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.

17. Charismata

· · · · · · ·

El still distantly heard prayers in the name of Jegudiel and El Mugaro, the latter stronger. But since leaving heaven it was only a background hum : easier to tune out, but also easier to hear clearly when ne actually wanted to. It was a bit strange, a whole lot of people could telepathically contact nur but ne couldn't talk back unless ne had a pact.

They flew by night and sleep by day, all the easier to hide from the prying eyes of travelers. Nina still hadn't changed back and she stood out so much against the sky. She also was prone to crashing due to being new at flight, El Mugaro had to heal her more than once.

El Mugaro nurself wasn't used to flying all the time, so stayed on Nina's back; wings out in case of crash. Azazel scouted often, but often returned to check in. Usually he brought Nina something to eat too, and food for El Mugaro. Once he asked whether ne needed to eat like humans did; ne did, but wasn't hungry yet.

Azazel didn't ask any questions other than that. Ne wasn't sure whether that was a good or bad sign, cause it felt a little off. But then again, so much felt off now.

The damage with Azazel's arms and on his face didn't go away, for some reason. Maybe they weren't scars at all.

Still, during a stop for Nina to drink, he asked, "Why are these?"

He hesitated before he said, "It began when the king had me kill a ... a friend. Dante."

Azazel rarely if ever called anyone by their name, and he looked so pained El Mugaro didn't ask any further.

All of this was so much bigger than ne could handle. To be told ne was the born savior of the world had been a comfort almost, like being in control to avoid all the pain. This was just grappling in the dark.

There was no going back to that now. All the fanfare and all future military operations were off the chart, cause ne's loved ones were in danger from heaven. Ne hoped dearly nur mother and Qhispe would be alright. Just hoping for a few to save wasn't good enough, though. Hopefully Azazel and Nina would come around soon enough.

· · · · · · ·

"I'm telling you, it's a battery," Trismegistus said.

"And I'm telling you that if it's a battery it should show signs of running out." Belphegor threw her glove on the table. "We're missing something big if we can both back up our conclusions but they cancel each other out."

"Let's take this to the slums where we can explode things without blowing our cover," Trismegistus said again.

Belphegor sat back, letting her eyes drift to the colorful smokes filling the room, so tempted to expand those indeed. Having space for loud experiments would be so useful — one couldn't just implant a rock in human flesh and get an Onyx Knight sans loyalties. It was up in the air how much of Rachel and the other's lacking control was lack of practice, or something more intricate. Oh, if only she could have a control group, or at least Kaisar to see what his situation with Rocky entailed.

Lacking that, Belphegor connected a few wires to the cannister, readying for the next experiment. Trismegistus took a seat opposite of her, looking eager regardless of complaints. They'd be trying to alter the shape of the gems with her alchemy, like before, except Trismegistus would channel away the transformative heat using some of her metal. For control group, they had another gem to measure the difference in response, and a third on which they'd apply a demonic cooling spell (gloves for Belphegor, of course).

All set up, Trismegist hovered a finger covered with floating grains over her sample, while Belphegor cast a circular project to display the heat levels of each; an adjusted spell circle.

Nothing happened, and Trismegistus donned a sour look before she sat back. "Can I come back on being your ward? It appears my pact with Azazel got annulled, so bye bye all my extra magical energy."

Oh no. Please no.

Belphegor's focus slumped and with that her entire posture. It'd been a real risk, she'd known that. Charioce's people would pursue them, they were wanted, but still ...

"It was still there last time I tried to do this. Now it's not, which is really annoying. I've got way less energy to invoke now. You can fix that though."

The numbers were still dwindling. Dante, Eligos and now Azazel ... who next?

Trismegistus sighed. "Come on, there's better shit to feel lousy about."

"He still is the one lord who came to our aid, so let me have your silence for now," Belphegor said.

Trismegistus tapped her fingers on the board, but stopped when Belphegor looked up. She didn't speak, just looked genuinely confused.

"I still hoped he'd manage to get reinforcements from Helheimr," she said, and left out the rest.

· · · · · · ·

Jeanne paced from one end of the room to another, not looking at Sofiel.

House arrest, they called this.

For her own good, Sofiel had said.

A little bit of political turmoil outside, Gabriel said.

She hadn't been allowed out the door.

"I am sorry for my part in this all, be it abducting El or sending nur to war ... and setting El on a path of warped spirituality. Of rebellion and all else." Sofiel's pleading tone almost broke her, but the memory of her teary child and her friends besieged by heaven's soldiers kept her firm. She did not need talk of warped spirituality or rebellion. She needed help.

"Jeanne."

Jeanne refused to turn, and Sofiel's tone grew more desperate. "Jeanne, I owe you and El my life. I will try to make heaven a safe place for you two again."

"Us two? How about four? Five?"

Qhispe still wasn't awake, El Mugaro was heading who knew where with Nina and Azazel on a surface ruled by Charioce. Safe was a long shot.

"Please, this won't do. Sit down, please. Jeanne?"

Walking wasn't enough to lose her frustration, so out poured the words, "Lady Sofiel, Odin and Dione attacked my friends and were set to execute Nina without a trial. What am I meant to respond to this?"

"Dione is the trial. Well, she was, before Azazel killed her. She is attuned to the system of justice in—"

"What justice?" Jeanne asked. "Have you asked yourself that? I did not for years, but my kingdom relied on a system of heaven's making where bounty hunters were rewarded for executing humans and demons on base of what humans deemed outlaws. There are flaws within this system, facts not accounted for. I have seen Nina loses her mind when she transforms—"

"It does not matter whether she loses her mind, she would be deemed a threat!" Sofiel said.

"A threat who can be reasoned with easily when she is in her human form! She's never harmed people who did not attack her first."

Sofiel wouldn't look at her and shifted topic before Jeanne was satisfied.

"Azazel is where you got all your hunches on who to free, isn't he?" Sofiel asked. "May I know how exactly this came to be? Did you send off your child to him back then, did you meet before?"

"No. Nina met him, they were part of the rebellion. I met Azazel when we escaped, she went right for him."

"And you just happened to meet her in the labor camp? Pardon my tone, but I must be cautious now I know you brought one of our greatest enemies into heaven."

Jeanne took a chair opposite of her. "Must you because Gabriel says so, or because you believe it? Azazel was in the carriage all the way into the city. I know what guards are around. He could not have just flown up to the palace without being seen."

Sofiel looked so very caught. "I may have ..." She held up a finger. "Let me consider how to put this."

Jeanne gave her that time.

"One, when I ... abducted El, it was after I briefly joined forces with Azazel in the hopes of destroying Charioce. Two, I may have an ability I cannot readily explain : I perceive bonds, albeit indirectly. I suppose I'm not reading danger from what exists between El and Azazel, or his ties to you and Nina. But that is not anything I am read to tell lady Gabriel."

Sofiel set her staff before herself and conjured something out of thin air : a black ocarina, which Jeanne knew from descriptions.

"I found it in El's room this morning as it was being searched." She handed it to Jeanne. "It is of demonic making. I don't know what to make it and the bond behind it. Demons are not supposed to be kind, or warrant my neglect of caution."

"There are a great many demons you and I have never been able to meet. The bowels of hell were ruled by two governments we might find repulsive, but their law is not nature to all the species. They do not pour evil out of every breath, do they? So why does it matter there is a creed that says so? Why does Gabriel allow such innacuracy to fester in a perfect realm?"

"I don't know anymore. Lady Gabriel has never been strong about portraying our war with hell in such an extreme way. The four archangels have come a long way since the creed of Apólytos Deus Mortis — the Arbiter, she ruled heaven and earth before Zeus. By the tenets of the Arbiter's ideology, Michael would never be able to grant you a sword that is both cursed and blessed and no god would have trusted Qhispe to carry them to heaven. It is the Arbiter's old philosophies that still linger even as heaven has outlived it.

Lady Gabriel is no exception to this development, she is rather pragmatic concerning demons. It was not until we realized that Azazel was connected to El that she doubled down on the theory of absolute evil. Or rather, unless the loss of the siege proved her lack of control."

At this point Jeanne wasn't even surprised anymore to learn heaven had wildly different creeds depending on who ruled. Whatever Gabriel's problem was, it might be as fickle as human motivations.

"Then I must step outside all of this or change this way," Jeanne said. "Let me continue my work on earth, please."

"You're not so different from your child," Sofiel said with a bittersweet smile. "You know, El's behavior during the siege was not the first lapse of adherence to protocol. Once, El used that ocarine to summon a unicorn. Imagine, it's a child on a devil's instrument that brings such a hallowed being back to the city."

Well, there was an angle yet to be explored.

"Spare me a moment, please."

Ocarina in hand, Jeanne went onto the balcony. There was no security here, for it was well known she couldn't fly.

Jeanne set the ocarina at her lips. She could not play well, but there was a kind of magic to it that carried further than sound.

Someone answered in the way she had once heard the voices of the gods. No true sound but the impression of it, beautiful in ways beyond mortal song.

She closed in on the balcony's edge, a weak impulse to get closer to the distant source.

The force vanished and reappeared much closer, somewhere on this very sky island — a living being answering her call, curious and not unlike the way channeling divine magic worked. Soft understanding was offered instead of raw power, all she had to do was follow.

Maybe it was well rooted training to trust divine entities, but she didn't think much of jumping off the balcony.

Two seconds later that felt like an utmost horrible idea, complete with flashbacks to her trip with Nina — but then arms closed around her stomach and the beat of wings slowed her descent.

"Fool!"

"I had faith I would be caught, lady Sofiel."

"One wind gust sweeping you against the building and you could've ended up with a cracked skull," Sofiel said.

"If not you, then another." Jeanne nodded at the edge of the greenery, where stood what appeared a horse at this distance.

"Oh my ... You too?" Sofiel landed near the green, where she set Jeanne down.

No, a unicorn, but with a horn far different than the earthly ones : a piercing, radiant green so familiar it would've frightened her if it hadn't felt so peaceful.

Sofiel landed near it, staring in as much awe as Jeanne. "I wonder why this one draws to you and El."

The unicorn just flicked vun ears, regarding them from the shelter of the trees.

"Do you know what to do?" Sofiel asked.

Jeanne nodded. "This one tells me I may learn if I follow."

The unicorn bowed vun head and stepped back, compelling Jeanne towards a glowing green gate hidden in the greenery of a meadow. Sofiel followed Jeanne through it, to arrive at what Jeanne had only seen from a distance : the Elysian fields.

She was here to find an answer and give one.

The unicorn led them to a slope into a lower land not visible from the distance. A single tree in bloom stood here. Here the unicorn laid down.

Jeanne gave Sofiel the ocarina and sat next to the unicorn, not sure how she knew what was expected of her.

The unicorn bowed vun horn to her forehead, and Jeanne lost all senses.

She fell into a radiant world, at first so bright she could barely see. Over time, flowing colors and abstract clusters of translucent spheres and pearlescent plates and cubicles became apparent, their meaning indiscernible. They might be houses, or nature, or something altogether. Rivers of light flowed through them, towards distant dust clouds. Beyond this lay the stars embedded in dust clouds.

Forces drew together far before her into a figure so familiar, she still recognized it, even before the orange color faded into the long hair. As wings unfolded, her opened his mismatched eyes.

"Lord Michael!" The gutwrenching pain of his loss surged back up, far from conquered. With it came the bond between their souls, filling what she had missed for so long.

"Jeanne." He approached at her level. "You have not died, yet you are here?"

"The unicorn brought me," she said. "I do not know why I was given this when El received differently, but I've longed to see you again. Perhaps it is wishes this one grants."

He held out his hand, which she gratefully took. He led her along a path through this realm, or perhaps a river that ushered them along. The sights around changed from one mystical manifestation to another, but did not distract her for long.

"Where are we?" Jeanne asked.

"I am unsure whether this has a name. Spirits reside here and we may see into the world of the living if we can build ourselves a nexus to places tied to us. Mine is to you and El."

She had a dim relief that he wasn't literary ghosting over her shoulder during every private moment of her life, but there was a far more pressing matter.

"Can you trace El? Is ne alright?"

He nodded. "El lives and is well, though I would have to descend to see nur whereabouts ... and companions."

"I'm glad," she said. "As no doubt you know, El has come to mean a lot to me, and I am grateful you have granted me our child."

"I had intended the name to be Eleleth," he said. "But I am surprised you caught any of the inspiration at all. I had not believed myself capable of transferring my voice across to the world of the living. Now that you are here, is there anymore more you desire to know?"

It was a fundament to her world that he was a god most powerful, to hear him admit weakness jarred her more than it should. At the same time, a strange comfort lay in that he did not expect her to kneel anymore.

"If I may, have always wanted to know why you chose me," she said. "Now more than ever."

"Given your company lately, I take it is no rather spiritual answer you seek. I'll keep it down to earth." He smiled. "I share El's ability to read hearts, but I also am a god who must make pragmatic decisions. Balancing these is no easy task. I searched the lands for someone truly compassionate of heart but also with the potential to conduct magical energy. I found you after years, never to my regrets on whom to choose. However, I regret that I made the choice at all. You were not the prophecied knight. We acted out of arrogance in our belief to be fate's agents and so I dragged you out of safety into war and suffering."

She took his hand, holding it between hers. "You gave me a chance to stand up for all that is good in this world. I cannot mourn that as long as I can make a difference, and I am not yet at the end of my road."

"I must say, your road is taking turns I never would be expected, from the betrayal of your king to ... I cannot even tell whether you defy or shall save heaven. I understood we had grown too distant from humankind, but you would say we have grown to distant even from demons?"

"I've met entirely too many helpful demons lately to say otherwise." At this she let go of his hand, not wanting him to notice her tension.

"I suppose we must reconsider some stances we have long held. I and my likeminded have damned the angel who now protects our child with the power of darkness. I met him not too long ago," Michael said. "It is not easy."

"Azazel died?"

"So he did, until Eleleth undid it. I ... we talked, if it can be called that ... he does not like me, while I am very ... " He looked almost a tad helpess as he struggled for words. "I do not understand what I perceive. He was heartless once."

This whole display stood out so jarring to Jeanne. Michael had been an elated entity to be revered for so long still, an impression so powerful it was hard to shake even after all her perfect regard for other gods had crumbled. He had always been the essence of heaven and sanctity. Him of all being imperfect in both small and great ways was the hardest to accept out of all gods.

"Regardless of nur's powerful protectors, I cannot agree to sending Eleleth off to the insecurity of earth," Michael said. "It is not what I meant for either of you."

"Then what do you believe should happen?" Jeanne asked.

"I only wished for you to live a life of peace, free of the burdens of war," he said, eyes turning down; perhaps he already understood what was to come.

"And I am grateful for your concern. I have not earned such love and dedication from one of the greatest gods, but at the same time, my lord ... "

Oh, how to say this? She had never known a way to say no to Michael. He had been her everything for so long.

"Ten years ago, that moment I betrayed the gods, I would have accepted death on the pyre if not for my people needing me. I took the pact with the demon because I wanted to save them from my king. That love surpasses my love for the gods. In the wake of the possession, I forgot this because it had led to such misery as our fate.

I neglected my duties. I might have found a way unite the people against Charioce, but I did not trust myself and I took the lack of grace from the gods to prove that right. Now I know more than one truth about heaven, I cannot answer you with giving my entire life again to what you desire. To serve and save is my sworn duty to human, to god, and even to demonkind."

"I cannot express my regret enough that you feel you must go down this path."

That was not what she hoped to hear. "It is not your regret I need, only your understanding. I cannot worship the gods for you are no supreme beings. You are knowledgeable, powerful and long lived, so your guidance is not in vain. But you do not guide humankind at all. You flourish where we struggle. Is our faith more important than our welfare? You said gods should be closer to humankind, but would we ever be equals?"

"That is one of many things I have had time to consider since I left the world. I have no good answer, I'm afraid."

"A poor answer is better than none, my lord," Jeanne said. "It would mean whether or not you will stand with me, and I may yet need your guidance. Perhaps not your insight, but your sight may aid us."

Without missing a breath, he said, "You have my promise as it ever would be. My time is over, if you will lead now I will follow."

Her throat thickened with the knowledge that no matter what, he would never live again. He would not leave her, but she would leave him here.

"Pass along these words to Urlain so that ne may stand at your side too ... " He leaned his forehead against hers. Their old bond was weak, but for a moment it thrived, and she did not so much hear his next words as feel them in the old way : an echo of the gods in her spirit, knowledge to fit whatever words she herself chose.

She fell out of the mystical space as it weakened, the separation an agony she could not name.

The Elysian fields welcomed her back with the wind through blossoms above her. She lay against the unicorn, arm draped over vun back and face on soft fur. At a little distance Sofiel sat, visibly relieved now Jeanne woke up.

After she stood the unicorn bowed, and Jeanne returned the gesture. What to make of this being she didn't know yet, save that ve was an ally.

Sofiel approached, worry and curiosity and awe all over her face. This goddess had never been a distant, glorious ideal, but a woman in the mud who needed her help. Maybe that was why she looked more welcoming.

"Are you alright, Jeanne?"

"I am better than before," she said. "The unicorn brought me to an astral realm of some kind or another. If ve posseses the kind of talent Nina speaks of in gods, then this one's must be spirituality. What I experienced is nothing like what El Mugaro received, yet it was what I needed."

She took a breath before she continued.

"Lady Sofiel, I have met the spirit of lord Michael. We disagree over my fate, but I will go forward and he had vowed to aid my whatever way I choose to go. Will you too? It is not only earth that we must change." Jeanne took on of her hands, holding it between hers as if she were praying. "I beseech you, help me bring peace to the world."

It felt so blashemous all of a sudden that she'd ask not one but two gods to follow her — the little shepherd girl twenty years ago wouldn't have dared to even think it.

Sofiel frowned, and Jeanne feared rejection, but all she got was, "You are still just a human. Promise me to not take such risks as you did before."

"I promise I will be careful," she said, and tried to mean it. "As much as I can afford."

"Then I will help you if you mind what I advice. For all that you may smart, I understand heaven's politics better."

Jeanne nodded. "And I would not deny it. As long as we get the world moving in a better direction."

"You've come like a breeze ready to turn into a storm, and I'm swept along." Sofiel smiled in a way Jeanne couldn't read. "I suppose I may understand Bacchus after all."

That was just about the strangest way to respond. She'd have to find out what that meant, but later. For now she needed to return to earth.

· · · · · · ·

There was't much, but at least it was clean. Azazel tossed aside the clothing till he found a shirt, cloak and boots roughly in Nina's and Mugaro's size. He took only a cloak for himself. After wrapping them up, he shed some feathers as 'payment' to the mechant; really it was just cause otherwise Mugaro would look all sad about some poor hired help being blamed for lost merchandise.

The trade caravan was a long way from their hiding place, but its presence made him anxious anyway so he circled on the way back. Just to be sure there weren't other humans going round.

When he arrived in the cave, it was to Nina's explosive sneezing. After three days of trying to make her fly in the right direction of nexuses she had turned mostly human again, save for the thick scales over her skin. Though their pact had broken she had retained the trick to grow wings, which she now had tightly wrapped around herself.

"Were you cold the first time we did this?" he asked.

"Yep, but it's okay. I woke up in cold places all the time whenever I turn into a dragon. I'm used to it."

"Do you remember anything?" Mugaro asked when she was done getting dressed.

"I do recall some things," Nina said. "I was already on the way of transforming, but can we talk about this later? I'm starving."

Azazel threw the clothes and would've turned around right away, but Nina said, "Actually, I'd like veggies now. Mugaro, can you find them in the mountains?"

Mugaro was already nodding halfway through. "Count on me. I always did this for mother, I know the best!"

No way he'd let Mugaro go alone, so Nina getting up and in the way was a problem; her arms were still long and clawed enough to reach both walls. Mugaro smiled and was off.

