The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 244: Volume 5 - Prologue

Chapter 244: Volume 5 - Prologue

A small girl ran through the woods, her blond hair matched by a pair of large, fennec-like ears and a tail covered in fur except for the tip.

She ran and ran, fearful of every sound. Of every shadow that shifted under the light of Aviye’s moons. But something other than fear drove her towards the place she was running to.

The forbidden place, where nature reigned and a great spirit made its home.

She needed something. More than life itself, she needed it.

And so when she stumbled and rolled into the clearing, with its small lake and the island at its center, she did not cry as she forced herself to stand. Though her knees were bloodied and she hurt all over, she waded into the lake, swimming for the center. For the island that glowed blue-white from the mana of the spirit dwelling there.

As she climbed ashore she felt its presence in the air. A feeling she recognized from the forest, almost as soon as she’d entered it. The feeling of being observed. Watched... Assessed.

It was the same feeling she got from her mother at every dinner.

But she was not here for her mother.

She did not pant, sweat, and bleed through hours of running for the cold woman who made everything a matter of give and take.

She did so for her father. For the man who sat her on his lap and read to her until she took the books from him and read for herself. The one who taught her all about the stars, faraway lands, and magic.

He was dying, and there were no healers in her hometown. They had all been lured away to the south; to richer lands and jobs.

This was the only way she had left-

Light and form. A massive fox, the size of a house, lay at the very heart of the islet.

As the girl approached, the silvery fox opened its eyes, turning its head to stare directly at her with eyes like molten gold.

"Young kit... You are looking for me. Why?" The being did not speak in words, but in understandings that bloomed in the mind of the young girl, in a matronly tone made deep by time.

"G-great spirit. I need help," the girl’s voice cracked as she spoke. "My father is dying. We have no healers-"

"Speak with your heart, kit. Narii knows not the sounds you make."

The girl didn’t understand, but she tried. She thought hard about her father, laying in bed, his body bruised and battered. How long he had lain under the bookshelf that collapsed on him, she did not know, but she knew he was hurt badly. She knew that someone needed to heal him with magic, or it would be too late. That someone-

"I see. You wish to heal the one who sired you. You wish for me to give you this power."

The girl made an affirming noise.

"You are too young in magic. To bend you toward this would require something few can give, much less receive."

"Please... I’ll do anything..." the girl thought as hard as she could.

A strange sound rumbled in the massive fox’s chest. Was it laughter?

"Anything? Even if that means you and I are forever bound?"

"Anything!" The girl said and thought as firmly as she could. "He’s dying..."

"And so shall you... again and again... Nine times will you die, and for each little death you shall receive a tail. Until there is nowhere left to go, but to where you find your home. Just as I rest here, young kit, and have done so since long before your ancestors built their burrow." The fox sat up, nine tails fanning out behind her as she stared down into the girl’s face.

"I’ll- I’ll do it." The girl stared up, her eyes full of tears.

"You would bind yourself to me, and through me, to this land? To the lakes and the forest. To the mountains and the balance of my home?"

"It’s my home too! My father and mother have always tried to protect it! To protect you!"

"Do not lie, child. I sense the truth. You hide your heart from your mother just as she hides hers from you. I know now whose child you are... The mother whose paltry tribute was meant to lure me... but I will not be lured. And you shall have your healing, in exchange for nine of your lives."

"I-I don’t understand..." the girl said and thought.

"No. You do not. And yet you wish to have power that is not natural to your magic. Power without understanding will make your healing weak, but it will heal... if you truly wish to form this pact with me."

The nine tails of the great spirit fox began to glow, and from each a spark flew forth, gathering between the fox and the maiden. It filled the air with white light, for its flames glowed silver unlike any flame the girl had ever seen.

"Can you stand in the fire, young kit? Can you endure the pain of understanding exactly what suffering is? I will not look down on you for leaving, but this chance will not be granted twice."

The girl whimpered, but she was resolute.

For the sake of her father, she stepped into the flame.

As pain enveloped her, leaving her naked and yet unburned, the girl cried out. She screamed and screamed as the great spirit’s mana flooded her. As it tore open the gate of her soul and re-wrought everything into a tiny mirror of itself.

