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.

19. Nepsis

· · · · · · ·

September 22

· · · · · · ·

"Should you be doing this when that barrier can come down any time?" Trismegistus asked.

"This roof can come down any time and I need to see what they were doing here before that happens," she said. "Besides, Favaro is much better equipped to notice anything."

With a sigh, Trismegistus set her hands on the walls, exerting her power to stabilize the fragile structure. Azazel really had done a number on the amphitheater. Belphegor understood well enough — there were a few places in the red light district she'd tear down if they still were whole — but it would have been good if she'd first gotten a better look at this place. There hadn't been time between seeing it and getting the Smaragd Guard in, but after what Olivia had said it was more urgent. Belphegor was almost certain the strange set up was related to something to Olivia's tests.

So she salvaged what she could from about five rooms : pipes, countless magic rocks, boxes full of still living amputated human parts, countless broken vessels with fluids spilled on the ground. She'd have called for Adva and Tipa to help there, but they were busy with Mugaro's healing project. Kolraun was with her though, having an idea to let some of his plants absorb it.

The stored human parts ranged from whole arms to single eyes. Rocky came to mind, and the still unsolved mystery of him absorbing a zommorod and attaching to Kaisar, and the shards embedded in the Smaragd Guard. The phenomenon was unique to those two cases, and she couldn't for the life of her figure out what she'd done that was similar as on the island. Pure spells weren't her forte, without elements Trismegistus was out of her element. Still, something was up and they were the only scientists around. Trismegistus pulled up an empty canister, which once had iron wires through the center. Belphegor poking at it with her claws got a most interesting response : a flicker of a lined vision field dissolving into an intangible system.

"Lots of magic in the matter around here," Trismegistus said as she warped the stones below her boots. "Works well with your type too."

"It's a nexus apart from Angra Mainyu," Belphegor said. "The instruments measure and I bet whatever I'm the matron demon of can sort that out."

"Innovation," Trismegistus muttered. "That's what changed from when I had a pact with Azazel. It was ... what ... do you sense something?"

Belphegor nodded, and it wasn't a new sensation.

A flicker and sharp pressure in her mind later, unfolding against the darkest wall was the demon who had visited her before. Now she knew it was Angra Mainyu.

Trismegistus backed away. Belphegor herself could not fight the unease of the demon's presence. Eyeless, but she felt exposed like no other time.

"You want to have it, don't you? It is yours," Angra Mainyu gestured her wide claws at the room, while the walls stabilized and mended.

Cautious, Belphegor nodded. "So ... will you tell me what I am inheriting?"

"A test of the limits of the system," she said. "Our unfortunate heritage, but let me cut to the chase : you understand what a key is, and you understand what a code is."

"Is that all you can tell me?"

"I find that if we are too clear on our intent, fate gets in the way."

"We?"

Angray Mainyu answered by vanishing.

· · · · · · ·

The butcher shop lay empty and broken under the last remains of the sun; had the opposite buildings not broken down it'd be in shadow.

Supporting Burkhart on one shoulder and a bag in her other hand, Nina held the door open with her foot. They'd gotten some first aid, and Nina had argued before the haphazardly formed new court that they hadn't owned slaves or been involved with the business, so now she brought them home.

The house was broken from the war still and vandalized by Olivia's demons. All the meat was gone, because there was no stench of rot or salt.

"I don't understand why we can't just go to the upper ring," Emelina muttered as she sat down at the kitchen table.

Arguing that they were necesary symbolic hostages didn't sound so sound anymore right here, so she just said, "They'd just stuff you in a charity home, right?"

"Hmmmph. None of this would've happened if not for those damn demons."

Sadly, Nina looked at them. "Hate Olivia all you want. But please know, she isn't the face of all the demons in the world. Not all demons damned you."

"Do you know how much we suffered since that Olivia took over?" Burkhart sputtered. "The king would have every right to take back his city!"

"That's not what I —Do you know how much I and Jeanne and Mugaro have suffered from humans? Should I hold you responsible for what Charioce did to us?" she growled.

The sound made Burkhart shut up, and join Emeline in all but cowering.

"Sorry. I know you were in a lot of pain from Olivia, but it isn't the same as with the demons all across the country now," Nina said, turning her eyes down and reigning in her voice. "Just ... rest a bit."

Nina straightened the table. "Soon, Malphas will go to work on the above ground city too, but I think I can fix this tonight."

Without waiting for a reply, Nina gathered up some rubble and stacked it into the hole. Strength didn't make her an architect, so she covered the inside with a few curtains. That should keep most of the draft out.

All along Emeline sat at the table, while Burkhart hovered nervously over a pot of boiling water. They didn't touch the bag of food Nina had brought, so once she was done she unpacked it herself.

"I don't really know how to cook these so let's just make soup," she said with a smile, secretly too tired anyway for anything more complicated.

After a while of stirring in silence, Emeline asked, "So ... what are you, a dragon or a demon?"

"You know how not all gods are angels? There's even gods who look entirely human. The same way, not all demons are dragons, but all dragons are either gods or demons cause they're made of ichor. I just happen to be a demonic one. I'm not really sure what the tribe distinction does, or how it's got to do with light and dark magic. I think there's nature magic too?"

She leaned over, considering whether she could fire up the pot with breath, and decided against it. Too experimental, too broken a house, too scared its inhabitants. She filled two bowls for them before heading to the door.

There she hesitated to say, "Can I come around again?"

They didn't answer. Emeline might've muttered a yes, but Nina left without finding out.

· · · · · · ·

September 23

· · · · · · ·

When Belphegor woke early she left to patrol, but in truth, she wanted to see.

The morning after Olivia's fall brought the first quiet to the city in years. Rita's mist still muffled all sound, but that which broke it weren't cries of pained humans or fearful demons. Those with wings began to dare flying out of the slums. Divesepid went around to reanimate corpses for labor. Songs rose from the garden tenders.

The highest end of the castle loomed over the mist, but was removed far enough to be a distant threat rather that a constant reminder of pain. If Angra Mainyu lowered that barrier, this peace would be over. If they learned to dig below it or find the Lidfard mansion, it would be over. A bitter fact she could not escape, but tried to ignore, because for one moment she could believe in demons living in peace from both humans and dark lords.

That impression left Belphegor the moment she joined up with her comrades in a food hall and informed them that yes, Azazel had officially taken over.

"Wonderful, another monster from the upper echelon," Durahanem said. "I was willing to follow Dante because he was one of us, and put up with Azazel and Cerberus because we needed their power. To have them actually lead us? No way. Why don't you do it? They respect you."

It hit Belphegor like a brick there had been no form of victory celebration, followed right away with an avalanche of they wanted her to do what?

"I can't just go found a new court!" she sputtered. "Besides, what's wrong with Azazel?"

All four exchanged a weary glance before Durahanem said, "So he was the rag demon all along. Don't you think some of us suspected? Do you know what he was like all the time in the slums? The pride of the demons this, the pride of the demons that. He never stopped to talk to us, you know."

"He did start doing that recently," Adva said. "But we'd rather have you, who's led us better, and who doesn't have a history of being a most stereotypical devil with all the bloodshed that implies."

Belphegor's hands automatically went to her pockets, fidgetting with the tools in there. "I'm not really good at anything like community management. I'm an inventor."

"You were the one who took us in," Kolraun whispered. "You haven't treated us like you own us, and we don't have to be afraid of what you'll do if we displease you, which appears really hard to make happen."

"We just want a choice for once," Durahanem said. "They don't care about us, while you're so mad that you even care about humans. We need leaders who break the mold. One start. One way."

"I'm not good at any of that," Belphegor blurted out. "I'm just a scientist."

"You'll be good enough," Kolraun said. "Please. We're not powerful enough, and you are. Besides, you're on good terms with Azazel and Cerberus. They won't stop you, right?"

Adva put a hand on her arm. "Please? Haven't you spent enough centuries sciencing around? Just help us on your way so we can leave the bowels of hell like you can."

It wasn't an outright accusation, but it was right. She'd left hell alone to entertain herself, progress for herself, and aid humans while leaving demons untouched. Demons had never felt like her own people, but they were.

She took Durahanem's hovering hand, closing her claws around it in a vow. "You can rely on me to my best efforts."

Oh chaos, how am I going to do this?

· · · · · · ·

When Azazel returned to the church, it hummed with magic and song. Floating up to a broken window, he peaked in without disturbing; Mugaro might sense him but others would not.

Mugaro was at the chancel with Adva and Tipa, nur three friends hovering around. Two wrinkly men hunched on the floor in front of them, adjusting the markings on a circle using — was that the black bible? The priest kept a far distance from it, which lay on the eager doctor's lap. What kind of project was this?

Someone skitted to a halt behind him, he didn't need to turn to know it was Nina.

"What are you doing up there?" she asked.

"Watching. Last time I was here the priest fell to his knees in prayer and stayed that way till I left." He chuckled. "Typical clergy."

Nina was already at the door, yelling inside, "Hey everyone!"

"Nina!" Mugaro flew to her, hands spread wide; the mist moved a little closer. "Look, I can use the mist to see more! It can carry my voice, so people don't need to be in range of sight anymore to be healed."

"That's awesome!" she said before facing the priest. "You can skip the prayers for salvation from Azazel, Mugaro likes his dad."

"Say what now?"

Mugaro gestured at Azazel to come in. Fine, whatever. He teleported beyond the wall, where Mugaro happily flew up to him. Beyond nur, the doctor looked excited while the priest fought a desperately battle against his buckling knees.

"Azazel, will you teach me how to make a pact? Please?" Mugaro asked.

He just frowned at the abrupt request.

"People in the upper district don't have any doctors," Mugaro said.

"They'll bring in new ones. We won't stop them."

"It's not enough, Azazel," Mugaro weedled. "Please? You couldn't stand by as anyone died either, right? I'm not some porcelain thing, but if I have wards I can leave some things to others."

Mugaro with a pleading voice was worse than when it was just the sad eyes, one hidden behind bangs. So much worse.

"Clear the space," he said, which meant Mugaro would move the black bible and Azazel would move all the wooden benches to the side. After that, Azazel beat his wings to clear the mist.

Azazel stood before Mugaro. "A pact needs the human to agree, it cannot be forced. You start by linking your power to the humans using the eye of the soul, which is on the forehead. You won't be able to make a saint just like that; those draw on your personal power. You can make a hallow, who borrow from heaven's general force. They're less strong, but more efficient for your limits."

The priest looked afronted when told Azazel needed a demonstration subject for a demonic pact, but the doctor jumped at the chance. Literary, right into the boost circle Azazel carved in the floor.

He turned his hand over, made the pact, and turned to Mugaro.

"Oh, I see!"

"It'll take a few tries before you get a feel for it."

"No, I literary see! There's this change in the structure, like you borrow something. Oh, wish I could show you."

He smiled. "Some other time, you can describe it to me and I'll draw it. For now, try replicating it."

"Alright."

He snapped the pact out of existence and made room for Mugaro. Favaro was proof contracts could stack, but he wasn't about to experiment how that worked with holy and curse types.

It did take Mugaro a few tries, and some adjustment on where to place nur finger on the forehead, but ne still was indeed much swifter than Azazel had been. The ability to see magical affect really helped, apparently.

From Mugaro the pacts were just basic stuff : borrowed power that expressed itself only through the voice and eyes, with none of the traits Mugaro had learned, or even so much as telekinesis or flight. It would take longer to learn to convey specific things, something which Azazel admittedly wasn't the best at either. What he could do was either something picked up from a pattern by Trismegistus, blasts, or summoning beasts, none of which would benefit Mugaro's powers anyway.

The doctor awed at the new sight of the world, and to Mugaro's surprise much of what ne had taken for granted wasn't visible to others. Azazel stepped back from that conversation, putting himself to another task.

Scratching an old fashioned spell circle in the floor, he began to craft a new ocarina for Mugaro. The old one had been an instrument he'd enchanted, having no personal experience in what made an instrument work, but he had that memorized now. Nina came to sit by, hovering her hands near the circle with an intent frown. Trying to get a feel for this?

"If you're so into learning now, join Belphegor," he said.

"Nah, she's busy," Nina said, though her hands faltered. "Or do I bother you?"

What? No. "You can't replicate this magic, Belphegor might figure out something better for you. Why anyway?"

"Why learn? I missed a lot of time to learn anything. I'm starting to remember things from my dragon years, you know. It's so much of the same once I learned how to hunt. Eat, sleep, fight, flee, until I ran into a dragon who came to take me home. When I returned home and forgot the details, I still knew all that. While other kids could ask favors from the spirits, I knew how to track deer ... it wasn't just that I couldn't play as a dragon that left me behind."

"Is that why you started dancing?" he asked.

Nina nodded. "I'm pretty sure I'd like it for its own thing though. At least, I did. It was ... never mind."

A wall existed between her life in both forms. There was less of a difference between her human and beast self, than between Azazel and his heartless state, yet he'd only ever been one. She had raised this wall herself by living for control everywhere but where it should be. What did that leave her?

"You can dance?" Mugaro asked. "Next time me and the water girls make music, please dance with us!"

Nina shook her head. "I don't care for dancing anymore."

"But you had a whole dance performance thing in heaven," Mugaro said, already leaning into dejection.

"I had to bring the gods together, but that didn't really work so well, did it?" The unspoken lay thick in the air.

"That wasn't even your dancing partners," Mugaro said. "Don't let Odin ruin something you loved, okay?"

"Maybe when I can fly better, I'll learn to dance in the air, okay?"

Nina's fear of telling Mugaro the truth was absurd to Azazel. What did she expect Mugaro to do but look very sad? Not that he'd figured out how to tell Mugaro in his own words.

"I'll make music for you when I can sing better," Mugaro said. "My breath carries magic and the mist can carry my voice, it'll be even better once we have more control."

"You can start with what you already know," Azazel said. "Try getting your hallows to

Kicking some rubble away, he carved another boost circle. Embarassingly, he needed these for complex magic. His darkness dissolved upon the loss of his focus, unless he cast a special spell to solidify it. From this circle he forged an ocarina; the former had been build upon an existing one, but he could go by memory well enough now.

Silent he handed it to Mugaro, who gratefully took it.

As Adva and Tipa got ready to join in with voice and lyre, the priest asked, "Won't that conflict with the holy magic?"

"No, not at all," Mugaro said.

The three of them climbed onto the quire, where Mugaro set the tune of nur favorite melody. After catching on, Adva and Tipa joined in. The mists outside had become so thick, it should muffle the sound, yet this brought it to every corner. Adva and Tipa never would have heard a heavenly choir in their life, but their sound rivaled it. Or in other words, heaven wasn't that exalted. Others had merely been burried under the rocks.

Azazel pulled one of the benches away from the wall pile and sat down. Nina yawned as she sat next to him, claiming his arm to lean against.

"Still tired from yesterday?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said. "But I didn't go out cold, so it's not that bad. You know, that's a good thing that did come from heaven. Mugaro and everything new can do now, right?"

"... yes."

A child of godly and human blood atuned to demonic song, how ridiculous, and so was that he wanted nothing more than simply be here. Before Mugaro had joined him he'd killed the hours with pacing. Now, he could let down his guard long enough — the barrier remained, Mugaro would sense anyone dangerous approaching,

Arai found paper and asked Azazel for a feather to write with, which he gave, and the child turned the melody to notes. Kiprio pulled some curtains close to sleep on the ground, helped by Siem before she joined Arai. Nina fell asleep next to him. There still was a nagging little piece of pride demanding he not be anyone's pillow when he didn't have to be, but he quieted that in the same way as all the others time it'd spoken. Centuries old, but if it took mere years to wittle down this kind of pride wasn't all that worth keeping.

He wasn't supposed to consider anything to be right until his people were freed, their pride restored. But right now, things were well enough to matter. The centuries gone by were a meaningless blur he'd always rushed through, desperate to always be busy, never to be bored and find himself alone with his thoughts. All that grinded to a painful halt with the fall of Cocytus, his endless restlessness sending him into the lair of the enemy. Sworn to never rest until Charioce's downfall.

He would see his downfall, but it wasn't painful anymore to rest. It was safe enough, at this time, to just close his eyes and listen

· · · · · · ·

Rita had a regular work schedule, its interuption rare, so it stood out that today she was brought to the secret mom zone at midnight.

After she had set up a monitor display and magicians had cast barriers, a few demonic knights dragged in a shrivelled deer demon thing with its wings tied up. It could barely walk on its small hind legs. Its antlers knocked things off a nearby table.

The demonic knights were flanked by human knights, who all kept their—Huh, wasn't that Nishaol? How had she gotten here?

Oh well.

They pinned down the demon in an empty room next to the one where Charioce's mother had her loom. Rita was to ascertain whether his magic to tap into mortal minds and subtract fears and facts would be useful to monitor the progress of zombie mom.

"So what exactly are you?" Rita asked just to be congenial.

"I am hope and despair," he said.

Tough case, talking like that. While she subtracted blood, cast a few stat spells and went on, she questioned him. He was chatty due to fear and a desire to tempt her into helping him escape. She feigned interest and needled for more information, which he provided in an ancient language that sounded mostly like grumbles; the supervisor wouldn't know it even was language.

A weak demon who ate souls and thrived on despair. Olivia and Angra Mainyu found him and taught him to think differently, so he was both hope and despair. Demonic in nature, but capable of aligning with divine magic just a little to draw upon soul magic. This dissolved into rambling on themes, how demons should be about more than fear the way gods were about more than faith. Angra Mainyu had a plan, a goal to learn more, and Furfur hoped for a world of despair at the end of it. Hope only was a thing when there was distress, after all. Olivia had already gotten a lot of nice tricks, which he promised to teach her if she helped him escape.

He had such a trivial desire, Rita let him ramble on while analyzing his nature. A few hours of that had her conclude he did indeed draw on divine power to some extent. He used it for something Rita found awfully similar to what Gilles de Rais had invoked for his unique pacts. Unlike Gilles, no potion was involved. He probably really did eat souls.

How lovely. Charioce just handed her the blind spot she didn't know she had. She controlled bodies, this thing existed on the level of souls. Bodies did not need souls to function, and souls were something she hadn't yet had the chance to poke at. She wanted to, but of course, there was no doing that without giving Charioce the information.

"Do you want to possess me?" she asked. "In the most literal way. Hop over your soul? I can't break you out physically."

"Would you? You are a monster on yourself, but do you know what you're doing with hell?"

"I have a hunch."

She left the room to tell the supervisor, "I can't glean anything more from it if my current tests show up nothing. It uses illusions similar to my mist curse, which as you know I cannot actually control. Let me zombify him and I'll see what I can make him do."

After some consulting, she was told she could, but only the old fashioned way. She prepared some control circles in lieu of her staff, knelt at Furfur's side, and bit his wing before he fully understood.

Zombification set in, it was the typical stuff except for the holy feathers falling off. She stored them under a label for illusion testing, which she had no intention to ever pursue since it was bogus. The label was just to annoy whomever would be tasked with figuring out the illusion thing in her stead.

Zombie Furfur did as told, and when provided with a hapless victim was able to instill some basic mental haunting. Nothing fancy, but Rita tried to stretch it out since her real goal was taking a hold onto what lay in the hidden meaning of her spell circle.

Her first captured soul. The problem was preventing him from moving on and making him settle in a small marble in her limited tool kit. The thing in itself was just a reading thing quickly refurnished, but it'd have to do. With some luck, Furfur would be desperate enough to cooperate.

The door slammed open, and in came a strong competitor to most lifeless zombie face : Charioce XVII.

"Any progress?"

"I learned some nice things about souls, but have to go through a number of tests before I work with your dearly beloved corpse," Rita said. "Wouldn't want to mess her up when we have only one sample. Or worse for me, I revive her in a way you don't want?"

At this, he waved off the supervisor.

"If you cannot, I have little more use for you, unless you bring anything new to the table."

"The way you want, fool. I'm sure I will find a way, but you may have expectations on your mother that can't be met. How will she respond finding out you are the king now? Do you even know what she missed about the castle? The rich life? The man? The security? If you don't, how will you tell whether she is alive at all?"

"Some changes are to be expected."

"Oh? Well, it supposed it won't matter much is I bring her back wrong. You already have everything skewed here. Nobody acts like themselves when they fear you so much," Rita said. "I used magical compulsion, you use political compulsion, who cares? The end result is the same : a city of the dead."

"You sound as if you'd like to get philosophical, but don't want to put forth a thesis," Charioce said. "What do you angle for? Mine? A challenge? Entertainment?"

"Kinship," Rita said. "My current friend circle only has one mass murderer and he's abstaining lately."

Charioce turned back to her. "I have a higher goal than a mere doctor such as you, who keeps her mortal pets for her own sake, could ever comprehend."

"Ah but you see, I can grasp any view point I want. What you really mean is that I can't feel it, and therefore not live it, and that makes you superior, doesn't it?"

"I live to die a hero, you survive for life's sake with no aspiration," he said.

"And I'm going to live forever, while you'll be nothing."

"There will be nowhere for you to live, if not for me."

"You'll be forgotten in time," she said.

"That does not matter."

"Like you don't matter."

"You can say what you want, I only live for my purpose and I will meet it. You have only words where I have all the power the world can offer."

Live in the moment, except to die in a blazeof glory, dress it up with only words. Of all the dangerous things Rita had played with, this one could be the best yet. He did have all that power, and would happily die with it under his fingers. How could she rob him of it? Make him the final corpse of his reign, just to see whether she could?

The demon's soul finished transferring.

· · · · · · ·

Jeanne was already up and about by dawn, but not outside yet. Sofiel knocked to enter, which was met with a soft "Come in".

"Good morning, Jeanne. Have you slept well?"

"As well as I might." Jeanne was already dressed, Sofiel hoped she hadn't been up all night.

The unicorn laid vun head on Jeanne's lap, but Jeanne did not respond with the usual affection. A small test, to see whether she was compelled or inspired. Doubt in the divine ran strong in Jeanne lately.

