! We believed it! Yet that child refused to back down, and so did many others. It was all just arrogance put to the test, and the cost was hundreds of our finest soldiers. Are you backing up in case of the downfall of the council of four archangels?"

Sofiel turned off the channel and all others until the only light was the candles.

Her quiet was not for long. Gabriel herself turned on another vision channel.

"What just happened?" Gabriel asked icily.

Measured, Sofiel said, "Ninati Navrátil appears displeased with her inactivity."

It was more, the dragon wanted to draw everyone in.

"I will talk to her at once," Gabriel said before cutting off the channel. "Ensure that they come to the main plaza of my palace the moment they leave that studio. I want no scene and no clear escort, we do not want to give the population the impression of arrest."

"Are we arresting them?"

"We shall see."

The channel closed.

That was it? But, what about everything else? Damage control? Address the nation? What now?

Sofiel went to work, got a message to Qhispe, got the city guards in line. All as neat as she could do.

By the time Sofiel appeared on the plaza before Gabriel's palace, the space between the collumns and the wall had crowded. Several high ranking gods were here, with Odin in a heated argument with one of the scions of Zeus. The topic was a specific loss during the siege. Badb Catha had died when disobeying Gabriel's orders to retreat, but that could be spun to be blamed on Gabriel if she had supporters as prominent as Odin. Maybe he hadn't been as content as assumed, because this felt like defiance.

When Gabriel appeared at the top of the stairway, the murmuring continued as if she was not there. Sofiel joined at her side.

"Lady Gabriel, what do you intend?"

Her hands clenched. "I am unsure, but something must happen. I cannot let them take this all away."

It did not take long for Qhispe to land on the plaza.

Ninati saw Gabriel at the top of the stairway and put her hands on her hips. "Good you're here, we have to talk anyway."

She jumped off Qhispe and would've gone straight towards Gabriel, if not for someone flying in the way.

Dione landed a few meters before her and said, "No, I do not think that will be worth anyone's time."

"What do you think you're doing?" Gabriel said. "You were not even summoned, your business is with the halls."

Dione cast a dismissive glance over her shoulder. "I do watch the news, and I pay more attention than you do to reports, and my own eyes. This is the woman who broke into heaven at Azazel's side, and now three of the taken sinners work for Charioce. You did not even read my report, and yet want me to oblige myself to you?"

She spread her scarlet wings, exposing the gems embedded within them and her eyes glowed golden.

Nina's fell to her knees, screaming against the invisible force. Her power flared out, urging her into transformation. Desperate, Ninati curled up and tried to stay humanoid.

Dione's gems flickered before settling into a steady glow, she had only intended to get a glimpse of Nina's power. "And not only that, you are the scourge of the eastern mountains. There is a fair bounty on the head of this bloodthirsty dragon."

Qhispe's gigantic paws slammed down on either side of Nina. "Cease your blabbering! She is not aware of her actions as a dragon, you have no grounds to condemn her!"

Unaffected, Dione stared right back at the smoking dragon jaws. "We might hold you accountable for letting her run free, if that were true, but there is no proof that she loses her mind as a dragon. In fact, lady Sofiel reported the red dragon was—"

Qhispe bristled so hard, Dione was knocked back.

"I'm magenta," Ninati snarled as she climbed back to her feet. "And maybe I am that dragon, but shouldn't you hear us out first?"

Sofiel turned to Gabriel. "Please call upon Veritas. Surely we can resolve this without drama."

"Indeed." Gabriel clapped her hands together, sending a sharp echo through the plaza. "Dione, step back. We will deal with this through the proper protocol."

Sofiel saw no more, just opened a gate and went to the forum of the highest sages. It did not take long to find Veritas in the middle of meditating.

"No," Veritas said. "I've already played with the truth enough, and I begin to doubt what I see as lies; beliefs I do not detect. I will keep out of this and understand myself first."

"It is a direct order from Gabriel."

"You certainly believe so. Besides, what difference would I make? Execution or sealing in the void? The latter is worse."

Right. That.

All around Veritas were others, all meditating, but the pressure in the air lay thick. Ninati had unwittingly raked up old grievances and concerns, which now built into a shoal. Oh order, what a time for Veritas to get all subjectivist.

Ninati had to leave heaven not just for her own sake and Jeanne's, but what her presence and disappearance could mean. An thorn in theories and philosophies with a rebellious streak. Sofiel had one other option to get Ninati out of the way, perhaps.