"Azazel, don't you dare fly away again."

He almost did, but reconsidered since Nina might just come after him and then where would Mugaro return to? ... probably just come after them, being able to sense them.

"Mugaro's alone out there ..."

"You scouted the area three times this night and you crossed it just now. Is there anything?"

No, not really. "What do you want?"

Nina glowered at him. "You were trying to die, weren't you?"

No point replying to the obvious, nor denying it. He knew that face, she wasn't going to drop this until she got it off her chest.

"You should've stayed with us. El held them back, and even if that didn't last we could've just jumped off heaven again." She let go of the dragon, taking on fully human shape now. Her anger ebbed along. "I didn't realize it was that bad. I mean, I knew you were sad about everything and you've done some reckless things before. But this ... I could feel our pact snap when you died. And I think I remember something you said to Mugaro."

"Don't mind it."

"No!" She pulled him lower by the collar, forcing him to look at her. "You've been doing this since as long as I know you, but this was the worst and you expect me to look the other way?"

Yes. Maybe. Dammit, why couldn't she just drop it?

"Do you really want to die?" she asked.

"Sometimes."

"But you agree to what we're going to do, right?" Nina said.

"I already told Mugaro I'd go with nur. What else do you want to hear?"

"It all comes down this? Just Mugaro? What about everyone else who cares about you? I bet Belphegor wants to see you again."

Pffft, she'd almost died because of him.

"I don't know what to do to help you."

"I don't need you to do anything."

He pushed past her and went to find Mugaro. Never could be safe enough.

· · · · · · ·

Morning assembly in the throne room had by now typical reports for the post siege days : slight increase in border conflict, cancelled meetings, negociations more strained, Valeria getting cozier to the enemy, and so on. Jeanne now made frequent appearances and was slowly branching out to other countries. Her ability to sway the masses, presenting herself as above it all and down to earth at the same time was doing a fine trick — Nina wasn't to be found anywhere, though. Idly he wondered what she might be doing in heaven, before putting a check on those straying thoughts.

Not getting any further with breaking the barrier or finding out what its caster wanted. The fallen angel hadn't made any further demands. She just sat there. Sometimes she flew past the wall and set on fire houses too close. A bigger problem was her servant whispering things in people's ears but even that only came on top of already existing rebellions.

Seven years of near perfection and now all these ridiclous things since ... since Nina had entered the scene.

"Jeanne d'Arc has not many any appearances for the past three days. An unusual break," his head of security reported.

Indeed. Spanning September 7 to 16, she had made an appearance every day. The most likely reason for her absence was planning another siege. Her child alone had not managed before, but if Nina indeed had gone along to heaven they had another hybrid now. Or worse yet, they had figured out what caused the resistance and turned Jeanne back into a saint. For all he knew, they were sainting up heaven for the past few days, getting ready to plow through Anatae.

He wasn't the only one with that concern on his mind, because George asked, "What shall we do if the red dragon appears again?"

If George was asking him this again, he must be doubting.

He hesitated just a second before saying, "Kill it on sight."

No matter what she may be to him, he would not let her draw him from his path.

Without being called upon, Merlin stepped forward.

"Your majesty, why? First you reject the aid of the gods, and now this? You can just walk up to that dragon and turn it into a harmless sleeping girl. Why would you advise your soldiers to just attack it? You're going to fight Bahamut, the very least you can do is not waste your troops."

"That is a last resort," he said. It should be.

"With all due respect, this enemy will spare you. You are able to tame her where she only holds down before Lao, and she left her guarding position once she saw you. Let it be your first resort."

Maybe he should make use of Nina's weakness for him ... but no. She was his weakness too.

"You are aware of Lao's report. If we meet her again, we may expect her to have shared the information with her new allies. We will take no risks," Charioce said. "There will be no weakness in us."

"I meant to insinuate you are her weakness, not the other way around." The way Merlin tilted her head back was a little infuriating. She thought she was wiser than him?

"If you have a greater concern, you may as well speak all of it."

"I will gladly take the invitation, your majesty. Your strange tie to this dragon is not your only temptation that you resist the wrong way. Do you truly understand what you brought within your palace with that master of death? She is a time bomb waiting to explode. Can you tell me how?"

"Do not test me, or I may test how much of your considerable magic stems from demonic blood yet," he said.

She pressed her lips together and seethed only in her eyes. "What do you try to prove, your majesty?"

Ladislao set a hand on her shoulder, pulling her back in line with his immense strength. When she cast him an affronted look, he said, "Will any of that matter if it leaves humankind standing strong in the end?"

"Getting there is what concerns me," she said.

"His majesty has come so far already, more than any human in the history of the world," he said. "Why not trust him?"

"Indeed," Arduino said, setting in motion a fine tuned choir of blabbered faith from his advisors.

Charioce was not so foolish to fall for idle chatter alone, nor would Merlin.

"I do not deny that his majesty is the best chance the world has, but that does not absolve him of any advice." She stepped away from the advisors, almost like daring him. "Your majesty, at least give me the death master's staff, so I can figure out myself how to control my zombie dragon," Merlin said. "She has proved difficult to work with."

"Very well, if that sets you at ease," he said, without it setting him at ease. If only he didn't need her. Athos proved quite a fine knight without any trouble, Merlin on the other hand had something he couldn't quite get a hold on. None the less because being given this token satisfied her so well.

· · · · · · ·

It was in the king's habit to arrest people who got in the way of orderly proceedings. Kaisar had always proudly upheld his duties even when it concerned the recent protests, but joining the Onyx Knights had landed him a new perspective. Those too disruptive were dealt with by the task force, to be sentenced to the island eventually. They knew he might have been one of their targets once and liked to remind him was loudly regretting they hadn't captured Favaro Leone.

Today they didn't laugh about Favaro, though.

It should've been a routine job. The Orleans Knights were already there, so the screaming and beating had started. The Onyx Knights had to just get one person : Augustin Cluysenaar was the suspected ringleader organizing the protests, one of the very few religious figures who had not yet moved out of Anatae. He owned a small church in the lower ring, which he claimed to have miraculously escaped from due to the blessing of the gods. Now he led loud but peaceful protests and Kaisar could practically hear Belphegor chastise him in the back of his mind.

It would've all been standard if not for a flash of reddish brown shooting by far faster than any human could be, and grabbing their target right from under George's nose. Kaisar knew who it was right away even if he was inhumanly fast now.

"Hey, all of you. Nice day of the dead, isn't it?"

Favaro perched on a roof opposite of this street side, old man swung over his shoulder and fox tail flicked about.

"Put me down, vile demon!" Cluysenaar spat.

"Man, I used to get paid for beating bad guys, now I get this," Favaro said with a grin. "Sorry, old man, no martyrdom today."

He saluted the knights and tossed the old man up, where a winged demon swung by to catch him.

A strange song rose from all around, the mist thickened around Favaro. All they heard was him jumping away, and even that was muffled.

"Follow him!" George called.

Following didn't work so well. The zommorods might help them resist the mist's illusionary effects and did exactly nothing about the impenetrable mist itself. Wyverns were brought in to track by air and flares were shot, but they could barely see more than five meters ahead. As long as the sourceless song sounded, the mist only thickened.

He was sent off with another to scout around the streets, only to drain much faster than the others. The zommorod improved his physical ability a lot, but more often than not he was hauled around by Rocky's supernatural strength. The power did not seep all the way into his body, yet, or perhaps that took time.

They returned to the castle unsuccessful. He spent the rest of his time interrogated and reporting — they suspected him of having tipped Favaro off. It was just bullying, they had no evidence.

By evening he could depart the castle. He decided to go home, half hoping he might meet Favaro on the way.

Kaisar entered his mansion as quietly as possible, not wishing to wake Felicia and ... uh ... everyone was awake already.

By the way, there was an everyone : his house was absolutely swarming with demons.

Who all froze or ran when they saw the guy in Onyx armor. Oh, right.

A strange woman with glasses came down the stairs, followed by Belphegor.

Rocky raised up and waved at her, causing the bespectacled woman to give him a confused look. Belphegor passed by her.

"Kaisar?" Belphegor pried the helmet off and glared at him. "What on earth are you doing?"

"That's a great question," Favaro said. "You had every chance to bail to us, and you bail to Essenbeck?"

"I am now an insider for the Black Troupe," he said. "It gives me a chance to undermine the court from the inside and to persuade my fellow Orleans Knights to pursue the right path!"

"You're not part of those anymore, are you?" Favaro said.

"I didn't expect to be reassigned, but I assure you I've been working anyway."

"Hmmhmm. We noticed." Favaro nodded at a corner of the central living room, where Augustin sat with his hands clasped in prayer and eyes firmly shut.

"We tried to get in touch with the Sacred Circle cause the Red Troupe only exchanges goods for specific hostages that we don't have. Found out he was on your hit list so we got him out," Belphegor said. "He's been less than grateful."

All furniture in the living room was unwrapped from its sheets. A group of men sat around the dinner table, maps and merchandise strewn about. Among them were two demons, going over demands. Sofas and benches had been dragged from other rooms to seat more people. Someone sewed here, another estimated the weight of bags there.

All but Augustin had their eyes on him.

"What is going on here?" he asked.

Felicia shuffled in the room, she must've been listening in.

"You are unaware of all this, master Kaisar? I thought that since you brought in miss Belphegor you were connected to the rebellions."

"I was only indirectly. I have a history with one of their members — not that kind of history, mind you." He gestured at the room. "And I certainly had no idea of this. Honestly, all I wanted was the rebellion to disperse in peace and, and ... what did any of them even bring? The king still reigns, except now more people are dead!"

"And more will die if we don't get rid of that scum on the throne with all his warmongering," said a redhaired man at the table. "If we don't try, how will we ever get there?"

"There has to be a way to resolve this in peace."

The entire room groaned.

"Who is this guy anyway?" the redhead asked. "I guess since we're not panicking so he's not that in league with the king, but he doesn't sound very helpful either."

"This mansion belongs to him," Belphegor said. "I may have taken the liberty to move in here without asking. I'm certain he won't turn us in, however. He kept me safe here without fail."

"Huh. Sorry for your wine cellar," the man said.

"What about my wine cellar?"

"Kaput," the man said. "Anyway, why are your buddies after the Sacred Circle?"

Kaisar opened his mouth, but found he wasn't all that sure. Ringleader of peaceful protests helping people escape sounded very off with three starved demons at that table, stuffing themselves.

"I ... uh, what does he do anyway?" Kaisar asked.

"He won't talk with us about that," the man said. "Really, what a hassle."

"With all due respect, whatever would we speak of?" Augustin said. "I am a man of faith and have no words that a demon may value."

"Sinners this, sinners that." The redheaded man leaned back. "But you sure have no problem chilling with the crimes of the aristrocracy."

Augustin pressed his lips together. "Well, let's just say we might have done some money laundering in exchange for nobles covering for us. We did not get into the open until recently, and then only in support of the crowds. That does not mean we will align ourselves to the vile sins of demonkind."

"The king's information network suspects you have been smuggling away people who voiced incrimination opinions on the king," Kaisar said. "It would be better if you go into hiding."

"In the hypothetical case that I might be sending a few good souls to safer kingdoms, that would not be better for the next person I might hypothetically save from the king's wrath," Augustin said. "I have no desire to speak further with a man who proudly serves this blasphemous king and is in league with that vile angel tormenting our good citizens."

"We've been trying to tell you, Olivia does not represent all demons!" Belphegor said, but got no response.

"I certainly recall quite a long, blood history before this most recent stunt, even after the fall of Cocytus. Dead nobles every month, countless traders killed," he said to Kaisar instead.

"No that was Azazel," Kaisar said. "He's acting independent from Olivia."

Augustin raised an eyebrow. "You mean the demon slain by saint Jeanne d'Arc?"

"Uh, yes."

He tapped the cross sign. "Dear heaven above. Did the vile spirit resurrect?"

"Nah, he can teleport. Pazuzu's a goner though," Favaro said. "Pretty sure he's against Olivia. Really, we could have worse allies."

"Right. If you'll excuse me, I'm going back to praying. I'm sure the newborn savior Jegudiel will guide us along the right way, unlike this unhallowed union."

· · · · · · ·

"Are you okay, Mugaro?" Nina asked as they walked across the grassy fields.

Mugaro rubbed nur head yet again. "I'm not ill, it's just I keep hearing prayers and there's a few people who are really intense about it. I hear those louder. They're really demanding, and kinda sad. And embarassing."

"You can't shut it down?"

"No, I don't think so? Don't worry, I'll sleep it off. We're almost home!" Ne pointed ahead.

Nina wouldn't have guessed that the ruined church on the hills was the home of Azazel and Mugaro. So obvious if one knew where it was, but of course only if one expected to find squatters from heaven.

It was chilly inside, the autumn nights bringing nothing to the broken walls. An eerie power radiated all throughout it, which she followed to a shelf in a side room. Some of Rita's books stood here, including the Black Bible. Careful Nina lifted it from the shelf.

"Hey, Azazel, this thing is still on. I wonder Rita meant it to?"

"Take it along, we'll figure it out later," he said.

The stairway of the lower levels had collapsed, but the operating room right below the empty bell peak was their home. Azazel usually flew Mugaro up there, but there was a hidden rope ladder that Mugaro could fold up and down as needed.

"That's okay, I can just fly." She unfolded her wings from below the cloak.

Azazel took the Black Bible from her and without a word janked the rope, sending the ladder hurling down.

"Oh, come on, I'm not that bad."

Azazel gave her a most deadpan stare.

Mugaro nodded sagely. "Mother asked whether in case of Charioce invading heaven I could carry her. Even if you were around. It's okay Nina, you're just new to this. I'm sure you'll get better!"

Fine, she used the ladder.

It went all the way to the chamber just below the empty clocktower. The bells were gone and the holes had been patched, making for a cozy if terribly packed living room. Ramshackle furniture poorly divided the room into bedside and kitchen. A crudely raised wall separated a bathroom.

Each side had four narrow high windows, most of which had broken glass. They'd been shut with cloth entirely, so light came from small purple lights in lanterns.

"Nice place. Somehow it's very you despite being less tacky dark lord than I'd expected," Nina said. "I bet the moonlight makes this even better."

Azazel just went right for the big bed and dropped himself face first onto it.

Mugaro directed her to a cold metal container contained some food, mostly salted meat and fruits, which Nina devoured. She left enough for the others.

By the time she was done Mugaro had opened a closet out of which clothing bundles fell. A lot of it had been stolen from mansions, from the looks of it. For himself Azazel just had a few variations of an overcoat, and the hat with horn holes in it. All too small for Nina, but coats were wide enough to wear.

Mugaro held up a sewing kit.

"Mother taught me how to sew pretty early, so I can adjust some clothes for you," Mugaro said. "Azazel can do it too, but his nails claws get in the way so I'm better."

"Thanks, but it's got no rush. Let's wait until tomorrow."

"I'm not tired," Mugaro said. "I haven't been since I learned to heal. Oh, but I guess you are."

Mugaro unearthed a whole pile of blankets and stirred the hearth, which had blue fire. "You know, heaven was nice, but it wasn't cozy. I like it best here, it's always warm ... I hope that when this is over, mother will let me live on earth. They won't let Azazel into heaven. If they let him live at all."

"Maybe we can, uh ... " Holy hell, that was something she'd never thought of yet. Even if they defeated Charioce, where would everyone go? She didn't know how to even begin solving that. Not that her ideas of solving anything worked well — some mess she had made in heaven. Hopefully Jeanne could still do her saint thing.

Mugaro put two of the extra blankets over Azazel, then crawled under his right wing.

Nina considered Mugaro's bed, but shrugged. She'd slept in his wings after dropping out of heaven, it wasn't that special anymore. It might be embarassing if he was out of his clothes, but it didn't look like he was getting up to do that anytime soon. She crawled under the other wing and the sheets. Three blankets and a wing was warmer than she'd had in days, but with her mind off of the cold it ran with the next best problems.

Would her village be in trouble with the gods? Was Qhispe alright? Would they hold Jeanne accountable?

A snake emerged from Azazel's arm again, but just one. There were much less than before now Mugaro was with him again. She wrapped a finger around the snake and cut its energy source, so it dissolved in her hand rather than crawl back in. Whatever that was, wasn't a physical injury. Mugaro could draw him back from death, but not that? It had to be magical though if it could influence it.

If only being a dragon was so easy.

· · · · · · ·

They would try entering at a peak of forest that branched a little into the city, from was closest to the slums. The barrier that lay around the lower district was invisible and almost impossible to sense. On the hillside it was like walking into cotton and rebounding, which entertained Nina and Mugaro for a few minutes.

While discussing things with Jeanne, rumors about Anatae being in a demon crisis had come up, but Jeanne found it difficult to unravel what was propaganda, rumors, exageration of fact, and fact. Turned out facts were the worst rumor come true : the lower district had been taken hostage.

Picking a fight with this one while Mugaro was here? Bad idea, yet a real risk. So much for keeping himself from wandering into more stupid mistakes. Now he stood here he didn't have the heart — ironically exactly because he had his heart — to turn away knowing Belphegor and the others were still in there. She wouldn't mesh with this at all, and once Charioce felled the barrier most demons were bound to be slaughtered. It felt like his problem now, even if reason told him to turn away before anyone else died on his behalf.

Mugaro probably had known this when ne suggested going back here.

"I never thought you'd be sneaky," Azazel said.

Mugaro just gave one of those confused little smiles and said, "But I didn't sneak anything. I said I wanted to go here and you agreed. You don't want to?"

"Let's just go in."

His snakes wound together in a thick rope that he sent underground. A whole lot of earth whopped out at both sides, and they had a small tunnel. The barrier did not go below ground, but the moment there was free air it closed in. He tried keeping the walls of the tunnel sheltered with a network of serpents woven together, which worked. From there on he expanded it to be enough to crawl through, going first himself. Mugaro came out next, and Nina went in last.

She didn't come out.

"Where did Nina go?" Mugaro asked.

This was absurd. Azazel forced perception through the eyes of his snakes, but the tunnel was empty. He crawled back in anyway. Nina hadn't come out the other side. Nothing.

Dammit. Someone must have summoned her, but why right here? It had to have something to do with the barrier.

Mugaro was looking around when he reemerged. "I can't sense her direction anywhere."

"Stay close," he told Mugaro. "We're going to find Cerberus."

The houses were either torn down or inhabited by demon gangs, the kind that had never been allowed to form in public under Charioce's reign. Here and there groups of freed demons gathered, decked out with looted clothing, riches and somehow still scarce on food.

Mugaro sensed something from two specific spots in the city, people to stay away from. Azazel would have, but Nina was missing and those were their most likely bet. They diverted from the planned path to the nearest : a random block shrouded in darkness and less mist.

Mugaro stayed close before him, but Azazel wasn't intimidated by the shoddy display. Who even relied on such pathetic fog to get an ominous atmosphere when everything was already foggy? Pffft.

He kicked the door down.

All the walls and ceilings inside had been demolished, creating a rather fragile torture hall. Humans had been caged, strung up and flayed out for stereotyptical torture. The pain master was some weird deer demon with tiny hind legs and leathery wings growing fledgling feathers, like it was an angel? Really, this was all a pathetic, sickening display.

"Who are you?" he asked.

With just as much confusion, the demon stared back. "You are not invited, this is my place."

Azazel pushed his wings out and teleported right up to him. Jabbing his claws into the snout, he pulled the demon at eye level.

"I am Azazel, right hand of lord Lucifer. I am invited in whatever demon's place I want to be." He dug his claws through the nose, drawing blood. "Who are you to deny me?"

"Furfur, lord Azazel," he squirmed. "Loyal servant of lady Olivia."

"She and you were not invited to my territory, so I will decide who gets to be called lady."

"That's odd, because Cerberus says it's her territory."

"She's permitted to handle things in my absence, as a member of my court. But you were not permitted to get cheeky with me."

