The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 160: Interlude: Lumin

Chapter 160: Interlude: Lumin

Chancellor Lumin sighed as another stack of reports was laid in front of her.

Ever since the siege started, she’d converted her family manor into a command center of sorts, and that meant that she was at the center of the goings on in the city as more and more nobles escaped by ship.

She’d alternated her duties to the city with shoring up the worst cracks in the city barrier, and she was, in a word, exhausted. Only the Mayor and the Meister of the Adventurer’s Guild staying around had saved her from taking on all of the city’s needs herself.

Fortunately, she had full access to the only supply of coffee in the world, and she was going through it as fast as it could be made, with a full team of druids now cultivating the beans on her property day and night while her butler, a mage in his own right, had the means of processing them with only a week of experimentation and Professor Urvi snapping at him every other moment.

The pangolin-like beastkin woman was only slightly less of a coffee fiend than she’d become. If she survived this siege, Urvi would be a rich woman thanks to the miracle of coffee...

Lumin’s thoughts ground to a halt as she finally processed what she was reading.

"Terry, why am I reading about Syndicate business?" Lumin asked with a scowl. "That’s the Mayor’s prerogative." Lumin had no taste for the Syndicate. She would have banned them from the city if she’d had the clout to alienate the majority of nobles.

Her avian butler couldn’t smile, but she detected a slight satisfaction in his neck feathers. "Because as of last night, there is no more Syndicate business in the city."

Lumin tilted her head in confusion. The Syndicate never missed a chance to parasitize a situation. After the siege began they started offering passage for people willing to indenture themselves, and what accompanied them was the usual rash of kidnappings and disappearances as they stole anyone they thought would sell for enough profit.

Her curiosity piqued, she turned back to the report and didn’t stop reading until there was nothing left.

"Is there more? What about the mercenary captain?" Lumin accepted a fresh cup of coffee.

"As far as I am aware, they were remanded to their company. The report does not mention it, but the emancipated individuals have come up with a moniker for the mysterious demon..."

"Don’t keep me waiting, Terry," Lumin snapped. "It’s obvious they have to be an archmage at least."

"The commoners are calling him ’Ghostheart’, after the glow that they spotted within his person."

"Sounds like advanced mana corruption... Do demons get that?" Precious little was known about the physiology of true demons, and Lumin had just assumed that they shared the humanoid schema that seemed universal to people.

"The Adventurer’s Guild Maester would appreciate your opinion on the incident, as well as any advice you may have for magically fortifying the docks..."

"I’ll draft something once I’m done with this pile," Lumin said.

"Very good, ma’am." Terry bowed and left the room.

As she worked, Lumin’s thoughts kept going back to the Ghostheart incident. The witnesses had been universally cagey on details except to say it was a large demon with a glowing blue chest.

The demon didn’t have wings, so how did he get in the city? Did he swim in?

That seemed the most likely explanation, given the incident had happened at the docks... but more importantly...

Why would a demon go through the trouble of freeing a bunch of Aytherian slaves?

It seemed too principled an act, given the battle raging at the wall. And given the reputation of demons in general...

Lumin didn’t care for stereotypes. What mattered was that a demon had infiltrated the city and instead of burning supplies or assassinating some target, he’d freed a bunch of slaves, destroyed one Syndicate ship that had been about to leave tomorrow, and escaped to who knows where.

If he was still in the city-

Lumin blinked and restarted the report she’d just read. Guards had spotted a tall figure with a blue glow near the sight of a double-murder; which seemed to be a battle between low-level mages. Both incidents had occurred last night, and the report stated that the men who’d died were both employed by the Syndicate.

The timing... and with what had happened at Darlbridge weeks ago...

Lumin’s lips didn’t smile, but she felt the weight of history on her like a comforting blanket.

It was a weight she was getting more and more familiar with in her third century of life.

Maledict’s son would be a powerful asset for ending the siege if, indeed, he was on the side of Ayther, and there was only one conclusion that made sense to Lumin.

Ghostheart was Kir Gale.

And he was settling a score with one of the most powerful entities on the planet while her city tried its hardest not to burn.

She wondered once again how he’d managed to sink the Sovereign of Sugar in so spectacular a fashion, given his seals, but knowing him he’d found a way, and based on what the witnesses had said, he’d discovered his demonic war form.

