The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 115: A Chance To Fly

Chapter 115: A Chance To Fly

"We should send Sam, they’re sneakier than all of us combined," Noir suggested.

Sam nodded their head, but Kir raised a hand. They’d been arguing about how to retrieve Stella for ten minutes. "I’m the one that needs to go. She’s my familiar, and I’m the best suited to find her. At the very least I could try calling her with our bond."

The latter would be quite painful, but at least it would be silent.

"Best cast scenario, I sneak close enough to call her and nobody even notices," Kir smiled reassuringly.

"And worst case?" Caroon crossed his arms.

"Worst case is the camp catches fire and I need rescuing," Kir answered. "Look, I know they’re probably all aware we’ve left by now, but I can do this. I’m not helpless without my magic."

Caroon snorted, "That much we know."

"How are you going to find us after?" Namosa asked.

"Just stick to the trail... I can catch up quickly," Kir said. He was still keeping his wings secret for their safety, but he would absolutely use them if he had to. At least it was relatively dark even with the moons, so he didn’t have to worry too much about being identified.

"If we stay on the trail it’ll be easier to find us," Caroon warned. "If they’re serious about capturing us, they might already be heading our way."

"All the more reason for me to head out now," Kir said. Then, reaching into his dimensional storage, he pulled out the skull and placed it onto the cart. "Here. If I don’t make it back, then at least you’ll have this."

He took a step away from the group, only to stop as he felt something grab onto the leg of his pants.

Looking down, he saw Noir staring up at him. "I don’t know why you’re insisting on doing this alone, but I’m going to trust you." He punched Kir on the knee, lightly. "You better make it back."

Kir reached down and shook Noir’s hand. "Thank you, everyone, I will be back, I promise." Turning, he started jogging along the path until he had his stride.

After a minute he pulled off his jacket and stored it, hurling himself into the air with a firm flap as he deployed his wings. It took a few moments for him to clear the treeline; sticking close to the canopy he aimed himself south and flew until the fires of the camp became visible.

He arced above the treeline until he was toward the south side of the camp, where he landed and stowed his wings.

As soon as he landed, it became apparent that the camp was definitely on high alert.

There were two guards at the southern gate, and the watchtowers on the east and west sides of the camp were both manned by crossbow-wielding adventurers.

Crouching low amidst the bushes, he closed his eyes and tried to send a pulse of awareness through his bond with Stella.

Immediately, his whole body rang with the shock of pain as his seals activated. Part of him felt guilty about the fact that Stella would be getting her own dose of pain as a result of their bond, but he needed to alert her and-

Almost as soon as the pain stopped, he got a pulse of recognition back, along with a sense that she was trapped.

What? How? Kir wondered to himself. Even if the camp had been alerted, Stella had stuck to imitating Cheshire’s form. The response had come with a sense of someplace dark and high-up, but close to a window. And a sense of something sharp against her neck.

As the pain faded, Kir forced himself to stay calm. He eyed the guards, then looked about for something he could throw. A moment later, a rock clacked against the stump of a tree closer to the camp.

"What was that?" one of the guards, the woman they’d first met when they arrived by the sound of it, asked.

"Should we check it out?" her companion asked, casting his gaze in that direction, which was the opposite of where Kir was currently slinking.

He’d barely managed to flatten himself amidst the wooden spikes around the camp when he heard her reply.

"Nah, go ask one of the towers if they see anything. Not stepping away from the walls for some rodent."

"How about you go? I don’t want to get in trouble for leaving my post; not after what happened with Tigenel," her fellow guard pulled at his collar nervously.

"No one else is getting sent out there. We don’t have the raptors, so quit complaining and go," she growled back.

"Fine, I’m going," he grumbled, slipping into the cracked-open gate and out of sight. Slipping along the wall, Kir kept as quiet as he could as he slowly stepped sideways. He kept his eyes on the guard, freezing his movements every time she seemed about to turn in his direction.

When he heard the male guard shout up to one of the towers, he jumped slightly, an act that caused his tail to knock gently against the wall.

The guard started to turn-

Only to pause in confusion as she beheld the empty space where Kir had been.

Above her, Kir gripped the wood as hard as his claws would allow, having leapt up purely on instinct and gripped with both fingers and toe claws.

