The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 264: Cosmogenesis

Chapter 264: Cosmogenesis

"Another universe..." Kir echoed to his other self. Objectively, he knew he had to be in a different reality. Had known it the first time he saw magic. But part of him had hoped to see Earth one day. To reconcile his fragmentary memories and knowledge with a culture he could resonate with.

"Yep. You’re standing in our baby. Me, Luda, and Aiko."

"Luda and Aiko... Wait..."

"I’m guessing they call her Eyko now. Funny how languages work. I know what you’re thinking, and I have no idea how she wound up being a god. That has to have been something that happened after Luda and me died."

"You said ’they’ wouldn’t let Luda die. Who?"

"Our sponsors. Couldn’t build a black hole research station without a few trillion from the corporate despots. It became my mission to end Luda’s suffering. I’m pretty sure I took them with me."

"How did they die?"

"Ultimately? Same way I did, probably. Falling into a black hole. But before that... they were home when I wasn’t. Luda was... they were a part of something. Socialists. Once we got started, we set things up so they could divert funds from the project for years. Over a billion to anticap factions and people that needed it. Underground stuff, fighting to restore real governments instead of the shadow puppets we had. They taught me their philosophy, and how to shoot. How to understand the world underneath all the glitz of "hyper-capitalism." I agreed with them... But for the sake of the project, I pretended not to know about their other activities, so I could be the face that got us what we needed. If I was just there that day... Maybe I could have saved them when the stormtroopers got them. Or at least died with them..."

Kiryu let out a mental sigh.

"Afterward, I got stuck with a compliance chip, Aiko too, and Luda... they plugged them into AIDAEB. Used their memories to help regulate my behavior. Kept me sane sometimes, but most of the time it was a constant slap in the face. A constant reminder that I was owned... until I flipped the script. I pretended to break. To go all-in as a corporate tool for years. Even did the rounds for fucking publicity with a fucking smile. Aiko hated me for it. The three of us were married, but after Luda died it was just the two of us. Slowly falling apart."

Another sighing wave of emotion filled Kir from Kiryu’s thoughts.

"Then it was done. Twenty years. I spent twenty years of my life with Aiko preparing for the big finale. Those last few weeks I nuked my compliance chip, pulled the real Luda out of the brain-pool running the station, set my trap, and pushed Aiko away... Not that any of that mattered in the end. We all died that day."

"Except you didn’t," Kir pointed out.

"No. And I still haven’t figured out how I woke up in a body I couldn’t control, with you, who couldn’t communicate with me. I got these... flashes of being in darkness for a long, long time. And the sense that maybe I talked to someone, or to myself... But that’s it."

"Why don’t I remember it? The physics of what went into the project would have been massive... Well beyond Unified Cosmology."

"I was half-crazy those twenty years. The AI, Caretaker, sometimes they would say something Luda would have and I’d just... stop. Get stuck in my own head. When it actually came to modifying the singularity that contains this universe... I didn’t know what I was doing. Only what the projections said. Aiko was the mastermind for reality programming... we met on the project during the initial stages, and things just... clicked. Until after Luda died."

The entire time Kir walked, people stared, seeing him talking to himself. He finally neared the Academy District gate, where the guards recognized him and let him through.

A small number of students filtered around the class buildings.

Not enough to impede his progress as he thought about everything Kiryu had told him. For the first time since meeting, he felt a real sense of resonance with his other half.

"Misery loves company."

"Don’t ruin it. I still have questions for later."

"Don’t expect me to answer."

Noir’s resting place and statue being in the garden of the girl’s dormitory, Kir drew plenty of looks as he walked up to it. The beastkin girls regarded him with more attention, but he ignored them as he stood and stared at the likeness of his dead lover.

Not wanting to disturb the area, he kept his thoughts silent as he closed his eyes and paid his respects. He’d started recovering from the panic attack on the way here, but now he felt that he was truly feeling better.

He had minutes of peace before something went wrong.

"Hey! Let go of me! He’s wide open!"

Kir turned, spotting Daisy with a hovering spear of black energy over one hand. The arm attached to that hand was in the single-handed grip of Encke.