"I do not believe the unicorn means any harm," Sofiel said. "At least, if my skill at reading relations is any indication. Perhaps it is not, if it is magic."

"It is not harm, but control that I fear," Jeanne said as she stood to seclude herself by the window. Sofiel considered approaching, but Jeanne spoke after a few moments.

"It falls together with knowing I was possessed and knowing heaven used me after all. The memories of killing lord Michael ... it's still there, changing from dread at myself to dread at losing control. At the same time, the more I learn of heaven the more I realize that Martinet did not lie when he told me gods have no personal love for humans."

The unicorn nudged her in the back. Careful, Jeanne ran her hand through the unicorn's mane, until she reached the glowing green horn. Her fingers hovered over it without touching it. "So I must be wiser what I have faith in."

"Is that why you limit yourself to small matters? You don't trust us?" Sofiel asked.

Almost apologetic, Jeanne looked at Sofiel. "Of course I trust you, lady Sofiel."

"I meant your goals. You free demons and preach to noblemen, when you could be a greater saint," Sofiel said. "Yet you run from heaven."

"My weariness over the unicorn is new, my caution is older. It is more complicated than I expected," Jeanne said. "I'm being careful to not overshoot. What good am I as a distant symbol when there are people dying?"

Oh, right. Admittedly, Sofiel still had trouble counting demons among people who deserved protection.

She was about to suggest Jeanne expand a little when someone appeared behind her.

"Hey, let me pass?" That'd be Arligau. How an ordinary cook became a leader was beyond Sofiel, but well, sometimes the world was nonsensical.

Sofiel stepped into the room, allowing Arligau to enter. With no regard ve sat down on the unicorn, who didn't seem to mind. "Sorry, back's old and been up all night and this critter radiates healing or something."

Ve held out a few papers to Jeanne, ownership forms and laws as far as Sofiel could see.

"Are you not spooked by the unicorn's actions with Coco?" she asked Arligau.

"So unicorns are weird, who cares. You're going to Gramgarz or whatever it's called, right?"

Jeanne nodded, at which Arligau directed her attention to two specific papers.

"There's a bunch of escaped slaves there who wanna join us," ve said. "Can you smuggle them here?"

"I will try."

Sofiel waited while Arligau and Jeanne went over details of location, numbers and routes. Perhaps Michael floated around here too, feeling just as aimless.

"Can you arrange transport for them, lady Sofiel?" Jeanne asked once all was settled.

"Of course. I have a few personal ships at my disposal. Be careful," Sofiel said.

Jeanne briefly touched her hand, before turning to the unicorn and its new gate. Sofiel waited until they were gone before she opened her own.

Heaven's nexus was crowded with gods lately. On her way to the palace, she passed Reinier organizing military equipment.

She flew across the city without escort, noting a few changes. One, not quite a protests, but there were numerous public gatherings and speeches. Bacchus was on a public platform too, very loudly telling embarassing versions of Odin's heroic stories. He laid it on thick, mentioning the good times of getting drunk together a lot. She did not contact him to avoid arousing suspicion, but planned to get in touch with Hamsa later.

And then ... what? Dim plans for a new alliance to account for Bahamut's arrival lay untouched yet in the back of her mind. They didn't even know when that would be.

When she arrived in the palace, she was summoned to Gabriel's golden lake at once.

"What were you?" Gabriel demanded before the doors were closed.

"On earth, lady Gabriel," Sofiel said, while having a look around. "I was with Jeanne d'Arc to assist her."

"And you did not bring her back? She is out of bounds, making promises without consulting us. How are humans to regain faith in us when she sets us up as trading partners? This must end, Sofiel."

Sofiel took a deep breath almost spoke her mind — that it should not, that there had to be a coalition between the tribes — but courage did not find her. "Surely you heard of the unicorn's favor? I have no desire to defy such a creature. Even its ability to form gates alone is superior to mine, ve would simply retrieve Jeanne if we were to try imprisoning her."

"That can be dealt with, but there is something else you must do first," Gabriel said. "Remove Qhispe from heaven. Quietly, and unseen. The gate for your departure is already gearing up, it should be done soon."

"I can finish it right away," Sofiel said.

"How so?"

"It's been easier lately," Sofiel said. "Perhaps it is the time I spend near the unicorn."

"That is not how it works," Gabriel said.

"Then I do not know."

The way Gabriel beheld her didn't feel right at all, a kind of skepticism that bode trouble.

Beyond Gabriel was Qhispe, floating on a platform at the edge of the lake; under Gabriel's strict supervision.

Qhispe didn't look so friendly either..

"I need a gate to my home that the gods cannot track," Qhispe said. "So how about you bring me to the ... can I get a map?"

She received the map, pointed out a mountain range, and Sofiel brought her there.

A nexus lay here, where Qhispe drew a summoning circle on the ground. It took a long time of waiting and repeated invocations before a gate flared away. Four humans appeared, shining with the magic of other realms : three wards and one hallow.

"Who ...?"

"Old friends," Qhispe said. "Though they send me new faces today. Bunch of folk who went undercover, forgotten by their demons or gods."

A man who appeared young but wore clothing from too long ago nodded. "Qhispe, right? What favor can we do you today?"

Sofiel itched to know why they owed Qhispe favors as a group, but it wasn't tactical to ask.

"I need a gate to my home that the gods cannot track," Qhispe told them. At their weary glances at Sofiel, she added, "This one's okay enough to bring me here, but to be safe, just work over there and shield it ."

"Understood. It'll be done soon," he said.

Qhispe turned full form, blocking the nexus area from both Sofiel's sight and her magical senses. Lowering her head to the ground, she spoke as soft as she could, "I do not like what heaven is becoming, young lady. You can expect to fall apart soon, you know. It's happened before."

It still wasn't sight, but Sofiel detected of the animosity towards hell now similar to how she felt about heaven. Qhispe's tribe had been part of hell once, so ... "Why did you split from hell?"

Qhispe chuckled. "You're the first god to ask that. Alright, you did come to Nina's aid, I suppose I owe you a little. It isn't just hell the place we freed ourselves from. That we simply left behind. You must know that long ago, it was dragons who were the image of terror, not your run of the mill bat winged demon. Dragons who rose from the bowels of the earth, burning like its heart, and humans feared those who could feign to be another creature the most. When the light started and armies of mooks turned to dragons, they lost their hope. That is what we freed ourselves from. We never became gods, we did not need to. We have nothing to prove to the world, only to ourselves. Gabriel understood that once, it is a shame she no longer does."

"I think she's just ... balancing a difficult time," Sofiel tried.

"She's balancing the wrong way. If she becomes too much like the first queen, we'll be enemies, young lady. You know, Arbiter Mortis has murdered over lesser impurity than ours," Qhispe said. "Oh, do I remember that. It is because of her, creatures built for the wide open sky retreated to the halls of hell. It is because of her, earth is populated by only humans, so easy to shepherd for her, and all that she needed to sustain heaven's power. Hell was the only place she did not rule. Mind you : if heaven does come to the point where we cannot live here anymore, we will not be eager to return there. We already hide so much about ourselves for the sake of living in peace."

Sofiel left her there before she had fully finished speaking, unable to bear any more foul words on holy heaven.

· · · · · · ·

Cerberus had reclaimed her old home and after a heavy redecorating, it was a lot more papery. When Azazel entered, walking meant to either knock over piles or move them. Too degrading, so he teleported to the center, where Cerberus and Borashne lay on wide sofas peering over arcane word crap.

"Where's your fluffy attachments?" Cerberus asked.

"Asleep or socializing," he said, quietly accepting the screaming demise of his dark pride. Not demonic pride. That was a different thing.

"Ah ha," Cerberus said, shoving a bottle of wine to him across the coffee table. "Sooooo what are we going to do with all these humans we have now?"

"We need Jeanne as an ally, there's no use in antagonizing her. I expect her to live up to her reputation of justice, let her handle them" He shoved a pile of papers off a third couch and sat down, ignoring Borashne's protests. The wine bottle was all he needed.

"I will bet you someone as noble as her is not gonna like that you're keeping hostages, especially when we've got a food problem. The Red Troupe has a few people they'd like to see. Friends and so on. Doctors especially."

"Do whatever you like."

Irritated, she flicked her ears. "If you're gonna be a figurehead, you should at least try to be more involved. What, can't function without a peacock throne? We can make you a new one."

"I don't need a throne, but from the sound of it you do. Probably something shiny."

She outright cringed. "You heard the talk? I'm the so called patron demon of community?"

"Matron," Azazel said. "Patron is the male variant. Woman is matron, dwoe is natron, innuw is zatron."

"Sure. What does this mean for me? There's more gods with specialties than there are demons, what's up with that?"

"I wasn't a tutelary deity," he said. "I was a Watcher, it wasn't important for us to learn more than the knowledge we were made with."

"Oh come on, you have to know something!" she weedled. "Am I going to go holy? Is there going to be a transformation? Do I have to live in heaven?"

"We have war gods. Don't worry, you're not going anywhere."

"Okay, good."

She sat back and downed a pint of beer Borashne handed her; judging from the empty bottles Cerberus had taken to his coping method.

"But why the hell did this happen? I didn't exactly get up and decide today I'm gonna learn to care for people! What in all hells! I doesn't make sense!"

"You're three dogs on one soul and you're making it work, deal with it on your own."

"But this is a matter of life and death ... in a way. I mean, what if I'm rejected by lord Lucifer? What if I manifest more weird powers?"

Azazel made sure she saw him rolling his eyes. "Whose child did I adopt again? Come complain when you have a real problem."

"Hmmph. Well, can you at least focus on the local problems?"

He was sitting here so why bother affirming? Stupid dog.

The door opened and closed. It was Belphegor's scent that told him who it was; nowadays she always smelled like chemicals, metal and earth.

Azazel hadn't seen her around since the arena, and apparently neither had Cerberus, who looked like she expected pain. She got it. Belphegor dropped on her couch with one knee, taking Cerberus's puppetless hand.

"You were amazing!" Cerberus sneered only at that. but Belphegor laid it on thicker. "You need to tell me all about what kind of magic you're using! I'm maybe new to bio magic but I need to know. You don't have the shape shifter magic, yet you shapeshift, and how does this relate to you surviving stabbings? What are the rules? Limits? How did you discover this?"

Cerberus teleported onto an empty couch to her left. "I hate it when she approves of me," Cerberus muttered. "So degrading. Stupid little human lover."

Azazel vowed to himself that Cerberus would never ever find out the reason for his fall.

Belphegor's excitement receded to a satisfied smile and she calmly claimed Cerberus's couch. "Anyway, Azazel, you were too, even with more mundane magic. I'm glad we're sparing the human citizens. So tell me, oh powerful lords, what are your plans for the hundreds and hundreds of humans we have at out mercy now?"

"Really, it just benefits me to have a functional human community around. I get power from it for some god damn reason," Cerberus said.

"Mugaro and Jeanne wouldn't like it if were were too traditional about humans," Azazel said.

"We're proud demons after all," Cerberus said. "We just do what benefits us and sometimes that means doing what benefits other people. Too."

An awkward silence fell, before Belphegor said, "Alright, listen. I know we're likely to run into other demon courts and you two have a way of presentation, but we need the demons right here on our side too. Torturing humans isn't traditional for most of us. Can you avoid trying to give the impression that we're going to? For the sake of our people, who will bear the brunt of it if we end up dying?"

"Nothing we do or don't is going to make a difference anymore. Humans already have their opinions," Azazel said. "Nina is going to play at public relations anyway, just see what she gets done."

"That is not enough," Belphegor said.

It was more than strange to hear that said so coldly from Belphegor. There was nothing leftof the starry eyed adoration.

"Then what do you suggest, hmm?" Cerberus asked.

"It's not my suggestion. Now that Dante and Eligos are gone, I'm the only powerful demon who doesn't have history of bloodshed and who are involved directly with this whole affair here. That matters not just to the humans who might have heard your names, but also to our own people. Speaking of that, why are there so few powerful demons as I am, who have reached out to humankind?" Belphegor laced her fingers to support her chin, elbows on her knees. "I'm starting to suspect there's a lot of demon blood that was shed too. We have a moderate and an aggressive faction, but no peaceful one. Were we weeded out?"

She looked at Azazel for this. He kept still, having no answer, no comfort, no assurance to share. There had been a few times Lucifer had sent him to kill troublemakers or lawbreakers, he'd never asked what they'd done.

"Why do you need to know?" Borashne asked, her first words in. Azazel hadn't even noticed she'd been silent all along; that was what lower ranked demons should do when court was held.

This wasn't an ordinary court anymore.

Belphegor continued in a softer voice, "Olivia was my first time seeing uo close what kind of things the others in the upper echelon are wont to do. And she expected the same from Azazel. In the wake of everything, I need to ask myself how safe I am. Especially given the choice I am about to make."

Azazel wouldn't let anyone kill her if it was down to him, but ultimately Lucifer made the laws. Even if Belzebuth with his tendency to just murder deviants on the spot was gone, those he'd put in power had been redivided by Lucifer, not punished. All that creed was now integrated into Lucifer's side.

"Go on," Cerberus said, ears lowered either in hostility or anxiety.

"I just met Angra Mainyu," Belphegor said. "She claims to have no intention to lower the barrier and wants me to continue some kind of research she has going."

With some technical terms, she related what she'd found. Azazel had no objections to her researching, but she wasn't actually asking for permission. Just reporting.

"I want to work on that. I'd love, it's new and complicated, but ... I need to stand for the demons of this city."

"Say what now?" Cerberus said.

"Many of them agree I should found a court for them to join. They don't want either of you."

"Then you take them, I don't need them," Cerberus said. "Weird though you're finally doing that. You've been out but never chief."

"It's not my talent or experience to manage communities. It is yours apparently. You'd be better, but ... " She sighed. "They don't trust you, and I'm not even sure I can. You once sold me to the knights because it was convenient for your pocket."

Azazel flipped Cerberus's couch over with a few black serpents. "That's not happening again."

Growling, Cerberus reclaimed her position. "It was just that she annoyed me, all she did was work on her science stuff and not help out! Maintaining what we had there wasn't easy, you know! We could say goddamn no to customers and was she grateful for that?"

"Still, no selling anyone." Azazel flipped her couch over again.

"It was to Kaisar and he wouldn't have kept her!"

Oh, now he was arbiter? "Don't make me repeat myself. You could've fired her or something."

Somewhat uncomfortable, Belphegor said, "I was rather absorbed in just inventions, but yes, let's not use people for trade. Not that I have a way to make such a law."

Cerberus straightened her couch further from Azazel now. "The laws under Lucifer, if we're keeping them, puts Azazel in as top authority. But I don't think you care for that anymore than Dante, right?"

"Found a court of your own, name it," Azazel told Belphegor. "I'll bear the so called crown, you will be my ally. If you need arrangements for your research, we can trade off something with Cerberus."

"I'm not working for her!" Cerberus snapped. "I already have my girls, I've got a few others, we're not changing that."

"Then found your own," he said. "Two shadow courts, one that specializes in ... let's see ... warriors, and everything related to their upholding. Belphegor, you gather the crafters. We'll call that the weaponry position if anyone asks for the register. I will be courtless in practice, remaining as Lucifer's right hand, but I will back you if anyone makes a problem. Be it from within the local demons, or outside."

Within. Hmm. If Dante and Eligos were willing to flaunt and openly disrespect him, there would be more. The old structures only meant as much as people would to adhere by them, but for now it was the only structure they had.

"So, what do we do next?" Cerberus asked.

Whether his lack of experience, or the by new well tread tendency to make stupid mistakes, he wasn't right. The idea of lining the humans up and getting a good look at their fear was the first to come to mind, not anything more sensible, or useful. In fact, he'd happily slaughter all the slave traders, arena staff and whatever lords had gotten caught up here. But that was the area where keeping allies happy wasn't a jest about demonic pride being upheld. He wasn't going to go after the average population, but them ... would be hard to abstain from.

"Belphegor, you're in charge of passing sentences on the humans," he said, much to Cerberus's whining disappoinment, and his own. "The Smaragd Guard is already in your corner, right? Keep them close during the trials and let the humans see this isn't a war between tribes."

Belphegor had never looked at him like this before. So utterly devoid of adoration, but at the same time, she had actual respect. "I will."

He sat through a good three hours of discussion on city management and justice, hated every second of it, and didn't complain once.

· · · · · · ·

September 24

· · · · · · ·

Cerberus had started dividing up demons by what things they had experience in, including those owned by the company she'd once been hired by. Nina tried to find any of the demons that had worked alongside her once, however involuntary. She owed them an apology.

Those whom Cerberus hadn't sent elsewhere already were, to Nina, a crowd of strangers. She didn't recognize a single face, and if she had to be honest, she couldn't even call any to mind. They'd passed in and out of her sight without enough regard to be remembered.

On the plaza before the once broken tower, Al Miray stood on a platform, reading a proclamation from Cerberus.

No leaving this part of the city. Follow directions from demon overseers. Be careful with fire. There were plans in the work for tunnels under the houses, everyone should be prepared for this.

Humans who hadn't owned slaves or otherwise were guilty of crimes were free to go within the barrier. Those who had commited crimes had the choice between being locked up, paying back to the former enslaved demons on whatever way was requested, or become wards of a demon and work for the new court. Demons could also contribute a debt that humans owed them to the courts, putting those humans before the choice of 'community service'. Cerberus was fairly creative with those, usually making them something utterly degrading but not lethal, and adapting to how bad the human had been. A few were outright put to the same work they'd inflicted on others before.

Nina didn't mind, though she worried what Jeanne would think if she came here. For better or worse, Jeanne had considered herself fully responsible for murdering millions once and didn't really believe in punishing herself for it; at least not externally, who knew how much guilt she'd been stabbing herself with during prayers. She might think everyone should just be let off to prove themselves, or think it was too severe, or something else. She hadn't asked for retribution from Azazel either. Then again, maybe for Michael had been the deciding factor. She could only guess.

It was kind of ugly business, in a way that Chris forced her to consider. That he was the only man on earth who had complete control of his choices put it in a strange perspective how many others didn't. For all but him there was no clear line, just a hazy sliding scale. Azazel had also had plenty of choices and made the worst kind, with the things that changed him having not been choices. A lot of chance that put him in a position where someone like Jeanne had enough reason to believe him a better person.

All that stuff was too complicated.

In any case, fate was a total dickbag. Leave that for later. She couldn't solve Chris right now, but she could solve a little bit of the problem with the city. If they were just supposed to give the illusion of hostages, then the danger of leaving the webs in place needed to be far less.

After going through the documents Cerberus now kept in her home, Nina made her way to the guildhall of the construction companies, which really was more of a convergence of several guilds ranging from painters to plasterers to brickmakers — with the frequent ruin that the Orleans Knights wreaked, there was always need to be ready.

The guildhall now had an open roof now. Inside was a humbug of demons who testified, a few humans who argued, and way too much talk for Nina to keep track of. Azazel stood on had been an upper floor once, sporting a blank look. One could read all sorts of ominous things, Nina just got boredom.

She waved at him before scouring through the crowds. Nobody she recognized, so she asked someone paper savvy. Those she looked for were a few houses down from the guild building. These houses had been ordinary living spaces, partially destroyed in the war with the gods, now ruins filled with humans awaiting their fate.

When she entered th designated room, they didn't greet her.

Smiling weakly, Nina approached her former fellow workers. "Hey guys."

"Nina?" Athias asked.

Stefano pushed through, and others she'd been close to approached as well.

"Can you put in a good word for us? I mean, we only did our jobs," Stefano asked.

"I don't know, there was a lot of whipping going around."

"Look, we were just following orders, it was the company who owned the slaves. We're just hired help."

"So was I, and I was pretty shitty back then. Wanna be thought of better, you have to prove you're worth it."

"You always were a demon?" Athias asked.

"Half," Nina said. "I'm not really sure what it even means, though, but yes. I denied some of it for a while, but I am a dragon running on hell magic."

"We've been waiting for judgment all morning. Why us? Does this have something to do with you?"

"What? No! We're focusing on the housing stuff cause there's so much busted from the invasion. In fact, that's why I looked you all up. Wanna help?"

"With what exactly?"

"An underground city, or at least houses all of stone that don't catch fire so easily," Nina said. "You'll just have to become wards. Come on, take it, it'll mean you ge a pass from the trials."

Under muttered anxiety, she brought them to the main guild hall and told them to wait outside.

"You think just asking him is gonna work?" Anton asked, casting a weary look at the dark figure atop the broken wall. Azazel had his wings out and did a fine job at ominous gargoyle in the mist, very looming and just as unlikely to drop down and attack. He was inspecting his nails right now.

"Don't worry, I have experience with that guy and will approach this with utmost finese."

Nina launched herself up the walls, flew across the missing roof and hung on Azazel's arm. "Hey Azazel, do me a favor?"

Cue slightly irritated side glance, "And what would that be?"

Good, he wasn't too prickly. "I know some people who can help us with expanding the tunnels and fixing the houses everything. Malphas has help, right? I'm vouching for that group over there."

Nina pointed. Said group cringed at Azazel's attention, and all around now stared at them. Azazel took a few seconds, but then called, "Malphas!"

Pretty soon, she jumped up to the wall. "Hmm?"

"Nina found you wards. Follow her."

"Ugh, I told you I'm not —" Azazel got the snakes out. "Fine, lord."

The growling indicated it wasn't fine, but Nina wasn't gonna be picky today and led Malphas to her group.

"This here's Malphas, who's protective of her name so just called her Saphant. You can become her wards and get neat magic."

Malphas grumbled something below her breath and glared.

Anton managed a nervous grin, Athias had lost his glasses and could only squint. Stefano had his arms crossed and stared, while Sallador couldn't stand still. Gosing of course was muttering under his breath about how little he trusted this.