· · · · · · ·

"Come out!"

Quietly, he stood up and peered past the roots. He was in one of the darkest spots as precaution, while the visitor stood near the few lightsray and the glowing new entrance gate.

Oh, her yet again, that damn pest.

The moment he looked at her, she looked right back.

"You're here, aren't you ... Azazel?"

He stepped into view, braced for a fight. She tensed up, staff before her, but did not attack.

"How did you know?"

"A few things have come out in the past hour. We have a small crisis. You and Ninati need to get out of heaven right now. Can I assume you're interested in Ninati's survival?"

He jumped down to her. "What's going on?"

Sofiel stepped through the portal and he followed, only barely entertaining that it might be trap.

It wasn't, she brought them atop a garden on a skyscraper overlooking the outside of the palace. Qhispe in full dragon form covered half the plaza, wings wide and stance aggressive. Odin had grown in size, expecting to fight her no doubt. Nina wasn't visible, but he could just make out the mint of Gabriel atop of stairs.

"Stay here, I'll convince them to lead Ninati to the nearby prison block and then you grab her and get out of here," Sofiel said. "Do you know the way?"

"I know where the prisons are, unless you built any new ones. Block Veysita?"

Sofiel nodded before vanished into another gate.

· · · · · · ·

Nina couldn't make head nor tails of the debate that broke out between that Odin guy, Gabriel, Dione, Baldr and the rest of them. It started to feel like she'd made a mistake, but she didn't understand how exactly. Qhispe got anxious too, and refused to transform into her smaller self.

One thing was clear : Gabriel was pulling the short end. Dione and Odin kept talking over her, and she tried agreeing with them as much as she disagreed.

"We have no need for your clumsy governing," Odin said at last. "That you even let Jeanne d'Arc go on testifies your weakness. It must have been the support of Raphael, Michael and Uriel that granted you a stable governance for millenniums."

It kept coming back to that.

"You know as well as I do that Charioce XVII was out of my control? What do you even want with your challenging of my authority and this dire time?" Gabriel asked.

"What we want is no more dependence on unreliable nephilim and speculations on fate," Odin said.

"And cease to obstruct justice," Dione said. "We want none more of hell's criminals on our grounds. Not the hellborn, or the earthborn."

With that attention was back to Nina.

"Who's obstructing justice when all we do is free enslaved people and fight real criminals?" Nina asked.

"Pointless rethoric," Odin said, which prompted a murmur of agreement from his followers.

"Besides, you are doing very little good to actually fight criminals. You aid them. First Azazel, or perhaps that was a ploy to aid worse. Merlin is dreadfully convenient to Charioce, after all. Perhaps you handed her right over. I can hardly imagine a demon of Azazel's caliber would not know his prey and would just lose control like that."

"I did not. Azazel just misses a lot of things. I miss some things too," Nina said. "I was part of Dante's rebellion long with Bacchus and Hamsa. We brought in Merlin and the others as back up, we didn't know some would defect. That should not be a problem since we sought the same as you : to overthrow Charioce XVII! That didn't work out for you either."

"At best that makes you a fool meddling with matters beyond your comprehension. At worst, you may just be an agent of discord, or worse, humans. Perhaps your half human heritage set you on the side of the humans, like that other dragon," Odin said.

"What?" Qhispe reared back in surprise.

"Another dragon of your type was present during the siege. I have seen him myself," Dione told Qhispe. "He transformed into a human a few times to avoid fire while flying. Can you explain that?"

"No, but I can find out," Qhispe said. "If it is any of our village—"

"It does not matter," Odin said. "There are forces that work against fate, as the likes of Martinet have done before, and it should be clear as day she is an agent of discord sent to corrupt our ways and aid the wicked king."

"I say we do as we always have done : the manifestation of sin, demons, are to be eliminated." Dione raised a circle of force, which sent a rain of bolts at Nina.

She rolled out of the way, grabbed her whip and slung it around Dione's arm right as she careened. With all her strength Nina threw her away. She got up at once, sword out. Nina ducked just as quickly and knocked Dione off her feet.

Dione spread her wings to stay afloat, Nina just grabbed her leg to slam her down. It disoriented her, but she didn't even bleed. Nina kicked the sword away only to get a blast of energy in the stomach and arm.