He kicked Furfur into the stomach, hurling him through the wall.

"Tell her to—"

Furfur turned foggy and vanished before he could finish. He tried to find a trace of where he'd gone, no luck.

Behind him Mugaro had already begun freeing people, and healing whoever needed it. A few ran into other rooms, to return with more. They all avoided him, but Mugaro had nur wings and holy power out — it was more confusion than stark terror that met Azazel.

He quickly passed through the place, finding no trace of Nina. This didn't appear to be any headquarters, just Furfur's current playground.

To his surprise, he found a few demons imprisoned as well. Furfur kept them in a background where they were set to cleaning tools and slicing corpses into packages.

"What's going on here?" he asked them while setting open their doors.

They startled at the sight of him, lowering their heads right away.

"We're not sure. That Olivia figure just took over and started gathering followers. We thought we'd join her and it's be better, but she's been weeding out her demon followers. She says we don't do the theme right."

"What theme?"

"We don't know! She won't tell us. She won't let anyone go home either," he said. "She's opening portals to some far off place to bring in more of her allies, but nobody leaves."

Olivia could open do mass teleportation and gates even though hell was weak. How?

"We're going to the slums," he said, putting Olivia aside for later, "Follow us."

The further they got into the city, the less sense her game made. More than once, Azazel had to set off a fire spell so the others could pass by.

Clusters of demons loyal to her had set up torture spots here and there. They weren't occupied right now. No humans corpses, but plenty of blood.

Olivia didn't show herself, but they did eventually come across another active torture spot, this one inside a broken down house.

"There's people in trouble there as well," Mugaro said, eyes wide and pleading.

"Fine. But if you see a human knight with too much hairgel, he doesn't hear about this. Got it?"

"Alright, but why?"

He was going to have to get used to more detailed conversations with Mugaro. "Cause he's obnoxious and I'm saving it for a time to point out I'm still better at his job."

This time it was a construction site and the torturers were less magical, so Rita's mist was working here. The humans had learned not to trust their eyesight, but the moment he threw Olivia's servants out and cut them loose, they poured out the gratitude.

"Thank you, sir!" one mostly still healthy man said, while Mugaro went to healing.

Ugh, they probably saw some heroic human with a sword or whatever. Mugaro was done quicker here; what did that mean on Furfur's magic?

"Mugaro, let's go."

"Wait, can we come? We can come, right?" the man said, and Mugaro looked up expectantly.

Azazel beat the fog away with his wings, unable to stand being seen as one of them.

"You can join the rest, but don't bother me."

The human backed off in fear right away.

Mugaro held up nur hands. "It's okay, he's not your enemy."

That didn't work a miracle. Some joined the group, most didn't and vanished into the streets alone.

"You shouldn't have done that," Mugaro said. "I bet they think you're just another trap. Some of them said Furfur did that a lot, create moments of hope to destroy it."

"They'd think that either way, and they'd figure out what I am at the stairs anyway."

"Yes, but until then they would've been safe. They just ran off."

Ugh, how had his life led to this again? Damn humans.

"Azazel?"

"Fine."

He folded his wings in.

Mugaro just kept finding more. Ne grew exhausted from healing but wouldn't stop, and Azazel wouldn't quite stop either. He did put a restriction up though. One could never know who was an enemy getting inside, perhaps with a penchant for stabbing holy children. Be it demons working for Olivia or humans loyal to the king. According to Jeanne, Mugaro had keen senses on who was kind or not. It included him for some unphatomable reason so it couldn't be that reliable, but it was a decent thread on whom to trust. He told Mugaro to point out whom was reliable on whomever they set free.

It was mixed on the humans, but Mugaro called all condemned demons they found more or less kind. That or they were prone to law or ethics in some way; he recognized a few subraces from tribes keen on law. Olivia's theme, eh?

He didn't want a fight with this Olivia (right now) so once the group got too big they went through the houses. It was easy enough for Azazel to cut open the walls.

Progress to the slums was slow this way, and the encountered a problem halfway through.

Just not the expected kind. Just as they passed a street they met a group of humans, mostly women for some reason, whose arms were covered in shards of Dromos. The moment they saw him they charged up, but didn't attack yet.

Forth stepped a human woman in her fourties or so, face drawn in sharp lines and hair pulled back, wearing leather armor tinged with magic. Azazel ignited snakes out of his hand, but Mugaro grabbed his arm.

"Wait, they're kind people," Mugaro said. Ne's probably say the same meeting Kaisar.

The woman looked between them and the crowd further back. "Who are you?"

Azazel stayed quiet, waiting to see what she would do. Charioce never hired women in his armies, and she wasn't attacking. Peculiar enough to wait it out.

"Hey, look who's not dead!" Over a ruined wall jumped Favaro with a fox tail and inhuman jump power. "Great timing. Could be better though, we've got quite the double problem here."

Mugaro perked up. "Are you Favaro Leone? You are, aren't you? My mother told me about you! The hero who saved the world from Bahamut!"

"The one and only," he said. "Say, wasn't Nina with you?"

"Nina is here?" the woman asked. "You're her friends?"

"Yes!" Mugaro said. "We lost her just as we passed the barrier. She just vanished into thin air."

"Shit," Favaro stared at the air for a second before saying, "I don't think that's Olivia, she can't forcibly teleport people. Okay, we got someone on finding her. You come with us to the slums, okay? Azazel, meet our Smaragd Guard. Rachel, that's the same Azazel as you heard of, if a little more, ahem, challenged in the evil overlord department."

"Aaah, that's the sour prune Bel tried to be flattering about." Rachel almost held out her hand, but drew back. "Belphegor told us you were part of the previous rebellion and got close to killing our damn king. Pleased to meet a fellow enemy of that piece of shit. I'm Rachel Reinke. I'd offer my hand but I'm afraid I'm toxic to you."

Like he wanted to shake hands with a random human anyway. He had better things to do like figure where Nina went, then get Belphegor and the others and be out of here. That was supposed to be a priority. Nothing big.

"What's with the tail?" he asked Favaro.

"It's for benefits. You didn't catch on yet? The resistance to the power of Dromos stems from human heritage. Hybrids aren't the only ones who got it, wards and zombies got it too," Favaro said. "So Cerberus is collecting wards and of course, I was her prime choice."

Favaro blabbered on while Azazel zoned out into a horrifying realization : if he'd gotten human allies from the start he could have dealt with Charioce years ago.

Charioce enslaved humans too. He could have found humans to pact with who wouldn't backstab him like Athos and Merlin.

His pride, the measuring pole of his decisions, what good did it do the demon tribe when he didn't get anything done? After all this pain and humiliation, all his people enslaved and mutilated and murdered, after his stupidity drove the rebellion to shambles, after Charioce putting his filthy fingers on him and making him a tool in the annihilation of his own people, now.

Only now did he learn.

Azazel came out the other side of horror with a laugh because what else was there to do? He halfheartedly clamped his claw over his face, but that didn't keep the shaking under control. He just ended up digging his claws in his face.

"What's wrong?" Mugaro said.

Everything about his entire strategy was wrong.

Azazel laughed the way he'd done so often when his past games turned out especially fun. Only this time it was at himself.

"Is this normal?" Rachel asked.

"Sort of?" Favaro said. "Let's just get to the slums."

Azazel's laughter faded out and in crept the awareness a lot of humans saw him in this degrading state. The bile of absurdity went cold.

"Mugaro, go with them."

Flaring his wings, he took to the sky to be alone. He didn't leave them out of his sight, and went down to a roof to run along, as to avoid anyone seeing him. Olivia getting involved now would be bad.

Reason caught up to Azazel, and he became blank outward even as inside his thoughts whirled — stupid, arrogant, could have prevented so many deaths.

No taking it back.

· · · · · · ·

There was nothing here, no sound, warmth or cold, not even the pull of gravity. Not even the sensation of the world's magic. She floating with empty space.

"Where am I?"

"The nowhere," someone spoke.

Last she'd done was enter the tunnel. A kind of magic that had felt close slowly approached.

"You're the one who cast that shield, aren't you? What do you want? Why are you doing this to the city?"

"In this world one cannot harvest from the dead. So reason my attachments. As for myself, I have become curious ever since Amira stirred in her damnation. I saw the knots of fate. You could have been my kin and my parasite. Fate had you for as close as your kind little heart allows : all the world for one soul sounds fair."

"You don't make any sense."

"Yes I do. You know already. We could wait until you figure yourself out, if you will at all, but where will all the dead be?"

"We'll figure you out alright and stop you! No matter what shields you raise!"

"My shield is indifference to the suffering of the weak. It may resemble your own scales more than you suppose."

Out of the the shadows a dark purple demon emerged, faceless, horns sprouting backward where eyes might be. What Nina mistook for a crown at first also grew from the skull. Its skin was strange, organic yet not resembling anything she knew. Wide leather wings spanned less like a bat and more like pokes lined on bone. Its fingers were long claws shining with light. Draped over it lay pale chains with spikes rings clattering about it, its sole sound.

Nina could not move away as they approached, and she didn't quite want to — the way the light shone off the demon, the way it moved and its subtle power mesmerized her. She might have run her fingers over the pearlescent hues or traced the orange light leaking from the claws. She wasn't unaware the demon was dangerous, but it didn't feel like it mattered.

"Did you know you are but jelly in this bucket?" The demon tapped her skull with its cold claws. "The nucleus accumbens ties to the prefrontal cortex to incite positive stimuli while its link to the amygdala lessens. It leaves you frail things less capable of being critical. A little more pressure on the medial insula, a little less on the temporoparietal junction. The ventral tegmental produces dopamime that fuels the drive to win a desired partner. Flavor with vasopressin and oxytocin. That is what is set so you are tied to one you barely know. Fate needs you to be that way."

"What are you talking about?"

"Do you want to know? There is no turning back once you do."

"To back to what?"

"So be it." With one swift motion, the demon spun Nina around. The edges of the tail grew into a curled claw above which a pupae unfolded — magenta, red, brown, and horned. A needle dropped from somewhere above and pierced it to the tail — a sharp point went through Nina's head, down her throat into her heart.

"That which you called supreme love is nothing but chemicals. Love means so little if it does not involve sorrow or hate or disgust aimed the right way too," the demon said. "And emotions are only made of lightning and chemicals. Even if fate chooses you, it did it on arbitary foundation. Yet you are a vital cog in the wheel of fate. Little things you don't think are part of the design. Does it feel like you were born for him? You were, once, before we moved. You still could be, if only you listen to what fate demands. What do you want?"

Nina clutched her ears, couldn't even tell why the words hurt. The voice droned on right in her head, "Jeanne already knows you are close to him, but you never even told her about the park or the grave."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

The demon places its claws around her waist, pressing into her stomach. "You could have gotten humans involved before, and you would have learned there are many allies among them," the demon said. "You could have told heaven you knew that Charioce is vulnrable when he goes into the city incognito. What his routes are. Why are you being the way you are, craving what you do?"

"I ... I just didn't think that ..."

"Indeed, you are so enraptured you can't even begin to think in that direction. It slips by you so easily, that is all you are : a girl in lust strung up by her butterflies."

The nails on her stomach pressed through her skin. Blood strings sprayed into the void and mingled with the light of the chrysalis, turning to butterflies that shone through red wings. On those reflected the potential of the demon's words.

"Imagine if you had told Sofiel about your love. She would have understood, she can't not. Maybe you could have made up an excuse for why you know what you know. Maybe, all it would have taken to end this would be a few angels with the ability to create portals. Bring El Mugaro along. Ask Cerberus whether Merlin or any other threat is near. It would have been so easy to set up a trap for the one whose weaknesses you know. Whose weakness you are. You did not want to. You wanted ..."

Reflecting on the wings were scenes of her leading him to her home town, away from the recovering world, hiding him there. No more Dromos, just her and the rest of his life in peace. Nobody would know who he was and she wouldn't have to think of what he did. Nobody else mattered, but the implicit specter of whomever would inherit his regime.

"He wouldn't still go out into the city, would he?" Nina whispered.

"You didn't check, though. So you don't know he won't. And if you had, you would know he does. Yet all you told heaven was your resistance to Dromos."

And expecting that to do what ... to get her sent to war? Did she really want another siege rather than a quick assasination?

"Why are you telling me this?"

"I am curious to see what happens if you learn, if you accept the tools."

The void fell away, leaving Nina hanging in the demon's hand somewhere in a cave. It set her down and waited until she had her footing before it let go.

All her senses flooded with the return of the world. Her heart pounded in her ears and the invokcation of transformation magic hit hard — it had been cut off whever they'd just been.

"Go to your friends and listen."

"What ... " Nina looked up at the featureless face. "Why?"

"Just tell them I was curious. It will be true."

The demon vanished within the blink of an eye.

Nina wiped her face off, fighting down the urge to transform and fight something that wasn't there anymore. When she finally walked, it took her step by step to find back her natural pace and coaxed her face back to its normal shape. All was okay, she'd just go on.

· · · · · · ·

The slums had changed quite a lot since the last time he was there. New houres crept along the walls, towers and bridges were built. It still gave the stench of poverty, for everything was done quickly and with looted material.

The humans crammed onto the elevator platform. Mugaro went with them to avoid unfolding nur wings, while Azazel flew down to ensure the area was clear. Divesepid was alone at the bottom, not counting the human zombies shambling around. Those were building him a bigger hut, but he still worked the elevator.

A group of demons and humans waited at the bottom with food and medicine. Someone found a relative among the newly arrived, others explained the situation to the newcomers, Azazel listened along.

Cerberus had laid a claim on the slums and implicitly on the entire lower ring. She now was in a stand off with Olivia. Really. Cerberus, the dog who cut the game the moment things got hot under her feet? Busy now to build a small kingdom?

The slum houses had begun to stack and there were far more tunnels. The familiar brimming magic of hell had grown strong, but it was not like home. Purple and orange plants grew across the buildings and roof gardens were full of shelves and earthen basins with water and fledging plants.

Mugaro floated up to him, wings hidden still.

Nur hand laid on his arm. "Are you okay now?"

"I wasn't ... " He almost lied out of habit. He was always okay, because he was a demon. They weren't haunted, they did the haunting. "I just realized I fucked up another thing."

"What is it?"

He flicked a finger at the slums, specifically at Favaro as he chatted with Rachel. "Something Cerberus figured out much quicker."

"I talked with Favaro about the resistance. They're not sure why it's human blood that does it, but the running theory is that ichor's more sensitive to it for some reason. Nobody could've guessed that, it's stronger in all other cases."

He smiled dimly, only because it was Mugaro saying it.

Mugaro looked across the slowly growing slums and all its specks of green. "It's almost beautiful. Is hell also like this?"

"No." It should be.

With a poof of smoke Cerberus teleported before them. Mugaro stepped behind Azazel right away.

"Look who's not dead," Cerberus said. "Just so you know this is my territory now so you better now kick up a fuss. We have enough trouble with Olivia as it is."

Clearly. She was dishevelled and boney, and both her dogs were missing.

"What exactly are you doing with 'your' territory?" he asked.

"It's much greener, that's nice," Mugaro said tensely.

Cerberus squinted at Mugaro. "You're still here? Huh. Anyway, yes, I had Kolraun find a bunch of other plant adept demons, we're growing food. Trying to anyway, it's like filling a bottomless pit. Olivia's been burning suplies. The usual nuisance. What happened to your kid anyway? Small way more divine than before."

"No idea," Azazel said. "Go get your dogs and find Nina, she vanished at the barrier."

"Coco's to Valeria, trying to get a hold of Jeanne d'Arc. Mimi's on border duty cause Olivia's new court kicks up trouble. Really, what is she thinking, making a court on my turf? In my house?"

"Cerberus."

"Yeah, yeah, lord. I'm not sending Mimi into that place, Olivia can teleport and she's got sources too. Favaro's searcher is much safer."

What was that about, actually?

So he had Mugaro track down Favaro, and demanded an answer after dragging him into an empty cave.

"Remember that time in the fog, when we sent that diversion mirage of you off? Someone helped you there."

"You have a spirit ally?"

"In way. You probably didn't notice with all the screaming back then, but Amira can be pretty competent. Olivia doesn't have Nina anywhere. There's another suspect, but I can't ask. Amira can't hear me because of some magical bullshit."

Oh. Hell. No.

"Who's Amira?" Mugaro asked.

"It's ... " Not the kind of story he wanted to tell Mugaro a few days after meeting nur again while he'd been covered in angel blood. "... for later. We have to find Nina first."

Favaro shrugged. "Actually, maybe we should get a few more people on board with who Amira is. Anyone you really trust, other than Cerberus?"

"Just Belphegor, and Nina, whom we're still supposed to find."

· · · · · · ·

Belphegor had holed up halfway into a wall, struggling with small metal wires that someone had grabbed from a broken golem in the river. There were plans for conducting power through them for heat, but this was all just in its earliest stages. It was also something she was better at than dealing with the ever fragile community that she might be avoiding a little.

A bit of turmoil was behind her as someone knocked over a barrel, but since nobody scream Belphegor kept working.

"Sorry bout that. Belphegor here?"

"Yep, there," Durahanem said.

"Oh, Rachel. Anything unsual happened on the mission?" Korlaun asked. "We usually don't see you till evening otherwise."

"You're not gonna believe it!" That was unusually thrilled for old Rachel, and when that got gasps going Belphegor just had to drop her work.

After dusting herself off, she saw the group around Rachel holding out a black feather. "We came across this guy while scouting, he matched the profile of the allegedly dead guy, who came accompanied with a pretty handy kid and very bad manners."

Holding out her hand, Belphegor received the feather so she could sense it better.

It really was him, it had to be. The radiance of the fallen of Lucifer's court was unique.

Tasro pulled at her coat, wanting to see. Belphegor gave her the feather, which she ran away with to her own craftwork.

"Do you know where he is?"

"Old entrance to the underground, the one with the ruins in the lake," Rachel said. "Uh, be carefuly. Last I saw him up close he wasn't very stable. Or something."

"What do you mean?"

Rachel shrugged. "He just started manically laughing out of the blue, and there was weird magic. That's actually why I asked him to stay at the front, I didn't want him to spook any of the humans down here."

"Right, thanks for telling me."

Belphegor ran to the spot, and indeed there he sat on the broken wall. Within seconds she'd scaled it.

"Belphegor." That was all she'd get for a greeting, though unlike usual he smiled. It almost had her miss the darkened scabs on the side of his face.

He stood and she stopped before him, letting up all her relief, "Trismegistus and Walfrid both lost their pact at the exact same time ... if you're not dead, why did you break them? You have that kind of range at all? Oh, were you perhaps the one trying to summon me?"

"I died a little," he said. "It didn't stick. If that cut the pacts it's cause hell is weak."

That wasn't how pacts worked but who cared, he was alive and back to Anatae.

"We've gotten a lot done in your absence, has Rachel or Favaro told you anything yet? Have you met Cerberus? She's really stressed lately but she's actually good at managing large groups. Can you believe it? Oh, we'll be able to do much more now you're."

They could finally take care of Olivia now they had a powerhouse like Azazel on their side, and from there on who knew what else might happen.

He took a sledgehammer to any sprouting plans with, "I'm not here to stay."

"But ... Why wouldn't you be?"

"You know what happened last time. I've come to get you and the remainder of the rebellion out. If we're lucky we can join up with the demons Jeanne freed."

"Hold it. No, this isn't right. You want to just take like seven people out of here?"

"And Mugaro's friends. Is Cerberus targetted?"

"The new rebellion is much more than seven now. Favaro Leona is key now, we've got ties to the Red Troupe and are negociating with the Sacred Cricle, Kaisar's probably joined, I think, and Rita is still captive in the castle! How are you even counting?"

He averted his face.

"We can still do something! We have to more than ever now that Olivia is here," she said.