"You want me to give them power?"

"I used to work with them on construction, they'll have an idea what to do, promise," Nina said. "And they're just your run of the mill racists, not the ... uh ... "

That might not sound as encouraging, going by Malphas's increasingly disgusted look.

Nina pushed Stefano forward. "Anyway, that's the past. We can make this work today, right?"

Stefano forced himself to hold out his hand, which Malphas lightly shook before she said, "I'll give you a light pact first to see whether you are reliable. Don't expect it it make work a breeze, don't play with it, don't overexert yourself. You magic will work at once, but your skill with it takes time. You listen to everything I say if you don't want to, say, crush yourself to death or turn your bones into mud."

"Okay, just so you know she's one of those demons who go really hard on the ominous reputation, cause hell thought they only get stronger through fear, but we learned it doesn't have to be fear and she's about to discover she's building themed!" Nina declared.

"It'd be architecture, not buildings. And that's not even close to a mental state so don't count on it."

Nina folded her hands. "Can you at least try to be less scary?"

Malphas rolled her eyes. "I can. Don't expect it to work."

She beckoned the humans to follow her to a room, which they did with dragging feet.

Well, that could have gone worse. With some luck, Malphas would like the results and they could fix the city sooner.

Upon returning to the slums, a cloaked figure stumbled at her. "Nina!"

She pulled up his hood and found Marcio, looking scarcely better than in the arena. He had a few new wounds, poorly bandaged.

"You should get to Mugaro for healing."

"I ... I can't.

"Why not?"

"Because that child is close to the rag demon. To Azazel! Who checks in regularly. What do I do if he sees me? Gods, I handed him over to Charioce." He grabbed Nina by the shoulders. "Is there anything I can do to soothe his wrath? You're his friend, right? Tell me what to do!"

Nina was tired of explaining everyone there was no danger, so she simply said, "Cake."

Marcio blinked. "Cake?"

"Yep. He really likes cake."

"That's all I have to do?"

"Actually ... there was a lot of torture. Absolutely horrific torture. And then the king forced him to slaughter his own people. So maybe it should be a lot of cakes. I get there's not much ingredients, but maybe you can learn to use demonic plants?"

"Cake. Right. Got it."

Nina clapped him on the shoulder, grinning. "It'll be fine, your stuff is great."

That done, she had nobody left to visit, and no more work to do.

Save one thing perhaps. She got some blank paper, ink and a feather, and decided to write to her mother. The letter might not get sent, but it'd help her sort out her through. Nina told her where she was, how she was doing, how her friends were doing, but she couldn't get it over her heart to tell her about Chris. There wouldn't be enough room anyway.

And truth be said, she wasn't sure her mother was the best confidant. So many years spent smiling and pretending nothing was wrong began to feel like a living lie.

· · · · · · ·

Belphegor was centuries old, had been through a lot, and only now was nervous. Well, there had been a few times before — sneaking out of hell for the first time, young stuff really — but this was so mundane. Go talk to some humans.

They weren't chosen humans. She hadn't found them by their fame or by prying through schools or slipping into monastaries. Worse, none of that had mattered. She was always a shadow in the night, a muse without a reputation of perfection. That all was so easy compared to now, where she had responsibility. Chaos, she didn't want this, she wanted to go back to her discoveries and at the same time, she didn't want to because that would let her friends down. Her demon friends. Which she had now. Could she even call them friends if she was their court leader too? Oh who cared, she got to make her own rules now.

She couldn't screw this up.

The leader of the Red Troupe, Sarvo, was a stern middle aged man with red hair. Also at the table was Augustin Cluysenaar, whose attitude had radically changed now that he was a hallow of El Mugaro. Mostly changed anyway.

John Oagburg wasn't present, having remained in the slums to work. He was obsolete anyway, because the actual leader of the White Rose was Alex Schoraf, a fairly insignifigant doctor of the upper ring whom had little medical skills beyond traditional herbs, and so a lot of time and a lot of connections with alternate minded people. His scrawny farmer look helped the 'not important' charade too.

Felicia had decked the table with the kind of fancy tea and biscuits befit to a lord of Kaisar's standing.

"Cerberus won't be here today." Belphegor quietly took the empty chair. "I am Belphegor, a lady of hell on my own terms. I once was an ally to humankind and have had no part in the violent legacy of Cocytus. I never have, and I will not begin now. A number of those who have pacted with me remain alive, and I invite them to come forward, provided your king has not killed them."

"Right," Sarvo said. "So, what are your lord's ideas about that legacy?"

"Well, I stand for a new court composed of demons who never agreed with the ways of either Belzebuth or Lucifer. Hell unfortunately relies on a structure of physical power, and I was not around to be there for them when I should have been." It was out before she caught herself, but she could seamlessly picked it up. "I will be there now, so, we are always in need of food and medicine."

"Hold it." Alex held up a hand. "Belphegor, right? Sarvo, can we get that checked out?"

Alex shook his head. "The king had scrubbed clean the history books of any unsavory elements, including any mention of demons doing good. Info on her won't be in Anatae. Any exceptions like you are lost to the records."

"I am not an exception!"

At their affronted frowns, she lowered her voice. "Sorry for that. You must understand we have a delicate situation with the government of hell. It's only been ten years since Belzebuth is gone, and Lucifer is—"

"We don't care for that," Sarvo said. "We need to know what will happen now. Are you aware of the Black Troupe? They are on the move lately. According to them, heaven's holy child has stopped making appearances. The running theory is that they're testing a superior enhancement weapon, like the first ship of the attack. The Black Troupe wants to be prepared to take over the city when that happens. We will be ready."

"They've been in contact with you?"

"Obviously!" Sarvo said.

Not obviously, for all Belphegor knew it was a rumor, but she let it pass. "What would you have of me?"

"There is a lot of family in the city, you will hand everyone on this list over in exchange for food and certain magic."

"We can arrange that, and ... how would you feel about a preliminary attack? Charioce holds hostage a powerful sorcerer who will be to our benefit." Belphegor faced Alex. "You have heard of Rita, right?"

"John once worked with a girl powered by hell. You are certain Charioce has her?"

"We have our own insider in the castle," Belphegor said. "This one will help us free her, but we could use hiding spaces between the castle and the barrier."

"Hold it. Rita is a good doctor perhaps, but what is she worth on the battlefield? Why wouldn't we have heard of her before?"

"She is neutral," Belphegor said, and decided to be a little dishonest. Rita being paid with stolen material wouldn't go over well. "At least, until Charioce provoked her. She was part of the rebellion."

"Did she summon that dragon?"

"No, she handled the zombies."

The mortified silence that followed this said enough; Alex being the only one aware of Rita's occassional zombie servant softly shook his head. She shouldn't have said that?

Belphegor spent the next three hours doing damage control because by chaos, did humans have strange and conflicting ideas about sacrifilige and dead bodies. And grossness could overpower strategy. It did not help they talked over her all the time, and she had to repeat more than a few things. Following up on that were a dozen demands on who would return in what way.

An agreement was reached only tenuously. They were about to wrap it all up, already in the hall, when Azazel emerged from the kitchen.

"Belphegor, one of the Smaragd got complications, go there as soon as you can."

An icy silence settled.

"You are still working for him. I see," Sarvo said. He closed the door without making a next appointment. What little lenience had existed in the others melted away, so Belphegor was met with steelier faces than even when she had entered.

At that moment, she couldn't take it anyway. Whipping back to Azazel, she snarled, "Out!"

Centuries of well trained reverence to the elite kicked in a few seconds later, but she had to manage the situation. So she repeated it. "Out, Azazel."

He glared, but the only thing he pressed was the door he slammed.

There wasn't much else to say after that. It didn't convince the men she was in control of anything. The best she could do was hope it didn't blow up.

· · · · · · ·

As the unicorn emerged from the portal, Jeanne found herself in the gardens of the Valerian royal castle. A cluster of holy magic was here curtsy of arriving gods and heavenly ships, and unfortunately that meant they ran right into Reinier.

This was his first time directly seeing the unicorn, so he froze on the spot. Rather than fear, wonder fought to be on his otherwise controlled face.

Jeanne approached him with a polite but distant greeting, and they went through some routine formalities; inquiry on welfare, state of affairs, and a lot of conceal displease. All along, the unicorn grazed next to them and Reinier wouldn't take his eyes off of vun for long.

"The unicorn will not harm you, if that concerns you," Jeanne dared.

"It may do so indirectly, if you corrode the order further. You have taken quite some liberties," he said stiffly. "To what purpose, if I may ask?"

"The defeat of Charioce, the liberation of the demons, and peace between the three tribes," she said without missing a beat.

A dry recital of the facts everyone already knew. His real question she could only suppose to be something else.

She wondered whether gods could ever be ... well, forward and direct wasn't quite the same thing, but perhaps more expressive. They were so occupied behind their display of superiority, she had a hard time guessing what they'd do beyond it — Odin had been a nasty surprise.

"If so, perhaps you want to meet one of the greatest allies of the king. He has requested aid that you could arrange." He sounded like he swallowed hot poker saying this. "The king has request I introduce you."

Jeanne nodded, so Reinier brought in a young nobleman with a bright face.

"Lord Magnus von Essenbeck," Reinier said. "This is lady Jeanne d'Arc."

"So pleased to meet you," he said with a curt bow.

"Likewise, lord Essenbeck," Jeanne said. "To what do I owe the honor?"

"I to represent a group of aristrocracy from Teutoiskas and surroundings who are displeased with the king's choices," he said. "We've been laying the groundwork for a coup. Several of the aristrocracy is already in our corner, we have an insider on the movements of the Onyx Knights, and there appears to be a fair amount of loyalty still to you among the Orleans Knights."

Jeanne struggled to keep her smile discreet. There were humans opposed him all along. Elation came with bitter regret that she had not tried to oppose Charioce before the loss of her child.

"If you wish for my support, you have it," Jeanne said.

"Then please follow us."

Reinier excused himself at once, which wasn't helping Jeanne's plans to talk to him and the others in private.

Jeanne and her unicorn were led to a factory within the military complex, which contained countless smaller rooms centered on a wider hangar.

A single mecha stood in this hangar, concealed from the senses using the power of Dromos. Pieces of levitating rock were anchored all around, the likes Jeanne knew from heaven and the smaller kinds from within the typical mecha. The minister informed her that they'd brought them from Charioce, who had harvested them from hell. This was before Valeria had loosened the ties with him. They could have brought them for transport reasons, or maybe they'd been thinking about rebellion for a longer time than her arrival.

Right now, they had plans of creating new mecha, as opposed to relying on the ancient ones that sometimes were found around the world. The head scientist just came down a ladder.

A silver head wearing glasses had Jeanne expect an old man, but up close he appear in his middle ages. His dark coat was adorned with countless metal that radiates power she couldn't quite place.

"This is our head scientist, Paracelsus," Magnus said. "We were lucky for him and his centuries of knowledge to join us."

Paracelsus gave a quick bow before facing her with anticipation. "Lady Jeanne, perhaps you can help me. I had a pact with a demon not too long ago, but it appears he died. I would greatly benefit from another one that enhances my ability to manipulate matter. It saves so much time, you see, when experimenting on how to improve while relying on welders and wirers. I tried a few demons, but under the current circumstances none are strong enough to link to hell. Perhaps you know any who can?"

"First, was your ward master Azazel?" she asked.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, he was."

"You abandoned him in the fight against Charioce, did you not?"

He held up his hands. "I'm sure this sounds very untrustworthy, but it appeared the humans had the upper hand for once, so I took the chance and bailed. Merlin and Athos joined the king, I didn't, but would I stick with Azazel? I like my pact and its benefits, but Azazel was not exactly good boss material."

"Understandable," Jeanne said. "I will see whether lady Mirin is available , she is at this time the only powerful demon in our faction. May I ask what you do here?"

He stepped before his mecha, gazing up as he declared, "These automaton are ancient technology that we humans just barely understand. We power them with spells beyond our grasp, relying on demons or gods to provide broken parts. I have found out that the way Charioce empowers them with these so called zommorods, invokes a unique source. One that can bend matter on its own. Through this, we might make these our very own from scratch."

Turning back to her, he added, "You have heard of the rumored hand over Anatae, no doubt?"

"Not merely heard, I have seen it in action," she said. "It shapes at the command of a unique master, Charioce himself. The Onyx Knights bend no matter, but I suspect their armor is made of the same black material. The green power itself is something more difficult to explain, even as I spent years working on the crafting of zommorods."

Paracelsus might as well jump out of his skin with anticipation. "You could help us craft controllable zommorods?"

"No, but I might be able to help wield what you have. I have a way to ward off its infective properties. That will come in handy no doubt for who ever controls that automaton."

"Amazing," he said. "Is that also why your child has such a resistance to it? We were going with the theory that it had to do with humans heritage, but perhaps not."

"Why do you think human heritage?"

"During my work while still having a pact with Azazel, I discovered that even though my powers were of hellish origin, they fared well against the zommorod power. Demons stronger than me did not. I proposed the theory that the zommorods aren't actually that much more powerful, but exploit a weakness somehow."

She met Sofiel's eyes, but didn't say it. Sofiel surely thought the same : if Jeanne became a saint again, she might just be immune. ... had Sofiel already considered this?

· · · · · · ·

September 25

· · · · · · ·

"Nina, would you do me a favor?" Belphegor asked. "It's about presentation."

Of course she could, and so Nina ended up in the Lidfard mansion to carry around bags and being a shining example of spirited friendliness. With some effort she managed to keep a smaller version of her wings out, making it clear to any of the humans coming in how not a force of dark and gloomy evil she was. She didn't really feel happy, but it'd be okay to pretend again for a moment. Besides, there was no need to fake friendliness in itself. Just the smiles.

Kaisar was pretending to have his mansion renovated with the increase of his salary, curtsy of saving the king's life and being promoted to Onyx Knight, and everyone he "hired" were Red Troupe members. The garden around the house was just large enough to conceal to passerbies that the workers didn't do much. Stefano sat by, now pacted with Malphas, allowing him to do the actual work much more easily — that there was work to be done at all was also a display of how harmless demonic magic was.

Belphegor's friends had asked her to improve the reputation of demons, from what Nina understood. Azazel and Cerberus with their body counts and attitude wouldn't do. He stayed very far, and even Cerberus only sent Mimi out. Nina made a point of carrying the tiny dog around and reminding people he was a demon too.

She played with Tasro, helped Felicia in the kitchen, and listened to their stories, and reconsidered the happiness she had seen in humans when she first arrived in Anatae. For some people, it was as artificial as her own.

Those moving into the upper district would have to go into hiding, she was told. There was no way to explain their return and the authorities would arrest them for being an accomplice to demons. Nina knew all too well what would happen after such a sentence. Whenever someone passed by from the lower district who didn't take that so serious, she told them how she'd been treated as an accomplice of the rebellion, and of Jeanne and Rachel and everyone else, and swallowed the rising bile at the memory of running to Chris for help.

Standing by as his knights knocked her out, that's all he could do if he wanted to preserve his so called integrity, which was easier to call reputation. The second time they'd met there, a simple disguise was enough for her to not be arrested even as he recognized her. She wasn't sure how to call it betrayal, even as that word started to creep into her mind more and more, when her cover was so crucial to his decision. Could he get away with his reputation? She had him in her power? If not? Then she would not get away. A sacrifice for his convenience.

He had set up all these rules and now played against himself in being near her. To him she wasn't really a player anymore than the old woman shuffling into the arms of her daughter were, or the young man reuniting with his parents, or the lone old man who had no relatives to meet him, just weary friends of the resistance with whom he exchanged little words because he wanted to get back to work.

They'd been at it for years, small pieces to resist the king hoping to be a pebble in an avalanche. Spirits, she'd been so ignorant. She had thought herself just one of the humans once, the dragon stuffed away and the demons not her kind.

· · · · · · ·

At the end of a day of reunions, Belphegor went up the stairs. Her old room remained as it was, still a makeshift laboratory. Since Olivia's defeat and taking up court leadership, she hadn't had time to clean up till now.

Soon she stacked the last of her tools in her backpack, and that was it. She struggled to find room for a few tools, her pockets were full, her backpack was, and she'd already pulled her hair in a bun just so she could stick a screwdriver and a few wires through it. She could make multiple trips, but she wanted to be gone as quickly as possible now the other side of the barrier was somewhat safer. And she was about to make a target of herself.

The door slammed, and soon Tasro darted into the room. "The scary guy is back. With the weird hand."

Indeed, Kaisar had hauled himself into the house at long last. Rather than armor, he wore elegant formal coat and yet looked like he was in rags. It was the paleness, Rocky didn't look so out of place anymore.

Quiet, Belphegor entered the room, waiting for him to finish drinking.

"You're the only one who is here?" he asked when he noticed her.

"Things are a little tense with the Red Troupe right now," Belphegor said. "More than usual, I mean."

"You're going to the slums?"

"We no longer need to fear being caught there, so of course we're moving out. There are few experiments I want to conduct that will be too noticeable for here anyway."

"Are you on board with Azazel keeping the hostages?"

"Technically, yes," she said. "We don't control the barrier, and it's caster is unreliable. If it goes down, we don't want Charioce sowing death right away. Don't worry about the webs, they're just for show. We will survive, humans included, Kaisar."

For once, he swallowed whatever rambles he had about perfect behavior.

With a heavy sigh, he said, "Merlin wants to help the resistance break Rita out."

Just to launch into a different kind of madness.

Belphegor just shook her head. "That is so obviously a trap I'm not even going to bother reporting it. Why would she even do it?"

"She hasn't told me, but she believes Rita is some kind of threat that fate wants removed alive. She wouldn't go into detail, but has since delivered me this."

He produced a paper with ink that only magical eyes could read. It told of a royal ball and the location of Rita within the castle.

Hmm.

"The ball means security around the king is heightened, but they'll still be spread fairly wide. Merlin's aid would be needed to get to Rita ... The timing of the ball isn't an indicator of a trap, especially not now the king of Manaria is here."

"I'll talk about it with the others. Have you talked yet with the slaves whom your beloved knights keep?" Belphegor asked.

"I ... I've been kept busy with the Onyx Knights and royalty," Kaisar said.

"If nothing from the inside, you must hear more from the outside world than we do. What is Jeanne d'Arc to you now?"

He gave a wry smile. "Everything could have been, I suppose."

"It's not too late yet. You still could be, and so could I."

Surprised, he looked up.

"I could have done so much more for my people long ago, now I can only catch up. You'll see in a few days, or hear," Belphegor said.

"You know, I don't think it's Rita or Azazel who's the weirdest enemy I've gotten along with. Azazel called me out for failing to be a knight, but you're calling me into being better."

"But will you? Let's say we go to the palace to free Rita ... how big is the chance we'll also be freeing the demons enslaved as cannon fodder for the Orleans Knights?"

He took too long to answer, and she said, "No plans on short notice, right? Or is it a bad time because of the army? Some other excuse?"

He sighed again. "One day, we may have room to talk about something other than this kingdom's failings. Until then, I'll tell you what I can about it. I'll be in touch."

· · · · · · ·

Back in hell, Azazel's job was always to break up already existing fights, not to prevent them by being there. This now gave him an awful lot of time to observe just how afraid people were of him, on both sides. There was some fun to be found in that, but not much anymore. He'd rather spend time with Mugaro, which he did whenever their free hours coincided — he didn't entirely trust Cerberus's idea of safety for the child.

Azazel waited for Nina near the exit of the tunnel to Lidfard's mansion, from hence she launched herself soon enough. Right past him so quick, like she couldn't go through tunnels anymore without running. He caught up anyway.

"Hey, Azazel!" She slowed down a little, turning her backpack to him, then the bag in her arms. "Look at all the stuff Belphegor got us! Cerberus says she was swindled, but I dunno how, there's so much more food! Wanna have a picknick or something?"

Going by what Nina used to eat it wasn't much at all, but whatever. They picked up Mugaro at an empty sickbay, took along nur three tiny friends and found themselves an empty cave with a river, because Nina insisted Mugaro had to show Azazel something from class.

This turned out to be levitation, as Mugaro whirled Siem, Kiprio and Arai through the air. A few seconds later, it clicked.

"Mugaro. You were the one who brought me far enough from the Onyx Knights."

Mugaro nodded, a little ashamed. "I couldn't go so far, but luckily Belphegor was around so I asked her to carry you the rest of the way. I'm sorry I kept it from you. I ... I wasn't sure what you'd do if you knew."

Before Mugaro mattered so much to him, he would have taken nur straight to Helheimr. He couldn't blame Mugaro for the silence.

"It's alright," he muttered.

"Hey, has anyone caught you up yet on what a mess the first rebellion was?" Nina asked Mugaro.

"No. I heard a little, but not much." Mugaro looked eager, but Nina hadn't asked because she was eager to talk about it, rather to test the waters on what Mugaro knew it. And her damn thing with Chris. Don't dwell on that don't dwell this was a terrible place to get nauseous. He wasn't here, she wasn't going anywhere ...

"It's a bloody story," Azazel said. "It won't teach you anything good, unlike what I'm about to tell you on telekinesis. What did you learn in heaven?"

Bloody little, it turned out. They'd focused on Mugaro's anti Dromos power, so Mugaro was limited to exploding a thing or two and lifting specific masses. Dexterity and endurance were neglected, even though ne had no trouble keeping nurself in the air and clearly had talent.

Azazel hadn't ever been in the mood to think deep about how this worked, but boil it down to function and flight magic had to have the same roots as telekinesis : they both were used to move masses that otherwise couldn't move. He did use his wings to lift himself but steering was their main function.

Mugaro actually managed to move nurself without wings, though it took considerable concentration. He tested it on his own, while asking Mugaro to see how long ne could lift other people or objects while floating. Perhaps ne wasted power that could be used better, lengthening nur endurance. Perhaps it was just youth.

Nina sat by watching in fascination, but didn't join. That was kind of annoying.

