The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 229: Angelic Evolution

Chapter 229: Angelic Evolution

In the days following their reconciliation, Cassie and Malz had spent a lot of time talking to each other. Of course, once they remembered Rainier’s part in the reconciliation, they wasted no time interrogating him about his past relationships. As miserable as it made him, at least he got them to stop referring to Kir as an "abomination" or "it." And they both agreed to keep his secret.

At first, Rainier was just glad to have everything back to good. But then things started getting weird. Sometimes Cassie and Malz would whisper to each other, only to stop once Rain entered the room.

Then yesterday Malz showed up and told Cassie, "I want in."

"In on what?"

"On the mana sauna thing. Me and my team."

"Do they know about it?"

Rain was just sitting there with a book on the mid-canopy, learning mostly that spirits and the odd monster were left to roam the wide, tiered planes as they wanted. That must have been the source of the magical food.

"Not yet," Malz said. "But I did my homework. You and I both have our wings, so once we figure out a good inflow-outflow with our mana, something might... happen."

"Something?" Cassie asked, crossing her arms.

"Our second evolutions," Malz whispered, loud enough for Rainier to hear.

Cassie blinked rapidly. "What? I thought we were supposed to be decades from that sort of thing. You just got yours a few months ago... Why didn’t it say anything like that on the network?"

"Because it’s not on the network. I found it in a book, down in the basement stores at the Galleria. You can’t delete paper with a few handwaves."

Cassie looked around as if anyone else but the three of them had ever used the library. "Is it for real?"

"Seems so. The details are that we need to be sound in body and mind, and in full control of our mana. And what has all our Executioner training been about?"

"All three," Cassie nodded.

"Exactly."

"But why bring your Elevated into this?"

"Aren’t you?" Malz titled her head. "There’s nothing in there about how it might benefit Elevated or half-angels. So I thought maybe we could do an experiment."

"Are your squadmates alright with that?" Rain asked, concern on his face.

"I haven’t asked them yet," Malz said.

"I thought you didn’t care about winning the race," Rainier said.

"I don’t care about winning, but I do want to get better. Good enough to go to Ayther as a rookie team and not get smoked by some demons or angry locals." Malz reached over and touched Rain on the wrist.

A moment later, Cassie placed her hand on Rain’s other wrist. "Starting tomorrow we have one week without duties, to prepare for the race our own ways. So here’s what I propose: We do this starting tonight. Malz and me, and then we can try it with you to figure out if we need three more crystals."

"How did you get three high-grades?" Malz asked.

"I blew all my savings and, uh... sold all of my collectibles..." Cassie said the last in a small voice.

"Oh," Malz sounded a bit hurt. "I guess this is more important."

"What’s a collectible?" Rain asked.

What followed was a very confusing explanation of market values, rarity, set-completion, and only at the end did Rain find out exactly what had been sold.

"Figurines..." Rain raised an eyebrow. "Just... little tiny statues of people?"

"Not people. Movie stars! Monsters! Titans of ayther!" Cassie said. "I had the only complete collection from every season of Titan Hunters."

"That I gifted you half of..." Malz muttered. "You better not have sold it cheap."

"Oh please, I sold it all for about 4500."

Malz’s jaw dropped.

"4500 what?" Rain asked.

"Gold of course."

Now it was Rain’s turn to drop his jaw. That was... an inconceivable amount of wealth to him. Even if every coin had been small golds, he could have set his family up for dozens upon dozens of generations with that amount.

"How much did you spend on the crystals?" Malz asked.

"About five hundred each. But I did have to sign some kind of record to buy them. Safety statement and all that. Oh!" Cassie clapped her hands together. "How about I just send you the money and you can buy your own?"

"You’d do that?" Malz asked, blinking rapidly.

"What are best friends for?" Cassie smiled and lifted her tablet.

Rain didn’t know what happened, but a moment later Malz’s tablet chimed.

"Wicked. I’ll go right now and meet you tonight at the closet. Worst case scenario we end up with two mana crystals we can use for equipment or something."

Malz got up. "Oh, Cas, before I go, there’s something I want to talk to you about." She came around the table, but before she leaned in she shooed Rainier. "Girls only."

"Oh." Rainier smiled apologetically and got up to give the girls some space.

From the further corner of the library, he still heard a few words though.

"It... sensitive... like..." "say yes... ’Kay... ask... after..." "We already know-" "Shh!" "Okay okay..."

Rain waited until he heard the library doors open and close to return to the table. Cassie had a slight blush on her face and she coughed before addressing him. "So, are you fine going after Malz and me?"

"Why me?" he asked.

"Because you’re better at handling your mana than Ozzy. I just want to make sure Ozzy, and I guess now Malz’s squad, don’t get hurt."

"That makes sense," Rain said.

Cassie stood up. "I’m going to check in with Ozzy about our plans. Catch you tonight?"

*

The hours leading up to the big event dragged on for Rain. He mostly filled them by taking a shower and then messing around on his tablet until his eyes hurt.

Half an hour before, he got up and did a quick lap around the manor to get his blood up and check in on his body. He remembered how he and Kir had helped Kordia with a similar process, and he wondered if this was something similar and if he would react at all to the procedure.