"Tch. There's a meeting in the old hall soon. Favaro's about to explain something bigger than Olivia and Charioce."

That was it? That couldn't be it.

"I'll come to the meeting, but I'm not leaving the rebellion in Anatae. I have to find out how Dromos works and I have people to care for. You'll find Cerberus won't either. If you want to take anyone out, there will be plenty others who'll go to whatever place you have prepared."

His left eye twitched just once. Bad news.

"There is a place to go, is there? You're in touch with Jeanne d'Arc about something?"

"Not yet."

"Then what use is it?"

He scowled, and still wouldn't meet her eyes.

This wasn't like him at all and— what was wrong with his arms? His ghastly serpents came right out of the flesh.

He turned away.

"Lord Azazel! The rebellion isn't over yet. We need you."

"Don't call me lord," he snapped.

Half through storming off, he changed his mind from walking to wings. All he left was a cloud of black feathers.

Go after him, or go back and try to play it all off as fine? Undecided, she leaned against the ruins for a while. It wasn't that she didn't have hope for the rebellion without him, but it was lesser hope. And ...

Hooves approached and Durahanem gripped her shoulder softly. "Hey, are you alright?"

"No," she said, leaning against her. "Not at all. I am glad he's alive, but that was hardly all of him."

· · · · · · ·

Nina was just beginning to wonder whether she'd gotten lost — there were so many new tunnels — when Mimi popped up.

"Hey, dragon girl. Why you smell so sterile?"

"Oh ... I might know, but I'll tell you in a moment. Can you show me where Azazel and Mugaro are, please?"

"Sure can, ruff!"

The main hall was crowdier than ever, and a little neater. Holes and cracks still existed, but some of the rubble was being clearer. Orange, yellow and green plants grew in crevices, sprouting glowing flowers.

The sketched map had faded from the wall, but was still readable. Before it stood a small group on the platform, a bit apart from the others, with Azazel's head head towering over them. Next to him stood Belphegor, apparently talking with him.

"Hey, everyone! I'm here!" she called, glad there was no tremor in her voice.

That's when she saw a familiar orange afro half in the shadows.

"Yo, Nina!"

"Teacher, you're still here? Did you get anything done?" Nina said as she reached the group.

"Oh yeah, a whole lot," Favaro said. Nina would've responded more, but Belphegor's look of sore disappointment didn't make sense. Wouldn't she be happy that Azazel was back?

Cerberus growled a little. "I got a lot done and you're not taking credit for it."

"Hello, Cerby. Do we have to pay you more?" Nina asked.

"Don't encourage her!" Azazel said. Too late.

Cerberus got a sly look. "Oh, I don't need her to give me that idea."

"Where were you anyway?" Azazel grumbled.

"I met this weird demon," she said. "One with horns where eyes would be—"

"You met Angra Mainyu?" Azazel seemed weirdly upset about that.

"I guess that's their name? They were curious, but didn't hurt me."

"I met this one too," Belphegor said. "Is this one with Olivia?"

"Angra Mainyu is an ancient demon who predates Satan. After Satan's loss some sought to bring her to the throne, but she denied," Azazel said. "If she is on board with Olivia we have a problem."

Favaro snapped his fingers. "Speaking of problems and solutions, I may have a spy on my side who can help, but explaining this is gonna take a while, and it's gotta be for trusted ears only."

Cerberus began clearing the hall and sent her dogs to fetch her allies : Malphas, Divesepid and all her friends from the brothel. She acted quite like she was expecting Favaro to just drop that tidbit of bizarre information.

Belphegor caught on and included her team, Adva, Kolraun, Durahanem and Rachel—

Nina waved. "Rachel, you're still here?"

"Damn, the dragon girl? You bet I remember you. Last we heard you got captured." She looked better fed and clothed than before, but also worse in that black veins had expanded.

"Azazel and Jeanne got me out and I went on a trip to my home and to heaven. I bet you've got a story too?"

"Yeah, we're the Smaragd Guard now," she said with a grin. The inside of her mouth was black. "So, you know why we were called here?"

"I'm about to spill a big secret," Favaro said. "I was gonna keep it, but Cerberus insists she can do shit better if more people know what we're fighting. We got Azazel back so that changes the tide—"

"We're not staying," Azazel said.

"Right, anyway, who knows Amira?"

Most did not, but Azazel looked queasy as Favaro told his story.

Apparently Amira was the ghost girl Nina sometimes saw around Favaro, in reality an astral projection of the angel/demon hybrid who had become the god and devil keys that sealed Bahamut. Upon controlling the powers of Zeus and Satan, she was projecting out of Bahamut because she didn't like where fate was going, so now she and Favaro tried to change that.

As Favaro and Cerberus went on to theorize, Amira was most easily visible to those on whom fate held sway — that explained Chris and made things more complicated for him ... and herself. Those most immune to fate couldn't even see her if she tried, among which were Jeanne, Azazel and apparently Mugaro.

Amira could influence the world in areas invested with Bahamut's energy, or steer magic of gods and demons a little. Since most her power went to keeping Bahamut in check, she couldn't expend much on that. Keeping Bahamut restrained was a lot of work cause the god and demon keys were supposed to be separate and far from the rift. Amira was stuck within Bahamut and couldn't really see, or understand, what went on outside said rift, and found it difficult to comprehend what Bahamut even was.

Nina tried to find it as scary or impressive or profound as others did; Mugaro was convinced fate was bad the moment ne learned Amira's circumstance, while Belphegor asked all kinds of questions about the mechanics and Cerberus was very skeptical (but that might just be her lack of sleep).

Favaro thought that fate didn't outright control people, but could inspire them. So it elected people sufficient for these tasks. Suspecible. The exact timing of him breaking Nina out of the island was an example, and him recruiting Cerberus instead was an aversion.

It was kind of spooky. Angra Mainyu had talked of fate as chemicals in her brain, was this what she had meant? Inspiration? How could one tell the difference between what was oneself or came from the outside?

"Pretty certain it's part of fate that Charioce is going to try to either control of fight Bahamut," Favaro said. "We're not sure whether it's going to return soon or whether he's bringing it back, but it's coming. He has a layer of Dromos power around it that keeps the radiance in check so the gods and demons won't sense it."

"And Amira says what Favaro did ten years ago was nothing but the pin prick that makes you draw your hand back. So if that thing gets in, Dromos is our best shot against it. A superweapon that is now in the hands of our worst enemy, who has fate on his side. Which is just wonderful, really. Our genocide was ordained by fate, and now we have to rely on him for our salvation?" Cerberus pulled Favaro closer, hands on his shoulder. "So how about we rely on someone else?"

"Wait, what?"

"You should do the trick too, you did it before," Cerberus said. "Make it last this time."

"I don't even have Bahamut's barb anymore," Favaro sputtered.

Cerberus flicked her ear and said, "Right. Amira says it's still in Bahamut's forehead. Maybe you should just handle Dromos then."

"How would you have Favaro control Dromos anyway? Charioce must have the key stone somewhere, but where?" Belphegor asked. "With the way he sometimes dresses we should see it on his chest, but it's not there. Maybe he swallowed it."

Oh, his bracelet. Nina had sensed power come from it back when they arm wrestled. Back then she wasn't good enough at sensing to identify, but that had to be it. She just needed a way to say that without saying everything else.

"I once sensed something close to his hand," Nina said. "Uh, he visited prison to talk with Jeanne. I was neck deep learning about sensing magic then, and there was Dromos stuff all around so I recognized it."

"She's right, it's on his wrist," Azazel said. "I noticed the same when he was in my cell."

"Really, you can sense that? Tell me about it!" Belphegor pulled out papers eagerly, feather ready for notes.

"You're studying that stuff?" Favaro asked.

While the others got into a ramble on stuff, Nina drifted off to think about the bracelet — if she could get it somehow that would take a huge burden off the resistance. Mugaro could handle the entire Onyx problem if only Dromos wasn't there.

Angra Mainyu thought Nina a puppet of fate, but Nina feared it might be worse : what if she was created for this? Was she risking the world by defying it? Was defying it the right thing to do? How and for what reasons? Angra Mainyu was scary in ways Chris wasn't, but hadn't endangered her like Chris had.

Wait, wait, no she was allied with Olivia, that was bad.

Who to trust?

All this stuff was so far beyond her, but she had to get it somehow. Her life's path depended on it, and in turn, a lot of lives had depended on her, and might again.

"Nina, are you alright?" Favaro's voice jerked her back to the present.

"I was just thinking about the stuff you said," Nina muttered.

"So do you and old grumpy really intend to leave?"

"Yeah, he doesn't want to try any big dangerous stuff. To be honest, I probably shouldn't either. I messed up a lot of stuff in heaven, and Qhispe got hurt. We'd just make things worse."

"Doesn't like like that to me." Favaro nodded to Mugaro.

While she was distracted, Mugaro had gotten Belphegor to take her coat off and was now working on her back. Stumps grew out slowly, the beginning of lost wings.

It took Mugaro a while, but Belphegor unfolded beautiful wings tinged with dark colors and wide. Spinning around, she felt the air again. Nina gave Mugaro a thumbs up.

"Oh, thank you so much!" Belphegor hunched before Mugaro. "Is there anything I may do in return?"

Mugaro shook nur head. "No, I've got all I need already."

Belphegor tried out her new wings and was much better at flight than Nina had been, effortlessly turning through the air.

And yet, she cringed and almost dropped down. Gingerly she landed, giving a confused look to Mugaro.

"Those are brand new muscles, you'll have to be careful with them," Mugaro said. "Sorry, I can't tell when I'm regenerating something or just healing it. It's a hard line to tell."

"Don't worry, I'll manage," Belphegor said.

Beyond that, a strange silence had fallen. Nina wouldn't have noticed if the suffocating silence of the void wasn't still on her mind.

Azazel leaned against a wall off to the side, and Cerberus and her group looked sour. Rachel muttered about at least taking Olivia down, Cerberus argued too quiet to hear, while casting a sharp look at Azazel.

Oh, right. It had to be a let down to learn they weren't getting a rebellion boost.

After Belphegor had folded her wings and gotten a few more directions from Mugaro on care, she cast a very dissapointed look at Azazel. He looked away, kinda guilty.

Mugaro announced ne wanted to go find nur friends now, and left with Azazel. He threw a look at Nina, expecting her to come along, but Nina shook her head and patted her stomach.

After they were gone the rest of them filed out too. Nina did consider getting some food, but Belphegor used the open space to practice flight some more.

Knowing Mugaro, before they left others would join them.

Where would Azazel draw the line about how many could be healed before they fled again? Would they even take anyone along? Belphegor sure didn't look like she'd be packing anytime soon.

When Belphegor noticed Nina's interest, Nina clarified she had wings now herself and unfolded them — the pact with Azazel was gone but she'd learned the knack of wing magic enough to replicate it. Ever devoted to knowledge, Belphegor demonstrated a few things about aerial maneuvering with bat like wings that Azazel's feathers didn't cover.

Nina didn't try flying yet, she didn't want to make a scene or hurt herself — they were supposed to leave the city soon. Spirits, that didn't feel right.

As Belphegor tested out spinning with one foot on the ground, Nina wandered past the side and spotted a strange rock.

Half of it was cut flat with a meticulous drawing of a dragon on it. Her kind. Nina knelt before it, tracing her finger over it.

Belphegor landed next to her. "When may we see you like that again? Did you get any closer to control?'

"That's me?" Nina asked. "I've been told I have a more crooked back."

"Lord Azazel drew it. I don't find it unbefit. To us you looked beautiful," Belphegor said. "We might have put too much hope in you when you were not ready, but you did give us the fire to rise up. That fire still burns."

How Nina wanted to to embrace those words and promise it would be right this time. But she couldn't kill the king, might not even betray him, and hadn't even noticed just how far Azazel was gone.

She put a smile on her face anyway. "Thanks."

That simple, meaningless little word only painted Belphegor forlorn. No, this would never leave the demons in Anatae, and if he hadn't lost trust in himself, Azazel wouldn't either.

Nina ran her fingers to the dragon's snout, trying to picture what it'd be like if she burned Chris. The thought horrified her. Maybe she could just pry the bracelet off somehow. Maybe that would be enough.

Chris had mentioned something about fate putting her at his side, hadn't he? Maybe she could use that to her advantage, the way Favaro did with fate's inspiration.

Angra Mainyu, are you still here?

· · · · · · ·

Azazel had never quite noticed the hush that fell whenever he passed, because it had always been quiet in hell too whenever he passed. There people had usually known he'd be coming, here they always kept their voice down for knights anyway. Now it buzzed with life, and opinions. Many knew he'd ignited the prior rebellion, and the responses were ... mixed. Too hushed to make out, save for a few sentences.

"He started that failed rebellion. I traded with Dante, he wasn't planning it before that."

"At least he did something."

"Him leaving is why Olivia got in."

"As far as I'm concerned all those damn angels are the same trouble."

He walked faster, only stopped when Mugaro absolutely had to heal someone.

Mugaro's friends were still roughly in the same place as they'd lived before. Mugaro lowered nur hood, waving as ne ran up.

"Who's that?"

"I'm Mugaro, just a little different outside."

They looked from Mugaro to Azazel, uncertain until Mugaro pulled nur hair aside to reveal the red eye.

"It is Mugaro!" Kiprio called. He and two of the other kids jumped up. Mugaro caught them all in an embrace, and nur wings came out.

"Damn chaos, you're a god now?"

"Half god, only. I always was." Mugaro knelt down. "Please don't be afraid, I'm still your friend."

The kids exchanged a glance before the tallest, Kiprio, asked, "Can I touch your wings?"

Mugaro stretched them ahead, nodding.

Careful the kid brushed his fingers over the shining feathers before declaring it didn't hurt. Onlookers came around and stayed at a distance.

Mugaro looked around. "I can't sense ... where's the others?"

"Otyan and Daurra aren't around anymore," Kiprio said.

"Maybe they died," Siem said. "There was this god with lots of ice and there was falling rocks and water."

Mugaro started tearing up.

"I'm s—" Ne was cut off by Azazel's hand on nur shoulder.

"Mugaro. Don't take after your mother there," Azazel said. "You didn't make a mistake, Charioce provoked heaven and you."

"And maybe they're stuck in Olivia's area. Lots of others are," Siem said, not too hopeful. "You can sense people?"

Mugaro nodded. "You know, maybe something about the barrier gets in the way. I couldn't sense Nina either when she vanished. Right, that must be what's going on."

"Sure," Arai said, even less hopeful.

Distraction, now Was there anything he could have them do? Hmm ...

"I want to get rid of this stupid mist, but can't control the black bible. Are the water manipulators still around?"

"Yes. Adva's making an aquaduct, there's always people there getting water," Siem said. "She and Típa pulled together all the water with their song."

The kids threw themselves on leading the way, which went slowly since Mugaro entered a few houses to heal sick or injured people.

They arrived at the riverside wall, where a few broken buildings were cleared for material. The aquaduct would run across the lower buildings judging from the height. Malphas with her skills for construction should've been here, but there were just some blueprints pinned to a wall. Some zombies and a few faces he recognized from the arena worked here.

Halfway up the wall and out of range of any falling rocks, Adva sang while Típa played a lyre. Glowing blue water converged in a pool, sent out on their word to test for weak spots with every haphazard construction.

The scene transfixed Mugaro, who surely saw more than him.

The song stopped and the workers came together around the weak spot they found, ready with mortar. Mugaro ran up to the musicians.

"Hello, I'm Mugaro! How did you do that magic?"

"Hello there. I'm not sure how to explain that, it's more of a sense than a spell," Típa said. "Don't you notice it in your own voice?"

"Not really, but I think a few days ago I used it to revive Azazel."

"You what now?" Adva asked. "Wait, are you that kid ... "

She looked around and spotted Azazel at the corner. Right away their comfort vanished. Had that kind of thing always happened or was it because his disastrous rebellion? He had half a mind to turn away, but Mugaro wasn't budging so he approached.

"Why are you back here?" Adva asked without making eye contact.

"We came back to get out our comrades," Mugaro said.

"Oh. What's the cut off?" Adva asked. "Can the kids take relatives? Their friends? Relatives of their friends?"

Tipá pulled at her sleeve. "Don't. Please, he's—"

"He didn't attack me last time I told him something." She did shake in her boots though, and her voice didn't raise far.

"Just spit it out," Azazel said.

"If you think lady Belphegor will leave here, you don't know her or any of us. We won't go into the hills to be captured just for a chance to get away. If this barrier lasts, so can we. I presume lord Lucifer hasn't provided any portals, sky beasts, or anything else for transport?"

"I haven't been to Helheimr."

"No betting on the lords, as usual," Adva said.

"Was it always like that?" Azazel asked.

"Of course," she said, though by the looks of it that question was far from of course.

Azazel clenched his hand over the emerging snake, trying Nina's trick for forcing the energy away.

"What do you need?" he asked.

Adva stared at him for a good five seconds before she said, "Uh ... really?"

"Do I have to repeat myself?"

"No, no. Uhm ..." Nervous, she ran a hand through her hair. "Cerberus has a lot covered, but it's not really about us. We need wood and baskets and clothing and blankets and hygiene things and more that's up there—"

Típa pointed her wing at the upper city. "Where we can't get it cause Olivia has the place rigged with fire traps lately. Cerberus trades with the Red Troupe but not all that we need and Divesepid's only sporadically reanimating corpses to carry in something, and ... uh, yes. Just things for everyday life."

He didn't have the faintest clue how to go about that, but he did know others who did. Now where was Nina?

· · · · · · ·

Angra Mainyu gave her a time in evening and a location at the barrier, and no other words. She left the slums through the Lidfard mansion, passing by Trismegistus. She was in the habit of providing face adjustments using her alchemic components and imago magic. Nina got her hair colored brown, a little change to her face, and nabbed a dirndlr with a low back in case she had to grow wings. Her excuse for leaving was her need for more food, which she said she'd just steal rather than deplete from the scarce resources. She promised to bring back extra. Trismegistus didn't really care.

What she really wanted to bring back was something quite different.

Chris had a steady route with the grave as the usual end point, but didn't include this route in their dates. If she was to find him, she had to check everything.

The grave had been restored, but the earth had clearly been broken. Would his mother go around in shambles somewhere? Nah, they'd probably cleaned up all the zombies after the failed rebellion.

His mother and her grave ... Mugaro would be without mother right now if things had gone as he had intended. Siem, Kiprio and all of Mugaro's friends already were, and there were countless others. Did he really not feel anything for them? If he'd had to cut that down, what would happen if that capacity grew again?

She moved on to the park in the upper ring following his exact route. Autumn had brought brown leaves and mushrooms and it wasn't cold. There should at least be some wanderers, but perhaps they were too afraid to stray. Or maybe the people of the upper district had moved away from Olivia.

When she caught a blur of white and red near the gazebo, she froze.

Like he had no concern in the world, Chris sat on the steps staring at the fountain.

Her heart jumped a little at the sight of him, more with fear that exileration. If he was here, so would his guard be. She could grow her wings and fly, they wouldn't expect that. It'd be fine. Going back underground to work starve— no use fearing that. This had to be done.

Trying not to look troubled, she wandered closer, humming.

"Helloooo," she said, trying to make her voice sound differently.

"Hello."

He either was amazingly stoic or really bought she was a random passerby.

Alright, so, maybe she could sit down at his left side and reach and—

"What are you doing here?" It stung a little that it wasn't, how are you doing, but of course he hadn't recognized her. Right?

"I am just a girl, shopping and uh, I lost my way." Crap, she'd forgotten to twist her voice.

He smiled at her in the way he never gave anyone else; yep, he'd recognized her.

Spirits, what would he do? She let that anxiety flourish but kept it to her magic. Her wings twitched in her back, having just enough to kick into action.