"Nina, give it a try."

"Uh ... I think I need my wings for that." She unfolded her wings and let Mugaro lift her, trying to hold herself steady in one place. Slowly she drew her wings back in.

"I got it!"

"Nina, can I let go now?" Mugaro said. "I'm getting a little tired."

"Eh?" And she fell like a brick.

"I guess not." She stood up, rubbing her back.

"That'll bruise," Mugaro said, already at her back to heal. "Not that I mind doing this, but I won't always be around. Can't you just turn into a dragon and then back to heal that?"

"I don't know how to ignite it yet. It still needs an extra push," she said. "Hey, Mugaro, maybe you can try healing that? I mean my transformation block."

"I can't heal that," Mugaro said with a sad head shake. "With wounds, I look at the imago of the past : how it used to be. It's more difficult if someone say, lost an arm in their childhood. That arm will be too small to regenerate onto their adult stumpt. But arms are arms, and I can just get the general shape right. But you're a hybrid, I have nothing to compare. I don't even know what to look for, since I never met any dragon of your kind other than you. I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Nina said. "Besides, I know how to keep my mind now and I can get my wings out, so maybe it'll get better on its own."

"How? Maybe that'll help me understand," Mugaro asked. "You didn't do that before, I wondered already."

"Jeanne taught me how to channel energy away, Azazel how to control my wings," Nina said. "There was a pact with the wings, I think the imago stuff was there too, but I'm not sure what Jeanne taught me is called. You know, you mother's really good with the magical stuff, she learned on the job just like that. She even could keep Dromos from infecting her. Oh, have you looked at Rachel and the others yet?"

Azazel wan't interested in any of that, but tried to keep up. It didn't last long cause Nina was lost on the technical stuff too. Mugaro was dissapoint, but decided pretty quickly to see whether ne could teach nur friends to levitate without their wings. Nina passed on this, because she wanted another lesson on how to actually break rocks. Azazel settled for that with a shrug, might as well figure that out first. It wasn't like they were in a hurry for anything. Probably.

Angra Mainyu hadn't shown herself since Belphegor. He didn't trust this, but had little choice but to wait it out. And spending time with Nina and Mugaro was better than boring city management.

The way Nina tried tearing into rocks was almost obsessive, unlike the first time she'd done this. Not once did she make a game out of it or challenge him.

"Is there a point to this other than beating yourself?" he asked when he was pretty sure she'd broken a finger.

"That's okay. If I get imprisoned again somehow, I need to be able to get out much quicker."

Oh, that's what it was about it.

"You're not gonna start breaking out there with bleeding hands. We're taking a break."

"But—"

He pushed her food bag in her face. "Right now."

Mistake. Nina now had the entire food bag, and instantly ransacked it for her favorite parts. She did sit down to eat though. Azazel would have stood by to glower, but Nina gave him a look that made him feel like he was being silly for that. Fine. He sat down.

After Mugaro came by to heal her hands, Nina said between chewing, "So, what is hell like?"

"Fiery, dark, dry around Cocytus. Dank, dark, wet around Hades. Not sure about the rest."

"That's not what I meant! What do you love about your home? I adore the trees because they're so beautiful and powerful and the way the homes are built is so cozy, there's a nice creek where you can find gems ... you know, all the stuff I showed you."

He had nothing but the pride of hell, which didn't look like anything. Nothing but Lucifer had mattered.

"So no particular home to get back to? Where will you go after this is all over?" Nina asked.

"I'll go back to hell and rebuild Cocytus," he said. "And the lands around it."

Whatever that was supposed to mean. How did one even build land? That's what had been in the wish list stuff the old rebellion had written. It sounded logical to Nina though, who said, "Do you have spirits in hell? You should look into getting them to help you."

"Haven't got a goddamn clue," he said. "Not if you mean the kind you've got in your home. I couldn't even see them."

"I can't either," Nina said. "But there's ways to interact with them anyway, and I bet others knows more about that. You know, I bet Belphegor will find out. I heard her talk about scholarship or something ... say, what about Mugaro? Ne can maybe see what you've got down there?"

He kept quiet, and Nina figured out on her own why, "Ne can't go to hell, right?"

"It won't be safe there for a long time. Ne should live in heaven, that's where ne and Jeanne belong."

Nina gave a wry sound he couldn't place. "Even after what Odin did?"

"Unless that one takes over," he said. "But I'm betting my cards on that pink one putting her foot down some time."

Just hopeful thinking, because he had to consider it now. If they defeated Charioce, he and Mugaro would have to part ways. Hating that thought, it was time to derail."What about you?"

Nina pressed her lips together. "I don't know. I still wanna get some more money for my mother, but is there even going to be a bounty hunter system? I don't think heaven wants to pay me anything after all that, and Bacchus and Hamsa are still imprisoned. I hope they're okay, but I can't help them right now. You on the other hand just dodged the topic. What is it about where Mugaro is safe, hmm?"

He had nothing to say, so of course Nina went on.

"I get not wanting to send nur onto the battlefield with Merlin, but there's ways to block gates and teleportation, right? Don't you know anyone in hell who can do that?"

There were a number of spells too, and Lucifer had a record of whom that entailed, but he didn't even know anyone to ask.

"Come on, what is it?" Nina poked his arm. "Is this about Lucifer again?"

Mugaro had gone off further with the other kids, far enough to not hear. Still, he kept his voice down when he said, "There should still be a sizable army in Helheim. If I could convince lord Lucifer to make a move ... but I'm not sure whether saying Dromos is still too burned out to be used will enough."

"And you won't tell him about Mugaro? Ne would do it, you know."

No question, but then what? He should, for the sake of the demon tribe. Just one child a little in danger, right?

"Lucifer can be ... unpleasant when he doesn't get precisely what he wants and how he wants it," Azazel said. "And he would not be easily dissuaded from what he plans to do."

"So, we're not doing it?"

"Never."

"Good." Nina stood up, flaring her wings. "Then you better get me to break a rock, cause I need more up me sleeve if I'm going to be better at protecting Mugaro."

He smirked, and scooped up the nearest rock in exchange for leaving the fretting behind. "Only if you're less boring about it than just now. Catch!"

· · · · · · ·

Cerberus had a delightful time hopping nexuses all the way to Helheimr, what with all this power. It was like hell had never fallen. Halfway through the journey, she found a network of nexuses active. Using those was easier since it didn't draw on her power, if a little slower. She used it anyway out of curiosity, an active network meant conference of the tribes. Once inside Helheimr, she teleported right up to the sanctuary, but no further. Didn't want to offend Lucifer, so she let a servant conduct her in.

There was indeed a conference. Central to the hall, Lucifer towered over all on his throne, as usual slumped over and reading. It was still the same book. Grigori, Amaymon, Saleos and Bifrons had gathered as befit to them, but there were to others as well.

The fallen angel Mirin, and a white haired demoness with horizantally curled silver horns, in a cloak of silver blades. Even her black leather wings were pearlescent. Mammon, the demon of earthly riches. From what Cerberus had heard, she hoarded useless rocks and metals that stupid humans craved, using it to distort and seduce them. Like Belphegor, she had always technically been a stray of hell.

"Ah, Cerberus," Lucifer said. "Why are you here?"

"To discuss the potential for a conquest of Anatae, my lord," Cerberus said with a deep bow.

"We've covered Jeanne d'Arc's actions just now," Lucifer said. "You can bring something new to the table by reporting that Olivia at last deemed herself fit to join the circle?"

"Olivia?" Cerberus said.

"We heard she is in Anatae, right?" Saleos said. "They say she has a powerful ally casting a barrier, but I would bet that the humans sat ran themselves out on the zommorods. Though, she hasn't made further moves, has she?"

"Olivia is dead," Cerberus said. "We now control the lower ring of Anatae."

"Why?"

"We're pretty sure she was planning to replace Belzebuth," Cerberus said. "Absolutely everything she did was hostile to both humans and us! She tried to kill me over and over until Azazel returned to Anatae."

"Hmm," Lucifer said, but the others had more to say.

"He left and went back without checking into Helheimr? What happened?"

"We heard of Olivia's actions by now, of course," Grigori said. "She's mad, taking over part of Anatae."

"Is it true Azazel defeated her?" Bifrons asked.

"Yes," she said. "With help, mine included. I ate her not too long ago, want me to cough up some pieces?"

"... no. Not in front of my books," Lucifer said. "Write up a report of how exactly this occurred. There are a few rumors about Olivia's power that do not add up. Especially not that barrier, who can uphold such a thing as the rumors say when hell as fallen?"

"Uh ... well, we're not sure why, but ... Angra Mainyu. She's in Anatae."

"Pffffft. No way," Grigori said. "Why Angra Mainyu bother with a shrimp like Olivia?"

"Olivia wasn't a shrimp anymore," Cerberus said. "She—"

"You can write all of that in your report, which you will write in Anatae, including proof Angra Mainyu is there," Lucifer said. "We have more pressing matters. That holy child has a range. The gods clearly don't know how to organize a proper assault, but if we had that firepower combined with the right ground work we could win without relying on humans."

"Attempts to summon him into our grasp have failed," Mammon said. "The Essenbecks even got an expert holy summoner on it, with no success."

"Silly you, you can't summon people you don't invoke right," Mirin said. "You don't even know whether the child's really a boy like humans say, how do you know the name's right?"

"Indeed," Lucifer said. "Jegudiel is the name of a long dead angel, I suspect Gabriel gave it as an honorary title. However, has Jeanne d'Arc not referred to the child as El Mugaro?"

"Attempts to summon through any variation and combination have failed," Mammon said. "And since the child has not been seen for many days, there is the potential he died."

As the others speculated on whether the gods were just trying to hook the child up to a better warship, Cerberus clenched her jaws hard. Tell Lucifer, piss of Azazel. Don't tell Lucifer, piss off Lucifer. Two high ranking, powerful fallen angels quite capable and willing to retribute.

Lucifer hated deceit. Even a small instance would be met with pain, something like withholding a super weapon crucial to the liberation of the demons would be like treason.

Azazel, the way he was now, probably wasn't going to murder her for it. Practically speaking she should betray him instead of Lucifer.

"Cerberus, speaking of the Essenbecks having one of Azazel's former wards. How did he get this one?" Lucifer said. "According to Mammon, this ward was experienced and hails from eons ago, and why did Azazel break that pact?"

"He went to heaven, its defenses are down. I can't answer the other question, as I don't know which ward you speak of. Azazel had a lot of wards, some of whom he broke pact with due to them going insane, others due to betraying him."

That last one got a deep sigh from Amaymon, and an eyeroll from Grigori. "Of course."

"The ward is called Paracelsus," Mammon said.

He'd vanished. Probably lost his pact when Azazel had died, rather than have it broken by him as with Athos and Merlin, but how to explain the not dead anymore part without mentioning Mugaro?

"Oh, him. I'm not sure what happened, I wasn't around for the rebellion, but I'm pretty sure he ditched us."

"Paracelsus speculated Azazel had died, since he left him with the pact so long," Mammon said.

Cerberus just shrugged. "I didn't talk with Azazel about any of that."

She hadn't needed to. Please move on to another topic, please move on ...

"What is it, Cerberus? Is there anything else?" Lucifer asked pointedly.

Oh crap he'd noticed.

"BelphegorandIsplitrulershipofthedemonsmoreorlesslikecourtsandthereasonIhavenoproofaboutAngraMainyuisbecauseIletBelphegorhavehaveallthemagicsciencestuffandIcantwritethatreportshehasto."

Lying to Lucifer. What was she thinking?

"You two started courts without permission?"

"Azazel approved!" she blurted.

"I see. We will handle the legality of that later, after the conquest of Anatae."

"As you wish, lord Lucifer. May I be informed of said conquest?"

"Naturally, since you will be expected to be part of it, whenever that may be," Lucifer said. "I won't be much."

"It may hope, I've done enough fighting against Olivia alone. Which will be in my report."

Mirin giggled. "No, no, you don't have to join the attack. Valeria and the Black Troupe are going to do it for us. Since humans can resist the power of the zommorods, they can take the brunt."

"All we have to do is ensure that after that happens, we will be the ones to walk away with Dromos and its control core," Mammon said. "That may need some ground work ..."

· · · · · · ·

September 26

· · · · · · ·

When Belphegor showed up at Cerberus's mansion, Borashne at first tried dissuading her from entering. Cerberus had just returned from a long journey and was tired, but Belphegor spotted Mimi about and looking nervous. So, she turned it into a formal court visit and demanded to be seen, on behalf of knowing whether anything dangerous was going on. After all, Cerberus wasn't supposed to leave.

Incense was thick in Cerberus's quarters, but the light was dim.

"Cerberus? Belphegor's here being official," Borashne said.

There was just blurbed growl as answer, stemming from a darkened couch.

"I'll leave you to talk." With that, Borashna made herself scarce.

Belphegor approached. Cerberus held something in her hand, which she snatched it closer to herself. Too late, she'd recognized the tool.

"Who are you making a gate nexus for?" she asked while sitting next to her. Cerberus didn't even move away, but didn't answer either.

"As your ally—"

"Shut up."

"I'll just be louder if you invite trouble later."

"Fine," Cerberus snarled. "There's going to be an attack of Anatae to overthrow Charioce, by humans. Lord Lucifer want to turn my hill beacon into a full out gate, so so demons can come in unseen. Lucifer and the other courts want to seize Dromos, and a few of the old tribe leaders plan to come through and seize control of the demon population."

Oh yikes. Belphegor's opinion on Lucifer ran neutral to cold, and the first thing he acted on not being an underground escape route for the freed slaves, but this?

"If we purge the city and take Dromos, all will go back to the way it was," Cerberus said. "It might not even be that different from the way it is now. Or, I could be stronger and keep my court. Say, when you were in hell to get stuff for your bomb, what was it like?"

"The cities were ruins, but the plantlife thrived. We were in the realm of Hades too. The Styx waters were as powerful as ever, even as the city lay abandoned. I do believe there's truth to what Olivia said : hell itself isn't weakened as a place. Just its people."

Cerberus sighed. "All this power untapped ... and all I have to do is embrace being a matron demon of something silly?"

"It's not silly!" Belphegor snapped.

"Oh, I'm sure this sounds great to you, you mush bowl. It's scary for me, okay? I have to start acting on it to get the most out of it. What if I change so much I'm not me anymore, or what if I wasted centuries being someone I'm not? Either way, I'm losing most of my life. Do I have to learn from gods about love now?"

"It'll only be good for you, and many others, if the humans see you in a better light."

She growled. "But I'm supposed to be scary. I'm a demon."

"If you wanted to be that kind of demon, you would not live your life in three cutesy bodies," Belphegor said. She had a whole rant about how other demons didn't want the reputation she gave them, but had a feeling that wouldn't help Cerberus right now.

"Oh, you don't get it. That's for contrast, and to have something of my own. I like torturing people, you know. But ... I know I'll have less targets once I change enough that humans become like, well, persons to me. It's not there yet. I can still back out."

And Belphegor also reigned in a passionate plea on the benefit of not being a total monster, and kept it to the small facts. "You got Nils on his feet and founded a place where sex slaves could get better treatment. You're not entirely without well, ... mush."

"That's different! That's ... that's ... oh, to heaven with it." Cerberus threw the beacon at the wall, where it shattered. "Why did I have to be community themed?"

Belphegor sat back, quietly measuring her next words. To Cerberus.

"You don't deserve it and you owe me some very nice equipment for selling me ... but I'll be here if you need me. Let's say that I'm being practical about keeping my allies functional, alright? The way you've always done."

"That's a really stupid thing to say." Cerberus growled, but her ears remained in their harmless droop.

"I'm trying to—"

"You can't say you will be in the future, when you're sitting here already being mushy."

"And so are you." Belphegor chuckled. "Welcome to the ascent."

"I hate you ... so, were you lying to Borashna about court business, or was there something else?"

"Actually ... yes. I hesitate to bring it up, but Kaisar told me something very interesting. It may just mean we'd have the option to expand our forces without invoking Lucifer."

· · · · · · ·

Cerberus called conference every day at her whim and expected Azazel to show up. She wouldn't have had the nerve a decade ago, but that was then, and so was him ignoring what anyone but Lucifer wanted. Didn't make it easier. She also called upon Favaro, Mugaro, Belphegor and Nina this time, but didn't call on her own sanity, because she wanted to break Rita out of the castle.

"Merlin's on board, so is Kaisar, but we need to deal with the Onyx Knights. You know what is bound to draw the attention of both the knight and the security forces?" Cerberus said, eyes already on Nina.

"I say we don't have this meeting until everyone showed up. Maybe Coco has your sanity," Azazel said. "I'm fine with getting Rita out, but not at the cost an attack on the castle would bring."

"I wouldn't deem this worth it at all if it wasn't good old Rita, who can make us an army out of the enemy." If she was a cat, she might have purred.

"Get lost, we now know why Charioce didn't betray the Lidfard house right away," Azazel snapped. "He's lulling us into false security and plans to draw us out. He knows he's at a disadvantage if he meets us at the barrier.

Cerberus wagged her fingers. "Ah ah, we got sources. According to Amira, absolutely no preparations of any kind are being made, nobody talks about it, and the only thing Merlin did was bring in an old dragon from somewhere. Amira's pretty sure Merlin has her own plans, loose of Charioce."

"Yeah, we ran into this green forest dragon ten years ago," Favaro said. "He's where I got the barb of Bahamut that I used to defeat Bahamut. He'll do whatever's important for the world's survival, loose of any other powers. If Merlin allies with him, we can consider it."

"Great, the castle is now full of enemies that Nina doesn't have a convenient resistance to," Azazel said, slowly getting irritated because Nina didn't say anything.

Mugaro flared nur wings eagerly. "But that's okay! Azazel can deal with those dragons, and I can just knock out the entire city's range of Onyx soldier and throw in a few of the wyverns and ships. I'm here now, they don't know that. We probably don't even need Nina. "

"I'm sorry to say, but you are not actually all powerful, you're exploiting a weakness of Dromos just as Nina is," Belphegor said. "Now he has Merlin and a zombie dragon, you're in danger. It would be better if we keep you hidden for an emergency."

"Why is Merlin such a problem anyway? I don't think I even noticed her during the attack," Mugaro asked.

"Merlin is capable of creating portals," Azazel said. "The last time you were in Anatae with her as opponent, you were high in the sky with an army and a boosting warship around you, while she was on an undead mount she had difficulty controlling. It won't be like that now. The moment you turn your power loose, she will be able to track you. In the best case scenario, she opens a gate right behind you and comes through with a blade. In the worst, she summons you to her. Your name is now known across the world."

"Gabriel's called me Jegudiel, but mother's called me El Mugaro. Does that matter?" ne said, though nur voice already faltered in excitement.

"We don't know, but it's not a risk we're taking. You already disobeyed with Olivia."

"But I want to help!"

"You can once we dealt with Merlin," Azazel said. "Not before that. Understood?"

"I'm much more immortal than any of you. I actually came back from the dead, I'll be fine."

Azazel froze and stared. "When?"

"Possessed Nils stabbed nur," Cerberus said. "Chill, Azazel, it was my idea to go out there. I was sick of Olivia, and of you being so overcautious."

"Overcautious?" Azazel snapped. "Mugaro died!"

"And I was there to cut up the slack," Cerberus said, before turning to Nina. "Your call, girl. We just need something that is bound to keep the attention of the Onyx Knights for an hour or so. There's a ball soon, if we take that time you will be highly visible but also untouchable because they won't want to start a fight with investors and a foreign king in the room."

"No. This is absurd, a perfect target means—" Azazel started, only for Nina to slap a wing at him.

"I will do it," Nina said. "And I should. If he doesn't betray the Lidfard house for my sake, then it's a good bet I've got other leeway. We need to use that."

She kept her eyes on Azazel, silently daring him to say no with all the weight and horror of Charioce's regime behind it. Knowing he had enslaved both of them set a stark reminder he couldn't just go and try to control Nina now. Not just because that never ended well, but also because ... well, he'd be like Charioce. Control over negotiation and mercy any day. But what was he supposed to negotiate about?

He hadn't ever felt his utter lack of convincing reasoning or clever alternative ideas so deep.

Across the next day, Belphegor handled the communication with Kaisar, who in turn passed anything to and from Merlin. For this Merlin appeared in Kaisar's house through her portals. Everyone else was supposed to hang back, but ready to rush in for a fight.

That set Nina and Azazel in a tunnel room together.

Before anyone else arrived, he closed the door and leaned against it.

"Why?"

"It's cause of destiny and Chris," she said, that daring flare still in her eyes. "And I'm curious what's up with Merlin too. Favaro said she acted strange and Angra Mainyu let her in. It's like she's a piece of puzzle I need to meet before I understand Chris. What to do about him, I mean."

He also hadn't felt his utter lack of answers to the world, or his past victims.

"You did something awful to that woman, didn't you?" Nina asked.

"Yes."

Nina waited for more, so he said, "I broke her will to follow fate and deny her demon heritage, just to see what would happen. She proved so much more than that when she rallied against fate itself. I didn't even believe in fate at the time. Yet, she lost the power of prophecy, failed to do things on her own, and there was a price."

"There's going to be a price if Chris brings Bahamut to this city. It's not just for Rita that I'm doing this, but also because I have to learn more. I'm no longer the only one with a resistance to Dromos, so I'm making myself useful in another way. Didn't you go to Anatae despite having no hope to win, just because you had to do something? It's the same, and you actually got somewhere to."

"Right," he said through gritted teeth.

They waited in silence, long enough for him to fret over whether she'd tell him everything about Charioce right away, whether she was planning anything particularly stupid, whether she knew at all what she left in her wake by throwing herself at Charioce. The damage it could cause to their new rebellion, or just to Nina herself.