He was nervous about potentially changing. He was nervous about potentially not changing.

Cassie was betting everything on Rain’s long-ago hunch, to the point of having skipped out on every opportunity to visit the middle canopy.

It took him only twenty minutes to circle the manor, before turning his steps to that furthest hall.

He arrived to find Ozzy waiting, leaning against the wall.

"You’re late," Ozzy said. He was holding a little box made of white wood with polished copper inlays.

"It’s still before the hour." He noted that Malz and her team had yet to arrive. "Where’s Cassiel?"

Ozzy jerked his head toward the closet. The wooden door stood open, and the windowless steel door Cassie had "acquired" was shut tight.

"Why did... When?"

"She was in there when I arrived. Left the box outside for me, I assume." Ozzy opened the box, and Rain saw two darker-than-black gems. In manasight, they were absolutely invisible, like two little spherical voids. He recalled learning that the truly best gems could only be tested for, not seen with manasight, because they emitted so little of what they contained, if at all.

"Did you try talking to her?"

"Of course. She didn’t answer, but I could hear her breathing when I put my ear to-"

Tng-tng-tng!

The sound of knocking from within the chamber drew their attention.

A moment later it grew more insistent. "Ozzy? Rain? Are you out there? I need some help."

Not hesitating, both Rain and Ozzy grabbed for the doorknob - which had its latch sealed in the unlocked position with steel - and pulled. "We’re here!" Rain said.

Two strong tugs, and Cassie fell out of the chamber backward, landing on her wings.

She was blinding.

Instead of her slightly rosy, fair skin, she was glowing utterly, painfully white. Two hands - made of glowing, white mana - floated just above the tops of her wrists.

"Ow, ow, ow... I should have turned around when entering." Her wings must have been too cramped to allow her to turn, which begged the question of how she closed the door in the first place, but there were more important things first.

"Are you okay?" Rain asked, bending down and touching her shoulder.

Cassie shuddered from his touch, "Oh I’m so much better than okay!" she grinned. She closed her eyes and flexed her magic, and suddenly she was hovering off the floor.

Ozzy was down on one knee, shielding his eyes. "My angel! You are so brilliant!"

"Oops! Let me tone it down!" Cassie concentrated and the glow surrounding her dimmed as she drew in her mana. Then she took a look at herself. Aside from the weirdly godflesh-like whiteness of her skin, she was the same Cassie. "These are weird," she looked at the floating mana hands. "I wonder how-"

One hand suddenly closed with Rain and touched his chest with all five fingertips. "This is so weird..." she giggled. "I can feel it-" Suddenly the hand jerked back to Cassie as the sounds of someone approaching in the distance were heard.

"You went ahead without me?" a distant voice shouted as Malz raced at towards them at speed, flanked by her squad, she stopped to stare as she finally beheld Cassie’s state. "Whoa... What did you do? How long were you in there?"

"I just followed the exercises and I thin- No, I’m absolutely sure this is my magiform!" she giggled. "And it only took four hours!"

"I can’t believe you didn’t wait for me," Malz pouted.

"I’m sorry," Cassie hovered one of her hands over to Malz to offer a pat on the shoulder. "But now we know it works!"

"That was dangerous!" Malz said.

"I know. But now I have a few tips! And we can save some time!" she winked. "Ready for your turn?"

*

Five hours after entering the mana chamber, Malz opened the door herself before stepping out.

Her magiform was very different from what Rain had thought it would be. Her skin was white, just like Cassiel’s, but chased with black lines along her arms, and instead of glowing she seemed to be doing the opposite, drawing in light around her, with her wings sparkling like the night sky. Strangest of all, however, was a purple-black halo of eyes hovering centered on her forehead.

"Are you alright, angel?" her squadmates, Eidgaer and Lewzien - Ed and Lute - said at almost at the same time. For the last few hours, Rain had tried to make polite conversation with them, but they either answered with silence or with excited but dour prognostications about their "dark angel’s ascension".

"This is going to take some getting used to. I can see in every direction..."

"You got a true halo?!" Cassie clapped her hands together excitedly. She’d exited her magiform after the first hour, describing it as "putting part of her away" conceptually.

"How do I look?" she asked.

"Beautiful as the night," Ed declared.

"Darker than the most hallowed crypt," Lute followed.

They both bent at the knee and reached out to her, and she gave them her hands to kiss. "I wish I could see myself right- oh!"

Responding to her desire, the most forward of the spectral eyes hovered away before turning. She took her hands back and hiked her skirt to turn about, before realizing she could do the same with all the eyes.

"I think I’m getting used to this," she said, and weirdly her voice seemed to emit from every single one of the eight detached eyes.

"How’s your mana?" Cassie asked.

"I think I might have tripled it."

"What?! No fair! I think I barely increased mine by half."

"Cas, you had way more mana than me already. You probably still do."

"Oh! Let’s check!" Cassie pulled up her tablet as Malz let go of her magiform.

"Phew... that was a bit tiring," she touched her temple. "Disorienting too. Now let’s see some numbers."