She fell back, the searing pain distracting her. Her skin felt like melting off, she had to bite back tears. If her power hadn't flare to generate scales, she'd have been worthless.

Dione got up and summoned her sword back.

"Wait!" Gabriel called, but Dione did not listen. Qhispe tried to knock her out of the sky but was too slow. Dione shot by her and fired at Nina.

Nina rolled out of the way, and Qhispe's tail lashed Dione across the plaza. Flaring her wings, she thunder, "Don't try that again!"

Most gods backed away, but Odin grew with each step until he was at eye level with Qhispe. One punch to the face and she reeled backed, but stayed on her feet. She tackled Odin head on, sending them both to the ground. He kicked her off, she went right back at him.

Gabriel no longer tried to stop them. Mugaro and Jeanne stood far behind her, flanked by guards. Could she get to them so they could all escape heaven together? Should she even try?

Qhispe couldn't be knocked over on all fours, but once Odin got her neck in a choke hold he forced back. Her claws dug into his legs. Screaming, her kicked her away across the plaza. The wall collapsed under her weight, and she did not get up.

"I think I broke something," she groaned. "Nina, go ..."

Right away Dione went at Nina. She jumped and the ground below broke at impact of Dione's sword, which swung right up. Nine forced her wings out and pulled her legs out of range just in time. But she could not fly well enough, and Dione was faster.

The sword cut into her leg but not through, as she was pulled out of the way.

"Tch."

Azazel.

In the shadow of Qhispe, he set her down.

"Azazel, how?"

Dione stopped in her track and silence fell across the plaza. Nina could almost feel the eyes on Azazel, and the fear and loathing within them.

· · · · · · ·

"I'll help." Nina struggled to stand, her glow rising but too weak to mean anything.

He lightly put a hand on her back, pushing back at the flaring power. "Don't. If you harm any gods you'll be fair hunt."

He already was game, so it didn't matter what he did. He locked eyes with Sofiel for a second. Still here. She better stick this out to the end.

"Qhispe, take Nina and get out of heaven," he said.

"But—" Nina started.

"It's over for you. Vanaheimr does not give second chances."

Dione tossed away the elaborate dress and set her sword alight. Azazel summoned his own.

"I'll distract her." It wouldn't be difficult, he was a much bigger catch than Nina. "Don't get in my way, understood?"

Dione summoned two punisher angels, then they charged.

He teleported past her and took care of those first, one broken knee, the other a blade through the throat. Dione spun around and fired at him only to hit air.

Nina wasn't at the same place anymore — where — not there — dodge a slash — there, Sofiel coaxed her onto a platform already moving away.

One of the many soldiers got in his line of sight.

He curld inward and set out dozens of snakes in all directions, not caring how much he hit. He just needed to buy time. Qhispe was on her feet but didn't move yet, why did it take so long?

Martiel charged at him with a sharp spray of water turning to ice. He broke it apart with his snakes, burst through when she expected a dodge, and tore her arm off. Next attackers, more of Dione's punishers. Their helmets made for enhanced vision, but they'd be too dependent. He teleported a short end, left his snakes blinding them and found Baldr in his face. He got his full force with a glowing fist. He fell, but got his wings steady and shot out of range.

Why was Qhispe still here?

"Stop!" The words would've been lost to him if they didn't carry on a forcefield that knocked back those to his far left and right. Baldr and Dione still came at him

"Azazel, please!"

The light came stronger now, throwing back Baldr and Dione and keep him them there.

Azazel froze as he realized what the light meant. Whose voice that was.

Despite himself, he looked back.

Atop the stairs stood Mugaro, nothing like he had known : the eversmiling dark child now was a blonde god with white wings, looking heartbroken and terrified. The fading blood on himself and the marble all around suddenly stood out.

The remaining guard scrambled away, while Dione fixed her eyes on Mugaro. She whispered something and lowered her sword. Baldr backed off.

The forcefield remained as Mugaro took one cautious step after another down the stairs.

Azazel stayed still, all his rage dying but letting nothing of what replaced it show on his face. It really wasn't that hard, after all. What did Lucifer hide all the time? He wouldn't be able to ask.

"I ... I ... " Mugaro started.

He waited, and hated that the first he ever heard of Mugaro had been begging and broken words.

"Can you ... look, just stay put. If I take the darkness out, you can just stay here," ne said.