He wasn't one to condemn sacrifice anymore. He'd never done that outright, knowing full well he'd lived and would have died for Lucifer, but almost every case of sacrifice he found amongst humans and gods alike had felt trivial and stupid. To him, most had appeared like hollow constructs based on empty nobility, a performance to exaltation that wouldn't get one's soul anymore, nothing like his own prideful devotion and admiration of Lucifer. They always wanted something for themselves, he'd been so sure of it.

Now the obvious answer within Nina's certainty could be that she wanted Chris, but she also wielded that desire, and the death she might get at the end of it was no less real for it. He was out of judgment, and realized he'd never known the laws to begin with.

The bottom line was though : Nina was throwing herself at Charioce willingly, a fact he couldn't just fight by blowing it up. A whole new kind of helplessness.

· · · · · · ·

September 27

· · · · · · ·

Cerberus being in charge of community became a pain very quickly. Azazel was drummed out of bed by Cerberus, who insisted he go solve a dispute between Malphas and a ghoul master on how to employ the now useless amphitheater ruins. She wanted there to be housing (no doubt with herself at the center), but the ghoul master had already started planting his seeds. The latter had an alliance with Belphegor and bla bla bla urgh this was so frustrating. Back in his old castle, there was no quabbling like this, everyone just did as they were told. By his court master. Were there actually no squabbles, or had everyone been too afraid of him— aaand there he veered back into the past. That got him nowhere.

He didn't have the faintest clue what to do about either his people, or the inevitable fact he'd gotten closer to heaven than in a long time. He was somewhat dealing with the former by keeping the distance they wanted, but heaven? He'd have to face that somehow through Mugaro and Jeanne. It'd not be pretty, no matter what, even if he didn't die again. He wasn't going to forgive heaven for Dudael's existence, and they wouldn't forgive him for being the scapegoat so willingly. He'd have to have an opinion beyond that soon.

That confrontation with heaven just didn't quite take on the form he expected when Mugaro approach him shyly, with that specific pleading look that indicated ne needed help.

"What is it?

"It's a bit weird. I hear prayers much better when people are close, and they know my name."

"And?"

"It's Augustin. You know, the priest. It's really kinda weird," Mugaro said. "He's a nice man, but he keeps praying for forgiveness for sinful thoughts. He thinks a lot of the demon ladies are pretty and that's bad for some reason? They look weird in his mind too."

Well, that was a new kind of problem, dammit. "Tell me where he is."

Azazel found the priest at work in his office, teleported in and whacked him on the back of the head. "Are you mad? Mugaro is seven! Stop putting horny crap in nur head!"

The man shrunk into a bundle, slipping off his chair to grovel. "I'm so sorry and ... what?"

"You're praying to Jegudiel, right?" Mugaro asked.

"Uh, yes?"

"Those prayers go to Mugaro. Jeanne only has one child, nitwit. Mugaro, tell him it's not a sin."

"Heaven practices polyamory and there's no taboo for falling in love with the same gender, and there's four genders. Some of the gods are very not nice about falling for demons, but since you're allied to me and I say it's okay, you shouldn't be treating it as bad."

"Uh ..." was all the priest managed.

"Go have an orgy for all I care, but stop bothering Mugaro with it."

Mugaro followed him out of the room before asking, "What's an orgy?"

"Adult stuff," Azazel said through gritted teeth. "Later. Much later. You go ... hey, teach Nina how to pray."

"I'm a little busy with figuring out all the healing things. Why can't you teach her?"

"I never was an angel who was prayed to," he said. "Just a watcher. We oversaw the stability of earth and reported, that was all."

"Okay. Is that something you'll also tell me about much later?"

"... yes." He got a smile out at that, not so much about what he had to tell, but that Mugaro cared to know. Gods never cared to know otherwise.

· · · · · · ·

Whenever she had nowhere in particular to be, the unicorn always brought Jeanne back to the mining town. It hadn't been an agreement, nor disagreement, it simply happened. Usually she arrived to silence, but now it was to turmoil. All of the town was about and humans cleared the roads for both carriages and airship. Still enslaved demons were about to haul parts into the mine.

Reinier stood atop a boulder, passing directions to underling angels and ignoring Arligau and Mirin behind him.

"Lord Reinier, what is happening?" Jeanne asked.

"The government of Valeria has agreed with me to host the Black Troupe's invasion efforts here," he said without looking up from his screen.

"Why would that need to happen here of all places?"

"We shall use the mine to organize this," he said. "And the presence of demons will adequately explain a sudden shift in magical energy. They might as well work along, right? It's for their own good."

"You're making them slaves again?" Jeanne spat.

"They will be paid."

"They didn't come here for this work, you're still forcing them to it."

"It's okay, miss Jeanne," Mirin said. "The demon tribal court has approved it."

Arligau hadn't said a word the entire time, and looked not one bit thrilled to be part of this. Ve just shook vun head at Jeanne when she was about to argue.

After the meeting dispersed, they remained behind.

"I'm sorry," Jeanne said. "I wasn't able to do better for you all."

Arligau just shrugged. "The lords of hell have been screwing us over for centuries. At least we're not slaves anymore. Technically."

There was no joy or even relief in vun tone, just tired resignation.

This all wasn't good enough.

· · · · · · ·

Sofiel's life had become rushing between heaven, avoiding Gabriel and still get her work done, and arranged an increasingly elaborate social project on earth.

Search parties for El Mugaro turned up nothing, which was fine. Rumor had it that Azazel had taken claim of the lower city of Anatae, which was not fine. If that was true, El Mugaro was almost certainly there.

On top of this, when she met Bacchus in a private room, he dumped troubled news on her.

"Odin wants an inspection of Gabriel's past governing activies and insight in her running the war with Anatae," Bacchus said. "Say, why didn't she retreat the moment Dromos appeared?"

"That was El Mugaro's decision," Sofiel said. "Lady Gabriel did order a retreat."

"That is not going to go over well, especially when the kid ran off with two demons," Bacchus said. "Gabriel needs a better excuse."

"El Mugaro is Michael's child and ne is telekinetic, that should ... oh, who would care? Facts hardly matter anymore, do they?"

Bacchus shrugged. "If we draw this out long enough without Odin achieving anything, maybe I can pin him down as a fool like me. Gabriel has ages of stability to her name, if she can weather Odin he'll end up disgraced for trying to challenge her."

Sofiel shook her head. "You're not a fool when you're not drunk, and neither is Odin. We can't play the long game. Se ... Charioce might intend to fight Bahamut. We don't have time for heaven to stabilize, and we definitely don't have time for Odin to throw everything into chaos."

"Come again?"

"Bahamut. Jeanne personally confirmed it, and lord Michael's spirit ..." she trailed off at Bacchus's stunned expression.

Time to update him, then. That didn't take as long as she'd expected, as he not only was sober, but also quite familiar with fate's game. He'd been an asset to it, after all.

He told her in turn a little more of his involvement with the rebellion. Well, little as far as useful strategy went. Most of the people were dead, but she learned quite a bit about Bacchus and why he got involved with demons; apparently he even knew Azazel for the past ten years.

"You know, I might've suspected the kid, but I never pursued it. You know why?" he said at one point when Mugaro came up. "I got exiled for falling in love with a human, and learned that I got off easy because of my old status — I can't just dissappear as the god of wine. Not much of those around, but I could be disgraced. Lesser names get lesser kindness. Simply put, I wouldn't want an innocent kid like that to be made one of you, especially not a nephilim. Some of your laws allow you to be devils, you know."

Frowning, she waited for an explanation.

"Have you heard of Dudael?"

"In name. It is a closed prison on earth."

"Huh. Closed. I guess. Anyway, if you get to Anatae ..."

He went on about tunnels, but Sofiel found it harder to focus.

Whenever she worried, the desire to be near Jeanne and her confidence increased, and she'd gotten better at sneaking off. After seeing Bacchus to his 'job', she took on human clothes and opened a gate to Valeria.

Jeanne would be in the middle of a refugee operation. Valeria didn't officially take in refugees and was in fact prone to ship any "stolen property" back to its friendly neighbors. Jeanne had arranged for a warehouse to host demons feigning to be slaves before routed onward. From there on, they moved to a nearby forest at night.

At dawn, Sofiel waited aside of a trench, unpleasantly isolated with the word devil on her mind. Bacchus had strongly implied there were laws itself that were questionable. The way the laws were executed were a problem with the likes of Dione, sure, but actual laws? Dudael? What did that have to do with Mugaro?

A line of cloaked figures appeared; Jeanne leading them. They plowed through the low water, heads down until they reached the shadows of the forest. Jeanne paused for a moment to smile at Sofiel, before plowing on.

On a whim, Sofiel plucked some of the honeysuckle lining the forest's edge and wrapped it within a handkerchief. Jeanne helped the refugees climb out of the trench, quietly assuring them the goddess was no threat. The quickly slipped by her anyway, to be met with demons who had already made him in the forest.

As the last one slipped into the safety of the forest, Sofiel helped Jeanne out of the trench and laid the gift in her hands.

"I'm told of the lady's favor to knights," she said. "Though I do not know whether the practice still stands, and I imagine they were given for less practical reasons."

Jeanne sighed, not weary but relieved. The flower she set in the brooch of her cloak before using the cloth to clean off her muddied hands and face. That done, she stored it in a pocket. "Still, a favor given is to be kept, my lady. Would you add in whatever weighs on your mind?"

Sofiel briefly entertained and discarded, the notion she should portray an untouchable air like a true god. Jeanne didn't need that.

"You noticed?"

"How would I not, when you are here alone, with no purpose and contemplating human customs?"

"A few matters do. Qhispe told me of the exile of dragons, and of Arbiter Mortis, and their eventual escape from hell. They are a people driven to escape the war we fight. Now it appears heaven will have to break apart too. If I become one of the new archangels, I must uphold the laws. For now, at least. We cannot afford such a breakage now, and ..." Now, she was straying into dishonsty here too. Untouchable wasn't the only thing. "I have understanding of what kind of leadership I should give, but only within the law. You go out of bounds so much, Jeanne, throwing aside convention as easily as the wind blows. Maybe your smaller actions mean more indeed, because I'm getting nowhere in heaven."

"I would not get anywhere alone," Jeanne said. "We'll find a way to salvage heaven."

The absolute certainty with which Jeanne spoke of heaven as a broken thing to be restored tore at Sofiel in a way she couldn't name. Jeanne almost might have said Sofiel herself would have to be salvaged. It shouldn't hurt that way, she only meant heaven, but heaven was Sofiel's life and blood.

· · · · · · ·

September 28

· · · · · · ·

When Kaisar passed the tunnel, he expected the same slums now more darkened and demonic. He wasn't wrong about the latter; the buildings were taller and streets had turned to tunnels, but everything ewas warmer and more colorful. Honestly, he should've realized that the purple gloom was just an Azazel thing.

When he arrived, Cerberus already held council.

"He wasn't followed," Favaro said. "I'm not sure whether that's gonna last though the moment he signs Nina on the guest list."

"We could employ Allesand," Kaisar said. "He is beyond suspicion."

"Who?" Belphegor asked.

"Are you out of your mind?" Cerberus said. "My precious bigoted hayhead who tried to murder Nina once already? Why ever would be trust him with anything? You idiot. Allesand likes the way Charioce runs the kingdom. I had to blackmail him on his reputation to reign him in."

"Allesasand has always been a devoted knight, if we get him to see the need to defy his majesty for the sake of the kingdom—" Kaisar tried.

"Do you even hear yourself?" Azazel snapped. "Still calling him majest after everything he's done? Why should we even trust you?"

"Face it, darling, your precious fellow aristrocrat boy is a murderous twat who thinks about two things : his glory, and how to get in Jeanne's pants. Now, Dias might be loyal enough to you," Cerberus said. "Prone to talking about you in a reverent way, and he always made sure to pay us well. We could just trigger Nina and drop her in from above now she can fly, while Dias guides the king to safety in the opposite direction ... maybe we can even set a trap to chop his arm off, get the bracelet and Rita in one swoop. If we just put Mugaro to—"

"No," Azazel said, to which Cerberus shrugged. "Not with Merlin around."

"Merlin is on our side," Kaisar said.

"No, she's on the king's side and just wants Rita out," Favaro said. "We're not going to change the plan last minute to rely on a trigger happy racist."

"Allesand is dedicated to the cause of the Orleans Knights, which ultimately is the welfare of the kingdom!" Kaisar sputtered. "Sure, he's been a little too zealous sometimes, but—"

He got no further as Azazel slammed a pot over his head. "Should we be trusting Lidfard's brat at all?"

"Right," Cerberus said. "Maybe we should try to have Trismegistus mould herself to look like Dias. Or Walfrid if the voice is a problem."

Kaisar tossed the helmet. "On my honor as a knight, I will not betray you. Honestly, you should know better."

"He did ditch the knights once to help Amira," Favaro said. "We'll just have to go with it."

· · · · · · ·

The evening of the ball arrived with rising tension. Mugaro had to be suspicious by now about why they were sending Nina, but when Azazel went into the tunnel, all ne did was hand him a few white feathers.

"They're my own. For Nina," ne said. "I can't do tricky enchantment, but they'll glow and can stop bleeding. Be carefull, all of you."

He ran his hand over Mugaro's head. "We'll be."

Hahahaha. Ha. Yes, they would be that. Sending Nina into the castle as diversion. The height of carefullness.

There was a long line of increasingly ludicrous things since the fall of Cocytus that refused to stop escalating. Really, it shouldn't at all faze him that now they were dangling Nina before Charioce calling it sound strategy just so a few men with rocks in their chest wouldn't stand around a zombie. All of them except oblivious Mugaro were completely on board with this on Kaisar's flimsy word that Merlin wanted Rita removed from the castle alive.

And god dammit all, Nina just went along with it. like it was nothing that she threw herself at Charioce.

The mansion was quiet, save for Kaisar complaining loudly about how Favaro got his clothing wrong. Trismegistus passed by without a word, but Belphegor pointed him at Nina's room.

When he opened the door, he might've let go of the handle a little too late and kind of tore the thing apart.

Nina all in blue and veils and frills raised an eyebrow at the splintered door piece. He threw it over his shoulder.

"Is everything alright?" Favaro called from down the hall.

"Don't worry, teacher," Nina yelled. "A door fought an epic but tragically doomed battle against Azazel."

"Azazel! Do you always have to ruin my stuff?" Kaisar called back.

"Yes!" Azazel snapped, but his attention was on Nina glaring at him.

"You are so lucky you didn't do this earlier. Really, Azazel, in what world is bursting in when a lady's with her dress a good idea?"

Oh, this was a dressing room.

"You left an hour ago and you're still getting dressed?" The thing didn't even look that complicated. Some marine thing with ribbons.

"Felicia helped out actually. I had no idea formal wear was so complicated to get into, and all the make up. It's a lovely dress though, right?"

"No." There was nothing lovely about Nina gift wrapping herself for Charioce, so he held out the feathers and didn't look anymore. "From Mugaro."

"Ooooh, that'll go great with the white lace! Hold on, I think there's a nice pin here to go with it. You might as well stay, I need some help getting this veil on," Nina said.

She pulled her hair in a small bun and waited for him to hold it up. This was absurd. He wasn't her maid or anything. What was she thinking, asking him to do this?

Azazel ended up with his claws in her hair anyway, fighting the temptation to tear off this charade and ruffle it back into its usual assymetric mess.

That done, but with her turning around with an enthusiastic "All set!" he hated it too much to just let it be.

"Are you going to do more than just distract him?"

That broke the joy in exchange for sadness so quickly, he doubted outright saying he didn't trust her would be worse.

Did he even have a reason to trust her, just because she was willing to talk about Charioce? Chris. Her damn boyfriend despite goddamn everything. She probably didn't hide anything. She probably didn't have any intentions of doing something stupid. But she had done so already without premidation.

"I can only promise you I won't do anything that helps him. I won't risk anyone's life."

Was this how she'd felt when she'd worried he would end any innocent lives afterward? The same fear of betrayal ... Chaos, how did they get to a point where he had to worry about her jeopardizing innocents? What ... ugh. He didn't know. He hadn't actually spent his centuries doing anything complicated, him reading people was limited to obvious scenarios that were liable to draw his attention from a distance, the actual inner lives of people were often beyond him. He could guess at the impact of greed, nobility, sacrifice, and simple people like Favaro could catch him off guard. His knowledge of human minds — or any, if he had to be honest about how alike demons and humans could be — was that of long experience and experiment without any inherent talent or development. All he noticed was patterns.

There was no clear pattern to fit on Nina. So driven by feelings and thoughtless, attention to only details she favored, breezing past the rotten while a dragon raged below her skin. She wasn't complex with deeply thought out motivations or goals, just alternating between wild and sweet, simple as that. She'd called herself not safe, true in more ways than one.

He needed to say something, anything, to make sure she'd not fall to Charioce. Something that would keep her alert, but he had nothing. He didn't even understand what she liked about him. Safe? How could he still be that to her after all she learned of him?

His silence got awkward, so Nina turned away and it felt like he'd lose her, so he pulled her back by the shoulder. "You can't do this."

Nina only blinked. "We've been over this already. I'm not trying to get anything but his attention this time, I can't fail that at least. I may not be able to control the dragon, this I can do."

She could barely fly straight even with her wings out, but that wasn't even what this was about. "Can you resist him?"

"I am not that much strung up by butterflies, you know," she grumbled, before she added more softly, "The kids in the slums, he made a ball for them but then he just wanted to go home. He doesn't want to change anything about the way he rules. I try to hard to contrast those small kind things to all the pain he's caused."

That he caused her specifically. Didn't she even realize that? Charioce would know exactly what he'd done to her. Azazel could do nothing but stew in knowing why it was so delightful from Charioce's side. And goddamit, Charioce was about to own her again.

"You sound like ... like ... this is serious. I've seen people like you before who play with the fire. I pushed them at it." And had no idea how to pull them away. "He is ... "

"I know he's dangerous, but the one thing fate gives is that he isn't very enthusiastic about killing me. I know, I've test this."

"He has ways other than bleeding to break you," Azazel said. "He is a master at where I was mediocre at best."

"He hasn't tried to break me either," she said.

"Gods dammit Nina, he kept you as a slave, you tried to bury you alive on that island, how can you wave all that off? Do you have no pride?"

Startled, she stepped back.

Shouting at Nina never worked. Not wanting to leave, he sat on one of the chairs, stubborn to wait for something without knowing what he wanted. Other than her to get a good reason to drop the whole stupid plan.

Nina was strange, calm like that. It didn't fit her.

"You're afraid of him, aren't you?"

It took all his strength to push back his pride and even then he couldn't look her in the eye when he said, "I am."

There were more kinds of fear than just the kind that made one wimper and flee with tail between the legs. Another kind did the opposite and sent one hurling at the danger, just for a chance to save someone. That wasn't just rage, as he'd have said a mere ten years ago, when to him such had only looked like anger over some thing that belonged to one.

Lucifer in the wake of Bahamut's destruction, Mugaro under Olivia's shadow and Nina into Charioce's arms.

"It's okay," she said at last. "I know all the evil he does. I wouldn't be tried to rally heaven to fight him, even if I gave him a pass on one thing."

"You can't feel it though," Azazel spat. "Or you wouldn't have been able to stand him near you."

Her eyes lingered to his left, on the scars down his face. They'd expanded to his throat now.

"You said the marks of Charioce's actions will never go away, so your snakes weren't scars from that. What were they?"

Just a breaking point. The zenith of grief or whatever else, he didn't know any of that spiritual crap. "It makes as little sense as whatever else changed about me. That's not important."

Nina reached out to the scars on his face, slow enough to see whether he didn't draw back. Tch, as if he needed to be handled with care.

"And these?" she asked softly.

Despite himself he leaned into her palm, and she smiled and nothing was right.

"I don't know all he did to you, but I can see more than just marks and a ruined arena. Don't worry, okay? Maybe I care more easily about people I know, but there's more than Chris. I won't forget Mugaro and Jeanne and all others. I can't forget you. As long as my mind is my own Charioce will be my enemy."

It wasn't just that, it was ... what it was like to be owned by Charioce. She was about to stand at that abyss.

"You're ridiculous." Surprised and maybe dejected, her hand dropped. He caught it, just to let go. "You don't even worry for yourself. You don't want me to get myself killed? What about you?"

After a pause she said, "I do want to live, but so do others. I can't be careful all the time, right? You're not either, so trust me tonight, and I'll trust you to bring me out of there. Last time, Amira helped me out and Jeanne knows already, but no one else can know."

He nodded, wordless when silence wasn't enough.

"My real name is Ninati Navrátil."

· · · · · · ·

Kaisar Lidfard had a carriage of his own, but had to hire someone to drive it, having not used it for years. A member of the Red Troupe would handle that. Nina couldn't help a little excitement at going to a ball, right up until she saw Kaisar all decked out and realized she'd have to spend time in a closed space with him.

He held a hand to help her into the carriage, and Nina shuffled herself to the other end of the carriage to stare out of the window.

Now she had touch with her dragon life, she remembered him from more than nights of chasing the rag demon. This was the knight who had protected the king back on the hillside, when her dragon self had been so determined to kill Chris. She was hardly in a position to blame him for sparing Chris, but still, that just meant he wasn't very reliable in the same way she wasn't. And unlike herself, he had only joined the rebellion through pressure.

"You remember me?" Nina asked once they were out of Cerberus's earshot.

"I'm aware of who you are," he said in a most strained voice. "I ... I wanted to apologize for the conduct of my knights."

While he hadn't been the one to order her execution back then, he was in charge of the Orleans Knights and apparently had never deemed it fit to dismiss Allesand Visponti. She'd seen how he had trained his men : brutally violent at the slightest provocation. Now she looked back at it without rose tinted glasses but with memories of her dragon life, Kaisar's knights acted by default as if they were hunting a dangerous dragon, even if they were after a defenseless person.

"Alright, go ahead," Nina said.

