The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 218: Melting Down

Chapter 218: Melting Down

True to her word, after Rainier told her what his team was really working on, Malz showed him what a welding wand looked like.

"See, it doesn’t work directly on the metal. You just feed power in and it makes the fire hot enough for you and at a safe distance." She pointed at the screen of her tablet, which, weirdly enough, showed an angel using his welding torch to cook what appeared to be an artichoke.

Rain hadn’t spent a lot of time watching illusions on his tablet, despite everyone around him being used to it. There was something weird to him about filling his time watching other people do things when he could be doing something himself.

The only thing he could conclude from the illusion - video, as Malz called it - was that Angels did weird things with dangerous equipment sometimes. But now that he knew what to look for, he remembered seeing the strange rods at Iriel’s forge.

As he made ready to leave, Malz called out to him. "Wait a minute. Aren’t you going to show me the mana sauna?"

"Oh. I guess that’s okay," Rain said. "But after I get the welding wand."

A quick stop at the forge and Rain found the tri-pronged wand with its thick, cylindrical profile in a matter of seconds. Now that he knew how to activate it, he did a quick test by charging it with mana and waiting for the little lightning symbol to light up.

Sure enough, when he pushed the button the symbol was on, a tiny spark zapped into existence for the fraction of a second it took to slide his thumb off the button.

"You’ll want eye protection," Malz pointed at a set of goggles that were hanging with masks and the like on wall pegs. "That shit was bright."

*

As soon as Malz saw the chamber, she was... not impressed.

"Looks a bit rustic."

"I cleaned off all that," Rain frowned, looking at the plates to make sure he hadn’t missed anything.

"Have you ever welded before?"

"Forge-welding, yeah, but these pieces are all too big for that. It was hard enough just making the sidewalls."

"Cassiel’s going to hate it. She hates putting her pretty little wings away for anything."

Rain frowned slightly. He did not have that impression of his squad leader. Clearing his throat, he said, "You should probably stand back," before approaching the closet with the welder.

Malz took one step back, and then suddenly Rain felt a firm and constant gust of air at his neck.

"You’ll suffocate yourself if you try to do it in that tiny space, at least let me help with ventilation."

With her help, Rain got through welding the wall pieces to the floor piece and each other, watching through the tinted goggles as the wand emitted a blueish bolt of lightning that melted the metal together wherever he guided it.

But as he stepped back to take a break before starting the top piece, he heard a voice.

"Rain! What are you doing?!"

Rain took off the goggles to find a furious Cassiel with her wings slightly puffed out, arms out with an aggressive bend to her body as she glared between Rainier and Malzkiel.

"Malz was just helping me with the welding," Rain said, showing her the wand.

"Oh, so now you and Malky are friends?! Are we not keeping our project a secret anymore?! I wonder if I should have asked the team leader about it!" she half-shrieked the last, making Rain grateful they were in an unused corner of the manor.

"Back off, Cassie," Malz stepped forward. "I don’t care about your little project. I’m just here making sure Rain doesn’t blind himself or burn his lungs or whatever shit can go wrong with putting hot metal together."

"You’re here because you want Rain for yourself!" Cassie accused.

"I..." For a moment Rain thought Malz would just outright deny it, but instead, her hands bunched into fists as she turned the tables. "You have some fucking nerve considering you already bagged him! And, oh, what, did it just take a little liquid courage for him like when you had your fun with me?!"

Cassie’s teeth clicked together as she glared at Malz. "Get out of my sight," she ground out. "And don’t tell anyone about this."

"Or what?"

"Or I will fucking report you for disobeying your Prime, and you can wind up as someone else’s problem."

Malz glared back at her, but Rain could see sadness underneath it.

"As you wish, Prime Eros."

The way the halls were designed, two angels could walk abreast with wings out, but with Cassie standing in the middle of hall, it wouldn’t be possible for Malz to pass. The standoff lasted only a few seconds before Malz gave up, storing her wings and crouching a little to avoid touching Cassie.

She walked off in silence, leaving Rain feeling bad for what had transpired because of him.

As soon as Malz disappeared around the corner, Cassiel rounded on him.

"What did you tell her?"

"About what?"

"About what!? About..." she dropped her voice lower. "About that night."

"I didn’t tell her anything. She just sort of... guessed. But wait, you remember that night?"

"Of course I remember that night. I thought you forgot."

"I thought you forgot too. You never brought it up or anything..."

"Why would I bring it up?" Cassie waved a dismissive hand. "That doesn’t matter. Why didn’t you tell me she knew?"

"It seemed personal, and we didn’t really talk about it..."

"What did she say about me?"

"I don’t think-"

"Tell me!"

Her words seized Rainier’s mind. He told her what Malz said. About her. About not asking who he had replaced.

"That little... You want to know who you replaced? It was her. Because back when Malky was a boy, he- she decided she wanted to go to Ayther without me. She left me high and dry for weeks before coming back to get her own squadron. I had no one but Ozzie for the first few months of training and she didn’t even have the good grace to let me know. She almost ruined my shot at becoming Prime. At going to Ayther at all!"

Rainier registered what she said, but with a mind clear of any other influences, he finally realized what had happened that night.

The same thing she’d just done to him.

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