The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 138: Enter The Siege

Chapter 138: Enter The Siege

Kir was as good as dead...

At least until the blade headed for his guts suddenly stopped as the demon seized up, before dropping his blade and clutching at his chest.

Kir finished drawing Kangetsu and was about to strike when he realized that the glowing mark matched one he’d seen only once before...

"The Forbidding... it’s... you?" the demon said.

From behind him burst four more demons, and as soon as they saw the glowing mark of Forbidding on Kir’s chest, they lowered their weapons. Kir could feel that their own marks were warning them against attacking the ward of the Forbidding.

It could only mean one thing...

"You serve Maledict..." Kir said.

"Yes. Please forgive us," the first demon said. "We saw that one and followed, thinking they were a spy-"

"As if a child of Wrath would stoop to sneaking about," Amarena scowled. The way she looked at Kir, at the mark of Forbidding on his chest, it was obvious that the wheels were turning in her head.

Kir thought that perhaps he should take over scouting from now on... but there was a more pressing situation.

"Stand," Kir commanded, trying to lay on some of the overt self-confidence he’d seen from his father.

The soldier pushed hastily to his feet, grabbing his sword and sheathing it. That was when Kir noticed that all of the soldiers had painted over their various skin tones with green face paint. Camouflage.

"May I ask who you are?" he asked.

Kir tried to discern some rank, but he didn’t know what to look for.

"That is for me to know," he decided to say, opting for mystery, at least for now. He turned to see if Noir was okay.

Noir, still a bit flustered, peeked out from behind Amarena’s leg. "I think you should take the lead on this one. This is beyond me..."

Kir looked to Amarena, who shrugged. Then to Stella, who licked her lips and shrugged, and Kir felt her lewd thoughts rising through their bond. Then to Sam, who kept their knife raised and gave him a stony, unreadable look.

Turning back to the - was it scouts or a picket? - he thought about what Amarena had said about talking her way through her mother’s army. Maybe it would work for him. Doubly-so because he had the protection of a Forbidding... only it didn’t seem the common soldiers knew who he was.

With all the self-assurance he could muster, he smiled.

"Take us to your leader."

-

Kir didn’t know what to expect from a demonic war camp.

His mind had come up with all sorts of horrible scenarios. Human skulls on top of sticks. Tents made of human flesh. Cauldrons filled with bubbling blood and the limbs of the fallen...

But those thoughts were artifacts of his past life.

The reality was rather mundane, and far cleaner than what he thought when it came to medieval warcamps.

The demons had set up their camp behind the front lines in as close to a regular circle as was manageable. Instead of small triangle tents, there were long row-style tents, with barracks on the outer perimeter and functional tents on the inside.

At the center of the tent city was a bonfire, whose flames were glowing weirdly green, which might have had something to do with the green-veined logs they were using to feed it. When one knew that burning copper dust produces a green flame, the effect was much less impressive. Perhaps those logs were from hell then...

"The command tent is ahead," the scout, Varv, pointed towards the leading edge of the circle, closest to the city while still being at the center.

As Kir strode through the camp, they were spared only a few looks from busy demons, who seemed restless.

One particularly rough-looking demon was sharpening her sword, seated outside a barrack tent. She called out "Hey spy, got any Ayther wine? I’ll trade for it."

It took a moment for Noir to realize she was talking to him.

"Sadly no, I wasted it all complaining," he said with his usual flat affect, before realizing he might have just insulted her...

"Hah!" she barked out a laugh. "Good one, Fluffy." She went back to sharpening her sword, though she gave Noir a suggestive wink. "How about you come back later, be my pillow tonight?"

She had to be at least four-times his size. Kir had a brief image of a terrified Noir with his body pinned down by her sharp, backswept horns.

Noir just smiled nervously and hurried to catch up to the group, which had slowed at the exchange. "Why would they think I’m a spy?" he wondered aloud.

"Because you’re a non-demon in a demon camp," Stella said. "Though~ I think Maledict mostly used cubi for spying stuff. Wards just to detect demons are expensive enough most people don’t bother, so why not use those of us who can be anyone?"

"True wisdom, mistress," one of the scouts complimented. He seemed a bit enamored of Stella as he tried to ask after her particular demonic lineage.

Kir just ignored the flirting and hoped Stella wouldn’t try to drag him into fun with random strangers.

When they arrived at the command tent, the lead scout spoke quickly with a senior-looking demon for entry. Beyond was a sight that instantly brought to Kir’s mind the image of a control center... though controlling what, his mind kept slipping around.