"That’s a fatal spell," Encke said. "I can’t let you cast that."

All trace of Encke’s usual timidness was gone.

Kir took three steps toward them, his face filling with cold anger that his glamour conveyed as a silent snarl.

With a frustrated jerk, Daisy let the bolt loose, and it hit the ground next to Kir, tearing up the ground for a full two meters in a teardrop-shaped zone.

All around, the other girls gasped, eyes wide with shock at what transpired.

A student had attacked a teacher. And that teacher was glaring cold death at her.

"Encke, please release Daisy," Kir said after he mastered himself enough to restore his sense of calm. The bolt hadn’t even touched his shields, which he’d raised as soon as he set foot on the campus proper.

"Yes, Professor," her timid tone returned, but Kir saw a look in her eyes that didn’t match it. As soon as the giantess opened her hands, Daisy cradled her arm, a set of soon-to-be bruises wrapping around her exposed skin.

"Class was canceled for the day, Ms. Della Recca." Then, lowering his voice, he continued, "I thought you would show more gratitude for my rescuing Keiya."

"There’s gratitude and then there’s the wager. I need to take every shot I can," her voice was determined, and her eyes still angry at him.

"You put all your mana into that strike, didn’t you? You’re damaging your well of mana, in case you forgot."

"I didn’t forget. I have a solution, using your gold to buy mana crystals."

"A stopgap is not a solution. There may be a way to figure out your specific case, but not if you attack me in a graveyard again."

The sounds of running approached quickly, a group of four special students in grey approaching.

"Professor," the lead student, a catkin Kir didn’t recognize, said. "We heard there was a fight."

Kir looked at Daisy, and she looked away.

"Miss Daisy was operating within the bounds of a challenge I set for the class. I accept responsibility for any wrongdoing..."

Daisy lifted her head at Kir, surprise on her face.

"...provided she cleans up her mess and never disturbs a graveyard again."

Some of the girls muttered in surprise, not knowing the statues were also graves.

Surprise quickly turned into a sullen scowl as Kir extracted a shovel from his storage, handing it to Daisy.

"Keeps adding rules..." Daisy muttered bitterly under her breath as she turned to her assigned task. "...Could’ve just done it yourself with magic."

"Don’t pin all your hopes on a magical solution when a mechanical one works just fine, Miss Daisy." Kir admonished her. A shovel was more controllable, given how variations in the ground and the presence of iron in even small amounts could affect trying to move dirt with magic.

"Are you sure you should be handing off evidence like that?" Kiryu said, rightly reminding Kir that he’d used the same shovel to bury a few slavers and mercenaries

"It’s clean." Kir always made sure to scour his equipment with magic.

Thankfully no one questioned why a Professor capable of magic would carry around a shovel. It was one of many inconveniences he put up with to hide his magical capabilities as Ghostheart.

"One of you please watch her," Kir said to the catkin special student, accepting his affirmative. "Let her go when she’s done, and make sure no one messes with her."

That done, he turned to Encke. "Thank you for your assistance. I’m not entirely at my best today, but after the weekend I’d like to get to know your situation better. Please refrain from harming your fellow students in the future. At least not without a good cause."

"O-Okay, Professor," Encke replied. "I thought she was going to kill you..."

"It takes a lot more to kill me," Kir replied. "I do not make bets I cannot meet."

An undecipherable look crossed Encke’s face before Kir departed, the eyes of the entire girl’s dorm following him.

The dissonance with her normal demeanor was mounting... but Kir suspected that perhaps Encke responded well to danger, and she was afraid of hurting people otherwise.

Just like he suspected Programmable Magic could be useful for more than moving vehicles and making gold...

"Look at you, playing creator," Kiryu said as Kir’s mind started honing in on something he wanted to try.

"Don’t say it..."

"We’re not so different, you and I..."

Kir groaned and facepalmed, drawing a couple of looks since he stopped in the middle of a hall.

After a brief laugh, Kiryu asked, "Feel better?"

"Yeah. Thanks, other me."