Even he was surprised by how well he was holding on, and grateful that the woman’s rounded helmet was keeping him out of her sight. As she continued to looked in the direction he’d been in, he decided to risk climbing, and slipped over the palisade just as the second guard returned.

"Terrin says he saw a big bird, but that’s it," the guard said, startling his companion.

"Gods Moec, say something before you go popping up out of nowhere-"

On the other side of the wall, Kir landed lightly, slipping in a crouch towards where he’d felt the pulse of Stella’s connection.

"Of course, it’s the Syndicate building..." Kir muttered to himself.

There were lights on in every room, but as Kir slipped closer he saw that the first floor seemed empty, at least through the windows he could see into.

More concerning, the stables as he passed seemed devoid of most of the mounts. That had to be bad. He didn’t think they’d have moved so quickly... But he had to worry about the problem in front of him.

Checking the windows, he slipped a claw into the latch of one pair of shutters before sliding into the now-empty dining hall. The bottles and other detritus had yet to be cleared, but he kept quiet as he approached the center of the building, climbing the wooden stairs until he was on the second floor.

He sent another surge of connection out, looking for Stella, and had to clutch his chest and bite his lip to keep silent as the brief but intense pain told him his seals very much remembered he’d emitted mana recently.

Stella was still above him, and the sense of dark and cramped space also came with a sense of warmth and... unwanted affection? Just what had Stella gotten herself into?

Kir realized she had to be in the attic, and looking around, he spotted a small hatch just above the stairwell. He was more than tall enough to open it, but climbing up produced a scrambling noise that-

"Who’s there?" a voice came from the door in front of Kir as he pulled himself up.

He barely got his tail clear as he saw the light in the hall increase beneath him.

"Is it the Warmancer?" a voice brimming with officious confidence asked.

"No one’s there, Master Brooker," the first voice answered, a door clicking closed right after.

"It’s got to be whatever’s been screeching in the attic lately," Brooker scoffed. "Bloody wilds."

From his new perch in the attic, Kir could still hear their conversation. He started inching his way forward when he heard Stella’s voice.

"Kir!" she whispered loudly. "Save me!"

Turning awkwardly, very aware of the grit and dust on his skin, he saw a rectangle of fireplace brick and, more importantly, the nest built against its widest side.

Stella was inside the nest, the back of her throat held by the jaws of a sleeping Cheshire. And underneath her were...

"Are those eggs?" Kir asked.

"It was like this when I got here! I took one little peek and she thought I was her husband or something. Dragged me in here and didn’t let go! But we don’t have time for that! These slaver guys are planning on capturing our friends-"

"I know, the Black Sheep are already heading north. I came back when I realized we’d left you and Cheshire behind-"

"You forgot me?!" she hissed.

"We were moving fast-"

"Some partner you are!" she started to shift, before suddenly stopping and squeaking with pain as Cheshire’s jaw tightened on the back of her throat. "Can you get her off of me before she rips out my spine?"

"Can’t you just shapeshift smaller?" Kir asked.

"I tried that already! I can’t go super small anymore, you dolt! That would be like you trying to shove your whole tail into a shoe! There are limits."

Kir let out an exasperated breath and started to low-crawl toward her. He made a little two-toned whistling sound and Cheshire, one he’d used in the past when feeding her, and was rewarded with one of the raptor’s eyes opening as she took him in.

Reaching, Kir started to scratch at the back of her neck. When she started purring - which was more of a clicking sound than any cat would have made - Kir tried to reach with his other hand to separate her jaw from Stella.

That act brought his hand close to her eggs, and a moment later maternal instinct took over and Cheshire snapped at his hand, leaving a bloody arc in both sides of his palm.

Stella, now freed, crawled away and shifted back to normal, but the damage was done.

Kir cried out, pulling his arm away as Cheshire screeched at him and covered her eggs with her body.

Shouts began from below, and Kir sensed a buildup of mana.

"Let’s get out of here!" Stella shouted, dashing at a crouch for the small window on the front of the attic. Kir followed her, arriving right behind her as she forced it open as wide as it would go.

He had a split second to realize it would not accommodate his size before the accumulating mana below him resolved into a sudden burst of light as an explosion sent him flying.

His vision came back in midair, and he saw the Syndicate leader from earlier, his hand raised as mana light gathered again in his palm, lips moving in a spell while above, barely safe from the carnage, Cheshire screeched angrily at everyone and everything.

A moment later, the slaver’s spell flashed.