Mugaro's red eye seared alive and bore into his soul. As if being turned inside out, drowning without being able to die from it. If the cold could melt anything, this was it. He lost shape or perhaps just his experience from it, living into nothing but writhing serpents around a core of hundreds of eyes. For a brief moment he could set hooves on the ground, only to lose that too until even up and down vanished.

The power ceased and he found himself again with a swarm of snakes writhing all over. For the first time in centuries he felt his heart pound, and he wondered how he could have missed it. The scars around it shouldn't exist, but they did.

With effort, he got onto his knees and looked up. Mugaro stood still amid the snakes, half in tears. "You won't came back?"

Oh ... ne wanted purification.

"I'm sorry, but I cannot give you this."

As he forced himself to his feet, Jeanne came running down the plaza. She turned Mugaro by the shoulders, and the last of the oppressive force fell away. "What are you doing?"

El looked up helplessly. "I just tried to bring him home."

"El, you can't. It's not how it works."

The other gods began closing in now El's field was gone. Azazel stood up and locked eyes with Jeanne. "Don't let Mugaro take on the blame."

Not waiting for the answer, he flew away.

Qhispe had left a collapsed wall, which he passed to stay close to the streets. He didn't want a fight anywhere Mugaro could see.

He stopped at the first canal he came across. The clouds looked harmless white from above, keeping a storm below that maybe he could hide in. He'd escaped before, when it was only Dione chasing them.

At that time, he had had somewhere to go.

A soft sound of an angel flying encroached, followed by the the swipe of a sword through air. The red shadow of her wings fell just before she struck.

The blade tore through his chest. He let go a wrangled cry, before gritting his teeth and forcing out a rain of serpents. Arrogant open target that she was, she could die with him and her last judgment.

As she faded away, he dropped down, wishing he could go so quickly.

The wingless would catch up. Maybe they wouldn't let him die. The edge of the boulevard lay in line of sight, maybe if he just threw himself into the storm and light that do the rest of the work ... he didn't want to lay still and have his mind wander back to the sorrow on Mugaro's face.

He tried crawling, but strength ran out before the edge. Azazel breathed out and let it end.

· · · · · · ·

El didn't understand. What had gone wrong? There had been so much darkness, but Azazel didn't feel any more malicious. Ne looked around for anyone who could explain, found none.

A scream tore across the plaza. Sofiel had taken Nina apart, but lost her when she threw herself off the platform in a burst of pink light. Her voice rose to a roar and her weight cracked the marble. Spreading wings wide, she took off in Azazel's direction.

"Nina?"

Jeanne turned El to face her, kneeling down to be at eye level.

"El, listen closely. Lord Michael died at my hands and for a long time I believed I had done it. I never told you because ... you were so pure, how could I say something that'd make you fear or resent me? But I have since learned they were not my actions. The human Gilles de Rais controlled me and Azazel proved this to me. Maybe I should have known all along, because I knew I never had to fear I'd hurt you. There was no inner devil in my just begging to be unlocked by darkness."

"But ... if there's no corrupting darknes, that means Azazel really is a monster."

"He was, and maybe he went overboard today, but then what? When I still believed the blood of millions was on my hand, I knew I would never be able to atone, but I still could do good. I was no longer a threat, so there was no point to my death. There is none to Azazel's either, now. Go with Nina and Azazel, leave heaven."

El hesitated. If ne left now, then what? "But I still have to save the world ..."

It felt weak now. Nur knees shook, nothing was certain anymore. Why did she talk of deserving death ... they were going to execute him? They'd tried to execute Nina too ...

"You think this is a choice between some grand fate and someone you love? My dear child, you cannot hold all the world's fate of the world in your small hands. You are a child first, that is all you have to be. Hide, keep yourself and Nina and Azazel safe." Jeanne pulled El in an embrace. "I love you regardless of your destiny."

El held her close, hating to have to leave her yet again. "But what about you? I don't want to lose you again."

"Heaven will not harm me. Let me sort out what I can as the knight I swore to be. I will ask lady Sofiel to find you once I can trust heaven again, alright?"

With that, she gently pushed nur away. "Go on, I will always find you again."

Alright. Ne flew through the broken wall, down the stairs and further along specks of purple blood and sometimes Nina's roar.

They weren't far, just at the canal of clouds that surrounded the palace.

Nina wrought an inferno upon the gods encroaching on her, standing over Azazel as he lay on the ground.