"Uh, right. I offer my sincere apologies for the unfortunate circumstances—"

"It's hard to buy your sincereity if you won't call it attempted murder."

He scraped his throat and said, "I offer my sincerest apologies for my knights attempting to murder you, and I am in your debt as a knight. Prevail upon me for whatever you need."

"Okay."

His hands clenched for some reason.

After another silence, he said, "You don't intend to kill the king, right?"

"No!" The got out embarassingly quick, and Nina recalibrated. "I don't think I can, but others might. I won't stop my friends either. What about you?"

"What?"

"Why were you alright with the slavery and massacre for so long? Why didn't you do anything like our human allies do?"

He only gave her silence and a very tormented look. She might've been alright with that once, but it inadvertably brought her back to Chris. She had no idea what Kaisar's sorrow was aimed at. Just himself perhaps. Maybe he was loyal to Chris because they were alike somehow.

In a way, she still wanted to find someone kindred to her in this absurd struggle. Maybe she could find some kind of answer to what even allowed Chris have such a powerful hold on her. "Is he your friend? Why do you admire him so much? Why do you think he deserves the throne despite everything he did?"

He just looked more tormented and just said, "This isn't a good time to have this conversation. Please just focus on the charade we are about to put up. You have the story memorized, right?"

"We've been over it five times already."

The Onyx Knights were supposed to be drawn to the scene, but there wasn't supposed to be anything that raised suspicion of Nina herself among the royalty. The ball was supposed to go on without disruption and the Onyx Knights had strict rules about not interfering unless it was a life or death circumstance for the king.

Under normal circumstances, a girl Nina's age making her first appearance would qualify as a debutante, to be formally introduced to high society. It was rare anyone in high society got pregnant without it being noticed, and Kaisar wasn't even married to begin with. A bastard offspring was out of the question, especially with the king of another country present; a quick ticket to being discreetly escorted away.

So they had concocted a story, Kaisar's dead family had a benefit here : nobody in the aristrocracy had the facts. In the grand scheme of Nina's decision to not brush off anyone's crimes, it was a sour pill to swallow that Azazel was responsible for that. He'd spoken of scars that wouldn't go away for generations. While his past wasn't on par with Charioce's present, the scars were still here.

As she ascended the stairway before the carriage, she effortlessly put a radiant smile in place.

The way up required one to pass either many stairways, but an elevator had been installed. They boarded it with several other nobles. Nina clenched her hands, hating the small space, but it should just look like excitement to anyone else.

"Lord Kaisar Lidfard and lady Nina Lidfard," was announced once they entered their destination.

Nina did not need to fake making grand eyes at the place. Golden light filled a massive round hall, lined with arches like around the castle itself. Dual stairways led to the dancing floor, beyond which was another stairway to the throne. Flanked by windows was a tall golden seat with red cushion, upon which he sat : Chris, decked out in fine, ornate white. He didn't see her yet, occupied with talking to a woman with bright green hair.

As soon as they were down the stairs, a flock of men and ladies approached Kaisar, bringing with them a puff of perfume and gossip.

"Oh my, what a lovely girl. How come we never heard of her?"

"She was born after the disgrace of my family. Upon my mother's death I was forced to give her up for adoption," he said. "I had given up all hope to find her again, but due to my recent heroic deeds, she caught my name and sought me out."

"Yes! I travelled pretty far and I was really, really poor because the king's welfare is pretty limited to the rich cities, so it took a while," Nina said. "Anyway, I was like three when he had to give me up for adoption, so I remember him a little, but nobody believed me when I told anyone. I just now had enough money to pay for a journey to Anatae."

"Oh, that must have been so difficult for you."

They asked more, but never too much detail about life in poverty. They wanted to rather hear of amusing anecdotes than of hunger, so she told them of hunger anyway. Thanks to Chris for that experience, she quietly added.

The ball shone on, filled with chatter and orchestra. Like a fairytale come true, if it wasn't the crown on the genocide of the demons.

Also, food. After days of utter scarcity in the slums, Nina had to fight not to throw herself on it with her monstrous appetite. There was a huge greasy bird of some kind that she could eat entirely, and sloppily, but the sight of the oily coating made her stomach turn in ways she didn't have words for. She shuffled to the fishy side of the table and took all the caviar garnish from a plate of pudding. At least, that probably was pudding.

Kaisar held more attention than she did, with her obvious commoner manners. Fine for her. She only needed Chris's attention.

Soon Kaisar excused himself to meander towards a small door, all the while making iddle chit chat. He would alert the Onyx Knights of her presence, declaring he had feigned cooperation with Favaro for an assassination attempt but wished to nip it in the bud by capturing their assassin.

By then, Nina was supposed to already be near enough Chris to be irremovable without a scene. The whole thing hinged on him being unable to resist her.

It was weird to think of herself as some greatly seductive being who held sway on the most powerful man on earth. And kind of alluring, and dangerous.

All the time, Chris sat on his throne up a stairway that oversaw the ballroom. He barely moved, didn't follow anyone with his eyes. He was gorgeous, of course, and congenial when relaxed, and yet it felt so wrong ... it was in the way the young, eligible noblewomen cast adoring glances at him. The whispers of whom would be his wife, because of course he needed an heir, lay thick but hushed in the air. Nothing else did. Nobody in here even thought of the misery he caused.

She'd been so close to this, but now she could only pity those ladies. And she resented them, and everyone in here, as the pit of her stomach still begged for more food because everyone in the lower ring was starving. Nobody of the rulers here cared. If nothing else, she'd get that out of this whole mess : attack their food some more.

A woman in deep purple dress sided up to Nina, tapping her lightly on the shoulder. "Excuse me?"

It was the slight radiance of power that set Nina off. "Yes?"

"Good to meet you at last. I am the prophet Merlin, and you are Nina Drango gone astray from her path. Strange as this may sound from a prophet, I did not foresee you appearing here today."

"Even though you're the one who supposedly arranged for Rita to escape?" Nina said, and after a beat added, "As a prophet?"

"I can not so much predict the future as foresee fate's intent," she said. "And we had little plans left for this time. All I know is you must stand at his majesty's side soon and well, we have a saying in the circle of prophets : seize the day. Walk with me for a distance, will you?"

Merlin waited patiently as Nina piled her plate full. After that she brought Nina to a table under the arches at the side of the hall, which seated just two people : a young woman with long sandy hair and a beige and gold gown to compliment it, and an old man in fine green robes, who smelled of damp woods and might just have living mushrooms on his staff. Both radiated magic, but the woman was a magician only while the man was something ancient, wound deep into the world and the woods. He reminded her a little of Qhispe during the rare hours where she spoke with the spirits of the forest.

"Ah, lady Merlin," he said. "You found her."

"Esteemed princess Anne, dear lord of the forest, I would like you to meet Nina Drango," Merlin said.

"Oh ... not Lidfard? My apologies, but I was sure I heard her introduced thus."

"It's part of a scheme," Merlin said without batting an eye out of beat. "The kingdom unfortunately has some lasting ideas about hiring women."

Anne offered her a chair, which Nina took just to resume eating. Merlin sat between her and the old man.

"My best friend is a dragon," Anne said. "I was so glad that the most powerful king in the world now has an interest in disginguishing dragons from your run of the mill forces of darkness. When Grea came to the academy, people were so afraid of her on behalf of her heritage. To this day the memory still pains her, but they have learned that there are exceptions to rule even with those of demonic heritage."

"Right," Nina said, before looking at the old guy. "And your story?"

"You don't seem very interested in learning any of this."

She swallowed that she'd been on the receiving end of Charioce's limited mercy, and just said, "I'm a dragon myself, why would I be impressed?"

"Really? Does it not matter to you then that such progress is made?" Anne asked.

He brought them the power to build their prosperity on our backs. Azazel's word now had the full picture behind it. All this glory, this beautiful castle, on the broken backs of demons and here he was! Whatever he was getting at, one thing was clear : he could do whatever he wanted. Turn humankind against the gods? Oh sure. Some inconveniences, but he was still enthroned. And now this, making use of dragons.

Dejected without an answer, Anne resumed eating her own meal. Nina felt a little bad for rebuffing the girl, she didn't know any better, but at the same time, she regretted her own naivety.

"Do you really think what this king does is worth it?" she asked the guy.

He smiled and pointed behind her. "They seem to think so."

Not too far off stood a small cluster of nobles around a man, whom Nina would swear she recognized from her village. Nobody she was close to, one of the men who'd gone to earn money but still.

"What is going on here?"

"The king has decided that demons who have made an effort to embrace humanity and discarded the blood of hell are an exception," the old guy said. "He's put out word that other dragons are welcome and any past grievances with knights are pardoned."

"Speaking of pardons, you'll have to pardon me," Merlin said. "I have an errand to attend to. Potions and spells, boring to you mundane folk I'm afraid."

Merlin glided off, but Nina caught up.

"Why?" Nina half blocked her way. "Are you going to trap my friends?"

"Oh no, my intentions are as sincere as those of the king. I genuinely want her to be removed alive. You see, your little friend has zombified all the dead vermin of the city and programmed them in such a way that upon her death they will attack. The king has a few beauty flaws with how he deals with, and I want that risk gone. Have a good evening, and take your time getting to know the king better. You clearly have missed a lot."

She patted Nina on the shoulder, leaving her alone with that lovely information.

Rita was a mass murderer too.

Nina returned to her spot at the table and systematically stuffed food in her face, and humoring Anne by asking about her friend. The story drifted away from her, all she felt was empty. When Charioce had already exhausted her horrors to give, there was nothing else.

· · · · · · ·

Trismegistus closed the wall behind them, checked the last parts of his disguise, and off Favaro was.

Following Merlin's route made this one of the most boring missions ever. He encountered a servant once, who easily assumed he was one of the staff from a lower quarter, here to deliver some papers. In reality the bag Favaro carried had his tools. The only remotely exciting part was shooting a few sleep darts into the guards around Rita's prison, for which Belphegor had lent him some poison. Said guard were regular knights; as promised, not a hint of Onyx Knights anywhere in the upper quarters.

The knights were in the middle of complaining about that when Favaro rounded the corner, giving Favaro a hook.

"I saw them rushing by, is there an emergency? Should we evacuate?" he said in his most posh voice.

"Do not concern yourself, it is merely a precaution," the nearest knight said. "It is—"

He slumped to the ground, dart sticking out of his neck. The other knight drew his sword, only to have it knocked away by Favaro. In the same motion, he caught the sword before it clattered to the ground and pinched the dart in the knight's wrist.

Both heaped on the ground, he took the keys.

There was a glass hole in the door, presumably to check on Rita. Her hands shackled in a wooden block, Rita sat at the back of a completely empty room, lit only by magic. He unlocked the door, stepped in, and Rita didn't even blink.

"You fool, they'll catch you in no time," Rita said.

"They won't. One, I'm much faster than before." He unlocked the shackles. "Two, the outer perimeter guards will have drawn in cause we put someone incredibly dangerous right next to the king."

It took Rita a beat to say, "You sent Nina?"

"How'd you guess?"

"The castle has been buzzing about the mysterious relation between the dragon turned girl and the king who tamed her."

"How'd you even hear that in here?" The room was more barren than a desert.

"I'm not always here, and I learned a few new tricks since they gave me moldable ichor. Speaking of that, I want to make a house call on the way out."

"No way," Favaro said. "We're getting out of here right away."

"The king and the Onyx Knights will be occupied for the duration of the ball, right? So bring me to the king's quarters."

"Look, Rita—"

Rita launched her arm at him, sending him flying back. By the time he was up, the arm was back on Rita's joints and out the door with her. So much for a boring mission.

· · · · · · ·

Charioce had a spectacularly dull ball this evening. His wrist throbbed, the bracelet stinging deep. The pain was quite welcome because it grounded him to reality. The king of Manaria whose name kept slipping his mind had just blabbered about his academic accomplishments for two hours before finally, finally hauling his ass to the dance floor. Charioce used that to excuse himself to his blissfully isolated throne, as far as one can be isolated in a giant ballroom with a line of noblewomen bowing before him in the vain hope he'd pick one for a dance. They'd done it for seven years and not once had he taken that invitation, regardless of the whispers and scorn, and yet they kept coming. Pests.

Off to the side, a servant stood atop the stairway and subtly signalled a potential problem. Oh thank fate a distraction please let it be urgent and give him a non royally offensive excuse to get away now. He raise dhis hand, and the servant approached with a wine glass as cover, whispering that an enemy had infiltrated the premises and his Onyx Knights would like to evacuate him this instant.

He took the glass and considered why they hadn't told him what kind of enemy, George knew better than to be vague—

A woman in bright blue dress marched through the dancing crowd, past the bowing women and ...

Oh fuck.

Nina stopped at the bottom of the stairway before his throne and met his eyes straight on, no bowing. She'd been cute before, now she was lovely and tender vision among dull faces, offering her hand without a hint of shame.

Fate. Dear, dear fate. Really? That was not the distraction he'd wanted. This was a problem in and of itself. He didn't want to make this decision here! Or at all.

Arrest her was the most needed choice, but not the most practical. Politically he didn't want to make a scene. And some base level instinct that he'd fought so hard to discard across the years insisted it was imperviously important he go to the pretty girl.

And yet, damn it all, he left his throne and to hell he strode.

When he took her hand, Nina held him as much as he did her, no longer the dainty flower touch she'd had in the days of careless dating. Like a bear to honey, knowing he'd get stung he led her to the dance floor, or maybe she led him. Was that a self satisfied smile on her face?

Murmurs of surprise went through the crowd, and the dance floor emptied. They did not matter anymore.

As they stood across each other, for the first time he found it difficult to read her. Perhaps only for knowing he had been so wrong before, but now he could not decipher whether the sparkle in her eyes was real, false, or real in a way she used to set a trap. And there was a trap, he did not doubt that anymore.

At the first notes, Nina let him lead her into dance.

"Why are you here?" he whispered as he put his hand on the small of her back.

"I felt we weren't done talking yet. You left like lightning."

She squeezed his hand, pulled him just a little off balance, and just like that she claimed the lead. He braced against the ground and pulled her back into a swing around him. "Careful now, don't come too close to the audience."

Nina was in no way accustomed to waltzing and did not even try to follow the patterns, inventing her own along the way. She never mimiced, but she matched his every move. He should have known she was a natural born dancer, despite her initial reluctance over knowing the steps.

As the music swelled, he whispered, "Well, what else is there to say?"

"Everyone in this entire area will die when you bring Bahamut here," Nina said. "Unless you tell the gods, who can still raise a shield. They'll do it, some out of mercy, some for their own benefit, but they will be there for your people when you are not. Or do you plan to send everyone to another province?"

"Did the rebellion send you as an ambassador to deliver that?"

"I sent myself. There were loud objections," Nina said. "You can imagine at least one of them. You know him well enough by now, and maybe you can also imagine an answer to my question. Do you have any plans at all to even warn your own citizens of the oncoming catastrophy?"

She just didn't understand. To obtain the best of humankind, sometimes one had to let a troublesome situation persist. Those who endured were worth it to carry the legacy.

"You weren't, were you?"

All things considered, it would be better if Nina weren't so inquisitive. He liked her better when she was naive and content in it, her questions began to irritate him. He could accept her as his enemy, but as a nag?

"There's no saying the gods will be strong enough, of course. They needed the demons last time. Too bad you ruined them, but it might not be too late yet. If only everyone knew," Nina said. "You know, it's weird they don't notice Bahamut coming. What are you doing that keeps them from noticing it?"

"Surely you didn't take this huge risk just to ask me that, when you could just send a letter?"

"You're very hard to read that way."

"And I'm less so now?" he said, inwardly laughing and knowing that outward he'd be as mysterious as those letters. Nina might not realize it, but she found mysteries oh so enticing.

Nina didn't answer right away — poor girl was no good at pretense — so he filled the lull with a whisper of his own, "There is so much more to us than fate's decree. We would not have been chosen if we weren't well matched in some way. What we do with that symmetry is up to us, however, or fate would not struggle so hard to correct the of course we were forced down lately. That said, there is one element of fate that I do no like."

Nina resisted being spun in a circle and instead mimicked his pose, firm hold on his arm. "And that would be?"

"You won't be by my side, which is fine with me. I can manage on my own. But if I die in the fight against Bahamut, I would leave a world that would hunt you down," he said. "I would prefer you to live, so for you I'm making a few changes to my legacy. Have you had a look around the ballroom before you approached me?"

"I've met the forest dragon and the princess," she said. "Why are there here?"

"For you, of course."

"What?"

"Right now, I'm in no position to retract your conviction," he said. Strictly speaking, that wasn't true. He could do it, but it'd raise eyebrows. That was annoying. "Dromos may kill me yet, and you may live to guide these people. What it would mean for a kingdom to have an immortal guardian to always ensure the righteous law is followed?"

Nina lost the step of her pace and he smoothly recalibrated, leading her into the final notes of the music. The next dance would be of a different kind altogether, one she had learned no more than this one, but would have less talent for.

"What are you getting at?" she muttered, wide doe eyes locking onto him at last.

"I ask that you stay with me for the sake of all you care about."

· · · · · · ·

Rita ended up further above, passing through servants routes into rich quarters. It was empty save one room with a loom in it, where a zombie sat weaving. It was a remarkable whole zombie, but the shining white eyes betrayed its lack of awareness.

Rita pulled this zombie from its place, centering it on the floor. A spell circle had been drawn there, smudged until Rita fixed it was a nearby dip of some kind. On the shelves stood a lot of materials normal to her stations.

"Rita, what the hell is this?"

"My project," Rita said. "It's why Charioce kept me around. I've been postponing on completion, so I have to hurry. It's an interesting case, you know, she wandered off on her own."

Favaro had the impression he'd just get another arm to the face when he tried arguing, so he stood by the door to keep guard.

Rita coughed up a glowing purple marble, chanted some crap, set some goo on fire and other magical mumbo jumbo. At last, the purple marble bled empty and set the circle alight before bleeding into the corpse.

The zombie twitched alive, its eyes morphing away from the glow into solid dark pupils.

"What ..." the woman muttered as she looked around.

"Klarimiani, right?" Rita asked.

"Yes ... you are ... I don't understand ..."

"Do you know where you are? Can you tell me what you remember?"

"In the castle ... but I don't know how I got here. You're the first thing I remember, but ... where was the king? Why ..."

"You were a lifeless zombie controlled by my illusionary mist to act in a way that matched your old life. It's a shaky system that draws on an ectoplastic ghoul imprint for its information. You remember things from the point forth of my giving you a living brain," Rita said. "Since it is an unformatted brain and the system still controlled you, you had no cognitive functions to employ, but basic functions like senses and memory were active since then. What I did just now was give you a soul. I was curious to see whether that'd connect your brain with the life imprint from the past, it appears to have worked."

Rita flicked the woman's head, who flinched. "Pain processing seems good too."

"W-why did you do this to me?"

"I did something to a corpse, lest I become one. More than I am anyway. And of course, beyond that there is scientific curiosity," Rita said. "I'd like you to come with us so I can learn more."

She wildly shook her head. "My son is here."

"Are you sure? You are a demon now," Rita said. "If you can't pass for a human, you will die. Your son can and will kill people he loves to preserve his reputation, you know."

"Hold it," Favaro said. "How is she a demon now?"

"A human soul needs a brain to settle in," Rita said. "A demon soul needs ichor. Whatever human brain I grew in there would be a new person, but a demon soul I could maybe put the imago onto. Really, souls are little more than glue to keep things steady in a world with mind magic."

"Where did you get a demon soul?" Favaro asked.

Rita smiled in a way that drove chills up Favaro's spine. "I ripped it out of one, chewed it over till I knew what I wanted, and you see, I like to recycle."

"You're a monster," the woman whispered.

Rita patted her on the shoulder, before plucking one of her hairs. When Rita ran it through her lips, it started writting on its own. "Yes, I suppose I am in more than one way. That's why your son liked what I do. I wonder whether he'll like you though, the way you are."

She snatched a knife from Favaro's boot and grabbed the woman's arm, cutting it off. Favaro could only grab a nearby cloth to muffle her screams, while Rita stuffed the hand in his bag.

"Now I'm ready to go. Will we be leaving by dragon, or is she too busy making out with the king?"

"What?" the zombie woman snapped; her pain seemed to be gone already. Just a reflex, then?

Favaro couldn't help but grin and lay it on. "Ma'am, there comes a time in life when you have to acknowldge your kids grow up and sometimes have very unusual kinks. Your son wants to bang my student, a dragon. In fact, you should definitely let him know I don't approve of him, though I bet he expects that. Man, he's such a pain in the ass. Wants my position as world savior, wants to kill me, wants to bang my student. Honestly, the youth these days."

The zombie looked like she had died a second time, which he was happy to leave her as.

· · · · · · ·

She'd neatly positioned her irrational desires against her solid goal the way he did, only for him to make a rational offer.

Think, keep her thoughts on the goal ... If she surrendered now, that would leave all her friends vulnrable. But she could buy time and ... and ... hey ... wait a second ...

"You didn't offer me this before or after you enslaved me on that island ... how can I hear your offer as anything but a promise for a more luxurious slavery? Who will kill me in the end of that?"

"No one if you play it right," he said. "Before, you just played on the wrong side."

"You know, that could have been different. I was a bigger fool once." She pushed against his grip, and he took a willing step back. "If you'd have told everyone you planned to fight Bahamut, old me would never even have considered joining the rebellion."

He pushed her off in such a way as to start a swing and simply said, "We all make mistakes."

First impulse was to hear that as him admitting his own mistakes, but he might as well mean her.

"As you did by coming here. Have you forgotten I am always watched?"

"I'm well aware they always surround you," Nina said. That was the whole point of her being here.

"Then you should prepare to fight for your life once you leave." As he leaned in closer during the turn, he whispered, "After all, not too long ago I gave my knights this order regarding you : kill it on sight."