Demons sat at individual tables featuring etched stone surfaces. Above each floated a "viewscreen" of sorts that was made up of chains containing small, silent viewports that seemed to show a view from the air above the front line. They called out what they were seeing in calm, steady voices, staggered at different volumes that Kir suspected were related to priorities.

"First hexant shows slower weakening after spell volley, possibly due to reinforcement." "Central hexant returning fire. Shield stable." "Coven Halo Eaters signaling rotation with Coven Rothound complete." "Ninth wave of vessels departing east."

The flow of information was staggering, and from what Kir could see and sense, the gnossinians - lanky, long-fingered demons with many variations in their horns and slightly overlarge heads - were passing it along with only visual information.

Universally, each wore a standardized robe with a strange raven on the back. One that Kir had seen emblazoned everywhere.

It looked like a raven with three black and white eyes, left right, and center, surrounded by six floating eyes colored from red to violet. It was poised as if in flight, facing out directly.

At the center of the command tent stood an even taller, even skinnier gnossinian, if Kir’s guess was correct. Or perhaps some evolved form. His fingers seemed etched with spell circles, as did every square inch of his arms.

He continued to do his job for a few moments as the party finished filing under the tent, with a voice as dry as a dusty tomb.

"Send the first hexant additional mages, and the 29th special squad. They have a maven who can read mana precisely." "Have the Halo Eaters report on expanding our ward radius for anti-teleportation." "Send one company to harry those ships and pick off any mages or mavens. We need to maintain consistency. Remind them not to go too far out."

Those demons who received orders acknowledged them instantly before raising a hand to their viewscreens and touching some unseen surface. Pulses of light began to emit in a pattern that reminded Kir of morse code. It was an ingenious system, establishing a form of instant communication...

Kir’s fascination almost made him miss when the general turned his way, eyes flickering with something like recognition or perhaps comparison, before clearing his throat as he looked to the lead scout.

"Report, Sergeant."

"General. We tracked this Wrathian in the woods." The scout gestured at Amarena and the General, oddly, gave her a familiar smile. "Thought she might be a spy." Sreev snorted a bit at the notion. "Then we found the rest, and when we attacked..." The Sergeant pointed to the center of Kir’s chest. "The Forbidding is for him..."

"You attacked him?" the General’s voice got drier.

"We didn’t know..."

Kir felt magic welling in the Gnossinian. A great deal of magic.

"Wait! I have already forgiven his transgression. There is no need to waste life on a minor mistake."

"Wise words," the General said. Suddenly Kir felt as if the magic turn his way, and when it peaked-

Magic flared around Kir, but not a magic that set off the seal in his ear. A moment later, the General suddenly seemed less magical, and Kir opened his mana sight to find that the General had been somehow extinguished of mana. No... not mana entirely, just what had been going into and out of him.

A sound rang out. Every demon in the tent and for a good radius around the General staggered, his communication officers pulling their hands back as they clutched their chests.

The General looked to be in the most pain, but with an over-wide grimace, he finally mastered himself back up to standing as the effect ended, before clearing his throat.

"Ah, so that is what that feels like... I have never had my source closed like that before..." he rubbed the glowing mark of forbidding on his chest, then seemed to remember Kir was there. "I am General Sreev. Forgive the test, curiosity is endemic to the gnossinian clade. I was permitted one spell in order to verify your identity. I sent a non-specific but potentially damaging amount of magic toward you, which your Forbidding promptly shielded."

The tent was silent as everyone stared at Kir, whose chest was glowing with both the mark and the blue light within him.

"Welcome to the Second Battalion Arcane. The House of Goetia opens its wings to one who seeks the height of magic." He bowed, bringing his head lower than Kir’s. It sounded formal, but the man’s dry tone made the speech sound a bit canned.

"We are honored to shelter in its shadow," Stella said in reply.

The General nodded to her, before an eyebrow quirked, perhaps at her appearance. She was certainly the sexiest half-gnossinian in the room, in her base form.

He waved a hand dismissively to the scouts. "Return to your mission." And the scouts departed. Then he turned to Kir. "May I inquire as to your name?"

Kir wondered how such an important demon would be allowed to test for him without knowing his name. Or perhaps he was giving Kir an opportunity to... do something?

Kir could practically hear everyone’s interest turning once more to him. The command tent was silent, most everyone having stopped their activities when the Forbidding went off.

He almost forgot to put on his over-confident imitation of his father before he answered. "I am Kir, Son of Maledict. Your Duke."

Almost as one, every demon that heard and didn’t know him let out small gasps and whispers.

"Maledict has a son?" "When did this happen?" "Oh no, he’s hot..."

"I welcome you, Kir to the Siege of Norneau." He bowed even deeper, arms fanning out with even more slow grace. "How may I serve?"

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