He ... he did not move.

When Nina saw El, she made a pleading rumble before piling fire in her jaws to blast aside the soldiers between them. The smoke it left allowed El to pass through before anyone could stop nur.

El landed next to Azazel and struggled to turn him over. His arms fell limp aside, the gaping wound in his stomach still lost blood.

"Azazel?"

No response.

Shouldn't have waited so long. El tried to cover the wound, tried to force more power to work.

The world fell into pieces before nur eyes, saw the way matter tied together again. Though more earthly, ichor obeyed the soul and mind of gods, saw no master in El.

"Jegudiel, get away from there!" Gabriel's voice. El didn't look up.

"Nina, we have to leave now."

She fired at someone. All El afford to see was the wound. Nur blue eyes shone, ne saw what to do, but hands alone was not enough. What else was there?

"Please work ... "

It didn't. It wasn't right, none of this was. Ne finally had a voice again and he couldn't hear anymore. Ne had held so much ne wanted to tell him, when there was time and breath but no voice, only music.

Someone reached for El, only for singeing heat to throw them away. Nina scooped Azazel up in her paws and jumped off the boulveard, right into the clouds. El put an arm around one of Nina's fingers and the other on Azazel's wound.

They fell into the storm, Nina cradling them close to her stomach with her paws. El had only the light of nur blue eyes left and the flashes. Nina's claw hooked around nur stomach, but it was unsteady, and Azazel looked like he might drop out soon.

It had to be now. El opened nur red eye not to aim at Azazel, but to try throwing everything out.

The veil of the worlds split where ne sometimes saw people in distance. Now there was a soul in transition right here. El could see, but needed to be heard too. Ne let go of a long held breath and let it carry part of the healing power on nur voice.

· · · · · · ·

Wait, why ...

Azazel woke up to the wind howling and thunder roaring, the massive scalesof Nina's lower side and a strange hum below it. Pressure on the wound forced him further awake, but it wasn't pain anymore.

The force curdely pulled at his own life. He reached to the wound, only for a small hand to grab his.

"Azazel?" The little voice was barely audible over the raging storm, but burned into his mind. "Stay here, please."

Mugaro ...

He winced, and right away the magic returned to pull him back together.

"You need will it along," Mugaro said. "They're still after us and I can't hold you together for long."

A thought caught hold : regenerate now, or someone else might die. At his will, Mugaro's magic moved along the closing wound.

The storm threw Nina around. Azazel wrapped one arm around Mugaro and the other around Nina's thumb, throwing in a few snakes to extra security. Nina realized they were secure now and started wilder moves to stay steady and dodge. As she refused to leave the storm, their pursuers still had to be there, but he caught no sighn of them. Sometimes Nina spun around and fired, only to dive into a thicker patch.

When they finally broke from the storm, it was over a mountain range near a sea. Free of the winds, Nina fell almost straight down. Azazel held onto Mugaro and pushed out of Nina's claws. She braced her legs out just in time to catch herself on the ground and roll over a few times, leaving a long stretch of land torn open.

After the storm and the crash, the sudden silence was almost eerie. He let Mugaro go, avoiding eye contact.

Nina had been singed and both her wings were broken in her effort to soften her crash. Mugaro was at her side right away, surrounded by new golden light tinged with blue.

Azazel stayed in the air, watching.

He was not dead. Mugaro and Nina were with him. The skies were clear, they had shaken their pursuers.

And he was not dead.

Dammit, what he supposed to do now?

Nina roared as she tried to move, and Mugaro did nur best to heal her. He could make sure nobody was in the area to find them. That was something. That didn't involve facing Mugaro now.

He circled the valley to get an idea where they were, no such luck that he recognized it. Nobody was following as far as he could see, Nina had flown all the way to the edge of the heavenly layer, and he was already running out of reasons to avoid going back.

Staying away forever or even a while wouldn't work, Mugaro would find him.

When he returned, Nina was on her feet, limping into a nearby forest. She found a grove and curled up against the rising cold. Mugaro remained at her side, but eyes to the trees. Ne saw Azazel soon enough, even in the shadow.

He landed at a distance. If it was up to him, he would say nothing and let it all be, but that wouldn't be good enough for Mugaro.

When Mugaro stayed put, the memory of that night at the statue came back. Was ne still afraid? Was it something else?