She would need to be very careful with her next move regarding him...

"Terry," she called out, and her butler re-entered the room. "Please send a message to the Academy that I wish to speak with Kordia van Mora at her earliest convenience."

"At once," he replied with a bow.

Terry didn’t return until after lunch, by which time Lumin had finished her draft for a spell ward that would make swimming enormously uncomfortable and potentially deafening near the city. It would also scare away the fish, but with druids they could afford to give up a little food for a little security...

"Ahem, I apologize for my lateness, but it would seem that Kordia van Mora has not been on the campus for the last day."

"She disappeared?" Lumin’s face fell into shock.

"Not at all, she arranged an air carriage and checked out with the guards. She went into the city yesterday but the record does not have her stating a destination. The staff are awaiting your orders with regard to her. Given how few of them are there to guard the students, there is a certain... trepidation when it comes to handling the issue of the disappearances. And of course, the public has yet to be made aware."

Perhaps secrecy had seemed an excess given the siege, but Lumin had thought that the students were simply escaping the city. Most weren’t of a power to be useful for the defense, and without signs of combat...

You should know more than anyone that an iron knife is just as effective at taking out a mage...

A different sort of weight made itself known in Lumin’s gut. The weight of responsibility. She needed to do something...

"Go back to the Academy. Have the special students gathered into two groups. One will go into the city to look for Kordia, and the other will patrol the Academy from the bottom up. Get reports..." Lumin felt a moment of dissonance. Something big was happening in the direction of the walls, and as an archmage she could sense it. "... I’ll figure out when to send you for reports," she turned toward the front wall.

"As you wish."

He left.

Not a moment later, a guardswoman ran panting into her presence.

"Lady Chancellor... there’s a problem at the gate."

"Out with it, woman," Lumin said.

"The demons are attacking harder than ever. Their General has finally taken the field. He’s in magiform-"

Lumin was on her feet and rushing to exit as fast as her legs could carry her.

An air carriage was waiting for her, but she didn’t need it. She could prepare on the way.

Producing a disc of hardened magic, Lumin stepped onto it, letting her boots sink in just a little to secure her as she began to fly herself toward the siege, closing her eyes to concentrate.

She prepared, wrapping her will around the magic in the air and drawing it into her control, she let the light of her coming blaze forth. Shouts of joy washed toward her from the wall as the defenders saw her approach.

Once her preparations were complete, she opened her eyes.

In the distance, standing at the center of the road and surrounded by the detritus of dozens of spells that had been futilely cast in his direction, the enemy General waited.

His dark magiform towered over the demons of his honor guard, four arms waiting with fingertips touching. It was like someone had left a person-shaped slice of the night sky in the middle of the road...

Lumin hovered over the wall and past the city barrier. The demon General rose until they were at the same altitude.

They continued to approach each other slowly until they were in shouting distance.

"It has been a long time since I’ve fought a gnossinian," Lumin shouted.

"I have never fought a human myself, but perhaps you shall be my first, Lumin the Preserver." His voice was distorted by the sheer density of magic he was holding throughout his body. You may address me as General Sreev." He bowed slightly. "Of course, we could simply negotiate. There would be a high place waiting for you in Maledict’s court if you were to convert..."

"Never," Lumin said, pulling her staff from its storage and resting the base on her platform. It was a slender artifact of white-silver mythril and crystal. A casting medium and a reserve supply of mana all in one.

"That is a shame. I am quite aware of Gra’Rhuel’s army arriving soon. There will be no glory waiting for them."

"So you’re planning to leave. Why this charade then?" Lumin asked.

There was no face to the magi form of this demon, but Lumin sensed a smile.

"You know my kind quite well. Lying is not my strongest suit, nor my preference... In truth, I was hoping to lure the strongest mage in the city."

"Why? To make me an offer you knew I’d refuse?"

"To keep you here, while my master finishes his work."

"And what work is that?" Lumin asked.

"Perhaps if you defeat me I will tell you. But if you leave, I will level your city behind you, and the world will quickly learn that you ran from this fight before Maledict killed you."

He said this in such a matter-of-fact tone, that Lumin almost wished she could hire him as a teacher.

"So be it, General Sreev. Let’s start this mages’ duel."

I am so glad I had coffee today...

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