Shock had her trip, with Charioce effortlessly compensating. She found her pace, even as a sharp pain went through her gut. It wasn't news that he might order her death, he had done it before. But to hear him say it so casually connected it deeper. Threads pulling far away memories even closer together since the blue caves, demanding to be heard. The man who loved her had tried to kill her once, and would do so again if it was convenient.

"They'll be too late." Her voice came out so shaky, Charioce chuckled at it. The first smile he showed.

She hooked her hand behind his neck, growing out her claws just behind his collar. As she grazed the points over his skin, they already knew she wouldn't go through with it.

"You're not here to kill me," he said. "You haven't learned how yet. Don't worry, whatever you are a distracting from, you do a fine job. As always."

He swung her into the next sequence, never letting go. Nina didn't remove her claws.

"Let us say for a thought experiment that you or someone else were capable of killing me, and had ended up in this room through some other means that a tacit surrender — don't look like that, that is what you did — and presume that I had no successor. Ask yourself : would you kill me here knowing you wouldn't make it out alive? I have the strength to die for my faithful purpose. Do you?"

"Your death ..." The pink flame danced around her, she grasped with all might at the will to disperse it. " ... doesn't have to be. You've made enemies of the people who could save you."

"Hmm." He wasn't even interested. "You aren't dead yet because they also have orders to not cause a complicated political scene. So why not finish the dance and let me show you something?"

Her eyes burned, and she said no more untill the music ended.

· · · · · · ·

Rita didn't know the way to Favaro's rendezvous point, so they had to knock out a few servants along the way. She bit as it convenienced her; which was little. Without her staff her range was limited. Damn her frail human body.

Trismegistus waited for them at a random passage. Nobody else was there.

"How did you get this whole scheme up anyway? Do you have an insider?" Rita asked.

"Believe it or not, Merlin wants you gone," Favaro said.

"Oh, good, I was afraid she wouldn't take the hint. Are you contact with her?"

"Why are you suddenly so eager for that?" Favaro asked.

"I should have my cane back," Rita said. "Either Merlin has it or it is on her quarters. We should try. If it works we can end it all this very evening. Maybe you can feign having run into trouble and approach her for further assistance?"

"Nah, we're getting outta here," Favaro said.

Rita kicked him and Trismegistus in the shins. "You don't get it, do you? If I have precise control, I can decide who lives and dies."

On her raised hand landed a mosquito. With his enhanced sight, Favaro would be able to see the glowing eyes and shrivelled body. The alchemist and hunter didn't quite go pale through their make up, but the widening eyes made it clear enough. Not fans then.

"They had me zombify a dragon in the beginning, I took some liberties. These zombies are mine, but I cannot give them orders without my cane. They'll go wild if I die though," Rita said. "They cannot bypass that barrier, but everyone outside would be dead when they do. Now, if I were to control them, we could wipe out all the pesky aristrocracy, the armies, even Charioce."

"Uncontrolled mass murder or controlled, eh?" Trismegistis said. "Honestly, I don't give a shit as long as you leave me out of it, but Azazel and the other demons wanna keep Jeanne d'Arc as an ally."

"Oh, but we don't need her alliance once I am done," she said. "I have no forgiven Charioce for my imprisonment and taking Kaisar and Azazel hostage. Or having Kaisar's unconditional devotion. I owe him a true city of the dead."

"It's a miracle you're friends with Kaisar," Favaro said.

Really, it was.

"We don't know where Merlin is anyway," Trismegistus said. "She just gave us directions and that was it."

Well, maybe later.

· · · · · · ·

When the music ended he offered his arm. Quietly, Nina hooked it and followed.

Still quiet, Nina lightly hooked his arm and followed. Overseeing the ballroom was a line of balconies, the central one opposite of the throne being the finest. Rich red fabric lines it, thick enough to muffle some of the sound even from below. A dinner had been decked on the table, but only one man was present.

Once they were alone, Chris said, "Now, how did you get in here?"

Like she'd tell him.

"I will find out regardless, but how and through whom I find out may determine my response. Perhaps my Onyx Knights will, and they do as they always do : jail them, question them. No doubt you have an idea already what the procedure is."

If even Azazel for all his centuries and power could be scarred the way he was, it had to be severe. Nobody should have that again, and sometimes Charioce was lenient to her.

"Kaisar Lidfard brought me here," she said before stuffing a turkey leg in her mouth and being very rude with the chewing noises.

"Of course. No need to excuse him, it is his house I left the slums through."

Someone knocked on the door, before opening without invitation. A black armored helmet peaked int. "Your majesty?"

"All is under control," he said while waving him off. "And make sure the door is guarded to prevent anyone from entering. Include our royal guests, but excluding the expanded order. Call for them."

The knight nodded and shut the door.

"Pardon that too, they are rather nervous about their pending orders."

Waiting to kill her. The dead bird on her plate made her rather nauseous all of a sudden, and the dragon begged to be unleashed.

She clenched her hands, willing her pulse to steady. He had already sentenced her to death on the island, she knew that, but the walls crept closer, it was too small here, she had to get out, but if she ran she would die, still safe here ... but how could she be safe with a man who would see her executed?

A treacherous tremble crept into her voice as she whispered, "Or you could just tell them not to."

"My life is dedicated to my duties. I will not allow you to crack my resolve even a little," he said, cold as ever. "At least, no further. You are already within my mind and as much as I wish I cannot get you out."

He stood, walking to a fine painting in the walls.

"The siege on Cocytys," he said, hovering his hand over the image of boiling caverns and monstrous demons felled under green power. A six winged demon hovered across the floating city in the distance.

When she said nothing, he led her to the opposite wall. "This one is new. There is no more need for secrecy, so it was fit to add."

Heaven invaded, this time the destination being a pyramid of green power, and the depiction of the gods wasn't much nicer than the demons.

"I used to work somewhere you put one of these pictures glorifying you," Nina said. "I think it's all a lie."

"This happened, what is a lie about it?"

"That this is the full story," Nina said. "And that's not even the worst you're leaving out. If Bahamut truly comes regardless of you, then stand down. Tell the world it's coming. You can end all the war right this instant just by telling the truth, from there on we can work together to dissolve this."

He just pried off something from the framework, which he laid in her hand. "Do you know what a pearl is? A tiny grain of sand that got into the shell of a mollusc, causing it endless pain. To soothe this, it layers it with countless crystals."

"Really? You're not even going to answer me?"

"I have answered you plenty of times, there is no need to repeat myself. I thought perhaps you will understand what you can hold : a wound turned to a jewel."

Nina closed her hand around the thing. "It's pretty and pointless."

"Is it now?"

Someone knocked on the door again.

"I have to return to the ballroom," he said. "Manaria's king must not feel neglected too long. In the mean time, there are a few more people you should meet."

"I've met the princess and the forest dragon," Nina said stiffly. "And I think I saw someone from my village. What is ... " Her voice broke.

In stepped an all too familiar face, now decked out in formal clothing of the kingdom rather than commoner rags.

"Ladis?" Nina stammered.

Ladislao ruffled through her hair, claws scraping across her scalp, as he walked past her and took a chair opposite of hers. "You've become a worse daughter, Nina. You're too lucky the king still favors you."

"What are you doing here?"

"I found the best possible job : alongside the Onyx Knights, guarding the king against inconveniences. I have made sure a few of my friends joined just now, so we can all work together on the final stage of removing our tribe from hell's legacy. We should have a word, don't you think?"

Favaro and Trismegistus couldn't fight a swarm of dragons. Charioce left without another look at her, and Nina sat back down.

· · · · · · ·

So much running. Not that Rita could get tired. Just miffed. They went through several houses — it appeared that in her absence, the demon resistance had finally obtained themselves some human allies.

She had expected Kaisar to finally join them but apparently that was not part of the plan. Moron. Huge chance Charioce might use him to compell her to return, if he wasn't pleased with his new mom.

Close to the barrier, Azazel joined them.

"Hey, zombie girl."

Oh wow, quite sociable by Azazel's standards. "Don't get sappy now. I'm told this was Cerberus's plan, why did you agree to it?"

"Everyone else wanted to do it," he grumbled.

"Stupid."

"I've been saying that. Where's Nina?"

"We don't know. The Onyx Knights all gathered around the ballroom last time we checked, so she's probably still there."

While everyone else caught their breath, Rita inspected the barrier. She had no inherent magical senses, but a few quick analysis fields told her a few interesting things : this barrier didn't draw on hell's power, like she herself did.

A hole flickered open, letting them pass. Favaro muttered a thanks at a certain Angra Mainyu before the hole closed.

They passed into the nearest house, which had some walls knocked out. A bunch of familiar demons waited here, including some zombies on guard and humans.

"Amira? I need back up," Favaro said to thin air.

"Looks like I have a lot of catching up to do." And to cement that, she was approached by a very blond and shiny Mugaro.

"Were you okay in the castle? Do you need healing?" Mugaro asked. "It's hard to tell what you need, the way you are, so I need details."

"I am quite fine, actually," Rita said. "What do you mean, healing?"

· · · · · · ·

"... and we could settle in the hills across the river to actually build a proper city for ourselves. No pretending to be humans in huts, no hiding under the canopy," said a young man Nina hadn't been told the name of.

Ladis let them talk while he himself sat with a smug grin opposite of Nina.

She didn't understand why he would be here, but she wasn't surprised anymore. After learning horrible truths about Azazel, Chris, Favaro and Rita, that her dear uncle was also morally challenged? Why not?

They had all these ideas of turning the dragon tribe to a glorious support for Charioce's regime, so their true potential could thrive in that shadow. All the hatred for hell that her tribe held turned from defense to weapon. Charioce no longer would have to fear retribution from the demons, should he falter in using Dromos. Ladis and his friends would happily fight that war from the sound of it.

Back when Ladislao had talked of making a better town, it'd sound like a dream, and he had joked she'd help. She was named dream, after all. Maybe that's why he looked so strangely satisfied.

She didn't talk to him, but tried to talk to the others. Who else was here? Did the elders know? What about Qhispe, was she back yet? They didn't give her anything clear all the time, and jested on her being a princess who shouldn't fret.

Nina was just about to kick something off a chair and demand clarity when a summoning circle spun open below her. She ended up kicked herself off her chair, rolling against the wall and op on her feet. Quick, she blocked the flow further. She had to solve this and keep others from trouble. Ignoring the stares, she set her hands together and prayed to Mugaro.

· · · · · · ·

"Why in chaos isn't it working?" Azazel snarled.

Mugaro tugged at his wings. "Nina says Charioce has one of her relatives, she can't leave."

"What? How did that happen?"

"I don't know, I can't talk back," Mugaro said. "But she wants you to stop summoning, it'll be suspicious. She's still under cover of Kaisar's story."

"How long can that last? We're going to that damn castle now!"

Out were his wings, and out where Belphegor and Cerberus holding him down with all might. Belphegor hooked a wing over Azazel's, but they just barely kept him on the ground.

"To answer your question, pretty long if they play it right," Rita said. "Ladies in waiting is a job where noblewomen stay at the castle to serve a woman of higher rank."

Favaro piped up with, "Besides, they still have that zombie dragon, and neither me nor Trismegistus have the ranged power the kid does, so unless you're sending Mugaro out, we're staying. Amira's gone to check out the problem as we speak."

Azazel shook them off, but did stay put. "So when do we move?"

"Azazel looked back at Mugaro, who said in utter confusion, "She wants to stay. She says they won't come and it isn't safe and we should stay away."

"For how long?"

"Chill," Favaro said. "This is Nina's call. We can't even go rescue her without Merlin clearing us a path, Amira's got her limits. Going back in there is suicide."

"Nina will be fine," Rita said. "As long as she follows the rules."

"You don't get it! He has her in love with him and she makes stupid choices because of it!" Azazel snapped, and took a few seconds to realize Mugaro had heard it.

"Oh that," Rita said. "I suppose you all can explain me more about those rumors I heard?"

Mugaro looked frightened again, but kept quiet and shrunk away, and Azazel remembered none of these people, especially Mugaro, would be safe if he left them alone to start a fight. He stayed.

· · · · · · ·

Meeting the next batch of refugees went more smoothly this time, as Sofiel had a better idea what to do. Under disguise of shipment of divine materials to some mortal lord, her ships brought them to a mansion. In its cellars, they would open gates to Arligau's town.

Sofiel's gates only allowed three tops to pass, and she needed breaks. The unicorn lasted longer, but was also limited to smaller gates. Jeanne stayed on the entrance side until the last were through, then left herself.

When Jeanne arrived on the other end, she found only the refugees huddled in the woods. The unicorn's ears twitched anxiously.

Jeanne couldn't sense Mirin anywhere nearby, but Arligau would be better suited anyway.

The town was unusually quiet. Not because anyone slept; a lot of the sleeping bunks were entire empty. The first person she found was an elderly demon sitting on the ground to stitch clothes.

"What is going on?" Jeanne asked as she knelt down.

"They went down to the lord. Be respectful." The demon didn't meet her eyes and slightly shivered. It might just be the autumn cold, but ...

"I don't know about the people, but this place has changed. I dare say, it's becoming a hell nexus," Sofiel said.

Jeanne got the escapees settled in a newly built house. After this she rejoined Sofiel, who had found human workers from the Valerian army. They confirmed a project deep inside the mines. Now Jeanne concentrated, there was a mild increase in the demonic radiance, and it came from below. Sofiel and her followed it.

Her last time in underground tunnels working on great magic bore only pain for Jeanne. Remaining calm when going inside took effort. Aware of each step, she descended.

Deep in the mines the torches flickered more the closer they came to the disruption. What began as a mild shimmer turned into a drumming, until they reached a balcony overlooking a vast hall. Within it the pale light of a gate expanded into countless rings. All around, demons worked to expand the room and carve wider tunnels.

Sofiel flew Jeanne down. The workers by and large ignored them, strict in fear even though there were no whips and nary a human.

Before the pulsing light stood an angel with four wings, one set white and the other black. They shone like heavenly wings, but the massive horns curling up from a white head assured Jeanne this wasn't simply a gray winged angel. Heaven had no horns.

She was about to meet this one, but Sofiel grabbed her arm.

"Jeanne, don't move. That is Lucifer," she whispered in fear.

At his name, he turned to them. Dropping his hand and the spell he apparently had worked on, he moved across the rough space as if he nothing were more natural than that he owned the place.

Jeanne recalled a mention he'd had six wings, but then again, Azazel had lost a set of wings at the fall of Cocytus. What he had not lost was the divine aura. Gabriel lacked it a little, but Michael, Raphael and Uriel had possessed this subtle influence even from afar. Beyond regal bearing, there was a radiant authority within them, which Jeanne had once called divine eminence. Now faced with Lucifer possessing the same, she could only call it the weight of ages forced out as magic. With every step, the world around lost relevance.

"Ah, Jeanne d'Arc," he said lightly. "Quite useful you show up at this time. There are a few matters you could bear to explain."

He spoke so softly, it didn't fit the awe he demanded.

For good measure, she bowed to him. "Lord Lucifer, it is an honor to meet you."

"Hardly," he said. "Many in heaven would consider you disgraced merely by lowering your head to me."

When she stood straight again, he'd turned his attention to Sofiel. "And you would be?"

"Sofiel, attendant to Raphael's court and soon to be archangel," she said.

"Oh. I suppose the rumors of my ex colleagues's demise is true then," he said.

"How can you not know when they upheld the barrier?" Sofiel exclaimed, only to twitch when Lucifer narrowed his eyes at her.

"I only got out once in the past decade," he said. "For all I knew, they were injured only. The saint must be something with power to murder them so thoroughly."

Jeanne pressed her lips together and a sting of pain to the back of her mind, but couldn't defy the gutwrenching feeling that summoned. Michael ...

Sofiel stepped in by asking what he intended to do here, which caused a rehash of Reinier's explanation, with Sofiel unable to draw a hint on whether Lucifer other plans.

Jeanne wouldn't put that past him. This demon had spent milleniums on his throne with the possibility to reign in his people, and yet had not done so. Azazel at his worst had been his chosen right hand, and she knew for a fact that demons under Lucifer had also raided despite being part of the less aggressive faction. Azazel might've changed, and maybe Lucifer had that potential, but as it stood she wasn't to count on that. What they had here was an overlord marked by inaction, and to be feared when he moved.

Lucifer wasn't the least bit impressed with Sofiel or the demon liberation movement, that much was clear. He shot down any defense she had for heaven's methods, wasn't interested in sending out guards for the underground escape network, and turned it back on heaven's incompetence quite easily.

"There is of course the matter of Charioce's new ally. Merlin is not only very powerful even without tapping her demonic heritage outright, she has an implausible amount of luck. Why did heaven release her? It was so predictable she would join the humans again."

Azazel had either not been in touch, or Lucifer was playing something.

"Well?" Lucifer tapped his claws on the metal railing, scratching them just enough to leave a mark.

"Heaven did not release her. A wayward god on earth saw it fit to join a demonic rebellion and poached her from heaven," Sofiel said.

"Indeed? According to my sources, there are two bounty gods on earth. Perhaps you mean exiled, rather than wayward?"

"... yes." The way Sofiel folded her wings closer, she couldn't make herself smaller without drawing them in.

"I see. Now, where is your child?" Lucifer asked. "It would be most useful to have — what was the name again, El Mugaro? — involved in the upcoming attack."

"My child is safe. Surely you understand I have no desire to tell an enemy of heaven what nur circumstances are?"

There was the tapping on the metal again, she was certain now he was irriated with the diversions.

She waited with held breath, only for him to teleport away. Sofiel relaxed after a few moments. "He's nowhere near, I can't sense him anywhere."

Jeanne shook off the unease and said, "Azazel has not been in touch with him. It has to be for a reason related to El Mugaro. Though, perhaps we can tell him about Bahamut?"

Sofiel nodded. "As long as it does not become a tool in heaven, we should. I would have thought of it, if not for him being so ... so ... "

"He intimidates me too," Jeanne said. "I think he means to. Perhaps we can win some trust be informing him of Bahamut, let's try to remember next time. We know what to prepare for now."

· · · · · · ·

September 29

· · · · · · ·

Oh by all order and superiority and whatever else why was she in the castle what. What. Why. Was this fate's plan, or did fate actually gets its almighty arm chewed off by Bahamut? His own plan was very simple : create an environment where Nina might get pardoned without trouble for his reign, should she choose to take it. She wasn't supposed to show up while he was still working on it.

On top of that Rita was gone. His plans for his mother were less defined, but that didn't matter anymore. If she was dead, she was dead and got no role to play in his legacy or even Nina's position in court. He needed her a little more for the latter now, because he hadn't really worked on filling his court with people loyal outside of the Onyx Knights — they'd have been competition.

The chances of getting Rita back before he fought Bahamut were slim. That barrier refused to budge, so he'd let go this project, and handle the painful cleaning himself. Maybe he'd catch some sleep too, he had spent all of last night hanging around Nina's room in case any of his Onyx Knights got any ideas. No killing her as long as there was a chance she'd come in line.

The fog was absent within his inner sanctum by now as he wanted to see progress clearly, but when she was moved around rooms it was under guise of the fog. The handmaidens had a good pay and firm protocol that kept them quiet. The fact that some cleaners came screaming down the hall was a firm cue the mist's illusionary properties had gone, but his mother shouldn't even be going anywhere without him escorting her. Because why would anything go exactly as planned lately, right?

He entered his room, but didn't find his mother gnawing on anyone's brains. Odd, something must've startled them maids.

As usual, she was at the loom. Not as usual, her movement was frantic, almost like real life when faced with a deadline. Across time, the illusion had become clearer, but the fact her movements were too fine and she did not bleed when pricking herself gave her undeadness away.

Still, he allowed himself a crack of illusion when he said, "Mother, I regret to inform you I might have let my date move in without informing you."

"Of course, you didn't ask me about the grave either."

... that was not the typical zombie response.

"Are you here?" he asked.

"You tell me, son. I'm suddenly here. I'm been here for a while already, but I didn't think anything." She stood up, facing him not with glowing white eyes, but human eyes. Her skin remained sallow and veined, but her expression was human. Specifically, pissed off.

She pulled her shirt up. "And possessed you to bring me back like this?"

Her stomach had been clawed open. No organs, just sticky dark ichor.

"Well? I'm waiting, son."

"It appears the zombie master was holding out on me. Is this her farewell gift?"

"She didn't tell me." His mother threw her hands in the air. "However, she told me a few other things I did not like, such as : making out with a dragon? Just so you know, compatibility and marriage issues aside, I do not agree with fornicating outside of humankind."

Oh fuck it. He was so not ready to have this conversation. Without another word, he slipped out of the room and locked the door, ignoring the banging and shouting on the other side.

· · · · · · ·

In prayer, Nina told Mugaro she was alright. She'd been given a nice room and everyone believed she was Kaisar's long lost sister, being introduced to the court as part of reparations for the unjust disgrace Kaisar's family had suffered. She wanted to stay because her family was around and see what they were up to, but asked that they be ready to summon her at any time. If Amira could be around, she'd be grateful. Last, she told Mugaro to ask Azazel why she was pretty sure the king wouldn't just kill her.

Mugaro nurself had a nice room now, not as clean and empty as heaven, cozy like the clocktower, but with better stuff. Despite that, ne couldn't be at ease.

When Azazel returned from work, Mugaro was still up, waiting in the living room. "Nina says you have to explain me something. It's the thing you shouted about yesterday, right?"

He froze for a moment, before sitting next to nur. "She didn't know it was him when they first met, now she can't get rid of the feeling. But she won't join him, you don't have to be afraid of that."

"She's the one who let him into the slums, isn't she?"

Azazel only nodded.

"I can't help worrying. What if she does something dangerous again? I mean, I thought you were just good, and I thought Gabriel had the right idea even if she didn't feel the nicest, and I didn't see much of a problem with Odin either, and Nina feels so kind. None of those people felt all that evil, like the men who chased me and my mother, or many of the slavers. They still do things that hurt others. Why?"