There was no time to doubt, only pain. Only the scream and the power and the desire to help the one person in the world she felt she really loved.

She burned silver.

And when she burned no longer, she awoke at the edge of the forest.

She remembered her father first. And she ran. Heedless of her nudity, she ran home, only to be accosted and dressed before she was allowed to lay hands on him. To heal him, though it caused him pain and left him sweating and tired.

But day after day she applied herself. Straining every capacity she had of her weak magic. And over time she felt her art strengthen. She felt herself grow more sure.

And when she had the voice to demand it, she called for every book on the subject of healing that lay in her family’s paltry library. She called and called until a woman of Norneau delivered a new text from the Academy there.

And when she had honed her understanding, at long last after months of painful work, she helped her father rise from his bed.

"Oh, my sweet Kordia... where did you learn to heal so fast?" her father rubbed her between the ears.

"I-I... I got it in books," she lied. Something within her told her to hide the bargain she’d made with Narii, and over the years she would come to learn that she couldn’t speak to it. Or write it. Or communicate it in any way.

But that was how she wanted it... Nobody had to know.

*

Eight years later, Kordia van Mora opened her eyes.

She gathered herself and took a brief shower, during which she cleaned her teeth with magic, and groomed both hair and fur until they shone like bright silver. She fitted her three tails through a comfortable skirt and started sorting through her locks; until she found the little red streak left by the one whose feather had catalyzed the growth of her magic. Deciding that today was a day for a little change, she applied a new spell to turn the red lock purple, remembering the eyes of the men she loved.

Only one of those men was with her now, and he lived right next door to the sibliary house she’d moved into after the devastation of the siege, now months in the past. The Academy had been shattered, but the shards were being woven into something new and wonderful. Something that was both healing and improving itself over what it had been.

There had been many sacrifices, and Kordia did not know what lay ahead, but she was determined to meet it. To gain the power she needed to force her mother, and her prospective mother-in-law, to change their minds.

So as she stepped out of the sibliary house, she gave a heartfelt greeting to the tall, lanky wolfkin who was waiting on the side of the street.

"Good morning Professor Nasumi!" she giggled.

"Good morning Kordia," the wolfkin smiled back. "I’m going to the Academy library. Shall we walk together today?"

"Oh yes, I would love to do so," she answered, unaware of how her three tails wagged slightly with delight at this encounter. Just as she was unaware of her friend, Princess Lapins van Montmorency sitting at the downstairs window eating breakfast with Mercy, her maid. "How are your students?" she asked after a few steps.

"The usual. Mr. Black tried stabbing me in the head the other day. He was waiting above the door to the classroom," the Professor chuckled.

"I can’t believe you let them treat you like that," Kordia pouted. "Some of us would be heartbroken if they actually succeeded in killing you."

After all, under the illusion that made him look like a tall, red-furred wolfkin was the demonkin she loved. Not "Professor Kiryu Nasumi", but Kir Gale, a boy one year younger than her who somehow got roped into being a professor after he "died" defending the city from his own father.

"Now now, I only said they have to wound me. Not that they have a chance with how they’re behaving..." Kir said with a cocky chuckle. "They’ve yet to figure out that if they worked together they might stand a chance."

"You’re working against a thousand years of mage culture with that line of thought," Kordia poked Kir in the side, noting that her hand went a bit deeper into the illusion before making contact.

Kir shrugged. "I guess that just makes me a heretic."

"Ugh, that joke is terrible," Kordia made a face. The fact that Kir was the son of Maledict, Duke of Heresy, one of the nine Dukes of Hell, was not something anyone in Ayther would receive too well. Especially since he was supposed to be dead.

Suddenly a weird sensation sent Kordia’s ear flicking sideways.

She looked up to find the blue sky filled with gently floating flakes of white, tinged with the grey of ashfall from Ayther’s nearest moon.

Far, far above them, the Eye of Hell glowed through the haze that spanned even the void.

Though it should have barely been autumn, a winter snow descended over all of Ayther.

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