Chris stood up, the bushes rustled, he reached out and a flare of panic shot through Nina. She pushed that energy into her wings and was about to fly off, but got about ten meters before meeting the ground in a graceless heap. Crap. Bad plan.

Footsteps approached, she rolled onto her feet in a defensive stance.

He didn't attack, just smiled at her like nothing was wrong. No Onyx Knights jumped out so far.

"That didn't work so well."

"I'm uh ... new to this. I mean, I've totally had wings for a long time, I just didn't use them in a while."

"I see," he said. "I suppose you did not want them amputated."

Wait, did he think she'd ... of course, he had no idea of her transformation issues. Probably.

"I always wanted to see the slums. You're a demon, right? So you can get in."

It screamed trap. If he actually cared to see the slums he could've done it any time in the past years. Mugaro might come running to her, or Azazel could see them and recognize Charioce, Favaro might wander up to figure out whether the guy harassed her, there was a lot that could go wrong.

But the demons did control that part of the city so it wasn't a huge risk, and there was a lot that could go right too. She might have a chance to at the very least steal the bracelet. Or get him dead somehow. She didn't ... want to think about this. The bracelet would do.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" she asked anyway. Maybe he'd back out.

"Why not?"

"There's a very bad fallen angel there," she said.

"Bad enough for even you to flee?"

She shook her head. "I just came to get food. It's running out in there."

"So will you show me?"

If she could isolate him from the Onyx Knights that would be safer ...

Angra Mainyu's designated location was at the pier, which had few demons around. It allowed one to slip right to the slums without crossing Olivia's territory.

The moment Nina laid her hand over the barrier, the air rippled and the power faded. They passed without issue, and Nina dearly hoped Angra Mainyu would not let the Onyx Knights pass.

They passed the most narrow of the stairways, riverside, which nobody used now.

Nina trailed at his side as they wandered into the streets, unsure what was to happen now. He didn't try to talk at all, which she was grateful for. Last time they had met, she had been his prisoner — not exactly a fun conversation starter. She didn't want to think about that either.

Chris drew a lot of attention from both demon and humans residents. Now she saw him in the crowd without the blinding thrill dominating, it stood out his disguise made no sense : turbans were not part of the local culture. People from the south and east did so at times, but they had darker skin than him so he did not even pass for a travelling visitor. What was he thinking with that getup?

Demons glared at him, but he walked on without looking left or right.

Only when they passed by a stand did something draw his attention : a pendant claw tinged red.

"What an interesting design."

He handed his glasses to the merchant without a word or negociation. He was a human, he got what he wanted simply because the demons had been well trained to obey authority figures. Nina's gut wrenched when she remembered all times before meeting Azazel, when demons had deferred and cowered before her.

The second thing to win his attention was group of demon children playing with a ball in a small open space; further from the more crowded streets. They'd built a goal using a rag and sticks. Some of them were Mugaro's friends.

"What're they doing?"

"Playing ..." Wasn't that obvious?

"I see."

Without another word he ran ahead, past the baffled children, and kicked the ball. There was enough space and speed to score the goal, but it collided with Arai's head. He cried out while the ball landed in the goal post.

The entire group froze as they stared at the human. After an uncomfortable delay, they broke out in cheers in praise about how awesome that 'trick' was. More well trained reverence to humans.

"Teach us how to do that!" they yelled, and he obliged.

She could get lost in the way he lost himself. He laughed and shone with joy as he led the game. This was how he truly could be when away from the throne. She almost didn't notice the yelps whenever he used one of the children's tiny bodies to bounce the ball off.

One misaimed kick by a child, and the ball sailed her way. Reflex had her jump to catch it.

This — this wasn't a ball. Startled, she tensed up and almost smashed the skull between her hands. Scales pushed through her skin, thankfully hidden by her clothes.

The skull in her hand might've still been a living person if she had killed Charioce before. Empty sockets stared at her. Just a little beyond was his radiant face.

"Come join us." He smiled and beckoned to her, but Nina could not move.

All along he had been kicking around the skull of one of his myriad victims. If sheer force didn't set her mind back, this pummeled her into the abyss and took along any comfort.

"You can't play with someone's skull, can you?" Nina stammered. She forced a smile, for the benefit of the children.

"We don't have anything else," Kiprio said. "We tried to go to a toy store up there but Olivia and the deer guy are really scary."

She didn't want to hurt the kids, but handing the skull back to Chris filled her with disgust — he was still smiling. He had all the riches of the three worlds, and he had used that power to make all kinds of laws that preventing them getting something so simple as a ball. The demons weren't used to leaving corpses lying around anymore than humans, this wasn't normal.

"I ... no ... we should bury it." She couldn't look at him anymore.

"Hmm." Chris took off his turban and looked around for some hay and rocks.

"Won't ..." She stopped herself. He might be recognized, but these children might be dead this winter if they didn't find better clothes against the cold.

As Chris folded the rocks and hay into the clothes, turning it into a new ball, Nina placed the skull in a secure crevice. She would bury it later, she had a mission now. Her hands trembled even after she drew back, and the empty eyes followed her worse then Angry Mainyu.

Taking a deep breath, she turned back.

Done now, Chris tossed the new ball and the children ran off with it, losing any and all interest in having him play with them the moment he turned away. Nobody begged him to stay as he came to stand at Nina's side.

"Can we talk?" Nina asked. "About that stuff with destiny you told me about?"

Chris laid his arm around her shoulders, face so close and ohg spirits why she still went red. "Left way, a little up."

She looked ... there was an Onyx Knight in the shadows up a stairway.

"There's about six of them," he said.

What was Angra Mainyu's plan, letting the guard in? Had she stumbled into being a pawn for something?

"Let's ditch them, shall we?"

Chris pulling her along by the hand, they ran. He was so fast she had trouble keeping up, but it was him who was exhausted first.

They paused in a crevice between two run down buildings for him to catch his breath. She stood at the right side to see his bracelet, but he blocked the exit.

When an Onyx Knight passed they pushed further into the dark. Finding a rickety door they went into a cellar and up again into a house. After startling the family there and Nina profusely apologizing, they were in another alley.

An Onyx Knight were there too, checking behind the trash. When he approached, they went out a window, over a wall right by, and hid next to the trash.

It worked, the Onyx Knight didn't check the trash twice. Nina was a little surprised Chris really did mean to hide from them.

They waited a little for them to move on. When it was more secure, Nina whispered, "Hey, when you go home, why don't you change the laws a bit so they'll just be able to buy a real ball? You smile at me and at them, but you won't do anything that helps us."

"There's something I must achieve at all costs."

It wasn't even an answer. "So ... what about after that important thing? Once there is no need for us to be enemies?"

"How would we not be? These creatures feed on fear, it is their inevitable nature to spread it, save for those who choose to subtract themselves from it. I have met another of your kind and I believe your tribe has ascended from hell's depravity. Those children may be innocent yet, but they still inherit the nature of their ancestors. Just as humankind must choose to improve, so do the gods and demons. Your ancestors already have. If these demons prove similar, we may see."

"The gods don't think so." She hadn't planned to say that, but amid all the anger over this world, there was some for them too. "Odin and a few others tried to get rid of me, that's why I came back."

If he would just respond with the slightest sound of sympathy — but he didn't. He took her by the hand and they ran again, so she left behind her hope he'd take an interest in her.

At least that made it easier to put her thoughts back to her mission. She pushed herself further and took the lead, steering him to the caves.

· · · · · · ·

Still no sign of Nina. What, was she catching up with Angra Mainyu?

So, he brought Mugaro to Belphegor's area; she was no target for Olivia and Trismegistus could provide extra security. He avoided talking to either.

From there on, he found Divesepid and kicked him off his boulder.

Before Divesepid could climb or or even reply, Azazel slapped a list of Adva's requirements in his face. "Get some corpses to loot up there."

Divesepid stared at the paper before declaring, "I am not a shopping servant."

"As Lucifer's right hand, I take charge of this operation," he said. "You allied with Malphas who works here, and this my territory."

"You're invoking tribal dominance call for groceries?"

"There's no need to be dramatic. Yet. Go be useful."

That should be enough.

When he rejoined Mugaro, ne was more or less planning an infirmary. Oh, great. He'd have to say no somehow. And also no to leaving with most they'd come for. Belphegor had a whole laboratory here and Cerberus had gone all out of her mind and settled. Two of Mugaro's old friends were presumed missing and certainly dead.

Before he could sort out how to go about this, Mimi popped up. "There's Onyx Knights in the slums, ruff!"

"How?" Azazel was up on his feet at once and would've flown off if only he'd known the direction.

Favaro caught up at the exist of the tunnels, panting. "I really could use some of that teleportation power."

Azazel guessed Amira had alerted him.

"What are you doing here?"

"Are you nuts? Hell fell, you need your comrades."

Several centuries of demon pride insisted very loudy that this wasn't his comrade and he didn't need help, especially not from a human.

"Whatever. Just don't get in my way."

Goddammit, he hated that he had to have all these people around. Now he couldn't even see one of them.

Amira ... he had never actually seen her when she wasn't sick with poison or wine. What kind of a person was she? Not that it'd matter, but lately it felt like he needed an idea what to expect of anyone. Outright asking about that was kind of slightly very embarassing though.

While they went as inconspiciously as possible into the slums, he just asked, "What exactly does the hybrid perceive?"

"She can hear Cerberus and others with magic and I guess enough fate sensitivity, but not me because my voice transends such influence, and not you because you don't have the fate affinity. But that's fine, we still got the old way."

Favaro drew a picture of the Onyx Knights and held it up to the thin air, while gesturing around.

Favaro was an atrocious artist.

Azazel snatched the paper, deemed the scribbles unsalvageable and used the other side to draw three Onyx Knights as well as a rough estimatation of the places they might've gone from their suspected entry point. Favaro held up Mimi to point out the areas she'd smelled them at.

Something like force tingled where his missing horns would have been, a strange sensation just outside his body.

"Did she do that?" he asked.

Favaro nodded. "And donned Satan a bit while doing it. It's the compatible magic."

Well. If she did return it would be a problem for her to hate him. It wasn't below him to avoid trouble, especially lately, and this wasn't caving to some pathetic lifeform or anything.

He drew the outline of the torture rack without her on it, held it up to where she hopefully was, and crushed the paper in his hand.

"Huh. She says—"

"I don't want to know." Azazel tossed the paper and walked on, but Favaro swiped it up.

"Aaaah ... so just so you know ..." Favaro's grin spelled nuisance. "... when Amira and I are going to travel the world, we sure could use a nice airship and a lot of food. Amira isn't a huge eater, but she loves flavors and you know if you can promise Cerberus pay—"

"Whatever makes you think I have any interest in making amends?"

"Uh huh. Belphegor says the miniature sky bugs are cute and not edible."

"I am and always will be a demon, you're a fool to expect anything."

"Okay. Amira isn't that fond of fish, by the way."

"You know you can't even remove her from Bahamut."

"Right. But I really meant it about not giving Amira any edible and tasty transport. She will try."

"Can we go find the enemies before they kill anyone or what?"

"Of course, sure. So how well do you fare against these guys?"

"It takes about three of them to lock me in a sphere," he said. "If they don't have that advantage, the eye holes are a weak spot."

"Or that kid could—"

"If they got inside the barrier right on the day we arrive, it's related. They were let in by our demonic enemies. Mugaro led the siege on this city and can remotely knock out all soldiers, they will prioritize nur capture."

They walked on without talking to each other. Favaro asked around whether anyone had seen anything, there were a few who had noticed swift dark shadows. Mimi could on soon enough, something unnatural and matching the sighting's routes.

"It's getting stronger, ruff!" Mimi sped up her pace, rounded a few corners, entered a house and presented ... a pile of black armor.

Shit.

Mimi popped off and returned with another poof soon. "They just started running all over the place. Then they scattered into different directions. There's more than three too."

He had to check on Mugaro now. Favaro called after him, but that wasn't important.

· · · · · · ·

The sky had started turning red by the time they lost all of them. They'd gone into the caves, Nina making sure to avoid the sensitive areas. This ended up with in one with a deposit of glowing blue water (and no tunnels connected to Cerberus's underground palace).

The words on fate haunted every step, for each felt more and more right in ways she could not explain. The rush mingled in, the dragon lay close.

If only. If only he had been on another path. If fate hadn't pushed him down the way ... but fate couldn't push. It could only set up or Martinet would not have happened. It had chosen Chris, not made him. She clung to that knowledge.

He stood next to her, still catching his breath. She already had her own.

"I don't understand. You could have me arrested. All you had to say was that I was disguised," she said as she began to rub the masquerade from her face. "And you did not kill Azazel when you've killed all others who stood against you. Yet you created this land of horrors, passed the laws to mutilate and kill the demons. You've already forgotten about the children that entertained you and you have a death sentence on the heads of several people I love. How does this all fit together for your path?"

"I cannot tell you any more than I already have. I must tread this path to reach my destiny in service of humankind."

Ugh, why? The energy of transformation trickled at her heart, but she pushed it away. Not outside, lest she grow her wings again — at her mind. It had room.

"If you can't tell me, I'll just have to keep going down my own path."

"Your own, or someone else's? I hear Jeanne goes around on behalf of the gods," he said. "She's doing some damage to my alliances."

"Oh."

"Were you not with her?"

How did he know? Had he found her village? Were they alright? ... a shiver ran up her spine, that she even had to wonder whether the man she loved would hurt her home town.

They were probably alright. Probably.

"Yes, but ... I do not get along with the gods much. We went separate ways. Some gods would have me die for being the scourge of the eastern mountains," Nina said.

"That is what I mean with their nature. Contemptuous gods and their arrogance that cannot see the worth of humankind."

He talked a little like Gabriel, with all the destiny stuff, but he acted like Odin.

"Other gods did not. The leader of heaven isn't a kind person and her opinions on me and my tribe aren't right, but she didn't murder us on the spot for our heritage either. Gods are people, just as diverse as humans are. I get all the cultural stuff wrong, and I don't get you ... but don't you understand yourself? A lot of what you say and do just doesn't add up."

"It may appears so from the outside, just as you would be judged a rampaging monster. You know inside you are no such creature."

Memory remained a blur, but if she fed her soul some of the transformative magic — the last she had done whenever she tried to hide — she got flares. She was pretty sure she hadn't ever killed for the sport of it even as a dragon. If she were to change now, all the thousands of people behind them would be safe. They were not safe from him.

"But I'm not hiding who I am, I just can't think clear as a dragon. You don't have that. You show a face to me and the world that matches your actions, whether as the cruel king or the kind boyfriend. What face reflects your heart?" she asked on what last hope she had.

He walked to the edge of the lake, back to her as he spoke. "I cannot tell you what I am fighting for, but everything I have done was necesary for that purpose, and this kingdom is the outcome. I have followed the path of Kṛiṣṇa and long since discarded all feelings of guilt. My dedication lies with my duties alone, as I honor my pitiful mother's legacy. Not once did my convictions waver ... not until you came into my life. If only I had never met you, I could have gone on without any doubts."

He turned back to her, some semblance of despair on his face. "If only ... "

She had never seen him so expressive, so broken. It swept aside all that she knew but did not see right now. She ran for him, threw herself around his neck and held on.

Only, that set her eyes on the lit walls and drew her back to the island — stuck, choking, so many had died there that she had failed to free, burried alive and her almost as well — he had left them all there. She remembered as his arms closed around her and he knelt so her knees could rest on the sand. His embrace felt so gentle and yet, nothing about the words with which he commanded the world was the same. He had left her there to die.

"I don't know why you've become such a fearsome king ... " The words caught in her throat along with her pounding heart. Bahamut did not explain anything, and whatever conscience she might have awakened in him, he still didn't let it matter. His lament told of how inconvenienced he was by her. How pitiful for him, that she existed, and enslaving and murdering millions was such burden his poor soul had to bear.

All the weight of the collapsing island crashed down on her and broke the faces he held up to her. Only one heart beat behind them. A million beat in fear for him.

By the words she spoke next, she became a good liar. "But whatever burden you bear, I want to aid you."

She released him, leaning back and waiting unsure what to say next. The bracelet was not far and he looked down so coldly at her that it was a little easier to see him as the enemy.

He said nothing, but wiped a tear from her eyes before leaning in. Nina let him. She let herself enjoy the touch, the warmth between them. Let it mingle with her memories of all the pain he still caused to this day; the sweetness of her first kiss poisoned with his tyranny so she might end it all.

Killing someone she could feel so close to her ... she didn't have the strength. The mindless dragon could do it, but that same dragon would forget all she knew and spare him, stupid thing. She found the center of her storm between the broken pieces, but cold hatred alone was not enough.

Letting her hand slide down his arm, she went over the sense of his muscle and feigned to guide his arm further up her back. Just slow enough to enjoy the sensation, for both of them. When her fingers brushed over the metal of the bracelet, she locked her hand around it. At the same time she set loose all repressed anxiety to increase her strength. Her other hand dropped to his chest to push.

As she janked at the bracelet, it neither loosened nor broke. Imbalanced now, they fell over. She caught herself on her elbows, hand still on the bracelet. He almost toppled on her, but fell aside just in time. Half leaning over her, they locked eyes.

"This was not your first chance. I wondered whether I was wrong to suspect you," he said so calmly.

"I'm following your advice : getting rid of feelings that stand in my way. It's taking time."

"I see." There was no difference in the way he looked at her, the same steely cold as just before. She would have called it stoic strength once, now it frightened her.

"You don't see at all, if you think I'll let you sacrifice for convience just because fighting Bahamut is one of your goals."

His eyes widened ever so slightly, but the power in the bracelet flared alive. It prickled against her skin and she almost let the dragon loose, but reigned it in. She had stay conscious. That thing would not even break despite all the power she put on it, why?

"It cannot detach until death," he said. Death of what? With Rocky and Rita around that was a really vague thing to say.

"It wouldn't be the first time you've left out information that really changed the meaning of something," Nina said.

Now he gave her a dim smirk. He might be hiding something terrible, he might genuinely be amused she wasn't so gullible, he might be buying time to consider how to deal with her. And still so close. Why oh why, she still wanted him. Maybe more than before. She forced her thoughts back to everything she knew he'd done.

"You know, I would never have gotten involved with the rebellion if you didn't run a kingdom whose guardians execute suspects on the spot," Nina said. "Fate would've just put us together and if I ever found out who you were, I would not have called you evil. You brought ruin between us."

"Ruin? No iron is gently coaxed into a sword, it is by the beating of the hammer it becomes sharp. So too must the kingdom be forged. At the end of that will be tranquility, once all have learned their new place. The way there is not easy."

"So you're some greater good who must masquerade as evil? You're not acting, you really did do all that evil. Why? How does it help you fight Bahamut?" Nina said. "Why does it have to be this way? Do you not know how to rule? Is Dromos powered by demonic misery?"

He looked only a little surprised before he steeled himself and said, "No, it is not."

"Then why are you destroying the two tribes that held back Bahamut if you want to save the world from Bahamut? Or are you trying to control Bahamut?"

"It will be humans alone who rise above all others. Sealing Bahamut for all time shall be the crown on our ascension. No longer will we cower before anything, god, demon or eldritch."

"There won't be humans of Bahamut kills us all! Why won't you give a clear answer? Please ..."

"I have done so. You just cannot understand."

The scales pushed out and horns broke through her skin, sped by urgency, by hatred, but under control.

He pried her fingers off his bracelet, stepping back. One more glance of that same ice, then he turned to the cave entrance.

Nina kept sending off the energy in smaller doses, letting her legs grow stronger as she went after him. He sprinted at her first step, not even looking back. She went after him with unsteady gait, fast but not enough.

His line went right to the crowded houses. At the edge he jumped to the nearest roof, she lost sight between the tall buildings even as she scaled the building. Her changing limbs slowed her down and she collapsed on a flat roof.

One of the flying demons passing by landed next to her. "Hey, are you okay?"