"You're just seven. It'll make more sense when you get older."

"I need it to make sense now," Mugaro said.

"Why?"

"I sneaked out of the barrier just a little the other day. Otya and Daurra aren't anywhere. They're really dead." Mugaro started tearing up. "They just died while I wasn't anywhere near. We're so powerless because we can't be everywhere."

By the end of it, Mugaro's eyes poured tears out. Azazel reluctantly put an arm and wing around nur, which did little to stave off the crying, but Mugaro didn't want him to leave.

"I'm scared," Mugaro said. "Aren't you?"

"It's not death itself that I fear, but what will fail if I die," he said. "And for what will happen to Nina ... I fear everything Charioce does." Every word came out strained, Mugaro felt Azazel might explode if he'd just had an excuse.

It was too much. Mugaro couldn't heal the entire world, no matter how hard ne tried to get better. The tears grew lesser only because ne ran out.

"I miss mother. She'll join us soon, right?"

"If she doesn't, I'll make her come, but I'm pretty sure I won't need to."

Two years ago, nur mother had left nur in the slaver's den with only the words that ne had to live at all costs, and someone would come to help. She definitely hadn't meant Azazel, and there hadn't been anyone else. Sometimes people said things to sound strong and hopeful, but it would only anything by chance.

· · · · · · ·

At morning, Charioce hauled himself to his throne room for conference, yadda yadda yadda. After giving directions to his staff for the day — discussion how to integrate their armies in case of war with whoever was stupid enough to move next, going on a field drill — George approached on his own some time during that.

Taking a knee, he asked again, "What are your orders regarding the red dragon?"

"Kill her on sight once you can, but the orders not to cause a scene also stand. There should be no need for you to keep asking."

The man frowned, and didn't dismiss himself.

"Speak your mind," he said. "Do you have a problem with my decision regarding the red dragon?"

"You could have let her flee last night, knowing we would be around to carry out your orders. You keep her where we may not cause a scene, so we fear she has a hold on you that will get in the way during the moment of crisis."

"Have I let her get in the way of anything so far, by you opinion?"

"You did not need two hostages to control the zombie master, your majesty. The demon you spared now controls part of our city."

"Her escape from the island was entirely unplanned, I still have no idea how it occured," he said. "She would have been burried with all others had matters gone as I planned. You make a difficult case claiming I spared a demon for her sake, when she would be dead before him."

"Indeed," George said, very clearly not finding it all that indeed. "Still, we heard that demon tell you she is alive. May I ask what occurred during your foray into the occupied quarters?"

"You may not, but I will tell you since you already asked : I was testing the waters." Of a criminally cute girl. "There were a few things I managed to find out." Kissing was really amazing up until the dragon part. "Such as their lack of organization and powerful warriors." Look, it wasn't like being slammed into a wall mattered anything, he was just a little distracted with Azazel and when it came down to it there were a mere three. "The dragon remains their sole defense against us and she still is unwilling to harm me." Admittedly he had a weakness on personally fighting her too.

That honestly was the most damning weakness of it. He could give the order for others to kill her with the barest hesitation and never falter on withdrawing it. But where he remained cold or even entertained at the suffering of others, it didn't appeal with her. She was ... well, someone to him. She belonged on the rich streets laughing, away from the lesser beings. If only she didn't keep putting herself on the wrong side.

George wasn't wrong to see weakness in him, but struggled to be tactical about : "Will you be putting her in the same room as the reason you kept the zombie master?"

"No, she is not joining my mother, because formally she is the long lost sister of Kaisar Lidfard and the princess of Manaria is curious about her, having requested her company."

"Said princess might notice things," George said. "If you must play this game, I advise against straining the story."

"If you must warn me, I advise you do a better job. You have set forth no reason to doubt my committment to defeating our enemies. I have subjugated heaven and hell, and it will be no different with Bahamut. You are dismissed."

He flicked his hand at him, making sure the bracelet shone in the candle light, a reminder to George why he was the chosen one.

The stone within his bracelet was the master of the zommorod cores. It enhanced his performance and magic like no other, and no other could wield it like he did. One eye gone was a cheap price, and the very fact that he got away with just some blackened veins on his arm proved he was uniquely equipped. He would weather this temptation too, if it could even be called that. At the end of the day, Nina was still just an aimless maiden in love drawn to him, while he stood firm.

· · · · · · ·

Kill it on sight. Don't cause a political scene.

How many ways did they have to follow both orders? Right now Nina trailed a group of court ladies around, who did their best to instruct her in the ways to behave, as personally requested by the king. Any step out of line, and she would be executed by the shadows. They'd spin a story where poor hapless Kaisar Lidfard had been deceived or something. Still, Chris was playing a dangerous game, if she was seen as a dragon. So she did what she did best : smile, force happiness and walk in line.

At noon, they had dinner in hanging gardens on the side of the castle away from the city. Nina couldn't join the chatter of the noble ladies, being unfamiliar with court drama, and uninteresting to them as far her own story was concerned. Hearing about poverty had quickly lost its appeal.

Besides, Nina happily excused herself to wander towards a woman in black dress who had just appeared below a willow. Time to poke Merlin a little.

Merlin tapped her cane on the tree's bark, but when Nina sided up, she smiled at her.

"Well there, how do you like the manner of your keeping?"

"The food's great," Nina said. "And so are the dresses. The company's awful though, so I came to see whether you're more engaging." And willing to spill some things about fate, what the point of her family being here was, and some weakness to make her stop being a threat to Mugaro.

"And how would I be so?"

"You could tell me why you betrayed us?" Nina asked.

"I cannot betray whom I owe no allegiance. My loyalty is to humankind alone," Merlin whispered. "As should yours be, you who required no purification to subtract yourself from hell. You who are so much further from it yet you drawn to the forces of hell more easily than I am."

"That's funny." Nina leaned against the tree. "Not too long ago, I described Charioce as being appealing cause he felt safe. He's got a death sentence on my head so I think my heart's a bad advisor. Why are you drawn to Charioce?"

"His destiny is for the good of humankind, as ordained by fate," Merlin said. "I could serve no greater purpose."

"That's a job, and a bad one at that. What about your free time?"

"As a servant of fate, I am at all times ready to do my task."

Fate started to sound like a slave driver. "You should have free time, you know. Use it to think over stuff. Do you actually care for people?"

"That does not matter," Merlin said evenly.

"Sure it does, you're doing it for people, right?"

"Oh child. You don't understand how the world sticks together, or what makes right and wrong for the sake of the people. I have played with morality for centuries. Concessions here, concessions there, I've had to do things I condemned at other times. Fate transcends morality."

"Fate is a bully and I asked whether how you felt."

Merlin sighed deeply. "You are not very smart, unfortunately. Come, let me show you something."

Merlin opened a portal not unlike Nina had seen in heaven, but the sigils were unique. Passing it led them to a random walkway overlooking the knight's training grounds.

Humans were center in the sun, beyond a cate was another open space were demons in the same armor trained.

"The order of the Orleans Knights is based on my creation, the Knights of the Round Table. Knighthood is an ideal given shape, a structure that might last for centuries and steer people. There are those who only act for honor, or for people, or for glory, or for tradition, or for money, or a mixture of them. All have one goal, however, that binds them on the path of peace, in the name of the kingdom, for a better legacy. A worthy oath."

"Uuuuh ... you're saying motivation't matter?"

"Precisely," she said. "So I do not concern myself with such minutae as long as the job is done."

"But that's a pretty good indicator how people will act in different things and ... oh, you leave that to fate too."

"I cannot see the bigger picture in the way fate can, so of course."

Nina peered over the knights again and their synchronized movement. They started to look like pawns.

"Well, I'd feel better if I had an idea whether anything would protect the people of the city, should Bahamut arrive here. Fate should let me have that at least if it wants to set me back on my destined path."

Hint hint.

"I am uncertain what exactly the plan is. Since my betrayal of fate, the privilige of clear visions has been revoked from me, but I am certain something is in place to ensure their safety."

"That's going to need one hell of a barrier, and a lot of somethings."

Merlin didn't make eye contact anymore. "There are harsh sacrifices to be made, but the outcome will be the best possible. Something would have happened that had gotten the necesary parties in place."

So, Merlin couldn't know? Nina knew that trick all too well, as she'd happily exploit their perception of her as a frail little girl.

Fate was either petty, or aware that letting Merlin know something might make her more rebellious again. Fate had approved of Merlin meeting her today, and bringing her here, it was probably supposed to steer Nina in some direction. If only she had an idea what ... for all she knew, fate was reading her mind and accounting for her doubt of it.

"Think of it this way, the details are as obsolete as the past that cannot come back to alter the future, rather it is a road towards it. Fate is a guide who can see the road in advance. Whatever traveller dwells on the past road, or the rocks with which it is built?"

Why did just doing stuff have to be so complicated? If she could just see what fate did ... Mugaro could see things in the world others could not, but they couldn't introduce nur to Merlin and ... actually, a lot of things had gone wrong for Chris because of Mugaro, not just Jeanne and Azazel with their resistance to fate's inspiration.

Merlin wanted her to not consider motivations, but Nina bet fate didn't want her to consider method either. And it was selective with information.

Was there anything she herself was missing any crucial information?

Her eyes fell to the young blond man down there, sitting to the side with Dias. She knew him well, the man who had tried to murder her, and according to Cerberus, a racist and a glory hound.

If she hadn't cared for the demons then he would be ... a nice young man, not very attractive to her, but she'd happily throw his murder attempt behind herself. No dwelling on the past.

Allesand Visponti was underestimation manifest. Hadn't Kaisar been weirdly insistent they use Allesand instead of Dias?

Azazel refused to go to Helheimr for back up because he feared Mugaro would be used as a weapon. Take Mugaro out of the equation, and add in knowing that wards, zombies and hybrids all had immunity ... all he had to do was offer a pact to Jeanne d'Arc to render her a terrifying warrior, enough to maybe get Lucifer to move. And Jeanne was already a general, right now only restrained because heaven hadn't turned her into a saint. If hell offered ... and Azazel didn't fear for Mugaro's life ...

If Mugaro died, Jeanne and Azazel would go to war much sooner.

If Chris not only had cast a death sentence on her, but doubled down on it not too long ago, then the death sentence he'd cast on Mugaro years ago would probably also still be in place. Especially after the siege.

Kill Mugaro on sight, she could just hear it in his tone now.

"A friend of mine told me that humans heal much longer than demons do," Nina said.

Merlin said nothing, but Nina dared betting that was confusion. Her information must not be so good, or better yet, Nina was acting outside of fate.

Better make a move then.

Nina peered down the wall. The height was too much if she jumped and she wanted to avoid her wings out, so she hiked up her dress and half climbed, half fell down in chunks. Lightly she landed on the lower level, ran for Allesand and dragged him into a corridor before he could even object.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" he sputtered.

Nina faced him without letting go, and he went from affronted to stark terror.

"Sorry, I don't like to hurt people, but you're very likely going to kill someone I care about," Nina said, pulled him into the nearest room. There she threw him against the wall.

"Wh—aaarrrrrrghh!" The sickening crack of a shattered knee got a companion when Nina kicked at his other knee. Missing because he slumped, she broke his femur.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" The young man wimphered on in fear, but Nina turned away and slammed the door.

Merlin waited outside, looking rather startled, but all she said was a cold, "You're stupid. Now you won't know who will be sent after your little friend."

"No, that's not how fate works. I'm just thinning the options," Nina said. "Your lord has to scramble for options if it needs someone like him."

If she could do this, the push of fate really did need preexisting traits. For whatever she felt for Chris, that meant she'd have to fight herself. Well, she could handle that.

· · · · · · ·

Home at last, oh joy. What a mess. Demons all over the place Cerberus in charge of part, Belphegor in other parts, Azazel some kind of shadow king. Apparently Rita was obsolete as a doctor because Mugaro turned out to be a literal god tier healer, who could just make wards to share the basics of that with humans. So much for following her father's footsteps.

Ah well, her father's footsteps would've gotten boring anyway, and what Belphegor and Trismegistus were doing looked awfully enticing. Not to mention the Smaragd Guard. The question why only certain zommorods worked as implants just begged to be answered, but first she had to get a touch on the current status. Wouldn't want to start any dangerous experiments during a crisis situation.

The barrier wasn't coming down apparently because of some ancient force of hell was slightly less bored. Something about poking fate. Merlin tried playing the same game, and so did Favaro and guess who, Amira. Astral projection was a thing. Interesting, and frustating — so out of her field of expertise.

Azazel and Nina started the rebellion sequel, now starring various human factions they weren't close with. The doctor's guild was distantly involved even. Too bad they'd been to heaven and pretty much ruined their chances for divine support, and this wasn't the first time Nina had hurled herself at Charioce. Azazel did a piss poor job not exploding over that, while Kaisar did a piss poor job actually exploding overthe countless reasons he had to defect already. Really, what his problem? How much more kicks did he need?

Cerberus summoned her at some point during the morning.

"So how much zombies can you make for us?" Cerberus asked right away. "We sure could use an army in case that barrier goes down."

"None, I need my cane to do that remotely. Without it I have to bite every corpse individually, and I can't control them as easily."

"Ugh. We picked the worst time to start objecting to mass murder," Cerberus whined.

"We?"

Cerberus grit her teeth. "Look, I have a good reason to not want to mass murder humans, okay. I'm the matron demon of community, dammit."

"Oh goody. So you got me out to do nothing useful?"

"What, did you want to stay?"

"I had a few interesting projects running. Here, I'm not even useful as a doctor anymore," Rita shrugged. "Ah well, I'll happily occupy myself with Belphegor's zommorod and mystery machine projects."

"Oooh, wait a second." Cerberus folded in on herself, replaced by a monstrous feathered dog with two wounds aside of her neck. She regurgigated a piece of ichor crafted meat before shifting back to her cutesy humanoid form.

"I've been told you can do fun things with the flesh of fallen angels."

Rita gave one of her rare smiles, just to humor her. In her ever private mind, she thrilled with excitement. She was getting so much toys this year.

Time to settle back and get herself a good working ground.

The slums were different in many ways, most relevant to Rita was the resurgance of profession : demons had begun production of various useful things, like glass and vials and metal thread, the sort of things she'd required for her work in the castle. Belphegor was already building a laboratory, though it went slow due to her other occupations. Rita took the liberty of occupying it. She had Olivia's flesh and bones stored in a cannister, before turning to a private room in which a number of tools were neatly stored with labels.

Durahanem tapped her on the shoulder. "What're you doing here?"

"Solving your mysteries," Rita said, gesturing at the weird tools they'd snatched from Olivia. "What is this all?"

"You're not ... oh, screw it. That's a set up Olivia had right below the amphitheater. Furfur was supposed to do something there to help her figure out what Azazel's specialty was. No idea what he did there otherwise."

Without touching anything, Rita observed all the materials. There was a lot of small stuff, some even biotechnical. She got about halfway through when Durahanem called her out, to present her with a number of people.

Lined up in the foyer were a few very nervous living humans, a few corpses, and Mugaro.

"You sure changed," Rita said, only giving the child a brief glance. The other people were more interesting, there was something wrong with them in a way Rita wouldn't have been able to place if Furfur hadn't told her about eating souls.

"Hey Rita," Mugaro said with forced cheer; if Rita had to guess ne was ill at ease with these people. "I'm glad you're okay. Cerberus says I should use my powers to help you figure out what Olivia and Furfur were doing, cause Angra Mainyu doesn't tell us anything. Especially what's up with ..."

Mugaro trailed off as nur eyes fell on the stored flesh of Olivia. Ne gulped.

"Get used to it, we're going to do a lot of gross stuff."

A little of half an hour later, in came John Oagburg, her good old colleague, now Mugaro's ward with special sight and healing powers. They'd hijacked him fog to carry healing song somehow. Oh, the interesting things just kept coming. He brought along a few more humans, these unaffected as control group. Oagburg divided the humans in groups : some whom Mugaro had healed, and some whose injuries had been so light they'd just gotten out of the arena right away.

She liked what she got, but there was one element missing. Next time she saw Cerberus, she let her know by the words, "Next time you spot Kaisar, bring him to me. Abduct him if you have to. He squandered my respect for his autonomy, so he can deal with it."

"If it's convenient," Cerberus said. "And we don't need for something else."

Rita left it at that. Anything else she had to say was best reserved for Kaisar. She might've been fine with the work she had to do in the castle, but that didn't mean Kaisar would get away with leaving her enslaved. He'd made a promise, after all.

· · · · · · ·

In heaven where all was sleek and beautiful but barren, it wasn't rich like this room. Her dragon self could only fit twice in this room, but there were carpets on the walls, embroidered curtains, rich paintings with golden frames, wood that didn't smell like anything she knew, perfumed cushions. She was torn between hating people had to starve for this, finding it all very pretty and how small it made the place seem.

She paced from one end to another, waiting. The candles dimmed, but she could not rest. She had met Merlin, but Ladislao had been out of sight and took everyone along. The forest dragon neither. No closer to figuring out what to do about them.

Amira had made no appearances for some reason, so she just made a point of regularly praying to Mugaro. If Kaisar showed his face, she'd maybe get an answer.

Charioce had ignored her for all of the day, that that did not last.

A hidden door pushed open, revealing not any servant, but Chris. "You're not asleep yet?"

"I don't like small spaces very much." She flopped onto the bed, but quickly sat up. "Not even if they're nice like this. Why are you keeping me like this?"

He walked past her, positioning himself at the window so she could only see his back. A chill settled on her. In the moonlight, he looked not so different from their moments in at the shining lake.

"The simple fact is they came to rescue one of their best weapons, and lost another weapon in the process," he said. "Whether that calculation pays off depends on whether that zombie can get herself another staff, I supposed."

Nina started to surpress a growl in her throat, but changed her mind. Let him hear it.

"This answer doesn't please you?"

Again that fond smile, only for it to send terror through her gut.

Was it fond at all? His face was always so perfect, like a marble adonis. Sometimes a dim frown, sometimes a dim smile, never too strong to break the beautiful symmetry. So vague it could be whatever she wanted. How much of the warmth she remembered was really him, and how much the dream of him? Not once had she considered him intelligent and cunning and ruthless. And selfish and prideful. He answered only to his own convictions, because all those of others were inconvenient to take into account. He thought his convictions were the best, and hers meant nothing.

"What's even going on between us?" she asked. "Most of who and how we are makes us enemies."

"Didn't you tell me already?" he said. "In prison, you said you had loved me. I'm getting the impression it's not as past tense as you imply, and perhaps you'd care to know it's mutual."

Those words left her with the barren realization she didn't even want him to be here. Strange thing, when she was supposed to be in love. Then again, Angra Mainyu had called it lust and butterflies, so was she?

"You love me? Then revoke your command to kill me."

He gave her a silence and a dead look, no need to spell out, No.

The tale of the stairway of fire ended with the hero declaring his love for the princess. Nina actually had no idea whether they'd have conversations about death orders, because they weren't together for most of it. Their happy ending was good because that's what everyone knew good endings were. Chris draped death over all he did and called that a kind of good too. Even her.

"Alright, I revise myself too : love that small time of you where I didn't know what a sadistic, stupid man you are."

Everything he meant to her hollowed out and slipped away, along with the tears from her eyes.

"And yet you are here."

"As if you aren't." She pulled his hand away hard enough to shove him back. "You would be on your way to Eibos already if I had died, right?"

Just a slight widening of his eyes, that was it. The impassive mask with that dim smile, whatever it meant, finally began to grate on her. Maybe it had grated on her long before, just to be hidden under the anguish for himself.

"For goodness sake, just tell me this one thing : can you go fight Bahamut right now?"

After seconds ticked by he said, "Yes. I postpone only so I can alter my kingdom for you. Honestly, I begin to doubt the effort. You'd rather have a war from the sound of it."

He smirked at this, eyes twinkling only like in the blur of their evening dances. It wasn't the thrill of the dance this time, she could hardly recognize him. Without smoothing his look back to stoic perfection, he came to the edge of the bed.

"You could kill me without noticing just by transforming here," he said. "I believe you have a number of triggers, one of them being me, ironically."

He trailed his hand down her cheek. His thumb took her tears along as he dragged it across her lips. There his hand stayed still, less as comfort and more as if he just wanted to sense her below his power.

Whether she could fight back or not, hapless damsel or powerful dragon did not change that he posed a very real threat to her. Perhaps not as dangerous as he could be, but still. Her boyfriend, her master, her destined soulmate, and perhaps her murderer. He could never give her true mercy when the shadow of his sentences lay upon her. Even if as fate demanded no other life weighed as much as his did, shouldn't her own at least count more? The dead cannot love either.

She grabbed his arm, freeing herself from his touch. "I hate so much of what you do to me and to others, so maybe that counts as hating you already."

"If that is how you would like to count, then I you cannot imagine the hatred I have for the weakness you set me up for."

The last drop of a loaded bucket spilled it over. Nina pushed him back so hard, he stumbled against the wall. "I'm done hearing about how much you suffer when you can't spare a breath about anyone else! Not even me!"

"If you are truly done, then come to me." He held out his hand. "See whether I can trigger you again. Prove you stand for what you believe in."

Nina's stomach turned and the walls felt like rushing in. They didn't, of course, not yet. This was just a room to hold her tears, alone.

"And then what?"

"They'll put the next Charioce on the throne, of course. I've already selected the next best from my father's bastards. I wasn't intending to do so, but the red dragon made it neccesary."

Even his offer to let her kill him was worthless. She turned away, not wanting to let him see her stew in tears and anger.

"Sleep well," Charioce said, back to his stoic self. Without another glance, he closed the door from which he'd come.

The dragon pacing behind the bars of her human flesh would have to wait only a little longer. She wasn't about him anymore, it was everyone else but him.

· · · · · · ·