Now Mugaro could talk, asking wasn't useless. It just might be the hardest conversation he'd ever been before.

He walked up.

Nina nudged Mugaro in the back and spread her forepaws to pushed together moss and dry leaves. Mugaro laid a hand on her snout. "Thank you, I'm tired, but ..."

The moment Mugaro looked at him again, he stopped.

They waited for the other, but since Azazel didn't have any words and Mugaro too much, it was Mugaro who spoke first. "Azazel, why did you do that?"

"Do what? Sinning, or dying?" That came out harsher than intended, and Mugaro started tearing up.

"I didn't mean it that way. I'm sorry, I didn't want to hurt you, I just thought it'd make things better," Mugaro sputtered. "They said the power of hell makes you evil and I just wanted it to be true so badly, because then I could make all the bad things go away. And I failed to help out during the siege to, and ... and ..."

"Stop apologizing. I don't need it. You didn't do anything wrong during the siege."

"So I did do something wrong just now," Mugaro said, deflated as ne sat down; pulling nur legs up, like ne would try to hide crying.

"You didn't choose to be lied to, and ... " Dammit, this was the last thing he wanted to talk about, but Mugaro deserved an explanation. "Look, I've been close to death without caring much for a long time. Once I loved someone so much, I fell from heaven. I lost her anyway and I was chained up underground to rot for it or rise again the only way they would allow me. It was the first time I wanted to die and I only turned darker for it. When lord Lucifer broke me out, I swore myself to him and lived for him. That's been true for centuries, until not so long ago. When I failed everything and lost all my purpose, I still lived for you. You didn't make me die, I just gave up because ... "

Why exactly? He couldn't even call it anything. He had achieved nothing with his rebellion, and nothing was what he'd come to boil down to.

"I'll never be a god again. You can't save me more than you already did."

Not waiting for an answer, he walked past Mugaro and started kicking the plants Nina had gather closer together.

The silence that fell should've felt normal and settled everything. It didn't. Mugaro just stood there wordless and Azazel felt the eyes in his back. Even Nina grew tense, but that might just be afterpain of her crash. He didn't know. He had no idea about any of this. Signing up for watcher duty or being Lucifer's right hand wasn't ever supposed to include anything like this.

He went with one knee on the ground, more frantic than necesary in trying to get this damn moss to be smooth on the ground. Mugaro crawled in the small space, quiet still.

Oh screw everything. He sat back against Nina's forepaw and looked at the darkening sky. "For what it's worth, all the things you fear from my past ... I'm not going back. If you want me around I will be, if you don't I'll bring you wherever you want."

Maybe Nina's village would, or — all thought was lost when Mugaro closed nur arms around him.

Mugaro had always been hesitant to outright embrace, now ne burried against his shoulder. He had to make himself, but Azazel raised his arms and held Mugaro. Still the same child after all, always so careful with everyone, the small white wings were only natural.

"I want you to stay." Mugaro's voice came out muffled before ne looked up. "If I can decide where to go, come with me to Anatae? Maybe I'm not supposed to save the world, but I still want to do something for our friends at least. We could just get them out?"

He smiled despite everything and brushed his claws over Mugaro's head. "That's a start, but only after you and Nina recovered."

And there was the smile he was used to.

Mugaro shifted to find a comfortable spot under Azazel's arm and against Nina's. He expanded one wing around them, the other closing the shelter. He didn't lean too much; no idea when she'd turn back. It didn't feel like it would be soon, for Nina curled her forepaws further around them and closed as much remaining space with her neck and wings. Warmth started to build up, and he wondered whether she had decided to stay a dragon for longer.

As peace set in, the restlessness he'd been forced to resist since his capture stirred, and would not leave him without realizing his absurd position. They'd saved his life again and that proved the world wasn't fair.

Five years ago, if told he'd have the sole two people in the world with an innate ability to defy the power of Charioce at his side, he would have only thought about how fast he could throw them at Charioce. Now he just wanted them as far away from him as possible. Going back to Anatae sounded like a horrible idea, but Belphegor and Cerberus were likely still alive. Maybe the kids Mugaro knew too. All things as they were, Nina and Mugaro did give him the best chance to get them out of there. If he knew Mugaro, or himself or Nina, it might not just be them they'd try to get out. Maybe it would work better if someone without his pride decided where to go.

Regardless of all the maybes and ifs, going anywhere didn't feel so empty anymore.

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