"I will be," she snarled. "Can you tell the people in this house to get out? I'm going to transform."

She curled up and refused to rush the transformation, because her mind had to stay. Anything better than being mindless again.

That bracelet was going off tonight.

· · · · · · ·

Evening in the slums was kinda cozy now they didn't have to worry about humans. Probably would be better if they weren't scared out of their wits over Onyx Knights.

The streets had emptied as word got out the Onyx were about, but when it spread they'd hidden in houses and killed the inhabitants, everyone went outside. Those humans who had taken refuge in the slums stuck close to their unwilling neighbors to vouch for them.

Cerberus made an appearance on the plaza to point out all Onyx Knights were large, bulky men and can we please look out for those? So that was the idea now, get lots of eyes out there. Favaro was honestly surprised how differently demons moved. Very few stayed inside once that wasn't an option, almost all banded together to stand. None of that only the strong men go search lets hide the wimminz and kiddies.

None of the obvious Onyx Knights mingled with the crowd and they avoided the streets, but Favaro did see someone else a little unusual.

At first sight, all that tipped him off was the way the man pushed through the crowd with purpose, never bumping into anyone or too obvious about his hurry. On closer look, a turban didn't match his skin color

Favaro elbowed Azazel. "Over there in the crowd. Pale guy, loose white shirt that's way too clean and silky for something he found here, turban that looks like he snagged a random cloth."

Azazel followed his gaze, frowning.

The man glanced around, and spotted them. Cold eyes locked with Favaro, just a second before flicking to Azazel.

Him. Here. Oh shit.

Azazel's wings flared out along with the summoning of his sword. "Charioce!"

Favaro made a grab for Azazel, but he'd shot off already. The crowd hurled themselves out of the way, demons pulling along slower humans. Azazel hurled a dozen snakes right at Charioce, who rolled out of the way and a ground shield flickered around him.

Favaro leaped ahead — still keen on that super speed — and broke through the shield and — holy shit, that hurt.

Charioce was open before him though and Favaro slashed his shortsword. Charioce dodged and twisted Favaro's arm behind his back. Man, he was fast.

Slamming him into the ground, Charioce pulled out a knife. Favaro could just see from the corner of his eye, he moved too slow compared to before, but Azazel didn't realize that when he surged at Charioce again.

Charioce whirled around and stabbed the place through Azazel's arm, pinning it to the ground. The other arm he twisted before planting his knee between Azazel's wings.

Charioce smiled. "I can't believe you fell for that again."

His free hand closed around Azazel's neck, squeezing in as green power sparked. Azazel screamed and trashed, but Charioce's unnatural power seeped further awake. Even his eys glowed green.

Quietly Favaro rolled over, then shot ahead. Charioce's ankle was just in reach. Holding his foot, Favaro swung him into a wall so hard it cracked.

Charioce dropped along with the rubble, and Favaro paid him a cocky smirk before looking back. Azazel was bloodied all over, rasping for breath. The skin of his neck had melted.

"Always so reckless, Azazel."

Then he faced his fancy new arch enemy. Really, how did he keep getting these?

"Hey there, king. We meet at last. Can't say I'm happy about how you honor me; your precedor was quite a bit more grateful. Defeating Bahamut is my job, whether we like it or not," Favaro said.

"Fate decrees otherwise," Charioce said. He stood up evenly, but there was something of imbalance in his movement.

"Fate can burn in hell," Azazel sneered. "Along with you."

"That is all? Hell wasn't very impressive last time I was there, I'm sure fate will find it even less so."

"Damn you!"

It was kind of a miracle Azazel didn't attack again, but just in case Favaro moved between them. "Come on, let's all just fight nicely. Wanna test how much of an edge Azazel has with me like this?"

Charioce smirked. "If you believed you could win, we would not be talking now."

"Oh, I'm just buying time for the back up to arrive," he said. "I'm not the only demon ward."

Actually it would be great if the Smaragd Guard or the hybrids showed up right now. He didn't get that, but another distraction : a rock sailing at Charioce's head.

"What the hell are you doing, attacking Favaro Leone?" The speaker was an older human man, standing firm at the edge of the crowd further down the street.

Charioce just narrowed his eyes at him, but the man didn't back down. "First you lay siege on the gods and imprison saint Jeanne, now you're after the hero who saved us from Bahamut? What, can't handle sharing the glory?"

"This is all your fault! If you hadn't offended the gods, that fallen angel wouldn't be here!" someone else called.

Some humans slunk away, too smart to voice favor for their king, but there were enough of the rest.

The first demon to join in yelled, "We never even left hell! Why do we have to pay for what our chiefs did?"

Jeering swelled into a cacophony. His father's life of noble thievery hadn't been for Favaro, but here he understood a little of the rush that could drive one. This kind of anger might just be a exhilarating for someone like his old man.

The crowds shattered without warning. Four bulky men shifted up with unnatural speed and stolen clothes, all from varying directions.

Azazel caught one by jumping on his shoulders and squeezing his hand through the skull — without their armor they were as malleable as any human. Favaro put that to the test by stabbing his opponent in the liver. Which worked wonderfully, except his dagger was now stuck and the guy just had to fall on it too. So he just stole the man's sword.

The other two raised their hands at Azazel, throwing one of those damn spheres. Favaro leaped at the nearest, who dropped one hand to block Favaro. He dodged to the side and tried to ram a dagger into the man's side. He was quicker and almost kicked Favaro down. He ducked in time, the arm followed. He got a wristblade slicing Favaro's leg open, but it gave Favaro and opening to curl his tail around the wrist. So he knocked the sword out of his hand with the man's own momentum. Favaro drove that sword into his gut and let him keep it.

Not far, Azazel shot a snake through the last one's arms, but the knight just bit through and caught him in a sphere. Just one, Azazel screamed but had enough focus to twist the snake. The knight's arms broke along with the sphere. One swipe later and the man's whole torso was a smear of gore on the street — damn, so that's what happened if Azazel applied his wall punching on a human.

Two more Onyx Knights sped at them, but a fireball set them alight and Nina barelled into the street. That was Nina, right? The colors matched, but he'd never seen her dragon form so halfway. She stilled glowed, but the transformation could be seen as it happened.

Nina surged at Charioce fangs out right at him. He dodged, but in the chaos of unstable gait couldn't see where to go — Nina chomped down.

For a split second Favaro hoped, but Nina narrowly (and deliberately) avoided his head. Her jaws closed around the arm with the bracelet. Charioce didn't even try to resist, he just looked right into her golden eye. Nina slacked, yet darkened blood dripped from her mouth.

Favaro ran, but Azazel got there first. Charioce blocked Azazel's blade with a hardening shell around his arm and kicked Azazel away. Serpents rushed out, but so did the shield around Charioce. It forced Nina's jaws open and she reeled back. Charioce dropped on his feet, caught Azazel in a sphere and hurled him away before jumping onto a building.

His arm oozed black blood lined with aquamarine. It became a blade in his hand, ever twisting yet solid. Out of the lines energy spun into all directions, creating a network of lines and spheres around Charioce. Nina looked him straight in the eyes, a look they held for the mere seconds it took for Charioce's construct to congregate into two points.

Favaro rolled out of the way, but the power pursued into houses and around corners. When it caught on, it broke his skin all over — but he managed to stay on his feet.

"Teacher, get over here!"

Nina? Talking?

Forcing past the green power he scrambled back to the main street.

She still stood in the street, now on all fours and fully dragon.

Azazel had escaped by wing, but he was a purple mess. Just as surprised, he swung towards her. That got him closer to Charioce's range, but Nina planted her wings in the way. Favaro rolled in from the other side.

At last in full dragon form, Nina planted herself over over Favaro and Azazel, wings down to the ground. Her jaws filled with fire, but she held back. Splendid, she had it bad.

"So be it." Charioce turned towards the tunnels at absurd speed. Nina didn't even try taking a shot. Swell.

"Nina, he's getting away!" Azazel already moved to follow, but Charioce was out of sight.

"I'm sorry."

"I swear I'm only going to get worse if I hear one more apology over stupid crap," he grumbled. "Most demons are fire resistant enough. You can risk setting houses on fire if it kills goddamn Charioce!"

The red thing Charioce had lost in the sand lay near, he picked it up.

"What was he even doing here?" a nearby woman asked him from a roof.

It was a dark red claw with a pale red tip, eerily like the barb from Bahamut. "I dunno, shopping?"

Fate was at work, indeed.

"Why did you turn into a dragon? Can you control it now?" Azazel asked Nina.

"I ... I don't know, really. I was upset, but I just went slower."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She made a hopeless little whine. Now Favaro wasn't an expert on dragon language, but she looked cornered. Her wings were expanding already, she wanted to leave.

When she raised her other paw to Favaro, she froze. Though difficult to see in the evening on her magenta scales, there was dark blood and flesh.

Nina made her most inhuman wail yet and scrambled back, knocking over more stands and dropping Azazel. Panting heavily, she desperately tried to wipe the gore off on a torn tent. That failing, she filled her mouth with fire and blasted herself.

Only when her scales had been torched black did she calm down, but fire caught on nearby stands.

"Sorry," she said again.

"Nina, you better go cool down somewhere. We can walk back."

She nodded quickly and flew away pretty badly, knocking a tower off and colliding with the walls twice.

The mist thickened as the water singers drew closer, they would handle the fire.

Azazel leaned on a wall, somewhat shaking. Unstable, deeper than the wounds. Serpents broke from his arms as much as blood. Quite a sight, Favaro had never seen him so off his game. "You still hanging in there?"

"Tch." Almost perfect casual contempt, but Azazel's eyes stood wild. He staggered towards the tunnels, struggling to get his wings out, but once he did he was off.

Favaro scaled the walls to see whether Charioce toured around to the harbor entrance. If they could get rid of him today that would make things so much easier.

He didn't find Charioce, but there was another unusual person with Amira there. Huh, that explained her absence perhaps.

A greenhaired woman in black dress and with an unusually large hat wandered across the ridge just below the high road, Amira ghosting behind her. Amira talked, but the woman only rarely replied.

He waited behind a pillar while the woman peered at the slums. Amira appeared at his side and he quietly signed the mark for where she'd been. With whispers and gestured, she indicated she'd been trying to stop that woman from getting in, which put her to blows with Angra Mainyu. Both of them were able to see and hear her, both didn't want to talk. Angra Mainyu was just cryptic, and Merlin — oh shit — refused on principle of Amira's demon heritage.

Once she walked by his collumn, she froze in place. Her eyes fell to the pendant dangling from his belt.

"You're way out of your path. Yet you are as much fate's child as ever ... how do you do this?" she whispered, but he heard her.

Favaro leaned on the edge of the pillar. "Do I know you?"

"No. None of this is right, there has to be an explanation ... tell me, Favaro Leone, who is the king to you?"

"Duh, my enemy. All the hunting me down isn't really putting me in a good mood. Who's he to you, lass who smells way too much like cologne and human to be from around here?"

When he swished his tail just into sight, she turned cold. "You made a pact with a demon. I see."

She turned away at once.

Huh, what was that about? How had she gotten inside?

Maybe he should meet this Angra Mainyu.

· · · · · · ·

That could have gone better. Oh sure, there's my cute girlfriend, let's have a date, let's do it in the demon invested slums so she's more likely to agree, let's make out, let's ignore that she's a key member of the rebellion. Such a charming naive girl with lovely lips and a vested interest in chewing his arm off.

Nina had done a really poor job of being inconspicious in avoiding certain tunnels. As suspected, those went below the barrier. One trail in particular had no demons or human refugees in it, and far more tracks. Carts stood here, remnants of fresh food still on them. Would you look at that, they had a supply line.

At top speed he ran, ignoring a few demons passing him with sacks. At the end was a surprisingly small opening that led into a large kitchen, no doubt of a nobleman's mansion. A human woman sat here with a demon child at a table, and men of both tribes mulled about to move sacks down the hole. One of them shoved a sack right into his arms.

"Go on, get a move on it," the old man said.

Careful, Charioce set the sack down. "Not now, I came to warn you that the Onyx Knights found a way into the slums. They haven't found this tunnel yet, but they may still do so."

He could take them down. No obstructions here might mean the difference for his knights. Then his knights, if any would survive, would tell the others that this mansion was an entrance to the mansion.

Nina didn't have to die as long as she didn't get in the way and well, today he had gotten onto her turf. So be it.

He played the act along of the concerned ally, advised them to close the hole if possible, and slipped away into the main entrance hall. Many doors were open, including to the living room. Well well. Above the hearth was the banner of the Lidfard family. How unsurprising.

More surprising was the darkness lined with green that leaked through the ceiling beams.

"What's going on down there?" A demoness came down the stairs. "Something really odd just started happening with our little project."

She was between him and the door, and when she looked aside, at him, she let out a fearful gasp.

Dimly he recognized her from something ... ah yes, one of the forerunners of the recent rebellion.

"We can make this the fight you know you will lose, or you can keep quiet."

She backed away. Hmm, kill her or run for it?

"You're—"

Kill her. He flicked another drop off his palm, forming it into a thin needle. He lashed at her and sent blood going, leaped to finished her off ... only to be plant himself into the floorboards.

What.

He never tripped.

Looking back, it turned out the floorboard had splintered and turned gooey.

Behind the demoness up the stairway stood a stern and very human school teacher in too colorful clothing, hand stretched out. It was her magic setting him astray right through Dromos's field.

Ugh, more resistant enemies. Were they growing on trees now?

This woman stared in abject horror at him. "What are you?"

Her hands twitched at her side, and the walls shifted ever so slightly.

Oh. The alchemist. Just what he needed over overexerting himself, someone who could work around raw power. Yep, there it was : the walls fell around him. He braced his hands against it, turning the rock black and brittle under the power of Dromos. Rather than more magic, that woman pushed past the demon, dodged his blow and caught his arm — too much running and a fight took just an edge off his superior response time, enough that she kneed him in the groin and smashed his head against the wall.

Maybe he should start hearing helmets literary all the time because that added way too much to his preexisting headache.

Something stuck in his neck — another dart. He should have passed out, but after using Dromos the rot in his body kept him awake. He clung to that and let Dromos direct the courseof his blood. If he fell asleep here he'd die.

He twisted around and went for the nearest light source. Jumping through a window was little compared to the pounding in his head and the spreading posion — what a disgrace. He had subjugated the king of hell itself, only to be sent running by some women with inconvenient magic and mundane poison.

He ran headfirst into the green. The garden walls wwould be easily scaled, but after that he was in the open.

Three steps in and his shirt became unbearable, festering into his skin like acid. Ripping it loose only had the parts crawl to his neck. It slowed him down before the wall, which he needed his hands to scale. Choices ... let it fester, he had to get over now.

He just barely avoided the next blow dart, which embedded in the wall, and was out on the streets.

Looking back, the demoness flew after him above the trees. The alchemist had to be somewhere close.

He kept running towards the castle, though intending to sidetrack a few times to throw them off from his real goal : the knight headquarters. Exhaustion crept up his limbs quickly, he had to invoke Dromos to keep going. The rot would deepen, but today he would survive.

Of course, the street turned to sticky clay and he dropped again. Dizziness threatened to take over, he let Dromos poison him further and was on his feet again. He couldn't jump as far from this ground, but reached a roof and ran from there.

The air behind him was empty now, but they might just lay low.

A shadow swooped over and he almost lashed out, before recognizing Lao and the figure leaning over his shoulders.

"Your majesty, get on!"

When Lao flew low, he jumped for Merlin's staff and climbed on the dragon's back.

"I see your pursuers, shall I roast them?" Lao asked.

"No, they may be too much for you. And me, unfortunately."

Within a blink, Lao was on the way to the castle.

"How were you aware I was in trouble?" he asked Merlin.

"I sensed a distortion in fate itself," Merlin said. "We tried to find you at the barrier. How did you end up in the middle of the noble district?"

That woman really needed to learn consistent manners. She was on his payroll and didn't get to ask anything but clarification on orders.

"I met a pacted woman with glasses, brown hair and very colorful clothing. The alchemist, right?"

"Trismegistus Khunrath, indeed. We informed each other of our potential for strategic purposes, she did not have such technical remote application before," Merlin said with a nod to the acid burns. "So I am fairly certain she may have pacted with Belphegor instead. Perhaps it means Azazel has died. Shame, I would have liked to face off with him one day."

They stayed quiet for the rest of the way back. Once he stepped off, George greeting him with, "Your majesty, you were away long."

"I had a most refreshing evening walk. By the way, we have six openings in the Onyx Knights."

· · · · · · ·

In the main room of Cerberus's home, Favaro sat by as Cerberus held council with her girls. He was a bit bloody, but he'd live; the demon pact came with enhanced endurance. Quite nifty actually.

"Nothing, the barrier is solid all over and we have the only tunnel," Syncarpia said.

"I found something," Terásanui said, holding up a weird turtle thing. "There are tracks across the pier floor from humans, albeit heavy ones. They went right through the barrier."

That put an interesting spin on Angra Mainyu's motivations.

The door opened and the guard let in a few small visitors.

A little brown demon boy pulled at Cerberus's dress. "We heard you wanted information on weird people? We saw Nina dressed up weird with a pale guy in rich clothing. He joined our ballgame and kicked our ball into my head. I don't know why Nina was hanging out with him."

They had brought a ball the man had made for them, knowing Cerberus always wanted scents. It was a cloth wrapped around a rock and some hay, easily unravelled.

Cerberus and Mimi sniffed at the cloth. "Healthy male human, has access to a lot of fancy soap. Something's off, like with Kaisar."

"Can we have the ball back?"

"That guy was Charioce XVII," Cerberus said carelessly.

The kids's faces distorted in disgust.

"Nevermind."

"If I'd known he was the guy who took me from home I would've bitten him."

"Don't try that next time," Favaro said. "The guy's way too tough. Even Nina all dragoned out didn't pull it off."

They sent off the kids without ball, though Cerberus threw in an apple or two for them.

Amira ghosted up to him after a while. "Favaro!"

He waved at her with a smile, all he could do for now.

"He didn't tell anyone about the mansion," Amira said. "I made extra sure to stay in other rooms and only listen, so he wouldn't see me. He's outright lying to everyone."

"You're kidding," Cerberus said.

Amira frowned. "I don't do lying. Lying is awful."

"It's just an expression of disbelief," Cerberus said, a little nervous. "Anyway, you should go back and keep an ear open to see whether he doesn't change his mind."

Amira looked at Favaro, who gave a thumbs up; there wasn't anything else for her to do here. She returned the gesture and vanished again.

"He actually does like her enough to avoid going after her directly, huh?" Cerberus dropped herself on one of her poofy cushion things. "Well, that's convenient for us. I wonder whether we can do with that."

"Hey now, we're not using my student as a tool."

"So we'll ask her, whatever. I'm done for the day. Borashne, go make a tally of the damage and report after I'm done not sleeping. Goddamn, we need to kill Olivia soon."

Speaking of damage and students, it was about time Favaro had a talk.

Amira pointed out Nina at the riverside around the bend, beyond the far edge of the slums.

After making sure nobody was around to hear — the enhanced hearing sure came in handy — he approached Nina.

She looked up. "Teacher?"

"Hey there Nina. Hook anything interesting lately? Or anyone?"

Nina cringed, which honestly looked silly as a giant spiky dragon.

"You brought Charioce in, didn't you?"

"I'm sorry, teacher," she grumbled. "Did he ... what happened?"

"He found the tunnel to the Lidfard mansion and got out. Belphegor got hurt, but she and Tris drove him off. The Onyx Knights are all dead. By the way, nice that you're conscious all the way, but can you keep your memories when you go back? Cause, uh, Nina. You fucked up. Big time. I'm all for getting over the past, but you gotta learn from it, so you better not forget."

She nodded. "Don't tell Azazel, please."

"I dunno whether I can do that. He thinks Olivia let him in, but if I can take a bet it was Angra Mainyu, right?"

Nina stayed quiet.

"Nina, this is important. Olivia's out for Cerberus's blood, but cannot draw people into sub space. If Angra Mainyu does not fully answer to Olivia, we have to know."

"Angra Mainyu wanted to see what I'd do. I hoped she wouldn't have let the guard in."

"Good. Maybe we can do something with that. You just stay here, take your time." Favaro patted her on the snouth. "Cerberus and I will handle the mess."

"Mugaro can heal you first," Nina said, evening his bloodsoaked shirt.

"Nah, it's fine. I have a point to make first."

The point was to Kaisar, whom Amira indicated was heading home this evening. After finishing up some chores for Cerberus — delivering messages, overseeing whether people did their job right — he headed down the tunnel.

The Anatae brand of the Lidfard mansion sure was a nice place, up close. Kaisar thought it was cramped compared to the main mansion near Dorma, but from the looks of it hadn't really tried making it more of a home since the last time Favaro had seen it, about nine years ago. What livelihood had come to it stemmed from the resistance making quarters here.

Favaro tossed his shirt off and spread on the couch, making the injuries stand out clearly and scandalizing the housekeeper as she came to ask whether he needed anything.

Kaisar came not long after, exhausted so much he just tossed the helmet on the table and slumped into the sofa next to Favaro.

"How was your day?" Favaro asked.

"Dreadful. His majesty was attacked by Olivia and that Furfur demon, who twisted the perception of his guard. He barely got away, and we've spent the past hours in uproar over securing the barrier against Furfur and its twisting influence. Imagine even the king falling to it!"

Bingo.

"Sounds nice. I hung out with Azazel today."

"Azazel is back?"

"Oh, you didn't know? Funny, that. Anyway, here's something fun. He either tried to tell Amira he wasn't the enemy anymore, or tried to apologize. It's hard to tell with the talking complications, but anyway, we may be getting first class accomodations when Amira and I go travel the world. You should definitely lament your family's misfortune in his eartshot," Favaro said. "Hey, how about you ask for the exact treasure that got your old man in trouble?"

"I have no need for riches. Wait, Amira?"

"So donate it to the demons whose slavery and genocide you supported."

"What would the point of that be when I get it from one of them anyway? And what do you mean with Amira?"

"Exactly. Just picture the look on Azazel's face when he realizes that's what he went through the effort for."

Kaisar finally looked up, all ready to argue and deemed it fit to notice the injuries.

"You are inconceivable! What did you get into now?"

"Azazel and I ran into that guy you're so smitten with. Rather stoic, very grandeur, much murder. Gotta say I'm having a hard time seeing what you see."

"The king did infiltrate the slums to fight Olivia?"

"Haha, no, some demon let him through. He wanted to make out with my student," Favaro said. "She's his fated bandaid, but she changed her mind about that and he ran for it, right into us."

"Ah, so he wasn't after you. Really, you shouldn't make it sound like that! It is not right."

"Not right? He's wanted me out of the way for years," Favaro said. "You know he sent out his Onyx Knights for me, right?"

Favaro knew there was a record for that, as Amira had recently caught wind of descriptions for new recruits on his arrest.

"He ... he wouldn't have killed you. You would've been arrested and sent to the island prison."

"The island that exploded with all the prisoners on it? You know it's still murder even if he gets slavery out of it first."

Kaisar fell into one of his brooding silences. He'd been prone to those even as a teenager whenever he feared he would dissapoint his father.

After a while, he said, "What do you mean, Azazel apologized to Amira? How can she even be here?"

"It's a long story, but we've got a project going." Favaro dangled the tooth from his fingers. "If nothing had happened, I would have taken this as a sign Nina is fated for something and tried to advise her. There's something bigger than us going on and we're just barely defying it."

He considered telling Kaisar about what exactly Amira was doing, but he still couldn't be sure of Kaisar's loyalties.

Someone screamed down the hall.

And there was Azazel bursting through the doors, having all of one second to take in the scene.

"What are you doing in that?" he snapped at Kaisar.

"He's our insurance this place won't be wrapped up," Favaro said, gesturing at the fancy room. "I mean, where would we be otherwise?"

"That won't last long," Azazel said. "This is the only way out, they'll be here in no way. Get into the slums, I'm destroying the tunnel."

Favaro took a deep breath. Ooh boy, how were they going to explain Charioce might maybe potentially not send anyone here because of Nina, without mentioning his crush on Nina?

Belphegor came staggering down the stairs, providing a much needed distraction. "Why was Felicia screaming?"

"Probably recognized me," Azazel said.

Okay, scratch not making it home, Kaisar had apparently hired the same house lady as in his former main mansion; Azazel has most likely to check out whether Laurus Lidfard was a suitably noble hearted victim. Hmm, the Red Troupe better not find out details like that.

"Felicia, you don't have to be afraid of lord Azazel," Belphegor said.

"That's Azazel?" Felicia squeaked from the doorway. "The one that invaded Anatae? Oh, master Lidfard, what have you gotten into?"

"It's a long story," Kaisar said. "You see—"

Favaro slapped Azazel on the back, cutting him off and ignoring the glare. "Long story short, tall dark and grumpy isn't into that anymore. Not gonna deny though his record is a pain in the ass."

Belphegor looked pained for reaons other than the wounds on her arm. "Lord Azazel, you should probably not be around here too often. You're no good for the fragile ties we have with the humans. The really, really fragile ties."

"I'm just looking for Nina."

"She's at the riverside," Favaro said, and that should've been the aversion of drama right here, if not for the classical Lidfard Spirit Of Profound And Wholly Unnecesary Drama to posses Kaisar.

"Honestly, the poor girl must be heartbroken! Azazel, you better be careful with what you say."

Favaro tried to break his concentration with a well placed, "Speaking of being careful, Bel told me how exactly Nina got caught up into the rebellion. Something about your knights trying to burn her alive? You should probably go like, prepare a big apology bouqet or something."

"That I shall deal with in due time, but today it is important that Azazel does not throw his usual reckless self at a fragile soul," Kaisar said.

Azazel still just looked mostly confused. "What about Nina is fragile?"

"Did you forget or never learn in heaven? Hearts are wittle flowers in the winds, lambs in the pasture for wolves to prey upon if only the shepherd loses sight of the way."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Azazel snapped. "Nina could swallow wolves whole."

"It was a metaphor, of course, to describe her tragic love for Charioce XVII. You must be most careful on how to—"

"What."

Favaro pinched the bridge of his nose. "Kaisar, that's not what you're supposed to be lamenting."

"He seduced that poor child into letting him into the slums! A 26 year old man engaging in such a manner with a maiden ten years younger, a scandal upon itself, but to then use it for warfare! Honestly, Azazel, you yourself ought to be ashamed too for recruiting a child for your rebellion."

"Any more of that disgusting joke and I'm throwing you out that window."

"Yo, Kaisar, he doesn't know," Favaro said. "Also, Nina's older than Charioce, though I'm not sure how we're gonna count dragons years."

"No," Azazel said, but his eyes widened as he realized Favaro was serious.

"I wish I was a better liar, but yeah, fate has a thing for putting half blood girls with pink hairs and ties to dragons on the chopping block."

"No." Azazel's left eye started to twitch, it had be sinking in. Oh well then.

"That's what caught Angra Mainyu's curiosity," Favaro said."She let Nina and her entourage pass the barrier."

Azazel's face in full disgust was really kind of interesting. You'd think demons had more facial muscles than humans.

Aaaand there he raged into the tunnel, leaving behind a puff of black feathers.

"Great going, Kaisar. It's really amazing that after seven years of slavery, mutilation, rape, death games, and genocide, that is what finally gets you to say something bad about Charioce."

· · · · · · ·

Nina. With. Charioce.

What the everliving chaos was going on.

Just before trying to burn through his neck, Charioce had those hands on Nina.

And she led him right into the slums, knowing Mugaro and Belphegor and others on Charioce's hitlist were here.

Kaisar could be a fool, but Favaro was a conspicious liar. Worse yet, it made a sickening amount of sense on why Nina walked away from Angra Mainyu. Dammit, he should have been more suspicious of that.

Nina was at the riverside, near a pile of boulders. Pink light enveloped her still and she was mostly dragon still, as far as visible with her wings wrapped around herself.

He landed on the rock against which she leaned, cracking the top and spat, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Oh ... hey, Azazel. Just a minute, I'm ... " She trailed off the fiercer he glared at her, and looked away. "I ... uh, I kinda solved a little of my transformation problem. You noticed that. I thinking clear as a dragon if I don't transform in a burst of light, but it takes longer that way."

Blabbering as she was wont to do, did she not feel bad at all?

"Thinking clear? Oh right, that's what letting Charioce into the slums is."

A little indignant, she said, "Angra Mainyu did. I have to get rid of Charioce, right? That's what you begged me to do. Take him down. Save the demons. And I will. If I can't do it as a dragon, maybe I can when I'm better in my mind." She became more frantic with every word.

"Not that!" Azazel snapped. "How can you love him?"

Nina went still like a deer in sudden light. It was true then.

"I ... I ..."

"You what?" He jumped before her, needing to look her in the face when she confessed that countless had suffered and died because she liked their murderer too much.

"I didn't choose to! It just happened. I didn't even know who he was until after the rebellion. I just ... it didn't go away even then."

"I can tell! You brought him here, risked all of us! Alone! If we'd been prepared, he could have died today! This could all be over already but it's not because you love him. Somehow."

"I'm sorry."

Sorry? What good did that do?

"I do remember some things, images and feelings, I think. When I become a dragon because I like a guy, there's always fear and sadness below it. So I bet every time dragon me saw him, any kind of sense was overpowered, even if otherwise I'd know he was the enemy. That is the way I love him. It's stupid, isn't it?"

"Yes, it's stupid," he said, because he had plenty of experience with how stupid emotions could be. Not this kind, the one he'd loved hadn't been genocidal or even a murderer, but it had destroyed him. And now trusting Nina had destroyed so much of what little he'd left, all for nothing. If he hadn't met her, he'd still be the rag demon, just as hopeless as before and Olivia would not have moved in. Dante and the others would be alive still, and ... and ...

He kicked the nearest boulder so hard it broke. The pieces splashed into the river, others clattered further down the shore.

"You can't kill either way? I know how to kill, and you know that too," Azazel said. "All you had to do was set him up for me! Or one of the wards! One moment of distraction, just ... we had a chance! There were thirthy seven demons part of the frontlines of the rebellion. Out of those, one left before we entered the city. The other was Belphegor. Today Charioce almost killed her, the last survivor. Is that what you think is a fair price for your date?"

"No! I didn't want anyone to pay. I tried to get the bracelet so he wouldn't use Dromos anymore! I thought I could distract him."

"Distracted with you. You didn't kill him, I bet you were just as distracted."

"Uh ... " About time she ran out of words.

"And then what? You would've kicked him out again? He didn't have or need all of Dromos to rule his kingdom! Oh, maybe you wanted another invasion from heaven. Some good they'll do us. I bet you they'll have Jeanne locked up right now, she won't change anything anymore."

Nina gritted her fangs. "I never killed anyone when aware of myself, okay? I thought about it but I just ... can't. I can't snuff out a life that is right in front of me."

This. She had been their supposed savior, only to be part of their downfall.

Everything was a damn cosmic joke. Not only was creating resistant warriors as easy as pacts, Nina was with half a foot in the enemy's camp.

"Really? Why don't you learn it? Or just leave it to someone who damn well knows how." His voice broke out of rage when the laughter threatened to creep in. Oh, this was better than before.

Charioce had bested hell, won everything where Azazel lost, and he owned Nina without even trying.

He couldn't look at her anymore. The thought of Charioce all over her made his stomach turn, to see her all conflicted but not hateful about loving him ... it might as well be loving all his evil.

Another rock scattered under his kick before he flew away. If not for the barrier he might have gone into the hills and blown up something, but he had to settle for sitting atop the riverside road. The sight of the slums below distracted at least, poor as ever but thriving more now they didn't have to fear celebration or lighting fires. All of this might be better, but it would likely fall once Angra Mainyu dropped this barrier or Olivia got the upper hand. This was what he'd come for, his people.

Nina's arrival wasn't salvation when it could have been. All the while the rebellion struggled to come together, Charioce was having fun with Nina.

Had Charioce known about her being integral to the resistance? Had he himself driven her further in?

Even then, he didn't understand how anyone could love Charioce, and ... oh. This had been Nina's problem with him, not knowing what to expect.

Not that this made the love thing more clear. Why wasn't she getting on Charioce's case about everything he'd done?

He didn't have to make sense of this, it was so much easier to let it be. But it'd fester if he didn't. Dammit, he had to talk to her again. This shouldn't feel so difficult. It was just words. He's invaded cities, he's discoursed history, this was trivial.

Nina lied a lot by smiling over everything, he didn't even understand that.

Restlessness didn't leave him in place for long. He flew to the tunnels, and spotted Belphegor as she flew up to the peak of a building, and rested there. He joined her.

She looked well, and for some reason carried blankets. "Mugaro healed you?"

"Yes. It's quite a miracle what ne can do. Lord Azazel, I understand you've given up on the rebellion, but might you and Mugaro stay a little longer so more can be healed?"

The last thing he wanted was Olivia catching wind of Mugaro's presence end giving her Cerberus's treatment. At the same time, Adva was right. Belphegor would not leave, nor would Cerberus.

"We'll see. I need to ... "

Do what exactly? There was still only one thing he had left Helheimr for. Where his pride was shambles, his people remained.

"Well, tell me if an infirmary for Mugaro must be made. I'll badger Cerberus about it, but for now I was going to bring Nina some blankets. Favaro says it's taking her time to to change and figure out how to get her clothes back, but that's a good thing? Honestly, today has not been easy with the strange new information, and then how the king factors into this ... "

"It doesn't bother you at all that she let him in?"

"Oh, it does, but that's for later. Nina still fights for us and right now she's cold and probably crying."

He might've looked slightly guilty, cause Belphegor added, "Did you make it worse?"

Not going to deal with another awkward conversation now. He grabbed the bundle from her and flew off.

· · · · · · ·

She'd messed everything up. Angra Mainyu had been in her face telling her how Chris centered she'd been thinking and she went right ahead and did it again. It was sheer luck Mugaro hadn't decided to see where she'd gone, only to run right into the Onyx Knights to be slaughtered. She could have told anyone and didn't even stop to think of it.

She was humanoid again and painstakingly remembered everything detail. Hopefully Favaro was right and it'd serve her, because right now it just sank her deeper. She couldn't hide forever, but for now she'd crawling into a crevice between the broken pillar, well out of sight of anyone.

Wings beat above, rocks clattered down. Azazel was back, despite her hopes.

"I want the full story."

"Huh?" She looked up only to get a face full of blankets.

"You wanted my story to be sure how I'll behave in the future. Return the favor."

He dropped himself somewhere on the other side of the left boulder, just out of sight. Judging by the tapping he was still angry and disgusted.

She scrambled for words but found nothing good to say. "Uhm ... what do you want to know?"

"How much of what went wrong that day was on me, or on you."

"Exposure makes for better control, dating Chris just sped it up. I don't need to have a crush to transform, it's just ... I don't know the right word. The way you treated me would've just gotten me pissed even if I'd had had more ... well, more in the mood. There is no good mood for being treated that way."

He stayed quiet for a while before he said, "You didn't know who he was?"

"Right. I was arrested when I went to Chris thinking he'd help us."

More of that silence. Please just get it over with.

"How can you stay in love now you know what he is?"

"I ... I guess even in this shape, I live a little like a beast. What I feel and see is much more real than what I know. Or maybe it's just ... he was safe. I am not safe for myself or those around me. That was most of my life ..." She swallowed. "I'm going to tell you something else I'm ashamed of, can you keep that a secret?"

"Fine."

"I killed my father. That's what's below my trigger with crushing on guys. I had my first crush, and transformed like I do with all my excitable feelings. Father tried to get me out of the small space. The hidden memory and the threat was always there, on the brink, whenever I crushed on anyone. Everyone in the village knew but me. I just felt it without knowing why. That's what I fled from. If fate steered me, perhaps all it needed to do was time me right.

I found paradise in Anatae. It was going through the street without anyone fearing me, it was the chase of fortune to bring something good home for once. It's Chris on the streets in every stolen moment of happiness, every turned in dance where I could lose myself and trust him to lead. That the dragon became calm felt like growing stronger and nothing about this all, about him, reminded me of home.

I tried to put Chris and Charioce together, but at the same time I didn't want to. You're right, I could have used what I knew for the rebellion. Twice over, first for support, later for defeat, I didn't want to get any of my human friends involved. I wanted that little world to stay my haven. Now that's anchored so deep, anything I throw against it just transforms it. I called it love once, but I guess I never really knew him. Angra Mainyu had all these words for it I can't remember, but I think, maybe craving him is the right word."

Azazel scoffed. "Doesn't that disgust you?"

"No ... I hate it, but I don't feel disgust at him. I don't think I can."

"What else could he possible to get you to finally loathe him?"

Helplessly, she shrugged. "I don't know how. I have no answers for this."

"There can't be any answers to something this atrocious.

"He has tried to explain himself to me, you know. About how he can do this."

"Spit it out."

"He says that not feeling guilty is for the greater good of killing Bahamut, and he thinks I might stand at his side because fate says so. Today he let me lead him into danger and ... He does keep letting me go despite everything, so he must be capable of some good feelings. Maybe it's a whole lot of hatred that's keeping him from seeing what's right, like my love threatens to keep me from seeing the truth. What do you think?"

"That's it, I can't stand this bullshit anymore. There are only two things I'm an expert in : violence and evil. People aren't as simple as being just meat bags of feelings. When I got my heart back, it didn't matter. By then it was my nature to play with humans till they broke. I've seen people break for hate and love alike, and destroy each other for either. So much of what Charioce does is like what I did for fun, save for one difference : he puts dress it up with a cloud of words. Even if he fights Bahamut, destroying my tribe is a goal on its own."

"He also talked about that, he thinks peace is just impossible."

"Tch. He hasn't tried ... I haven't tried either because I didn't think it was important. Any spite with the demon clan he should have taken up with me and the elite. That's not what he did when he came to Cocytus. Get it through your head : the beginning and end of his actions is that he wants my people to suffer! I don't give a shit for his reasons, and you shouldn't either. Stop him at all costs, because the cost of him staying alive and in power is worse than anything we could pay."

The thread of self destruction always ran through anything Azazel said or did, even now.

We. Herself too?

Might she destroy herself by giving over to loving Chris? She'd tried seeing her attraction to him as something to defy for the sake of all others, a pull rather than a knife. Thinking like this didn't come naturally, not even now. Oh, she would stop loving him if only she had that choice.

Spirits, what were choices even?

"About trying ... I saw your drawing of me. You're wrong, I'm not that beautiful," Nina said. "I'm not born for rescuing people. I'm either an accident or a concoction of fate for Chris. And I'm not kind enough."

"We don't expect you to be kind, just smart enough to know where to shoot."

"No, you don't get it. You did expect that! When you first came to me you thought the suffering of the demons would move me, and I'm not enough like that to see it on my own. It takes all these other heavy matters and failures to get you and Jeanne down from saving everyone. Meanwhile I was here for so long with my nose on all the atrocities, yet it remained my paradise. I didn't even see it as wrong, because ... well, because I just am that way."

She pulled her knees up and closed her wings and the blankets around herself. "You know, I also killed a young man I never met that day. I didn't even think of that till just now. My father's life wasn't valuable more than that of the young man, but it acts like that on me. And when Charioce set that trap for you on the hillside, I only went to save you. I didn't even think of the others until you pointed them out. So it's easy for me to feel like Chris is the most important, especially if that's all my dragon self knows.

Out of sight out of mind unless you're someone I know, that's me. I was always raised to be considerate and never knew anything else, but I still have to choose. Then there's you who came from worse, but now you don't hesitate to throw yourself in danger even for people you don't know. I don't know what way I would have been, if I was the kind of lost Angra Mainyu expected me to be, but I might have just forgot about everyone but Chris eventually. If I hadn't spend so much time around you and your rebellion, because it did become easier to see everyone as valuable."

She could just imagine the blanked out look, either nothing she said had changed anything or he was still boiling with rage waiting to explode. She kind of wanted to be angry at herself, to be honest. Something so close to anger had pushed her into being a dragon today. It was gone now and the transformation as distant as ever, but it should be hers.

Azazel moved back atop the boulder, his voice closer now. "Part of me just sought death, but was too proud to let me do it directly. How you'd think I was anything like that I don't know."

"That such is part of it, I don't think it matters to the people you saved."

"Heh. Then it won't matter either why you do what you do, or don't."

"It matters to me though, and it'll matter to them if the way I am means mistakes."

Another silence, this time broken by the beating of wings.

Azazel landed behind her as well as he could in the narrow space. Still avoiding looking her in the face.

But he placed his knuckles under her wing joint to push it aside. She looked up to find his other hand held open next to her, offered with the words, "We'll try again."

She couldn't take that offer so easily; there were no snakes right now but the scars were there. She was sure more and more Charioce had done something to really broke him. She'd let Chris go before and he'd suffered for it, and might again because she'd done the same at least three times. It didn't feel fair to quietly promise she could be reliable.

He withdrew his hand when she stayed put. "You're just going to sit there? And here I thought you wanted me to get out of heaven."

"I think I do understand not moving a little better now. Maybe for a different reason, but ... there's lives depending on me. Yours included. Maybe less than before now we have wards and Mugaro, but ... I'm scared. At some time I might go to him after all. I don't want to forget about everyone for him, but once I am there I won't mind, will I? I'll have changed to be someone who won't mind. Whom will I try to be in the future?"

Azazel climbed back out the crevice. Nina would have stayed, but after she'd said that it was almost offensive he'd just leave. She didn't just pour all that out to end the conversation like this. Just utter silence — like Chris. She couldn't stand that anymore.

After wrapping the blankets better around herself, she climbed out.

Azazel sat on the edge of the rock, not facing her but the wreckage of the divine ship. It still lay on the opposite bank, not even collapsing under its weight. Construction had started to take it apart, pieces being stored on floating islands to bring them to the capital.

"Changed your mind?" he asked.

Nina sat next to him, dangling her legs over the edge. "I can't kill him."

"I'll do that."

"You won't be able to either. He made such a mess of you today, even with Favaro to help out."

"Tch."

"Don't you tch me." She gestured at the ruined ship. "You want me to try again, but when you try at all you're trying too hard. I don't want any of us to die, myself included."

He waited again to reply. Maybe he really just needed that time to think over what to say?

"Let's make a deal : I'll try not to die if you don't lose yourself over him."

"That sounds like a bad kind of deal, paying with things we can't really control," Nina muttered. "How'd we even measure whether we're trying hard enough?"

"Look, it's the best I can come up with. Take it or leave it," he huffed.

"It'll be okay if I'll tell you next time I do something Chris related? And you tell me before you rush into something dangerous, and we'll either go together or get help." She tried to sound as positive as possible, even got a smile going.

"Stop that," Azazel said. "I know you're not happy, so don't bother lying."

Dropping the smile was a strange kind of relief, though not as much than seeing his face so far from anger.

· · · · · · ·

The time of vespers approached by the time Jeanne found a moment's rest to return to the church in Valeria. She had spent the past days hopping from official appearances to emergencies to meetings all over the land. The unicorn's gates and nigh telepathic understand where helpful, but gods were always on her trail to coax her back to heaven. They prioritized not kicking a scene in public or outright confronting the unicorn, so Jeanne had to watch her step, leaving no moment unguarded. More than once, nameless inspiration tipped her off when to move or cancel an event — Michael be thanked.

Chiron held a small group of human prodigies around him, varying between students, squires and sages. Mirin had attention issues and far more knowledge of sexual matters than was helpful, though the local Arligau made a good assistant.

They managed, so far. Jeanne wished she could spend more time with them though because the liberated demons still lacked a strong core. A few other cities had communities forming in the way of individual tribes, as Azazel described. They weren't accustomed to greater unity such as was needed now.

The unicorn opened a gate into the inner courtyard behind the church, quiet in the evening, though a few demon children sat on the roof. They stared in wonder and Jeanne smiled at them.

"Would you please call lady Mirin and lord Chiron?"

The kids got up, but rather than either of them Jeanne got another face when a puff of smoke revealed a tiny dog just before her.

"Hey there, saint."

"Coco, right? Hello."

"I've been looking all over the place for you, but you were gone, ruff! Lady Naberius of Anatae wants to forge an alliance," Coco said. "Or to be less stiff about it, hey, remember how Cerberus saved your butt? You owe us."

"Indeed I do. What message do you have for me then?"

"Favaro Leone's with us, he says Charioce has plans concerning Bahamut. Anything you can do with that?"

Jeanne's mind reeled. On top of everything else, now this?

"That would explain certains things I saw or heard about seven years ago. But, the gods would have sensed Bahamut's return," Jeanne said. "There hasn't been a word about it in heaven!"

Did they know, was it a secret? No, Sofiel was already going behind Gabriel's back, she would've told Jeanne.

"Maybe they got in the way," Coco said. "Dromos can do a lot of stuff we don't get."

"I wish I could place this before heaven. I do not agree with Gabriel on certain things, but I agree less with Odin," Jeanne said. "I do not know what will happen if I return with this news from a demon."

"Sounds like you got trouble up there. Explain?"

Jeanne gave Coco a quick overview, which earned more of a response than she'd expected.

"Give him news of Bahamut being involved and he'll twist it to implicate Gabriel for not noticing. It coming from a demon isn't your only concern," Coco said.

She was now being advised by an adorable demonic Pomerian on divine politics. Oh life.

"On that note, have you been handing out feathers from Azazel?" Coco pulled out one of those from his collar. "Snagged this one from some nobody who says you convinced'em to cooperate that way. Bad idea."

"Why?"

"Cause we got politics too. You got any precautions against backfiring? Please tell me you got ties other than Mirin."

Jeanne cast a glance at the unicorn, who tilted vun head and quietly indicated vun had no idea either.

"Looks like I'm not leaving till I can tell Cerby something better."

· · · · · · ·

With Jeanne now having a secret alliance with a unicorn and Michael in her corner, and a very daring demand she really should have turned down, Sofiel was in a bind. The kind Gabriel would call the first step to falling into hell.

She'd been pouring over Indra's Web for hours every day, tracking the opinions on Jeanne. Chiron's site became popular on his theory of benevolent guidance to humans breeding a new kind of faith. A few people who had known Mirin before her fall had joined up and were making a moderately loud case in her favor; some even suggested her deviancy should be absolved now that Michael had made a perfectly harmless nephilim.

A speck of trouble among the higher ranks drew her attention. Someone had logged into the justice system for a list of Azazel's crimes and found ... inconsistencies. Not the acts itself, but the definitions, and that had led to other discoveries with other wards. Jeanne's words lingered in her mind, yet she hesitated to look at what files had been requested.

She found chaos.

Adding demons to the list for potential victims had royally messed up the way the fornication law was processed because the system could not tell the difference between pact induced demonic nature and hybrids. That was just one of many incompatibilities — demons did not at all outlaw inbreeding, and it appeared a number had been sentenced just for being born with demon blood.

The cases predating Zeus were much harsher in that regard, while during Zeus's reign a lax persecution effort was put through; officially a crime, rarely bothered with. It was easily dismissed as Zeus's lustful habits on the surface, but there was surprisingly little resistance from other pantheons. Some old god's reports mentioned a Miguel fiasco, but she couldn't find the name in the register.

Fornication with humans had been outlawed fairly soon after Zeus's fall, but it had taken longer for any affection to be outlawed. The rules of Zeus's pantheon were different and on top of that Bacchus had been held in high regard once, both among gods and humans. He was very powerful, and that made it a hard sell he'd strayed from the light. But that had not been the dominant issue anyway, it was the breach of protocol. He got exile to earth where actual angels were ... well, Sofiel wasn't sure. They also went into exile, just not on earth. Sometimes they returned, either as purer gods or fallen angels.

This had a further complication due to the mergure of systems, which Sofiel, Bacchus and a few random demon kids had put through far more intensely than expected.

The demons did have a magical equivalent under Lucifer, but it was very shaky. It very much relied on a cognitive report crudely placed on the laylines of the summoning system, which allowed the transfer of memory packages. The system originally was for keeping track of lost members— the kind of thing one might call altruism if one was so inclined. Heaven would typically call is possessiveness over troops.

Heaven's system got into knots with itself over how to handle conflicting laws of the three realms, but nevertheless, ten thousands of cases of torture, rape, enslavement and murder had piled in connected to human faces. Charioce lay at the very center now. The Seel Soh Ketom spell would take on him if only they could get close enough to weaken him.

This was all fine and well last week. Now there was just one tiny caveat : it included Azazel. And somehow, someone had leaked to Indra's Web that the system registered him as acting in defense.

Specifically, people in the palace had requested a long list of crimes tied to Dione. Oh dear Elyon. Several thousands of murder accounts because when Sofiel had adjusted the system, she had defined as murder anything that wasn't defensive or passed a trial. It'd been a passing whim, even. The little demon Arai had mentioned it wasn't fair to hit anyone without provocation and sure, that made sense and she kind of wanted to expand the amount of crimes Charioce had committed. Tying this new system to Dromos's influence and Charioce's reign now leaked to heaven where it had no detailed execution. Lacking anything, it adopted the rules Sofiel had written, reprocessed the entire history system of the sinner's hall including Dione's feats and applied wherever it fit. One could only imagine the chaos if the system got to the rest of the population.

Everything was so serene outside the window, one wouldn't imagine how the social structure threatened to collapse.

Who had leaked this?

She was about to research this when a message arrived from the Magedatidot.

I did. Enjoying the times?

What in El Elyon's name ...

Your fellow angels are not enjoying the times. Gabriel is off to speak to a cardinal, so now Odin's in the congregation hall trying to hook in on the angelic upper echelon being very, so very confused about the definition of sin.

Not missing a beat, she opened a gate to the hall, where she found indeed a swarm of angels pouring over a screen. Urlain, Odin and Reinier were heading them, a cduo she wasn't sure how to interpret. Schwertleit cast Sofiel a stern look, but didn't address anyone; what did you get me into she meant.

"Defense? Not culpable?" Odin said.

"This can't be right," Reinier said. "He invaded heaven!"

Urlain's face twisted in horrified realization. "Oh dear Elyon, he was in the carriage! Jeanne d'Arc invited him."

"Perhaps he tempted Jeanne d'Arc onto her blasphemous path, exploiting the good will he earned from tending to her child," someone said and there the conspiracy theories took off.

Loud clapping drew everyone's attention upward.

The Magedatidot stood atop one of the pillars, its fire extinguished. "All of you, such a fine display of pack behavior. Not so useful, unfortunately, but it's good you're trying to unite."

Cue murmurs of who that was, versus the few who recognized vun.

The Magedatidot smiled etherreally at Sofiel, like rubbing in her doom. "On behalf of the future, I am so grateful you adjusted the justice system."

Everyone turned to Sofiel, who could only say, "Lady Gabriel approved it."

"Indeed she did, and it is so useful! Finally some progress. For example, let's have a look at our recent disaster." The Magedatidot conjured up a massive screen that detailed both heaven's report on Nina, and the new additions that regarded Nina through Sofiel's rules, plus those of Qhispe's tribe. Heaven's conclusion was stuck before completion because the other two defined the case differently.

"If I may add my own : arresting Ninati Navrátil for forced entry and release of dangerous criminals is reasonable," the Magedatidot said. "However, execution for that or for being the scourge of the eastern mountains not so much, exactly for the reasons Qhispe laid out : the system doesn't register the actual activies nor take into account mitigating circumstances. She would be considered no criminal under the other definitions, because what would punishment deter?"

Ve teleported onto another pillar, giggled all the way.

"Honestly, our justice is a haphazard construction of poor information, execution without trial and whatever crook wants to be a bounty hunter. We pay them for this through the hands of outcast gods. Such spiritual paragons we are. Oh, it is entirely within our powers to arrange for taking in criminals alive and putting them through a trial. If only we could be bothered. Alas. We favor to have them murdered. So by our own standards —" Ve pulled up the profile of the rag demon. "— if he keeps doing this we're legally obligated to pay him. Might conflict with killing him though."

"Heaven will fall before we pay a fallen angel!" Baldr shouted. "One with such a reprehensible record of treachery cannot return to our graces by killing some humans only for the sake of demons. It is unethical."

"In all seriousness," the Magedatidot said. "Who speaks ethics right now? We're talking the law. Hold yourself to the same standard, lest you render the law worthless."

Odin stamped his spear on the group. "We are the creators of the very law, if it does not cover present circumstance then we refine it. Who are you to challenge the powerful?"

The Magedatidot set a finger over vun lips. "You're not worth knowing my true name. None of you are."

"Are your goals not worth our attention either?" Odin asked. "You show up here, act strange and incite further pointless debate. What are you after?'

"My goals are in your best interest, but not to your liking," ve said. "Gods, demons, and men are of different threads. Even so, those threads are all part of the world, part of life. Let there be no more war between our tribes even beyond the defeat of our common enemy. It'd be nice if people listened if I said that, but I find things go awry when I do too much of that. I try being a prophet and it barely gets me anywhere either."

Someone whispered to Odin that the Magedatidot was the one who had relayed the prophecy of the holy knight. Shocked, Odin geared up to blare something, but a deafening sound echoed as the Magedatidot clapped vun hands together a single time. Every cringed.

"Very well, that is all for today. Enjoy sorting out your legal system and infighting! At least you can." Ve teleported away, leaving a very confused hall.

Sofiel made herself scarce, but rather than return to her office she opened a gate right into the prison.

The vast pale space offered no shadow or even floor, just one floating construct. Bacchus and Hamsa were thankfully still awake, if not sober. Sofiel landed on their platform and kicked all bottles off.

"Get up, now."

"Bwuh?" Bacchus said.

"We are are risk of a power struggle at the worst of times and our legal system just broke. Bacchus, you served under the pantheon of Zeus. I need to know what laws were displaced by the current system, and what claim Odin may or may not have. And ..."

He was just a duck now, everything about him screamed not worth one's side. "Hamsa, we need to talk about your past. About El Elyon."

· · · · · · ·

While Nina retrieved a demon skull from some crevice, Azazel's eyes fixed on the footprints. Charioce's marks. He had walked in here, using the children to enjoy himself and then went on to ...

He was back at just plain no, like he'd burned down all emotions for now. Nothing had weight save for the two spinning drones of wards and Nina's love. Almost dead at the hands of a human in these streets. That human. Whom Nina had almost certainly made out with and liked it. While aware of the millions of corpses in his wake. Because some vague thing called fate. Time and again his thoughts reeled into holy chaos this cannot be real.

None of this made any damn sense even when it explained certain things.

Nina returned to his side, holding the skull now wrapped in cloth.

"I don't know much about hell," she said. "At home we only talk of it as a bad place we had to leave behind, so how do funerals work there?"

"We cremate."

"I mean, do you know any rituals?"

"I never had to be part of any before. Others do know."

He led her to a pyre hall he'd spotted earlier.

Thick with smoke and magic, the hall brimmed with mourning song and lit flames for honoring the passing. Pyres were kept burning even if none were there turn to ashes, their flames rising and lowering at the instruments.

It was the first time in five years the demons to turn grief kept inside outward by flames. Azazel would join, but neither knew the rituals nor had the ease to do so. He stayed behind.

Smoke didn't harm the demons, but to Nina it was unpleasant so she went in quickly. When she found someone to explain what to do, she placed the skull on the pyre and paid respect by lighting a candle — she used fire from her own mouth for this.

Ritual varied per region of hell. Some recited phrases, others performed a farewell dance. The last time he'd seen a funeral, he hadn't even believed in an afterlife. Now he wasn't so sure. Mugaro had brought him back somehow, with dim memories of Michael ... nah, maybe that was just the association with Mugaro, and he hadn't been entirely dead.

Speak of the angel, Mugaro appeared beside him. "I was looking for you, Azazel. What are you doing here?"

He nodded at Nina, who came over once she spotted Mugaro.

"I just found a skull I thought I'd bring it here. Azazel explained about how it's different in hell," she said.

"Oh. Hey Azazel, can you explain how the bad guys got in? Nobody will tell me."

Nina looked like someone was stirring her guts with a knife, though that was quickly exchanged for ordinary guilt and wanting to escape. She was so used to smiling things away, she didn't know what face to put on when she didn't have to show anything.

"Angra Mainyu let them in," Azazel said. Mugaro was too young to be explained this stuff. Maybe later they'd break Nina's — ugh. That. He'd never understood the concept of blashemy when he was in heaven all that much, but dammit this had to be it.

"I bet that was to help that Olivia person," Mugaro said. "She really needs to stop being here. You agree with me, right, Nina?"

"And so does Azazel," Nina said.

"That means we're staying?"

"Yes, we're staying," Nina said. "We're still the rebellion, and that includes fighting against all bad rulers, Olivia too."

Mugaro lit up.

"But no world savior nonsense. We focus on Olivia. If we can take Charioce down somehow, all the better," Azazel said.

Nina flinched just a little at that last part. She wasn't ready, she might never be, and in his turn he might never understand that. Charioce was misery and death to Azazel. Nina had better experiences with him and he had not directly attacked her, but still. Loving him when she knew all he did?

That was Nina's life now. She wasn't disgusted with it, just disturbed with herself. That was something, at least.

Mugaro spotted a few injured people and went to them, soon nur blue eyes was alight. It inevitably drew attention. Olivia would have to go down soon, before she got the idea that Mugaro might be a worthwhile target. Telling nur to stop wasn't really an option though. Mugaro with the ability to heal was a blessing to a sick tribe, they needed it. Mugaro needed it too, after all that time in the arena mercy killing. That wasn't a life right for anyone, let alone someone as soft as Mugaro.

He'd just have to be more on guard. Oh, and get the others on guard duty.

"If it came down to Mugaro or Charioce, would you at least be able to defend nur, even if you lost your mind again?" he asked Nina, voice hushed as much as possible.

"Yes," Nina said without hesitation. "So ... how should I tell Mugaro once we get home? I think it'll come up in the future again."

"Let me handle that," he said.

"Okay ... and what about everyone else?"

"What about them?"

"What can I tell the others so they'll trust me again?" she asked. "Favaro said I messed up a whole lot, and people got hurt."

"And the Onyx Knights killed a bunch," Azazel said. "Live with that, that's all I know. I can't even give them a reason why they should trust me," he said, a weak smirk with the words. It vanished quickly.

"So ... what do you think of me?"

Why the hell would you want Charioce to put his hands on you how can that be enjoyable what the hell.

"You're on my side far enough I'm not going to worry about your alliance that much," he said, and that was true enough. The internal screaming was wholly irrelevant.

"I really do want to try rebellion again," she said urgently. "For everyone here, even if that puts me at odds with my heart."

Eyetwitch. "That doesn't make sense. You're not throwing your whole heart out, you're just not letting that one stupid part control the rest of it."

"I guess I'm not. I couldn't even if I wanted to ... I wonder whether I might have to one day. If that's what it takes."

He crossed his arms. "It's not worth it."

Mugaro headed out with a group of demons, intending to get off mourning group for healing. Azazel followed, Nina close on his trail. She stayed the entire time he watched over Mugaro without saying much. The silence wasn't unwelcome after this loud day, though he had a sense something he'd misplaced something.

· · · · · · ·